This fic was written for eiryia in minyoonficex's 2015 round and while her other prompts were just as lovely, this prompt particularly stood out to me: "Winner is traveling in Asia for their new tour, minyoon decides to sneak out on one of their food dates where they run into some unexpected challenges."

Minyoon
Among my OTPs in Winner, Minyoon's fluff is the easiest to write. While 2seung is first-love-first-heartbreak (think f(x)'s "Goodbye Summer") and Minhoon is angst all the way (or angst-turned-fluff on a good day), Minyoon is definitely the relationship that lasts. This is because both of them are similar and different in so many ways. Both love food, toys and have such a strong passion for music (albeit different kinds of music) but Seungyoon grounds Mino's idealistic and flighty tendencies like no other. Likewise, Mino provides the kind of hope and reminder for the love of life, joy and the moment that Seungyoon sometimes forgets or overlooks. To me, one cannot be with the other and it will take a lot to be able to separate them.

Which is why I aimed to showcase their similarities and their differences in the fic (not really sure if it worked) but comparing Seungyoon to the city, in Mino's perspective, was my favorite part to write. That boy is the epitome of riddles, enigma wrapped in layers of emotions and thoughts so it's fun to write him since he encompasses different things on-stage and off-stage. Mino's fascination with unravelling the secrets Seungyoon keeps is mine too.

The plot is a very simple and cliched one; a pair of boys with secret affections for each other sneaking out for a day of freedom and food. Even the emotions between the words is simple, secret crushes on each other that both aren't bold enough to do anything about it until Seungyoon has enough and takes the first step. Seungyoon, being the observant one, of course detects Mino's feelings for him while Mino is too wrapped up in his feelings and the certainty that the leader will not love him back. Which is why Seungyoon's “And yet you have never done anything about it.” is important because it is a mix of revelations and time wasted caused by Mino's lack of action, or at least the inability to understand Seungyoon's feelings for him.

Why have Seungyoon in a relationship and have him ask Mino to wait? I'm not sure, the story kind of led me to here and by then, it sounded like a good and non-cliched way to end the fic. It opens up to a lot of possibilities (Mino could wait a long time, Seungyoon might not even break things off with his high school sweetheart or he might end up two-timing the both of them) but at least on this one special day, they are certain of one thing that is simple and pure in the lovely way that some relationships are.

Hong Kong
I received the prompts as I was preparing for my trip to Hong Kong so I immediately decided to place the fic in the very city I was going to. I've always wanted to go to Hong Kong so the trip was one I've been looking forward since the start of the year.

I thought there will be some sort of familiarity with the place when I was there (since I've been watching Hong Kong dramas for many years) but I was so surprised to find the place extremely foreign, not in a bad way but because there are just so many things to discover about the place! I mean yeah, there were the familiar places like The Peak and the famous harbor in Tsim Tsa Tsui but the energy and the vibrancy of the city were not familiar to me. I love the people (even though they are impatient and rash, certainly not the nicest people around), the culture/heritage and the way the streets rise and fall in the city (there are a lot of slopes and stairs, it's almost like taking a hike when I was in Central).

Hong Kong is definitely a night city, not because of the citylight nightscape (even though I love love love the nightview and the bright lights) but because of the way it transforms from a pragmatic society to one of nostalgia and sensuousness. The neon lights that I mentioned in the fic aren't very prominent in Hong Kong Island but in Kowloon (along Nathan Road, through Jordon, Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok), they were hanging all around with their splendor and colors for all to see. It's sad though that the government is slowly banning the use of neon lights and taking them down. Neon lights are a representative of the rich "soft power" of Hong Kong, a way of informing the cultural landscape of the nation and without it, Hong Kong will be just another boring city.

Neon lights have a sort of dynamism to it; with it, colors are vibrant and words come alive. And yet it is soft, radiating a kind of glow that fogs instead of masking or blinding the beholder. It was definitely an interesting idea/metaphor to play around and Christopher Doyle's commentary of filming with neon lights certainly helped to conceptualize it, making me see the similiarities between the effects of the lights and Mino's feelings for Seungyoon.
 

The trams are absolutely my favorite thing in Hong Kong. I didn't get to ride it at night but I managed to ride it for three stations from Central to Wan Chai and I love it. Unlike the buses, the trams are not air-conditional so windows are slid open and all sounds of sounds and noise (sometimes air pollution too) surrounds the riders. I could really sense the deep cultural nostalgia soaked in the seats, all the way to the metal grates since not much has changed since the beginning. So if you do get to Hong Kong, do ride the tram at night (best if you take it from Causeway Bay all the way to Kennedy Town) and sit on the upper level to fully enjoy the view!

Food wise, Mino's love for the pineapple bun is my own (hehe) but what I loved more was the actual experience of sitting in the old-fashioned cafe and surrounded by the locals. I went to Kam-Wah Cafe, definitely one of the best places to experience the city (just be prepared to share tables with strangers; it's a norm there), with its delicious pineapple bun, honey toasts and harn-ning-chak (鹹檸七 - salted lemon submerged in either 7-up or Sprite; the best beverage to drink on a hot summer day!). The "bag of cold spicy noodles coupled with chewy shrimps, jellyfish and baby octopuses" is also another of my favorite food in Hong Kong. Ugh how I wish I can go back there just to have another bag of it!