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part three hundred and thirty six
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EXO'ACT EVENT
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VOTE FOR EXO! | WATCH THE MVS!
m countdown • Monster • Lucky One
EXO'ACT EVENT
Final Round: Drabbles
01. Chanyeol/Kyungsoo; May the odds be ever in your favour.
Today is the lottery. The day they pick two tributes for the hunger games—the day they pick two tributes to die. Kyungsoo steps into the thick crowd to search for one head that stands above the rest. He feels a hand wrap around his wrist, pulling him back into a broad chest.
Kyungsoo looks up. Chanyeol’s face is still dirty from working in the mines. It’s a kind of dirty you can never wipe clean. His fingers are rough where they wrap around Kyungsoo’s pale wrist. Kyungsoo, the son of a baker, will never know the life that Chanyeol lives.
On stage, someone steps up the microphone. “Let’s begin.”
“Good luck,” Chanyeol says. His hand shifts from Kyungsoo’s wrist to hold his hand.
“You too,” Kyungsoo whispers.
The first name passes, someone Kyungsoo doesn’t know. Kyungsoo closes his eyes—
“Park Chanyeol.”
Kyungsoo’s breath catches in his throat. Chanyeol squeezes Kyungsoo’s hand in his, like he’s saying goodbye. Kyungsoo thinks about the day they met: Chanyeol saved him from a falling tree, and Kyungsoo repaid him with a loaf of bread. It was never enough.
Kyungsoo drops Chanyeol’s hand and takes one step into the crowd.
“I volunteer,” he says.
02. xiubaek; Image (Dock)
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Baekhyun says, glancing over his shoulder.
There’s no one there. They’ve ventured far enough from their campsite that there’s no one else around, but Baekhyun can’t shake the feeling that someone will see them.
“It was your idea,” Minseok says as he slips his shirt over his head. “Are you going to back out now?”
Baekhyun’s eyes trail slowly up Minseok’s toned chest to finally meet his eyes. Minseok smirks and reaches out to grab the hem of Baekhyun’s shirt, lifting it slightly. Baekhyun flushes, but he doesn’t back down.
“No way,” Baekhyun says.
They strip off the rest of their clothes and walk toward the edge of the lake. Minseok stops just at the water’s edge and Baekhyun laughs.
“Who’s scared now?” Baekhyun says.
Minseok raises an eyebrow. Before Baekhyun can even think, he’s being lifted over Minseok’s shoulder and tossed into the cold lake. He screams all the way until his body hits the surface, filling his mouth and nose with water. He rises back up with a cough.
“Hyung,” Baekhyun splutters as he surfaces.
Minseok laughs and wades closer, leaning forward to press a kiss to Baekhyun’s lips. “I couldn’t resist.”
03. Suho, Xiumin; Image (Dock)
Summoning sprites is normally a difficult task, usually requiring ridiculously rare ingredients and complicated rituals. Luckily, Junmyeon’s one of the easier ones to call out.
"S-S-Stop that!" he chides through chattering teeth, his head poking above the lake’s surface. Minseok feels the light swipe of a webbed hand and quickly withdraws his finger from the water before he receives more than a smack. Unfortunately for Junmyeon, the threads of frost Minseok had created remain, prolonging the chill. "Just throw in an offering like a normal mage! Now I’m freezing!”
Minseok laughs, lowering his hand again so he can draw out the cold in icy wisps, returning Junmyeon’s waters to their usual temperature. “Sorry, sorry. I won’t do it again.”
“You shouldn’t lie,” Junmyeon sighs, whether out of exasperation at Minseok’s antics or in relief at the lake’s warmth. “I could curse you for that.”
They both know Junmyeon wouldn’t though. Beneath the scales, Junmyeon is one of the softest creatures Minseok’s ever met. Plus, he takes jokes pretty well, honestly.
“After I got you a present from the mainland?” It’s just a small trinket, bought during a run to the apothecary. But Minseok watches, pleased, as Junmyeon’s eyes light up.
04. Suho; It all begins (began) here.
Considering the mountains of trophies they keep in their dorms, it's no surprise to anyone that EXO's attended their fair share of award ceremonies, the number as hard to keep track of as their list of accomplishments. But there's something special about this year's Gaon Chart Awards being held in Olympic Hall.
The ceremony itself passes in a blur of performances. But as he watches this year's winning rookies, he's brought back to four years prior, when it was EXO standing on that same stage in front of him, facing the world for the first time.
How many fans had come for them that day? How many had joined them since? He'd been as amazed then, peeking from behind the stage, as he was now as he glanced at the sea of silver lights surrounding them.
They've come so far.
Later, as Junmyeon accepts their award, he remembers what this stage means to them, what the fans have done for them, what he has to say to them. "This is where we had our debut showcase," he says, sincerely, "From then til now, I'm thankful every time I stand on stage, and I'll continue to be even in the future."
05. Xiumin, Chanyeol; Image (Dock)
Bigfoot. Chupacabra. Aliens.
These things Minseok could tolerate looking for—they usually didn't involve going further than a couple blocks from his house. But the Loch Ness?
Minseok was sitting on a dock in the middle of nowhere, the sun having set hours ago. He was feeling a little ridiculous.
"What was that?"
Minseok looked to the side where Chanyeol was hunched over, flashlight in a death grip as he shone the light over the water at some imagined noise. His eyes were wide with the first hints of fear that Minseok recognized.
He'd been babysitting Chanyeol for six months and it was impossible not to be fond of him. The monster hunting had started as a joke: something to occupy Chanyeol’s time. Even Minseok didn’t mind their adventures anymore. Maybe it was because of how much Chanyeol could work himself up with his imagination—he'd even become scared of his own shadow. Or how he could talk for hours, raining terrible drawings of different incomprehensible monsters on Minseok's head each weekend.
Minseok just couldn't bring himself to ruin Chanyeol’s fun.
"So you know the Loch Ness monster lives in Scotland right?" Minseok said.
"What?"
Well, most of the time.
06. chansoo; It all begins (began) here.
“Do you recognize this place?” Chanyeol asks.
Kyungsoo looks around. They’re in a park half an hour from their apartment in the middle of winter, with only a few other people walking in the distance. Kyungsoo knows it’s familiar, but it’s the wooden bench behind Chanyeol that he recognizes most. Kyungsoo pulls his scarf tighter around himself and smiles into it.
“This is where we met,” Kyungsoo says.
It’s been six years, but Kyungsoo remembers. He used to walk through this park on his way home from work. He went four months never noticing the guy who was always sitting on the bench to his left, until Chanyeol introduced himself. Kyungsoo hasn’t been back in years, since he got a new job and moved in with Chanyeol.
“Why are we here?” Kyungsoo asks.
Kyungsoo watches the way Chanyeol’s hands fidget at his sides, the way he can’t stop from grinning, and Kyungsoo thinks he already knows. Kyungsoo covers his smile with his scarf.
“This is where it began,” Chanyeol says. “So I think it’s the best place to start again.”
Chanyeol smiles. He reaches out and wraps his hand around Kyungsoo’s palm, squeezing once, before he drops to one knee.
07. Kai, Suho; It all begins (began) here.
His knee twinges just looking at the staircase leading out of SM's basement level. It’s a familiar feeling – the ache, the weariness – and Junmyeon wishes Minho was still around to help him up.
“Sunbae,” Someone calls out, hesitant, distant. A voice he’s not intimately familiar with, that has always lingered in his periphery instead. “Need some help?”
Junmyeon turns back towards Taemin’s friend, a polite smile masking his earlier grimace. “Oh, Jongin, you didn’t leave yet?”
“Lost track of time,” Jongin explains quietly. Junmyeon expects the conversation to stop there considering their admittedly impersonal interactions usually end that quickly, but Jongin surprises him. “Is your leg hurting? I could give you a lift.”
The concern is new. From how he usually rejected Junmyeon’s friendly offers of after lesson meals, it had seemed like Jongin only cared about his dance practices. Junmyeon feels his smile softening into something real.
“I’d appreciate that,” Junmyeon says, choosing honesty over courtesy for once since Jongin’s done the same. “Hyung will treat you to ddeokbokki later, okay?” he insists as they start slowly making their way up.
“You don’t have to…”
This time though, Junmyeon doesn’t think he’ll let Jongin get away with a no.
08. Chen/Xiumin; May the odds be ever in your favour. | Warnings: obligatory offscreen tribute death
“Where’s the District 5 boy?” a fellow Gamemaster asks, jerking Minseok’s attention away from a projection of a small island on the arena’s map. With every camera feed the man flicks away, his scowl deepens. “Does he need smoking out?”
“No,” Minseok answers before anyone else can agree, “I’ve got my eye on him.” That apparently satisfies his coworkers, who continue terrorizing the other Tributes instead of redirecting their attention to the remarkably uneventful adventures of Kim Jongdae.
So far, no one’s noticed the feeble threats Minseok’s planted around Jongdae, or how the whirlpools he introduces into the surrounding ocean only kill off kids coming after Jongdae. Waiting as the competition takes each other out isn’t an unusual tactic after all, even if it’s more Minseok’s plan than it is Jongdae’s.
Actually, if anything, Jongdae doesn’t seem to have a plan. He’d been like that during the skill assessment, too, displaying only mediocre spearing skills and far too much sweetness to survive these games. Gamemakers weren’t supposed to pick favorites – just victims – and yet here Minseok was, throwing softballs at the kid.
“You better survive,” he sighs as he watches Jongdae, “considering how I’ve stacked the odds in your favor.”
09. Kai, Suho; Monster
Kim Jongin, age six. Easily startled.
In the days when screams were king, such a footnote would’ve been encouraging. Things are a lot different now though, and instead, Junmyeon sees a warning more than anything – they can’t scare kids anymore after all. Frightened children don’t laugh easily, and Junmyeon already has a hard enough time doing his job.
While waiting for the light over the closet door to turn red, Junmyeon fluffs the fur around his neck one more time, smoothing down his floppy ears as well. I’ve got this, he reassures himself as he twists the door handle and enters Jongin’s bedroom, smile wide and friendly.
“Jongin! Guess who!”
As expected, there’s a sleepy little boy in the room, wearing puppy-printed pajamas and a pout. He rubs his eyes and squints at Junmyeon without a hint of amusement on his face, unfortunately.
“A big bunny?” Jongin asks, blinking blearily as he takes in Junmyeon and his infamous dudumchit pose.
“Not a bunny,” Junmyeon insists, not quite sure what a bunny actually is, “I’m a monster. But a nice one. A funny one – the funniest!”
Jongin grudgingly chuckles, and just his smile’s enough to light up all of Monstropolis.
Success.
10. Baekhyun/Lay; Image (Night)
The moons flickered through the clouds; white nearly set and blue still high in the night. The spires of the city were crystal-lit, the streets empty, the join between dark and dawn.
“Yixing. Can’t sleep?”
Baekhyun perched on the metal arch, cat form, nervously eyeing the young man making his precarious way over. Yixing sat down gingerly, legs dangling free, hands gripping the steel beams.
“Full moon,” Yixing said, glancing up. “How’d you know I would be here?”
“You’ll fall one day, you know,” Baekhyun evaded.
“I don’t like shifting.”
“Then don’t come to places like this.”
Yixing shook his head. “I like places like this—You like places like this.”
Baekhyun fell silent, opting instead to climb onto Yixing’s lap. He was warm, and Baekhyun purred as Yixing freed one hand to pet him. The witching hour, this was called—a moment of truce, in truth.
Baekhyun treasured these moments, a reminder to younger days, when feuds were distant and friends were plentiful. They were no longer young.
"Even if I fall,” Yixing said suddenly, “I know you’ll be there to catch me.”
Baekhyun didn’t have the heart to tell him that it’d be kinder to let him go.
11. Suho, Chanyeol; Image (Dock)
“We’re getting out of here,” Joonmyun says, chewing relentlessly on the rope around Chanyeol’s wrists. Chanyeol takes a look at Joonmyun.
Joonmyun’s lips are mashed, blood smearing his face. The result of tirelessly working at the ropes that held the two of them captive. Chanyeol feels like hurling, waves crashing against the dock beneath him making him nauseous.
It’s been two days, at the least. Two days since they’d woken up on this dock in the middle of nowhere. The smell of the sea and the sudden awareness of their soiled selves push Chanyeol to vomit.
Joonmyun takes off his shirt to clean Chanyeol’s mess. “I swam while you were out and found a small boat. We can leave now. Hurry.”
Head pounding and body trembling, Chanyeol allows Joonmyun to guide him. Suddenly, he notices a figure in his peripherals. Yixing.
“Wait! We can’t leave Yixing hyung!”
By now, Joonmyun is dragging Chanyeol across the dock.
“Chanyeol, you need to understand only two of us can make it out here. Yixing’s lost all consciousness. We can’t save him.”
“Hyung, no!”
The last thing Chanyeol sees is Yixing writhing in pain, before Joonmyun blindfolds Chanyeol and shoves him into the boat.
12. baekhyun/kyungsoo; Monster
Baekhyun waits in the middle of an abandoned warehouse. There’s protective spells surrounding the area to hide his presence, but it doesn’t stop the hair on his arms from rising. This is dangerous. It always is.
Baekhyun feels the air shift behind him. When he turns, Kyungsoo is there.
“We can’t keep meeting like this.” Baekhyun smirks.
Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. They both know this is the only way an angel and a demon can meet: hidden, secret.
Kyungsoo doesn’t let Baekhyun get another word out before he surges forward, pushing Baekhyun back against the wall and pressing their lips together. Baekhyun pushes back into it without thinking, his hands grabbing Kyungsoo’s hips. He presses his fingers in hard enough to bruise and Kyungsoo groans into his mouth. Baekhyun likes leaving marks. It’s the only thing that proves this is real.
Kyungsoo pulls back too soon. Baekhyun stops himself from reaching out to draw him back, closes his eyes so he doesn’t have to watch him leave.
“Leaving so soon?” Baekhyun cracks half a smile.
“I can’t be caught with a demon like you,” Kyungsoo says.
“What makes us so different?” Baekhyun says, opening his eyes.
Kyungsoo is already gone.