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junicai · 1 year

Text

message incoming.

| summary | woken up in the dead of night, Johnny answers a terrifying phone call.

| part | one, part two: message received.

| word count | 1.4k

| warnings | descriptions of a panic attack, stalking

| era | circa. late june, 2017

The small hours of the morning are usually peaceful in the 127 dorms; the sun not risen enough to disturb those that spent their nights tucked into mismatched beds, chasing rest as a balm for their perpetual exhaustion. Soft breaths keep the silence at bay, the two boisterous boys gone quiet under the allure of sleep.

The scene is altogether tranquil, undisturbed by the pressures and stresses that accompany every waking hour. Still, hushed, and fuzzy at the edges like the world has yet to quite wake up alongside those that lie in repose under the darkness.

The shadowed room flares up into brightness as the face of a phone lights up with an call.

Johnny groans as he rolls over onto his side, hand yanking the covers over his ears at the incessant ringing blaring through the bedroom.

“Donghyuck,” he complains, dropping his pillow over his face to drown out the light burning into his eyes. “Answer your goddamn phone.”

Donghyuck only grunts a reply, not moving from his cocoon of blankets, face invisible from Johnny’s vantage point. The phone keeps ringing.

“Donghyuck!” Johnny rolls over again to throw the pillow in his grasp at the ambiguous shape of the boy asleep in the bed next to him. “Pick it up!”

Any reply offered is garbled into the pillow Donghyuck has his face buried in, but he does begin shuffling beneath the covers; a hand appearing to slowly creep its way towards the phone laid on top of the bedside table.

But before Donghyuck’s hand can snag his phone, the call cuts out - a cool silence filling up the room once again.

“There you go,” Donghyuck mumbles sleepily, his hand waving about aimlessly and then darting back under the covers again.

Johnny drops his head back down onto the mattress - now sans a pillow - and sighs. His eyes are wide open at this point and his limbs are filled with the fight-or-flight response that any ringtone injects your veins with in the middle of the night. Without a drop of sunlight to speak of though, he could only imagine what time of the night it was, and contemplates the merits of just throwing in the towel and getting up to start the day now.

Another phone ring breaks Johnny’s mourning of his sleep.

“Donghyuck!” Johnny barks, patience wearing thin.

“S’not mine, hyung!” Donghyuck groans from beneath his pile. This is true. Donghyuck’s phone had been knocked to the floor beside the bed, the screen facing up and altogether blank.

Johnny looks over at his bedside table, only to realise that this time it is his own phone lighting up with a call.

His hand meets the cold metal, fingers grasping the phone and lifting it to his face to allow him to squint into the bright light to check the caller ID. Presumably, it is a spam call - or a sasaeng that had managed to get their hands on another one of his phone numbers (he had only replaced it the other week?). None of his members would be calling him at this time of the night (morning?), Johnny is certain of this. They all understand the importance of sleep in this industry, and would be reluctant to disturb another member without the wrath of the devil himself chasing them down.

Moreover, Johnny knows that at this exact moment, all his members are in their own beds right down the hallway. He had watched them go, one by one, after finishing up a movie they had all watched together, curled up on the couches and the floor.

Eyes finally adjusting, Johnny takes a closer look at the phone in his hand.

Aria’s contact name flashes up at him like the glint off steel, and a cold spike of dread slips down Johnny’s back.

He scrambles to accept the call while simultaneously shoving himself upright in his bed, the covers falling to his waist forgotten. As his thumb slides over the accept button however, the call has already ended and silence swallows up the bedroom once again.

Johnny can’t call her back fast enough, confusion and concern melding together in a strangling blend of panic. His call is picked up almost immediately, quiet panting down the line from the opposite end.

“Aria?” Johnny has the phone up to his ear between one second and the next. “What’s wrong? What’s happened, why are you calling me?” His voice is rough with sleep, undercut by the bitter taste of alarm.

“Oh- oppa, thank god-” Aria chokes herself off with a stuttered gasp, the wetness in her voice causing Johnny to swing his legs out of the bed, feet on the ground before he even realises what he was doing. “Thank you for picking up, thank you thank you thank you-”

“Aria, what’s happening? Talk to me.” Uncaring of his sleeping roommate, Johnny is on his feet in a moment, banging around the room to tug on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, one foot already out the door. “Where are you?”

“I’m- I’m in the dreamies dorm,” Aria’s voice is hushed but still audible, like she is cradling the phone up close to her mouth. Laboured breaths accompany each silence with an ominous air.

“Why are you there?” Johnny questions, startled, knowing full well that he had watched Aria slink back into her own bedroom in the 127 dorms at half past ten, claiming she wanted to finish up a chapter of her latest book and heading to bed early. “What’s going on, Aria?”

“I forgot- I forgot to get something that I needed for today- for filming and it was important! So I went to go, to go get it from my bedroom here but-” Aria cuts herself off again, breath coming in much panicked gasps.

A soft thunk sounds down the phoneline.

“Aria? Angel, what happened? Are you still there? Aria?” Johnny has one foot in a shoe, and is tugging the other one on impatiently with the laces still tied, phone trapped securely between his ear and his shoulder. “I need you to talk to me, tell me what’s going on, can you do that for me baby?”

On the other end of the line, Aria chokes herself through the beginnings of several cut off sentences, her breath coming shorter and shorter with each wet gasp, a rasp accompanying each rattling sob. “I think- I think there’s-, Johnny-”

“You think what?”

Aria goes silent, breaths cutting out entirely. “I think someone’s here.”

Blood frozen in his veins, Johnny abandons the idea of grabbing a hoodie and swings himself out the front door of the dorms without a passing thought for their neighbours.

“Someone? Someone asides from the members? Someone you don’t know?” He fires questions down the phone, cursing whoever assigned the 127 and dreamie dorms to separate floors of the same complex.

Aria whimpers, the sound soft and scared. “Oppa, what do I do, please I’m so, I’m so scared, please please, help.” Her voice cracks over the final words, begs fading out into muffled sobs as she slaps a palm across her mouth.

Heart threatening to beat right out from between the space in his ribs, Johnny feels something in him crack at the echo of her voice down the line. “Baby, okay, listen to me. Everything is going to be fine, okay?” he sooths, trying to calm his breath while he paces down the stairs at a dangerously fast speed. “Are you safe? Are you hidden?”

“I’m like, tucked behind the uh, the cupboard in the bathroom.” Aria whispers, sucking in small breaths between the words.

“Good, that’s good baby, I need you to keep breathing for me. Can you do that for me?” Johnny coos down the phone at her, blood pounding in his ears.

“Johnny, Johnny oppa I’m scared-”

“I know you are, but I promised, okay angel? Everything is going to be okay-”

A splintering crack echoes through the tinny speakers, Aria’s ear-splitting scream following in the next second.

The phone call drops.

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calumthoodshands · 7 months

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Late spring night

Fandom: 5 Seconds of summer

Pairing: Luke Hemmings & Calum Hood

Word count: 912

Tags: general, friendship fic, just two besties hanging out, fluff, comfort

“I haven’t shown Mike and Ash, though, so… maybe keep it on the down low?” Calum says, and just like that, all those worries, every nagging thought — gone.

“Yeah,” Luke says with a beating heart, “of course. I won’t say a word.”

Only Calum and Luke are left after the party, but Luke doesn’t mind. In fact, it turns out to be one of those nights he will keep close to his heart for probably all of time.

Read here on ao3.

#5sos fic #cake #cake fic #aria.writes #somehow i never made a tumblr post for this one #so here #just for completeness #also bc i like this fic. it’s short but sweet

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junicai · 2 years

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DAEUN !

squid game ... coming soon

ARIA !

alice in borderland ... coming soon

SUNEE !

one chicago ... coming soon

DISC. if you have not seen these shows before they may not make sense to you as i will be relying on some prior knowledge of the world-building

#*netflix.masterlist #*aria.writings #*suni.writings #*daeun.writings #chicago med #squid game #alice in borderland #one chicago #squidgame #aib

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junicai · 2 years

Text

don’t leave me.

| order no | 13/21

| summary | Aria fails to recognise her own limits, and falls off the deep end.

| word count | 1.5k

| warnings | aria being an idiot

| era | circa. September 2021, (pre-‘STICKER’ release)

Aria was tallying up the hours of sleep she had gotten over the last week, counting half hours as full, and twenty minute naps as a sufficient rest. It was reflected into the darkening bags beneath her eyes, the deepening purple stubbornly remaining no matter what eye cream or moisturiser she lathered on.

A couple weeks had passed since she’d slept well, by any extent of the word; between promotions lining up back-to-back with one another, rehearsals and preparations for future promotions, there simply just weren’t enough hours in the day.

And, unfortunately for Aria, when a day needs to be longer - sleep hours are the first to be cut into. Eight hours down to seven, and then five, and three, until she was barely hitting the bed before she was heaving herself up out of it.

127 had been preparing for their new album launch in September for nearly a month and a half when she finally started flagging, body giving out on her.

Realistically, it was awe-inspiring that she’d made it in one go for so long; Mark and Haechan too, given that the three ran on essentially the same schedule for the most part.

The trio had made an effort to bully each other into their respective beds, but more often than not they were bouncing between the dorms, and it was difficult to keep track of each other all the time.

Aria’s tipping point was a Thursday morning, 5:30 a.m.

Her eyes had barely opened to the buzzing ringtone of her alarm beside her ear before they were slamming shut again, unwilling to face the day at such an hour. A groan slipped from her lips, unbidden, as a sharp stab of pain seared through her forehead at the notion of removing herself from her blankets.

It took her a moment to regather the courage to peel her eyes open again, pressing the heel of her hands into her eye sockets in an unsuccessful attempt to hold back the wave of pain that washed over her.

She took deep and steady breaths to get her out of her bedroom and into the common area - where Taeyong was already sat at the kitchen island with an empty bowl in front of him.

He turned at the soft sound of her shuffling in to the room. “Hey, kiddo.” He raised his spoon in a wave.

Finding words escaped her, Aria let out a small mumble of a greeting in lieu of words, sliding onto a stool and dropping her head onto the counter top.

Should she have kept her head up, she would have seen how Taeyong’s smile twisted into a concerned frown - how he leaned forwards with a hand to press it against her temple to check the heat beneath her skin.

As it was, Aria missed both of these things, and so when his cold hand met her forehead she jerked back from the limb violently, subsequently causing a number of problems.

Number One; Taeyong’s concern only grew at her extreme reaction, and a concerned Taeyong was never good for anyone.

Number Two; She tipped backwards far, not accounting for her lethargic reaction time and began to slip off the stool.

Number Three; As a direct result of her lethargic reaction time that she had failed to account for previously - she didn’t have the wherewithal to catch her balance before she was falling in a heap on the floor, sliding out of Taeyong’s line of view with a whimper.

He was on his feet in a second, rounding the edge of the counter in a single movement and dropping to his knees in front of Aria in the next.

“Aria? Aria?” Taeyong gathered her up from the ground, helping her shift to rest her weight against the counter top. “Are you alright?”

“Fi-fine,” Aria coughed out, only moving her head slightly this time when the back of Taeyong’s hand met her forehead.

“Now tell me why I don’t believe that one.” Taeyong raised an eyebrow.

He inhaled sharply at the heat behind her skin, looking down at Aria’s miserable form with a blend of concern and frustration. “You feel like a furnace, baby.”

“M’fine.” Aria insisted, pushing herself up on a shaky hand. “Jus’ wasn’ awake enough to catch the counter.”

“Is that a lie?”

Aria turned at Taeyong’s tone. It was one he rarely took with her nowadays, most commonly used when all the dreamies were younger and more prone to get themselves into mischief that could land them in a spot of bother.

It was the tone of a scolding mother, one that knew the answer but was asking anyway.

It made something burst inside of her - a little ball of frustration that had slowly been accumulating over the last few weeks, bubbling and boiling away under the surface where she had shoved it to make room for more work, work, work. A mountain of stress just waiting for it’s tipping point.

“No.”

Taeyong caught her by the wrist when she attempted to brush past him back into the hallway that connected to her room, spinning her back to face him.

“Don’t you lie to me.” Taeyong’s eyes bored holes into hers.

“M’not!”

“Aria.”

If she had had the strength to, Aria would have exploded into frustration; cruel words and anything to get him to leave her alone to lick her own wounds.

As it was, she was running on fumes and the only thing she had left in her arsenal were tears.

Taeyong followed her down to the ground as she let the first few tears slip from her eyes, curling into his chest as he tucked her head underneath his chin, soothing her quietly.

Crumpled on the floor of the kitchen, Aria felt months of stress pour out of her like a wave she couldn’t hold back. The dam had been broken, and there was nothing to do for it now but to sit it out.

With Taeyong’s hands rubbing comforting circles into the small of her back, Aria quietly cried into his shoulder, apologizing intermittently for the state of his t-shirt.

“It’s just a t-shirt, baby. Nothing that can’t be washed.” Taeyong smiled despite himself.

“But- but it’s gross now, m’sorry-” Aria was tired and she wanted to back to her bed, and goddamnit her head felt like she’d been run over by a truck so sue her; she was going to cry.

She felt Taeyong’s lips gently press against the top of her head. “Nothing that can’t be washed.” He repeated, holding her a little bit tighter.

“I don’t know why you’re being like this! I’m fine!” Aria protested as Yuta bodily hauled her back onto the couch in the middle of the dorm. “You know my fever is gone!”

Dropping her back onto the pile of blankets carefully, Yuta stepped back with a disbelieving look across his face. “I also know that you tipped the thermometer into your water glass to cool it down so it wouldn’t read as high. So no, your fever isn’t gone, you’re just sneaky.”

Despite his words, his tone was teasing, and he reached forwards to tuck Aria into the nest of blankets.

“I’m okay.” She grumbled into the seam of the blanket that Yuta had tucked up to her chin. “There’s nothing wrong with me.”

“Except for the fact that you seem incapable of recognising the fact that you are not a superhuman, and do, in fact, have limits like the rest of us mere mortals.” Yuta settled down in the chair beside her, flicking on the television with a sigh.

Taeyong had bullied Aria into bedrest for nearly two days, citing doctors orders and had practically forced medication down her throat. She’d been assigned a rota of guards, essentially, to ensure that she didn’t try and push herself too far too quickly.

Aria grumbled something unintelligible beneath her breath, but put up no further protests at the treatment - instead settling down to watch the next episode of the drama they had started together.

Within ten minutes of the opening scene, Yuta could hear light snuffles coming from the pile of blankets beside him and when he turned to check on his member, he found her sleeping soundly - cheek smushed into the pillow she was cradling to her chest.

Biting his lip, he pulled out his phone to take a picture of her, before leaning forward to smooth a hand over her hair.

“Idiot.” He whispered, fondness tugging at the corners of his lips.

When he made to get up, however, Aria’s hand shot out from beneath the blankets to snag the back of his hoodie. “Nooo.”

Yuta had to hold back the urge to coo at her, instead settling back in the chair. “No? What’s no, Akari?”

Aria snuffled once, twice, before tugging on his sleeve again. “Don’t leave.”

Offering his hand in place of the green fabric, Yuta watched as she grabbed hold of it - intertwining their fingers. “Never.”

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junicai · 3 years

Text

hotel coffins.

| summary | donghyuck has a nightmare, and can’t get back to sleep. aria helps.

| word count | 1.6k

| warnings | nightmares, mentions of suffocation

| era | february 2019, the neo-city tour

| request | requested by anon, prompt number 30.

30. "Shh, it was just a bad dream. Just a dream, okay? None of it was real."

The light in the hallway flicked on silently, illuminating the doorway's outline in an artificial glow. It was quiet outside, the night's still air a calm shadow that was ushered away by the overhead lamps.

Aria rolled over in her bed with a groan, muffling the sound into the hotel pillow that she had pushed to the side earlier that night. They were a cotton-polyester mix according to the tag on the inside of the pillow case, and it was too scratchy for her to lie comfortably on, so she has chosen to sleep on a balled up jumper instead.

Her bedroom door was gently pushed open by a tentative hand, light flooding into the darkened room without permission.

With her face still buried in the cotton, Aria waved a languid hand behind her, mumbling out, "If you're coming in, shut the door behind you. Some of us are trying to sleep."

There was a distinct lack of answer, the silence in the room growing more self-conscious each second.

She could feel herself slipping more into awareness with each passing second, and mourned the restful sleep she'd just been tugged out of.

With a deep breath, Aria sat up rubbing her eyes, watching in despair as the last vestiges of sleep slipped away from her.

She squinted in the bright light to try and make out who had broken into her room so late at night.

Donhyuck's small form came into a back-lit view, his shoulders hunched down and hands tucked into his sleeves.

"Hyuck?"

"I can't sleep." Donghyuck mumbled, dropping himself unceremoniously onto the ground beside her bed. He landed with a thump, and Aria winced slightly at the loud noise in the otherwise quiet room.

Rubbing at her eyes again, she peered at Donghyuck through half open eyes. He had closed the door before making his way over to the bed, and now the only light in the room by which she could see him was the small little drips that spilled in underneath the doorframe.

"Why? Did you have coffee or something?" Aria asked, words blurred together by sleep.

"No, I didn't- I just- I was trying, but I can't-" Donghyuck cut himself off with a huff, taking several deep breaths in to try and calm himself. His hands snaked up beside his head, twirling with his hair to tug loosely at the roots.

It was coarse beneath his fingers, courtesy of another recent round of bleaching. The sandy-blond strands sent pinpricks of pain to his scalp when he yanked on them, the pain grounding him in a dark room that left him feeling untethered.

The darkness felt suffocating, and Donghyuck cursed himself for letting the door swing shut behind him. It had closed with a click that had felt oddly final, and had he more sense of mind, he would wonder if he was going to suffocate to death in the shadows of the room; a dark coffin constructed of a hotel room’s furniture.

Hands unfurled his tight grip on his hair, clasping them in a tight grip instead. “Hey, no no. Don’t do that.” Aria had shifted from her bed to the ground beside him, holding his hands fast in her grip.

Donghyuck glanced at her, sleep still hidden in the corner of her eyes, and fell into her embrace wordlessly, burying himself into the sleep shirt that she wore.

She ran a hand over his head, soothing the aggravated scalp as she felt the first tell-tale signs of tears dripping onto her clothes, dampening the fabric. When she pressed a hand to his back, she felt bare skin beneath his rucked-up shirt, the skin sweat-soaked and warm, like he’d tossed and turned before seeking her out.

“It’s okay.” Aria soothed, not stopping the movement of her hand on his head or his back. “It’s okay. You’re here, I’m here. Everything’s okay.”

The room fell back into silence for a moment, only the sound of Donghyuck’s soft sniffles filling the air until he broke it with a quiet whimper.

“It doesn’t shut up.” He whispered, emotions cloaked by the darkness that enveloped them.

“What doesn’t?”

“My head.”

Aria’s arms tightened around Donghyuck’s body at that. “What happened?”

With his face still hidden from her view, she had a hard time hearing his mumbled answer.

“Nightmare.”

Ah. “The same one?”

He nodded.

Perhaps she should have been expecting that one.

Aria was no stranger to the sleepless nights that seemed to follow you like a bad habit - when you were so utterly exhausted, right down to your bones, but your mind keeps spinning at a million miles an hour.

There’s always an ache, she’s come to discover. A little hole in the back of your mind that tells you you’re not good enough, that you’ll never be good enough, that you shouldn’t be in bed, but instead sweating in an empty practice room until the mirrored-walls fogged up.

Normally, the best way to escape that ache, was sleep.

But when sleep evades you, nightmares always find a way to take it’s place.

Aria supposed that it was unfair to wish that Donghyuck was exempt from this thing - this ache that she knows permeates the days of most, if not all of her members - just because he didn’t deserve it.

There’s a perpetual fear that follows them all, of never being enough, and it’s a story that runs on replay through your mind if you’re not careful enough to quieten it quickly. It’s oddly similar to a black hole, one that looms threateningly, eternally on the horizons of peace.

And even Donghyuck, the brightest of them all, can’t escape it some days.

It’s been a while since he’d come into Aria’s room in the dead of night for this reason - most of the time it was because of noisy roommates, or just simply for the company - and Aria had been foolish enough to hope that perhaps his nightmares had passed.

She thinks nothing of her own, they’d become a sort of a necessity to her routine at some point in time, but that is a different tale entirely.

So, when Donghyuck’s tears come steadily, and his shoulders shake in silent cries, and his hands grip tightly at Aria’s for fear of what they’d claw at if they didn’t; Aria holds him twice as tightly, sat on the floor beside the bed.

She coos lightly at him, soothing each shudder as they come, and counting the seconds in between each quiet sob to keep herself both quiet and calm in the meantime.

“Shh. It was just a bad dream.” Aria whispered into the darkness. She could feel his body tense at the words, as if rejecting the reminder that it wasn’t the truth, that whatever hell his mind had conjured up for his own personal punishment wasn’t real.

“Just a dream, okay? None of it was real.” Aria refuted the words running through his mind without needing to hear them.

“It feels real though.” Came Donghyuck’s whisper after a moment of quiet. His cries had petered off after a while, only small sniffles and the occasional cough filling the air.

If it weren’t for the fact that his voice was hoarse and still wet with tears, Aria would have questioned had he ever cried in the first place. But she knew Donghyuck better than anyone. And it was because she knew him so well, that she knew exactly what he was doing.

“Stop that.” She softly chided, pulling Donghyuck away from her chest gently so she could look at his face.

He made a sound of protest at the action, only pulling back when he was guided by Aria’s hands.

His face was pale, red blooming high on his damp cheeks, with a rosy nose. “What?” He coughed.

Aria only looked at him. “If you’re going to come in here, sit on the ground and cry in my arms for ten minutes, and then try and act all tough again, I’m going to kick you out.”

Donghyuck let out a wet chuckle at that, and Aria could feel the tension in her shoulders loosen; just a little.

“You’re allowed cry with me. You just have to allow yourself to cry with me.” Aria poked his forehead with a finger. “Stupid.”

With a sniffle, Donghyuck scrubbed at his face with his palm. “Sorry.”

“Stupid.” Aria hissed, pulling him back into a hug. He laughed this time - not as bright as usual, but closer, as close as she’d probably get until the sun rose to chase the shadows from the room - and Aria tightened her arms around him, Donghyuck’s own coming around her waist in return.

They sat there, for minutes.

The room no longer felt suffocating, like the shadows had receded for the moment. They’d return, Aria knew. They never left for long, but Donghyuck had her.

Donghyuck had Aria, and if she wasn’t a dorm room down, then she was a phone call away.

There would be no coffin made of the legs of the table, nor a veil made of the cotton-polyester pillowcase.

Donghyuck would be alright, if Aria had anything to do with it.

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junicai · 3 years

Text

a dust of conflict.

| summary | Aria doesn’t always need to get out. Sometimes, she needs someone to tell her it’s okay to stay.

| word count | 900

| warnings | None

| era | circa. 2019

“I think you should re-evaluate some things, Akari.”

“I think you need to get out!”

“Clearly there are things more important to you than us, so why aren’t you the one leaving? I’m sure you’ll be just fine on your own, right?”

In lieu of a response there was the slamming of a door and a screamed curse to accompany it, then a heavy, unsettling silence left to fill in the gaps. Jaehyun and Taeil exchanged a look from where they were hiding out in the living room.

The argument between Jungwoo and Aria had been a long time coming - every one of their conversations growing more and more volatile each time they came to butt heads. Despite the older members racking their brains for the why and the how their relationship had deteriorated so quickly, the only thing that they could come up with was the unwritten excuse for all spats between groupmates.

Stress. Lack of sleep. Too much exercise. Lack of downtime. Social media. Not enough food. It was tattooed onto the inside of an idol’s brain the second a pen was put to the dotted line of a contract.

An explanation never made anything easier to stomach, though. Feelings are real and cutting, no matter their point of origin.

Aria stumbled out into the living room, sweater half-pulled over her head with one arm in and one arm out and dragging a barely full backpack behind her. The thunder clouds reigned over her head like a crown, warning away any potential conversation. The deadened look in her eyes offered the promise of another yelling match, although it’s effect was greatly lessoned by the pinkness of her under-eyes, and the snuffles she muffled into her sleeve.

Without hardly a glance towards the other boys huddled in the living room, Aria made her way to leave the dorm. Doyoung exchanged a look with Jaehyun, and they stood up in tandem; Doyoung tasked with soothing Jungwoo, and Jaehyun with wrangling an emotionally-vulnerable Aria.

“Aria! Aria!”

Swinging the backpack over her shoulder, Aria paid Jaehyun no mind as she began to make her way to the hallway of the dorm. She was still dressed in the indoor-leggings she bought a few months ago and then realized she could never wear outside because the material was too thin, and people would be able to see the line of her underwear through it.

Clearly, it wasn’t stopping her now.

“Aria I swear to god-” Jaehyun extended a hand, grabbing onto her shoulder and spun her around to face him. The tear tracks were glistening in the overhead lights, and her eyes were red and puffy.

“You know he didn’t mean it.” Jaehyun breathed, hand clenched in the fabric of Aria’s sweater. It was one of her own, this time, which was rare. She normally went for another member’s hoodies when she was feeling upset - something about how they always smelled like home.

Jaehyun was going to deck Jungwoo after this.

No, he wasn’t, but he was going to think about doing it and not feel bad.

“Maybe he didn’t mean it, but I still don’t think I should be here right now.” Aria ran a sweater-covered hand over her face, trying and failing to clean up the mess of tears over her cheeks as more spilled over her waterline to replace them.

Jaehyun’s fingers gripped tighter. “No, what you should be doing is staying here, with us. Taeyong hyung said he’d make dinner tonight, remember? This is the first time we’ve all been back in time for a ‘family dinner’ night, so you can’t leave now!”

Internally, he winced. He hated using excuses to get Aria to do things, but oftentimes it was the only way to get her to listen to reason. She didn’t care too much about her own safety (Honestly, what was she thinking? Leaving the apartment at 9 o’clock with a backpack) but she did care about commitments and keeping promises.

“You promised you’d be back in time from training, right?” Jaehyun pushed further, feeling like he was digging nails into his own skin.

Aria dropped his gaze, finding the cracks in the floorboard much more interesting than anything written on Jaehyun’s face.

“I don’t think it’ll be okay for me to stay tonight, I think I should go, oppa.” She finally mumbled out, the fight seeping from her shoulders as her bag slipped off to the side.

“And if I tell you it is?”

“Where would you go?”

Johnny and Yuta spoke at the same time, both looking at each other in mild surprise.

Aria blinked once, twice, before bursting out into renewed tears. Jaehyun floundered for a moment before settling on shoving Aria’s backpack away from her body and into Yuta’s arms, pulling her into his arms.

“Ari,” Jaehyun soothed, wrapping her into his chest. “Ari, you know you can stay here. Hell, I still don’t get why you think you can’t. It’s your home here too.”

Aria’s response was a blubbered mess, and Jaehyun really didn’t have the sense of mind to attempt to dismantle it.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Jungwoo didn’t mean it, you know he didn’t.” Jaehyun rocked her side to side as they slowly dropped to the floor.

#*aria.writings #nct #nct additional member #nct female member #nct 24th member #nct extra member #nct female member au #nct additions #nct addition #kpop addition #kpop additions #kpop #kpop!oc #nct female addition #nct female oc #nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct reactions

156 notes · View notes

junicai · 3 years

Text

infinite.

| summary | When Aria's with her boys, it feels like the sky's the limit.

| word count | 2.3k

| warnings | none

| era | circa. June 2021, filming for Hello, Future music video

The grass in the empty stadium had been liberally covered in fake flower petals - the healthy green of regularly watered grass slowly becoming overshadowed by the light pink and yellow that settled lightly atop it.

The white corduroy overalls that Aria donned were splashed with colour in fake paint splotches to compliment the petals - yellows and greens and pinks mixed with blues and oranges in a jumble of streaks that were stark against the otherwise plain material. The Doc Martens that all eight of the members had been fitted for were all padded at the toe and the heel - lest the hard rubber break away skin and cause them to bleed during filming.

Aria crunched several petals underfoot in the heavy boots as she wandered over to the other boys who had been released from hair and makeup a handful of minutes before her.

The sun was just reaching it’s highest point in the sky, the heat bearing down onto her exposed midriff and almost entirely cancelling out the cool breeze that threatened to rise goosebumps on her stomach. The floaty, bell-sleeved crop top was, in Aria’s opinion, absolutely gorgeous. She had already planned out the best way to corner Heejin unnie - one of the stylists that had an especially soft spot for Aria and her pout, when used effectively.

Shaking her freshly dyed blue hair out of her eyes, Aria broke out into a light jog to catch up to Renjun, swinging an arm around the boy’s shoulders.

“Hi!” She smiled brightly.

Renjun wrinkled his nose at her playfully. “Hey. You done in makeup?”

Nodding, Aria replied, “Yeah. They wanted to touch up the colour in my hair and stick a couple more tattoos around.” She pointed to the new daisy sitting underneath her eye, and the Make Peace, Not War written in differing fonts along her left forearm.

He aah’d exaggeratedly, patting his own upside-down HELLO on his arm absent-mindedly, before frowning lightly. “Is your colour coming out already? I thought they only dyed it a couple days ago.” Lifting up a hand, Renjun brushed away the strands in Aria’s fringe that were falling into her eyes, cringing lightly when they came away covered in blue residue.

Aria pulled away from his fingers, shaking her fringe back into place. “They didn’t have any dye left, so it’s hair chalk.” She explained.

Renjun made another noise of understanding, looking at his smurf coloured fingertips thoughtfully. When his eyes flickered up to meet Aria’s, they had a mischievous glint in them, and she barely had the chance to turn on her heel and break out into a run before Renjun was giving chase hot on her heels.

“No!”

“Yes!”

Her boots were beginning to rub the skin around her ankle raw, still not broken in enough to stand the test of a sprint through a football field, but Renjun was behind her - holding up his hand threateningly - and that was enough to keep her powering through the burn.

“Stop it!” Aria panted, laughter beginning to soil her already failing lung capacity. Her pace was lagging, but much to her relief; so was Renjun’s. With a final burst of energy at seeing the ground she’d gained on him, Aria made her escape attempt-

Only to be captured by Jeno, strong arms wrapping around her waist and swinging her around in a circle to be plopped right back down in front of a now jogging Renjun, an evil smile on his face.

“Lee Jeno!” Aria protested, wriggling against the arms that had yet to release her. “Let me goo!”

He deigned not to respond, but Aria could see the matching glint in his eye, and she resigned herself to her fate. He shared a nod of understanding with Renjun who was advancing slowly now that his victim was immobile.

“Renjun.”

A small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

“Renjun, I’m sorry.”

His smurf-hand raised threateningly again.

“I’ll do your dishes for a week.”

With a final step, Renjun was now within a half-arms distance from Aria.

“Jenooo-” Aria cut herself off with a squeak, as Renjun dragged his fingers over the bridge of her nose, leaving behind a trail of the blue hair chalk. Aria flailed in Jeno’s grip, but he held her fast, even going so far as to tug her down into his lap on the ground to hold her steady.

Now entirely stuck, Aria resorted to flailing her limbs as much as she could, which really wasn’t a lot when Jeno tucked her legs beneath his knees, trapping her with all four of his limbs as Renjun rubbed the rest of the hair chalk off of his fingertips and onto Aria’s nose and cheeks.

Revenge enacted, her attacker eventually settled back onto his heels, fingers now chalk free - having spread most of it over Aria’s face as a replacement for blush.

Aria let out a small sneeze when the loose dust tickled her nose, blinking harshly in surprise.

With her eyes closed, she couldn’t see the hand Renjun held to his heart, or the pout that Jeno’s lips formed at the cute sound. The two men peered up at each other, silently agreeing that: Yes, it was unfair that she looked so tiny and cute with blue blush. Sometimes, life wasn’t fair, and it was coming for Renjun and Jeno’s heart in the form of a very tiny girl with a blueberry nose.

With a pat on the arm from Renjun, Jeno released Aria from his grip who promptly turned around and rained a series of light smacks onto his chest, only stopping when her rings snagged in the necklace he wore. He made no effort to help her, asides from holding her up when he accidentally leaned back and nearly took her down with him.

“Traitor!” She declared once she had untangled the jewelry. For her own revenge, she ran a finger through her hair to collect the chalk and smudged the colour onto Jeno’s cheek in a bright smear.

The shocked look in his wide eyes was enough to have Renjun coughing out a laugh, the other two soon following. The patch of grass they had settled onto was far enough away from the filming location that there were no petals to hinder Aria’s plans of laying down onto her back, hands splayed over her stomach as she laughed along with the boys.

“Guys!” It was Mark’s call that drew their attention away from the coloured chalk - although Renjun did let out another snicker at the light blue cloud that Aria’s hair left on the grass where she had been laying - and together the trio made their way back over to the other five members.

When Jeno and Renjun got distracted in comparing the temporary tattoos they had both been decorated with, Aria slowed her pace enough to let the two wander ahead without her.

She slid her focus away from the duo and towards the group that had settled in between the flower-covered goalposts, some standing, some sitting.

The bright colours of this concept was a nice change, Aria thought. She loved doing sexier concepts - don’t get her wrong, she loved the empowerment that came with it, and the twitter reactions were always fun to scroll through - but she’d missed this kind of bubble pop. Songs that made something uncurl up in your chest, complemented and encouraged by all the bright colours and messages.

When Aria had read through the lyrics the first time, she’d never felt like she’d loved a song more without hearing it. They meant something, especially to her.

Hello, Future; and all that.

And the costuming was always so fun. Short skirts were never the most ideal things to dance in, and the heeled shoes were the bane of her existence (no matter how good she looked in them) so the sturdy boots and durable overalls was a welcome switch-out.

Her boys looked happy with it as well.

With Hot Sauce, there was an infinite amount pressure to get it right. It was the first full album that NCT Dream was going to release, and it was 8DREAM. They had Mark back. They were all adults at that point. There were expectations to meet. They couldn’t pass things off as being children anymore; they had millions of eyes watching them, and it was like having someone breathing down your neck.

The pressure just kept mounting and mounting until it loomed over them all like dark clouds that you could just know held heavy rain. It was like they were debuting all over again. Re-debuting as eight again. Aria doesn’t think she remembers a single thing from the set at all. The whole thing is just a blur in her memory.

Hello, Future, this time around, is different. The members had gathered in the living room around Donghyuck’s laptop when the Hot Sauce music video aired, watching as the views racked up and positive comment after positive comment poured in. They’d read through each and every one, Mark and Aria translating the English ones that the others couldn’t read.

If Aria cried, one arm wrapped tightly around Jaemin, with the other held Mark’s right hand in his lap, then no one commented on it. It could be, because they had tears of their own in their eyes - but no one can say for sure.

They ended up sleeping on the floor that night, laptop discarded on the couch that was stripped bare of pillows and throw blankets. Curled around each other - this time with her head on Renjun’s chest and her stomach monopolized by both Chenle and Jisung lying horizontal from each other, Aria felt the tension and the fear that had been teeming underneath her shoulders for the last two months abate.

The terror that if the album had flopped, then they’d be facing disbandment like so many kneitzens wanted.

Or worse: Dream would keep going, but they’d lose Mark again.

Even the thought made something horrible curl up in the pit of Aria’s stomach.

No.

Never again.

The odd sleeping arrangements were not something that were uncommon in the Dreamies dorm (Honestly, Aria can’t remember the last time she had slept alone in a room, let alone a bed. They had a system worked out for when someone genuinely needed time alone, but otherwise, most bedroom doors remained open all night.)

This time, Mark was forcibly settled into the middle, everyone clamoring that he’d missed out on nearly three years of them - and he wasn’t getting ride of them that easily again.

To his credit, Mark went without much argument, although that probably falls down due to the fact that god, he had missed them too.

Over the weeks of practicing together, re-working the choreography for the songs that had been released when Dream was seven members only, they found their rhythm again. The one that they had lost in 2019, the one that Mark had taken with him when he’d graduated from the group.

Finding it again felt easier than breathing.

Aria thought she’d never get to see her boys smile so brightly as they did together again, giving the colourful flowers lining the grass a run for their money.

From her position a ways away from the group, she watched as Chenle immediately launched himself at Jeno as soon as he was close enough, tackling the older boy onto the ground where they both landed with a thud, Chenle’s head whipping backwards with the force.

She watched as Jeno - ever careful - had tucked a hand behind Chenle’s head to catch him even before they started to fall, his hand taking all the impact as they came into contact with the ground.

Jisung was quick to clamber up, eager to pull Renjun over to Jaemin and show him what they had been doing. She watched as Jaemin held up a small crown made of the fake petals, held together loosely by the short strands of confetti that were scattered around the goalposts.

Mark was leaning his back against the post, head tilted down onto Donghyuck’s shoulder. Donghyuck was watching Jeno and Chenle wrestle with each other - cheering for one or the other, depending on who was winning at that exact moment.

Aria watched as Donghyuck slowly slipped into silence, tilting his head down to look at Mark’s peaceful expression as the eldest seemed to almost doze off on his shoulder.

And, she watched as Donghyuck lifted his eyes, flickering from each of the members. His eyebrows furrowed, scanning the group again before he craned his neck towards the rest of the field.

When his eyes locked onto Aria’s, he raised an eyebrow, but deigned to stay quiet - choosing against startling Mark with a yell. His expression was enough, though.

Donghyuck understood Aria on a certain level that she thought not a lot of people could. She had a unique bond with each member of Dream, but Donghyuck sometimes knew what was going on in her head before she even did.

Which is why, instead of teasing her for being an introvert, or running away; when Aria strolled up to join the group he just extended the arm that wasn’t wrapped around Mark’s waist, beckoning to her.

After being firmly tucked into his other side, Aria curled into his chest with a sigh, shivering lightly when the sun slid behind a cloud for a brief second and the air felt cooler than it had all day.

Feeling her shudder, Donghyuck tilted his head down to look at her the same way he’d looked at Mark a moment ago, before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“You okay?”

Aria nodded. “M’okay.”

(Donghyuck didn’t realize that his lips were blue from the chalk until Jisung pointed it out, some thirty minutes later.)

118 notes · View notes

junicai · 3 years

Text

drop offs.

| summary | During filming ‘Highway To Heaven’, there is a small altercation between the heel of Aria’s boot, a loose rock, and the edge of a cliff.

| word count | 3.2k

| warnings | near death experiences (only sort of), swearing

| era | circa. 2019

20. “Put your arm around my - or just fall on me, that works too.”

58. “Don’t tell me to calm down!”

The hot desert air blew roughly against the thin cotton of Aria’s shirt - fluttering the material and tugging it against the single button that was holding the fabric closed. The atmosphere was dry and dusty, hence the steadily growing pile of empty water bottles that was building up in the back seat of one of the staff vans that had driven the members to their filming location in the Mojave Desert.

Fanning herself, Aria knelt down to pull on the zipper of her boot, checking that it was still properly closed. Black heeled boots were, realistically, not the most suitable footwear for traversing the desert terrain, but the extra inches of height put her closer to Taeil in stature so she wasn’t going to complain.

However, the last thing she needed to happen was to stumble over a rock and twist her ankle in the middle of filming.

In an ideal world, she’d have perfect balance, even when teetering around on the four-inch, wide-based heel, (or just be four inches taller naturally), but with the wind as a major factor; Aria was stuck playing a balancing act with her body.

They’d been filming for the best part of the day, having arrived in the early morning to scout out the final locations and prep some of the equipment. The journey up in the van was tedious, and over two hours long, but Aria had made herself comfortable on Donghyuck’s shoulder twenty minutes after leaving their hotel, and promptly crashed out a few minutes after that.

Johnny had been the one to gently shake her shoulder, trying to wake her up without startling her while Donghyuck was attempting - and failing - to wriggle his way out from underneath her without jostling her too much. She’d crawled out of the car with a red mark imprinted on her cheek, that she rubbed at harshly when it was pointed out with a giggle by Jungwoo.

The crew had covered the solo shots first - using the time in between each shot to touch up make-up and hair, or in some of the members’ cases, explore the desert and chase unsuspecting lizards through the undergrowth.

Aria had squeaked when a flash of muddy green had darted past her foot, jumping back an inch and then another foot when a sprinting Taeil brushed past in hot pursuit.

She turned back to look at Taeyong who was watching from afar with a huffy look on his face, throwing up his hands when Taeil finally stopped running and turned around defeated.

“Hyung! It keeps going towards you but you’re not catching it!” The leader complained, walking towards him.

Aria raised her eyebrows in disbelief, moving away from the duo that seemed dead set on bothering the unknown creature to stand beside Mark at the edge of the road. “What exactly are they chasing?”

“Lizards.”

“Lizards?”

He nodded.

Humming softly, Aria shook her head and knelt down again to tug at the zipper on her boot. After a careful yank, she stood back up, having been satisfied that it was still tightly closed.

“Is that hurting you or something?” Mark questioned, looking over at her.

“Oh no,” Aria waved him off. “I don’t know, I’m just paranoid that it’s going to come undone. Bad feeling about it or whatever.” She shrugged. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“It’s not pinching you or anything? Because I’m pretty sure there’s band-aids in the back, I can grab you one if you need it?” Mark pressed on.

“No I’m alright. If it bothers me later on, I’ll get one myself okay?”

Mark frowned, still not satisfied.

Aria stood up on her tippy-toes to reach around Mark’s neck, swinging her arm around it. “Markie~ I’m okay! See?” She jumped lightly, hopping on one foot and then the other.

Conceding, he smiled at her, poking her stomach. “Race me.”

Aria hardly blinked. “You’re on.”

“I’m coming!” Donghyuck screamed from the other side of the road, pausing momentarily to check that there were no cars coming up on the otherwise deserted road, before crossing and moving to stand in between the other two maknaes. “Ready?”

“Always.”

“On your marks!”

“Get set!”

“Go!”

The trio set off at a run, dust flying up behind their shoes.

At an immediate disadvantage because of her designated footwear, Aria began to slow almost immediately, the other two boys racing ahead. She cupped her mouth in her hands, starting to call out to them to slow down, they were cheating, but was halted by another voice calling for her from across the other side of the road.

The race was halted as Aria was called for her own solo shots. She pouted at the boys, but claimed that because it was interrupted, then there could be no winner called, and they’d have to do it again later on.

Donghyuck and Mark readily agreed, and Aria left towards her specific filming location with a flutter of her fingers towards the pair.

Now, don’t get her wrong. Aria loved filming their music videos. Watching a creative idea and physical representation of their songs come to life firsthand was incredible, and the costuming, the hair design, the make-up, was all mind-blowing to her. Her hair roots were always crying at the end of a promotional period, but she genuinely thinks she’s never looked as good as she did with the soft, bubble-gum pink hair they’d bleached the strands to dye for this promotional set.

The bright lights and the group shots, dancing a new routine together for the first time in a professional setting that wasn’t the practice room - it was exhilarating.

What was not exhilarating, was the occasionally precarious filming locations that the directors decided fit the theme so well that it would be idiotic to pass up on.

That lead to situations like the current: Aria, Jaehyun, Doyoung, Johnny and Taeil all clustered together at the edge of a rather substantial cliff edge, leaning out over the ledge to see the camera that was filming them.

Aria had a firm grip on the back of Johnny’s shirt, trying to find a groove that she could wedge her heel into to prevent herself from falling should the rocks move from underneath her feet.

The ground was dry, and there was little to no purchase offered from the dust that coated the rolling pebbles. Additionally, the lack of grip on the bottom of her black boots wasn’t helpful, and Aria found herself scrabbling for even a semblance of grip.

“Aria!” A voice called out from the bottom of the cliff.

She leaned over to catch the eye of the cameraman. “We can’t see your face, you’re too far back. Can you shuffle forward a bit?”

Teeth pinching her bottom lip, Aria nodded hesitantly, sliding a hand up Jaehyun’s arm in a silent request for help as he was the one sitting closest to the edge of the cliff.

He took her hand in one of his own, the other moving to grab her elbow as she slowly stepped forward and out onto the front area of the protruding cliff. Here, Aria could feel the complete lack of substance beneath her feet, and although she knew it wasn’t true, it felt like the rock she was standing on was paper thin.

Her weight wobbled to-and-fro for a moment, and Jaehyun gripped her arm tightly.

“Careful.” He warned.

Aria let out a shaky exhale, peering down over the cliff edge. “Is this okay?” She called down.

A hum. “Maybe a little bit more? You’re slightly blocking Taeil at the moment. Just be careful, the rocks mightn’t be stable enough out there to support you, so go slowly.”

Aria didn’t think the rocks were stable enough to support her where she was standing currently, let alone another few inches out, but she began to tentatively step out regardless. Her hand clenched around Jaehyun’s.

Slowly, she moved out further, stepping out onto the edge of the cliff with one eye half closed, expecting the ground to shift but feeling nothing. Blinking in surprise, she then felt confident to transfer her entire weight forward, which was a mistake.

A small circular rock shifted beneath her heel, and Aria’s support crumpled out from beneath her.

She let out a shrill shriek, hands grasping at air behind her. She pushed herself against the falling ground, hoping for the cliff edge.

“Shit!” A strong hand tangled in the material of her shirt, pulling her back none-to-gently into a hard back, arms immediately coming to wrap around her waist and hold her there; steady.

Aria’s breath came in hard pants.

She was shaking rapidly, hands quaking as she tucked them underneath her own arms, eyes fixated on the ground where the rocks she had been stood on had crumbled. They had collected in a neat pile at the foot of the cliff - only a three metre or so drop, but substantial enough that one of the larger rocks had split into half, and the other rocks had cracks lining their sides.

God.

That was an awfully long way down.

Is that what she was standing over?

It was like she was removed from the situation. Aria was looking out over the cliff edge - but it wasn’t her viewpoint. Like a film camera, being watched on a small silver screen.

Where was the film crew?

Had they moved the equipment out of the way in the rocks in time?

Was there a camera buried beneath the pile of rocks?

“-ia, Aria- Riri!” A shout in her left ear, pulling her attention away from the swirling thoughts of oh god oh shit oh god oh s-

“Hey.” Jaehyun had spun her in his arms, dragging her eyes away from the cliff edge and catching her face in his hands, making her face him. “Hey. You’re okay. You’re okay, you’re safe. You’re okay.” His voice had a quiver to it, and his hands had yet to release their painfully tight grip on her arms.

She barely even registered it.

Aria’s voice broke out in a whimper, and as her eyes widened to slowly begin filling with tears, Jaehyun pulled her back into his chest, letting his hand come up to rub soothingly along her back. “It’s okay, you’re okay. I’ve got you baby, you’re okay.” He soothed.

Her heart was ricocheting around her chest like a boomerang.

At some point, she had sunk to her knees and Jaehyun had followed her down, having pulled her away from the edge of the cliff immediately. She knelt slightly, before sinking bodily into his arms, and Jaehyun continued to murmur comfort into her ear as she buried her face in the loose material of his white shirt.

Her head pounded like a rushing river, too many thoughts too make a lot of sense of any singular one. Behind her eyes, the image of the rocks kept flashing, the feeling of the ground collapsing from beneath her feet, falling, the wind rushing through her ears, falling, a hand grasping the back of her shirt but the grip slipping through loose fingertips, falling, falling falling.

The pair stayed like that for a while - how long, Aria really wasn’t sure, she was more focused on trying to get herself to stop shaking like a caffeine addict going through withdrawals.

The rocks beneath her knees bit into the skin, but she welcomed the grounding feeling - a small bite of pain nipping through the overwhelming rush of emotions threatening to overtake her and swallow her whole.

Slowly though, her breath came back in measured breaths, calming from the harsh panting that was previously pulling at her lungs.

Taking stock of where she was, Aria began to register the other bodies around her. In the time it had taken for her to re-gather herself, Doyoung had settled behind her, hands hovering like he was afraid to startle her with a touch. Taeil was nowhere to be found, but upon a questioning look from Aria, Doyoung was quick to explain in a soft voice that he had followed Johnny down to get the back of the van set up for her - pulling out an ice-pack from the trailer and gathering the blankets from the other vans.

That had Aria moving to push herself to her feet, shaking her head. “No, no, I’m okay. We still have the group shots to film, I can do it. It’s fine.” She argued weakly.

Jaehyun pulled her back down into her lap with a firm grip. “No, it’s not fine. If it were fine, then you wouldn’t still be shaking like a goddamn leaf.”

Aria consciously clenched her muscles to stop the tremors running through her arms like shockwaves. “M’not.”

Doyoung sighed, raising a hand to run it over Aria’s mildly disheveled hair. It would have to be restyled later on, but the windswept look was something that they were aiming for, so he didn’t think it was too bad, all things considered.

“Baby, it’s okay to be scared after that. No one’s expecting you to do anything more today.”

“But it’s fine-”

“You could have died, Akari!” Jaehyun was shaking as well, something that Aria had just noticed. He dropped his head to rest on her shoulder. “You could have gotten seriously hurt. So please. Just, sit down in the van right now, okay?”

“Jae, calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down, hyung!”

Aria took in a stuttered breath. “B-but I’m ok-ay-” Her voice cracked slightly, tremors returning full-force.

The two boys returned their focus to the girl in between them, exchanging a meaningful glance that meant nothing to Aria. Doyoung wrapped his arms around her as well, and soon she was caught in a hug between them, finally letting the tears pool up in her eyes.

“I-I’m o-kay,” She stuttered out, fists gripping someone’s shirt - she didn’t care too much who it was at the time.

“Yeah,” Doyoung pressed a kiss to the top of her head, tightening his arms briefly. “You’re okay, baby, you’re okay.”

It wasn’t until sometime after, once Aria had managed to pull back the tears and had calmed the shaking to some degree, that Jaehyun gave her a soft prompt to stand up. Her legs were like a newborn foal beneath her, knees shifting and she leant out to grip at Doyoung’s arm again as he moved away.

“Here, here.” Jaehyun pulled her towards him. “Put your arm around my - or just fall on me. That works too.” His concerned tone was undercut by a ribbon of teasing, although it did little to mask how reluctant he was to let go of the young girl, even for a moment.

“Shush.” Aria straightened up herself from where she had face planted into his chest again, her knees having betrayed her to gravity, but this time made no complaint when Jaehyun’s arm retook its spot around her waist.

Together, with the aid of Doyoung, Aria made her way down the dusty cliffside, moving over to the van with an open door, and some of the members waiting around it anxiously.

Yuta was the first to break away from the group, making his way over to hoist Aria into his arms - paying no mind to her stuttered exclaim of hey! His arms slipped beneath her knees, and he lifted her gently, taking the weight off of Jaehyun’s staggering frame.

Upon reaching the van, it was like telepathy. Yuta turned to let Jaehyun take the weight of Aria from his arms - he already knew that the younger boy was shook up, and wouldn’t be comfortable unless he was physically touching Aria in some shape or form for the next few hours - while Taeyong was patting Mark on the back and alerting him to Aria’s arrival.

Jaehyun slid in first, before Aria was placed gently onto the blankets, Mark piling in behind her and proceeding to wrap her in another hug. This time though, it wasn’t her that was shaking, and she could feel the soft quiver of Mark’s hands as they pulled loosely at the bottom of her shirt.

Together, the two boys replicated the hug that Jaehyun and Doyoung had wrapped her in a few minutes ago.

“M’okay.” She whispered.

“You almost weren’t.” Came his huffed response.

“But I am.”

Mark gave no reply.

“God-” Jaehyun choked out a laugh, running a hand though his hair. “Never - and I mean never - do that again.”

She looked down. “Sorry.”

“For what?” Mark’s head had snapped up from where he had buried it in her shoulder. “For causing a cliff-collapse? Because I’m pretty sure there’s someone who needs to apologize for that and it’s not you its the director.”

Aria winced. She had watched through the sliver of the car door that was still open as Taeyong had cast a cold look over to Yuta and Johnny, the three men exchanging a nod before moving away from the vehicle and over to where the staff were finishing up with Donghyuck’s solo shots. The second youngest member had been a few minutes walk away when it had all happened, so he hadn’t been privy to the theatrics of it all; something that Aria was ultimately grateful for.

She wasn’t sure if she’d have been able to breath ever again if Donghyuck had been one of the men wrapped around her right then.

Either way, the three men had made their way out of view of the car, and Aria didn’t envy anyone who was on the other end of their glares. Taeyong had looked pissed, and honestly Aria was growing too tired to care.

After the shaking had died down, it was like her muscles had atrophied in under a minute, and suddenly she was left weakened and with the want to curl up in a ball to sleep.

It seemed, however, that Jaehyun had already prepared for this, and was moving Mark and himself around to allow Aria to curl up comfortably in the back of the van - her head in his lap and her feet in Mark’s.

“M’sorry.” She whispered again, just about to fall off into sleep.

“You’re okay, baby. It’s not your fault. We’re all just happy you’re okay.” Jaehyun murmured, petting her hair lightly.

“Thank you,” Aria turned her head to breath the words into Jaehyun’s stomach, hand coming to squeeze his arm. “Thank you for catching me.” Her voice broke slightly.

“I’m not about to let you down on my watch. And that includes falling to a potential death.” The weak attempt at a joke brought a watery laugh from Aria’s lips nonetheless.

“Can I say I saw the highway to heaven now?”

A soft chuckle, and another pet through her hair. “Sure, baby.”

With Jaehyun’s hand running soothing circuits through her hair, and Mark having worked off her boots - tutting lightly at the red marks that they had left - Aria drifted.

head full of cliff edges and falling.

242 notes · View notes

junicai · 3 years

Text

NCT being whipped for miyazu aria for seven minutes ;

325,078 views • 07 Feb 2021 • uploaded by [haechanieski]

[ NCT 127 Takes a Friendship Test ; Glamour 2020 ]

offscreen: “So, what was your first impression of Aria?”

Aria pressed herself into Doyoung’s side briefly, muttering a translation of the question into his ear. They had been briefed on the questions beforehand anyway, but she wanted to make sure he understood before he began answering - just in case he had forgotten.

Doyoung tilted his head down to Aria, a mischievous grin making its way onto his face; and it was only then, that Aria remembered exactly how the two had met in the first place.

Aria started to flush, shaking her head rapidly and burying her face into her hands. “Oh god no,” she whined.

Doyoung laughed at her, pulling her into his side with an arm over her shoulder and holding her there while he began speaking.

“Ah, Aria? We met for the first time when Aria was still tiny - well, tinier,”

“Hey!”

“And,” Doyoung continued on, laughing, “I had left my jacket in one of the practice rooms. It was a gift from my hyung, so I had gone back to get it even though it was really late. But when I went in to get it, I found Aria, sitting on the floor in the dark with it over her lap instead.”

At this point, Aria had fully buried her face into Doyoung’s chest, in a futile attempt to hide her reddened cheeks. “I thought it belonged to one of my friends,” she weakly protested, embarrassed by the laughs of the staff members behind the camera. “You scared me when you came in!”

“You stole my jacket!”

Aria sent a withering look to the camera.

“Czennie. Doyoung-oppa doesn’t care if I freeze, I want you to remember this.”

Doyoung gaped at her, yanking her back into his arms with an offended gasp, “Yah, you brat that’s a lie.”

Aria began sliding to the floor, letting her arms go boneless and limp. “You don’t love me!”

Doyoung started to stop with her, trying to hold her up in his arms. “Aria, Aria don’t sit on the floor it’s dirty, get up-”

The music of the other idol groups played quietly through the green room’s speakers, a small television setup in the upper right hand corner allowing the idols inside to monitor the performances outside.

Renjun tossed a half full water bottle over to Jisung, who was sitting on the floor beside the sofa where Jaemin, Jeno and Aria were; all three of them looking elated yet exhausted.

Ridin’ was a choreography heavy dance, and although Aria hadn’t many lines in this particular song, she was still struggling to push through the residual pain in her lower back. She had strained it earlier on in the month, pushing herself too far with too little preparation during rehearsals and was paying the price for it.

Most of Aria’s time in the greenroom before their performance was spent ensuring the other boys that yes, she was ok to perform and no, she wasn’t going to sit this one out.

The boys begrudgingly accepted her protests; but that hadnt stopped Jeno ever-so-carefully tugging her onto the sofa once they returned to the greenroom post-performance, gently pushing her to lie her head down on Jaemin’s lap and bringing her legs up into Jeno’s.

Jisung had wandered over later, eyes stuck to his phone screen but he willingly sacrificed his left hand to hold onto Aria’s when she hissed at the knot Jeno was trying to knead out of her lower back.

Jaemin shushed her softly, running a hand through her hair and untangling strands with his fingers. When Aria’s eyes had clenched shut and a whimper broke out from between her lips, Jeno’s hands froze in their movements, instantly bending closer to whisper apologizes.

“No, no it’s okay,” Aria said, attempting to prop herself up.

Jaemin pressed her back down, her head staying in his lap. “Stop it, let Nono help.”

She knew that there was something more to say, but having awknowledged that their current circumstances were not the best to have such a discussion, he settled for carding a hand through her hair again.

Aria let her eyes drift closed, hand still curled in Jisung’s, and legs pillowed in Jeno’s lap.

Who’s name do you think matches their appearance?

Kun pressed his lips together, thinking.

“Hm, all of the members put a lot of thought into their stage names, so they all fit very well,” he hummed, eyes flickering between the paper and the camera.

He took in a breath, clearly torn.

“Ah!” he exclaimed, looking up to the camera. “Aria, her name fits her really well; Akari is such a beautiful name and it compliments her personality perfectly. She’s really like a fruit sometimes - she’s always cheerful and energetic, like she’s on a constant sugar rush. Very sweet.” the smile that overtook Kun’s features was nothing sort of soft.

He quickly scribbled down Aria’s name in Hangul, before rolling the pen into the middle of his palm and straightening up again.

“Yiyang, is her Chinese name - she asked me to give her one last year. And you shouldn’t listen to Winwin, her full name is Qian Qiuyue, ok?”

Kun was laughing at himself now, picking back up the pen and moving to read the next question.

a/n: i know mr qian kun did NOT just say aria was fruity.

aria nct lgbt sub-unit confirmed

Renjun was sat beside Aria on a single piano stool, shoulders pressed together as she leaned forwards to try and make sense of the notes written on the pages in front of her.

“You know the basics, right?” Renjun questioned, hand coming out to flip forward in the music book a few pages. The single crotchet notes quickly turned into more complex rhythms, and from the side of his vision he could see Aria paling slightly.

He turned his head to look at her, “Riri, c’mon I know you know more than Mary had a Little Lamb, you can’t stay at beginner level forever.”

“Yes I can.” Aria sulked.

Renjun sighed. “You were the one who asked me to teach you.”

“Yes! When I thought it would be easier than this, my fingers just don’t do what they’re meant to do!”

“That’s why I’m here!” Renjun cut off her tirade. “I’m not going to laugh at you if you make mistakes - you’re learning, and everyone makes mistakes when they’re learning.”

“Promise?”

He ruffled her hair slightly, “Promise. Now here, look, this one isn’t difficult you’ll manage this one fine.”

“Injunnie.”

“Mm?”

“-nevermind, okay just. How do I?”

Renjun lifted his hands onto the keys of the piano, showing her the placement of her fingers and getting her to copy him. Aria did so, and then he was running her slowly, step-by-step through the first few bars of the piece, catching her when she played dud notes and clapping softly when she played through without stuttering.

Soon enough, Aria was playing a simplistic but solid melody line with her right hand, basic accompanying chords with her left, and Renjun was staring at the side of her face; head tilted slightly to the left and a small, barely-there proud glint in his eye.

[BUBBLE UPDATE 210205 ]

ARIA~~

czennie

i heard about the tiny horse

do u think they’d let me get one

if i asked nicely??

“Jae, Jae! Jaehyun!” Aria coughed out the older boy’s name, throwing a glare over her shoulder. “If you insist on leaning your entire bodyweight on me, please don’t throttle me in the process.”

The man only sent a weak apologetic grin her way before his feet slid out from underneath him and he was left grappling at the small girl yet again.

“You know when you said you wanted me to teach you ice-skating I didn’t know this was how you were planning on murdering me. If I have to die, I’d rather go out with a bang - ya’know? Not death by groupmate, that’s borinG-” Aria’s voice wobbled as she was pulled yet again.

“Sorry, sorry,” Jaehyun apologized, going so far as to take his hands off her shoulders. “I think I’ve got it now.”

He made it another few steps forward before he was tossed off balance by an eight year old boy rushing past, startling him to the point of jumping backwards.

When Jaehyun’s legs went from underneath him, he flailed his arms in a futile attempt to regain his balance - one of the windmilling arms catching Aria’s extended hands in the process.

Aria let out a shriek as her skates went as well, tumbling backwards. Her head would have made a harsh impact onto the ice - no arms ready to catch her fall - if it wasn’t for Jaehyun’s hand catching the back of her neck and taking the brunt of the impact.

Lying on the ground, Jaehyun coughed out a laugh, Aria staring him down.

All too soon though, Aria joined him in the laughter, head still pillowed on Jaehyun’s arm and the pair of them still lying on their backs on the ice.

“Hello everyone, today I’m with my favourite baby, say hi baby!”

Ten’s grin was audible in his words as he spoke to Aria, who waved before opening her mouth. “Your favourite baby?”

Ten cooed, “Yes, my favourite baby,” while crossing the floor of the practice room to throw his arms around Aria.

He rocked her side to side, pressing kisses to the top of her head.

“And what makes me your favourite? You know Yangie won’t be pleased if he hears he’s been replaced,” Aria lifted her head to look up at Ten.

“You accept the title of my baby, and are therefore my favourite. You don’t fight my love.” Ten shakes her dramatically side to side, mourning the one-sided relationship.

Aria only patted his head in solace. “It’s ok. If it’s any consolation the only reason I don’t fight your hugs is because you’re faster than I am.”

Ten let out a pained gasp. “Betrayed by both my babies. How ever will I survive!”

Aria tried to pry his arms away from her shoulders that were shaking with barely-suppressed laughter, worming her way out from his embrace. Ten only tightened his hold, going limp and dragging her onto the floor.

“No...” Ten cried, “I’m dying...”

Aria’s laughter turned to shrieks when he began to tickle her stomach on the skin that was showing from where her t-shirt had lifted up from the movement.

“No no no no stop Ten, TEN stop I’m sorry I take it back I take it baaack-”

“Say it!” Ten demanded, unrelenting.

“I’m your baby! I’m your baby I’m sorry I’m sorry!” Aria was rolling away from his hands, trying to escape but Ten only turned to lie flat on top of her.

“Exactly.”

a/n: nct world 2.0 gave us so much content of the boys loving aria im :’( smth in the water made aria super cuddly this time around i think she’s after all of their hearts

- aria collecting nct members like pokemon cards

Immediately after Jungwoo’s defeat, Aria sidestepped to behind Lucas where she fisted her hands in his shirt.

“Aria! You’re next!” The presenter called out, and soon all the members in OFN has turned to face her.

She poked her head around to see Yuta standing at the arm wrestling table already, tongue between teeth and grinning at her partially hidden form.

Aria squeaked and ducked back behind Lucas. “Noo,” she moaned, already knowing what was going to happen.

To their credit, Johnny and Jungwoo tried their best to bolster her spirits before she emerged, but Aria still shuffled up to the table with her head tucked down, paying no attention to the calls of support from the boys behind her.

Yuta rolled his sweater sleeve up again, and Aria looked up to meet his eyes.

“Onii-chan~” she tried, biting her lip to stop the laughter from bursting out.

Yuta brought a hand up to his mouth before turning away, eyes wide. Aria could hear the cheers of cute! from her teammates behind her; Yuta’s teammates doing their level best to convince him not to cave under Aria’s widened eyes.

“Onii-chan, you know I’m not very strong,” Aria made sure to heighten her voice’s register a bit, and stuck out her bottom lip, “Can you go easy on me?”

Aria could hear Mark calling out to Yuta to not fall for it.

“Yah!” Aria dropped her voice back to her normal register, yelling out to Mark. “Stop it this is all I have!”

The laughter was heard from across the field from the members in the tents, and Aria was left to sadly shuffle her way closer to the table and interlink her hand with Yuta’s.

He sent her a consoling smile, the referee blew the whistle and then Aria was pushing with all her might against Yuta. Her legs came up like Renjun’s did, face scrunched up with the effort before the back of her hand met the plastic-covered table and Yuta was announced the victor.

He quickly made his way around the table, wrapping Aria in a hug and picking her up to spin her around. Aria only giggled at him, sticking her tongue out at Ten who called Yuta out for fraternizing with the enemy.

Aria knew that a springboard worked off of your downward momentum, so it seemed perfectly logical to assume that if she barreled her bodyweight into the jump, then she would make it high enough to get over the 200cm vault.

She’d made it over the previous heights with varying degrees of success, but the new towering height was throwing her off a bit. Cheers came from both her teammates sitting down beside the mat as well as the other members sitting in the shade.

“Aria! Challenge accepted!” she called out, pumping her fist into the air.

From the corner of her eye, Aria could see Johnny leaning forward with his hands on his knees, watching carefully as she ran up to the springboard. Lucas was in a similar position, was it not for the wide grin he sported.

Beginning her run she tried to use up as much speed as possible, sprinting to the vault before jumping with her feet together onto the springboard and allowing it to propel her up and over the vault.

However what she had failed to account for; was the length of her arms.

Aria made it over the 190cm vault, but her fingertips barely scraped the top and it left her with a choice of either trying to become Superman and face-planting into the mat on the other side, or bringing her legs together prematurely and hope she didn’t lose a leg.

She couldn’t hear the gasps that left everyone’s mouth once her hands missed the top of the vault, missing the way Lucas moved closer to the mat with a jerk forward.

Bringing her legs closed, Aria swung her bodyweight forward and grappled behind her for the vault in a panic. A yelp left her mouth as her hand caught on the rung and she tucked it back into her body when her feet met the edge of the mat.

Unstable, Aria toppled backwards with her hands stretching out behind her again to prevent herself from falling. Her back landed against the vault, and she knocked it over, falling on top of the now-split pieces.

Despite it all, Aria was laughing hysterically, hands coming up to cover her face as she tried to hide her flaming red cheeks. An arm extended to her and she hoisted herself out of the middle of the vault, soon coming to rub at her back.

“Does that count?” Aria could hear the presenters asking should she be disqualified for knocking over the vault even after landing, but she was more concentrated on the hand on her back that was guiding her to her other teammates, all clapping wilding and cheering.

“You okay?” Lucas’ voice came in her ear, laughter but also concern audible in his tone. His hand was still rubbing slowly along her back, soothing the reddened skin underneath the t-shirt she was wearing.

“Yeah I’m fine,” Aria let her head fall forwards as she laughed at the thought of the picture she must have looked, flailing as she barely made it over the vault. “I don’t know if I’ll make it over the next one though.”

“Ah it’s okay. I’ll knock it over too and then I can join you.”

The gate at the back end of the tunnel swung closed with a clang, everyone inside letting out a shout.

Aria, having been standing in front of Johnny, tucked inside his coat while he back hugged her (she wasn’t built for the cold weather, and the denim jacket she wore was doing nothing to save her from hypothermia) let out a yelp and turned her face into Johnny’s chest.

Johnny pushed her behind him slightly as he turned around to look what had happened, and Aria clung to his waist while the others around them furrowed their eyebrows in confusion.

Trapped?

a/n: and a bonus clip bc shes was so CUTE during mtopia i couldnt not

In the emptied dining room, the SuperM members scattered around the different table set ups, searching for the coloured pieces of paper. Taeyong had wandered over to the food counter, while Ten had migrated towards the opposite end of the hall.

Baekhyun could see the other members in various locations; all apart from one.

“Oh? Aria, where did you go?”

The youngest member was no where to be found, and Baekhyun’s question gathered the attention of Taemin and Mark who were standing nearby. Mark tilted his head in a question, eyebrows lifted and then furrowed when he too looked around for the girl and couldn’t find her.

“I’m here!”

Baekhyun let out a small scream, jumping back from the table he was standing beside.

Beneath the tablecloth poked out Aria’s head, a sheepish smile on her face when she realized she’d scared her leader.

“I thought there might be some clues underneath, so I wanted to check.” she explained, slowly shuffling out from underneath the table.

“Baekhyun hyung did she scare you?” Jongin teased, as Taemin cooed over the adorable picture Aria made as she straightened up and brushed off the dust from her skirt.

Baekhyun floundered, spluttering “What? No! I don’t get scared.”

He puffed out his chest theatrically.

“Sorry oppa, I didn’t mean to scare you~” Aria said through suppressed laughter, coming over to hug him around the waist.

Baekhyun deflated slighty, “Ah, it’s okay,” he grumbled, petting her hair.

thank you for watching ! - haechanieski

393 notes · View notes

junicai · 3 years

Text

not working.

| summary | With swimming walls and tablets that don’t work, who’s better suited to take care of a feverish Aria than her doting older brothers?

| word count | 3k

| warnings | illness

| era | circa. November 2018

31. "This is the third time I've had to put you back in the bed. Why the hell do you want to lie on the floor so bad?"

a/n: cassia: “127 doesnt call aria baby that often.” also cassia: “babybabybabybaby-”

Aria got sea sick easily. The combination of the waves that had a boat rocking back and forth and back and forth over and over again had her stomach rolling in tandem. The floor would wobble beneath her feet and her vision with it, the grey water lapping against the small window in the belly of the ship.

It was an unnerving experience - and one she’d never like to repeat after the first hour-long boat trip she took aged eight, that had her hanging over the stern and gagging, face as pale as the seafoam that clapped against the sides of the small boat.

The minutes crawled by and the only real memory Aria has of the trip is how she stumbled off the boat and onto the pier, legs like jelly and hands outspread to catch herself when she inevitably pitched forward onto the cobbles.

It was not an experience she ever wished to repeat.

And yet, with her bedroom walls seemingly swimming around her head and her stomach rocking like a dinghy in a turbulent sea, Aria couldn’t imagine being on a boat was much worse than this. Hell, she’d take standing over the barriers over lying on her back in sweat-soaked sheets, tossing and turning in an attempt to keep the left side of her body tucked beneath the blankets and the right side exposed to the cool air.

She felt like she was being baked alive, yet simultaneously like she was resting beneath a block of ice. Her flushed cheeks paired with her dazed eyes made it hard to focus on anything, and for the third time in the last minute, she found herself flopping over angrily to try and find the cool side of her pillow.

She landed on the ground with a heavy thunk, and if a whine left her lips at the impact then that was between her miserable self and the walls.

And apparently Taeil, who had peeked in his head at the exact time she’d rolled herself out of the bed.

He sighed heavily, eyes pinched as he set down the blue mug he was holding on a pile of books on the desk, the steam fogging up the small mirror behind it.

“This is the third time I’ve had to put you back in the bed. Why the hell do you want to lie on the floor so bad?” He scolded with no real heat behind his words, hands already slipping beneath her knees to heave the slight girl back onto the bed.

Aria only whined again, rolling over to face the wall when she was safely placed onto the bed. She jerked lightly when her back twinged with the movement, but refused to turn back around when Taeil placed a comforting hand on the exposed skin of her lower back from her thin t-shirt riding up.

“Doyoungie’s gone to get the pills you need, okay? He’ll be back in twenty minutes, tops, and then we can get you an ice-pack,”

Aria shook her head.

“A heat pack, then,” Taeil compromised.

Aria huffed, biting her lip to stop the pained whimper from breaking out from between her lips as Taeil’s fingers pressed ever so slightly into the tensed muscle.

“I know, baby, I know.” He soothed, his gentle massaging not ceasing. “It hurts, right?”

She nodded, curling over into herself.

“Ah, no no. Don’t do that,” Taeil leant over to straighten her back up. “You’ll strain your back even more like that, and then where would we be?”

Aria swallowed her protest that told Taeil in not-so-nice-words that it was more comfortable than whatever weird pencil position she was currently lying in; knowing that he was only trying to help, and her being difficult was only going to make him upset.

But god why did it have to hurt this much?

She knew that coming down so hard off the stage was going to put her out of action for a while, but it had been eight months and she was still getting flare-ups of pain after every second practice they held. She was getting sick of needing to take a break every hour and sit against the mirror with an ice-pack cradled to her back.

With the low-grade fever that she was now running because the universe hated her and wanted her to suffer, the world sucked and Aria was content to believe that every living thing had it out for her.

Except for Taeil. He was lovely.

A tear escaped the tight hold Aria had on her tear ducts and despite the hand she shot up to cover her nose, the sniffle she made was still obvious to Taeil’s attentive ears.

He leant over slightly, looking for her face and sighing lightly when she only turned to bury it in the singular pillow that had escaped her earlier thrashing and hadn’t ended up on the floor. It was a nice comfort, and she shoved her nose further into the cotton when Taeil bent over further.

“Baby no, it’s okay. It’s okay to cry, that’s okay. C’mere,” Taeil paid no heed to Aria’s soft cry at being moved again, and ever-so-carefully tugged the girl into his lap where he could still rub a hand over her locked muscles while using his unoccupied thumb to swipe away the tears that threatened to spill over her waterline.

Aria blinked up at him for a moment, his hair falling in to his eyes but not masking the concern that blew his pupils wide and the way he was so gentle with swiping underneath her eyes knowing that they were strained because she hadn’t been wearing her glasses recently; and promptly burst into tears.

Taeil only tugged her closer, letting her hide her face in his stomach this time as he pet through her hair that hadn’t been washed in three days and was really full of tangles that caught on his fingers as he tried to comb through it without disturbing the crying girl in his lap.

He resumed his careful massaging of her back - well-versed with the act with Taeyong, a dongsaeng possessing the same crippling inability as Aria that left them unable to see a 'time to stop sign' if it hit them in the face - but paused when he saw the bruises creeping up her lower spine and past the edge of the t-shirt.

Eyebrows knitting together, he looked down at Aria, who’s cries were slowly beginning to peter out.

“Ari,” He began softly, “I thought the medication was helping?”

She stiffened beneath his hand, and Taeil recoiled slightly, if nothing but to make her feel a little more at ease.

At a closer inspection, the colours were a myriad of different colour; some a reddish-purple, and others a yellowing brown, spreading far over her back and onto the tops of her arms that were visible through the loose neck hole, meaning that they were far older than Aria’s first tumble out of the bed - an event that had only occurred that morning.

When Taeil brushed his fingers lightly over the bruise, Aria jerked away.

With her back pressed onto the wall, she paid no mind to the short stab of pain that fired up her spine as her wet eyes met Taeil’s, deep concern only growing behind them.

“Ari, what’s that? Are they not helping?”

She shook her head.

“You should have told us, baby, we could have brought you back to get you tested again-”

“No!” Aria’s shout startled both herself and Taeil.

Doyoung’s head appeared in the doorway. “Why’re we yelling?”

Aria shrunk back against the wall, knees curling up to her stomach. Doyoung tutted, moving forward to unfurl her legs. “Don’t sit like that, you’ll only cause yourself more pain.”

It was true, that position had sent electric shocks up her lower back but she was too stubborn to admit that to him, so instead she settled for looking down at the sheets, fingers fumbling with a loose thread.

It had snagged on one of her rings a couple of weeks ago, pulling the jewelry away from her finger in such a way that it scraped against the skin - leaving a shallow, but still painful, cut on the top of her finger.

Aria had slapped a band-aid on it without giving it much thought after rinsing the blood off of her hand underneath the tap, but when the band-aid had inevitably slipped off nearly two hours later during a dance practice, the tiny cut was still oozing blood slightly.

“You wanna tell me what’s going on? Or do I have to ask hyung?” Doyoung came to sit down on the bed beside her, hand seeking out hers to stop her pulling at the thread. “Don’t pull on that, you’ll make it worse.”

“Sorry.” Aria mumbled, not looking at him.

A silence filled the room for several seconds, broken by Doyoung’s clearing of his throat.

“Well?”

Aria’s lower lip trembled slightly. “It’s nothing, really, Taeil oppa was exaggerating slightly,”

“I wasn’t.”

“It’s just that - it’s nothing, it’s not a big deal, please don’t freak out, I promise if I was in pain I would have gone to someone, you or Taeil oppa or Yuta or someone -”

“Baby, you need to breathe.”

She hadn’t even noticed that she was hyperventilating.

With a choked gasp, Aria cut herself off and inhaled greedily, hands grasping at her throat as she coughed. Doyoung knelt forward to pat her back as Taeil came to sit down on the other side of her.

She stayed silent for the next minute, working on getting her breathing back under control as Taeil murmured soft encouragements and Doyoung coaxed her lungs back into working order with a gentle hand rubbing over her back.

It was comforting, right up until Doyoung sat back and fixed her with another look. Something that said you’re not getting out of this one and something that Aria hated with a passion being on the end of, because she never once got out of it.

It’s the reason Donghyuck got in trouble for accidentally breaking Jaehyun’s favourite mug. She just couldn’t lie.

“What’s going on, baby?”

Aria sniffed. “Promise you won’t be mad?”

Doyoung and Taeil exchanged a look. “Promise, baby. We won’t be mad, but you have to tell us what’s going on, okay? The whole truth, not a part of it.”

Breath stuttering a little bit, Aria twisted her back as much as it would allow her without pain to tug up the end of her t-shirt and show Doyoung the bottom ends of the bruises that amassed her back and shoulders.

They were crude colours, and honestly, Aria wouldn’t blame a person if they saw them and thought she had been beaten with a stick. The deep purpling, almost black colour was offset by the sickly green and yellow tinge the healing bruises had taken, only to be covered yet again by fresh contusions encroaching on the skin.

By the sharp intake of breath, Doyoung agreed with her.

“Baby,” His voice was anguished. “No, baby, you told us the medication was helping?

The medication. It had been four months since she’d been to the hospital to get the seemingly-endless bruises that appeared out of nowhere checked out. The sterile walls were cold to stare at as she was poked and prodded and asked indirect questions that were actually meant for her manager to answer, and the conversation that they’d had over her head made her feel small.

She’d been given a pat on the head for her troubles, and sent out of the ward with a prescription for PROCRIT, a small tablet that was - she was told - made of epoetin alfa, designed to treat her condition.

Having been cautioned against the side-effects, and being told to take them once a day in the morning, Aria had fitted the tablets into her morning routine; right after the multivitamin she was also instructed to take daily.

And, after a month of downing a tiny white pill each morning; nothing had happened. The bruises were still appearing at an alarming rate, barely healing before another one could take its place.

But the members had looked so relieved when Aria had come back into the dorms with an orange bottle clutched in her fist - so very relieved that there was something that could help, that yes, they knew what was wrong and there in those tiny white pills lay the answer that had been alluding them for so long.

Aria hated those tiny white pills.

Hated everything about them.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t bare to see Yuta look at her with such worry in his eyes again, couldn’t bare to see the flicker of panic that brushed Renjun’s face as he’d catch a glimpse of a mottled bruise over her collarbone.

She’d kept it hidden from most of the members, but unfortunately, some were more perceptive than others.

Taeyong, Yuta and Donghyuck were amongst the first to notice, with Renjun, Mark and Doyoung coming close behind. The other 127 members had been filled in when Aria had been sent to the hospital for her checkup, but the decision had been made to not tell the Dreamies until there was a prognosis available.

Anemia, was what they’d called it. Her blood cells just, went AWOL. Called it a day, and took the evening off.

So, taking it all into account, Aria couldn’t see the harm in keeping it all under wraps. She wasn’t in pain, and it wasn’t like anemia could kill her, even if the medication wasn’t doing what it was designed to do. It meant that she could stop taking the little pills, and if she had a stash of them buried in a cup in her bedside locker that she hid them in; then that was her business and nobody else’s.

Well. Until now.

“It did help! At the beginning!” Aria insisted, the lie spilling off her lips easily in an effort to sooth the upset that was building in the room.

A hand on her thigh had her looking over to Taeil, the man appearing grim. “You don’t have to make the truth pretty for us, baby. Tell us what’s going on. Why haven’t they been helping? Have you been taking them daily?”

“I- I stopped.”

“When?”

“A couple of weeks ago - I didn’t see the point in buying them when they weren’t helpful so I, I didn’t tell anyone when they ran out.” She hung her head slightly, focused on the flooring.

“Oh, baby.” Doyoung extended an arm and Aria all but flung herself into his chest. He ran a hand over her head and held her there, just breathing together. She really felt like crying again, even though the last time was only a couple of minutes ago. Everything was piling on top of each other; her back feeling like someone had tried acupuncture and failed miserably, the fact that she could probably sear a steak on her forehead what with how hot it was, the fact that she still couldn’t see because her glasses were on her locker, and now this?

“You know, we’re going to have to talk about this secret-keeping, right? Like it or not, you’re our maknae, and that means you don’t lie to us.” He pulled away to find her eyes, fixing her with a stare. “Especially, about important things like your health.”

“Had we known that they weren’t helping, we would have gone back to the hospital, seen what they could have told us. You didn’t need to hide this from us baby.” Taeil interjected, hand finding Aria’s.

She shook her head. “Don’ wanna go back to the hospital. Don’t like it there.”

Doyoung ran a hand through her hair. “I know baby, I don’t think many people do. Would you feel better if oppa came with you?”

That’s how you know Doyoung was really worried. If he referred to himself as oppa, in any context, then it was never really a question in the first place.

Aria forwent a verbal confirmation and chose to nod instead, pushing herself back into Doyoung’s warm embrace. He wrapped his arms around her, and held her loosely, still mindful of her back.

Speaking of, Taeil had disappeared midway through the conversation, now re-appearing with a glass of water and a painkiller tablet in the palm of his hand. His face was apologetic, but non-yielding as he pushed the pill into Aria’s palm and held up the glass of water for her to swallow it with.

The water was nice on her throat, and she realized how thirsty she was as she held onto the glass and drank the water, not caring of the little bit she spilled over her lower lip.

Taeil wiped it away with the end of his sleeve, folding up the now damp material before extending an arm and leaning back onto the pillow on her bed.

And Aria was weak, but even more so when she felt like the world was out to get her, so she went willingly into his embrace, letting him settle her in a position that wouldn’t strain her back.

“Heat or ice?” Doyoung called from the doorway.

“Heat?” Taeil looked down to check on an already dozing Aria. She nodded sleepily and, Taeil relayed the message to Doyoung, who disappeared through the door frame.

Aria snuggled deeper into Taeil’s chest, and the man pressed a cool hand to her forehead, frowning a little at the head.

“If I leave you to get a fever reducer, will you try to roll off the bed again.”

“No promises.”

189 notes · View notes

junicai · 3 years

Text

Aria + Periods + 127 = Chaos

Taeil

taeil has a younger sister, so he didn’t need her to explain anything to her

honestly, he’s one of the members she’ll go to first if she needs anything

the least likely to make a big deal out of it

just kinda

shrugs

and does what is needed of him

sometimes pain meds don’t do anything for aria’s cramps they get so bad

and on those days, she’ll slid into his bed and either

A: snuggle with him and let him cuddle her

or B: just curl up underneath his sheets until he gets back from wherever he was and then do option A

he really hates her periods

like, more than she does

because she’s always a little deflated in the upcoming days, and for the first two of the actual periods

and he hates seeing her in pain or be sad

even if the thing she’s sad at is the advertisement of the cute dog

definitely chuckles at her when she comes to him with slightly teary eyes and whines that she misses her dog now

but opens his arms willingly anyway, letting his maknae plonk herself in his lap and rest her head on his chest

Johnny

there is no better man to try and make aria feel better

that’s actually a lie

aria will point blank avoid him on her periods

he read once

once

in an article that physical exercise helps with cramps and the other pms-ing symptoms

and now every single time she opens her mouth to complain about her uterus trying to eject itself from her body

johnny’s right there with an invitation to the gym

he’s literally packed and changed, they can go right now

truth be told aria took him up on the offer once

never again

she couldn’t walk afterwards

he had to carry her out

asides from that though

he’s pretty okay with everything?

like obviously, he doesn’t really get it all too much, but if she wants someone to massage her back, then he’ll offer without too many questions

but when she’s crying about something?

oh ho ho ho

bear hugs

just a big ol’ swaddling hug that makes aria feel warm n safe n content

they heal everything

it’s aria’s life philosophy

Taeyong

totally understanding

she needs pads? he’s either already bought them, or will go out to buy them for her

doesn’t have a tracker for her, but somehow knows when she’s cramping the week before its due

once came up with the innovative idea of using their handwarmers as a makeshift hot water bottle when they were on a schedule and aria was suffering :(

aria gets really bad lower back cramps, and its super common to just see him gently pushing her onto the couch

so he can try and massage some of the tension

keeps pads in his travelling bags

completely unprompted - it just started being something he’d pack

like heat packs and pain patches and bandages;

period supplies just eventually got added to the list

was a little uncomfy with the whole thing at the start

but his older sister yelled at him

told him to stop “being a baby” and “she’s your responsibility, act like it.”

aria felt really bad for burdening him with it all

lowkey wished she was a boy for inconveniencing everyone with it

and taeyong had to sit her down and tell her no baby

it was natural and it didn’t bother anybody

that she didn’t have to hide it

that she could come to them if she was in pain because of it

Yuta

oh this man

when he found out that aria was getting lightheaded on her periods

when he found out that she passed out once on her period

did so much research on why that might have happened and how to help

literally stayed up all night and came to aria the next morning like

“are you eating enough iron?”

the answer was no, btw

made it his mission to make sure aria did after that

always has a little bag of nuts or something else in a side pocket of his bag if he knows aria’s on her period

gets concerned asf when she misses her periods

because he knows it’s because of unnecessary diets or her putting in extra time in the practice room

aria loves going to his room when she’s feeling miserable

he’s always down to watch a movie or just lay down with her

he’ll plait her hair or just lay together and press a lil kiss to her forehead when she whines about the cramps

hates hates hates when she cries

he knows it’s because of hormones, he has two sisters

but that doesn’t make it easier

will do absolutely anything to get her to stop crying

once went out at 3am to get her ice-cream

which actually made her cry harder

bc she felt bad that she couldn’t eat it because she’s lactose-intolerant

he just felt worse

that was not a good night

now the freezer in the dorms has a little tub of non-dairy ice-cream with aria’s name on it

curtesy of yuta

Doyoung

when aria first moved into the 127 dorms

he bought a little pink box with a lid that he then proceeded to fill with tampons and pads; the whole shebang

which he then put in the locker beneath the sink

and told anyone that if they made a big deal out if it, he’d kill them :)

incredibly perceptive

knows when aria’s on her period before aria knows

“hey do u need a pad?” “ why do i need a pad?”

*an hour later*

“oppa do u have any pads”

he’s less of a come here and i’ll comfort you type

and more of a, i’m going to help you from the sidelines without ever actually acknowledging it’s existence

like perceiving it makes it worse

honestly aria’s pretty thankful he’s like this

she loves that the other members take care of her like they do, don’t get her wrong

but its like, for five days - she can do no wrong, she’s accommodated, and sometimes walked on eggshells around

it’s nice to have someone who’s going to treat her like normal

to balance it out

does that stop her pulling the “i’m in pain” card when she’s about to get scolded?

Jaehyun

jaehyun doesn’t have any siblings, so he was really learning from scratch with aria

however

that was actually a good thing

because it meant that whatever aria told him; he did

if she needed a heating pack - he’d go find one for her

if she needed to just lie down for a bit - he’d take her into her room and close the curtains to let her take a nap

now, she didn’t take advantage of this

much

but she just thought it was really sweet of him

and tells him as much

and every time, he’ll just pat her head

maybe a lil kiss on the forehead

and pull the blanket up to her chin before leaving and flicking off the lights

that’s kind of the extent of what he’ll do

mainly because the other members have a lot of it covered already

but it’s pretty common for him to give her a piggyback ride somewhere

if her back is cramping a lot and she doesn’t/can’t walk

no complaints

he just kneels down and aria asks him is he sure

like she’s heavy or something

and he’ll just carry her to wherever they’re going

there’s a lot of fantaken pictures from these moments

people speculate that she’s injured or sick

it happens so regularly that nctzens are genuinely convinced that aria just doesn’t possess an immune system

Jungwoo

jungwoo was surprisingly well prepared when aria first bent over from a sudden onset of cramps

man was ready and knew what to do

he had hyuck going out of the room for water

and had a hand placed on her lower back rubbing gently

never really makes a big deal out of it all

although has told her to play it up once or twice because he wanted to go to bed and practice was running late

she did, and they did end practice almost immediately after

honestly, aria’s pretty convinced that all of jungwoo’s information on how to deal with girls on their periods came from a wikihow article

but that did mean that he had taken the time to look up a wikihow article

so she guesses she can forgive him

and honestly, the fact that he takes it upon himself to do a little of her chores?

she’s not complaining

after the first three times she felt bad enough to tell him to stop though

he didn’t

and now it’s just normal

is very conversational about it all

has no problem with asking her what she needs, instead of hovering around and guessing

which makes it easier on aria as well

the first few times, she felt quite burdensome

and jungwoo levelled her with a look when she told him this

“the only way you’d be burdensome, is if you didn’t talk to the rest of us and suffered silently - in pain.”

that was the end of that really

Mark

unfortunately for mark

aria got her first period when she was with him

poor boy thought she was going to die

“ohmygod you’re bleeding - you’re BLEEDING-”

aria had to calm him down before going to the bathroom

he is pretty oblivious as to what exactly goes on

aria complained once that she missed her last two periods because of the stupid diet she was on

mark literally thought she was going to die

very concerned

she had to sit him down and tell him that no, she wasn’t going to die

he’s gotten better over the years

as a topic, he’s still pretty uncomfortable with discussing it

but its less of a “i’m a man and this isn’t a manly topic” and more of a “i don’t know anything about this subject and i don’t want to offend somebody, help”

he did by her her first hot water bottle cover though

up until then, she had been using hot water bottles wrapped in towels to prevent her skin from burning

but mark showed up one morning

with a yellow fuzzy thing hidden behind her back

it was a winnie the pooh cover :(

Donghyuck

cuddle buddies

that’s his main role

aria on her period? donghyuck’s pulling out the fluffy blankets and making a pile of her plushies on his bed

time to pull out netflix and cuddle

aria could cry every single time she walks into his room and he’s just opening the covers for her to slip underneath

he does it every time

and somehow she’s still not expecting it

it’s been five years bestie

has accidentally made her cry on more than once occasion though

he doesn’t mean to!

sometimes he’ll say something in passing

and aria will get upset but won’t show it

because she knows she’s not actually upset - it’s just hormones

so she doesn’t tell him she’s upset

and just leaves to go to her own room

does that stop doyoung telling hyuck off for being insensitive?

not at all

but he’s normally really good! especially after the first few times

living together has generally made him more preceptive

also just growing up in general

if her cramps are really bad she’ll wake up during the night

and if she had slept in hyuck’s bed the night before

then he usually takes it upon himself to go get her pain meds and a hot water bottle

he’ll rub her back and help her fall back asleep

and then he’ll make sure to write down in his phone that she took x brand of pain meds, so in the morning she’ll have to take y instead

155 notes · View notes

junicai · 3 years

Text

dead ditches.

| summary | Aria loses her friendship ring, has a breakdown, and finds it again.

| word count | 838

| warnings | one curse word

| era | NCT 2020, circa. October 2020

“I’m nearly certain I left it there? Did someone move it?” Aria questioned, hands rubbing palm to palm.

“We checked around the lockers area as well, no one knows where it’s gone.” The staff member replied, grimacing slightly at Aria’s crestfallen look. She leant over to pat the younger girl’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t worry about it Aria. Things go missing on set all the time, and they always turn up in an hour or two.”

With a finalizing nod, the staff member walked away after smoothing down the ends of Aria’s styled hair - it had puffed up slightly after all the anxious movement the singer had been making.

Aria sighed, breathing in slowly to try and calm herself. Right. Things go missing all the time. It wasn’t a big deal. Even if it was the ring that Renjun had given her a week ago, and Renjun had said that morning that he wanted to check was everyone was wearing theirs today. Even then. It was fine.

She was sweating. Sweating right through the thin black material of her top.

Taking in one big final breath, Aria held it for a moment, allowing her eyes to slip shut and exhaling in one fell swoop. There. That’s better.

“Hey, Riri!”

Not better. So so so so much worse.

Aria spun around with a smile frantically plastered across her face. “Injunnie! Are your solo shots soon?”

Renjun nodded, swinging an arm over her shoulder. “Not for another half hour or so, but Jeno needed to come early so I figured I’d just come along with him.”

Now that he mentioned it, Aria had seen Jeno passing by briefly out of the corner of her eye, slipping behind the door and into the makeshift make-up studio that the staff had set up the day before.

Nodding, Aria tried to slide her way out from beneath Renjun’s arm. “Ah, ah I see. Shouldn’t you be going to make-up as well then?” She playfully ruffled the hair on his head. “They might be able to fix that.”

Fixed with a glare, she giggled, pushing the boy away. “Go, go. We don’t have all day.”

Renjun snagged her wrist as Aria went to retract her hand. “Where’s your ring?”

Oh shit.

“Uh.”

“Uh?”

“The stylists told me to take it off!” Aria scrambled, waving her hands around in a placating manner. “Said that they’d keep it safe for me until filming ends.”

Renjun peered skeptically at her. Aria gulped, and gave a mildly incriminating half-grimace half-smile. Luckily it seemed, the universe was looking out for her today, and Renjun was called back into the changing rooms by a stylist before he could continue his questioning. Aria bent forward in relief, squeezing her eyes shut.

Ok. She has, ten or so minutes to find that ring, or she’s dead. Disappearing from the face of the earth, never to be found again.

NCT’s ARIA found dead in a ditch!

Oh god.

Steeling herself and taking a final glance to ensure that Renjun was truly out of earshot, Aria cleared her throat before facing the other members wandering around the filming site.

“Oppa!”

Five heads swiveled around to look at her immediately, another four following.

Aria blinked, having not anticipated them all hearing her.

“Yeah, Ari?” It was Doyoung that asked the question, taking a step forward. The other boys were still looking at her, as if waiting for a clarification as to whom the call was for. Honestly, Aria didn’t really have an answer for them.

She sniffed sheepishly, holding up her left hand that was bare of the friendship ring it hard become accustomed to wearing. “Uhm, none of you would happen to know where my ring has gone, right? Because Renjun is here now, and I really don’t want to die today, I’m only twenty, I have so much more to live for-”

“You mean this one?”

Aria’s head snapped over to Xiaojun, where the boy was holding up a silver open band in his palm, looking at her from across the room tentatively.

Shoulders dropping in pure relief, Aria borderline sprinted over to the boy, tackling him in a hug. He yelped, hand closing around the ring tightly to ensure that it didn’t slip from his grasp, while his other arm came to steady the smaller girl as she threw her bodyweight against him.

“Oh thank you thank you thank you!” She cheered, hugging him around the waist. “Oh my god I could kiss you!”

Xiaojun choked.

She stumbled backwards, dropping her arms from around his waist quickly. “Not that- I wouldn’t- I meant like-”

Aria winced. “Thank you?”

Xiaojun, completely red beneath the foundation on his cheeks, muttered a gruff reply. “You’re welcome.”

Doyoung and Yuta standing behind the pair exchanged a glance; a raised eyebrow meeting a barely withheld laugh.

196 notes · View notes

junicai · 3 years

Text

tackled.

| summary | Mark hasn’t been in a group without Aria before. He doesn’t know how he’s going to manage without her there.

| word count | 2.4k

| warnings | none

| era | circa. December 2018

n/a: to the anon who requested more superm stuff, i hope this is to ur liking~ a little bit of background before i start writing some actual scenarios for the team :)

Aria wasn’t quite sure how to function; or how to deal with the fact that she was sitting, legs crossed, back ram-rod straight, in one of the smaller conference rooms with Lee Sooman sitting across from her looking a world more comfortable.

Taeyong on her left and Lucas on her right, Ten a seat down and Mark beyond that. The plastic seats were less than kind to her aching tailbone, but Aria was mildly (read: incredibly) more preoccupied with the thought that she was wearing a faded hoodie and black workout leggings that were old and worn, sitting in a conference room with Taemin, Baekhyun and Kai.

She was pretty sure the day couldn’t be going much worse. That was until Sooman's voice snapped her from her inner turmoil and she looked up at the CEO, raising a bottle of water to her lips with a lightly quivering hand.

“Aria, you’ll be joining as their eighth and final member.”

Water rushed down the wrong way in her throat, the muscle spasming as Aria choked and banged a closed fist against her chest. Taeyong’s hand flew to rub circles in between her shoulder blades, patting gently as she heaved, trying to re-catch her breath.

She takes it back. It just got worse.

“Sir?” Aria wheezed out, taking in a stuttered breath as she looked up from the table to meet the CEO’s eyes.

“SuperM is a concept group designed to take those that excelled in their respective groups and use that as the foundation to create something bigger. You’ve all made a name for yourself; both within the group and individually.” Sooman took a breath, lifting his hands to drum his fingertips across the wooden table. The dark oak was glazed, and Aria belatedly realized that this conference room was so small as it was the CEO’s personal room. His name was imprinted on the front of the door, gold paint enhancing the grooves made.

He continued talking, focusing his attention on each individual member from his seat, explaining their ‘roles’ so to speak. Aria caught small snippets, chest still rising a beat too quickly for it to be ignorable and her racing mind building up a cascade of thoughts that were rising up in tandem.

Baekhyun you will be the leader - Taemin as - I think it’s important, no crucial that you remember - this is not a time for - you’ll understand my expectations in time - a common ground for those that - merging the eras -

Aria flinched violently when her name was called, head snapping away from where it was boring holes into the wall just over Taemin’s shoulder. She had yet to make eye contact with a single one of her seniors, having taken a single glance around the room upon arrival and dropped herself into a near 90 degree bow.

“What with the incredibly - albeit unexpectedly - positive response that came with your inclusion in the various NCT units, myself and my team think it fitting that you’d belong in a group such as this one. Obviously your English speaking skills are a benefit, although I am not so sure that your accent will be as tolerable to the American media as Mark’s here would be. But I’m getting ahead of myself, we can circle back to that in due time.” Sooman leant back in his chair, resting his arms against his sides.

He looked satisfied with how the meeting had gone - given that all but one member of the newly established team had signed their agreement into another contract, having handed out a thinly spaced document a few minutes prior.

Aria sat back, pen cradled in her hand as Sooman shuffled through her contract in his hands, as he had refrained from giving hers out with the others. The CEO dismissed the other members, calling for Aria to remain seated for another few minutes.

As the seven boys stood from their chairs with muffled screeches from the rubber capped legs on the chairs, Taeyong let a hand brush over Aria’s shoulder once. His face was pinched into something, lip caught between his teeth but Aria waved him off with a smile that didn’t lift her eyes.

Exiting the room, Mark glanced back over his shoulder catching a glimpse of Sooman already leaning forward in his chair and Aria sitting up straight. Attentive. And then the door swung closed, clicking shut with a soft snick and Mark couldn’t see either of them anymore.

It had been a week.

Mark had meant to ask Aria what Sooman had wanted to discuss with her privately, he really had. But between schedules and commuting and a million other things that had appeared on his ‘To-Do’ list overnight; he hadn’t found the time.

Either he crept in to the dorms a few minutes prior to the clock striking twelve with barely enough energy to take a shower, or it was Aria slipping in on light feet, sliding in to her bedroom with a quiet goodnight.

She had been disappearing more often; despite the fact that Mark was near certain that she didn’t have anymore schedules than the rest of them. Not even Donghyuck had been gone as often as her, and the two of them were prepping for NCT Dream’s next album together.

The thought settled bitterly in Mark’s stomach, so he brushed it aside. A million other thoughts filled the space left; equally as acidic.

Had she signed in to the group? Had she declined? Was there something else going on that Sooman needed to talk to her about? Was she going solo? Was she leaving them? He knew that she’d been offered the opportunity before - it nearly decimated her and Donghyuck’s friendship - but had she accepted this time? Is that where she was going? Why hadn’t she talked to anyone else about it? Why hadn’t she talked to him?

His head was full of these thoughts running on a cycle. He tried his best to shake them out.

The dorms were never full anymore - someone was always gone doing one thing, or practicing another, or discussing something else.

Mark thinks that this was his least hectic day in the last seven. But it was definitely the most stressful.

His hands were sweating and he rubbed his damp palms against the black material of his joggers, an anxious bounce in his knee. Lucas was leant against the wall beside him, tapping a finger against his thigh.

Scanning around the room, Mark saw his seniors - his groupmates, as odd as it was to acknowledge - in various degrees of unrest. Taeyong appeared relatively calm, although Mark could recognize the tense set of his jawline and he made a note to remind the leader that he had to stop grinding his teeth unless he wanted to do some damage.

Ten had his phone in his hand and an earbud in one of his ears, seemingly engrossed in watching a video. Mark could see the dangling headphone jack; unconnected to the phone. The video was paused.

As for a first practice together, Mark assumed that this was not how it was meant to go. How were they meant to perform together if they couldn’t even start a simple conversation?

None of the NCT boys had seen the choreography for their first single yet, Mark hadn’t gotten around to asking had his seniors managed to get a sneak peak or not. He didn’t think he ever would, at this rate.

The practice room was quiet, filled with an unsettled air of anxiousness although that may have just been the younger boys projecting, as Taemin looked entirely unbothered, with Kai leaning over his shoulder.

Baekhyun’s head snapped up as the door to the practice room was closed, shifting up from his seated position on the floor to greet their choreographer.

“Ah, hello,” He began, nodding his head in a greeting bow.

“..Hi?” Came a smaller voice than he was expecting.

“Riri?” Lucas said, pushing himself off the wall. “Hey, you alright?”

Aria was shifting from her left foot to her right foot, hands twisting the fabric at the end of her hoodie. Taemin tilted his head, and noticed that it was the same hoodie she had been wearing the week previous.

“What’cha doing here, Ari?” Ten asked, moving to stand closer to the girl.

“I’m here for - for practice? Right?” Aria turned the questioning on him, glancing at Ten and then turning her gaze on Taeyong. “Right?”

“For SuperM?” Mark was confused.

“Yeah?”

Aria had her eyebrows pulled together neatly, staring at Mark, who’s face had crested through about eight emotions in the last second, finally settling on a rather odd mixture of relief and pure, childlike excitement.

“Mark wha-” She cut herself off with a yelp, hands flying to grip Mark’s shoulders as he tackled her around her middle. “Mark!”

The boy in question only squeezed her tighter, lifting her off the ground a little. Aria squirmed in his grip, but as soon as Lucas’ arms were added to the equation she went lax, knowing that her chances of escape had just dropped to zero.

“Dude- oh my god,” Mark was laughing, a light breathy laugh. “Dude I thought you didn’t sign it? What was all the secrecy about?”

“What... secrecy?” Aria wheezed out. “Mark I can’t breathe-”

“Oh, sorry sorry.”

Aria was put back down on her feet, but Mark’s arms didn’t leave her middle, choosing instead to tug the girl into a hug. “You kept disappearing, I thought-”

Mark hissed in pain when Aria pinched his hip. “You’re such an idiot.”

“What?”

“You know you can talk to me?”

His cheeks flushed pink.

Luckily, Lucas saved him from the conversation, pulling Aria out from Mark’s arms and into his own. This hug was more violent, and Aria was lifted and swung around in a circle once, twice, before demanding to be put back down.

“We’re in a group together!” Lucas was beaming down at her, and Aria couldn’t help but to grin back. “Yeah we are!”

“Group hug!” Ten yelled, and suddenly Aria found herself in a tangle of Mark and Taeyong and Lucas and Ten’s arms, the four boys hugging her tightly.

Aria laughed, trying her level best to fit them all in her own hug. They stood there for a minute, arms entangled in a rather terrible mimicry of a knotted ball of yarn.

“Ah hyung, they’re so cute.”

Taeyong coughed, and the five-person cuddle unraveled quickly.

Aria spun around to see Taemin, Baekhyun and Kai all standing together on the opposite side of the room. Taemin had a fond look on his face, while Baekhyun had his tongue caught between his teeth to stave off a smile.

“Not to ruin the moment or anything, but does anyone know where our choreographer is?” Jongin peered down at his phone. “It’s been twenty minutes, are we in the right room?”

Aria cleared her throat.

“Uh, about that bit.”

Mark’s head snapped over so quickly he might have given himself whiplash. “Ari?”

“I might? Be your choreographer?” The statement came out more like a question, and Aria spread her hands out in front of her. “Believe me, I’m not quite sure how that one happened either, but if it’s going to be a problem I really have no issue with, like, not doing it? I know I’m the youngest and I don’t want to be rude or anything I-”

Mark tackled her in another hug. Aria was pretty sure her ribs were going to be bruised after this.

“Literally shut up.”

“But!”

“Shut up!”

“You’ll do a great job, Aria.” Baekhyun smiled over at the younger girl. “Do you have anything prepped, or have you heard the song yet?”

Aria shuffled awkwardly. “I have something? It’s only a rough draft really, and obviously its subject to change because, well you’re all here and whatever suits you best is the best option so,” She took a breath. Taeyong slid over to put a hand on her back, but said nothing, still waiting for one of the older members to take the lead.

“Can you show us? None of us have seen the demo yet, just Jongin.” Taemin grumbled, poking the boy in question in the stomach. Jongin flicked him back.

“Uh, yeah? Yeah, I can do that.”

“Wait wait, Ari. Is that what you were talking to Sooman about?” Mark caught her wrist to stop her from leaving the practice room. She had lost the hoodie a few hours ago, and her hair was pulled back into a sad looking ponytail. Tired and weary, all she wanted to do was take a hot shower and spend the next three hours with her face buried in her pillow.

But Mark’s question made her stop. “Uh, yeah. Yeah he just wanted to talk to me about my, responsibilities in the group, so to speak.”

If Mark was a little less exhausted and a little more alert, he would have caught the odd phrasing, but he was a lot more exhausted and a lot less alert than on a regular day, so it flew right over his head.

“Ari, that’s incredible. I’m so proud of you.” He went to pull her into another hug.

“No! Ew get off what’s with you today! Why’re you so cuddly, get off get off you’re gross and sweaty.” She knocked her hands against his chest to try and get him to move away.

“I’m just proud of you~” He sang, swaying her back and forth. “Was gonna miss you if you didn’t sign with us. ‘Dunno what to do without you in my team.”

Aria’s protests died down slowly, and her fists stopped to rest on his chest. She snorted once, poking him in the chest. “Don’t lie, you just didn’t want to be the maknae, you can’t fool me.”

“No~” Mark continued to whine. “Really, was gonna miss you.”

“Okay, okay, you big baby. I’m not going anywhere - you’re going to have to try harder than that to get rid of me. Now let go, I want a shower.”

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junicai · 3 years

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Learn the Alphabet with Aria + Friends ;

273,175 views • 15 Mar 2021 • uploaded by [haechanieski]

A is for: “Adios”

Filming a JCC episode was always something Aria looked forward to - either because she got to watch it later and laugh, or she was a guest star herself. Johnny had taken it upon himself to uphold the communication part of his series name, and asked Aria to teach Czennie some Irish while she was around.

“And how do you say goodbye?”

“Adios!” Aria spoke with full confidence, a beaming smile directed to the camera.

Johnny behind her snorted. “Adios?”

Aria blinked, before spluttering. “Oh no not adios that’s the wrong - that’s not Irish.”

“Isn’t that Spanish?”

“...yeah.”

B is for: “Baby~”

Aria was leant forward her knees, eyes fixated on the laptop in front of her that was playing the 90s Love music video. It was the first time she had seen it edited and polished, and she was anxiously anticipating her own scenes.

An Aria appeared on the screen, running her tongue over her top teeth before scrunching her nose and giving the camera a wink. She spun on her heel, tossing a jacket over her shoulder and tilted her head so her sultry smirk was visible to the camera.

The boys around her clamored loudly, and Aria cringed away from the video - right into Ten’s awaiting embrace who clasped her head in his grip and stopped her from turning her head away from the laptop.

“Baby~” Ten sang, curling his arms around Aria. “My baby is all grown up~”

Aria whined, thrashing weakly in Ten’s grip in an attempt to shake the boy off. “Nooo.”

“My baby~”

C is for: “Chewing Gum”

“Yes! It’s been a long time since we performed our debut song.” Aria took over from Chenle who had been speaking into the phone cradled in his hands. The voice-only vlive had been unplanned, and neither idol had been willing to put their messy bedheads on video for their fans to immortalize on twitter.

Chenle snickered. “Noona is just thankful that she gets to wear things other than pajamas on stage now,” He teased, jostling the phone as he leant over to poke her.

“That’s not true! Bubblegum will always have a special place in my heart.” Aria defended herself, crossing her arms in front of her stomach to protect it.

Chenle retracted his hand to stare up at Aria with a disbelieving face. She looked back at him, as the boy burst into laughter.

“Bubblegum?”

“Chewing gum! I said chewing gum. You misheard me.”

“Bubblegum-” Chenle was wheezing, hand gripping Aria’s arm tightly.

“I’m a foreigner! I have an accent!”

“Noona, that’s in English?!”

D is for: “Deicide”

“Jaemin! Leave me alon- ow.” Aria’s attempts to fight off a cuddly boy proved ineffective, the boy in question succeeding in drawing the squirming girl onto his lap and securing her in position with his arms around her waist.

Aria let out a long-suffering sigh, closing her eyes in resignation.

“Okay, yes, okay. Fine. I’m done you win.”

Jaemin smiled, satisfied, and tucked his head into the crook of Aria’s neck, humming to himself. His content mood was quickly yanked away from him however, as Aria leant down to whisper in his ear.

“Jaeminne. If you don’t let me go to finish doing my hair, I’m going to remind you of the fact that I have zero qualms with deicide, and you have yet to reach god-like standards.”

Paling slightly, he retracted his hands and Aria pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before hopping off his thigh.

E is for: “Eomma”

Aria squealed as she was tackled down, hitting the ground with a thunk as Jaehyun leapt for her from across the room. “No no no I’m sorry I take it back I take it back-”

Jaehyun was grinning down at her as he slid his hands up her sides and began to tickle her, pinning down her flailing arms as she tried to hit him. “Oh yeah? You’re sorry now?”

“Yes! Yes I’m sorry I promise - you’re not - I didn’t mean it -” Aria struggled to get the words out, unable to catch her breath.

“Eomma!” She cried out, face red and hurting with how much she was laughing. “Help mee~”

F is for: “Fudge”

Stumbling around the dorm in the dark was never a good idea, but it was late and the other members besides herself and Donghyuck were already asleep. Aria hadn’t wanted to disturb them, so the only lighting the pair had was the fading light from their phone flashlights.

“I can’t see it, but I know I put it down here somewhere? Do you think it’s behind the tab- FU-dge. I like fudge, do you like fudge?” Aria leant over the table to rest her arm on Donghyuck’s shoulder, peering at him curiously.

Her eyes were pinched with pain, and she was hopping slightly.

“Did you stub your toe on the table?”

“Psh, no! This is a serious question Hyuck. Fudge preferences are serious business.”

G is for: “Gorgeous”

“Oh! Gorgeous dahling. Positively stunning.” Aria spoke in a pompous voice, face pulled down with pinched lips and squinted eyes and obnoxiously raised eyebrows. She fluttered her hand around in an aggressively dramatic hand gesture, before spinning on her heel to flounce out of the room.

Mark and Taeyong exchanged a wide eyed glance. Clearly the ‘Greek God’ inspired video had gone more to her head than they had previously anticipated.

H is for: *intense heavy breathing*

Jungwoo took one look at Aria lying on the practice room floor, and immediately proceeded to flop down - belly first - onto the unsuspecting girl. Aria let out an oof, choking slightly at the sudden weight on her chest.

“Jung-w-oo,” She coughed out, slapping weakly at the weight of the older boy.

He only hummed in response, not moving from his position, despite the fact that Aria’s zip on her hoodie was digging into his cheek. He swung his arms up to cover her shoulders, and soon he was lying completely on top of her, obscuring the smaller girl from view.

All was quiet for a moment, before Aria broke the silence with exaggerated, heavy breathing, panting for air. Her eyes widened comically, and she was smiling despite the fact that Jungwoo was actually crushing her lungs slightly.

Still, no attempt was made to get off her, and she slowly resigned herself to her fate.

I is for: “I surrender”

The camera was set up a safe distance away, so that when the bag of flour fell to the ground and poofed up in the inevitable cloud of white dust - the piece of equipment was unharmed. Because of this, it was given a perfect view of the sequence of events that immediately followed:

Aria, grip-less in her socked feet stepped backwards out of the flour coating the floor, misjudged the circumference of the circular cloud that had by then settled, and promptly slipped over, clattering to the ground with a thud and disappearing behind the counter with a half-formed yelp.

The screen was empty for a moment, still, before a hand shot up from behind the counter, coated in the white flour.

“I surrender,” Aria waved her hand back and forth like a flag, commiserating with the now ruined flour lining the tiled floor.

J is for: “Jesus Christ”

The walls were lined with fake and real cobwebs alike, barely visible in the complete lack of light offered from the red blinking lights of the cameras that recorded each NCT 127 member as they crawled their way tentatively through the haunted house’s hallways.

Aria shuffled past old beams that looked far too close to collapse for comfort, sneezing after her nose was ticked by a hanging vine that she hadn’t seen before it was already brushing her nose as she scooted past.

The hallways were quiet, only the sound of her own breathing audible to her heightened senses. That was, until a hand shot out from behind a load-bearing beam, gnarled nails reaching to grab at her skin.

She jumped back, letting out a vocal-chord ripping shriek. “Jesus Christ!”

K is for: *Kiss*

“So, Aria is not a lover of skinship?” The question was posed to Taeyong, the leader having been given the choice to choose his member’s punishment after losing the game they had been playing.

Taeyong let out a short chuckle, seeing where the interviewer was going with their question. “No, no she’s not. Only if we initiate it - and she’ll normally kick us off pretty quickly.”

Aria was shaking her head, making slicing motions in front of her neck to signal Taeyong to stop, no, please anything but that, stop it-

Taeyong paid no mind to her, and soon Aria was settled on a stool in the centre of the studio floor, knees tucked into her chest as Jaemin, Ten, Doyoung and Taeil - the members of her losing team - all gathered around her in a circle.

One by one, they all pressed a single kiss to her cheek, Aria cringing away from Ten’s hold when he went to press another peck to her forehead, and Doyoung coming behind her to hold her still.

When the four boys retreated, Aria was red in the face, the blush adorning her cheeks visible despite the foundation.

L is for: “You don’t love me”

“Hyuck, I have to go.”

“Noooo.” The boy whined from his position sprawled over the mattress, legs spread and hands clutching onto Aria’s wrist to prevent her from leaving. “Stay. M’comfy.”

Aria sighed, tugging at her wrist futilely. “Hyuck, I’m literally going to the bathroom. I’ll be five minutes - less if you let me go now.”

Donghyuck only whined louder, tightening his grip. “No!”

Tossing her head back to the ceiling, Aria yanked her hand out of his grip, plugging her ears against the screech of protest that left Donghyuck’s mouth.

“NO! Come back!”

When Aria made no motion to return, having exited through the doorway hastily, he threw himself back onto the bed. “You don’t love me anymore!”

Her response echoed down the hallway, punctuated by the slamming of the bathroom door. “I do! You’re just a big baby and I needed to go!”

M is for: *Mine*

Aria slid beneath the reaching arm of their maknae, patting him on the side to make him edge a little to the left as she too reached for one of the cookies that were set up on the small snack table.

The white chocolate chips were tempting her, and after staring at the still-full plate for twenty minutes, there was only so much she could do in terms of self restraint.

Scurrying back to her original seat, she settled back in comfortably, bringing the cookie up to her mouth and nibbling at the crunchy edge of the treat.

N is for: “Neo”

“Nono?” Aria bent her neck down to peer at the boy who had entered through the door, dropped his bag, slid off his shoes and then promptly snuggled himself into Aria’s side without so much as a hello.

Jeno nodded in acknowledgement, but made no attempt to explain his curious behaviour.

“Dude,” Aria sighed, hand already moving to run through his hair despite her long-suffering eyeroll, “You’re not being very neo right now.”

O is for: “Ow”

Sitting beside Mark in any context was never a good idea when one wasn’t wearing sleeves or long trousers. He was a very, volatile, laugher, and once he got going it was impossible to stop.

Unfortunately for Aria, her short dress afforded her neither of the aforementioned luxuries, and so she was sure that by the end of the day she was going to be covered in black and purpling bruises from Mark’s non-malicious attacks.

The movie on the screen flickered to a new scene, one that sent Mark into another burst of raucous laughter. His hand raised, and clapped down on Aria’s arm, again, and again, and again.

“Ow, ow, ow ow ow ow, Mark!”

P is for: “Potato juice”

Lucas held up his glass to the camera, grinning as he said, “Apple juice!”

Taeyong bit back a smile as Jungwoo fit himself into the frame, holding his own glass and affirming Lucas’ statement. “Apple juice!”

The camera was spun around, focusing briefly on the apostles of darkness who held up their own glasses of apple juice, before it panned down the row to where Aria was sitting, cradling a glass of clear liquid in her hands that she was taking small sips from.

Taking notice of the camera focusing on her, she took another sip of her glass before holding it up in a cheers. “Potato juice!” She cheered, bringing it back to her lips and paying no mind to the startled cough Doyoung let out, choking on his own apple juice.

Doyoung spun to the camera, gently pulling the glass from Aria’s grasp. “Water. It’s water.” His tone dropped a few decibels, “Did Jaehyun give you this? I’ll kill him.”

Q is for: “Quickly”

“Quickly! Hurry up!” Renjun yelled, rushing over to help Aria into the inflatable costume to begin her run.

“Yah, Renjun! I’m not on your team stop yelling at me!” Aria retorted, pushing his fumbling hands away and pulling up the straps onto her shoulders.

R is for: “Ruff”

The door swung open with a quiet creak, Donghyuck only hearing it when the handle made contact with the wall behind it. He spun around in his chair, eyebrow lifting at the sight of Aria partially in through the doorway. “Hey?”

“Ruff.” Aria blinked at him, unmoving.

“Uh, ruff?” Donghyuck responded in kind, his eyebrows now knitting together in confusion.

Nodding satisfactorily, Aria exited the room with a wave. “Mark! I told you I could get him to bark on live.”

S is for: “Saranghae”

It was a group-wide agreement that in 127, the title for cutest either went to one of the maknaes, or their oldest hyung. Apparently that agreement also spread over stan-twitter, because suddenly Taeil and Aria were being pitted against each other in an aeygo-off. Fan edits and polls were made, and TaeilvsAria was trending on Twitter for nearly a week.

Eager to encourage the trend, it was all too easy for the staff to set the pair up in front of a camera and press record.

Two minutes in, and neither member had broken, both maintaining their stoic faces - although Aria’s lip was slightly red from being bitten, having resorted to pinching the skin between her lips to prevent a smile from breaking out on her face when Taeil had tucked his hands underneath his chin and pouted.

She inhaled, thinking hard on how to end the competition swiftly, exhaling with a small smile as she settled on her next plan of attack.

Spinning around, Aria set her gaze on Taeil, letting her eyes widen and her lips fall into a natural pout.

“Oppa~” She wheedled, moving to clasp his hand in hers. “Saranghae~”

Taeil’s face crumpled, and he closed his eyes in defeat as he dragged Aria into his embrace. “Cheater.”

T is for: “Tough biscuits”

“But what if I don’t want to?” Yangyang argued, pointing at Aria.

“Then, tough biscuits.” Aria stuck out her tongue in retaliation, stealing the game controller from his hands and flicking the game to Minecraft. “I suck at those shooty-games, let me have this.”

U is for: “Unnie”

With her mask pulled up over her nose and lips, Aria was pretty confident that she wasn’t going to be recognized by a member of the public as she strolled down the street towards the coffee shop that had recently opened its doors a few streets over.

She was humming happily, but jolted as she felt an arm snake itself around her waist. Immediately on high-alert, she went to push the unknown person away, before catching a glimpse of their face.

“Unnie!” Aria’s entire demeanor changed, face breaking out into a bright smile beneath the black facemask.

Irene smiled back at her, squeezing her waist lightly. “Hey, angel! How’re you?”

V is for: “Very untrue”

“And Aria normally naps during this time anyway, so we should be happy she’s awake for this.” Jaemin informed the few thousand czennie watching the vlive, phone tucked in between two chairs in the greenroom.

Aria’s mouth dropped open at the obvious betrayal. “Hey! Very untrue! False information! You liar, I do not.”

Jaemin snickered, leaning into the phone. “You can see the marks on her cheek from the arm of the chair too, right czennie?”

The dancer leant over and thumped him on the back of his head for that.

W is for: “Wait wait wait-”

Aria was sprinting down the hallway, phone clutched to her chest and panting. Yuta followed in quick pursuit, rapidly gaining thanks to longer legs and shoes that offered more grip than the tenuous grip offered by Aria’s slippers.

“Wait wait wait, Yuta, no I don’t want to die!” She breathed, pumping her legs faster in an attempt to flee from almost certain death. Perhaps, taking candid photos of the man while he was unconsciously snuggled up to Mark’s side as he slept was, in hindsight, not the best idea.

Yuta was rapidly gaining on her, despite her best efforts.

“Please don’t kill me!”

X is for: “Xièxiè”

Accepting the glass from Kun’s hand, Aria smiled up at the man. “Xièxiè.”

Kun, who was already moving away and back into the kitchen responded in kind, before flinging himself into another bout of conversation; but this time, with a language switch.

Being so used to the constant flip-flopping between languages in the WAYV dorms, he thought nothing of it, but after asking a question and receiving no response, he peered back into the main living area to see Aria sitting there with a puzzled expression on her face.

“Uh, Xièxiè?”

Y is for: “Yessir”

Taeyong explained what it is Aria had to complete for her mission, handing her a small slip of paper that she was to hide from the other team before they came into the makeshift base that had been constructed a few minutes prior.

Aria nodded, completely serious. “Yes sir.”

He waved her away, happy that she understood the level of importance that he had just entrusted her with, and Aria happily departed from the conversation -

By the means of vaulting a table and scrambling over a chair before exiting the door.

Taeyong blinked. And then shrugged, turning his attention elsewhere.

Z is for: *Zzzz*

Snuggled up beneath a blanket is exactly where Aria wanted to be at that very moment - not sitting in the back of a van, squished between Johnny and Yuta. The two men were broad-shoulders, and that left Aria to be batted between the two like a ping-pong ball.

Despite the abrasions to her temple however, Aria found herself slowly drifting off - the lengthy schedules and lack of sleep finally catching up on her.

Her head dropped to the side, first falling forward before it was gently maneuvered onto Yuta’s shoulder, where he tucked her closer and into his side.

Letting out a pleased hum, Aria snuggled closer into his warm coat, sighing softly as she drifted to sleep.

thank you for watching ! - haechanieski

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