![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
writing: every july
Dec. 2nd, 2024 10:18 pmhello ^__^ been a little while but i've just completed my last exam ever for university [screams] so i feel like it's due time for some sort of content on this deserted plain! i wrote this in may of 2022, which i've just realised was over two years ago (christ) and it was inspired by a song by grent perez as well as tourist: a love song from paris by dear jon cozart (iykyk) + pictures of the sebtins on tour in america. i rekindled my love for wonhui after i completed my kpop ficmix this year so i thought this should be able to see the light of day, albeit only dreamwidth. reading back on this makes me cringe a little (19 y/o hay's writing meets 22 y/o hay's scrutiny) but it's a universe i wanted to share regardless. hope you enjoy!
rating: teen
archive warning: no archive warnings apply
pairing: junhui/wonwoo
word count: 1859
rating: teen
archive warning: no archive warnings apply
pairing: junhui/wonwoo
word count: 1859
read more
Junhui first meets him at Santa Monica Pier.
He’s not hard to spot, decked out in a black long-sleeved band tee, sweatpants, and a bucket hat, the rim just covering his eyes over his clear-framed glasses. The only thing stark against the outfit is the white camera slung across his body. He had two friends with him before, wandering along the pier and dancing with each other like they were the only people there. It was cute, how free and happy they seemed, and Junhui is nothing if not a keen people-watcher.
The sun is setting, casting orange shadows pooling across the water and in the moment, Junhui thinks the camera he’s carrying would come in handy right about now.
“Pretty, isn’t it?”
Someone comes up from behind him, speaking into his ear and he jumps back in shock.
“I meant the sunset but my friend over there isn’t too bad either,” one of the friends, the blonde one, says with a knowing smile and Junhui goes rigid.
“I didn’t mean to be creepy,” he defends weakly, waving his hands in front of his chest and the friend laughs, throwing his head back as if it’s a hilarious situation.
“I know! I was watching you too, you know.”
The friend has cropped hair and a keen sense of rhythm as he all but gently herds Junhui to the railing of the dock to the beat of the music playing out of Pacific Park. Their sneakers skid against the old wood and Junhui should really be running away and back to Joshua and Jeonghan.
“I really don’t—”
“Wonwoo-yah!” The friend yells and camera-guy turns around, surprised to see a new face. He gives his friend a strange look, hands perched carefully over the camera as if he was in the middle of taking a photo. Junhui feels even more guilty.
“Is Soonyoung bothering you?” Wonwoo asks politely and Junhui stunned, only opens his mouth and makes shapes before Soonyoung grumbles and lets go of him.
“Hey! I brought him over so he could take a photo of us and Minghao,” says Soonyoung, folding his arms like a petulant child before he looks around.
“Speaking of, where did he go?”
“Bird-watching,” Wonwoo replies easily, looking at Soonyoung before looking again at Junhui. He’s quite handsome, chiseled features and sharp eyes standing out but the way he’s giving him a onceover makes Junhui hyper-aware of his sandals and tank top that’s seen better days.
He wasn’t planning on meeting new people today. If anything, he was supposed to chill out after a hectic semester and eat Joshua’s mum’s pajeori until he fell sick.
Alas, LA has other plans for him.
“I hope we didn’t disturb you,” Wonwoo apologies softly and Soonyoung, having spotted their other friend, is too busy running after him on the beach to explain himself. Junhui is more than glad for that because the way he naturally unfurls, posture relaxing when Wonwoo smiles again is embarrassing.
“No, no! It’s okay—I was just um… watching the water.” He’s being honest. Wonwoo had only caught his eye in the middle of his ocean-gazing session.
“Mmm, I like to do that as well. Soonyoung likes to interrupt me every now and again too.” Junhui lets himself smile back, especially when Wonwoo snorts at himself.
When Wonwoo sees his friends running back up the pier, he waves at them and Minghao, the blue-haired friend, Junhui deduces, stops his pace when they make eye contact.
“Oh Minghao, this is the person I’ve recruited to take photos for us,” Soonyoung says proudly, chest puffed out and Junhui realises that he hasn’t introduced himself.
“Hi, my name’s Junhui. You can call me Jun.” He tacks on the end and Minghao shakes his head, offering a hand.
“Minghao, nice to meet you.” He gives Junhui a hearty handshake and soft smile.
“Here you go Jun.” Wonwoo pulls the camera strap off his shoulder and hands it to Junhui gingerly, gentle even when Junhui has a firm grip on it already. Minghao hands him his phone as well and Junhui tucks it into his front pocket.
“Just press on the button,” Wonwoo explains and Junhui nods nervously.
“1, 2, 3!” Junhui counts, one hand in the air but the bystanders don’t wait for him, simply walking straight through or nudging behind Junhui to the point where he feels inclined to move out of people’s way than the other way around.
They laugh at him, making him burn up even more under the Californian sun and just wait for everyone to pass before gesturing him to try again.
“Okay, 1, 2, 3!” He takes the images, portrait and landscape, making sure everyone is in focus and there isn’t a random stranger photobombing in the back. He walks back quickly and puts the camera back in Wonwoo’s hands.
The three of them hunch over the tiny screen and Junhui shifts from foot to foot nervously. His own friends must be wondering where he is.
“Thank you Jun!” Soonyoung beams, clearly happy with the results and Junhui lets himself breathe. Minghao, like they’ve been friends forever and not complete strangers, points and laughs at him.
“Why’re you so antsy for? We would have asked someone else to take them for us if we wanted better pictures,” Minghao teases and Junhui splutters out a series of noises that only earn him more teasing jabs. Soonyoung punches Minghao in the arm for the comment before sidling over to Junhui, whose hands haven’t stopped sweating since he let go of the camera.
“Don’t be mean! I’m the one who asked him in the first place. Plus, I think we might keep this one. What do you say Wonwoo?”
Wonwoo just smiles, shrugging as he flicks through the images again.
“I’m not the one you should be asking,” he says, nudging his head in the direction of Junhui. Soonyoung looks up at him with pleading eyes and Junhui doesn’t even know what he’s propositioning.
“Have drinks with us tonight Jun? You can bring your friends too.”
Soonyoung, an all-knowing, omniscient spirit Junhui decides, points at two concerned men pointing and staring at Junhui, as if it couldn’t be him. Junhui peels himself out of Soonyoung’s grip and runs towards them instead.
“Where did you go?” Jeonghan demands when Junhui bounds over and he gives him a helpless look.
“Just took a few photos for them but they’re wanting to go for drinks,” Junhui says in a single breath. He’s never functioned too well with strangers, let alone pretty ones, and Joshua just laughs.
“Do you want to?”
Jeonghan gives him that smile that means he’s endeared by whatever Junhui is doing or saying. While it usually feels embarrassing and like he’s been given Jeonghan’s thousand-yard stare, he knows that there’s something that feels secretly monumental about this. Or at least that Jeonghan can clock and Junhui can’t.
In the mean time, Soonyoung has skipped over to them and Joshua, the gentleman, opens up the circle for him to introduce himself.
“Are you Junhui’s friends?” he asks as if he didn’t already know, eyes bright.
“Jeonghan, and this is Joshua,” he says amicably and Soonyoung eagerly shakes their hands.
“I’m Soonyoung, and this is Wonwoo and Minghao,” he points his thumb at them as they amble across to them. Jeonghan raises an eyebrow at Junhui when Wonwoo pads over after Minghao. Junhui goes as red as a lobster and Joshua has the heart to not laugh in his face. They know him too well.
“Hi, and sorry for…” he gestures at Soonyoung’s figure from behind. “We do want to hang but no obligations,” Minghao explains quickly and Joshua brushes it off with a smile.
“All good, I was actually just asking Junnie if he was down first.”
All eyes are on him and Wonwoo, the closest one to him, gives him a reassuring smile.
“Yeah sure, why not.”
Soonyoung whacks him on the back and Junhui can only give him the most sunny smile he can muster before the dread starts to set in.
“Let’s exchange numbers and I’ll text you where we’ll be and what time!”
Wonwoo is not in the circle when Junhui looks up after Soonyoung rapidly types in his number into each of their phones.
He’s still looking out into the ocean, positioning the camera just in front of his face.
Junhui wonders where the photos go. Maybe he’ll ask him tonight.
In the end, Junhui never gets to ask because Wonwoo doesn’t end up coming. Minghao says that he came down with something when they returned from the beach and had an early night, leaving it at that. Jeonghan pats his thigh in sympathy and Junhui makes a face at him when the others aren’t looking. His friend laughs at him before ordering another drink.
From what was an innocent invite, Soonyoung having trusted Junhui the second he saw him, and by extension, Joshua and Jeonghan, to the wild rest of the night they had, it’s safe to say that it’s something the five of them won’t ever forget. After drinks, Soonyoung danced with strangers for an hour, then Junhui for another before Joshua and Minghao had to lug a dead-to-the-world Soonyoung into a taxi with Jeonghan giggling to himself on the kerb, oversized bomber jacket wrapped snugly around his body. Junhui only wished them a good night and promised to send photos into their newly-made group chat before him, Jeonghan, and Joshua made their own way home.
All the while, he wonders if Wonwoo is feeling better.
They don’t get to meet up again after that night, as Joshua and Jeonghan have plans to meet up with Seungcheol in New York, and they extend the offer to Junhui but he refuses.
He’s got the rest of the world to see, apart from the corner they’ve spent the last few days in. Though Shenzhen would be a safe, comfortable option, given that his mother has been asking him to come home for the past three years, he decides not to.
Where he ends up is Paris, only because he was banking on Berlin being his first stop but the tickets were cheaper to go to France and his European summer had to start somewhere before Jeonghan and Joshua were going to wrestle him into their suitcases and to New York. They were always concerned with the thought of him being alone.
Junhui has lived many years without them perfectly well but it’s in their nature to be protective. It’s in Junhui’s to refuse.
So he sits in his Airbnb apartment somewhere in between the third and fourth arrondissements, watching the sun sink down the sky with a glass of red in his hand just to fit into the landscape. He doesn’t even like wine all that much but the free bottle that came with the apartment was too tempting to resist. The sun sets, scintillating and casting pools of light onto the balcony. The laundry hanging over the opposite apartment’s balustrade flaps in the wind, white button-downs dyed yellow with the sunset.
It would be nice to capture this moment too.
