#I wanted to study Korean and eventually get back into learning Japanese for sO LONG | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rigelmejo · 2 years

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Language Updates! May 25, 2022

My health is still being mean but hopefully it'll turn. As expected, I'm not studying much.

But I did get the urge to study again. So I did. And it went in an odd direction (for me) so I feel like documenting it.

First the Japanese stuff - I got into playing Final Fantasy 7 again, and video games always remind me how much I want to learn Japanese, so the urge to study kicked in gear lol. As of now I'm not doing anything big, I'm too tired lately for big goals. I am playing Yakuza 0 now and having fun picking up the words I do know. And learning some words, mainly though just refreshing my memory on things I already knew like 少し,あるんだ, zenbun matte etc. Some sentences I fully understand! Most I know a couple words, some I only hear omae lol. As one would expect.

I'm also listening to Glossika Japanese again (as review so the old files I've heard already). So not much listening, at the beginning again lol, but everything is coming back fast. So that's good.

I also bought Koisenu Futari today and started reading it on Kindle. It's like 249 pages and my reading speed says I'll finish in 8 hours, which honestly is amazing to me since usually I read too slow to Ever finish a novel ToT in a foreign language (unless it's french). I read 7 pages and it's clear to me on some level I remember the grammar i learned i jusr don't explicitly remember it if it makes sense. Like I know what's a noun or verb or how the verbs conjugation affects meaning but I'm not able to say exactly whats going on. Basically it's readable, thankfully, cause my brain still remembers how to interpret the grammar. I still credit forcing myself to do 600 Clozemaster Japanese sentences last summer for all the grammar comprehension improvements tbh, it really truly helped me get used to real world sentences and the variety in them (versus textbook sentences). Anyway so far its nice! It's to my happiness an easier read (difficulty wise) with a lot of Kanji I know so I also can kind of cheat and guess the meaning on a lot (I'm mainly looking up Kanji pronunciations/confirmations of definition and hiragana words). But I will say :c kindles Japanese to English dictionary sucks So I'm glad i recognize the Kanji a bit.

Basically, I'm back into Japanese a bit. I also found some audio dramas with eng subs I'd like to listen to that I was going to months ago, maybe yest Listening Reading Method with. But tbh my attention span is short and I don't think I can focus for 1.5 hours to get through them (though Nier Replicant Audio drama AND mdzs Japanese audio drama are on youtube which are both very cool and i do eventually wanna get to ToT)

Now for the out of character portion. So ive been watching kdramas. Live Up to Your Name, Mr Sunshine, Tomorrow, My Country the New Age, etc. As you do. And it turns out... when I listen to something long enough I really want to learn something. So I looked into learning Korean a bit.

I want to preface with!!! If YOU are brand new to learning Korean, like comprehensible input/nature method learning methods, I highly recommend going to Learn Korean in Korean YouTube channel and just Devouring all the videos made by that guy. THAT is a well made course where you can genuinely learn through comprehensible input for the basics and some surface conversational stuff (possibly more). I watched 1 of his videos once knowing zero Hangul and not caring if i learned and learned how to introduce myself. His videos are GOOD.

That said... mejo is a messy person who doesn't follow their own advice, and despite me KNOWING I love that specific learning material... I'm not using it. Why? Because watching YouTube videos requires consistent focus and i just cannot reliably focus on something for several minutes right now. I can't do long periods of focused study at the moment. Even though I know if I binged his channel I'd learn a lot.

So what is mejos plan to learn korean?

Well studying Hangul is step 1, which I've done before and have done the past few days again. Now I'm practicing just kind of seeing it in practice (like in textbooks etc) to get used to properly reading it and remembering. As my motivations for wanting to learn korean are Extremely Shallow right now - I'd just like to know some lines in kdramas when I watch, maybe absolute MOST I'd like to have a convo in korean like hi how are you do you draw (and in a world I'll never live in... enough to read Korean guardian translation but let's be real its not gonna happen.. probably). I have no intense need to learn to read Hangul. I'm gonna pick it up anyway, since it's everywhere and reading it is ultimately critical. But books with romanization are my friends right now so I can compare romanization to the Hangul to test my reading of the Hangul, and to learn words with an approximate pronunciation instead of absolutely no idea if i picked a moderately close pronunciation up (if theres only Hangul and I read a,syllable wrong I'm gonna learn words wrong lol).

So I found Teach Yourself Korean (or some equivalent type book) on archive.org for free. And am reading it. It covers Hangul, and then simple surface level conversations like your typical beginner textbook (hi, how are you, my name is, i work at, I study, I want to eat x etc). It works fine for some Hangul reading practice and getting a chance to look at sentence structure. Realistically I know korean is SOV and a really Great help would be a textbook that does literal word by word translations cause my brain likes seeing that but I'm not putting tons of time into this. (Also sadly? I KNOW there's a cool korean textbook out there whixh starts with english but in korean sentence structure then adds more korean words, like comprehensible input for korean but also intuitive grammar instruction. And i DONT know the name so I canr find it ;-; if you know the name of the textbook I'm mentioning please message me).

For words, i was going to just be brutal to myself and hop right into Clozemaster Korean. That was utterly impossible lol! With very poor Hangul reading skills you are screwed in clozemaster, there's no romanization to help you sound anything out. Also you don't hear audio until after you answer, also the diffetent grammar structure is not explained even minimally in Clozemaster. So I have realized. Yes, yes you really do need to be upper beginner or above to use Clozemaster reasonably comfortably. Unless you're learning a language with similar grammar and a similar alphabet like French or Spanish then maybe you could jump right in as a complete novice if you were up for the challenge (I can read some Spanish, I could probably push through clozemaster Spanish to study and learn more vocab even though it would be brutal). I realized clozemaster is just NOT helpful as a complete beginner in korean with zero grammar knowledge. Now normally, I'd dive right in and spend 1 week to 1 month reading a grammar guide summary of the language so I have a vague idea of what I'm looking at verb noun adjective subject object particle wise etc at all times. But as I mentioned, im exhausted lately, i cant do intensive focused reading for hours which a grammar guide would require of me. Also... to be honest, I find it an interesting experiment to go into a language totally unprepared. I was prepared for all the other languages I studied to some (minimal) degree since i studied literally all of them as a teen at least a little (japanese, Spanish, French, German, mandarin). While it's not much, it does mean if there were ever 6 months of struggling with sound or writing system or what the heck does a verb look like in z language, i got a little practice prior to diving in more as an adult.

So. What to do. Well I know for me, comparing sentence structure truly helps me grasp grammar the best. It's why clozemasrer Japanese helped me SO much with grammar, it's why one of my fave japanese textbooks is Japanese Sentence Patterns, it's why Spoonfed Chinese anki deck ans audio files help me so much. Seeing and hearing a sentence in both languages helps me figure out where words go in each, how they conjugate, what phrases are different completely etc. Unfortunately anki and memrise sentence decks in korean would make me exhausted, as i can't do the hours long intensive focus I need for flashcards personally at the moment. Clozemaster has a radio mode (to help make it easier on me) but clozemaster sentences start TOO hard compared to educational made sentences which tend to start artificially simple but help clarify the sentence structures before adding complexity gradually. Well i was like... glossika Korean might work. Turns out I'd downloaded the old glossika korean audio files a year ago so I put them in a place I could listen to. And that's going to be my primary setup for study probably. I doubt I'm going to pick up much, certainly not at the slow rate I've got to study right now. But if I DO learn anything then I'm putting in a good word for comparative 2 language audio flashcard type study materials. They worked EXCELLENTLY for me for chinese listening comprehension, increasing vocabulary, grammar patterns, but i used them as an upper beginner who could read some stuff already. Korean would be my first time trying to use glossika with a language I can't already read some things in (aka comprehend basic stuff to a decent level when reading already). We will see if i pick up much. But I can already tell it's easier for me to figure out new words than clozemaster korean, so glossika is easier for a beginner to use for sure. (Personally I do Not recommend modern glossikas subscription model I hate the flashcards but tbh i canr do flashcards often, I prefer the old glossika audio lessons they used to make so that's what I use whenever i say glossika).

So yeah, my plan for korean right now is: glossika korean audio files (dual language audio of sentences starting simple then progressing), and Teach Yourself Korean book read through. Maybe some other stuff, but this is easiest.

A side note: I am sad to report the FSI korean course audio files on archive.org are Only korean. I say thus because FsiS chinese course audios read the English aloud, then rhe chinese, then the drill directions then the drill answers. So you can basically do the entire course entirely through audio (which is great if visuals are an issue for you, or so it can be done without needing to look if say you're walking or working, and the book is mainly pinyin so it's not a huge loss to just use the audio files). So I was expecting the korean FSI course audio to also have all that - which would have made it serve the "simple sentences with dual audio to compare and pick up words and grammar" function. But there's no English in the audio, so i found the korean glossika audios instead. (In a pinch FSI courses are yes dry, but very good introductions to several languages. I like their tone drills a lot for chinese.)

Another side note: sad to report that unlike Japanese and Chinese I am not aware of the really cool niche textbooks yet. Like in Japanese, I have textbooks specifically suited to me - ones that focus on sentence patterns, 2 that teach through reading and progressive difficulty, Kanji mnemonic books. Same for chinese - I have an old grammar book that writes a way I understand, 3 comprehensible input massive graded readers that increase in difficulty, some more graded readers by difficulty, a 500 most common hanzi book with a bunch of words that use them underneath, parallel texts, a wonderful hanzi mnemonics book, a wonderful chinese intro book that covers 1000 words (which isn't ideal but i appreciate the author and irs better than one textbook I found which only teaches 200 words total yikes). I learn well with comprehensible input books like graded readers/stuff that makes you learn by trying to understand, and with comparisons of sentence structure with a LOT of common words so I pick them up. Like I mentioned above... I know a korean textbook exists that writes the English in korean word order then gradually adds in more korean words too, I am very interested in finding it if anyone knows the name or has heard of it before.

#rant #may #may progress #progress #may goals #goals #korean #korean study plan #study plan #WOW YEAH im learning a little korean #not much but i would like to recognize a bit more than i do now which is like nothing #except the greeting and thank you

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olderthannetfic · 3 years

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It's really surprising that you're so well versed in older fandoms and yet participate in new popular ones (that cdrama, kpop) is this by design? Im in my twenties and my interest turnover is already way slower than it used to be

You know, that’s a really interesting question. I wouldn’t say it’s by design exactly in that I do tend to just follow what strikes my fancy, and I can’t force myself to want to write fic for just anything. (I find it easier to like reading fic without serious involuntary emotional investment, but writing takes more. Vidding I can do on command most of the time, but I don’t usually bother unless I have a lot of feels or I’m fulfilling someone’s prompt.)

However, me getting into BTS was 100% due to me wanting to understand BTS enough to explain to people who weren’t very interested but wanted to know what was going on in fandom lately. Under normal circumstances, I run the dance party at Escapade, the oldest extant slash con. We borrowed vividcon’s thing of playing fanvids on the wall--all of them set to dance music--as the soundtrack for the dance party. This means I’m creating a 3-hour mixtape of fannishness, which has amazing potential to make people feel in the know about Fandom Today... and equal potential to make them feel alienated if nothing they care about shows up. Only about 100-150 people attend the con, so it really is possible to make a playlist that feels inclusive yet informative--it just takes a huge amount of work.

Every year, I do a lot of research on which fandoms are getting big and look for vids from vidders people won’t have heard of, so there is an element of consciously trying to keep up with things. Generally, I only get into these fandoms myself if I had no idea what they were and then suddenly, oops, they’re my kryptonite, like the buddy cop android plot in Detroit: Become Human, which sucked me in hard for like 6 months on the basis of a vid.

(So if you’re into cross-fandom meta and associated stuff as one of your fannish interests, you tend to have broader knowledge of different fandoms, old and new, than if you’re just looking for the next place you’ll read fic. It’s also easier to love vids for unfamiliar things than fic.)

But though I was only looking for a basic primer on BTS, BTS has 7 members with multiple names and no clear juggernaut pairing, not to mention that AU that runs through the music videos and lots of other context to explain. The barrier to understanding WTF was going on at all was high enough that to know enough to explain, I had to be thoroughly exposed... And once I was over that hurdle, oops, I had a fandom.

In terms of old vs. new, here’s the thing: kpop fandoms in English and c-drama fandoms in English right now feel a lot like anime fandom in English did in the early 00s. I had a Buddy Cops of the 70s phase in the middle, but my current fannishness is actually a return to my older fannishness in many ways.

What do I mean about them being similar?

Yes, I know some wanker will show up to say I think China, Korea, and Japan are indistinguishable, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the way that I used to routinely meet Italian and French and German fans, Argentinian and Mexican, Malaysian and Indonesian and Filipino too. English-language fandom of SPN or MCU may have all those fans from all those countries, but it feels very American most of the time. English-language fandom of a non-English-language canon is more overtly about using English as a lingua franca.

It also tends to attract people who as a sideline to their fannishness are getting into language learning and translation, which are my other passion in life after fanworks fandom. (I speak only English and Spanish and a bit of Japanese, but I’ve studied German, French, Russian, Mandarin, Old English, and now Korean.)

Nerds arguing about methods of language learning and which textbooks are good and why is my jam. This is all over the place in English-language fandoms of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean media. Those fandoms also tend to be full of speakers coming from a Germanic or Romance languages background who face similar hurdles in learning these languages. (In other words, if you’re a native Japanese speaker trying to learn Korean, the parts that will be hard for you are different than if you’re an English speaker, but you’re also usually not doing fandom in English.)

There’s also an element of scarcity and difficulty of access and a communal attempt to construct a canon (in the other sense) of stuff from that country that pertains to one’s fannishness. So, for example, a primer explaining the genre of xianxia is highly relevant to being a n00b Untamed fan, but just any old thing about China is not. A c-drama adapted from a danmei webnovel is perhaps part of the new pantheon of Chinese shit we’re all getting into, but just any old drama from decades ago is probably not... unless it’s a genre precursor to something else we care about. Another aspect here is that while Stuff I Can Access As A N00b Who Doesn’t Speak The Language may be relatively scarce, there’s a vast, vast wealth of stuff that exists.

This is what it felt like to be an anime fan in the US in 2000. As translation got more commercial and more crappy series were licensed and dumped onto an already glutted market, the vibe changed. No longer were fans desperately trying to learn enough of the language to translate or spending their time cataloguing what existed or making fanworks about a show they stuck with for a bit: the overall community focus turned to an endless race of consumption to keep up with all of the latest releases. That’s a perfectly valid way of being fannish, but if I wanted that, I’d binge US television 24/7.

Anime fandom got bigger, but what I liked about anime fandom in English died, and I moved on. (Okay, I first moved on to Onmyouji, which is a live action Japanese thing, but still.)

Hardcore weeaboos and now fans of Chinese and Korean stuff don’t stop at language: people get excited about cooking, my other other great passion. Times a thousand if the canon is something like The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, which is full of loving shots of food preparation. People get excited about history! Mandarin and Japanese may share almost nothing in terms of grammar or phonology, but all of East Asia has influence from specific Chinese power centers historically, and there are commonalities to historical architecture and clothing that I love.

I fell out of love with the popular anime art styles as they changed, and I’m not that into animation in general these days. (I still own a shitton of manga in art styles I like, like Okano Reiko’s Onmyouji series.) I’ve become a filmmaker over the last decade, and I’m very excited about beautiful cinematography and editing. With one thing and another, I’m probably not going to get back into anime fandom, but it’s lovely to revisit the cultural aspects I enjoyed about it via live-action media.

BTS surprised me too, to be honest. I really dislike that early 90s R&B ballad style that infests idol music (not just Korean--believe me, I resisted many rounds of “But Johnny’s Entertainment though!” back in the day). While I like some of the dance pop, I just don’t care. But OH NO, BTS turn out to be massive conscious hip hop fanboys, and their music sounds different. I have some tl;dr about my reactions in the meta I wrote about one of my fanvids, which you can find on Dreamwidth here.

But back to your comment about turnover: I know fans from the 70s who’ve had one great fannish love and that’s it and more who were like that but eventually moved on to a second or third. They’re... really fannishly monogamous in a way I find hard to comprehend. It was the norm long ago, but even by the 90s when far more people were getting into fandom, it was seen as a little weird. By now, with exponentially more people in fandom, it’s almost unheard of. I think those fans still exist, even as new people joining, but we don’t notice them. They were always rare, but in the past, only people like that had the stamina to get over the barriers to entry and actually become the people who made zines or were willing to be visibly into fanfic in eras when that was seen as really weird. On top of that, there’s an element of me, us, judging the past by what’s left: only people with an intense and often single passion are visible because other people either drifted away or have seamlessly disappeared into some modern fandom. They don’t say they’re 80 or 60 or 40 instead of 20, so nobody knows.

In general, I’m a small fandoms and rare ships person. My brain will do its best to thwart me by liking whatever has no fic even in a big fic fandom... (Except BTS because there is literally fic for any combination of them, like even more than for the likes of MCU. Wow. Best fandom evar!) So I have an incentive to not get complacent and just stick with one fandom because I would very soon have no ability to be in fandom at all.

My appetite for Consuming All The Things has slowed way down, but it also goes in waves, and a lot of what I’m consuming is what I did back in 2000: journal articles and the limited range of English-language books on the history of m/m sex and romance in East Asia. It’s not so much that I have a million fandoms as that I’m watching a few shows as an expression of my interest in East Asian costume dramas and East Asian history generally.

I do like to sit with one thing and experience it deeply rather than moving on quickly, but the surface expression of this has changed depending on whether I’m more into writing fic or more into doing research or something else.

But yes, I do do a certain amount of trying to stay current, often as a part of research for fandom meta or to help other people know what’s going on. Having a sense of what’s big doesn’t automatically mean getting into all those things, but I think some fans who are older-in-fandom and/or older-in-years stop being open to even hearing what’s new. And if you’ve never heard of it, you’ll never know if you might have liked it.

#fandom meta #fandom history #Anonymous

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soultronica · 3 years

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hello 🌹i was very !!! by your most recent post on languages, can i ask how many languages you speak/are learning? and what if anything has helped you the most (courses, workbooks, phone apps, etc)? signed, a faux language learner who never gets past basic greetings

hi ☆

oh man it's one of those "what even counts as speaking a language" situation lol it's hard to say. I'm fully bilingual in french and english (native language/language i learned as a kid). beyond that...

> I.... guess I can say I can speak Japanese now? maybe? not really but it's been something like eight years that I've been learning lol, some of them I wasn't learning at all and others I was learning extremely seriously, and I've lived and held part time jobs in Japan so. it frustrated me for so long how I still couldn't break the fluency barrier even while I was living there, there's just so much to learn and I wasn't learning it efficiently, but I might've finally broken it now maybe. I have the jlpt n2 for what it's worth

> I'm ok with spanish? I can read it fairly fluently and can (or assume I still can lol) do basic conversations, and that's mostly from it being close to french and my being fairly diligent with it back in school, I guess that's the one thing my neuroplasticity decided to be helpful with and I'm not complaining ahah

> did 85% of the italian duolingo course this summer so I can ask customers at work whether they want still or sparkling water lol

> started learning korean last year but I'm still in the beginning phases, i finished the first three grammar books of a course (integrated korean, if anyone's interested) but that's just the obligatory memorising the grammar stage, it's going to be a looong way building from that. started learning because i'm planning on spending a year in korea, covid just shambled lots of things but I'll get back to learning when that plan's on track again

> and the most embarrassing one...,.. I suck at vietnamese, unfortunately :/ it's my maternal family's tongue and i'm definitely planning to master it eventually and i do have my whole life but yeah it's incredible the little ability I have in it despite the time I've spent on it (it's what I was studying in uni before japanese so I even have a degree in it which is even more embarrassing lol). it's a combo of having a bad ear/pronunciation (so I still can't do tones at all) and having little media of interest in the language to hype me so yeah. but one day? I'm definitely not giving up on it ever

As to how best to learn a language, that really depends on the language tbh! for example I used to be pretty anti language apps because my target language for a long time was japanese and it's simply impossible to learn it on something like duolingo, never met anyone who managed it anyway and I've met a lot of them in japan. but as you can see I've found it extremely useful for Italian, a language close to mine -- you can just absently do your lessons and your brain just does the (fairly obvious) connections for you, which is incredible. if your target language has a close level of mutual intelligibility to your native language then def take advantage of that opportunity!

otherwise there's no secret you have to work the grammar diligently if you want the language to open up to you in the first place, and you need to choose your book series wisely for that (or classes, if they're accessible, but I find working by oneself more effective and one on one classes are expensive). for japanese and korean at least you need a good integrated book series that takes you through the beginning stages properly, but the good news is there's several available for each and all you need to do is follow them properly, no extra planning needed. once you're past the beginning stages is where things get harder, and it's where my own weaknesses lie so I won't attempt to give lessons here, but a good intermediate-level learning involves perfecting the grammar, lots of vocabulary learning, lots of exposure to the language at an understandable level (I think the duolingo sentences can actually help with that tbh), and practice if that's accessible. never managed to do all that super well tbh ahah

and yeah diligence is a factor in all that, I think you have to accept that you're never going to learn a language fast (there was a post that said that it takes seven years to become an expert in something and I think it applies to languages, at least languages that aren't close to yours), that you're often going to hit walls where you drop the study for months at a time, but you have to be willing to put in the effort for months on end regardless. so finding your motivation is the most important part of beginning, because without that you really won't get far.

thank you for the ask I hope this gives some food for thought! good luck with your language adventures should you take them up again o/

#ask #♡

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catboymingi · 4 years

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the dragon’s appearance - veninder chap. 4

navi/masterlist

story masterlist

pairing: mingi x reader

genre: somewhat crack, a little angst, fluff (FLUFF in caps); eventual best friends to lovers

word count: 7.1k

warnings: slight language

a/n: i’m back on my bullshit and also making y/n’s background way more specific than it has to be but it's about the ~storybuilding~. also i am running out of lyrics to summarise the chapters with :(( recycling?

hun er gal, hun er syg, den pige - that girl’s crazy, she’s sick

mingi didn’t even need to ask who this was, the way she spoke up telling him all he needed to know. and if there had been any doubt, feeling you tense up next to him immediately after hearing her voice was confirmation that it was one of the girls that had dared to call themselves your friends despite how they treated you. he was, in all honesty, fuming at her audacity, but this wasn’t about him, it was about you and resolving the situation as quickly and easily as possible. so instead of giving in to his emotions he replied, voice raised just enough to guarantee the professor would hear him: “oh i’m so sorry, i didn’t know there was fixed seating! i just don’t know anyone but y/n, so i thought it’d be okay, sorry again!”

now it was the girl’s turn to fume, and even though you still refused to look up from your papers you could imagine how the steam was shooting out of her ears when the professor told him that it was okay, that seating was free and that he could stay right where he was. she left, sending him a look that could kill, but he didn’t care. this wasn’t his issue - he’d be able to deal with whatever she’d have planned for him. he was just worried about you, because even though she’d left to sit at the other end of the class by now you were still tense, staring at your desk as if you weren’t even really there. the redhead placed a hand on your knee, squeezing gently to comfort you and let you know he was there, that you’d be okay as long as he was there, but before he could say some reassuring words the professor started speaking, and he knew he had to be on his best behaviour because he wasn’t actually enrolled in this class. so he just squeezed again before listening intently to whatever was going on right now. he didn’t actually understand much, but when he saw that you still seemed so taken aback that you didn’t even seem to have realised that class already started he began writing down every single word the professor said, sometimes having to guess just what exactly the word was when it was some scientific term, but trying his best.

it took you a little while to snap out of the state of shock your ex-friend had caused you, and when you did you realised you had no idea what was even going on. your eyes turned to mingi, who was taking notes as if his life depended on it, and who, when he noticed you’d returned to the here and now, moved his arm slightly so you could see what he’d written down and hopefully catch up enough with the topic to participate from now on. your eyes widened when you realised he’d taken your notes for you and was still doing so right now until he could be sure you’d actually be able to decently concentrate, and now it was you who squeezed his knee, an act of thankfulness, before you shuffled a little closer to get at least a rough overview of the topic of this class.

his notes were taken meticulously; you were certain he’d written down every single word the professor said simply because he couldn’t tell whether or not something was important or not. and these notes managed to get you back on track after maybe a minute or two of reading through them and listening to what was going on right now, and another minute later you were able to be your usual, question-filled self. mingi still didn’t exactly understand much of what you were discussing, but he felt like you had a much more straightforward way to talk about concepts, which didn’t make your points any less valid, though. you weren’t dumbing down anything, you just left out the unnecessarily elitist terms that he knew were so common in academia, so even he felt like he got a rough grasp of what was going on. it didn’t take much to see that you were a teacher’s favourite, and rightfully so - you brought up a lot of concerns, different points of view on what had just been talked about, and even to him, someone that had no idea about the topic, it was clear that you had a very diverse way of looking at the problem or topic and actually thought a lot about what you learned rather than just learning it by heart to pass the course. you seemed excited, interested, fully immersed in the topic, and it was through these discussions that he found out that you spoke at least three languages well enough to offer a different perspective on sociolinguistics based on their cultures and how the cultural norms found realisation in the respective language. he wasn’t sure if this was the average for this course, though, and he was the only odd one out, or if you were actually extraordinarily skilled in the language department. though it didn’t matter much to him, because either way he felt like you were a genius and he was a mere peasant watching two experts talk. not that he minded - this wasn’t his major, so of course he wouldn’t be able to engage in the same kinds of discussions as students who’d studied this for roughly a year already. he was just very impressed.

before you knew it (and before he knew it, which was maybe more surprising) class was over, and the redhead gave you the notes he’d taken for you earlier since he wouldn’t need them anyway.

“thank you so much for that”, you told him, smiling shyly because you were still kind of embarrassed that he’d had to take notes for you.

“i just hope they help” was all he replied, because it wasn’t a big deal to him at all. when you packed your things he noticed that the girl from earlier was staring at you, and to prevent you from looking around to see if she was he put his arm around you, guiding you out of the classroom like that while distracting you by asking just how many languages you even spoke.

“depends on how you see it?” not the reply he’d expected - you could speak a language but not speak it by matter of definition? it was probably a language major thing.

“give me the biggest number you can with a definition that makes you happy”, he told you, because he wanted to be impressed. not that three languages wasn’t already impressive, but you’d made it sound like there was more, and he was curious to find out more about that.

“if we count just being conversational, and we also count classical languages… like, eight? though my parents are immigrants so that doesn’t really count, because two of those eight i didn’t really have to learn, we speak them at home. three, actually, now that i think about it. i was the only kid in first grade that barely even spoke korean.” you laughed at the memory, but mingi looked at you wide-eyed.

“which ones do you speak?”

“finnish and swedish from home - my father is finnish, we moved here because he got a job at the embassy. and my mother is finnish as well, but with swedish as her first language, and she made it a hobby to annoy my father by speaking swedish with me when she was plotting something. then english, korean, i took japanese in high school but i think everyone did? some classical chinese because there was no way i’d be able to figure out hanja without that, latin from my mother because she thought it was important for whatever reason, and german just for fun. how about you?” and even though he was a little embarrassed about his in comparison depressingly low amount of languages spoken he told you, because you seemed excited to know, because he could tell languages were a big passion of yours.

“korean, obviously, and english, and i took some chinese in high school but wasn’t the best, so i’m pretty sure i forgot most of it.”

“is there any you’d really like to learn?”

he furrowed his brows at that question. was there? it wasn’t something he’d thought about, and now he was desperately searching his brain for any language he’d ever been interested in even when it wasn’t mandatory. you noticed his expression, though, and chuckled a little.

“it’s fine if there isn’t, you don’t have to make one up.”

“sorry. how about you?”

“there’s too many”, you laughed, “i’d learn all of them if i could, and i’m trying my best to actually at least start with that. but if i have to pick just one… maybe russian? or arabic? i’ve been interested in french, too. and spanish. this is too hard!” you were whining, unable to pick just one, and mingi thought it was adorable. he was grinning like some kind of idiot because he’d managed to distract you, to seemingly entirely remove the fear from your mind at least for now. you were either smiling or pouting, your eyes wide and excited, and he felt like he’d gotten to know you a lot better just through this conversation already.

when you arrived at the table the other boys were already sitting at for lunch you were still talking about languages, rambling on about your childhood and how weird it was to realise that on top of the three languages you were already frequently speaking with your parents there was a whole other language that everyone else spoke and that, while you could understand it, you had no idea how to speak. he was just listening, sometimes humming in acknowledgment, sometimes commenting or asking about a story, but mainly happy to hear about your experiences, and you were so immersed in the conversation that you didn’t want to stop, because he actually seemed to care about what you were saying.

“hey!” was the only acknowledgment anyone that wasn’t mingi got before you resumed your story.

“when they taught us about hanja, i thought i was going to die. hangeul was already so hard to write because everything is so small and then the new characters were even smaller!” the boy nodded in either acknowledgment or agreement, you weren’t sure, but it didn’t matter all too much to you, anyway.

“how is hangeul small?”, jongho asked; your comment had apparently piqued his interest.

“you put so many sounds into where a single letter goes in latin script!” you sounded so exasperated, but the others didn’t have the context of you not having grown up with korean as your first language yet, so they didn’t understand where the problem was. to them, hangeul was the regular character size and it seemed like it didn’t even occur to them that it might have caused problems for you.

“she speaks eight languages!”, the giant next to you offered as an explanation, and while it didn’t exactly clear up your distress about the korean script it did make it a little more understandable, considering how most languages (that they knew of) did offer a little more space for their sounds or letters.

“my mother read to me in swedish, and my parents taught me how to read and write swedish and finnish before i ever even realised that there’s more than one alphabet”, you clarified further, and now it seemed like a lightbulb had been lit above the boys’ heads.

“you’re not korean?”

“technically i am? i have dual citizenship. but my parents aren’t born here, if that’s what you meant.” the faces around you all bore the same expression of surprise at the information they just got, six ‘o’ shaped mouths and six pairs of wide eyes looking at you.

“say something funny!”

“jokin hassu. or något roligt, in swedish.” their eyes got even wider and san asked you what you’d just said.

“something funny?”

“yeah, but what does it mean?” it seemed like he was impatient, not realising that ‘something funny’ was in fact the translation of what you’d said.

“it means ‘something funny’. that’s the translation”, you grinned. “i didn’t know what else to say, so i just translated it.”

now oohs and aahs could be heard from around you, and they soon gave you sentence after sentence to translate, watching you as if you were an interactive tv programme.

seonghwa put an end to the fun when he reminded them that you hadn’t even started eating yet, and everyone started apologising immediately, but you just waved it off. it was nice to get to speak the languages you grew up with again, because you certainly didn’t do so with your parents, with whom you barely had any contact anymore at all. but now you should probably eat, if the growl in your stomach was a sign to go by - you could always do this again later.

“how was class?”, hongjoong asked with a slight hint of worry in his voice while you were eating, but he was surprised when you smiled at him without even the slightest hint of any negative emotion.

“it was good! though mingi really saved my butt.” you sounded a little embarrassed, and reasonably so - everyone was once more looking at you wide-eyed.

“you went to class with her?” it seemed like it was impossible for wooyoung to control his volume when he was excited or surprised, so he was near yelling the question at mingi, who by now seemed equally embarrassed as you.

“yeah. it was kinda fun, actually.” now the number of surprised eyes staring at him increased by another pair, because you hadn’t expected him to actually like your class when he didn’t even understand the topic.

“she’s a teachers’ favourite”, he then informed the others teasingly, and you playfully hit his arm.

“i’m not!” you genuinely didn’t think you were. you just asked questions when you wanted an elaboration, and participated in discussions when the professor started them. but you weren’t trying to make the teacher like you by acting a certain way; you were just genuinely interested in the topic, and it was hard for you to shut up when you got so invested in something.

“she is”, the redhead said in an exaggeratedly conspiratorial way, “and she’s a genius, too.”

now you yelped out his name - you didn’t like it when people praised you like this, because you didn’t feel like you deserved it and because it made you a little uncomfortable, made you feel like you were now expected to live up to the impression others had of you even when you couldn’t. but those feelings quickly subsided at his next words, being replaced with a mixture of shock and disbelief.

“do you think you could teach me the basics so i could take that class as extra credits?”

“you’re joking.” you absolutely would not believe that he meant it, no way. he had no reason to mean it. sitting in a class where he didn’t have any idea about what’s going on while you all but ignored him in order to talk with the professor couldn’t possibly have been nice enough for him to want to do that weekly.

“it’s your choice, obviously, but i think it’d be fun.” a smile accompanied his words, a smile that wiped out any doubt you’d had.

“i can try? no promises that i’m a good teacher, though.” and while you appreciated the bright grin you got in response the boy appreciated his friends’ reactions a lot less.

he felt his phone buzz and saw it was a message in their private group chat, from yunho.

[saint bernard]: someones WHIPPED

and everyone was quick to agree, which awakened the carnal urge to commit a crime in mingi, a crime that would reduce the amount of people in ‘hyung hate club’ to him and you only. he stopped himself before any blood was flowing, though, both because crimes are illegal and because he didn’t want you to witness that. but no promises could be made for when they were home alone, no one there to witness and frame him.

“put your phones away, it’s rude”, he ordered in a desperate attempt to get them to stop grinning at each other the way they were now before you’d notice anything, and because his attempt was a success he considered maybe leaving them alive. maybe.

the rest of lunch break was spent joking around and teasing each other, and ended with mingi asking you to text him the room where you’d have your last class so he could pick you up. and even though you were still anxious about being in class by yourself, with the people that obviously wanted to ruin your life, the fact that your first class had gone so well reassured you a little, making you feel like maybe it’d be okay for the rest of the day as well.

and it was, surprisingly. you were shot angry glares and had insults whispered at you in passing, but nothing bigger than that happened, maybe owed to mingi’s obvious protective attitude earlier. while they knew they’d easily be able to take on you, the giant was a whole other question. he hadn’t seemed intimidated at all, calm and collected, so they couldn’t even turn his reaction around on him. and the new situation required a new approach, which meant that they’d have to cut you some slack until that new approach had been developed. you knew this, too, knew that the current somewhat peaceful situation was a mere side effect of them having to adjust to the change in circumstances, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t enjoy it while it lasted. you were very aware of the fact that this could all too soon be over again.

still, you managed to enjoy the rest of your classes as well, and when you left the room after the last one had ended and saw a certain redhead waiting for you, as he’d promised, you smiled at him, and first when you saw his shoulders drop a little did you notice that he’d been nervous as well. but at least for now there was no need to, you were okay and nothing had happened. you still wanted to get away from the girls as soon as possible, though, so as soon as you’d said hi to him you took off, him following you quietly until you’d left the building.

“you’re okay?” it had seemed like you were when you came out of class, but your quick exit had sparked some worry in him again.

“a little anxious”, you let him know, “but nothing happened. it’s more being scared that something will happen.”

he nodded in understanding, wrapping his arm around you without thinking much about it and once more somewhat embarrassed when he noticed what he’d just done, but you just moved a step closer to him so it’d be more comfortable for him. then, you sighed, but he decided to ignore it, not sure if you wanted to talk about whatever had caused that sigh. when you sighed a second and a third time, however, each time louder than the last, he decided to ask.

“what’s up?” the way it sounded like the worry had sneaked its way back into his voice had you feeling a little guilty, seeing how there wasn’t actually anything up. you just wanted to tease him.

“you’re just so unfairly tall, i feel like i’m your arm rest.”

since this wasn’t at all the reply he’d expected it took him a moment to fully realise what you’d said, but when he did he started laughing before walking on with his knees somewhat bent, reducing not only his height but also his speed. now you were laughing as well, enjoying his awkward crouching walk more than you maybe should.

“i really hope you appreciate this”, he interrupted your laughter, “because this does kind of hurt my thighs.” you didn’t stop laughing at this, but you crouched down a little as well now, readjusting his arm on your shoulders before pulling him up with you when you stood up straight again.

“maybe i’ll just have to start wearing platforms again instead”, you thought out loud, your laughing faded into a grin now. then, changing the topic entirely, you asked: "do you actually want to join my class? you'd have to catch up with a lot."

“if you’re willing to waste all your time helping me try to catch up?”

“if you’re ready for me to never shut up ever?” this wasn’t an exaggeration; you’d annoyed the girls more than once by studying with them and being way more immersed in the topic than them, even though you all shared similar majors and the class was relevant to all of you. so you couldn’t help being scared that he’d get annoyed with you as well, seeing how this class wasn’t even relevant to him, and you tried to test the waters by joking like this. but he grinned at you, saying that worst case he’d just feed you fruit loops to buy him a few seconds of silence.

“no but the more you talk the more i learn, that’s how it works, right?”

“mm, maybe? i haven’t tried teaching anyone yet, so we’ll have to see”, you admitted a little anxiously. you’d be happy if you managed to help him catch up enough to join the class, but you weren’t exactly confident in your teaching abilities.

“wanna start today?” mingi’d noticed that you were almost at the train station now, so if he wanted to spend the evening studying with you he’d have to ask before you got in your trains going opposite directions.

“i can’t offer you any decent dinner, though. i forgot to get groceries this week so the options are limited to toast, fruit loops, and instant ramen. in case that makes you change your mind.” you wanted to tell him now before he got disappointed by how little you had to offer even as a host, and because if you told him now it’d be less embarrassing to reveal your pathetically empty cupboards when you were at your place.

and he could tell that you were a little embarrassed about the apparent lack of food choices, so he tried to cheer you up.

“is it even a study session without instant ramen?” he genuinely meant it, too - studying and instant food kind of belonged together, the instant food being an important part of what made a study session feel like a real study session. it was about the vibes, not the nutrition.

“okay”, you laughed, then added: “next time we can go somewhere else, too, i just obviously don’t have all my materials with me right now.”

“your place is fine”, he was quick to reassure you. if anything, he was worried that you might feel awkward about having him there again. it wasn’t exactly like you were close, though it sometimes felt that way to him and he had to remind himself that you’d only met half a week ago.

you were once more being prevented from paying for your own ticket by mingi, who’d already paid when you just got your wallet out, and you scoffed at him playfully.

“you know i can pay for myself, right?”

“but i’m being a gentleman.” and with that, he considered this discussion done.

severe buzzing from your phone startled you when you were sitting next to the redhead on the train, because you’d forgotten you’d just muted the girl chat for 24 hours rather than fully leaving it, and your 24 hours were up now. it was as active as ever, and though it seemed like the current topic was unrelated to you just the thought of still being in this kind of space with them made you feel sick with anxiety. but you were too scared to leave the chat, so instead you just stared at your screen.

“it’s them again?” of course he noticed. you just nodded, leaning against him in exhaustion with him gently rubbing your arm.

“we have a group chat and i want to leave, but i can’t.” it was absolutely stupid to feel this way, you knew it was, because what was scaring you wasn’t no longer being in the group chat, it was the act of pressing the little ‘leave group’ button with your own finger.

“you can’t leave or you can’t not be in it?” he surprised you with how he actually seemed to understand your struggle, the very important distinction between the conscious act of leaving and the passive state of not being in the chat.

“i can’t leave. this is our stop.”

he didn’t reply when you left the train, but once you’d started walking towards your dorm he asked you: “do you think i could leave for you? would that work?” you told him you didn’t know, because you really didn’t and you also didn’t really want to think about this at all right now. you wanted to be home, in your bed, with instant ramen and focusing on nothing but how to make mingi understand, remember and internalise the basics of sociolinguistics. it was an act of escapism, definitely, but sometimes you just needed to pretend your problems didn’t exist until you were ready to deal with them.

the rest of the walk was spent in silence, though not uncomfortably so. you both seemed to be in your own thoughts, arms brushing against each other every now and then as if to remind each other that you were still there, even when you weren’t talking. it was nice to know that you didn’t have to talk when you were spending time with mingi, that just being near each other was already enough sometimes.

and just this being silent with each other was what managed to in a way comfort you enough for you to be able to fully concentrate on your materials once you’d reached your place, asking him whether he wanted to eat first or study first as you unlocked the door.

“let’s start with studying, and when i feel like my head’s exploding we’ll eat?”

“deal. make yourself comfortable, i’ll hunt for all my notes.” and with that said you proceeded to ignore the giant that had now settled on your bed in favour of groaning and sighing while you tried to gather all the relevant material from the last year, a task made more difficult because he most likely didn’t have any linguistic background, so you also went through your notes from other courses to find those that had the basic linguistic terms explained on them, because there was no use telling him about phoneme variations if he didn’t know what a phoneme was, and you wanted to be sure to give a 100% right definition.

once you’d found everything you needed you sat down next to him, now trying to divide the notes by topic so you’d have a better overview over what you had to teach him and how much it’d be. he whined quietly next to you at the sheer amount of paper you’d spread on the bed - how was he going to learn all of that?

“we’ll start easy”, you laughed out at his desperate expression. “you can pick the topic that seems most interesting to you, and we’ll start with that.”

then you listed the topics available, along with a short summary or explanation of just what was hidden behind a term like chronolect, which he decided to go with because he thought that might be easiest to a total beginner, because he obviously knew how people of different ages talked, right?

not right. he soon found everything to be much more complicated than it sounded, but he was determined to learn, and you really appreciated how hard he was trying. you knew it had to be hard for him, but he didn’t seem to want to even take a break until he understood, and it was actually you who told him it was time to eat.

“i didn’t think it would be so hard when we’ve barely even started yet”, he groaned while you were waiting for the food to be done, and before you could stop yourself a ‘that’s what she said’ escaped your lips, which made mingi look at you in shock before he burst out laughing.

“i didn’t know that’s what you were thinking about while i was trying to learn!”, he said in feigned indignation, and you hit his arm playfully as you pretended to be equally as scandalised by his implication as he was by yours.

“i don’t know if my memory is giving up on me here, but wasn’t it you who asked me to spend the night together? twice?”

you heard him gasp loudly in reply and grinned at his expression.

“i didn’t know you’d use that against me!” there was a mixture of shock and hurt in his voice, though very obviously playful, and you immediately started apologising in an exaggerated manner, pleading him to please forgive you for your careless words. and even though he tried to stay serious the pout on your face and the fact that you looked like the pleading face emoji made that impossible, stern expression turning into a small smile turning into a grin turning into laughing with his mouth wide open and head thrown back in a matter of seconds. and then you were lost, too, joining in and laughing until your stomach hurt and the instant ramen demanded your attention.

when you found him looking through the notes you’d used for studying by himself it surprised you, though in a positive way. you were glad to see that he at least seemed to have caught a genuine interest for the subject now, glad to see that he was eager to learn. still, you asked him to please move the notes away so you could eat without the risk of them getting dirty and, consequently, unusable. he did as requested and you sat down next to him as soon as you’d handed him his plate - past experience had taught you that shuffling to comfortably sit on the bed when you had an open container in both hands was a very bad idea.

the two of you ate in silence and went back to studying right after, and it was first when you heard thundering outside that you realised how much time had passed. it was fully dark now, heavy rain hitting the window and lightning lighting up the sky every now and then. neither of you looked pleased at the weather, though mingi a lot less so, considering he was the one that somehow had to get home. and it really didn’t seem like the rain would stop anytime soon.

“i’m gonna be so soaked when i get home”, he whined out, making you feel sorry for him because he was right, not even a minute outside in this weather would have him drenched to the bones.

“you can stay over if it’s still like this in an hour”, you offered, not thinking much about it, your main thought being less about him staying with you specifically and more about him not having to go out when it would most likely result in him getting sick. you came to regret your offer when he looked at you with a teasing glint in his eyes, though.

“so now you’re asking me to stay the night? when you called me out for having improper thoughts earlier because i’d offered you the same?”

you rolled your eyes in reply, grabbing his wrist and attempting to drag him out of your bed.

“you know what, forget it, if you get pneumonia that’s not my problem.” at your threat the redhead did a 180 on his behaviour, now begging you the way a little child begged for an extension on their bedtime, except he was begging you to not send him out into the cruel, unrelenting, cold harsh wind. and even though you pretended to be considering doing so you knew that if he actually wanted to he could most definitely spend the night. it was just fun to tease him back.

“fine”, you finally gave in, “you can stay. but behave!”

he sighed in relief (as if there’d ever been any doubt about that), promising you he’d be on his best behaviour, and, as if to prove it, went to do the dishes for you. you knew you wouldn’t be able to stop him because he was at least half a head taller than you and without a doubt much stronger, but it was still worth a try. you should have known it’d barely even bother him, though, pulling on his shirt and trying to drag him back towards the bed, to no avail. he walked on as if he couldn’t even tell that you were trying to move him with every ounce of strength you had in your body, but the grin on his face told you that he knew, and that he was enjoying this too much for your liking. you decided to let him get away with it either way, this once, because truth be told you hated doing the dishes, hated the sensory hell it proved itself to be, time and time again.

you watched him ‘be on his best behaviour’, trying to come up with a way to prevent the situation from turning awkward should the weather not magically turn around, but the only thing your brain could come up with was watching a movie; that’d have to do then. he didn’t seem displeased with the suggestion, finishing washing up quickly and once again sprinkling some water onto your face.

“‘best behaviour’ my ass”, you huffed under your breath, but of course mingi heard you, sending you a smile that with a lot of benevolence could be interpreted as apologetic, but if you were feeling unrelenting might also be a teasing one. he was on your bed and patting the space next to him as is this were his place, though, before you had a chance to threaten him with kicking him out again, and, even though you would deny it if anyone were to claim it, the way he looked so comfortable and somewhat domestic made you a little soft. not very, but just enough to let his teasing slip as you settled next to him.

that position was soon neglected in favour of you sitting between his legs as you found that that was more comfortable for watching a movie. one of you had been complaining no matter where you’d placed the laptop before, because it always gave the one that wasn’t currently complaining a better view. but when you were sitting like this you could just place it right in front of you, and because your friend was so tall he could easily rest his chin on your shoulder without it being uncomfortable at all, and now you both were able to decently see.

you hadn’t decided on a movie yet, though, scrolling the ‘popular right now’ section to get any kind of idea. there was one that seemed interesting enough, kind of dramatic (which was needed because you were not about to watch a romcom with the unfairly attractive redhead pressed against your back like that), and you clicked on it to see the preview since it had sparked your curiosity. as soon as you saw the description you noticed it was a horror movie, though, trying to exit out before anything scary would actually appear on screen.

you succeeded, but your frantic clicking had confused the boy behind you - your netflix was set to finnish, so he didn’t actually understand the caption, but when you told him you’d accidentally chosen a horror movie’s preview rather than a regular dramatic movie he sighed out in relief.

“thank fuck you closed that.”

“not a fan of horror movies either, hm?” you weren’t trying to tease him, and the question sounded like more of an observation. you absolutely hated horror movies, with every fibre of your being, hated the jumpscares and the gore and how you wouldn’t be able to sleep without light for at least a week after. so you found yourself relieved when he told you that he’d have to have his eyes pried open forcefully if someone wanted him to watch one, because at least this way you could be sure he’d never suggest watching one, nor would he make fun of you for being scared.

your thoughts were momentarily guided in a whole other direction though when your partner in being a coward leaned forward, chest pressed even closer to your back and also forcing you to basically fold yourself in the middle underneath his weight as he pointed towards a section title he would in no way be able to pronounce.

“choose from that one.” it was the kids’ movies section, but you had no objections. it was neither a romcom nor a horror movie, the only two genres that were a hard no for you right now. still, you found it hard to do as asked because the way he was leaning forward had your chest almost pressed against your legs and greatly limited your arms’ moving range.

“it’d be easier if you weren’t crushing me”, you whined out, trying to get him to lean back by pressing against him with your back, and with a surprised ‘oh!’ he did lean back, finally giving you room to move again.

“let’s see”, you hummed out, now scrolling the kids’ movies section. you didn’t really know which one to pick, though - kids’ movies weren’t really your usual kind of movie, so it wasn’t like you had a go-to favourite. it seemed like mingi noticed, because he decided to interrupt your aimless scrolling by speaking up, surprising you with his question.

“is there anything you watched as a child? something that’s not korean.”

you didn’t need to think long about this - the moomins immediately shot to your mind, something you’d watched up and down as a child.

“i’m not sure if they’ve ever been dubbed to korean, though”, you informed him, “but i can see?” and without waiting for his reply you abandoned netflix in favour of google, where you hoped that your phonetic interpretation of how moomin would be spelled using hangeul was at least close enough for the search engine to do the rest for you.

you were both glad and somewhat astonished when you did actually get results for your search, clicking on the first video that seemed about as long as you remembered the movie to be and leaning back against the taller one’s chest as you felt nostalgia wash over you. and it was the actual movie, though not dubbed - someone had added korean subtitles, and the finnish speech only made your nostalgia stronger. you were comfortable, head leaning against mingi and his arms around your waist because that was the least awkward place for them to be, underneath your blanket in the dim light coming from your laptop, warm and cosy and, before you knew it, lulled to sleep by the comfortingly familiar sounds of your childhood.

the red-haired male didn’t even notice that you’d fallen asleep, thinking that you were simply just as immersed in the movie as he was, until he tried to tell you that he needed the bathroom and you didn’t reply. peeking over to your face he saw that your eyes were closed and your mouth slightly ajar, and a fond smile made its way onto his face. still, his bladder wouldn’t let him not wake you up, and he felt incredibly guilty when he had to disturb your slumber.

“sorry, but i got big girl business to do”, he told you quietly, and even though you were slightly annoyed at being woken up you laughed at the memory of how that was the first thing you’d heard from him, that his business was big girl business. you paused the movie and shuffled to let him get up, but before he went to the bathroom he asked: “do you want to go to sleep now or finish the movie?”

your heart said movie but your other heart, the one that regularly had you give in to your body’s wicked desires (such as an entire bag of crisps in a single second) said sleep, and once more that heart won. you mumbled out a sleep and he smiled at you, telling you to get ready while he was in the bathroom, then.

getting into your pyjamas was an act in and of itself, because you absolutely did not want to move at all. you did it, though, forcing yourself into the admittedly much softer fabric before plopping right back onto your bed.

when the boy returned (once more shirtless, and you weren’t sure if that was to your dismay or your delight) he would’ve guessed you hadn’t even moved, had it not been for the fact you were wearing something else than when he’d left you. the laptop was closed now, though, placed in the empty space underneath your bed so stepping on it would be avoided even if someone had to get up during the night in a half-awake state.

you shuffled to make room for him as he made his way towards the bed slowly, room lit only by the street lamps outside now. he laid down next to you, looking at you for a moment before the drowsiness-induced desire for cuddles and warmth won over the embarrassment that would have securely prevented a less tired mingi from saying what he said next.

“can i hug you?”

and because you were at least equally sleepy and in need of a warm embrace you just ‘mhm’ed in confirmation, resulting in both a long arm and an even longer leg wrapped around you immediately after. you turned to your back because it was slightly uncomfortable like this, laying on your side facing him, and he didn’t waste a single second before he placed his head on your shoulder, the arm on that side holding on to him now, too. you felt warm and cosy (and soft at the thought of the giant cuddled up to your much smaller frame like this) and it didn’t take long for you to fall asleep again, once more unnoticed by mingi, who had almost immediately fallen asleep as well.

23 notes · View notes

kerikaaria · 4 years

Text

If I Never Met You: Chapter 22

(??? X Reader) Idol!AU, Manager!Reader

Genre: (PG13) Fluff

WC: 3.1k

Warnings: None

Series Masterlist

Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23

Despite obviously having to take planes to get to South Korea, I still felt really nervous as we boarded. Nervous, but also very excited. While I knew it was for work and it would be unlikely to have much time for leisure, I’d never been to Japan so I couldn’t wait to see it.

I slowly made my way through the narrow aisle of the plane until I found my seat, pleased to find Hobi already sitting at the window next to my spot. I slid in next to him, and he beamed a smile at me.

“Oh, I get to sit next to you, noona?” he asked while I made myself as comfortable as I could.

“Looks like it,” I replied with a small smile. We weren’t sure of our seat arrangements prior to this since that wasn’t handled by me and Sejin.

Not too long after, Namjoon stopped in the aisle, double checking the numbers above the seats and the one on his ticket before deciding he found the right place and sliding into the aisle seat next to me.

He got himself situated and comfortable before looking over and flashing his dimpled smile in our direction. “You excited?”

Both of us nodded, but Hobi’s was definitely a lot more enthusiastic than mine. I honestly was, but right now I was a little more preoccupied with getting past the take off.

I decided to put on my earbuds and listen to some music to help distract my thoughts until then. I didn’t know what it was about the initial process of the plane leaving the ground and lifting into the air that made me uncomfortable, but I couldn’t do much about it. Last time I had to fly I was alone and had no idea what to expect since it was my first time, so that made it infinitely worse. Maybe this time, it’d be a bit better since I am surrounded by people I’m comfortable with.

I zoned out and didn’t pay attention to any conversations going on around me until the announcement regarding flight safety came on. I turned off my phone and focused on my hands clasped together tightly in my lap, getting more and more nervous the closer we got to the inevitable. I had a feeling my recent increase in anxiety was definitely not helping me out on this.

When it seemed like the safety lecture was almost done, I felt Hoseok tap on my shoulder. I managed to look at him before he whispered, “Are you okay?”

I nodded quickly, but he wasn’t convinced. I probably wouldn’t have been either–I was sure my whole posture was just screaming discomfort. Hobi placed a hand on top of mine, and the steadiness of his touch made me realize that I had actually been shaking. He gently coerced my hands apart to take one in his own, lacing his fingers in between mine.

Joon must have noticed at this point as well, mimicking his friend’s actions only a moment later. “It’s okay, noona. It’ll all be fine.”

“You don’t like flying?” Hoseok asked.

“When we’re in the air, I’m okay,” I said. “I just can’t stand the take off. I don’t know why, but it freaks me out.”

“We’re here with you,” Namjoon said. “No need to be worried.” The plane was now making its way to the runway where it would eventually leave the ground.

“Just focus on us, noona,” Hobi said. “We’ll keep talking to you through it, okay?” He looked toward Namjoon who nodded in response.

“Yeah, just close your eyes and focus on our voices,” Namjoon added. “Don’t pay attention to what’s going on around you. We’ll let you know when we’re in the clouds.”

I nodded slowly, laying my head back onto the seat and closing my eyes as Joon suggested. I gently squeezed both of their hands in mine as a silent thank you for their support.

They stayed true to their word, whispering comforting words as the engines roared louder and the plane picked up speed before leaving the ground. My heart was still racing, but with the two of them supporting me it was so much more bearable than when I did this alone. And once the plane was in the clouds and the feeling of its speed and incline leveled out, Hoseok told me it was safe to open my eyes.

I slowly pried my eyes open and loosened my hold on their hands. Hobi let go, but Joon still kept his gentle grip on the hand he was holding. I turned to him and saw him studying my face very carefully.

“Are you okay now?” he asked.

I smiled softly and squeezed his hand before releasing it. “Yeah, I’m good now. Thank you for helping me, Joonie and Hobi.”

“Of course, noona,” Hobi said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“It should be a couple of hours before we land,” Joonie said. “Are you going to be okay until then?”

“Yeah, I’m okay with everything else. It’s only the takeoff that I don’t like,” I managed to get out before yawning and turned my phone back on. “But I am feeling really tired. I think I’ll take a nap while I can.”

I heard Joon chuckle while I closed my eyes and rested my head back against the seat.

“Alright. See you in a few hours then, noona,” Hoseok said.

It didn’t take me long at all to fall asleep, feeling the comfort from my friends around me and listening to the calming playlist I had set up on my phone.

I slept surprisingly soundly for being in an unfamiliar place. When my eyes did open, I realized I had ended up resting my head on Joon’s shoulder. He must have also fallen asleep, since his head was laying on top of mine and I heard him quietly snoring. I smiled to myself as I looked at the time on my phone. If we were still on schedule, we should be landing very soon.

I noticed notifications from our group chat, so I opened that up to see what the boys could have possibly decided to text each other about, rather than actually talk in person. I was presented with a picture. Of course, Jimin had apparently turned around and seen me and Joonie asleep and decided to take a picture.

Jimin: Look at them! So cute! 🥰

Taetae: Awww. 💗💗💗 I hope I sit next to noona coming back so she can sleep on my shoulder too!

Hobi: She’s now snuggled with two members while sleeping. Who will be next?

Jin: I bet on Yoongi.

Jimin: That’d be so sweet! 😊

Yoongi: No.

Kookie: I feel like Taehyung hyung is going to make it his mission for him to be next.

Taetae: Yes! It better be me next!

Me: I’ll make it my own mission to make sure it doesn’t happen ever again with any of you.

Taetae: Awwwww but noona that’s not fair! 😔

Yoongi: Taehyung, go hug your pillow.

Jin: Good morning (Y/n). 😊

Jin was also sitting in front of us, and he turned around to wave. I gently waved back, being careful not to move too much as to not disturb Joon’s sleep. “Did you sleep well on your little pillow there?” he asked.

“Actually yes, I did,” I responded quietly. “You should get yourself one of these.”

“You’re still the comfiest pillow,” Jin said with a wink.

“Hyung, can you not flirt with noona in public?” Jungkook whined next to him, making him laugh.

It seemed as though it became too noisy for Joon to stay asleep, when he abruptly lifted his head off of mine and slowly opened his eyes.

I sat up straight and said, “Good morning, Joonie. We’re probably landing soon.”

He nodded while yawning and took a look at his phone. Just a moment later, I got a new notification from the group chat.

Joonie: Seriously Jimin?

Our first two days in Japan were pretty busy, going around for various promotions to try to help spread their popularity in the country. It seemed to be going pretty well, but generally it wasn’t much different from what we would do back home. It was a bit weird for me not being able to understand much of the language, though. I only learned very basic words and phrases, and felt relatively lost when people were speaking around me. It was a feeling I was certainly not used to.

“If we’re going to be coming here often, I’m going to need to really study the language,” I said to no one in particular during the car ride back to the hotel.

“I’m sure you’ll learn it in no time, seeing how quickly you learned Korean,” Jimin encouraged.

“I don’t know, Japanese seems harder to me,” I said.

“I don’t think it would be,” Joon said. “The sentence structure for Japanese is pretty similar to Korean, and it’s mostly just a matter of memorizing general grammar rules and vocabulary, which you’ve already done once before.”

“You can say that for pretty much any language,” I retorted.

“You’re obviously good with languages,” Taehyung added. “I’m sure you could do it within a couple years, just like before.” He flashed me that adorable boxy smile of his.

“Until then just rely on me, noona,” Joon said. “I’m not really fluent, but I have a good handle on it.”

We arrived at the hotel, and I only spent enough time in my room to change my clothes before leaving again. We didn’t have anything else to do for the day, but it wasn’t very late yet so I wanted to take the opportunity to spend some time exploring a bit.

While waiting for the elevator, someone came up behind me and placed their hand on top of my head. I quickly spun around, startled, only to find Namjoon smiling down at me.

“Don’t scare me like that!” I said, letting out a bit of a laugh.

He chuckled at my reaction. “Where are you headed, noona?”

“I wanted to do some exploring,” I said. “I’ve never been to Japan, so I wanted to take a look around while I had the time.”

“I was just about to do the same,” Joon said. “Why don’t we go together?”

“Sounds good. That’s way better than wandering around alone.”

Namjoon nodded in agreement as the elevator doors opened and we made our way outside.

“Any idea where you wanted to go?” Joon asked me.

“Not really, I was just going to randomly wander around,” I shrugged.

“Mind me taking the lead then?” he asked.

“I’ve been told how you have no sense of direction, you sure that’s a good idea?” I teased.

“Hey, I’m not that bad.” We started walking in the direction Joon seemed to want to go. “I planned a route I wanted to take beforehand, so I’m prepared.”

“Alright. I guess it’ll be up to me to find our way back if we get lost.” I playfully smirked at him.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I could just go back to my room if you really want me to.”

“No!” I grabbed onto his arm to keep him from walking away.

He heartily laughed. “I’m just kidding, noona. I wouldn’t leave you alone.”

I took in a deep breath before laughing along with him to hide the anxiousness I felt. I was genuinely scared for a moment that I joked too much and made him annoyed with me. Of course it was just a joke. You’re overreacting, stop that, I reprimanded myself.

We walked together for a little while, mostly just taking in the buildings and scenery around us. I found it so interesting how each city had its own character, despite being comprised of basically the same things. Any large city like this I had been to – New York, Seoul, and now Tokyo – had buildings everywhere. Skyscrapers and smaller ones, the occasional bit of purposely placed nature, traffic constantly clogging the streets, and masses of people weaving their way to their individual destinations.

But despite all those similarities, each city was uniquely different. It was definitely in large part due to the variances in culture–different styles of architecture both historical and modern–but that just made it all the more fascinating. I never thought I could get used to being surrounded by such condensed city, but I’d really come to appreciate the beauty in it over time.

After walking around for a little while, something caught Namjoon’s eye and he paused, staring at a particular building.

“What’s up, Joonie?” I asked.

“Do you want to go to a Japanese bakery?” he asked, turning to me and smiling. He knew how much I loved pastries and baked goods.

My eyes instantly lit up. “Yes!”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the bakery he spotted. “Let’s go then.”

As soon as we entered the building, my eyes darted around the display of different pastries. I heard the worker greeting us in Japanese and Joonie responding back, but was too preoccupied with looking over all the delicious-looking sweets to pay any attention.

Namjoon appeared next to me and chuckled at my excitement. “See anything you like, noona?”

“They all look so good!” I responded, lingering on a particularly cute pastry that was in the shape of a popular cartoon character. “Some of these look so cute I want to buy them, but don’t know if I could bring myself to eat them at the same time.”

“Yeah, they are pretty cute,” Namjoon said, now surveying the treats himself. We both took a moment to contemplate our choices before he said, “I think I know what I want to try. Have you decided yet?”

I realized there was a pastry that had my favorite fruit flavor and decided I had to go with that. “Yeah, I think I want this one.”

“Alright then,” Namjoon started walking towards the register and I noticed he was planning on paying.

“Wait,” I said, grabbing his arm to still him. “I got it, Joon.”

“You don’t always need to buy things for us, noona,” he said, smiling gently. “We can treat you sometimes, too.”

“But I want to buy some for everyone,” I said.

“Oh yeah, that’s a good idea.” He finished approaching the register and pulled out his wallet. “I’m still paying though.”

He didn’t let me protest again, speaking in Japanese to the cashier and pointing to various treats in the case to tell her our order.

We walked out of there with a few bags’ worth of deserts, plenty to make the others happy. Namjoon led us back to the hotel, surprisingly easily without any wrong turns.

“I’ll have to tell them how you didn’t get us lost,” I said while we were in the elevator. “I’m sure they’ll be surprised, if the stories they’ve told me are any indicator about their faith in your navigation skills.”

Joon just shook his head and chuckled, and we exited the elevator when it reached our floor. “Where should we all meet to eat this?”

“Why don’t we go to your room?” I asked. “Who are you sharing with again?”

“Yoongi hyung,” he answered. “We can go set this stuff down and then gather the others.”

“Sounds good,” I said before Namjoon took out his keycard to open his door. The lights were out in the room, so I assumed Yoongi already went to sleep. “Or maybe not?” I whispered. “I don’t want to disturb him if he’s already asleep.”

“I’m not sleeping,” Yoongi said from the bed, although he sounded very groggy.

Joon turned on the lights as I set the bags I carried on the closest surface. I saw Yoongi laying on his side on the further bed, facing away from us.

“You don’t need to get up if you don’t want to Yoongi,” I said. He grumbled a response, before curling in towards himself. “Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine,” he managed to say, but his words were obviously strained.

I shared a concerned look with Joon, both of us seeming to agree that something was wrong.

“Hyung, you definitely don’t sound fine,” Joonie said, moving to sit on the bed next to Yoongi. Once he did and got a good look at the older boy, he looked back to me, his eyes widened.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, quickly making my way over.

“He looks really sick,” Joon responded.

I walked to the other side of the bed to see, and what I saw made me immediately concerned. Yoongi was sweating and gripping onto his stomach with his hand. It seemed like his stomach was hurting, seeing that along with his eyes tightly squeezed shut. I placed the back of my hand to his forehead to gauge his temperature, and he definitely had a fever.

“Yoongi, when did this start?” I asked.

“A bit earlier,” he croaked out. “But it wasn’t bad earlier, it just hurt a little bit.”

“On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it?” Joon asked.

He let out a slow breath, seeming to think. “Maybe a seven?”

“Okay, we’re going to the hospital,” I said.

“No, noona,” Yoongi said. “I will be fine, I just need to rest.”

“Yoongi, you have a fever and a terrible stomach ache,” I insisted. “Something is wrong. And I’m not letting you suffer like this.” I placed a hand on his shoulder, which got him to open his eyes. “Do you think you can get up and walk down to the van with me?”

He slowly nodded and started to straighten himself up.

“Joon, can you come with me?” I asked. “I need someone to help with directions to the hospital and I don’t want to take Sejin and leave everyone else without a manager if they need someone.”

He nodded in agreement as I placed one of Yoongi’s arms over my shoulders and got him to stand up. But with me being shorter, I probably wasn’t that much help in supporting him.

“I got him,” Joon said, taking his other side.

We made our way to the garage where the van was parked as quickly as Yoongi could walk, while I called Sejin to tell him what was going on and that I’d keep him updated.

Joon helped his hyung into the car, buckling him in before sliding into the passenger seat.

I looked back at Yoongi before starting the car. “You’ll be okay, Yoongi. Just hang in there.”

Series Masterlist

Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23

Tags: @calling-dips-on-j-hope @misohime @netflix-batman-sleep @smallbaby-cat @leitholdwithlove @ramyagovindraj @leesalts @rjsmochii

Send me a message or ask if you want tagged! And also feel free to leave comments or send asks to just talk to me!

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baekdaedream · 3 years

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If you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not! Let’s get to know the person behind the blog!❤️

Feli! 💕

Three random facts... hm...

1. So, I never thought I’d get into a group other than EXO, but here we are, SuperM got me a bit interested in the other members, and gosh while watching the SMTown concert livestream, Ten just. Had me completely captivated from the beginning of Riot and so eventually I looked into WayV and here we are, I’ve got their songs from itunes and the physical copy of Take Over The Moon on the way because it’s so pretty, and I have watched their reality shows and am fond of them. Now, while I doubt it’ll get to the same level as my like, EXO stanning? (Not as if there’s levels of being a fan but, how much I feel the want to do as a fan ?) Where I collect all the albums (and some pcs) and have gone to many concerts, I think I’m getting to a nice casual/moderate level of being a fan of them. They have a new album coming up soon I think and I look forward to it 😊 and I do think it would be nice to see them in concert someday but, don’t think I’d do an SM Global Package for it since it’s so expensive like. Only for EXO I do that hahah. So let’s hope WayV gets to have an NA tour like NCT 127 did? (Okay but maybe... maybe... if I have plans to go to China one day with a friend then if there’s a WayV concert I will go!)

2. I played the clarinet for six years, from the start of middle school to the end of high school like June 2015, but haven’t played it since. I would’ve said haven’t touched it since, but months and months ago when my twin was over last (before the covid cases and restrictions went up again) we’d taken out our clarinets since she found her old one(?) downstairs and like, taken a look at the quality of them hahah. She has a plethora of instruments (okay maybe not that many but), her and her boyfriend did a jazz program in university together it was very cute. While she continued with music (she can play all four saxophones, I did alto sax for a year and that was it), I.. did not. I still have a keyboard in my room though, since I did a term of piano in high school, but ahh the effort of going back to it... sometimes I listen to instrumental soundstracks and such while I write, and feel like playing again, but honestly... I get too tired from work to be able to write or study or play much 😞 but hey maybe soon I’ll start again! My twin got me the little piece thing so I can connect my headphones to it while I play which is great!

3. I did university for only a year, for writing, but gosh it completely drained me of my motivation to write (so my two stories, which I’ve been working on one for maybe over a decade now, the other for maybe over half a decade, are only very slowly barely growing, and are at 47.2k and 44.3k respectively. It’s kinda sad. Gosh I’ve been reading this fic lately, 20/40 chapters are complete, and it’s at like 400k?? Wow wish I could write that much. One day maybe I’ll get there. I just can’t force it. I’ve got to let it like, heal and grow on it’s own). The only thing that felt useful from that year of university was the Japanese course I took for a term, which is only three months, but it was like intense, so I almost failed, and couldn’t get into the next level hahah. It made me able to retain some of it, but the problem was I just couldn’t memorize the katakana oops. One day perhaps I’ll get back into studying it. I’m also interested in studying Korean and Mandarin, I have some TTMIK textbooks and workbooks, five levels, but only got to level two 😣 sometimes the motivation just leaves and takes a long time to come back. I studied Mandarin on duolingo daily during the three months of lockdown when I got to just be home all the time though, so that was nice! I would love to like, be fluent in more languages, and just. Learn more. Once I get the three I mentioned down (who knows how long that will take), I’ll probably find another to learn! I think it would be really cool to know multiple languages. WayV kinda is inspiring more to get to that point, since they know so many! Honestly though it would possibly be easier for me to get to learning them if I knew other people who speak the languages..

This got long but I hope there’s three random facts in there somewhere at least hahah. I hope you have a nice day/night Feli~!

#personal #asks #kafkascupcake #tag games

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scintfms · 4 years

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hi kids ! wow , we’re already at opening and that’s so crazy ! i’m kofi , your co - admin , and i’m so excited that you guys are here ! i’m 23 , from the est tz , prefer she / they pronouns and i graduate from college in a little more than seven months ... yikes . that being said , i’m ready to introduce you guys to my latest muse , who may have huge development changes as we go on because of him being brand new , mr . saint moon ! he’s um ... something of a mess and idk if i love or hate him yet , but i’m happy to plot with ya’ll on my d.iscord @ 𝐡𝐲𝐮𝐧𝐣𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐲.#4090 !

( lee juyeon , 22 , cis male , he / him ) * fun fact about me ? okay , let’s see . . . an injury stopped my promising olympic career . crazy , right ? i’m saint moon , i live in the contemporary new build with a three thousand square foot outdoor patio on ocean lane in key biscayne , & not to brag , but my family’s worth around $740 million . pretty decent for real estate and construction developers , huh ? we’ve been around for some time , but in town , everyone’s always associated me with the gatsbys ; but it’s not like that’s my whole identity , or anything . while filming for key biscayne , it was surprising when i’d get dragged on twitter for being “ errant , impetuous , & rancorous , ” but the cameras don’t see everything , & my real fans know that i’m nothing but coolheaded , venturesome , & enamoring . i’m not too bothered by it though , because since the series ended , i’ve opened a highly successful café in south korea and planning to expand to the states . follow me on instagram @SNT.MN to keep up .

name : saint moon .

nickname(s) : none .

age + date of birth : 22 + july 19th , 1998 .

astrological sign : cancer .

myers - briggs personality type : infj .

enneagram type : the individualist .

moral alignment : chaotic neutral .

gender + pronouns : cis man + he / him / his .

place of birth : gangnam , south korea .

place of residence : key biscayne , florida .

sexual orientation : bisexual .

romantic orientation : biromantic .

occupation : former reality star / instagram influencer / café owner .

nationality : korean .

ethnicity : korean .

language(s) spoken : korean , english , japanese , and learning mandarin .

social media handle : @SNT.MN

THE BACKSTORY .

saint’s story starts when his parents , moon ji - ho and park soo - ah went on their first date . in truth , it had been a rare instance of love at first sight when they bumped into each other at ji - ho’s office in seoul , and the date was only used to solidify their feelings . you see , ji - ho and soo - ah were fairly well known with ji - ho being the second heir to moon industries alongside his sister , moon eun - ha . moon industries was founded in the 1940s , and is known primarily for their real estate and construction business . the company was founded in seoul , and originally started out by purchasing and renovating beautiful homes and condominiums within the city . after thirty years in the business , ji - ho and eun - ha’s father was one of the first in south korea to reach the status of billionaire .

ji - ho and soo -ah were looking to forge their own path , though . although they were lucky enough to have wealthy parents , both of them have always liked the idea of working for themselves and getting their hands dirty . so , they refused ji - ho’s father’s investment and decided to start their own real estate firm . they went through the process of obtaining their real estate license in both south korea and the united states , specifically in florida . after studying hard , they were able to open moon real estate , and it was a hassle for them . they initially ‘ struggled ’ seeing as though they were their only employees , and soon , soo - ah discovered that she was pregnant with their son .

for four years , they worked hard with their bumbling baby boy , saint , crawling at their feet and curiously looking at home or building buyers . for a long time , they considered saint to be their closer as he was the selling point and allowed people to hold him while looking at the home . usually , soo - ah would use saint as a marketing ploy whenever they were trying to sell to young couples , and it always worked . the moons became known for saint syndrome , where those same young couples would typically call to say that they were expecting within a year of buying their home . it only took a few years , but the moons were soon raking in their own money without the help of ji - ho’s father .

when saint was six , his family relocated to key biscayne , florida . life was easy living on the water , and his parents continued to sell gorgeous homes both in seoul and in the wealthy neighborhoods of florida . with such a lifestyle , it wasn’t unheard of for saint to excel at his private school , where he was known for his academic prowess as well as his ability to play both the piano and the cello . saint was a fairly popular student while growing up , and it showed when the moons would host their annual christmas party .

he was fourteen when he finally started to understand the rivalry between thoroughbreds and gatsbys . originally , he put off like he didn’t care , but in reality he was trying to figure it out . the moons were a special case , considering that ji - ho was clearly an heir to a billion dollar fortune , but also had become wealthy in his own right thanks to his business with his wife . saint never understood that jabs and jeers that he would receive from thoroughbreds , because to him , they were all rich so what the hell did it matter ? he eventually began to side more with the gatsbys , never understanding why the thoroughbreds felt as though they needed to stick their noses up in the air at them .

within two years , though , saint seems to have changed for the worse . while his grades may be good , he begins to spend more time with new friends in miami . while there , he surrounds himself with fast cars and short nights , but he thinks it’s his parents’ fault for buying him a 488 spider for his sixteenth birthday . saint began to get into trouble , often pulled over for speeding and reckless driving to impress his friends . like always , a star is meant to fall , and it all came crashing down for saint when he thought that drag racing on u.s. route 1 was a good idea . he assumed that he could lose the cops , but he was stupid�� for ever thinking so -- he totaled the $1.3m dollar car , and after being treated for minor injuries , he was booked in the county jail .

having rich parents seems to be all fun and games considering they were barely able to get him out with a slap on the wrist , but that very same night they sent him away on a business plane to live with his no - nonsense grandparents . for the first year , saint pouted and argued , screamed and kicked over being trapped in seoul . he tried to escape the fortress of a house in pyeongchang , attempted to ditch his security guards when he went out in public , but he eventually realized that there was no getting out of this . so , he made the most out of it : he finished school , and during his senior year with the help of his grandparents , saint opened goodnight moon , a late night café that appealed to college students and late workers in need of a coffee and pastry pick me up . the café went viral , and so did the handsome owner .

he returned home when he was twenty , and discovered that key biscayne was filming . as the resident who suddenly disappeared , saint was sought after by the producers and was introduced mid - way through the second season .

THE SHOW .

saint and his family were not introduced on key biscayne until midway through season two . he was introduced as most table shakers would be , with a flurry of local headlines ranging from KEY BISCAYNE TEEN ARRESTED FOR DRAG RACING and HOW MONEY GETS YOU OUT OF A JAIL SENTENCE . his parents didn’t like the idea of being on a reality series , so they weren’t featured although there were a few scenes with them .

he was the reality show villain and you can’t tell me otherwise ! showed up with an air of what the fUCk ever and despite the air around him since he was arrested and shipped back to south korea , he never let that stop him ? like ofc he’s a rich boy who got away with something bc he’s rich , but it’s not that he doesn’t acknowledge it , he just chooses not to talk about it .

was definitely the subject of show cliffhangers , probably nearly got kicked off the show because of his short temperament and despite all that would still be invited to the reunions because he would always start some shit . he was very vocal about who he didn’t like on the show , and probably had good chemistry with a cast mate and fans of the show always pushed for them to become a thing ( a wc ... mayhaps 👀 ) but they were never anything more than friends .

by the end of the show , saint was that cast member that fans love to hate . he was employee of the month , and that’s on period ! gave what he was supposed to gave and was highkey problematic ( not in a bad way , but in a way where he was always the one in the middle of some shit ) and when people would question him about it ofc he didn’t care KFNDSJBFS .

THE PERSONALITY .

a little shit . that’s it . that’s all you need to know . although he’s standoffish , still has his insecurities because he’s not the ‘ perfect ’ son that his parents pushed for him to be . very much so the black sheep of the family , and is deemed as a lost cause by his thespian of a mother , so he figures that he might as well live up to that name . comes across as someone who genuinely doesn’t care , and he doesn’t KFDBJSFSD . sometimes only looks out for himself which adds more sand into the asshole bin , and he hates being asked ‘ dumb ’ questions . it’s a pet peeve that his mom thinks he picked up from his father .

THE HEADCANONS .

he does not want to be your friend KFNDSFUS . he can be very standoffish just to get that point across , and he doesn’t interact with people outside of a chosen few .

can be wildly off putting and while someone else may be afraid of confrontation , he isn’t ! might be the subject of bar brawls and minor scraps because he genuinely does not know how to shut the hell up .

hates walnuts ; idk why that’s important but it is . serve him something with walnuts in it and he’ll never talk to you again .

romantically and emotionally stunted , therefore he bides his time with casual sex and noncommittal acts of romance . can be found slipping out of beds in the middle of the night , never returns texts , and at times will pretend that he doesn’t know who the other person is ( ew ! ) .

a chaotic boy with a heart of gold , he just doesn’t show it and has mastered the art of being fake .

despite his repulsion of romance and relationships , he’ll flirt with anyone that has a pair of legs , and he quite honestly might call someone daddy just for the hell of it KNFDH .

probably posts those outfit thirst traps on instagram reels or tik tok bc he’s annoying .

THE CONNECTIONS .

an angsty ex boyf 👀 if i have to BEG for it i will ! and i promise to make you cry xD

a best friend pls ! someone who has been friends with him since before he was shipped back to korea for a few years so when he came back and was on the show , they were THE dynamic duo .

i’ve been really into his plot but someone he works out with ? maybe they don’t work out together per say , but they’re somehow always at the community gym at the same time .

something soft ? something so sweet that it would make my teeth rot ? could either be a boyfriend or girlfriend thing or tbh i don’t know but i’m literally looking for something that’s all fluff and all marshmallows and if i don’t get it then i’ll cry .

a plot where they full on hate each other . none of that cute shit KNFDNFHSD . no lingering feelings , no moments of hate lapse -- they hate each other and it’s a spicy hate ship that literally gets your blood pumping .

SKINNY LOVE ARE YOU THERE ?

his hoodrat friends NFDJNHFBD i’m kidding but i’m thinking like ... a billionaire boys club type of thing ? perhaps the five of them get together and ppl try to penetrate the group or they have these instances where ppl straight up hate them for no reason ? they were probably the TALK of the show bc thought they were assholes KNFDJBFBD idk either way , my hand is out . ( 1 of 4 spots filled )

a one night stand with some substance ? like yeah , they fuck around and they have their fun together but they don’t pretend to not know each other in public ( unless this person is a thoroughbred and i oop , chile ) so they probs tend to be a little like confidants at times but also have a tendency of shutting each other up with sex .

#biscayne.intro #this is really long i do apologize KNFDNSHF

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iseulvld · 4 years

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hey, it’s chey! i’m here to introduce you to pristine’s main vocal & main dancer, hyun “eden” iseul. you can find his public profile here, his private profile here, his plots here & his pinterest board here. below the cut, you’ll find a beginner’s guide to eden.

PERSONALITY.

infp-t / the turbulent mediator. self-critical, imaginative, idealistic, intense, disconnected, awkward. much like a turtle, iseul is timid in social situations and while he can be open at times, he can retreat into his shell at any given moment. once he retreats, it’s as if he’s disconnected from reality; he becomes oblivious to the world around him, unaware of even the loudest attempts to bring him back. he has a rich world inside of his mind where he feels comfortable and sometimes, it can seep into reality. you could say that he views the world around him as a fantasy movie scene, often creating things that aren’t there. he romanticizes things that should be perceived as face value and can easily develop exaggerated views of objects, places, people and even feelings. it’s not uncommon for him to put others on a pedestal and tear himself down. will accept the blame for anything that goes wrong, even when he’s being treated unfairly. despite being withdrawn, he relies heavily on other peoples’ opinions to feel validated and worthy.

pisces / the fishes. dreamy, playful, emotional, artistic, fickle, empathetic. fully aware of the pain that the world holds, he still has a habit of looking at things through rose-colored glasses. he has big dreams and can get a little carried away thinking about them. likes to have fun and laugh as well as make others laugh, even though it takes him a while to get to such a comfortable point with people. his mind changes like the weather, so he has trouble committing to long-term associations, whether it’s relating to his career or interpersonal relationships. his moods are dependent on those of whoever he’s around; highly malleable, tries to camouflage himself in social situations and mimic other people as to not draw excessive attention to himself.

HISTORY.

highkey an unwanted child and neither of his parents tried to hide it.

( TW PHYSICAL + VERBAL ABUSE / MANIPULATION ) i tried not to describe it much in his bio but his parents were...... very toxic. didn’t always treat him poorly --- they were actually pretty nice sometimes --- but when they were bad..... they were bad. endured a lot of abuse until he left for college and they also tried to tell him it was his fault and they only hurt him because they cared about him. ( TW END )

his coping method for everything was basically just pretending that things weren’t as bad as they were. any time someone said something hurtful, he was like :) that’s okay! i know you don’t mean it. tbh he still does this. he’ll put up with SO much bs just bc he’ll tell himself that it’s not personal

was kind of always drawn to more creative ventures such as writing and art; one of his first ever dreams (and still his dream) was/is to be an author. also picked up a hobby of origami when he was really young.

started showing interest in music after he got a MEGA crush on one of his classmates when he was like... 13. the classmate wanted to become an idol (side note... this is an open connection if anyone wants it fbjhvd) and he wanted to have something in common w them, so he was like omg no way??? me too???

started practicing w that friend and it was kind of obvious he didn’t know what he was doing, but he did end up getting better and started to really enjoy it!!!

so he started auditioning for companies when he was 14 behind his parents’ backs, never got accepted tho and eventually his parents found out and they were like.... bruh you are NOT the kim dongchul you think you are.... (oh, sweet irony).

started working part-time when he turned 15, mainly just passed out fliers but would help out at diners sometimes too if they’d let him. needed money to pay for actual lessons bc just practicing w his friend, as much as he did love it, was NOT cutting it and there was no way in hell he was going to pass an audition w his skills at the time.

kept auditioning for YEARS, lit rally didn’t stop until he graduated high school even though his parents mocked every single failure. ended up getting accepted into seoul institute of the arts, where he studied creative writing & dance for a lil while

ended up getting scouted by a summit media rep on campus, thought it was HILARIOUS!!!!! that they were from kim dongchul’s company. got so much enjoyment out of telling his parents. laughed about it for hours

he dropped out in his second year of school bc it was too hard to do everything his professors expected of him and train. nowadays, he really regrets dropping out (and kind of joining tbh), but :// what can ya do?

TRIVIA.

he has a lot of interest in languages, for someone who’s... so bad... at talking. he’s not fluent in anything other than korean (and barely that lmao), but he knows a LITTLE bit of japanese, english, french & italian. but when i say a little... i DO mean a little. for example, all he knows how to say in italian is “in bocca al lupo” which is jus like... an idiom that means good luck. that’s ALL he can retain of the italian language and he says it all the time. boy will never master a language

a big fan of origami. started doing it bc someone he had a crush on in grade school did it and he was like wow, can you teach me??? and for the past however many years, he has been leaving a trail of paper cranes in his wake.

he likes to decorate w the origami he makes --- the pristine dorm definitely has a vase with origami cherry blossoms in it. he likes to make all kinds of things (swans, boats, lotus flowers, hearts, frogs, birds, etc) though & he’s always trying to learn smth new!

also loves writing. the kind of guy who will describe you. will and probably has written poems about everyone he’s ever met. probably uses summit media idols/trainees/staff when he needs muse LMAOOOO. he sees them walking through the halls n he’s like “let me break out my notebook rq”

ALWAYS changing his hair...... wants to do whatever he wants with it while he has the freedom to. loves to dye and cut it. right now, his hair looks the same as in 8yuthe gif icon BUT his fc just cut his hair mad short so there will be a change very soon.

stage name is eden --- basically means that by listening to his voice & watching his performance, you’ll find a serene paradise..... make fun of him for it.

#vldintro #if u read this whole thing.... i love u now <3

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curewhimsy · 4 years

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About that New Project (UPDATED)

EDIT: I updated and I added MORE CHARACTERS (something felt imbalanced still and I couldn’t stop lol) and I actually did general descriptions for all of them... They’re not extensive and may change, however.

———

The thing I was talking about in my Soune Taya post...

The Mega Project?

Well... it was going to be a visual novel concept.

But since I have no skill in making a VN, I’m just going to write a story. Like the anime that will be based off the VN. Like Clannad’s anime or something.

It’s going to be long since I have (ahem) FOURTY-SIX (46) WHOLE CHARACTERS WITH ROUTES THAT I’M GOING TO INCORPORATE.

This is why I said I will never ever finish it, even if I devote my entire life to it.

But it won’t feel right without all these characters. I WANT to have all these characters. I’m a “go big or go home” person. I’m too ambitious and I know that.

So.

Here are the characters.

Haku, Neru, Miku, Luka, Teto, Gumi, Meiko, Lapis, Merli, Lily, IA, Yukari, Uta, Zatsune, Rin, Len, Kaito, Akaito, Dell, Gakupo, Yuuma, Piko, Mizuki, Nigaito, Dex, Daina, Ruby, Taya, Longya, Ling, Momo, SeeU, Ruko, Ritsu, Miki, Aku, Bruno, Clara, Iroha, Yuu, Wil, Kyo, Akari, Qingxian, Anon, Kanon In the story adaption, Uta Utane (Defoko) will take the role as the player/main character, and learns everyone’s backstories. She will be the one with the (gigantic) “harem” around her. Think, Tomoya from Clannad. But IF there’s ever an actual game, I’ll plan on Uta being one of the date-able characters. She’ll be your childhood friend.

The characters are all college students here. They are all college-age, roughly between 18-26, depending on which character. I may give them specific ages eventually.

Here are descriptions I thought of already. For some of these Loids, this is my first time EVER writing or portraying them. Ever.

(Full names are listed in Western order. This is partly due to the story taking place in the USA, in a “Japantown” sort of place to explain the prominent Japanese population.)

——————————————————

Haku Yowane- A shy, gloomy girl who is looking to join in the school’s choir... However, the choir doesn’t have enough members. And it’s not like Haku is a good enough singer to singlehandedly bring it back to life... or confident to work up the courage to even audition. Haku seems to depend on Neru, her only friend, to comfort her when she gets down. Haku is the cousin of the popular Miku Hatsune, the most popular girl in the school and star singer in the choir. Neru Akita- A tomboy with a hot temper. But inside, she hides delicate feelings. She seems to always be with Haku, cheering her up when she gets down. The two seem to only have each other. Miku Hatsune- A very popular girl and star singer in the choir. A bubbly, cheerful sweetheart. Has lots of friends and is always smiling. Idealistic and doesn’t believe in impossible. Miku dreams big, but apparently she gets very depressed when her dreams are crushed. Luckily that never seems to happen... for now. Luka Megurine- A polite and elegant woman. She can appear aloof and intimidating at first, but is actually just shy. She is half Japanese, a quarter French, and a quarter German. Teto Kasane- A bubbly girl who can be childish. Is playful, weird, and a bit demanding. Very clumsy. Gumi- A girl who can be a bit shy, but once you get past that, Gumi is unique, free-spirited, and chill. She likes art and reading books. She keeps a sketchbook with her at all times. Meiko Sakine- The confident, mature woman of the group. Energetic and loves to party. Still responsible. Like a mother or older sister. Has quite a temper, though she mostly uses it to defend others... Lapis Aoki- Merli’s stepsister, who seems to be the opposite of her. Bubbly and playful, and quite childish. Quite friendly. However, she can be a bit selfish at times. Lapis is Japanese, though her adoptive sister Merli is Indian. Merli Aoki- Lapis’ stepsister, who seems to be the opposite of her. She can seem cold and distant, even a bit harsh at first. But inside, she is very thoughtful and willing to help those important to her. Merli is Indian, though she was adopted into Lapis’ Japanese family after the death of her parents. Lily- The school’s toughest female delinquent. IA- An idolized girl in the school for her good looks and singing skills. However, she hides dark feelings? Yukari Yuzuki- Half sister to Akari Kizuna. Looks up to IA but also feels she will never be as good as her. Uta Utane- A rather plain, bluntly-spoken person who doesn’t see much in life. Usually bored, silent, and rather deadpan. Once a bright girl with lots of dreams. Deep inside, she is passionate and caring, really... Can it be restored? She is non-binary, going mostly by she/her. Miku Zatsune- Edgy and hates Miku. She would rather be called Zatsune, because her first name happens to be Miku, like the person she despises so much... But could there be something deeper to her? Rin Kagamine- Rin is a bit chaotic. She is bold, brash, athletic, and charming. She is also just plain nuts. Len Kagamine- Len fries to be cool and hip, but he is just a big dork. He is quite the comedian however, sometimes unintentionally. Kaito Shion- Kaito is a silly boy. He loves ice cream, unicorns, rainbows, and anything fluffy. But he also has moments of seriousness where he says really deep, philosophical things. He is quite romantic. Akaito Shion- Akaito is a sarcastic and grumpy boy, but when it comes to romance, he gets quite passionate. He sometimes flirts around with girls, but when he finally finds a true love with a girl (or guy) who truly changes his life... well... it’s a bit different. Dell Honne- Dell is usually in a bad mood. He currently lives with a father who barely acknowledges him. He tends to keep it all inside, and he’s really just lonely and needs to find someone to vent to. He enjoys computer programming and composing electronic music. He is Haku’s half-brother, but they didn’t grow up together. Gakupo Kamui- Gakupo likes doing kendo and martial arts, and is generally athletic. He is a nice guy who also loves animals and history. He seems serious, but can be unexpectedly silly sometimes. He likes embracing his Japanese and Ainu heritage. Yuuma- Yuuma likes music and is quite popular. He may seem hard to approach, because sometimes he doesn’t know what to say. He is a little blunt at times, but has a good heart. He has a crush on Mizuki. Piko Utatane- Piko is a genius who loves astronomy and excels in mathematics and physics. He is a shy and compassionate person, but whenever he opens his mouth, he sounds very strict. He is bad at socializing and making friends, which leaves him quite lonely. On top of that, he is sickly and absent from school often. Piko wishes to make a friend. His first friend in the school is Lapis Aoki, who pretends to be a fairy to grant his wish. After a while, Lapis declares that she wants to be Piko’s friend. Mizuki- Mizuki is a singer who also plays the a Japanese harp (koto.) She is quite a charming person and seems to flirt with many people... even girls... but not Yuuma. Since Yuuma has a crush on Mizuki, this discourages him. Nigaito Shion- The youngest of the three Shion bothers. Nigaito’s nicknames are Nini and Nii. He is rather sickly, but remains to have a warm and pure heart. Dex- Daina’s childhood friend. Best friends, even though they are of completely different genders, and with very different personalities. Some people wonder how it works. Dex is silly, fun, a bit of a party animal, but he is still very caring and compassionate. He just needs a bit of help devoting himself to his studies. But he is quite intelligent when he is focused. He is Black, Creole, and is learning French. Daina- Dex’s childhood friend. Best friends, even though they are of completely different genders, and with very different personalities. Some people wonder how it works. Daina likes to study and learn, and doesn’t like atmospheres like parties so much. She prefers quiet, peaceful places. She may seem a bit distant on the outside, but she is just a little shy. She is White, with English and French heritage. Ruby- Ruby is rather confident, yet nice, and will always give people a helping hand. She is Black and Latina. Taya Soune- Taya is incredibly polite, bowing at many occasions and also offering to do favors a lot. He speaks very formally. He is non-binary, but go mostly by he/him. Longya Yuezheng- A quite serious man who is dutiful and studious. Protective over his younger sister, Ling, and monitors her safety constantly. This is due to Ling nearly getting into a tragic accident when they were younger, traumatizing Longya. He is Chinese. Ling Yuezheng- Ling is a hardworking student, however she has a playful side and she feels lonely that she doesn’t have many friends and is devoting her life to studying. Momo Momone- A peaceful, sleepy girl. Rather low-energy and tranquil. However, Momo has quite a temper when it comes to injustice. SeeU- A rather eccentric, bold and energetic girl with “the light of the stars in her eyes.” She is Korean. Ruko Yokune- Ruko is one of the most mature characters, having a lot of wisdom about life and many experiences. However, they still have moments where they need a helping hand. Ruko is non-binary, mostly going by she/her or they/them. Ritsu Namine- Ritsu is rather brash, but means well. He is non-binary and mostly go by he/him. Miki- Loves romance anime/manga and is obsessed with “cute couples.” A true fangirl. Acts cute and animated. Iroha’s best friend. Aku Yamine- Hates her name, because it’s pronounced the same as the word for “evil” in Japanese. Prefers to be called Akurin. Aku is a very nice and naive, somewhat clumsy girl with big dreams. Is half Black and half Japanese. Bruno- Black Latino, lived in the Dominican Republic. Polite and soft-spoken, but a talented guitarist. Clara- From Colombia, and is Latina. A rather doting girl who somehow feels like both a mother and a little sister. Iroha Nekomura- Loves cute things and stuffed animals. Is kind of insecure and doesn’t find herself very cute, though her best friend Miki constantly reassures her. Yuu- A sweet, cheerful guy who is always filled with energy. Half English, half Japanese. He is in a band with Wil and Kyo called ZOLA PROJECT. Wil- A sophisticated, fashionable guy who is quite outgoing. He is Black. He is in a band with Yuu and Kyo called ZOLA PROJECT. Kyo- A wild, energetic guy who is always raring to go. He is Japanese. He is in a band with Yuu and Wil called ZOLA PROJECT. Akari Kizuna- Yukari Yuzuki’s half-sister. Cheerful and sweet, and wants to make others smile... even though many heavy thoughts are hiding behind her own smile. Qingxian Mo- She seems very nice, but she’s actually a bit self-absorbed. Since her name is hard to pronounce for English-speakers, she insists on being called Qing (pronounced like Ching.)

Anon- (Coming soon)

Kanon- (Coming soon)

#vocaloid #life of pastell #my writing #wip #brainstorm #vn #fanfic #utau

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 3 years

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Ms. U was a Japanese UC member given a Korean husband who beat her

Hello, I will tell you about my experiences.

I was born in Japan in a village rich in nature. Due to the characteristics of the region, there were many dual-operated farmers and many average families. There were four in my family, including my parents and my grandmother. I grew up without any discomfort. I had a lot of friends and liked sports. After graduating from high school, I left my parents and entered a Christian college in 1984. While living in the college dormitory I spent my days devoted to my studies and circle activities [college clubs?]. However, there was a problem at a ‘retirement’ sports game in the fall of the second year, just before our job hunting activities began. For me, having learned through experience that the time and results of my efforts were in direct proportion, the problem at the game was like a disaster that suddenly hit me. It was my first frustration in my life. The other teammates continued as if nothing had happened, but I couldn’t forgive the person who caused the problem.

I read books and asked my seniors, but my heart was unsettled. I hated myself for worrying and not knowing what to do. Then I remembered the pamphlet I had received after I had answered a questionnaire which had been inserted in the student handbook. I made a phone call to what turned out to be a Video Center.(2) I started attending the Video Center and got a job. I was very impressed with lecturer Kurahara’s theory of the fall of man, and I felt something good was happening. After that, I got a job close to my home and went to work, so I had a chance to go out and dedicate my time [at the Video Center] in return. I wanted to commit myself more and more to their work.

I told my parents that I wanted to quit my job and do God’s work full time. For nine months I fought with them over the issue. Finally, my father brought a scythe like the ones used to cut trees. He held it against my neck, and yelled at me if I would go anyway, but my determination was not shaken. Even if my parents could not understand it then, I believed that the day would surely come [when they would understand], and I felt that I could not make the True Parents of Heaven and Earth (3) and God sad. My determination was further strengthened.

▲ Japanese Microbus MFT (Mobile Fundraising Team)

In 1986, I devoted myself full time and moved with the Evangelism Task Force Micro (4) for 21 weeks and with selling McCol drinks (5) for periods ranging from several months to several years. I rested only one day per month. I woke up early every morning to fulfill the church’s indemnity conditions (6) and spent the whole day working without rest. However, for the providence for the realization of heaven on earth, I had a sense of responsibility that if I did not do it and work with dedication, then who would do it – so I lived every day with burning passion. Sometimes I watched and heard my brothers and sisters fall by the wayside one by one. I also heard that they were like Adam or Eve who quit because of the pressure for donations issue, or that they were tempted and caught by the pastors who opposed the church, so I devoted myself to the faith even more, so that I would not lose the conditions that I had made to Satan.

▲ Magazine article about Hiroko Yamasaki at the 1992 mass marriage. She was a very famous Olympic gymnast.

Then, in 1992, after seven year of devotion, I participated in the mass marriage of 30,000 couples in Seoul, Korea. Hiroko Yamasaki and Junko Sakurada were in the same mass marriage. The Blessing is the most important thing in the doctrine of the Unification Church. [Through the ‘Blessing’ original sin is cleansed and children born are free from that sin. The fee which the Japanese members had to pay to participate in the ‘Blessing’ was $11,600. Koreans paid a small fraction of that fee.] I had long hoped for the Blessing and now it had been realized for me. My Jucheja (subject partner = groom / husband) (7) was the same age as me and was a self-employed man. I heard that his sister was in the 124 couple marriage Blessing [of 1963] (8) and she had made True Parents’ suits and had been invited by them to their home and had dinner with them. Then I thought it was fortunate that he was from a very religious family. After the marriage Blessing ceremony, I returned to Japan. Up to that time I had been doing financial activities to support the providence in Japan, but this time I worked part-time at a sports facility to earn living expenses such as expenses to go to and live in Korea. That job alone did not pay enough, so I asked for help from my family. About four years after my dedication to the church, my grandmother and my father had both died of illnesses and so my mother was left living alone.

My mother was worried that it would be nice if my subject partner (husband) was Japanese, and that I would struggle because of my marriage. Whenever I came home, I heard a cry from under the blanket where she slept next to me. But my mother’s worries did not change me at all. She eventually gave up on her daughter who would not listen to anything she said, and even gave me money so that I could go to Korea six months after my Blessing with the last group going to Korea.

In Korea, we gathered at a training center and spent several weeks until the area where we each would do newspaper deliveries was decided. In addition, my subject partner (husband) came to visit and set a time to meet and greet his family. But the day I visited his parents, I was suddenly guided and escorted to the hospital. It was supposedly to check my back pain which I suffered from due to a car accident when I was working with the McCol business, but I was suddenly told to get a diagnosis and return to Japan.

I had just came to Korea with the money I earned from part-time jobs and some help I received from my mother, so I could not understand why I was forced to leave. I could not talk to a Korean leader because I could not speak Korean, but there was a spiritual counselor I could consult with, who was one of the 6,500 Korean-Japanese couples. The counselor advised me that the initial phase is so important that it is best to do as I am told, and that there is at least a half year of training period after becoming a housekeeper – so I returned to my home after three weeks [in Korea].

My mother was surprised to see me returning so suddenly, but she did not say anything to me, as if she saw something in my face. However, I had a sense of crisis that my Blessing might break if things went wrong, so I returned to my subject partner (husband) again a month later. There, we talked to each other while looking up the words in a dictionary. His conclusion was that the Unification Church’s doctrine was wrong, and he gave up the Unification Church faith and tried to undo the Blessing. He said he wanted to save as many people as possible, and tried to convince me to quit the Unification Church. Then he started explaining why its doctrine was wrong. I was very shocked.

For the first time, I felt a small crack in the faith that I had held firmly without any doubts. However, as I consulted with my spiritual parents [the people who introduced me to the church], I was given a new order to witness to my husband again after pretending to leave the Unification Church. What would my mother, who gave me money just because I asked, have felt when she saw me come back from Korea only to tell her that I would go to Chiba to meet my subject partner (husband)’s older brother and that my subject partner is coming back to me? I was only interested in my own faith and keeping the ‘Blessing’. I did not realize how troubled my mother was in her mind.

Two months after I started living with my subject partner (husband), my mother took her own life. It was the time when my grandmother and father’s third year anniversary ceremonies ended and my mother could start living more comfortably. She had been exhausted from taking care of my grandmother and my father. She had been getting all the blame from relatives. I wanted to make my mother feel better by witnessing to her, but I did not know if that was wrong in itself, and, just like I lied to my subject partner that I had quit the Church, I should have lied to my mother to save her from committing suicide. I was overwhelmed with all sorts of feelings – the feeling that I was responsible for her death, the feeling that she had abandoned me, and many other emotions.

Most of all, the result of all my efforts for my faith by sacrificing everything was that I was in a miserable situation contrary to all my expectations. I could not even figure out what had really happened. As I greeted and spoke to my relatives after the 49-day ritual (9), they promised me that they would approve and accept my marriage if I left the Unification Church, and as long as I came back home and kept my parents’ rites – so I came home. My husband was initially all for the idea of me coming home with him, but he did not speak Japanese and became mentally unstable due to the closed atmosphere and discrimination in rural life. I tried a lot of different things and gave him encouragement to change his mood, but he started destroying everything.

He threw and broke trash cans, radios, chairs, TVs, and so on. And he also threw them at me. At first, he was breaking things once every few months, but as our child was born and it took more time for me to take care of our child, the intervals between his violence became less and and his actions worse. He also started to hit and kick me. Even so, I endured it all because from time to time he said he was sorry. But things continued and got worse. I left the house with my child after things became unbearable. At any rate, I wanted to go to the Unification Church and consult with my spiritual parents, so I went to a nearby church.

They told me to return to the Unification Church after breaking up with my husband, and I, who had been sacrificing everything to keep my Blessing, could not truly believe their advice. And I could not even go to church. After that, I thought it was because my faith was weak, so I kept consulting with my spiritual parents and reading homilies [discourses] on the Divine Principle without telling my husband. Over time the fights got worse and I was afraid to read any homilies. My second child was born while living for 5 or 6 more years as I persevered to keep my Blessing, even though I was told by my husband that I was a bad person and I had to change my habits first. The new baby was a boy, and my husband was also happy about that. He recommended that I go to a Christian church nearby, as if he wanted to renew our family by using this opportunity of the birth of our son to make a new start.

I had been enduring up to that point, but going to a Christian church was a turning point in my life. When I told the new pastor that I was a Unification Church member, he said he would introduce me to a pastor who knew the Unification Church issue well. He was a so-called anti-pastor. Meeting the anti-pastor was so scary for me that it made my legs tremble. However, my mind and body were exhausted from the repeated fights and my fleeing home. The children were also anxious, so I wanted to hold onto anything. My husband was erratic at his job, and our village no longer had enough work for everyone. So I moved for a new job, and then found I was in an environment in which I could really leave the Unification Church. Meanwhile I kept taking different jobs here and there. I agreed to my husband’s wish he had to become a pastor, which had been his childhood dream. He said that he would study for it. The study took him two and a half years. During that time I was able to consult with a new church and a new pastor until my husband returned. It had been eleven years since receiving our Blessing. It was not a simple task to admit that I had been mind-controlled, beyond what I had been able to be aware of.

Just as I started to figure out my life, I was troubled and could not take it when I realized that I had become a perpetrator after being a victim. Even if everyone forgave me, I felt as if I could never forgive myself. I wondered why I did not just stay in the church without knowing anything instead of meeting my husband. In my mind I kept walking down a long dark tunnel. Also, I realized that really I was experiencing domestic violence in my relationship with my husband. I started reading every book I could find on the issue while I was studying at a nonprofit organization group. During this time I drank up all I was learning just as a sponge sucks up water. I repeatedly reflected on my life. Expressing my thoughts in words made things more clear, as did the counseling I was receiving, having a more peaceful mind, and meeting and talking to former members (10) who had already been able to leave the Unification Church faith.

The last step for me was a fight against the flashbacks I had been experiencing. With the help of the pastor, I was able to thoroughly overcome the flashbacks. At the end of my rehabilitation, I received a call from my husband saying that he had given up his dream of becoming a pastor and he would just return [to Korea]. When I think about it now that there is no reason to go back to the Unification Church issue. I imagined that if I received the same domestic violence as before, I would have resisted him with a weapon because I did not have enough strength to protect myself. In other words, I think I would have been in the same situation as Miyuki Park who killed her abusive husband (11).

This kind of situation is not unique to a person like Miyuki Park, and it me hurts to think that, if I had been in the same circumstances, I might do the exact same thing. I think this is the problem with the “Blessing”. I think there are still many church sisters who are suffering and troubled under these same circumstances. I cannot help but think that there might have been something to help a person like Park. [The local Unification Church in Korea did not support her although she asked for help many times, according to an extensive magazine report.] At that time, I was able to confess to a Domestic Violence counselor that if something went wrong I would have attacked with a knife. I had calmed down by the time the day came when my husband returned home. I had been encouraged by the words of others that this marriage would not work out in the future, and that the children did not need such a father who had so many problems. So I decided to divorce him and I left the house.

I went to see a lawyer who knew the Unification Church problem very well. Since my husband never came to the court, the divorce was decided unilaterally. It had been 26 years since I had dedicated myself to the church. I was feeling so tired after I had suffered through all the mind control that I could not even stand on my feet due to the fact that I could never recover the days I had lost. But now I am feeling a bit better and living a life that gives me value. Pastors, lawyers and volunteers who deal with Unification Church issues, former members who were able to leave the Church, and those who I have not met yet but know through their blogs – they all are the reason that I can now stand here as a free person. I hope many more people can be rescued from the Unification Church.

____________________________

1) There is a term used to describe a married couple consisting of a Korean man and a Japanese female church member. Sometimes the Korean men were not Unification Church members, or just pretended to be members in order to get a wife. Fees of between $2,000 and $10,000 have been paid by families to obtain wives for their sons from the Unification Church – which distributed flyers offering to find wives. The market for wives has been created by a gender imbalance in Korea of up to 1 million fewer women than men of marriageable age. There have been United Nations agency reports on the cultural difficulties that foreign wives of Korean men have faced, and the fees paid to the Unification Church are documented.

▲ Flyer distributed in Korea advertising the availability of wives

2) Video Center. A facility where the identity of the Unification Church is hidden and witnessing is done by showing videos.

3) The title used by members to describe Leader Sun Myung Moon and his wife.

4) Abbreviation for economic activities such as traveling (and living) in a microbus and fundraising. (MFT)

▲ McCol drink cans

5) McCol is a Korean company which makes barley based drinks. It is owned by the Unification Church.

6) Donations are also to be made to pay for one’s sins (and to liberate ancestors).

7) After mass marriages, Jucheja (subject partner) is the title brides are told to call their grooms/husbands. Women are called object partners.

8) The 124 couples mass marriage was the third held by the Unification Church, after the 36 and 72 couples.

9) The family of the deceased are in a period of mourning for 49 days after the funeral. Once a week they visit the grave to place fresh flowers and to burn incense. On the 3rd, 7th and 49th days they have a short memorial service at the grave, led by the Shinto priest.

10) Those who leave the Unification Church.

11) Miyuki Park was a Japanese member who was matched and married to an abusive unemployed alcoholic Korean man by the Unification Church. She asked for support from the local church but was not given any practical help. She had to work hard at low paid jobs to pay for all her husband’s medical bills. It was said that she was treated worse than their dog. In the end she murdered her husband by smothering him while he was sleeping. She is currently serving time in prison in Korea. See link to a Japanese magazine article about her.

_________________________________

Why did a Japanese Moon church member kill her Korean husband?

Suicide of Japanese ‘Moon money mule’ in Uruguay. Mother of three children

Japanese woman recruited and sold to Korean farmer

6,500 Japanese women missing from Moon mass weddings

Moon Church human trafficking is despicable

Japanese member, Ms. K, was forced to marry Korean man she did not like

Hiroko Yamasaki (Olympic athlete) joined and left the Moon church

A huge Moon Church scam in Japan is revealed

여성신자U씨의 체험담

통일교　여성 피해자의 체험담 （K씨）

#Sun Myung Moon #mass marriages #abuse #domestic violence #Japanese Church #Japanese wives #Unification Church

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recentanimenews · 4 years

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IN-DEPTH: How The God of High School Revealed the True, Weird History of Taekwondo

If, like me, you found yourself yearning for some physical activity and breaks from the tedium of schoolwork as a kid, you might have found yourself wanting to learn some martial arts. Watching action stars like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, as well as anime, playing fighting games and more, left me with an interest in learning a martial art myself. I found myself at the door of a local Taekwondo school and was instantly hooked. Sadly, like many things, time and obligations got in the way and I had to give up my pursuit of martial arts, but I always found the subject interesting. When I started reading The God of High School, I was instantly hooked by the idea that Jin Mori used Taekwondo, but suddenly, I found myself questioning things: What did they mean, that there were multiple types of Taekwondo? Wasn’t all Taekwondo the same? What was “Renewal Taekwondo” and was it a real thing? The answer to that question is... sort of. Also: There are some light spoilers here! Be warned!

In The God of High School, the revelation that Jin practices “Renewal Taekwondo” serves as a shock to the cast, particularly the Judges and Park Mujin, as it reveals the fact that Jin’s grandfather, Jin Taejin, was not only still alive, but that he had passed on the incredibly powerful skills of Renewal Taekwondo to someone else. At this point in the anime, the reveal has played out far differently, although there’s no telling whether this might change as the anime progresses. We do know that Jin uses Renewal Taekwondo, but we don’t get the same backstory and discussion revolving around Jin’s grandfather, and the past regarding Taekwondo itself. In the WEBTOON series, Park Mujin reveals that “Renewal Taekwondo” was created by South Korean leaders following a defeat at the hands of North Korean “ITF” Taekwondo. And, suddenly, my childhood came back to me: I had learned “WT” Taekwondo, so what was “ITF?” Was it just something the web comic made up, like “Renewal Taekwondo?” As it turns out, this particular rabbit hole went a whole lot deeper, and weirder, than I ever imagined.

Perhaps the first, and most shocking, fact regarding Taekwondo is that it is less than 100 years old. Many historians agree there is some fluidity to a solid date, but as 4th Dan David Lo notes, Taekwondo likely began formally in 1955, when General Choi Hong-Hi named it after developing the first basic forms of the martial art. While many other popular martial arts, such as Karate, Tai Chi, or Kung-Fu often discuss their proud, long lineages, Taekwondo is often mistakenly assumed to be ancient; in fact, it is only perhaps somewhat related to Taekkyeon, which was nearly wiped out during Japanese occupation. After World War II, the Japanese occupation of Korea came to an end. During the occupation, Japan was particularly cruel to Koreans, suppressing their language, culture, and identity — extending this treatment to martial arts practitioners were forced to quit or go into hiding while Japanese Karate was taught instead. Taekwondo would come from the confluence of various martial arts, having more in common with Karate, mostly due to the violent banning of Korean culture.

Combining their knowledge with new techniques in Shotokan karate, Kung-Fu, and others, would begin to create schools, or “Kwans,” which would give rise to what we today recognize as Taekwondo. Scott Shaw, one of the eminent English authors and students of Taekwondo, explains the genealogy of the first 5, and subsequent 4, Kwans; these Kwans were fairly diverse, with nine divergent approaches and teachers developing their own takes on martial arts. In many cases, historians consider Song Moo Kwan the Kwan most responsible for eventual Taekwondo, with Byung Jik Ro called by some as the “father” of “modern” Taekwondo (more on that later) the original five Kwans — Song Moo Kwan, Chung Do Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Ji Do Kwan, and Chang Moo Kwan — were the birthplace of Taekwondo, but it would take another war, and social and cultural upheaval for Taekwondo to really emerge.

Song Moo Kwan and Chung Do Kwan were founded in 1944, with the other 5 founding Kwans appearing in the following 2 years. If we start Taekwondo’s timeline there, that means Taekwondo is only 76 years old (meaning there’s a good chance your grandparents might actually be older than Taekwondo!), but the “real” birth of Taekwondo would come a fair bit after these Kwans were founded. For that to happen, Korea would be forced into another protracted battle that would decide the course of its modern fate, and the dispersal of Taekwondo to the rest of the world: The Korean War.

Separating the country along the 38th parallel into what are today known as North Korea and South Korea, this civil war shaped Korea’s modern history in cataclysmic ways, separating family members, friends, and cultural identity. Like many aspects of Korean life, Taekwondo found itself straddling an uncomfortable and unclear line: The original Kwans were spread out across the Korean peninsula, with Song Moo Kwan being in what would now be North Korea. Following the Korean war, this would lead perhaps the most controversial figure in Taekwondo history to emerge: General Choi Hong Hi, the true “father” of Taekwondo.

Alex Gillis' A Killing Art reveals the life, warts and all, of General Choi. Born in 1918 in Hwa Dae (located in now North Korea), General Choi Hong Hi was sent to Japan by his father to study, ending up in the tutelage of Han Il Dong, a master of Taekkyeon, one of Korea’s oldest martial arts. Forced into military service by the Japanese, Choi would eventually find himself continuing to serve in the Korean military following the end of World War II and Japanese occupation, earning the title of major general in 1954 (and thus earning him both his title and nickname, “The general”).

Choi’s mastery of Taekkyeon and Shotokan karate led him to develop what he titled “Taekwon-Do,” or “foot, fist, art.” Choi is, as far as historians can tell, the first person to use the word “Taekwondo,” and rightfully seems to deserve the title. The controversy, however, comes from the disagreements between Choi (who, some authors note, was somewhat disagreeable and even deceptive) and other Kwan leaders and Taekwondo practitioners. This would lead to the eventual creation, and split, of Taekwondo into ITF and WT schools, among many other offshoots.

Whether Choi was or wasn’t a deceptive and deceitful person seems to be based on who you ask, and the most common perception of him was that he was complicated (as are we all). What authors and historians such as Lo, Gillis, Shaw, and others agree on is that without General Choi, there would be no Taekwondo, and the subsequent power struggle nearly destroyed, as Lo calls it, the “family” of Taekwondo. While it is perhaps more palatable to consider martial arts as monastic and scholarly, the reality is that they are practiced, created, and influenced by people, and Taekwondo’s somewhat ugly and public schism is a great reminder of this. Choi originally founded the ITF, or International Taekwon-Do Federation, in 1966; however, Choi’s attempts to control all aspects of Taekwon-Do, and the South Korean government’s insistence on “owning” Taekwondo, would create the split that saw Choi flee from Korea to Canada and South Korea creating the KTA (Korean Taekwondo Association), which would eventually give way to the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF, now known as WT), under the governing body of the Kukkiwon.

In the ITF version of this story, Choi simply decided to go “on tour” in 1959, before eventually creating the ITF in 1966. The WT version of the story is just as revisionist, claiming that Taekwondo has roots that supposedly go back 2000 years and that the WT was created in 1973 as the first governing body of Taekwondo. No mention of Choi or the ITF exists in the WT version of Taekwondo. Udo Moening, author of numerous papers about Taekwondo’s cultural and social significance, helps explain the disparity between these two stories by noting that Taekwondo is as much an object of political importance to the identity of Korea as it is a form of martial skill and discipline. Simply put, Moening argues, Taekwondo became a piece of the struggle for identity between South Korea and North Korea, and the eventual race to Olympic recognition would become a major victory in this battle for the WT and South Korea.

The schism in Taekwondo (or Taekwon-Do, in ITF’s usage) is perhaps even more interesting in the sense that one did not immediately replace the other; instead of the WT supplanting the ITF, the two schools of Taekwondo went about their own paths. Yet, Kukkiwon managed to obtain a significant victory over Choi and ITF Taekwondo: inclusion in the Olympics. In 1982, Kukkiwon was able to arrange a demonstration of Taekwondo for the IOC in 1988 and became an official event during the Asian Games in 1986. In 1994, Kukkiwon “won” the competition for Taekwondo legitimacy by being selected by the IOC as an official sport of the Olympics, joining Judo as the only other Asian martial art in the Olympic games, and debuting in the 2000 games in Australia.

Choi, however, had won in another way: his ITF Taekwondo spread across the world, and his somewhat ingenious method of sending Taekwondo “acolytes” to various places to form their own schools helped make Taekwondo popular and profitable. There are other forms of Taekwondo out there, including ATA (American Taekwondo Association), Jhoon Rhee Style, and the GTF (Global Taekwondo Federation), a split from ITF. Chuck Norris, during the height of his popularity in the '90s, even formed his own school that blended Tang Soo Do and Taekwondo called Chun Kuk Do!

While Choi was successful in spreading Taekwondo around the globe, and South Korea was able to claim “ownership” of the sport through political engineering and historical revision, Taekwondo in the United States would owe much of its growth and popularity to a different individual: Jhoon Rhee. Rhee, learning Taekwondo at the Chung Do Kwan in his childhood, came to America in the '60s to study engineering. Needing some extra money, Rhee began teaching Taekwondo, and through luck and hard work, launched the popularity of the martial art in the United States via television and Hollywood. Like all good and weird success stories, Rhee gained fame from his “viral” '70s commercial jingle, written by Nils Lofgren, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band!

Rhee’s unconventional approach to success worked, taking his Taekwondo to both of America’s hearts: Hollywood and Washington DC. Rhee would go on to teach and demonstrate Taekwondo to various celebrities including Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee — even writing a book, Bruce Lee and I, in 2011. He also met with President Reagan and famously demonstrated Taekwondo to the United States Congress in 1965. There was even a sparring match between Republicans and Democrats!

But what do all of these different types of Taekwondo actually mean? When I was practicing, did I learn “the wrong” type? Well, the answer is… no! The major difference in schools seems to come down to forms, ranks, and some other small administrative differences — such as who can spar, and why, or what types of focus there is in learning Taekwondo in general. Perhaps due to the odd nature of Taekwondo’s spread outside of Korea, the sport is also highly “commercial;” the ATA and Jhoon Rhee schools, for example, were founded on the idea of both teaching the sport and also establishing chain schools that would funnel profits back to the original founders, essentially creating a business instead of the somewhat monastic idea of a martial art like the Kung-Fu or Karate that appear in movies and media.

As noted by Doug Cook, the forms, of Poomsae, are constantly changing, due in part to the various types and hybrids of Taekwondo, but also due to the somewhat infant nature of the sport compared to other forms. It would be hard, as many authors point out, to find a “true” strain of Taekwondo these days. Instead, the various approaches, forms, and inherent teachings all help create different, unique ideas of the original created by Choi in the '50s — itself a hybrid of various types of martial arts.

It's fairly common in martial arts stories to hear epic tales of the history and longevity of a martial art, but Taekwondo provides us with the unique and interesting experience of seeing that historical mythology evolve in real time. From the controversial Choi to the roots of the Korean search for identity following Japanese occupation and later civil war, Taekwondo serves as a mirror for Korea’s own evolution. While Taekwondo may not be an “ancient” form of martial arts, it is a uniquely Korean one, and one that has a complex history and personality, and thanks to The God of High School, I found myself falling into the rabbit hole of its story. “Reclamation” Taekwondo may not actually exist, but in many ways, Taekwondo was a form of reclamation for Korea: an attempt to create something new and unique in the face of years of brutal occupational rule and civil strife.

Did you know about the history of Taekwondo? What's your favorite style to practice? Let us know, and while you're at it, tell us your current fave WEBTOON series in the comments!

➡️ Watch The God of High School today! ⬅️

Nicole is a frequent wordsmith for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries. Here's that serotonin you ordered.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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orenjisupeesu · 5 years

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Hi, I was wandering if you could tell us about your journey to Japan. ( how did it start and so on) , if it is too private please ignore this message. I really like your blog 🌸

Thank you! I will tell you, but I warn you, it will be long and probably veer off topic haha

I was first introduced to Japan through anime and manga, and I'm going to sound so old, because it was through a friend's MSN name. Anyone remember how we used to make the longest names filled with emojis and stuff we liked? Yeah, titles like 'Bleach' and 'Naruto' was in her name so I asked her about it, and that's how I started watching some anime and reading manga around when I was 14-ish. But what pushed me to actually consider learning Japanese for real, to go to university to study Japanese, was the books by Haruki Murakami. It all started, on any regular day, I can't remember the weather or anything, but I was 15-16. I would always browse the bookstore if I was in town, and I did just that this day. I happened to see the title 'Norwegian Wood' in the English fiction section (which in our bookstore is pretty small, because English is not our first language). Anything foreign, with a title having something to do with Norway will of course catch my eye (I didn't know about the Beatles song) and so I picked it up. Learned that the author was Japanese and wondered what he would be writing about our woods for. Turned out it had nothing to actually do with Norway but, it sparked my interest in his writing. It felt different from other authours, and I wanted to know where it, the writing, and his way of thinking, came from. So after reading through all of his books that were available in English, I went on to thinking that I need to learn Japanese so I can read his books in Japanese and get to the bottom of this. So with this goal in mind, but still being unsure if I should go on to study just Japanese (what can I even use it for other than reading books? maybe Chinese would be smarter?) I applied to a one-year programme where the main focus was on Chinese, with a little dabbling in Korean and Japanese as well. It was a wonderful year, I liked Chinese but I couldn't get comfortable with the different tones, I am unable to hear the difference. With Korean I still can't see how their writing is so easy, it looks too similar. Japanese was the one which fit me the most. We went on a classtrip to all three countries and had a good time. After that year was over, I realized Japanese was the best one out of the three for me and so I applied to a university in the UK with Japanese studies. 4 years with one year being in Japan. During my year abroad I joined the university kyudo (Japanese traditional archery) club and fell in love with that too, deepening my want to stay in Japan. Had to go back to the UK for the fourth year, and then back to Norway after my degree was finished. It took some time before I was able to get a job in Japan, with English not being my first language. But eventually someone gave me a chance. I've been working here for over two years now, as an English teacher for kids. The work itself is fine and sometimes I enjoy it, but I was not born to be a teacher. So I am working on getting my Japanese up to N1 level for the exam in December. If I pass, I will think about changing work to something else. Now I am working from the afternoons to late nights, when I am more of a 9-5 kind of gal. So my journey in Japan is still not over! I just moved to a different prefecture, (still the same job, got a transfer within the company) and am still not used to being here. And did I read Murakammi's books in Japanese? Yes I did. Well, so far I have only read Norwegian Wood in Japanese out of his fiction books, but I enjoy quite immensely his essay collections, that have not been translated which I think is a shame because I think everyone would enjoy them, they're witty and interesting.

That was very long and I am sorry. I always end up babbling and not knowing how to keep it short and simple. Hope this answers your question!

TLDR; introduced to anime and manga, then caught by Haruki Murakami and his misleading titles and ended up studying Japanese and got a job here.

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gabriel-is-studying · 4 years

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new in town

so i’ve created this tumblr (yes, i created a tumblr in the year two thousand and twenty. i’m shocked too) in order to do the following:

practice writing in my target languages (this one’s obvious)

provide lessons (explaining helps me understand better)

provide study tips for school and language learning (i am a pretty good student if i do say so myself)

as of today, i’ve studied korean and french with some level of order and structure. i studied french in secondary/high school for 2 years, but haven’t studied in a while. i’m hoping to pick back up. as for korean, i am entirely self taught and have been doing so for about the same amount of time. i’m not sure of my actual levels for either but my korean has surpassed my french in the past year.

i’ve also decided to start the journey into the language i’ve always wanted to speak: chinese, more specifically, mandarin. unfortunately, mandarin has proven far more difficult to tackle alone so i will be studying it in college/university this coming fall. for now, mandarin is taking a backseat; i learn best in a classroom setting so this journey will have to wait until the fall. (i want to do right by this language, and my inconsistent past with solo studying is not the way to go.)

now onto the fun stuff.

SHORT TERM GOALS:

reach intermediate level in korean

relearn the french i’ve forgotten

become more confident speaking in them both ^

begin learning mandarin

LONG TERM GOALS (like, really long term):

reach fluency in all of the languages i’ve shown great interest in

speak 2 languages before i graduate

speak 6 languages (including english) before 30

LANGUAGES I HAVE MY EYE ON:

spanish (!!!)

arabic (!!!)

japanese

vietnamese

swahili

warning: i’ve never formally used tumblr dot com before, only for casual browsing and some fandom stuff, so some things may look a little wonky for a while. i’ll get the hang of it eventually, i really want this account to look nice and be useful.

#langblr #language learning #korean #mandarin #french #polyglot #aspiring polyglot #langblog #studyblr #languages

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willowcarlyle · 4 years

Photo

QUICK FACTS.

Name: Willow Carlyle

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Sexuality: Bisexual

Hometown: Edens Town

Occupation: Twitch Streamer Odd Jobs

District: Downtown

DOB: January 11, 1985 (35) // Capricorn

Fun Fact: She had a closet dedicated to costumes.

tw; drug mentions

@edtintros

PAST.

Willow Carlyle had always been beautiful – beautiful in the sense that her mother always signed her up for beauty pageants. Unfortunately, she had one many competition as a child and her mother made her follow through until her teen years. Willow hated every moment of it, but had no idea how to tell her mother to fuck off because she still had respect for her mother – the woman who birthed her. Who gave her what she wanted when she wanted it… like the newest gaming system, the best games, and allowed her to do what she wanted as long as she kept up the image that her mom wanted her to be. This meant intense workout sessions, her meals being approved by her mother, and learning how to do makeup from artists. It was all a job, anyways. Willow was the way that her mother made money, time after time, and it never occurred to her that not a cent went to her.

Until she started venting on one of the other pageant contests who was in it for the money – for herself. It was strange for Willow to think that all the money she was making was going towards her mother, but she had just assumed that they were all going towards her college fund – whatever that may have been. At the age of fourteen, she approached her mother about the ordeal and her mother wafted the idea away, as if it were some bug in the air. It’s none of your concern what I do with that money. Which made Willow think – she was making that money, so why wasn’t she getting any of it? And so, she rebelled.

It happened at the first pageant where she didn’t show up and her mom found her holed up at home playing on the gaming console. Then it happened when she was actually on stage and deliberately gave a nip slip which caused the audience to gasp and a cackle of laughter from her own lips (it probably helped that she was high and drunk as hell). Willow fell in with the wrong crowd, yes, but she felt like it was all due to the fact that she had to show her mother that she couldn’t make it without her. The only way they could afford their little apartment was that Willow was working while her mother did nothing. It never occurred to her that her mother didn’t know how because her father was the one who had worked, he was the breadwinner, and that all went to shit once he walked out and left for another woman.

She was young, upset that her dad left, pissed that her mother was using her, and she felt as if she weren’t looked after from anyone at all. So, she didn’t give a shit if her mother was yelling her brains out once they got home. She didn’t care that her mom was crying her eyes out and that her life was ruined because Willow decided not to wear panties during a contest and spread her legs wide open as she sat down. She didn’t care. And her mother noticed. So she kicked her out at the age of 15 after dealing with Willow’s rebellion for an entire year. She was emancipated, told to figure out how the hell to work her life on her own.

And so, she did. Being an emancipated minor meant that she still had to go to school, which she was looking forward to dropping out of. Most of the friends she had were the influences of drugs and alcohol and while it was fun when she was getting back at her mother, it was another thing when she was trying to figure out how the hell to get a roof over her head. With the help of government aid, she was able to afford to rent out a room and pushed herself to get her grades higher within the next year. Who would have thought that all she needed was to get away from her crazy mother in order for her life to start to pave its way for her?

High school, after that, was easy. She found herself a part-time job for the weekdays and a weekend job for the weekend. If she wasn’t working, she was studying and/or in class. Willow seemed to have thrived in this type of constrained environment, but she missed the freeing feeling of playing video games – but that was for children and for her, she was alone. She couldn’t do that. At least, not until she reached college. Going to the community college a city over (so she could avoid the locals at Edens Town), she found herself thriving in computer design and animation. Being commission a few times, she made enough money to buy herself her very own gaming computer and spent the rest of her free time playing games. She was good. Really good.

Blizzard had released Star Craft a few years ago, but Willow quickly made her way up to the top of the game as a player. She joined competitions and won cash money – she realized that she could actually make a living out of this. And so, for the next few years she constantly joined gaming competitions, spent time learning how to sew, use a 3-d printer, among other things in community college, and traveled to gaming conventions. It took a few years for her to gather up a following of people who not only wanted to watch her play games, but wanted constant updates about her, who she would cosplay as, and how she was doing.

PRESENT.

Willow is a slightly famous Twitch Streamer for playing a different variety of games. A lot of people online claim that it’s her good looks that get her so many viewers, but she does pretty well in playing those games. Her online persona is very bubbly – one that laughs at the lame jokes that people may say and is nice to everyone that comes to her stream. Even her Instagram and Twitter seem show off a genuinely sweet girl. However, that’s not who she truly is. Most of the time she has to remind herself to not curse while streaming and misses the days when her following was a lot smaller. Willow is paranoid of people thinking the worst of her and losing her following – it’s the only way for her to make money at this point.

Although, she does do odd jobs here and there. She sometimes picks up random waitressing jobs for a few months, she was a delivery girl for quite some time, a receptionist for about a month (she hated it), a dog walker (which she still does), babysitter… among many other things. Even though she gets money sent to her from her viewers for both her streams and her cosplay, she still finds it hard to live up to a lifestyle that is more comfortable for her. Because she has to buy the latest gaming console, has to have good equipment to record, and spends money on her cosplays… she often finds herself running a bit short when it comes to rent. It’s the reason why she had odd jobs and she’s often seen doing something different around town. However, it doesn’t discourage her. Willow does like doing what she does, though she wishes she could be her true self.

FUTURE PLOTS/PLANS.

Willow constantly bounces between the idea of showing her audience who she really is and keeping it all secret. It’s hard when there are so many other people watching your every move and comment when you do something utterly stupid and fucked up. She once made a jaded joke about a player and people jumped on her about it – she so learned to keep it all to herself. In order for Willow to feel comfortable during her streams, she sometimes cosplays as another more ‘firm’ woman from a game so that her viewers doing talk about her harshly. It’s strange – when she dresses up it’s as if they would let her be a whole different type of persona. Still, she really is hoping to come clean with her audience and let them know how much of a potty mouth sailor she is, and how this “cute girl” image is nothing like who she really is.

Eventually, Willow would like to reapply to community college. She only finished a year and a half and was very close to getting her AA degree in education. She only needs a few classes, so it’s something that is totally feasible for her to do. Because much of her life is online, though, she’s thinking of applying to an online course for a BA in education – eventually. Her end goal is to be a high school teacher because she knows there’s a lot of kids out there that may have gone through stuff similar to her and they need help. Just like she needed, but never had the chance to find it in another. She found it in the internet, that’s why she spends so much time doing it. For now, though, she’s fine doing her streams and taking odd jobs in order to keep afloat.

OTHER/INSPIRATION.

Most of her viewers believe that she lives in New York City and uses a VPN from there so that people can’t try to track her back to Edens Town. It’s because she has such a difference in her personality and the way she dresses on camera versus off camera that there would be a TON of shit thrown her way if they found out.

Her online persona is the “kawaii, nice girl” who blushes whenever someone compliments her. In real life, she doesn’t give a shit if she’s hurting someone’s feelings – sometimes people need a blunt person in their lives.

Willow speaks Japanese, Korean, and is learning Mandarin at the moment (though she’s pretty shit at it). She also knows how to sign pretty well because one of her jobs had a deaf woman on staff and she hated that people wouldn’t converse with her. So, she learned in order to have a conversation.

There has been no contact between her parents and her since she was younger, and she doesn’t plan on trying to reform that connection. Willow believes that people who leave her are gone for good. The ones that stay are the ones that stay.

Willow has no filter and truly says what’s on her mind when she’s not online. However, she does never really speak about what she does as her actual “job” because she is a little bit embarrassed by it. She also doesn’t want people to find out that she’s GhostPhoenyx.

She has a lot of casual sex – she’s actually never had a relationship in her life. Because of her parents and their messy divorce, she never really believed in love. She thinks of relationships as more of something of a transaction – she wants something, sex, and they want something, sex. If it’s anything more than sex, she bounces right away and peace’s the hell out.

She curses as if it’s essential to her life like breathing is. It isn’t. She sometimes curses when streaming but her viewers deem it “cute” because it happens rarely. In person, she’s swearing left and right.

Willow loves to party, dance, get drunk, and hook up. At least one of her weekend days are spent partying and getting drunk – she loves the atmosphere of people who have given up their restraints and are just free.

#wc:fullbio

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hellevator-mp3 · 5 years

Text

of chaos and calamities || Part 1

Pairing(s): Johnten (mainly), Norenmin, Luwoo, Yuwin (more to be added!)

Genre: Fluff (mostly)

Word Count: 1,900+

Warnings: None

Author Note: y’all...i told myself that i wouldn’t start a new series til i’m done with my other one...but then this happened so enjoy dfghkl also this series will switch couples for every chapter, and each couple will have a prequel one shot thing soon!

johnny and ten are polar opposites - where ten is small and lithe, johnny is tall and stocky. where ten is quick wits and a sharp tongue, johnny is a slow mouth and gentle thoughts. but the one thing that they share is a tender (although sometimes teasing) love

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over the years, johnny’s friend group had gone from three boys to six, doubling one year, and adding another six the next, to add up to the tightly knit group of eighteen in his senior year of college. he wasn’t sure exactly how it happened, but it did, and he couldn’t be more grateful. that is, on days other than today.

among the eighteen of them, there was never a shortage of bets, pranks, and overall jokes that would either die out or become treasured inside jokes to tease one another with. although over half of the group was missing, having stayed home to study or go on dates with their significant others, the lunch hour found eight members of the group crowded around a table in the canteen, raucous laughter filling the space between them. in order to fit all of them at a table made for six, johnny found himself next to a trio of boyfriends - jaemin sitting half on jeno’s lap, and half on renjun’s lap, with their hands settled on his thighs and his arms around their necks. across from the four of them was a similar scene, yuta and sicheng taking up two spots, and jungwoo perched in yukhei's lap to take up the third.

a silence came over the group as johnny looked down at his phone, replying to a text from his boyfriend of three years, as well as some from their missing friends. lucas took the silence as an opportunity to propose an idea. “how about we make a bet?” those six words drew the attention of six of his friends, jungwoo being the only one that didn’t turn to him - but everyone knew he was listening intently, as he often did whenever lucas spoke. when he had everyone’s eyes on him, he continued with, “what if johnny calls ten and puts him on speaker, and tells him to behave, and if ten says something dirty, then johnny has to buy us lunch?”. the prospect of free lunch drew cheers from most of the group, aside from johnny himself. he knew how the rest of them ate, and knew he would regret it if the bet went awry. he knew that either way, whether he said yes or no, that he would regret it.

if he said no, he knew that he would have to endure months of teasing for being a coward. if he said yes, he knew that ten would say something dirty, and that was the end of it - unless he caught him on an off day, when he didn’t feel like twisting the situation into something else. in his head, he went over the pros and cons, weighing which one was worth saving - his wallet or his pride…

which is how he found himself dialing ten’s number a moment later. he knew that he was getting paid in a week, and could easily replenish what money he spent. as the phone rang, he tapped the speaker icon so the dial tone could be heard by the rest of the group, who all leaned towards him to listen to the conversation. “ten, you’re on speaker, please behave” was all that he rushed out before ten could speak, once he picked up the phone. the table went silent for a moment, and it seemed like the world stood still as they waited patiently for a reply.

“or what, you’re gonna spank me?” came ten’s response, sarcasm and a hidden implication thick in his tone. lucas burst out laughing, then followed the others when they cheered. over the noise, johnny barely caught ten’s questions, before he retreated from the table to explain.

it wasn't until a good three or four hours passed that johnny found himself trudging home through nearly a foot of snow and ice, having rejected the offers from the others to give him a ride home. he knew that if he went with the trio, one of them would drive and complain the whole ride home because he couldn't be with his boyfriends. if he rode with yukhei and jungwoo, he would have to listen to their mind-numbingly domestic discussion about what to pick up for dinner, listen to jungwoo coo to 'his xuxi’ and purr little phrases in chinese - although johnny would be unable to discern whether it was cantonese or mandarin. yuta and sicheng would be the same, although johnny knew they would shift into talking in japanese and chinese, respectively. that was one of the things that he had never understood - he knew that yuta and sicheng had been dating long before he met them, but neither of them were fluent in the other's language, yet they managed to have important conversations that they couldn't have in korean - that is, until he met ten (or chittaphon, as only someone with authority was allowed to call him) and they began to understand each other on the same level. even when ten would call out thai phrases that johnny had never learned, he still knew the meaning somewhere in him. it was only then that he understood the bond that yuta and sicheng had, understanding each other beyond the barriers of language.

johnny wished that thinking of ten could warm him, but found that his blood would rather run cold because of the blatant betrayal. as he climbed up the steps to their second floor apartment, he formulated a plan to get back at ten, if only for his drained wallet. although he knew ten would hear him unlocking and opening the front door, he still called out to announce his presence. a muffled reply told him that ten was in the living room, and johnny could hear the faint crackle of their fireplace, and could feel its heat as he stepped into the room. to his surprise - although he wasn't quite sure what to expect - he found ten curled up in a thick blanket, parked right in front of the fireplace with his phone in his hands as he looked up at johnny, who lowered himself next to ten and pulled him close. ten threw part of the blanket over johnny, and nearly climbed in his lap to help warm him, phone tossed to the side and forgotten about.

it didn't take long for johnny's hands to wander, lifting up tens shirt to slip his hands in, watching the smaller boy shiver as his hands ghosted up his back. his eyes grew hooded as johnny dipped down to nip, lick and suck at his neck, leaving a pretty collection of marks that ten would have to find some way to cover up the next day - but neither of them found a reason to care, as the air around them grew thicker and the tension heightened as johnny grew bolder, eventually laying ten down on his back, supporting himself on his elbows as he gazed down at the younger. and then, as ten was lifting himself up to kiss johnny - the taller was getting to his feet, fixing his shirt and walking away, leaving his beloved boyfriend to suffer on the floor, whining after him to 'come back and finish what he started’.

johnny figured that that was torture enough, as he ambled into the kitchen almost giddily to start preparing dinner, knowing that any minute now, ten would come up behind him and mold himself against johnny, arms wrapping around his waist and face buried in his back.

and boy, was johnny right, he thought as ten wandered into the room behind him. the younger was bare, save for the oversized sweater that swamped his frame (obviously johnny's) and a pair of shorts that barely covered his bottom, having abandoned the blanket in the living room. true to ten nature, he was soon tucked behind johnny, shuffling behind him when they had to go to the fridge or the sink, listening to the taller chastise him about his attire. ten whined in response, voice muffled against johnny's back, although he didn't have to see his face to know that johnny was smiling that one smile that was reserved only for him. johnny cooked like that, chopping up vegetables and cooking meat with his boyfriend behind him, who occasionally peeked out to check on the progress or offer suggestions on what to do differently, sometimes even to steal bites when he thought johnny wasn't looking.

while they didn't have anything officially planned, it felt as though it was as they ate dinner and threw themselves on the couch together, but little did johnny know that this was going according to plan for ten. the teasing from earlier was forgotten as ten took his rightful place in johnny's lap and they talked about their days, including the bet that ended with johnny's empty wallet and the aforementioned teasing. ten couldn't help the laughter that bubbled up through his chest, before he suddenly gasped, jumped up, and ran out of the room, calling something back about a finished piece in his sketchbook that he wanted to show off. johnny wasn't even startled, pulling out his phone to scroll through social media as he waited for ten to return.

a couple minutes later, ten was handing the sketchbook over and resettling himself in johnny's lap, and allowing the other to look through the book. johnny flipped through the first few pages, but found that the back half of the book was stiff and he couldn't open it. eying ten suspiciously, and with ten encouraging him on with a flap of his hands and a smile, johnny flipped to the last page he could and was mildly shocked at what he saw.

the last pages had been glued together, and a hole cut out in the middle so ten could put a ring there - and put a ring there he did. the silver band glinted in the light, and when he picked it up, he saw the black band that ran through the middle of it. when it finally sunk in, ten took the ring from his hands and slipped off the couch to kneel in front of him, only managing to get half of the sentence out before johnny was pulling him in and mumbling a 'yes’ against his lips.

it wasn’t long before they were standing side by side in the bathroom, washing their faces and brushing their teeth, matching rings glinting in the light as they got ready for bed. in the time it took for johnny to change into pajamas, ten was already curled up in the bed and nearly asleep, before he sat up with a jerk. johnny only stared at him for a second, before ten got to his feet and said that they needed to take a selfie together to send to the group chat, to let them know the news. johnny laughed, before the two made their way back to the bed and ten slipped in between his outstretched legs to press his back against the other’s chest, and pulling out his phone to take a few photos. only after sending them to johnny, did he send them to the group chat with a message underneath reading ‘guess what!!’. the them in the pictures had their hands up, both showing off their rings with bright smiles on their faces. knowing that the others would soon be blowing up their phones with congratulations and ‘finally’s, they silenced both of their devices and laid down, ten wrapped up in johnny’s warm embrace.

and the rest of the night? it was history.

#nct fic #johnten #johnny seo #chittaphon leechaiyapornkul #yuwin #nakamoto yuta #dong sicheng #norenmin #na jaemin #huang renjun #lee jeno #luwoo #wong yukhei #kim jungwoo #nct

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