#rkroyalmove

rkheejin‌:

     it’s easy— falling into step effortlessly with jungeun as if she’d not been gone for months, but heejin chalks it up to just how strong their connection as friends was (and,thankfully, still is ). heejin hadn’t forgotten about the blonde despite their time apart, and she was glad that very same sentiment seemed to be shared— jungeun filled the very void she’d left in the brunettes life from the moment she’d gone away, and she couldn’t be happier.

     heejin wasn’t someone who was cheesy ( wasn’t someone who was sappy) but it’s obvious she’d grown to miss seeing her best friend in person— that she’d miss hanging out like this. it drew memories from their earlier high school outings, shopping when they should’ve been studying, doing school work over pastries at cafes when they could.

     their high school careers were over now, life moving forward, but heejin was happy that that was all that had really changed between them.

     “we should go to california together as a vacation sometime, you could show me around— i’ve always wanted to go to universal studios,” her words are light, but she can’t help the sense of hope they have at jungeuns own words. together. “in all seriousness, though, i hope you had fun over there. you look refreshed.”

     heejin gives a small pout in contemplation, scanning tables and the cafes line. “it’d probably be easier to get food and sit first— then we won’t have to get up again, right? i can open it then.”

jungeun finds two girls leaving a booth, making it open for the pair to take. “there. we can sit down and one of us can order something,” jungeun suggested. jungeun feels her stomach rumble. “i am starving.” 

she thinks about heejin’s suggestion. the blonde has been to the universal parks in asia but nothing really compares to the original. the studio tour was something else, making jungeun almost change her career paths right then and there. “we should!” she replied. she pointed to the empty booth and started to walk there. “honestly, we need to take pictures in front of hogwarts and you needto see the studio. i think you’d make it in hollywood.” 

jungeun reminisces her time in los angeles. “honestly, if i weren’t so set on geting scouted,” jungeun started. “i think i’d like to live in california. i wouldn’t mind working at my aunt’s bbq restaurant forever if i was able to live there. can you believe? i really was working at a real job for the past few months.” 

there were too many things to talk about. ( she’s quite overwhelmed, to be honest. ) but she sets her bag down on the table. “i’m not the only one looking refreshed,” she returns her best friend’s tone. “how have you been, miss heejin?” 

rkheejin‌:

     heejin isn’t surprised by her own currentobliviousness( it was incrediblyrare for anything to go right over the brunettes head but, obviously, this was a clear exception ), the bag outstretched towards her having gone completely unnoticed in her dire need to hug the blonde. a playful grin grows on her lips, eyes bright as a brow raises. “gift?” she mimics the other girls’ speech, talking in english just the same—well, as best as she could, given that she lacked the same proficiency in pronunciation that jungeun did. “should i look now, or later?”

     at the silent question, heejin gives a firm nod, moving to loop their arms as they walk together. she’s glad to have visited it once before, even if it wasn’t for an incredibly long time, a few of the halls and the directions to the cafe still clear in her mind. “i’d hopeyou missed me! you have to tell me everythingthat happened while you were away—i sure as hell have a lotto tell you.”

     as they continue to walk through the building, heejin’s nose scrunches.

     “don’t ever leave for that long again, i beg you.”

“hmmmmm—”jungeun tapped her chin in thought. entering the building was a total sensory overload—from the giant screen playing luxe music videos to the scent of coffee beans floating around the cafe. jungeun had to restrain herself from jumping off the walls in excitement just by being in the label’s hq. but, she also had to hide the excitement she had for her best friend to see the contents of the paper bag.

jungeun isn’t necessarily a grinch but she does appreciate a good deal and the contents of the bag were anything but.she remembers a sweat forming on her forehead when she peered over her cousin’s shoulder and saw ’108 usd = 127,677.60 south korean won.’ the blonde noted her friend’s affinity for the certain brand glossier,inconveniently not available in korea. despite the damage her wallet had during her extended vacation, seeing her friends’ happy faces was worth it.

and that’s the spirit of gift giving, isn’t it?

“of course i did,” jungeun replied, mixing korean and english. jungeun felt a pang of remorse at her heejin’s request; despite having the time of her life, she felt selfish for doing it all on her own. “and i won’t. we still have to seize the day, together,don’t we?”

jungeun scanned the cafe for empty seats and for the length of its line. unusually indecisive, she turned her head to her friend for direction. “what should we do first? open your gift or get some food?”

rkhyun‌: 

His gaze watches everything about her – her stance, her posture, the position of her hands, her feet, her head, where she’s looking, her expression. She looks a little tense, and he can’t blame her; this is their first time in a while being out in public together. He can’t quite remember when the last time was, but that was a signal that it was too long ago. He remembers going to Lotte World with her once, for Halloween, and also back to Busan earlier in the year, to visit his family and for her to finally see the region that he grew up in.

She looks tense, and Hyun wonders if this was a good idea. Admittedly, he is a bit nervous. While speaking to her, he keeps a bit of an eye out on the people around them, as well as their reactions. There’s quite a number of people present; he’s not sure who he may bump into. Part of him is hoping that will work a little in his favour. Do people pay that much attention to every single person when there’s a crowd around?

He can’t quite tell by her expression what she’s thinking. It’s nothing out of the ordinary. While Hyun often wears his feelings on his face, Jei’s thoughts are more subdued. They’re like two sides of a coin, but two sides of the same coin nonetheless – inseparable, necessary, not the same without the other. In general, his own features are relaxed, and a little excited. He keeps a respectable distance out in front of so many wandering eyes, although not so far that they’re only strangers meeting for the first time. Anyone can tell they’re friendly, but he’s not giving suggestions that they’re as intimate as they are behind closed doors.

“The old one looked nothing like this~ Which was probably their intention. If it looked just like the old one, I’d be suing. I remember going there once or twice, to see Hongjoong. I mean, it was nice, but not ‘nice’ nice like this new place–” At her suggestion to enter, Hyun’s smile widens a bit more (if that was even possible), and he nods and goes into a small bow, his hands moving with a (probably unnecessary, in her eyes) flourish. 

“After you, Miss Kim Jei~”

she can feel his eyes on her even without having to look at him.  they’ve been connected for so long, even before they were dating  -  after all, their story started when they were still so young.  their fated string is attached and while it may knot so much that it becomes a struggle, they still manage to find a way back to each other.  his gaze stops where she ends, and vice versa.  the world around them still turns, but in the end, they find each other.

it doesn’t mean that this situation is easy for either of them.  jei can’t even remember the last time they were seen in public together in the daylight  -  was it way back in the baskin robbins, when hyun would visit and all her employees would swear they were dating when they weren’t? can she even count busan, when it was filled with people much too old to care whether they held hands or not?  she’s not really sure how to act, whether she should stare him down like she used to back in the baskin robbins or at least give him the slightest of smiles like she did back in busan.

in the end, jei thinks that it doesn’t matter.  what matters most is that they’re together, that hyun is trying and that they’re on a date.  as much as they have to keep it quiet, they know what this is.  hyun is close enough for her to touch, for her to talk to  -  even if she can’t touch him until they’re behind closed doors, it’s enough to know that she can.  hyun trying so hard for her right now is enough.

jei’s pulled from her thoughts by hyun talking about the royal building, but her face doesn’t suggest it.  her head turns from the building and her attention is on him: everything about him, from the way his hair is styled up and out of his eyes down to his shoes.  (  she tries not to think about how much she wants to mess up his hair.  that’s something that she’ll just have to do later.  )  “ right.  i’ll just have to take your word for it, won’t i?” she muses, eyes flicking to the building and then back to him.

immediately, her nose crinkles when he embellishes a bow, unable to help her expression from turning to one of distaste.  “ do you really have to do all that?” she asks flatly, shaking her head.  “ you’re a mess.  let’s just go.” she strides to the building and pulls open the door, sighing still at the sight of how busy it is.  

but even still, they look like they’re just two friends catching up.  it doesn’t matter if they’re seen.

rkheejin‌: 

     it’s easy, soeasy, to fall into step with jei, to lean into her offered warmth and support without a care in the world— had it been anyone else ( a newly met stranger, someone who’d yet to fully break down the walls she’d surrounded herself in from a young age for her own sanity ), heejin was positively certainshe wouldn’t feel as happy as she did now. every individual she’d allowed close to her left her with a different feeling of fondness.

     jei was no different— in heejins eyes, the older woman was something she’d been missing for a long time, someone she’d hold near and dear to her heart for as long as she could( she would never admit this to anyone but jei, but heejin hoped she’d have her forever as long as jei would have her too ). to heejin, she was a role model— a friend, a confidant, a mother.

     it was only natural, then, for her to want to share everything she could with the older woman. good or bad, right or even (begrudgingly) wrong, she’d share it with her.

     "ah, i’m glad then!“ there’s a sense of a rare, unbridled excitement to her tone, her body unconsciously moving closer with jeis pull. the other’s actions aren’t lost on her, the way her voice trails leaving heejin curious, but she knows better than to drag on what’s meant to be let go ( if it was truly important, she was sure she’d know in time— jei wasn’t someone she’d want to pester for answers the way she’d do with friends). “we’ll see this for the first time together! i don’t know if you could tell but i’m a littleexcited.” she speaks with a blinding smile, giving a small skip in her step, brows raising in mock question.

she’s not really sure how they managed to hit it off so well, but maybe it’s just because they’re so similar that they’ve bonded.  and now that they have, she’s loathe to lose the connection; it’ll remind her too vividly of a time long past when she lost the thing dearest to her because of someone else.  when heejin leans into her for comfort and warmth, the world feels like it’s set to right again.  it’s an unusual feeling but one that jei welcomes nonetheless, with her arm wrapping around heejin while guiding her through the masses.

their time together is easy and though they’ve managed it, sometimes it leaves jei grasping for straws.  it leads her down a path to memory that jei would rather not remember, but at the same time she wouldn’t trade it for the world.  now that heejin has expressed wanting a mother, now that she’s called jei her mother, she’s not going to let her down.  this isn’t going to be like before.

that’s why she’s promised herself.  that’s what she’s promised to heejin, even if she hasn’t said the words aloud.

” of course.  i know this place is important to you.“ as much as jei doesn’t want it to be, she knows that it is.  it’s heejin’s dream  -  she shouldn’t stand in the way, as much as she knows what lies behind closed doors in the entertainment world.  and even though she has her own opinions about the big five, it doesn’t mean that she should always shatter the view of someone who really admires them.  (  that’s what maturity is.  )  ” really? i couldn’t tell.“ she says drily, the corners of her lips turning up for a moment before settling back into her normal neutral expression.  ” what do you want to do first?“

rksomi‌: 

somi hadn’t been out much lately. most of her time was spent in trc, making sure she’s caught up with her schoolwork, and her monthly dance project for her youtube channel. she misses going out with her friends, but the trc training schedule and moving closer to the company made it a little difficult to sneak out and be back in time for meals with her parents. she was starting to understand what her mom went she said that being a trainee is much more than just getting ready to become an idol. there were a handful of instances when she had to pass up on going with her friends from school because their free times rarely matched, but that wasn’t the case with her friends from trc.

as soon as they were inside, she was at a loss for wordswith how many people were there. she figured that there wouldn’t be as much at that hour. but royal has it’s loyal following, and surely, it would take some time for the crowd to dwindle. she looks over to jei when she heard her unnie speak, shaking her head, “i think i’ll leave the merch for the others, and go for the food instead?” of course, that was why she was here. any excuse to visit a new place, eat (hopefully) good food, and spend time with friends like jei were the reason she loves going out so much. “is this your first time too? i don’t know which to get…” she adds, tapping her chin as she looks over the menu.

much of her time to herself is often focused on the weekends, now that her schedules at trc keep her from having a real life during the weekdays.  that’s not really as much of a concern as it would seem  -  she’d been bored before joining the company and frankly, struggling with her own issues and struggling with unhappiness that she didn’t want to talk about.  even after some of the issues she was dealing with eventually remedied themselves, jei finds that filling her time with the schedules trc offers her at least keeps her mind off the other things that she doesn’t really want to focus on or deal with.  weekends are really all she needs  -  but for someone like somi, she understands all too well that it’s a difficult situation.  somi is still young, she still wants time with her friends.  being in a room full of people in a different place other than the same walls she’s used to seeing day in and day out is surely going to bring out the wonder in her.

this is why jei doesn’t want anyone she cares about to suffer through being a trainee.  life is far too difficult when you are one because it’s not really a life at all.

in the end though, it’s their own choice and jei’s at the very least content with the idea that she can bring somi out to royal for the little event they have going on in their new building before it ends.  she nods her head slowly in response to somi’s question, crossing her arms as her eyes glance around the crowded halls.  " mhm.  i came here a couple of times with different people so i know my way around a little.  if you want to go eat, we’ll have to get to the cafeteria.  their food is surprisingly decent.“

rkhyun‌: 

He should perhaps count himself lucky, for the second chance that they’ve been given.

Although there’d been hopes that night, when he’d unexpectedly turned up at her doorstep – confessing his regrets, his remorse, his still present feelings, and expressing a desire to do better, to not end on the way that it did – he’d also been entirely prepared for disappointment and rejection. She’d had every right to, after the way he’d treated her. She could have told him ‘no’, could have told him she didn’t want to hear anything that he had to say. She could find someone else, someone who isn’t in the entertainment industry and restricted in their public love life by legal contracts and public scrutiny (despite she herself now legally ‘forbidden’ to date as well). She could find someone else, who doesn’t have to only see her in the dead of night and rush back to dormitories before the crack of dawn like a modern day Cinderella. She could find someone else to have more normal dates with, to be seen more openly with.

But, she didn’t. For some reason. Maybe it was his luck, maybe it was something more.

He’s let plenty good things pass in his lifetime, silent and complacent in his role as it slips away from him, but he doesn’t want to do that anymore. Hong Jonghyun has changed in the last few years, and he’s not about to let another good thing slip away.

His response - boldly, maybe also stupidly – is to try to do more for her, and with her. He’s still in part concerned about being cautious, as the aftereffects of Rome’s sudden departure still linger as niggling paranoia, but the break up with Jei also made him realise the keys to his happiness in life – and Jei is centrally one of them. The allowance for down-time when he’s not promoting is necessary for his sanity; as much as he likes his members, he does feel himself sometimes going crazy from onlybeing around them. A dinner or a drink with others outside of his work circle wasn’t unusual for normal people to do. Even idols were allowed to be somewhat normal sometimes, right?

Of course, he tells his roommates where he’s headed out to. He’s just heading out for a bit to have a meal with an old friend, a catch up of sorts, but they understand from the way he looks – his light brown hair styled up and out of his eyes for once, his clothes a little nicer than the typical sweats he dons to practice, but it’s still casual – that he’s going out to see someone different. He doesn’t looklike he’s going on a date, even though he is,but anyone else wouldn’t be able to tell.

The joy he feels every time he sees her hasn’t disappeared, despite the passing of a year. A smile breaks his cold resting face without fail at every sighting, and sunshine radiates. He’s sure she can feel how much he has missed her, and he has to resist bounding up to her, outside of the new Royal building. Instead, he restrains himself to a leisurely pace, still smiling all the way.

“This building is definitely an upgrade from what Royal used to have,” he comments, glancing up and around them, but it’s only for a second; his eyes barely want to leave her, taking in how beautiful she looks today.

she hates the way this feels like a first time love, even though they dropped off and picked things right back up.  it’s a little strange; for most things, jei feels nothing: accomplishments, defeats, it means little to nothing to her right now.  the minute their relationship ended, her sun dimmed just a little and that’s how jei knew that she was really in love, and not just trying to make things work desperately with a man that kept slipping through her fingers.  when hyun came back into her life, she started feeling things a little more again, but only around him: pinpricks of gooseflesh on her skin, butterflies in her stomach.  

jei hates that she feels too much like a child in elementary school, but maybe this is really what love is.  maybe elementary school children have the right idea.

somehow, jei wonders if this is the right thing to do.  if she should just tell him that he’s trying too hard for her sake, because she knows exactly everything that he could lose if he gets caught in a love like this.  after all, jei should be worried about the same exact thing, but she isn’t  -  to her, hyun is the most important thing.  jei knows that for him, it’s not the same.

he may love her just as much as he loves convex, but she’s still not worth him losing it all.  she has to admit though, that it feels nice to have things back to the way they used to be.  the calls, the texts, the late night meetups when they can  -  if they can.  now a date that jei never thought she’d be able to get.

he arrives in slow motion fashion.  jei still has her arms crossed in front of her, but already her insides make her feel like she’s wading through water.  she waits for him to come to her, watching the way his lips curve into the puppy like smile she’s known of him from the beginning when she first scooped him out that first free bit of ice cream and ever since, has never been able to shake him off.  he looks good  -  and it takes everything in her not to muss up the hair he so carefully styled before he came the minute he stands at her side.

she digs her fingers into her skin, but not enough to break it.  just enough to quell the feeling.  “ i wouldn’t know.  i’ve never been to the old royal building.” she says in a passive tone, pulling her eyes from him and up towards the building in question.  “ when i was working in all the companies for the show, royal is the only one i never had to visit.  i guess this is the first time that i’m seeing it.”  jei pauses, arms dropping down to her sides with a sigh.  “ shall we go in?”