Chapter 1 - The Joker

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It was well known, throughout all of Seventeen, that sik meme Hansol, had a...particular face peculiarity for trips into strange and unfamiliar foreign countries, which, to be said, seemed perfectly normal to twelve other boys - for who couldn't understand a bit of stress and nervous skin condition can lead to breaking out in a foreign country? 

"You know, Vernon's been there quite a while," Soonyoung said to Dk and Dino, whilst they were sitting in the little assemble of coloured chairs and hanging bean bag chairs across a table that was laid out for them in their hotel suite. 
"Probably just finding his face mask," said Dk, settling down his drink of iced lemon tea, with a wedge of lemon b the side. 
"Ah, his rash," said Dino empirically. 
"You know, he never said what it looked like. Or how many he had," said Hoshi matter of factly as he went to open the dorm room windows and flip open his suitcase atop his bed. 

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It had been several days ago that they had this conversation. And try as he might, Seventeen's youngest member Lee Chan could not get it out of his head, as he waited nervously outside the bathroom where he last left his hair straightener, whom Vernon was currently brushing his teeth in. Out of pure boredom and nervousness, he began whistling a tune which was quickly picked up by Vernon. 

"You know, you don't have to wait til I come outside to go in," drifted out Vernon's voice from the inside, "If it's something you need to grab quickly..." 
"What about your rash?" stumbled Chan, aware that this was the first time he, or any of the other members really, had seen Vernon without his mask on in 'unfamiliar terrorities and conditions'. 
"Oh. It's just a rash." 
"Righteo, okay," said Lee Chan, breathing slightly less heavier, infinitely more relaxed, as he pushed open the bathroom door. Reassured by Vernon's nonchantlessness, he quickly sought out his hair straightener within the mess of the bathroom and reached towards it, turning as he did so. 

He almost had to stomp on his own foot to silence his bloodcurling scream.

Vernon just stared at him, incredesously so, as he rinsed his toothbrush under the tap and flicked a fleck of still remaining toothpaste into the sink. Ripped skin ran rivulets from the tip of his mouth - no - corner of face to other, skin wrinkled and dipped and sunk in something barely reminiscient of a smile, with a scarlet red outline forming the contours of the pits and craters, and when Vernon smiled in polite acknowledgement of Lee Chan's entrance, a smile formed from cheek to cheek. 

The silence held. Lee Chan's eyes fluttered but didn't move, and Vernon's polite smile of acknowledgement quickly turned into a genuine question of curiosity. "What are you staring at? Don't tell me-" Vernon's smile of polite acknowledgement dropped into an 'o' of horror, "My hair is off, isn't it?"

Lee Chan held his silence. 

"I knew it was my hair," he said, pumping a fist at the table, "Especially as I accidentally used your hair straightener that you left here by accident." 
"Yes, that'll be it," agreed Lee Chan quickly, preparing to run out of the bathroom. 
"Phew. Thanks a bunch man," he said, before going back to his nighttime routinue and dabbing some moisturising cream into the areas around his eyes. 

Lee Chan exited quickly. But not before googling rash in the medical dictionary. 

Rash
/raf/ 
noun
Group of spots, red or inflamed skin, often across the nose and adjacent areas of the cheek, indication of dermitatis. 

So technically anything counted. From spots, to scars, to eruptions of breakouts. And the whole group never knew...

The moral of the story, thought Dino, as he went to straighten his hair and brush his teeth, was that you should never take anything for granted, and anything counts under the definition of a word...

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It was unknown how or why it happened, but in the next few days there seemed to be a flurry of activity surrounding Dino and Vernon. A clap on the back for Dino, a question about what he wanted to be for Halloween, a gentle teasing of how easily scared he got, confused and concerned questions to Vernon, inquiring about the difficulty of living with such a 'rash' and maternal concern that Vernon had never been faced with that much attention for - and he loved it dearly whilst also mildly confused as to why it was suddenly so cared for. 

"So it's just a rash right?" asked S.coups one day when they were all seated around the bunk beds in their dorm. 
"Yes. I say it's a rash in interviews. Pledis company says it's a rash." said Vernon matter of factly, as he lay on a top bunk, tossing and catching a tennis ball.
"They did not define it. Did not tell us...Sometimes people don't tell you anything, and it makes you think...but then you think..." muttered Hoshi darkly, now that he had known and felt the betrayal of a dear friend as he so melodramatically put it. (Though Mingyu and Dk assured him he would get over it eventually) 

"Not that that has anything to do with Vernon's rash," cut in S.coups quickly, "For it was technically correct. No lies there." 
And with that the whole group quickly diverged into happy talk and laughter about other topics. 
"Vernon?" asked Joshua, "Are you familiar with America's Marvel? DC Comics?" 
"I tell you," said Vernon with a bit of a sigh, as if he was used to saying it so many times, "I grew up mainly in Korea. I'm unfamiliar with most of American pop culture." 
"Right. Well if there's ever a spare moment...remind to introduce you to Batman. Green Lantern...the Joker-" 
Hoshi had to duck behind a pillow to stifle snickers of wondering whether Joshua went too far, but Joshua just let it hang in the air. 
"Ah, when we have time," replied Vernon non chantedly, still chucking the ball up and down. 

Turns out life was busy, and Seventeen moved on from that hotel and the hotel's happenings, within due time, and the memory of the moment was forgotten, let lone them having time out of their busy schedules to fufil the promises of the lost memory, and Vernon never got to see the pic... 

Ah well. His loss. 

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Author's Note: How'd you think of that? xD Idea came to be randomly whilst I was seeing a suicide squad ad before watching Seventeen on youtube :3 
I mean, they never said what was underneath Vernon's mask it could be anything!!!!!!!! (But forreal, its probably just a little rash (though you can never be sure HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!) but yeah ^-^ Just a crackfic that came to be one day :3) I love Vernon, and I would never ever write this to say he's ugly or anything...just a crackfic that I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I did writing. Also, did you notice that I kept switching around the character's korean/english names as I wrote this? Idk about you, but to me, whenever I think of them or refer to them in writing, it comes naturally that I refer to them by their korean/englishnames half the time and I don't find it weird or anything, that I'm switching since it is both of their names and fans know them as both of them,  but tell me if you find it weird or anything? Do most people in this fandom prefer to stick to either all english/all korean or mix? 

Thanks for reading :3 Enjoy your day and dont forget to comment, subscribe and upvote!

-Bluecookie :D