When Dreaming Gets Drastic

Vanilla Sunshine


Jo Yuri. 16. Could Change The World If She Could Wake Up In The Mornings.


Kang Hyewon. 17. Quiet, Not Cold.



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Vanilla Sunshine
Chapter 1: When Dreaming Gets Drastic




 


Jo Yuri was always the curious type.

 

Healthy amounts of curiosity, fitting for a young girl of her age. It wasn’t to the point that it could become detrimental to her health or safety, but oftentimes Yuri would find her inquisitiveness landing her in pretty bizarre situations.

 

Such as this moment right here.

 

Yuri was quite aware of her own financial capacity so on any other day she would have chosen to shop at a different place. Her mother had tasked her with the duty of acquiring instant coffee mix and mayonnaise from the supermarket, admittedly two items that really had no business going together but hey, she didn’t do the cooking around the house. Perhaps her mother had a plan in mind. One that somehow managed to combine coffee and mayonnaise into something remotely edible.

 

With her short grocery list in hand, Yuri decided that today would be the day she would do her shopping at the large, swanky, Lotte-owned shopping mall that had just opened down the street. Incheon had no shortages of malls, but the facade of this one was impressive enough to stand out amongst the sea of high-rise buildings surrounding it. It screamed opulence. Just one glance at the building’s cold grey exterior and Yuri’s wallet was already cowering in fear.

 

She was curious though. How expensive could the supermarket of such a place be? Just how expensive can coffee mix and mayonnaise get?

 

...Very, apparently.

 

“Imported Mayonnaise from...Li...Lithuania?” Yuri reads from the label of a particularly large jar. Her ignorant 16-year old brain wasn’t even sure where Lithuania even was in the world, and she was doubly unaware that they even produced their own mayonnaise.

 

What a world they were living in.

 

A world where one could find it justifiable to charge 18,500₩ for a jar of mayo.

 

With a laugh she decides to turn around and exit the supermarket, empty handed. She couldn’t afford anything in here. If she had come home with a jar of mayonnaise and imported coffee sachets the price of her monthly phone bill, her mother would just kick her back out of the house and asked her to look for the brain that had somehow managed to slip out from between her ears.

 

On her way out of the building she allows her eyes to wander towards the fancy polished appliances on display for sale. Window shopping costs nothing, after all. She walked past 100-inch television screens, washing machines that were industrial in size and some even as tiny as a suitcase. What really caught her attention though...

 

...was a toaster.

 

A simple dual-slot toaster for bread.

 

Except this one was made of polished silver, and it’s entire side panel seemed to be made of glass so you could look through it and easily tell if your bread was getting too brown or not. Yuri almost scoffed at that. The thrift-shop toaster she had at home would automatically pop the bread out if it reached a certain level of burnt. Having to use one’s own human eyes to determine the toast’s toast level was a couple of steps backwards, wasn’t it?

 

Still, Yuri has never seen a toaster look more elegant.

 

A single glance downwards towards the little bronze plaque by the side of the appliance had the teenager grasping at her non-existant pearls.

 

USD$4000.

 

You could just tell that something was fancy when it was using a completely different currency. Yuri didn’t even need to convert it into Korean Won to know that the pricetag was mind-numbingly absurd.

 

“Isn’t it grand?”

 

Yuri turns to see a sales clerk standing next to her, bright smile on her face, ready to serve. The teenager contemplates the question being asked.

 

Grand was not the word she would use to describe this toaster, but she wasn’t going to admit that. Not when she had somehow managed to attract the attention of a few other patrons of the mall, each one of them dressed in clothing that Yuri had no doubt cost more than their family car.

 

“I guess.” Yuri replies, choosing to turn to indifference as an appropriate reaction. “What is it?”

 

That was the question wasn’t it? What is it? It looked like a toaster, but it’s pricetag would suggest otherwise. What else could it do? Could it do her homework for her? Could this miracle toaster at least double as a bluetooth speaker?

 

“This right here, is an essential appliance to aid you in making the perfect piece of toast. No, to call it a mere appliance is an insult! It is a new way of life!”

 

Yuri blinked a couple of times. This saleswoman must either really love her job, or was being paid a tonne for being theatrical.

 

“So...it just makes toast?” Yuri asks, uncertain.

 

“Why of course! It is a toaster! What other purpose would one have for it?”

 

The incredulous tone the saleswoman was using is enough to make Yuri herself doubt her own question. No! It was a sane question! If a toaster costs that much, it was perfectly understandable for one to expect more from the appliance!

 

“So what do you think? Did I manage to gain your interest?” The saleswoman urges, and Yuri was simultaneously drawn to the toaster as well as repulsed by it. It was a weird contradiction to feel towards a kitchen appliance.

 

“...I like bread.” Yuri finds herself replying with as much certainty as she could muster at the moment.

 

“Do you like toasted bread?”

 

“I love toasted bread. That’s the best kind of bread.” It wasn’t a lie. Yuri really did enjoy her toast very much. Nothing quite beats it. A spread of butter on bread burned dark brown? Glorious.

 

The saleswoman claps her hands, as if overjoyed by Yuri’s admittance. “Well, this makes the best toast you’ll ever consume! Guaranteed!”

 

Yuri narrows her eyes in suspicion. The best? Well, this woman would be surprised to know that the bar for that is a lot lower than one would think. Yuri is almost plebeian with her standards for food. Still, to claim the title of the best? The best piece of toast? Millions of people make toast every single day, and this woman is saying that her toaster makes the best one out of all of them?

 

“How good can toast be? Toast is toast.”

 

“Aren’t you curious to find out?”

 

The smile on the saleswoman’s face was almost...challenging. This woman was testing her. It was a battle of egos and pride, one which Yuri’s soul would loathe to lose, but her wallet had thrown up the white flag before the fight had even begun.

 

“...Not 4 Million Won levels of curious.” Yuri mumbled in defeat, looking away from the saleswoman.

 

Humbled. By a saleswoman selling a toaster. Yuri is appalled at herself.

 

“You’ll find it to be 4 Million Won well spent! I assure you!” The woman eggs on as if to hammer the final nail in the proverbial coffin. Yuri only laughs weakly and meekly raises a hand to brush the grinning woman away.

 

“I’ll...think about it.”

 

True to her word, Yuri does think about it. She thinks about it for the rest of the day after she leaves the mall. She thinks about it as she completes her grocery list at a small family-run market. The sheer opulence of owning a USD$4000 toaster and how it must feel like to have that kind of extra money to spend on pointless kitchen appliances doesn’t leave her mind for quite awhile.

 

What must it be like, to have that kind of money?

 

 

******************************

 

Yuri would like to say that it doesn’t get to her, but it does. It definitely does. The thought of having no money to burn follows her through to the next day of school. She has never been materialistic, and eventhough her family wasn’t making it into a Forbes list any time soon, they weren’t exactly hurting for cash. She comes from a dual-income household, and that combined with her general disregard for brands or fantastically overpriced items allows her to live comfortably.

 

Yuri doesn’t indulge in anything.

 

Why was that?

 

She didn’t have any hobbies. She wasn’t into any form of sport or extracurricular activity. She didn’t have anything that she was passionate about, or even any paid subscriptions to anything. She wasn’t into fashion or anything social media related.

 

She buries her face into her hands and resists the urge to scream, because a random USD$4000 toaster has helped her come to a realisation.

 

“Oh my god. I’m boring.”

 

Why was she like this? Why was a toaster giving her an identity crisis? Yuri wanted to prove to herself that she wasn’t boring. That she DID have passions and that she WAS capable of doing frivolous things like spending money on a toaster! Oh gosh how does she do it?

 

How in the blue blazes does she go about getting 4 Million KRW?

 

Was it—

 

“Ow!” Yuri yelps, rubbing the sore spot at the side of her head, her train of thought all but derailed. She looks down to the table infront of her and she sees an eraser, cut to the shape and form of a small pebble lying harmlessly on the wooden surface.

 

Someone threw this eraser at her.

 

Yuri had a strong suspicion who that could be.

 

“Was that you, unnie?” Yuri asks the older girl seated opposite her, who had the audacity to do a double-take and look surprised at the question.

 

“What an accusation! I’m offended!” The brunette gasped in mock offense at Yuri’s allegation.

 

Yuri tried to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Really, she did, but her eyeballs seemed to gain a life of their own as a result of her exasperating best friend. She rolled her eyes and sighed, not really interested in getting into anything with Hyewon today.

 

Kang Hyewon. Her childhood best friend, was a year older than Yuri was. At the beautiful age of 17, one would have expected that Hyewon would be above such immaturity. Flinging eraser pieces around as if they were in middle school was absolutely unbecoming. Yuri mentally scoffed, appalled beyond all measure.

 

It’s no wonder Hyewon was still single despite being above average in terms of looks. It’s because she kept acting like this!

 

(...In her mental tirade Yuri had conveniently forgotten that she herself was still very much single as well.)

 

“Right. It couldn’t have been you. The eraser dust all over your table doesn’t look incriminating at all.” Yuri snarkily stated as she pointed to the bits of eraser pieces powdering Hyewon’s table. In the middle of said dust was a ruler, undoubtedly the tool used to cut into the eraser.

 

Incriminating. How absolutely incriminating. How was Hyewon going to respond, in light of such damning evidence?

 

“I had to correct a lot of mistakes.” Hyewon shrugs, breaking eye-contact with Yuri.

 

A likely story, Miss Kang Hyewon!

 

“You write with a pen.” Yuri points out.

 

She could see the older girl start to sweat. Yuri had her on the ropes. Out of options, Yuri watches as Hyewon tries to casually hide the pen that she was still clutching in her right hand behind her back in an attempt to obscure it from view, right in front of Yuri herself!

 

“No I don’t.” Hyewon denies flatly, completely unashamed.

 

Oh for the love of—

 

“Unnie, is something wrong?” Yuri asks finally. Hyewon was weird, but never quite this weird.

 

Hyewon finally looks up to meet Yuri in the eyes, and the younger girl could see the confusion and slight worry wracking her best friend’s features. “I should be asking you that. You’ve been quiet. Why are you so quiet?”

 

The question catches Yuri off guard. Had she made it that obvious that she has been distracted? She realises it a little late, but Yuri realises that this was just one of Hyewon’s many awkward ways of showing concern for her best friend. She sees Yuri acting unlike herself, so she flings eraser bits at the latter’s head to snap her out of whatever it was bothering her.

 

Sounds about right.

 

Unconventional, but unfortunately quite effective.

 

“Am I stealing your character trait? Is that why you’re huffy? Being quiet is your thing, isn’t it?” Yuri asks with a teasing smile. Now that she had determined that Hyewon was just concerned for her, she couldn’t really let this moment slip by. Hyewon was stoic most of the time, often choosing to keep her cards close to her chest. Eventhough Yuri has known her for more than half of her life, she still had trouble deciphering the older girl’s intentions sometimes.

 

Hyewon was a bit of a puzzle.

 

Yuri takes it upon herself to make full use of any moment when the puzzle decides to form any sort of legible picture.

 

“Without a character trait, I’m just an NPC.” Hyewon replies, going along with Yuri’s hypothesis by throwing in a video game reference.

 

“What’s mine then? What’s my character trait?” Yuri asks, amused at her best friend’s nonchalant way of steering the conversation away from the earlier topic of eraser-flinging.

 

“You’re the cute, cuddly one that whines a lot and threatens to beat people up but is mostly harmless.” Hyewon answers with little to no pause, as if she already had that answer ready on the tip of her tongue.

 

“You think I’m cute?” Yuri asks, unable to help the teasing smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

 

Hyewon shrugs, although she too was smiling. “A little bit.”

 

“Cute enough to loan me 4 Million Won?”

 

“That’s...an oddly specific number.” Hyewon frowns, absentmindedly brushing the eraser dust off the cafeteria table. “Oh was I supposed to answer that? No. No not at all. You’re not that cute, no.”

 

“Reeeaallly?” Yuri sings out the question, leaning forward towards Hyewon who seemed slightly flustered by the sudden close proximity.

 

It was a challenge. One that Yuri is all too glad to take on. Not cute? Oh Yuri wasn’t a lot of things, but cute was one thing that she knew she was. She knew that if she maintained eye contact with Hyewon, maybe just pout a little....

 

“Stop that.”

 

...could she get her eyes to be watery? How would she go about doing that? Maybe Yuri should stealthily poke her own eyeballs. Maybe then they’ll be watery. Just a little bit more...

 

“Yul. Stop that. Stop looking at me like that.”

 

...Yuri’s lower lip trembles and she complements it with a barely-audible whine. The final blow. The perfect combo.

 

Hyewon was doomed. She was just hit with the Jo Yuri Special™

 

“...I don’t have 4 Million Won.” Hyewon says finally, weakly admitting defeat.

 

“Shame.” Yuri hums as she retreats back, creating separation between them so that Hyewon could breathe again. It was victory enough for Yuri just knowing that the older girl was still weak to her pouting face.

 

She hears a sigh and she looks up to see Hyewon looking at her, deep brown eyes filled with worry again. “Are you in trouble? What do you need that much money for?”

 

Although the desire to tease Hyewon comes again, Yuri decides that she should be merciful and just answer this one truthfully. “I...was just thinkin’ y’know. A lady tried to sell me a 4 Mill Won bread toaster the other day at the mall, and I was just wondering what it would be like to be that rich.”

 

Hyewon raises an eyebrow in confusion. “Your family isn’t exactly struggling to get by though.”

 

“I know...” Yuri agrees easily, because she KNOWS how ridiculous it sounds. Even more so when she has to explain her thought process out loud to Hyewon, who was her best friend in the whole world. Literally nobody else knew Yuri the way the older girl does.

 

For her brain to go in a direction where Hyewon couldn’t follow...it almost never happened. And this was all because of a toaster. A blasted toaster!

 

“Well...you’ve never really enjoyed shopping or spending money. Could this change be a sign of puberty?” Hyewon sounded almost amused. Great. At least one of them was enjoying this identity crisis.

 

“I think it’s just curiosity, unnie.”

 

“Curiousity regarding the toaster, or about money?”

 

Yuri takes a second to contemplate it.

 

“...The second. I think.”

 

“Jo Yuri? Thinking about real life problems? Should I feel worried or proud?” Okay now Hyewon’s amusement was slowly creeping into the territory of mockery. Yuri would be annoyed, if she wasn’t so exhausted.

 

“I feel messed up, that’s how I feel. Can’t believe it took a toaster for me to think about my plans in life.” Yuri groans out, and right as she does a loud ringing sound echoes throughout the school halls, catching both of their attentions and putting a pause on their conversation.

 

“Well, let’s revisit this topic later shall we?

Recess is over.” Hyewon suggests as she begins to pack up her things.

 

Yuri lets out a long sigh as she too begins to pack up the unfinished homework she had planned to finish during the short break but failed spectacularly to do so.

 

She didn’t know if this topic would even be worth revisiting. This could just be a passing phase.

 

For all Yuri knew, she could be over this whole “money” thing by tomorrow morning.

 


 

******************************

 

 

Takashi Murakami.

 

The name of a famous Japanese sculptor and artist, whose collaborative works have been known to fetch exorbitant prices at auctions and resale markets. Yuri had been surfing through the channels on her TV when that name had popped up on one of those “celebrity house tour” shows.

 

Yuri had not heard of Mr. Murakami before, but she has seen merchandise ripping off his designs being sold along the streets of Myeongdong. If you are big enough for someone to rip off your work, then you’re probably someone who has made it in the world.

 

That must be what was on celebrated rapper Drake’s mind when he commissioned Takashi Murakami to design a piano to be put on display in his mansion. A Bösendorfer piano (another name that Yuri had just learnt while watching this show) was painted with Mr. Murakami’s artwork, shooting the value up to half a million USD.

 

Yuri had no idea about art, nor did she know how USD$475,000 would even look like. What she did take away from this however, was Drake’s willingness to spend that amount of money on a piano that he will undoubtedly only play maybe twice a year at most.

 

Again, Yuri finds herself thinking about money. Again Yuri finds her mind wandering to the world of the rich. It seemed like such a distant way of living. A faraway planet, but suddenly her brain was filled with glorious scenarios and situations. What would she do with that much money? Surely not buy a piano, but how does one even go about being that rich?

 

Must she become a rapper?

 

...She could learn to rhyme. If she put her mind to it.

 

...Maybe.

 

“What are we watching?” She looks up in time to see her mother occupying the vacant space next to her on the large sofa.

 

Out of habit, Yuri finds herself immediately moving closer to her mother so that she could snuggle into the woman’s side. “Rich people doing weird things.”

 

“Ah. Fun.” A warm hand starts to caress Yuri’s head, and oh that was her weakness, wasn’t it? Her eyelids had automatically started to droop closed at the first touch of skin-on-hair.

 

She relishes these quiet moments spent with her mother. She doesn’t get to spend as much time as she would like with her parents, with her mother working a full-time job at a bank and her father being away for months at a time due to his work. From a young age, the thought of needing to work for your meals has been ingrained into Yuri’s brain. She comes from a hardworking family that dotes on her.

 

“What do you think of me getting a part-time job?” Yuri asks, feeling the hand running through her hair stutter in it’s ministrations for a brief moment before continuing as if nothing had happened.

 

“Well, I guess that depends on what you’re getting the part-time job for.” Her mother replies, and Yuri could hear the smile in that warm, motherly voice. “Is it for money, or just as a means to kill time?”

 

“Which answer will get me permission?”

 

“None of them.” The answer was as curt as it was final. “...But it’ll certainly change what I think I’m saying no to.”

 

Of course her mother would turn down the idea. Her only concern was for Yuri to focus on school, and yeah it was with the most noble of intentions but keeping her cooped up like this has made Yuri sheltered.

 

...And this realisation came in the form of a toaster.

 

Yuri wanted...she wanted to want something in life.

 

“...I want to know what it’s like. To be one of those people.” Yuri answers finally, pointing to the television screen as a young male DJ shows off his luxurious Beverly Hills Mansion. “I’m curious.”

 

A chuckle causes Yuri to look up at her mother, who had the most amused expression on her face. “You want to be superficial and lame? Doesn’t sound all that appealing to me.”

 

“I don’t think we’re in any position to call other people lame, Mom.”

 

“Last week Hyewon told me I looked cool in my new jacket.”

 

Yuri actually snorted. “Hyewon-unnie wouldn’t know cool even if she was sitting in a fridge.”

 

They continued like that for a few moments, with Yuri and her mother continually clashing on their perceptions on what is “cool”, at Hyewon’s unknowing expense.

 

It ends with Yuri’s mother conceding that perhaps Hyewon wasn’t quite as cool as she had initially thought, after Yuri’s revelation that her best friend had once gotten kicked out of an anime convention for trying to incite a riot over her favourite pairing.

 

“Focus on your studies.” Yuri hears her mother say finally, as if aware that the topic of money was still very much on her daughter’s mind. “You’ll get there, some day. With your own path. I don’t want you to be working and stressing yourself out, sweetie. Me and your father’s already gone through all that so that you don’t have to.”

 

There was logic in that statement. Yuri could hardly argue. With a sigh, Yuri relents.

 

“I guess. You’re right Mom.”

 




 

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

Hello! Hans here! Back with a new fic! If you have read any of my previous works, welcome back! If you are new to my writing, welcome! I hope you enjoy!

 

So...This fic will be updated a little sporadically. My life is a mess of schedules right now, but I needed to write something at least. Something starring Yuri, who is my IZ*ONE bias. This fic will be 11 chapters long. Because I am incapable of writing short fics lol

 

About this chapter!

 

This fic came about as a result of me literally finding an overpriced toaster while out and about. I started to wonder who in their right mind would purchase such a thing, and why do these people not care about money? They must have a lot of it, if they are willing to spend their money like that. How do I get that rich? This chapter show Yuri going through the exact mental gymnastics I went through, only she’s trying to actually do something about it.

 

....I wrote a fic instead. The difference in our characters lol

 

The story is set in Incheon, because I wanted it to be close enough to Seoul without actually being in Seoul. That’s it, that’s the whole reason lol I never liked my fics to be based fully in Seoul. Just a weird preference on my end.

 

To be honest...I’m a huge fan of IZ*ONE, but I’m not the BEST fan of IZ*ONE. I’m the kind of fan that buys like 20 albums every comeback but I have no idea what goes on in the fandom most times, so I didn’t even know that a Yuri/Hyewon ship even existed. I just thought that I wanted to write a fic with Hyewon in it so I paired her with Yuri here, and a friend of mine was like “oh yeah that pairing is pretty popular”. So now I know! Kangyul/Hyeyul I think this pairing is called?

 

Yeah. So uh...I hope you enjoy this.
 


You. All of you. I don’t know. Lol

 

It will be slow burn until Chapter 3, where everything just picks up from 0-100 LOL

 

Till next time!

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Comments

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babycubpenguin
#1
Chapter 3: Went back here. Still waiting !
lala_izland
#2
Your fic is very, very good! I love it! tbh I'm still waiting for it :(
Kwangbae_Hyung
#3
Chapter 3: i love it so much,please update soon
Hana_Aprilia
#4
Chapter 3: This fanfic is really good! I like your writing style authornim! And please update soon! I'm really excited for the next update
unknowncitrus
#5
Chapter 3: I really like this style/type of fanfic!! :D it’s really fun to read and I’m enjoying it very much :D Thank you author for writing and updating this :)
moonrene
#6
Chapter 3: hmMMM WOW i have a lot to say as usual

i played taeyeon's gravity while reading this whole thing. thanks to u, i found another good song for my playlist. also i find it rlly funny on how yena was introduced, her head getting stuck is really a Choi Yena thing to do to be honest, she might even be my fave character here in this fic

as for sakura, i would faint too if i see her. also yuri's thoughts about her were entertaining to read. it grasped the feeling of a sakura stan well (im saying this as a hyekura biased lol)

hmm... hyewon... looks like she'll witness her bestie be a singer! i hope yuri does well in the audiitions

thanks for the update! :) great work as always
babycubpenguin
#7
Chapter 3: i did not expect this turn but it was fun! i like how yuri thinks and everything about the fic is just lovable. thank you for the update!
moonrene
#8
Chapter 2: hi omg this au is so well written... i can vividly imagine them on my head and its very cute too!!!! nice chapter as always!! this is a masterpiece, thank you for writing this! csnt wait to read more!!!:)

i wonder what hyewon said to yuri... i miss being a teenager suddenly

again, you rlly did well!
babycubpenguin
#9
Chapter 2: it's a good thing i came across your au! i love the dynamics and i can't wait to see more
Yuriornothing
#10
Chapter 1: this is amazing! never read your works before but will now, love your writing. looking forward to future updates!