Author's Notes:
Side characters that appear for the first time/mentioned for the first time in this chapter plus their pronunciations.
Oh Youngchul
-- Young-choy
You are probably wondering why I updated today instead of next Friday. That news will appear after the chapter is over so you can go ahead and proceed with the plot first.
Posted 5-27-22
4807 words
October 19th
After supper last night Gamon-hyung called our group manager, An Junghee, and first made sure that he knew all about that awful meeting that happened. It was pretty obvious that Junghee-hyung wasn't told very much about what occurred, and once Gamon-hyung informed him, even though I couldn't hear his side of the conversation, it was pretty obvious he was just as angry and upset as all of us were. After Gamon-hyung got off the phone he told us that Junghee-hyung was planning on arranging for us all to have another day off tomorrow.
Which as of right now I was relieved about. I had a horribly restless night because I was both worried about Minsook-hyung getting transferred, but also because I was excited about seeing if our soulmate marks matched. Well, and of course getting the soulmate mark in general.
Those of us that are awake, Juah-hyung, Jaeyeon-hyung, and myself, have been up since about seven. I glance at the clock again and notice that half an hour has passed since then. I stare down at the steaming mug in front of me.
As a rule I don't tend to drink coffee. Sure, I can probably doctor it up to better suit my taste buds, but normally if I want something warm to drink I tend to choose hot chocolate instead. However, my actual breakfast drink of choice is usually a tall glass of fruit juice. What kind of juice generally depends upon either my mood or what we have on hand. Although my hyungs do try to make sure I have at least two or three selections in the fridge that I can choose from.
I find myself glaring at the hot beverage that is sitting in front of me again. I chose the bitter drink this morning due to the high level of caffeine, because honestly I kind of need the pick-me-up to help drive away the grogginess. I'm not sure how much sleep I got last night; I'm sure it was at most three hours. I tossed and turned so much that eventually sometime after two in the morning Jaeyeon-hyung had grabbed his duvet and pillow then left our room to try to get some sleep on the couch.
I genuinely felt awful about it, but as far as I could tell he hadn't been having any luck sleeping himself. I glance up at Juah-hyung who is working on making breakfast for the three of us. He has large shadows gracing the hollows underneath his eyes. He must not have gotten much sleep last night either. I silently surmise to myself. I'm worried though, because he takes such good care of all of us and rarely puts himself first. He should have slept in, but I know suggesting that wouldn't have done any good. He wouldn't have listened.
A warm hand grasps my shoulder. "I'm sorry that I left our room so abruptly last night."
I shake my head and turn the stool around so I can face him properly. "No, hyung. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to keep you up with my restlessness."
The corners of his lips lift up in a drowsy colored smile. "How about after breakfast we play some 'Among Us' that should at least get our minds off our marks for a while."
"Ooh yes! But, one of us has to bring our laptop in here while the other stays in our room to play. It wouldn't really be fair otherwise. Do you think we should announce it in our Fancafe? See if any Currents want to join our lobby?"
He nods. "I like the way you think, Jiseongie. And I'll take the living room; you can play from our room."
I smile at him before turning toward the elder twin. "Did you want to play too, Juah-hyung?" Honestly I should know the answer before I even ask. Juah-hyung does play occasionally when the whole group plays, but he doesn't usually want to when it's only one or two of us. Especially not when we try to get our Currents to join us.
"Not this time, Jiseongie. But you and Jaeyeonie have fun." I feel my smile fall from my face, however I rejoice a little bit when he amends his announcement adding an additional suggestion. "How about I watch you play after I get the kitchen cleaned up?"
Jaeyeon heads to the other side of the kitchen counter so he is only a foot away from his brother and frowns at him. "But, you are doing the cooking. The two of us should do the cleaning. It's only fair."
Juah shakes his head. "I don't mind this time. It will occupy my mind, and I definitely need the gears inside my brain to slow down the way they are grinding against each other."
I lift my mug to my mouth and take a dainty sip of the hot bitter liquid, and I can't control the grimace once the flavor hits my tongue. I hear the fridge door shut before Juah-hyung hands me a bottle of French Vanilla flavored creamer and a spoon. I know that caramel is Juah-hyung's favorite flavor, but he honestly isn't known for sharing any of his creamer with anyone. It's the one thing he is selfish about; not that it really matters with the drink choices of the people who live here. Minsook-hyung takes his Americano black. Jaeyeon-hyung prefers soda and energy drinks. Gamon-hyung prefers to drink Thai tea, although he too will drink Americanos as well (yesterday he went through a lot of them since he didn't get to sleep at all).
Juah-hyung must see the expression on my face because he smirks at me for a moment before saying. "I'm only sharing because it's not my favorite." He pauses for a moment. "Plus, it only has a few days left before the expiration date." He points out the date for me to see before lifting the bottle up and shaking it.
I hear the small amount of liquid left in the container and smile. "Well, if it will help you out..." I take the container and pour what little remains into my mug. I make an unmanly squeak-like noise when the liquid continues to pour out of the bottle. It nearly meets the lip of the mug once the bottle is finally empty. I feel surprised, but also somehow both relieved that it didn't overflow and guilty that I misjudged the amount left in the bottle. I look up at Juah-hyung apologetically. "Sorry. I should have stopped pouring earlier."
Juah-hyung offers me a half-smile. "It isn't spilled water." His paraphrase of the proverb has me slightly chuckling in response.
'It is spilled water.' The true proverb simply means don't worry about such minor issues, because in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter. I think I remember that in the English language their proverb closest to that one is something about spilt milk, which has me immediately laughing even more. I have to wait until my boisterous giggle fit subsides before I can explain the reason for my abrupt laughter properly to my twin hyungs. They are looking at me like I lost it, and that almost makes me laugh even harder. I take a few deep breaths, swipe my fingers at the corner of my eyes to remove the tears that gathered there threatening to spill out, and afterward I explain to my twin hyungs. They both chuckle quietly in response.
I look down at the mug and realize I haven't stirred the flavor in. I pick up my spoon and frown at it for a moment before my eyes switch back to the mug. I may have managed to keep it from spilling when I poured it in, but once I try to stir it the liquid is definitely going to slosh over the sides.
Juah-hyung immediately realizes my dilemma, grabs a napkin, lifts the mug gently, and puts it underneath it. "There, now we can at least limit the amount of mess that it makes." We both chuckle as the napkin becomes saturated. I lift up the mug once more so he can grab the napkin to discard it. Then he grabs a washcloth from the sink to mop up the spillage. Afterward opens a drawer and grabs one of the wooden coasters, which is usually used for Gamon-hyung's tea, before putting it under the mug. I smile and thank him before lifting the mug to my lips to take a dainty sip of the doctored concoction, while it still tastes somewhat bitter it is at least tolerable due to the added sweetness.
After I take a few sips, and the liquid in the mug is no longer at risk to spill over, Juah-hyung asks, "Would you like some sugar too?"
For a second I considered shrugging and acting as if I am good with the way it is, but then I changed my mind and decided instead to be completely honest. "It might help. Yes please."
I honestly feel guilty for leaving the room last night like I had. I hadn't been sleeping at the time. Far from it actually. However, I WAS trying to concentrate.
I was trying to work on some lyrics for the new album. It wasn't just Jiseongie's restlessness that gave me difficulty concentrating though; my mind was spinning through all of the stuff that happened yesterday. Sure playing foot volleyball worked to keep the news of the meeting yesterday off our minds for a while, and the idea of sharing a soulmate definitely lifted our spirits. The problem was that once everything was quiet and still the memories of those two events cropped up in my mind and simply would not go away.
When Juah and I first tried out at a cattle call years ago I never expected to end up one of the creative minds behind our songs. I never intended to end up being essentially our main lyricist. All I was actually trying to do when I wrote the words for the tracks that Gamon-hyung finished was help him out.
Gamon-hyung had enough shit on his plate to deal with just by being our group leader. I don't know why the fuck they expect more out of him than he already gives. Out of all of us he gets the least amount of sleep at night, often getting home at five in the morning to only have to get back up at eight so he can ensure he is back at the company building at nine.
I sigh and look over towards the kitchen where Jiseongie and my twin are talking. I'm hoping playing 'Among Us', like I had suggested, will get our minds off of everything for a while. First though we need to get something in our stomachs. "How much longer until breakfast is ready, hyung?"
"The short ribs probably have about ten minutes left to cook. I'm just about to start the steamed eggs now. Would you like anything in them aside from scallions though?" Typical Juah. He's a people pleaser and always has been, but it all stems from a good place. He just wants to make sure the people around him that he cares for are as happy as they can be.
Even though my brother asks me the question Jiseongie answers. "How about carrots and radishes? Unless we are also having radish kimchi that is."
I nod thoughtfully at his suggestions. "I agree with those additions. What else are we having?"
"Napa cabbage kimchi, rice, and as I already stated the grilled short ribs." He answers me.
Once again the maknae asks him for something else. "Can we also have the asian pear fruit salad you made before?"
I smile fondly but find myself asking. "Do we even have the pomegranates for that?"
"Unfortunately no, but I can substitute them for cranberries this time. Although I also don't have persimmons, and those aren't as easily replaceable." I can hear the frown in his voice from here. It's the season for them so I am almost surprised he doesn't have any right now.
"What about plums?" I ask.
"Oh, that might work."
Suddenly both Jiseongie and I are on fruit preparation duty. Neither of us mind though, we were the ones that requested the fruit salad after all. After ten minutes everything is ready except the assembly of the salad ingredients, but it takes my twin next to no time to mix them together and add the honey lemon syrup over the top.
After breakfast I type a quick message in our Fancafe regarding the game we are about to play. Per normal though I make a game out of guessing the password for our lobby. The clue being, 'This was one of the names we originally considered for our group before settling on Alluvion.' I could choose Tsunami but instead I choose the harder, yet shorter answer, Aqua in an attempt to somewhat trip them up. (After all, we did go through several different spellings for Aqua, and Tsunami was the one at the top of our list before we finally settled on Alluvion.)
Of course our Currents surprised me, and despite how difficult I had tried to make the question, the lobby still fills up in next to no time. I type up a quick message to the players that joined. "Welcome Currents. Just in case you haven't played with us before we play two games and then we say goodbye to those players so we can cycle a new group of eight in. Please leave when asked so as many Currents can enjoy the game as possible. Thank you so much for understanding and joining us in our game! We will start in two minutes so please use this opportunity to take a break if you need to."
While I typed up that message Jiseongie typed up a message in the Fancafe letting the Currents who were waiting know that the lobby is currently full. He also reminds them of the same rule that I made. The fact that after two games the lobby will open up again for at least two more games so please be patient. Once the games are finished he will type another message letting the Currents waiting know that the lobby is available now with another trivia question to obtain the password to get in. Minsookie and Gamon-hyung both wake up at some point while we are still playing; I'm too preoccupied with the game to know what time it was for certain, but I know it was toward the tail end of the number of games we played.
I actually lost track of the number of games we end up playing overall after we wrap up. Traditionally any time we invite our Currents to play with us before we start wrapping up due to having to get to a schedule on time or even if we have just grown tired of the game we always offer to play two more games before we completely end our session. That way the Currents who were on standby waiting to join our lobby have a heads up, and we make it as far as possible.
Somehow I end up being 'Imposter' only twice during all of the games, and Jiseongie ends up being the 'Imposter' four times. I laugh at how ironic that is, because he prefers being a crewmate unless he ends up imposter alongside me. Unfortunately that didn't happen in any of the games we played, but we still had a blast and it got our minds off of the craziness that had been bothering us for hours now.
Since the two younger members in the house are playing their game I offer to take care of the dishes also this morning. Honestly, the unfairness of that would probably bother me normally, but at least doing the dishes gives me a chance to get my mind off of things for a while.
If I were to speculate how much sleep I got last night I would probably wager to guess it was at most a total of three hours; so during the last 48 hours I probably have only had a total of six hours sleep. On the good side my mind was more focused on our potential soulmate than the fiasco that was Minsookie's meeting yesterday. I sigh in mild irritation. That's an understatement.
My mind literally wouldn't stop whirling around the plethora of possibilities regarding the soulmate situation. Even as I was making breakfast I found myself wondering if she could also cook. Then I thought about what it would be like to share the kitchen with her. My next thought though was the fact that this apartment, or dorm as we refer to it, isn't made to fit more than our five members. Then there is the possibility that even if we do share a soulmate she probably wouldn't be able to live with us immediately due to the fact that the company would probably be thoroughly against the idea. Damn, that would be complicated having to fit in any time to see her between work and free time. Not to mention probably having to keep our relationship as quiet as possible; for as long as possible.
That of course spawns off another worry. What if she lives so far away that she would have to relocate in order to be with us? Where would she live then? Would she have to live out of her suitcases in a hotel room? I honestly didn't like the idea of that at all, but it was the most likely answer. There would be no reason for us to find a new place to live until we locate her.
Then I ended up worrying that we wouldn't be able to find her at all. Sure we had discussed the possibility of hyung broadcasting his mark for the world to see if she did end up being the soulmate to all of us. While Minsookie tends to get in trouble with a lot of his plans, or schemes, this one in particular makes sense to me. I'm still hesitant to fully back him up on the idea, but having the media run with the news was pretty genius. Unfortunately though it still wouldn't be a surefire way to find her. It would make the possibility of it happening easier. What if she lived across the world from us though? What if she was a foreigner from another country? I ask myself once more. In that situation there could be no guarantee that she would know of our group's existence. Sure, we were starting to grow bigger and becoming more popular internationally, but we were anything but worldwide famous at this point.
My parents used to always tease me about worrying too much. They would say I was essentially the living embodiment of the proverb, 'even if you know the way, ask again.' The proverb simply means to not be overly optimistic or to presume something will end with a certain outcome. The future is unpredictable and there is no way that you can foresee everything that may come. I am always fretting over the unexpected.
I take a deep breath to give myself a moment to focus and rely on what I do know right now rather than what I don't know. I know that we all should receive our marks in just a few hours. I know that somewhere out there each of us has someone that will love us unconditionally. I also know we will do everything in our power to find that person for each of us so we can start the next chapter of our lives.
In order to not mess my sleep schedule up too much I set my alarm on my phone for 9 o'clock. Figures I would wake up two minutes before the damn thing went off. I glare at my phone as if it's the device's fault that I unintentionally woke up early. I think I am actually more irritated with the fact that I have to turn off the alarm before it goes off than anything else though.
I'm honestly surprised I slept as well as I did. There was a lot going on in my mind last night. I wasn't terribly confident that Gamon-hyung would go along with my plan for certain if our marks do end up the same. However, just knowing I would receive my mark today must have given me some relief.
It takes me about 15 minutes to go through my morning routine, and when I enter the living room it's to see that Jaeyeon-hyung is on the couch, wearing a headset, and cradling his laptop on his lap. "Good morning." I don't know if he will hear me or not, but I would rather make my presence known audibly rather than him potentially getting startled to just see me standing nearby.
"Morning Minsookie." He replies without looking up. "Jiseongie and I are playing Among Us with our Currents. I'd ask if you want to join, but we are probably going to be wrapping up in a few games or so."
"No worries hyung." I reply before heading to the kitchen. Hopefully there is coffee ready.
I realize as I enter the kitchen that I have nothing to worry about regarding the coffee. Juah-hyung is there doing an inventory of what we have left in our refrigerators and pantry. He must have started the coffee maker again before starting the task since it is currently running. I'll have a fresh cup in only a matter of moments.
Gamon-hyung comes in just as I am pouring my coffee in a mug. He still looks a bit bleary eyed, which I am definitely not surprised by. I set my mug down beside me and hold up the carafe before asking if he wants one too.
"Maybe just one."
Juah-hyung holds up his phone. "I don't think it would be a bad idea to go to the supermarket and pick up stuff today. We are low on a lot of things, and with the day off we can even get ingredients to make fresh kimchi."
"Ooh! Radish kimchi please!" Jaeyon-hyung calls from his space on the couch.
It's muffled but we can barely catch Jiseongie's voice requesting green onion kimchi also.
Juah-hyung sighs as if exasperated, although there is no fighting the smirk that grows on his face. "Any other special kimchi requests at this point?"
I smirk back. "Sure, add perilla leaf kimchi to the list as well."
Juah-hyung makes a loud noise of rebuttal, but I know he will cave. He almost always does. Then he registers that Gamon-hyung and I haven't had anything to eat, forgets all about his temporary annoyance, and lets us know there are leftovers from breakfast.
Gamon-hyung shakes his head. And all of the sudden I have a clever idea. "Why don't we all go to the store with you and divy up the list to make it quicker? Afterward, I am sure all of us will be hungry so we can grab something to eat at a nearby restaurant."
Gamon-hyung grumbles for a second. "We will probably need to make arrangements at the restaurant ahead of time, and we should probably take more than one of our managers with us." He quickly dials Mengrai-hyung after he finishes his thought.
"Have Mengrai-hyung get a hold of Youngchul-hyung to see if he will come along. I'll text him beforehand though so he expects his call." Juah-hyung recruits his own manager to come with us.
I lift my coffee up to my lips, and I try my best to hide my smirk. Seems like they both conveniently forgot what time our marks will end up showing. Mine should be around 10:30, the twins 11:15, and Jiseong's and Gamon's should appear around 12:30. Which should place us conveniently at the restaurant at about that time.
Looks like my plan will happen without Gamon-hyung even realizing it. The only thing of course that I can't count on is whether our marks will actually match or not.
Mengrai and Youngchul-hyung both act as our security as we go through the supermarket finding everything that we need. That's actually one of the reasons why we each have our own manager. So, they can also act as both our personal driver and security in addition to taking care of our personal schedules.
Despite the bills of our hats veiling our eyes and our masks covering our faces from the nose down of course we are still recognized. I'm thankful though that the few fans we see while shopping are completely respectful of our space and don't hinder our trip by stopping us every few minutes. Of course as we leave the store we are stopped by a few fans asking for selcas, and since there aren't many we are nice enough to comply. After we say goodbye we all climb back into the SUV and head toward the restaurant.
We picked what we wanted ahead of time, and Mengrai called them to ask if their private room was available. It's a bit of a drive to get there, but that also means that anyone that spotted us at the supermarket would be unlikely to discover where we are going for lunch.
Once Mengrai parks the SUV Youngchul-hyung gets out to make sure that everything is arranged, and to scope out the amount of people currently there. Basically, if the main dining area is overly crowded despite the fact we made arrangements ahead of time we would either have to find somewhere else to eat, or we would have to order our food to go.
He comes back out and lets us know we got the all clear. We all know exactly what we want when the waitress comes our way and it expedites how quickly we get our food.
We all have only a few bites remaining when Jiseongie gasps loudly. His arms start gesticulating wildly before he points at me. No. He points specifically at my neck. Crap. How did I forget all about our marks appearing around this time? I guess Minsookie is going to get his wish after all, because I didn't even consider what I was wearing, and my soulmate mark has to be on full display right now due to the v-neck sweater I chose to wear this morning. Even if there are only a few people out in the dining room right now, which I highly doubt, there is sure to be at least one or two people that will notice. All it would take is one fan sharing it on Social Networking Services (SNS).
I glance at Minsookie and notice the satisfied glint in his eye. Well shit! That rascal totally just let this happen! I can tell from his expression that when I brought up going out to eat he knew. He knew we would be put in this position.
"It's a lotus flower." Jaeyeonie interrupts my mental realization.
Juahie shakes his head. "No, it's a water lily." He obviously isn't sure why the mark would be a water lily due to his look of confusion, but I am not surprised that he would know the difference between the two water flowers.
I mentally laugh. A fucking water flower!?!? How ironic is that shit!?
Suddenly Jiseongie is pulling up his left sleeve and trying to see the mark there. He smiles triumphantly. "It's identical!"
After that Minsookie, Juahie, and Jaeyeonie all swap looks with each other. Then they simultaneously announce that they are going to the bathroom. It's about five minutes before they come back, but I already know due to Juahie and Jaeyeonie's duplicated cheshire grins that all of our soulmate marks match.
Minsookie's grin is probably the biggest out of all of ours, but I have to hope that this doesn't bite us in the ass. I have to hope that the company understands why we let this happen. Maybe now they will let me release Whispers like I have been wanting to for ages.
I stand up, because we might as well get this over with. "Well, looks like I am getting my picture taken. You know that someone has surely let Pandect know that we are here anyway. Obviously we all got lost in the day and forgot what time to expect our marks to appear. I definitely didn't consider what I was wearing, and I can't exactly cover it up now even if I wanted to."
Pandect. The bane of our existence. The equivalent to Eastern countries' paparazzi. At least this time they will be unintentionally doing us a favor.
Resources and reasons:
The fruit salad recipe, or at least the original one before Juah's substitutions can be found linked to this paragraph.
I didn't really know the difference between a lotus and water lily before writing this story, or at least I didn't look it up before. Lotuses shoot up directly out of the water. Water lilies set on the water on lily pads. You can find a better description at the link in the comment section to this paragraph.
At The last minute I added the Korean proverb moments. I found them here, but I think I need to look up more. You can find the ones I found linked to the paragraph here.
Pandect means "bird's-eye view" and I thought that name would make sense for a gossipy news company.
So on with the news. (If you also follow Legion of Dionysus you probably read this already.)
I am taking a short, probably two week, break from posting. For the past month or so I haven't been able to get up at my normal time, and I think that's due in part to the fact that my husband's schedule has changed. (There are also more health things regarding myself, but I don't know all the details yet.)
I also noticed that my notes are a mess, and I need to fix them before I can continue on with the story. I don't want to unintentionally fall into a plot hole.
In other news not all of the reason I have gotten behind is bad. For the past month I have been working on other exciting things, and once I get something concrete finished I will be letting everyone know what that is.