AN1:

I've been gone for such a long time I couldn't find my story in the Moonsun tag anymore lol. But yes, I didn't want to come back with something half-assed for this chapter (and I did tell y'all to cross your fingers I get the chapter done fast, you guys prolly didn't 🙄) (JOKE)

So to sorta make up for the long absence I present to you 6,000+ words worth of MoonSun, which, I will shamelessly say, many better-written stories cannot offer (don't come at me authors I mean that as a compliment to your plot-creation skills)

Anyways yep y'all are still there, right?

Enjoyyyyy! 😘

Byul's contract with The Human Condition is not fully completed properly because she had to leave abruptly, and the show was postponed pending an overhaul in the show’s program concept.

In lieu of suing the studio and thus jeopardizing their reputation, Byul, like the CEO that she was born to be, asks for KBS to settle in the following ways:

Korean Broadcasting System company shares in the same amount she would have gotten if she was one of the top four participants in the program (₩250 million, $200,000 US), which is the equivalent of some 5,400 shares, also qualifying her for some kind of position in the company

A revamping of the written rules on safety in production design (which she will need to sign off on, as part of her being a stakeholder)

All four Mamamoo members are miraculously free one morning, about 2 weeks since Byul’s release from the hospital, so they all decide to get breakfast together.

Hyejin: “Unnie what do you mean you’re not pressing charges? Damn that hit on your head must’ve been really hard!”

B: “I told RBW they can do that for me if they want, and then we’ll split the proceeds. My plan is different.”

Wheein: “Yongsun-unnie, you’re hearing this, right?”
Y: “Listen to her plan first, Wheenie.”

B: “Thank you Ddunnie. 😊 So for personal settlement I’m going to ask KBS for company shares in the same amount as that of what I might have collected if I won the thing. That’s ₩250 million. The size of my investment will merit me some say in the company, plus…some other things Yong is better at explaining, take it away Yong-ddunie.”

Y: “Jagi, we talked about this last night.”

B: “But it sounds so y when you do it, c’mon!”

Yong, Wheein and Hyejin all together groan and roll their eyes in various ways.

Y: “Why don’t you just say you can’t explain it in detail?”

B: “On with it, Ddun!”

With a huff, Yong proceeds as requested: “So at its current price Byul could own about 5,000 shares of the company. I told her to be specific and request for Common Stock, which will give her company voting rights, and depending on the company, maybe even an actual position, with a salary, on top of a yearly, forever income of up or down ₩5 million. If she decides to sell her stock or pull it out at any period, that could become an additional of up or down ₩22 million, depending on the share price at the time.”

W: “...Yongsun-unnie I totally forgot you went to a finance high school.”

B: “Wheenie, she owns a building. Fully paid.”

H: “...Hold up, Byulyi-unnie, that isn’t enough money to compensate for what could have happened to you!”
B: “RBW execs are whack as we know, but they’re not all that bad. They know we built that company and like I said I will have a share in the profits from the company settlement, or lawsuit, if they sue. Which I told them to do quietly if ever, otherwise I won’t get KBS power, which is actually the most important part here, Hyejinnie. You know KBS is the biggest in the country, right?”

Hyejinnie gives all the information some thought, again, in very Hwasa-fashion, her head tilted to the right. Her eyes and mouth widen after a couple seconds. “Yah Unnie! You’re a genius!”

B: “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

Y: “Okay genius why don’t you repeat everything I just said?”

Things thankfully go according to plan. The Human Condition is made to look like it had to take a sudden hiatus so it can be reformatted based on a decision from higher-ups, and other stakeholders. This actually turned out almost entirely true, save for the real reason why this had to happen, which is of course, undisclosed.

Apart from being a couple million won richer, following a number of meetings with higher-ups, Byul is assigned a particular type of producer role at KBS, which allows her to choose to take charge of anything she feels like after learning of the lineup. With the publicized onboarding of Mamamoo’s Moonbyul KBS execs hope she can improve things around the company, such as make Show Champion better than Inkigayo (insert sarcastic, fake Byul laughter here). Apart from improving public opinion about them.

Y: “Byul, wait, that means you’re going to attend stakeholder meetings.”
B: “Yep.”

Y: “, Jagi.”

B: “What? Why?”

Y: “You really make things happen don’t you, you’re making the 4th universe come true.”
B: “Well, not yet, Ddunnie, that’ll happen when I’m CEO.”

Y: “Of KBS?!”

B: “Hey who knows, I’m part of the hierarchy now.”

Y: “...yeah actually I was more excited about the corporate outfits you’d have to put on that aren’t costumes or award show get-ups anymore. The Moomoos are gonna lose their minds! We better tell stylist-unnie to brace herself!”

An eye-roll, and a “Gee thanks for believing in me, Unnie,” is Byul’s response.
 

Byul of course selected to work on the show she was forced to leave. So with the help of the existing team, she brings The Human Condition back as Season 2 and signs Solar in also (just because she can, as an excuse to continue sticking to her Unnie like a leech).

The rest of the producers were also so moved by their pairing that they resolved for the second season to become a sort of spin-off of We Got Married (which makes Byulyi’s heart swell–she has been avenged!), except this time around, the participating pairs are actually good friends. The challenges from last season continue, now needing to be fulfilled in pairs.

A very blatant new challenge of the second season though is that all participants will be flown to the US, which was a suggestion from Byul. She justified this by saying:
 

it would be better to maintain The Human Condition’s former budget, to keep the show at its high caliber, and to justify the budget it should be shot on-location

this will also keep the show’s 'big-ness' if they're out of Korea–the look will be more cinematic than variety show-ish

shooting abroad will add that extra challenge of a language barrier, which will make the rewards more worth it

They hadn’t realized it before, but this is one of the main reasons (or it could be exactly) why KBS executives immediately agreed with Byul’s settlement conditions. The tiny hamji is a creative ace.

Let it be known though, indeed, that Solar called it first with Byul’s keyring idea for her first mini album.

Y: “Byul-ah, this isn’t working, we’ll have to use the Dewey Decimal System,”

B: “But I don’t know how that works, Unnie! The library system back home is similar but not exactly the same…and to begin with, again, I don’t remember how to use that one, I didn’t go to the library a lot, you’re the nerd not me,”
Y: “Aishhh aren’t you the lousiest teammate ever,”

A cameraman slowly walks backward while capturing the bickering, old, (pretty much) married couple in their natural habitat, except maybe they’re not as loud as usual. Even the New York Public Library’s grandeur couldn’t hold these two down. The camera crew is all smiles, knowing how lucky they are to be assigned to shoot Solar and Moonbyul. No dull moments here, that’s for sure.

The pair is currently filming for the first episode of The Human Condition Season 2, on a race to be first amongst the participants to fulfill two missions pertaining to, well, books. Hence why they're in one of the world's most famous libraries. They must first find the specific books as detailed in their mission sheet, and then fulfill tasks in connection to the books they find.

Well, IF they find them.

B: “Unnie, my head is starting to ache,”

Y: “Is it Jagi?”

Byul’s eyes widen at how her words might’ve come across. Which was panic-inducing, apparently, as seen on her beloved’s face.

B: “No, Ddun, not like that. I meant this is making me dizzy,--”

Yong’s eyebrows scrunch over even more and the energy of the whole crew begins to thicken.

“A-aniya, everyone, my head is actually just fine,” says Byul frantically, addressing the production staff. “Unnie and I just need to maybe sit and restrategize or something. Uhhhh, Google is popular here, right?”

There’s an almost audible, collective exhale shared by all show staff.

They're absolutely screwed this time if anything were to happen to Byul again…who can actually just have them all fired on a whim, come to think of it.

Solar and Moonbyul find an empty table to figure things out, with Byul's hair under the caresses of Yong’s fingers, just in case something truly is up with the delicate lil head.

Byul satisfactorily finds an instructional online on how to find books using their call numbers in American libraries.

B: “Okay Unnie, so it says here that we need to find the correct section…”

The first book MoonSun needed to find was a book that’s supposed to be something like cliff notes on The Symposium by well-known western philosopher Plato. The Symposium contains an explanation provided for what is now known as the concept of soulmates by Aristophanes, who is said to be the most prolific playwright in ancient Europe. His explanation goes something like this:

“In the beginning, humans were androgynous.

“Not only did early humans have both sets of ual organs, but they were outfitted with two faces, four hands, and four legs. These monstrosities were very fast – moving by way of cartwheels – and they were also quite powerful. So powerful, in fact, that the gods were nervous for their dominion.

“Wanting to weaken the humans, Zeus, Greek king of Gods, decided to cut each in two, and commanded his son Apollo ‘to turn its face…towards the wound so that each person would see that he’d been cut and keep better order.’ If, however, the humans continued to pose a threat, Zeus promised to cut them again – ‘and they’ll have to make their way on one leg, hopping!’

“The severed humans were a miserable lot. ‘[Each] one longed for its other half, and so they would throw their arms about each other, weaving themselves together, wanting to grow together.’”

Among the more famous of Aristophanes' words in this exposition of his are the following: “Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature. Each of us, then, is a ‘matching half’ of a human whole…and each of us is always seeking the half that matches him.”

After reading about this specific topic, the couple is supposed to decipher it and react to it appropriately.

Impressively the two manage to get their hands on the book ahead of the others, boggling everyone at how the two barely spoke to each after finally learning how to use library call numbers. They scurried along aisle after aisle, silent and focused, until Byul gave out a yelp (Y [whispered]: “Byul-ah this is a library!”) having found the code they had jotted down stuck to a book’s spine.

Yong, being the better one at English, goes ahead and tries to explain the whole thing to Byul, who on the other hand makes use of the vocab she picked up from those English lessons she took in the worse parts of the pandemic. It helps that both actually paid attention when Greek mythology was taken up in school.

Y: “Okay, we are united in our interpretation. Did we get it correctly?”

The PD assigned to tail Yong and Byul confirm that they did, indeed, get it right, and that now they needed to share their thoughts on what Aristophanes had to say.

Now given the time to reflect on the information they were made to absorb, both girls’ faces turn a little red. After a bit of semi-awkward silence, Yongsun clears .

Y: “May I go first?”

B: “Of course, Ddunnie.”

“I…I think I may have reason to believe in Aristophanes,” Yong begins shakily. A little too shakily if you ask Byul.

“There’s a unique sense of stability here, right now, where we’re sitting, because Byul is next to me. It will be starkly not here if Byul was away. I think I’ve said this before, how I always thought it was weird, especially in our early days as a group, that I would feel it so much whenever Byul wasn’t with me. I used to always be so annoyed at how extra Byul could be, as our fans would know, but also, very strangely, her existence would be something I will try to find without reason if she is not there. And I could never explain this.”

Yong turns towards Byul, who you would think would be watching Yong with a love-drunk grin on her face. Instead, she has on this serious expression, as if synchronously trying to memorize every nook and cranny of Yong’s features, and every word from .

“Wow, this is so greasy. But uh, I guess, now I can. Explain it, I mean. The depth of my affection for Byul had always seemed to be beyond all logic and reason; it seemed defiant against expectations from the company we worked for, the Korean public, our fans, and even myself. I could comprehend none of it. But now that I know better, as it turned out I was just wanting to be made whole by my matching half…” says Solar, looking into Byul’s eyes, with a small smile, breathing deeply.

Y: “My better half, right, Dangshin?”

Byul then very briefly wonders what that sigh was about, but couldn’t ponder further since it was her turn to share her thoughts.

Camera angles are turned towards a now even more blushing Moonbyul.

B: “Oh, it’s my turn, is it?”

And then Solar’s face morphs into that expression she wears whenever Byul talks, the one that fans have come to know and love, where she looks almost hypnotized.

B: “Aristophanes made mention of the wound of human nature. I like to think this wound may be bigger for some than it is for others.”

Yong is immediately struck by Byul’s first sentence. Uncharacteristically (at least to the general public) she invades Byul’s personal space and takes her by the waist to position her chin on Byul’s shoulder from behind.

B: “Yong, what is up with you, chincha…”

Y: “Nothing Jagi, please keep going.”

B: “Um, so anyway, I–I think I’m one of those people, who might have a wound larger than what would be normal. I’m naturally melancholic and I’m more comfortable prioritizing the needs of the people who are important to me over my own. I would shower my people in love not with the expectation of getting anything in return, only to be saddened if my love is unrequited in the end. It’s a sad situation all around and was a vicious cycle. This was something The Human Condition helped me improve on.

“The year I turned 19 I met Solar-unnie as a trainee. And publicly I have said that I got caught up in her very fast. I wanted to be around her as often as possible and I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t think anything there was of romantic meaning then, since what I felt for the person I was in a relationship with at the time was very different from what I was feeling for Solar. Now that I also know better, I know that was because what Solar-unnie and I had…what she and I have, is as pure and as pristine as something that would come directly from our Maker, if I’m making any sense right now.

“Solar-unnie made a conscious effort to heal my wound even if it was too big for her to do that alone, and I didn’t know how important it was for me to help her out. And now, both of us are settled in the undeniable truth that we simply shouldn’t be apart, because she and I are one. We can only attain the status of full healing together. That’s as much as I can talk about this concept right now, since I think there is much to learn about it.”

The PD accepts both their answers and congratulates them for being first in the race. They are told to proceed to locate the second book in their mission sheet. It is the only Korean-translated love poetry book in the whole library. One of the players must read 2 poems aloud with their best effort to their partner. The partner must respond in a way appropriate to what he or she heard from the book.

Long story short their very recent declarations of true, undying love for each other are forgotten, as the production team holds in their laughter at the bickering couple yet again.

Y: “Aigoo Byul-ah I told you we’d walked past PW ages ago, look now we’re at freaking end of Q!”
B: “There’s two of us here Unnie, you missed it too.”

Y: “Yeah but first of all, we both know you’re the one here with the better eyesight, and secondly I told you