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"...I just hate how subjective art is. And I no longer find joy in doing it. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've wanted to drop out." Haneul's roommate cried as she lays face up on the couch, treating it like a therapy session. Haneul nodded along, listening to her friend.
"Hmm, what made you like art in the first place?" Haneul asked, looking up from the notebook she was writing in, more specifically doodling.
"Well I'm good at it. And I used to get a lot of compliments and I guess I liked them." Sara explained. Haneul put the book down aggressively, causing Sara to jump up slightly.
"There's a difference between liking something and being good at it. For example, I didn't like cooking but I was good at it. It's the same for you. You won't find joy out of doing something simply by being good at it. You need passion." Haneul advised. "Find things you really want to draw, or paint. Put the things you like into art. I mean you might actually enjoy that more than forcing yourself to make amazing pieces for school."
"What made you like cooking?" Sara asked. Haneul smiled, glad she asked.
"It was actually when I cooked for you for the first time. I was expecting a compliment, but when you started tearing up and told me it was the first home-cooked meal you had in months I realised there was more to cooking than just making you full." Haneul explained.
"Wait..like actually? Because of me?!" Sara gasped, touched by Haneul's story.
"Don't read into it that much, I just felt bad for you okay." She warned.
"Aww you love me." Sara teased, before pulling Haneul into a tight hug, swaying her from side to side.
"Pfft...sure."
The sound of someone entering the flat interrupted their moment. Yoonbin stepped into their living room, a plastic bag in his hand, looking like it was filled with snacks.
"Sara move aside, it's my turn to talk." He announced before making his way to the couch, sitting down beside Sara.
"You talked to your parents?" Haneul asked before digging into the plastic bag, pulling out some chips and helping herself to them. Yoonbin had a smile on his face, something Haneul had never seen after he talked to his parents.
"Yeah I did, and I started off by apologizing first, as always. But they said it was okay, and that their happy if I'm happy." He explained. "We had a heart to heart convo about the shop."
"Wait seriously!?" Sara exclaimed as she hugged him aggressively.
"Yep." Yoonbin nodded proudly. "But I still have to pay them back for using the uni money for the shop."
"That's fair." Haneul said as she munched on the chips, passing the bag over to him. "I'm happy for you man, now you don't need to worry so much "
"It's so relieving." He said with a sigh, leaning back into the couch. Haneul was really happy for him. Yoonbin had a tough relationship with his parents, they had forced him to go to university to study something he obviously had no interest in, his real dream was to open a shop. A place where people could meet, a place that would bring people together, a place where he could make fantastic drinks that people enjoy. That was what Yoonbin had told her when they first met, when she was a freshmen and in need for a job, stumbling into an empty bubble tea shop run by a shy guy around her age. He had told her his dream and it was almost as if she was the one employing him instead of the other way around, he was trying to get her to accept the job. "Anyways, how was work last night?"
"Ahh that." She thinks back to the guys who came over. Specifically Winwin, more well known to her as dream guy. "Yangyang came, he brought his friends over."
"Ugh really? Again? I mean I don't hate the guy but he keeps coming after hours." Yoonbin complained.
"Well I guess idols want their privacy."
"Idols?" Sara perked up at the sound of her main interest. "Like K-pop idols? Who did you meet? Please tell me."
"Uhh just a few guys." Haneul had just remembered Sara's love for Idols, though the girl is more into girl groups if she remembered correctly. "Do you by any chance stan nct?" Haneul asked. As if setting off a bomb, Sara stood up and ran to her room, coming back seconds later with what seemed to be albums in her hands.
"YES!" Sara exclaimed excitedly. "You've never asked me about K-pop before and I am not giving away this chance." She said as she began to shuffle the albums around in some sort of order Sara didn't understand. Haneul looked at Yoonbin who gave her a shrug before going over to join Sara on the floor, looking over the pool of albums.
"I want to know more about my customers." Yoonbin said, as if to explain why he was joining.
"Wow I knew this group has a lot of members but this...is a lot of albums." Haneul said, amazed by how much there is.
"Ah that's because of sub-units, also I have every single one of their albums." Sara explained. "So who are the guys who came to the shop?"
"Well usually there's this guy named Yangyang." Yoonbin said, starting them off. Sara picked an album, skimming through the pages before showing them a picture of him. "Yeah that's the one."
"I am really jealous of you guys right now." Sara said through a forced smile. "Well he's part of Wayv which is the Chinese unit of nct, he's obviously Chinese and he is twenty years old."
"He's younger than I thought." Haneul comments. It explained a lot about his personality. "The next guy is Xiaojun, he seems to come with Yangyang each time."
"Ah Xiaojun." Sara simply turned a few pages before a brooding picture of Xiaojun was in full view. "Also in Wayv, Chinese, and he's twenty one."
"Damn how are these people so young." Yoonbin said. "Are there any that are my age?"
"Yep Kun and Ten." Sara showed him a picture of them together before Yoonbin took the album out of her hands, taking a look himself.
"I'm just researching." He said as he looked through the album.
"You're in love with them." Haneul confirmed before Yoonbin gave her am unapproving look. "Uh anyways, I also met Renjun but he's not important right now. Show me Winwin."
"Oh okay..." It took a while for Sara to choose an album, she seemed to be choosing amongst a variety before finally choosing one. She turned the pages before settling on a picture of him, showing it to Haneul. It was definitely the same guy she saw last night and in her dream. She had to admit, he is insanely good looking and something about his vibe is just...pretty. " Winwin, his real name is Dong Sicheng, he's chinese and is in Wayv but has also been in nct 127. Oh and he's twenty three."
"Wow he's only a year older than me." Haneul said. "Weird."
"It really isn't that weird." Sara commented.
"Eh kinda, he seems mature." Said Haneul before taking the 'Regular Irregular' album out of Sara's hand. "I'm borrowing this. For research."
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Winwin likes his job. It wasn't the job he wanted, nor did he ever think he'd ever be an idol, but here he was, successfully filming another music bank stage for 90's love. But he can't deny that he hates it sometimes, not the job itself but everything else that comes with it, specifically his company. If he wasn't so good at hiding his emotions he would have a pretty bad reputation amongst the company's staff because today, sm had kindly denied an acting offer for him, without asking him, or his manager first. He had been wanting a drama role for way to long, and if they weren't even going to give him lines, Winwin saw no point in them not letting him act.
"Hey." Ten nudged him from his side, probably noticing how silent he was compared to the everyone else in the car. "Are you okay?" He asked. Winwin hadn't told Ten, thinking there's no reason to, he's heard it a few times before anyways.
"Yeah." Winwin lied. "Just tired from that stage. It was really fun though." It was really fun, Winwin seemed to have forgotten all about it when he performed on stage with his friends.
"Do you want to go for another drink?" Yangyang asked in Chinese, turning around to look at Winwin.
"No, dude you're obsessed." Winwin scoffed. "You must really like that waitress."
"What?" Ten looked between the two, wondering what their talking about.
"No I don't." Yangyang denied as he crossed his arms. "I thought you liked her."
"She's a stranger." It was true, she was a stranger and usually Winwin hates strangers, just because he doesn't mind her doesn't mean he likes her. He knows absolutely nothing about her and he couldn't care less anyways.
"What are you guys even talking about?" Ten asked, wanting to be part of the conversation.
"You don't have to know her to like her." Yangyang argued, ignoring Ten who looked very confused.
"That doesn't make sense in my mind." Winwin said. "How do you just bring a girl you barely know to the dorm?"
"Okay let's stop here, just because we're speaking chinese doesn't mean we should say these things right here." Ten stopped them before the conversation could carry on.
Winwin stared out the window, genuinely wondering how Yangyang could have non serious relationships with girls whereas he finds it hard to even become friends with someone.
He's starting to think that maybe having a soulmate isn't too bad since he doesn't need to try that hard to get someone to fall in love with him. It's already fated to happen.
ok i know this is kinda boring at the moment but they'll get there.