in which junhee reveals something only she knows (also, daehyun is not an idiot, everybody else is)

Daehyun was not an idiot, thank you very much. He believed himself to be unfazed, that was all. Daehyun was unfazed by taunts, unfazed by opinions, unfazed by the need to prove to himself that he was more than what he was. And what he was was Jung Daehyun, and he was all right with that.

the very special facts about daehyun:

If people thought Daehyun was oblivious, naive, simple, idiotic, all of the above, well, that was their thoughts, not his. None of those things should weigh him down; he had enough to worry about, he did not need to occupy his brain with the thoughts of others too.

Perhaps this was why people called him names, thought him to be ignorant. But Daehyun would rather be as he was than procure the burden of too much expectations bending at his bones. Daehyun never wanted to be anybody else, not because he was vain, but because he was supposed to be himself, because only he could be himself.

Besides it would be a waste to try to be somebody else.

Jung Daehyun was a young man so content with whatever he had that he was unaware of these things residing in his mind. He would never realise this. Never realise, soul and body, that among his kind, he was immune to corruption. He was just so simple that society could not complicate him.

Shove whatever hardship at Daehyun and it would just bounce right off.

After all, life was not about counting the troubles that were thrown at us. Life had always been about us learning how to deal with them. And since, all the horrible things the world threw at him – unwanted child, dead father, poor living conditions, kicked to the curb, living on the streets, lost in big city apathy – could not break him, Jung Daehyun was pretty much an unsung hero.

Nobody ever got out of life alive, but Jung Daehyun would be pretty darn close.

philosophy of jung daehyun:
life is best simple, do not complicate it.

“No. I don’t know what this is.”

“It’s a pot,” Daehyun said.

Ricky snickered and turned back to the House Raid camera. “It’s obviously not a pot. It’s a pan.”

“No, it’s a pot,” argued Daehyun.

“What are you doing with inanimate objects?” P.O’s deep voice interrupted them as he trudged into the kitchen after Namjoo.

Ricky perked up. “Himchan hyung told us to entertain.”

Daehyun, with the saucepan in one hand, looked over his shoulder to see who had entered the kitchen.

“Hey.” He turned back to the camera. “This is P.O hyung,” he said, then pointed the saucepan to Namjoo, “and this is, uh, Namjoon. She’s very nice to me.”

“Namjoo,” Namjoo corrected.

Daehyun put down the saucepan. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“Are you done with the kitchen?” P.O asked.

“Yeah,” Daehyun said, leading Ricky and the camera and crew out.

“Hey. I bet everybody wants to see Jun- Zelo’s room,” Ricky perked up.

Daehyun looked scared for a moment. “What? No way.”

“Oh. Please?” Ricky said.

For some unknown reason, Namjoo managed to follow Ricky out of the kitchen. Now she said, “Yes! I’m sure everybody wants that.”

Daehyun paused in front of Zelo’s door as they walked past. He stared at it for a long moment, before coming up with his big decision.

“Okay. Fine,” he sighed. “But only because you two are nice.”

Ricky laughed and reached over Daehyun to push open the door.

the one important object only daehyun notices (that we did not):

“Ooh, what’s this?”

“Oh my gods! He reads!”

“Wait guys-” Daehyun started.

“Why are there holes in the wall?”

“Hang on. This isn’t a book.” Namjoo said, frowning as she tried to flip an weathered big binder open. “Ricky! Come help me?”

“Whoa. What’s it?” Ricky asked padding across the room to the wooden study desk with nothing on it now that Namjoo had picked up the only book on the surface.

“I can’t open it!” Namjoo said, trying to pry the gigantic book open with difficulty because it was so heavy.

The camera was filming them.

Ricky helped Namjoo with the book just as Daehyun rushed forward to see what they had found.

“Hyung, what’s this?”

Daehyun stared at it and then shrugged. “Zelo got it a while ago when his brother, uh, visited. He brought this thing with him I think. I dunno what it is.”

Namjoo’s head snapped up so fast that Daehyun was afraid it was going to break. She stared at him wide-eyed. “Zelo has a brother?”

“Jonghoon was here?” Ricky blurted out, horrified. Quickly recovering, he cleared his expression, saying, “I mean, oh, he has a brother?”

“You know his brother?” Daehyun asked, ignoring the camera.

Ricky eyed it. “It was a long time ago.”

“How?” Namjoo asked, overly interested.

Ricky fidgeted, staring down at the book. “Well, me and Zelo used to go to the same school,” he mumbled, “And, uh, his brother came to see him once, so, anyway, can we open this thing? I think it’s a photo album.”

Before Daehyun could reply, Namjoo managed to force it open.

“Oh my gods! So cute, baby photos!” Namjoo exclaimed.

Daehyun couldn’t help his own curiosity as he moved forward to take a look too. The cameraman was taping them and the photos as they started making cute, funny commentaries on each page. The three of them were so lost in the activity that they didn’t hear Himchan coming into the room to check on them.

“What are you guys doing?” he asked.

“Look! Isn’t this cute?” Ricky said, grinning, pointing to the picture of little Junhong being piggybacked by little Junhee who was missing a fang. Then he flipped to another page. “Oh! And this. I remember this. It was at the school fair at the start of freshman year.” Himchan craned his neck over Ricky’s shoulder.

His eyebrows quirked up at the picture of another Zelo, a happy Zelo, a grinning Zelo, a younger version, the whole version of Zelo. In the picture, he was in his school uniform, his bright smile was enough to hurt anybody’s eyes. Even Daehyun had a hard time believing that that was Zelo, the very same one, just younger, less tainted, a ton happier. He gawked at it like how he gawked at all the other pictures. Almost every picture of Junhong had the girl in it, the girl who, as the pages turned, started to resemble more and more like Juniel. A little too late, it hit Daehyun that it must be Juniel.

The revelation was surreal. He had known it of course, just like the rest of the members. But seeing them now and them back then, the truth was harder to cope with. Daehyun found it as some colossal misplacement, something bittersweet, something downright mad that these two people he had come to know, had spent their entire lives together and yet still could not understand how much they loved each other.

At that moment, Daehyun decided that these two were the stupidest people on this planet. And this was saying a lot, considering it was coming from Daehyun.

“Wow,” Himchan managed to rasp. And Daehyun thought that his reaction pretty much summed up everybody else’s.

||

He turned his head to look at his best friend. She was sitting cross legged, eyes unfocused at some point in the lake. The cool wind danced around them and tugged freely at Junhee’s long hair. A smile lighted Junhong’s face as he watched her, as still as a marble masterpiece, and as delicate and beautiful as one too.

He reached out, tugging a loose strand of her hair. She didn’t respond. Junhong’s palm slowly moved to feel her bare neck, then the collar of her school uniform. She still didn’t move, too deep in thought, probably. He stifled a chuckle, biting his lip as his fingertips landed on her shoulder, tracing each protruding bones under the fabric.

the things only niel notices:

“C’mon! Just open the darn door!” Zelo grumbled, shoving Juniel on the head.

The girl growled and tried to stomp on his foot. By this time everything had already turned slightly sour for the rest of their team. They had about seven minutes, and the closer the time approached the more violent BAP’s bassist and the nation’s sweetheart seemed to be interacting. Niel wasn’t really sure what it meant, but from the look of it, they weren’t at all wary of being filmed, like they were too heady to beat each other at who could be the most childish that they’d tossed away any trace of who they were supposed to be.

“You want to win it this bad?” Juniel asked, sounding a little desperate.

W