Intro to the Extras

Hi everyone! I’ve missed this story a lot already. There are going to be two chapters of extras because it was getting long. This segment has three outtakes and a deleted scene. But first, this gorgeous poster that my lovely ficwife indigomini made for the story! :)

Outtakes:

Here are the original versions of how some story sections were written, along with why I changed them. Think of this like the director’s bonus footage on DVDs: I’ll give you a brief intro on what was happening, and then set you into the scene and show you what I originally wrote for it.

 

Ch 6 - Dyo earns the name Nightingale

A/N: This was the placeholder conversation for Kai giving his favorite agent this petname, but I felt like it came too early in the story and Kai was too relaxed with Dyo in this version. I wanted to keep him more flustered with Dyo for a bit longer, and I also wanted Dyo to kinda beg for a petname bc kljhasfsf I’m weak for Soo begging Nini for stuff (don’t judge me), so that’s what he ended up doing later in Ch 8 where Kai ultimately calls him Nightingale in the posted version.

/Dyo & Kai are mid-mission, having a relatively sincere talk about life stuff

“We should probably get back to work now,” Dyo reluctantly says.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve been watching the screen the whole time,” Kai teases. “Did you sit down on the job, Dyo?”

He can hear the operative dusting off his pants and the slow drag of the shovel against the gravel as it’s pulled off the ground. “No good deed goes unpunished, I swear…” Dyo mock grumbles.

Kai stays quiet for awhile, mulling things over. Dyo seems to pick up on his mood to ruminate, and diligently goes back to digging. While melodically humming a soft tune.

Kai’s not sure which will kill him faster, all the sweet talk or the singing. Could this man’s voice kindly stop driving his heart rate through the roof? The humming is a habit, Kai realizes. An adorable, amazing, God-send of a habit. He just... whistles while he works.

“God, your voice. You’re in the wrong line of work, Dyo. You should be a singer.”

There’s a smooth chuckle on the other side of the line that makes Kai cross his legs and try to pray away the .

“I bet you say that to all your operatives,” Dyo replies.

“Just you,” Kai admits, taking a long sip of his soda leftover from his midnight meal. At this point, it doesn’t feel embarrassing to admit that Dyo is different for him. Maybe it’s because Dyo put it out there first. It’s odd how comfortable he’s gotten in just a few weeks time. “You’re my nightingale.”

 

A/N: About the “he whistles while he works” part, Indi commented that he’s Happy the Dwarf. Poor Soo, everyone always taking shots at his height lol. It’s ok, it didn’t make it into the story.

 

Ch 14 - Kaisoo kisses in Jongin’s apartment

A/N: This was right after the DD mission ended and Jongin rushed to Kyungsoo’s table at the cat cafe. They go back to Jongin’s place to ‘talk,’ and I needed Soo to still show some hesitancy to sleep with Jongin because he knows about the firebombing of his old house but hasn’t told Jongin about it yet. Originally, I had them kissing and doing some flirty banter, and while that was fun, it just made it feel all the weirder that Soo would keep trying to leave afterward. Here is the early draft:

/Kyungsoo just finished looking around the apartment and saying he feels like Jongin's got his life together

“Don’t be jealous of my relationship with my parents: I’m with them all the time because I have nothing else to do, nowhere else to be. I’m pathetically boring, that’s all.” Jongin rolls his eyes at himself and offers Kyungsoo a tiny smile.

“You’re not. If anyone deserves the pathetic award, it’s me. You’re talking to a person who’s spent the last several months wishing to be a cat. I could only dream of getting the kind of attention you give to Mimi.”

Jongin laughs and covers his face. “It’s kind of embarrassing to know someone other than Luhan was really listening to me coo over her.”

“Never be embarrassed about how sweet you are,” Kyungsoo says seriously.

It coaxes Jongin to peek back out from behind his fingers, and their eyes catch and hold for a long second. Kyungsoo really has the prettiest eyes, he concludes. As Jongin puts his hands down by his side on the couch and shifts, their legs brush against each other. Warm thigh pressed to warm thigh, fingertips overlapping: Jongin stares at the points of contact before looking up and noticing Kyungsoo is doing the same, and the air grows still as their gazes meet again.

Kyungsoo seems to move in slow motion as he takes his time closing the gap between them, eyes lingering on his until the last moment, dark lashes fluttering shut as he kisses Jongin like he’s never been kissed before. It’s tender and slow, each press meaningful, the gentle le on his lower lip making him positively melt. Kyungsoo’s plush lips feel incredible, even as they leave Jongin’s mouth to peck the tip of his nose and then his forehead.

Feeling his heart swell in his chest, Jongin winds his fingers into the soft cotton of Kyungsoo’s hoodie and pulls him back in for another kiss, opting to along the seam of his lips this time and feeling Kyungsoo nip and on his tongue. Before things can get too heavy, though, he feels Kyungsoo give a closed mouth kiss the corner of his lips and say:

“I should go.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Jongin kisses him again, hard, and feels the deep rumble in Kyungsoo’s chest, relishing how well their lips push and pull in rhythm.

Between kisses, Kyungsoo tries to reason with him. “You’ve been through a traumatic 10 hours and your judgment can’t be trusted right now.”

“If you leave, that would be traumatic. Stop pretending to be a gentleman.”

“‘Pretending,’ wow, nice to know you think so low of me.”

They chuckle amid another assertive kiss from Jongin, who puts enough pressure into it that Kyungsoo tips back towards the arm of the couch. He grabs Jongin around the waist, maybe for balance but it effectively pulls him down on top of him. Jongin happily moves with him, bracketing Kyungsoo onto the sofa with arms on either side of his shoulders as they continue to swap insistent kisses.

Kyungsoo’s hand starts sliding down toward the crest of his amid one of his y groans before he yanks it back abruptly, bracing it against Jongin’s chest instead, gentle pressure breaking their mouths apart with a wet pop. “Really, Jongin, I should go,” he mumbles, averting his eyes away from the pout Jongin gives him. Kyungsoo pecks his cheek and deftly rolls out from underneath him and off the couch.

 

A/N: It felt wrong for Soo to let things move this far and then threaten to leave lol. So I ended up changing the final version to where Kyungsoo confessed a lot of feelings (“I see a good man. Someone who’s reserved with his words but never with his heart.” etc) and Jongin had that Kiss me now, and I’ll be yours forever thought… but they didn’t kiss.

 

Ch 16 - Soo’s reaction to Jongin burning down his house

A/N: I needed this section to feel suspenseful and kinda sad but didn’t want things to be too devastating :/ This first attempt went with a later scene that I ditched, so I had to rewrite it. In the final version, he’s very quick to reassure Jongin that he already knew and that everything is okay and he’s apologetic for not telling him earlier, but here was the original confrontation:

/Jongin just hung up on Baek and opened the bedroom door, waking up Kyungsoo

Kyungsoo frowns. “What’s wrong?” He pivots in