For disty_pop

From Secret Santa

Prompt: Myungsoo gets an unhealthy addiction on sour candies

Pairing: Myungyeol

Lemon Candy

It is Christmas season, a wonderful and merry season, with bright lights in different colors, mostly red, green and yellow. Carols are blasting from every shop. Bright are the advertisements for special Christmas offers. People are running from one shop to the next to find the perfect gift for their special ones or someone they don't really care about. The stressed faces meet the frozen smiles from shopkeepers. It is a miracle how we can still call it a holy day, when it is all about money. It is also the time when most suicides occur. It is a season for love and family. Christmas calls for love. People want to show their love, receive love, just like on any other day.

This season, however, makes a lonely person feel lonelier. It makes a sad person sadder. It is the season in which Kim Myungsoo starts to think even more. It is the time when he starts to question everything he does, wants and desires. For the 22-year old young man it is the time to become quieter and hide in his room more than normally and 2014 was no exception to his tradition.

December had begun and the night brought wonderful snowflakes. The white quietly covered the city, that was bright with lights. It was never dark, especially not during Christmas. Myungsoo was in his room. He had turned off the lights to watch the snow fall. He loved the pure, innocent flakes. Nevertheless, once they touched the streets they would melt or turn dirty. It was a short lifespan that a snowflake had, but the distance it laid back during that little amount of time was impressive. Myungsoo admired them while the little flakes danced down into their doom. “At least they die stupid and happy,” the heavy sigh bore a burden to the air.

He turned his back from the window to his desk, where a white sheet of paper was waiting for him. How can one love one white but hate the other? With another sigh he switched on the little lamp and sat down. Staring at the wall he played around with his pencil. He tapped the paper. A new picture series should be made. His management had asked him to come up with an idea. The first two had been easy. Myungsoo let the pencil fall on the desk and ruffled his hair. He was a singer not a photographer. Yes, he loved his camera and taking pictures, a lot, more than he could express, but he never planned on selling his hobby for money. He massaged the bridge of his nose and his temples. Air left his body once again. He hated the pressure. It only closed up his creativity. He needed inspiration, quickly. He pulled on his recently bleached hair and cursed. If this continued he would not have any hair left by the time he was thirty. He took his pencil again, only to cast it away again. Not knowing what else to do he opened his laptop. Automatically, he opened his internet browser and checked his social networks. A group of their fans, Inspirits, had started a Christmas countdown, where they posted a fun or cute video of Infinite, the band that Myungsoo was a part of, online. They did it to brighten the day of someone who needed a smile in a stressful time like this.

Myungsoo smiled as he saw the explanation. Their fans were cute. Fans all across the world took part in this event. He read some of the comments and suddenly one caught his attention. “Thank you.” There was not more and not less to this comment, but somehow it was special. It felt pure, honest and somehow like it was a big deal for this person. Myungsoo took his pencil and wrote “Thank you” on the white sheet. Then he clicked on the first video that had been posted. It was his fellow member Jang Dongwoo just laughing his contagious laugh. A smile hushed over the lips of the boy in front of the screen. He wished he could just smile as freely as the older. But there was always something on his mind, something that held him back from just being himself, a fear, that bound him behind the bars of a mask. A mask that he wished to take off, but just could not.

He clicked on the next one. It was a old video of the youngest member. His infamous “Lemon Candy” scene. Myungsoo grinned at the awkward acting. While he scrolled down to the next video he found another comment: “I wonder if lemon candy really helps against worries... “ The singer stopped scrolling down and went back up to replay the video. Sungjong's clear voice penetrated his mind: “When you have a lot of thoughts lemon candy is the best.” “Lemon candy, huh?”, Myungsoo said to himself and got up. Then faster than his mind had decided his feet moved. There must be some lemon candies at the dorm. They always got some from the fans. He flung his door open and ran into Sungyeol, the tallest of the seven boys. “Sorry, yeollie. Do you know if we have lemon candy?” The taller was surprised. Myungsoo hardly ever was in a hurry and even more surprising than the blonde's haste was that he wanted sour candy. The younger hated sour candy. Confused he answered: “I think. In the room where we store the gifts.” With his long, slender arm Sungyeol pointed down the hall. “But they won't be easy to find.” He said while Maungsoo was already gone. Dumbfounded he stood in front of the room and blinked with both eyes, like a kid that had just seen Donald Duck in real life. He slowly raised his right arm and pinched his left shoulder. “Ouch!” This had not been a dream.

Sungyeol found the normally rather quiet blonde searching furiously. He leaned in the doorway. “What do you need them for?” Without stopping to look for the candy Myungsoo answered: “When you have a lot of thoughts lemon candy is the best.” That line sounded familiar. “What?” “Sungjong said that. I want to try it out.” “Ou, the drama....,” Sungyeol remembered. He still did not understand the reason. Nevertheless, he decided to help with the search.

After a bit he found a yellow box. Excitedly, he pulled it out and did not notice that the tower was dangerously unstable. All of a sudden he was pushed to the floor and Myungsoo was on top of him. The sound of falling boxes was in sync with the wincing of the hobby-photographer, who had noticed the other boy's foolish behavior. The careless tall baby was protected from his own stupidity. “Yeollie? Are you okay?”, soft worried eyes met the wide open ones of a surprised Sungyeol. He nodded. He was fine, only his heart was racing a little. Myungsoo sat up and looked at the mess they had created. He started to put the contents back into their boxes. And pile them up again. Sungyeol sat up. He was pouting a little. Quietly he opened the yellow box, that was still in his hands. In there he found what they had been searching for. “Lemon candy”, the Kindergartener was smiling happily as he showed the box to Myungsoo, who had forgotten about what he was searching for when he had seen the other in danger. “Ou right, thank you.” Myungsoo took the box with him and left the mess for the mess creator to clean up.

Back in his room Myungsoo unwrapped one of the candies and stared at it. He knew it was going to be sour and he won't like it. But if it helped him think than it would be worth it. Carefully he stuck out his tongue and over the yellow candy. He pulled back and a sour expression was on his face. He would never be able to eat that. He threw the candy away and stared back at the paper. “Thank you”. He read these words over and over again, but his mind stayed blank. His eyes wandered back to the candies. “Maybe I should try another one.” He reached for one of the round, yellow wrappings. Quickly, he popped it in his mouth. A shiver over came his whole body. He shook his head, but still he kept the candy in. The visual struggled. Sour was just not a taste that he liked. However, he finished it. When the candy was finally gone he sighed: “Thank god, this is over.” His eyes fell down at the paper again. He thought of his trainee days. He was glad that those were over and thanks to their fans he was able to live properly now. He wrote trainee on the left side and fans on the other. His new photo collection would be about old pictures from the time before their debut and he would go out and take pictures of and with their fans, whom he is most thankful for. Ha smiled content at his idea. Myungsoo shook his head at the sour candy. It had actually helped him. Maybe he should include a picture of lemon candy in his new series as well.

He left his room singing happily. On his way to the kitchen he passed the room that Sungyeol was still cleaning. He peeked his head through the door. “ You are not done yet?” “Not yet,” answered the tall guy as he put the last boxes away. “Do you want to do something?” “Sure, what?” “A movie?”, Myungsoo suggested. The older one's face lit up: “The others just left to go to the cinema. If we are fast we can still catch them.” He pulled on the younger one's arm and urged him to hurry. Myungsoo, however, did not feel like joining the others. He wanted to just lay on the sofa and watch a movie at home with his favorite band member. The hyperactive other was already out and put his shoes on:” Hurry up!!” Grumpy Myungsoo shoved his hands in his pockets. He felt a small, round thing. “Lemon Candy,” he thought. “Maybe it can help again.” He popped the candy in his mouth. The sourness made his whole body shiver. His mouth produced more than twice the amount of his normal saliva. Still shivering he tried to gulp the excess down. A cough erupted from his throat. Still coughing he spit out the candy. Sungyeol's worried face appeared in the door frame. “Are you sick? We can watch a movie here too.” Myungsoo nodded weakly. Somehow a nasty lemon candy got him what he wanted again. He threw the candy in the bin and before he was able to start preparing snacks for the two of them, the other pushed him aside and told him to choose a movie. Since it was almost Christmas Myungsoo chose a lovely winter romance. They settled on the sofa and covered themselves with a warm blanket. The movie had not even started yet when Sungyeol had his arm around his fellow band member, who cozily snuggled against him. Lately it had hardly ever been only the two of them. The younger had missed those moments, but thanks to lemon candy he was able to enjoy the warmth of a person very dear to him.

As time moved on and Christmas came closer and closer, Myungsoo kept solving his worries with on a lemon candy. Due to some odd reason it worked. He started to always carry a few of them with him and ate at least three a day. Nevertheless, they still made him sick. His stomach kept hurting, his throat was sore and by the sight of yellow he gagged. The side effects of his problem-solving-method were a danger to his health, still he did not stop. Instead he started to eat more. At one point he was worrying whether to wear a black v-neck or just a normal black t-shirt for dance practice. Not knowing how to solve his trouble, he ate a lemon candy. On the one hand it helped him make a decision and he even got complimented by Sungyeol and Woohyun, another band member, for his shirt. On the other, it made him sick and dancing was a lot harder with a cramping abdomen.

The members had all noticed that Myungsoo was addicted to those sour sweets. No matter what they tried there was nothing that helped him getting over his addiction. Until juvenile Sungyeol had an idea. He stole all of the younger one's candy and hid it. It was late at night when Myungsoo's pocket supply ran out and he wanted to stuck up. As soon as he walked into his room he knew that someone had been in there. Furious he stormed out after he had noticed what was missing. He slammed his door and waited in the living room. One by one the band members came into the room and curiously looked why the door was slammed. The thief did not turn up. He pretended to sleep. A very odd and suspicious move, considering is curious nature.

Myungsoo was breathing heavily and did not answer the questions he was asked. He had already figured out that Sungyeol had been the culprit. Leaving the others behind he stomped towards the suspect's room and banged against the door. “GIVE me my CANDY back!” He tried to open the door but it was locked.

Sungyeol had gotten up from his bed. For a moment he thought of just giving the lemon candy back. He hated Myungsoo being angry. He was the closest friend he had. But then he remembered that his friend needed help. He stayed strong and resisted. All of a sudden all of the sound died. Light footsteps walked away from the door. Then there was nothing again. “Has he given up?,” Sungyeol wondered confused. But then he heard the sound of the front door falling in its locks. Myungsoo had left the dorm in the middle of the night, all alone, in a bad mood. Sungyeol sank on the floor leaning against his door. He had made his best friend angry, very angry. His plan did not quite work. Before he had thought that once Myungsoo did not have any candy left he's realize that he did not need them anyway. But this was not the case. His favorite band member was out in the sold all alone, searching for candy that would make him sick. In his mind he saw Myungsoo lying on the street holding his belly and screaming for help. He could not let this happen. Seconds later the front door war ripped open again and a worried kindergartener ran after his best friend.

The only place that would sell lemon candy in the middle of the night was a convenience store. The closest one was just across the street, but it was closed. He ran further to the next one. A figure resembling Myungsoo sat outside on one of the plastic chairs. As he got closed he was sure that he had found him. However, what he saw surprised him. The hobby photographer did not have a bag of lemon candy in front of him but an almost empty bottle of Soju, the cheapest alcohol that you can find in Korea. He had not noticed Sungyeol's arrival. He was surprised as a hand held him back when he reached for the bottle again. Myungsoo looked up. He had been crying. His eyes were swollen and red. He withdrew his hand and laughed. “I must be really drunk already,” he mumbled to himself. “There is no way that Sungyeol would be here.” Myungsoo shook his head. A sad laughter hung dryly in the air. “Sungyeol-ah!” The drunk man was shouting at the stars. “I am sorry! I like you! I like you more than this stupid candy!” He pulled a handful of lemon candy out of his pocket and threw it in the air. He gazed straight forward again and to his astonishment the person he hads een before was still there. Suddenly, as if he had an idea his expression changed. Cautiously he reached out his hand until it pocked Sungyeol's cheek. He almost fell from his chair, when he jumped back in surprise. The guy in front of him was real. No words came out of his mouth. He just stared at a pink cheeked Sungyeol.

Quietly white flacks came from the dark night sky. They landed softly on their hair and faces. Slowly the land around them got covered with a thin layer of white, pure and innocent white. Just like the snow giving the earth a new surface to draw on, the two singers forgave each other and started on a new blank page. Well, the page was not entirely blank. A small, but bright red heart was already burning at the beginning of their new story. The confession that was heard earlier had not been forgotten.