Behind The Curtain (1/1)
Marco tugs on the knots securing one corner of the banner to the thick, metal curtain pole by the ceiling. He tests their give, grasping the rope in his sweaty palm, and mentally high-fives himself because he’s awesome and he still knows how to make a decent butterfly knot. He could even do it with his eyes closed. Not that he has his eyes closed right now. It’s hard enough having vertigo when you’re on top of a five-foot ladder. Puking his guts out isn’t part of Marco’s checklist for tonight. Damn it, Marco. Focus. “Is it crooked?” he yells out to the figure on the far end of the bar. The figure on the far end of the bar squints his eyes. He walks backwards, moving closer to the curtains near the front door, and tilts his head to the side. “A little higher on the right.” “Got it, S!” Marco salutes, carefully making his way down the ladder. He’s been having a hard time saying Seunghyun’s name properly. Jiyong even wrote it down in syllables while they were fixing the guestlist last Friday. The closest he ever got was ‘Song Yoon’ and Marco suggested he should call Seunghyun by his drink order or Prince Charming. Jiyong punched him on the shoulder and laughed, then mumbled something that sounded like the word dimples. Marco decided not to ask, because Jiyong never answered Marco’s questions when he had that weird look on his face like he had a secret he’s not yet ready to tell. “Marco,” he hears Seunghyun say when he plants his feet on the ground and makes to move the ladder to the opposite side. “Other right.” Marco takes a few steps back. He looks up at the banner, then down to his tatted arms. “Riiiight,” he says when he sees the angry pink lines of scar tissue running down his right wrist. “Sorry, man. I’m shit at directions.” Marco laughs, scratching his head. “I almost totaled my mom’s car last summer because I couldn’t tell right from left.” Seunghyun’s eyebrows shoot up. Marco laughs, a touch nervous. “Ji never told you about that, did he?” “No, he didn’t.” “Oh, man. My sister, Mer-- I’ll introduce you to her later.” Marco’s going to have fun watching that. “Mer almost killed me when she found out Ji was in the passenger seat.” He scratches his chin. “Come to think of it, all my sisters probably wanted to kill me ‘cause Jiyong is the cute little brother they never had.” Marco isn’t bitter. He looks out for Jiyong just as much as Mer, Donna, and Mona do. It just bums him out he was never babied when he was Jiyong’s age. But he can’t really blame them. The Marco four years ago was a fucking asshole and he’d be the first one to sock himself for even thinking Jiyong didn’t deserve all the love his sisters gave him. Marco spaces out for a few more seconds until he gets jerked back out of his head with a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t sweat the banner,” Seunghyun tells him. He’s smiling. And Marco totally gets why Jiyong is so into this dude. No homo, but those dimples sure are dreamy. “Yeah?” Marco looks at the banner. “It’s not super crooked, right?” He really hopes it’s not. He still has a lot to do and it’s only fifteen minutes before the doors open. And he feels like Mer is going to jump out any second and chop his balls off for being deadweight. Seunghyun shakes his head. “Nope. It’s fine.” “Thank fuck.” Marco sighs, crosses his arms and looks up at the banner one last time. “Dunno why I even bother ‘cause I’m gonna need to redo it when my sister gets here. No matter how it looks.” “Which sister?” A voice calls out and Marco doesn’t even have to turn around to know it’s Mer. “Jesus, how the hell do you do that.” Marco honestly thinks Mer is a ninja with ears everywhere. Her short black hair and all-black pantsuit make her look invisible next to the floor-to-ceiling drapes covering the club’s storage room. Marco likes to call her ‘small but terrifying’. But never out loud because he still wants to live to see the Cubs win the World Series. Mer tsks, shaking her head at the banner. “And you’re right. Redo it. Properly this time, Marco.” Marco sighs. “Okay, mom.” Marco takes three steps back when Mer’s heels clack on the floor, moving forward. “I said ma’am, I said ma’am! Let go of my ear!” Mer rolls her eyes, hits Marco on the head with her clipboard. Marco smiles because that’s just how Mer says I love you. “Who’s this?” Mer says abruptly, pointing her clipboard at Seunghyun. Ah. Let the party begin. Marco clears his throat. “That’s Jiyong’s boy,” Marco says, winking at Seunghyun. “And S, this is my sister, Mer. She’s my boss, too.” Mer raises an eyebrow, looking Seunghyun up and down, lightning fast you wouldn’t even notice if you weren’t paying attention. “The boy?” She asks Marco. “Hipster bookshop boy?” Seunghyun laughs and offers a hand out like he did with Marco at Inkwell. Marco wonders how in the hell he can laugh when his sister is giving him one of her small death glares. “I prefer Seunghyun, actually.” Mer’s other eyebrow rises and she has a little smile on her face. Marco gives Seunghyun two thumbs up because Mer doesn’t give those kinds of smiles to strangers. When Mer takes the hand Seunghyun offers, Marco is 100% stoked because this is all going well. Seunghyun isn’t cringing in Mer’s deathgrip of a handshake and Mer is still smiling. “Seunghyun. Am I saying that right?” she asks. “You are, yeah.” “You’re Korean, too? Like Jiyong?” “Born here, but my parents are.” “Ah. So exactly like Jiyong.” Mer puts her glasses on her face and looks at her clipboard. Marco yelps when she holds one of her small hands over his wrist. “Inventory,” she tells Marco. Marco coughs. “Ahhh. Yeah. Inventory. Inventory is important.” He shoots his sister a smug sort of look because he totally understands she just wants to dip out and gossip about Seunghyun more. Mer looks back at him as if she’d like to take a whack at his head with her clipboard again. She turns around, scanning her eyes over the left side of the room. “Arias, could you and LJ fix the banner when she gets here?” Mer shouts over to the music Arias just plugged into the speakers. “After you finish setting that up, please.” Arias stands up from where he’s kneeling next to the DJ booth. He’s using a staple gun to fix the giant cartolina covering a fourth of the wall opposite the bar counter. “Yeah, sure thing!” Arias shouts after he adjusts his beanie over his afro. “And LJ’s on her way, she just texted.” Marco slings an arm around Seunghyun’s shoulder “So… we’re just gonna take inventory real quick,” he tells Seunghyun. “Make yourself at home.” He motions to the mostly empty bar; it looks more bare than it is right now with all the house lights still on. “You could go sit by the counter while you wait.” Mer steps in, because she’s good at that. “Or, he can be the first one to write on Jiyong’s dedication wall,” she says, pointing over to where Arias is dumping some markers into a bucket. Mer really is the smartest one in the family. “Cool.” Seunghyun nods, hands slipping into his pockets. Marco one-arm hugs Seunghyun before Mer drags him off behind the bar counter “Be right back!” he calls over his shoulder. Marco doesn’t feel too bad leaving Seunghyun by himself. Arias is cool, he’s too baked to realize who Seunghyun is to grill him like Mer did. And Marco thinks he doesn’t need to worry, because Seunghyun doesn’t look as nervous as he did when Marco rescued him from the bouncer half an hour ago. He’s even mouthing the words to Musiq Soulchild playing on the speakers, like he’s halfway lost in his own little world.
- - -
Marco almost slips on a piece of ice on the floor when he makes his way back to where Seunghyun’s seated at the counter. He’s really off his game tonight because he’s been spending way too much time waiting for Seunghyun to spill about his Jiyong feelings than actually doing his job tending to the bar. Marco doesn’t feel that bad for letting LJ deal with the line of drink of orders for now. It’s not that crazy yet and there are more important things to deal with. Like Seunghyun-- alone with an empty tumbler of whiskey in front of him, and another one in his hand that’s still full. His sitting on one of the barstools looking at the people who made it for Jiyong’s not-so-little shindig before he leaves. Marco knows some of the faces in the crowd, but only half of them he can tell apart by name. Like the handful of Jiyong’s ex co-workers from the tattoo parlor downtown, and the skate shop Arias also used to work at. Marco’s cousins are meant to be here as soon as they pick up Diane at the airport. And he hopes, for the love of God, that Mer will be in a better mood by the time her girlfriend gets here. Marco knows a huge chunk of people are kids from Columbia, but the only ones he’s been introduced to are the members of “The Collective”. They’re Jiyong’s hella loaded friends he’s stuck by since Freshman year. He recognizes Brian with his blond weave and pink lipstick, and he thinks that’s Noah on his right Facetiming on his phone. Marco leans forward on the counter, slowly so he doesn’t spook Seunghyun because it looks like he hasn’t blinked for a while. “You know any of Ji’s TC friends?” he asks. Seunghyun shakes his head, takes a sip of his drink like he just remembered he had it in his hand. “No. Haven’t had the chance.” “No? But you went to Columbia, right?” Marco asks. Oh shit. He realizes too late he probably shouldn’t know that Seunghyun went to the same school Jiyong does. Seunghyun grins at him like he can read Marco’s mind. “I graduated more than a year ago. Plus Columbia’s really big and I’m not exactly the poster-child of campus social events,” he says, laughing a little. Marco nods. Seunghyun didn’t strike him as a social butterfly, nor did it look like he’d fit in with Jiyong’s little art clique. And it’s not a bad thing. “Yeah. Big enough that you and Ji never bumped into each other until now,” he laughs. Not that Marco thinks it’s funny Jiyong and Seunghyun haven’t met until now, not until two weeks before Jiyong has to leave. “Maybe there was a reason for that.” Seunghyun shrugs, looking a little sad. Marco rubs his chin and hovers. Because he thinks he found a crack in Seunghyun who wouldn’t budge earlier, and he thinks the whiskey is slowly doing its trick. “Did you want me to top that off for you?” he asks. Seunghyun eyes his glass, holds it up. “You want to let me drink some of it first?” “Right.” Marco barks out a laugh, snaps his fingers then points it to the tumbler of whiskey that’s only missing a sip. Marco looks for something to do that doesn’t involve leaving Seunghyun’s side of the bar. He grabs one of the clean glasses and rinses it under the tap. Marco takes a rag and dries the inside of the tumbler in his hand, whistling. He smiles at Seunghyun. People usually talk when you keep smiling at them even if it’s to tell you that you’re being really creepy. “You look like you’re waiting for me to say something,” Seunghyun says. Marco raises his eyebrows up. His improv class taught him it’s one way to look surprised when you’re not really surprised. He sees Seunghyun’s face and okay, fine, busted. He laughs, scratching the back of his head. “I suck at being subtle, I know,” he says. Seunghyun smiles. "You don't need to be subtle. Ask me anything." Marco clasps his fingers together, tries not to give out Don Corleone vibes too much because he actually likes Seunghyun. He gave him the good shit from the bar. That makes him special. Mer is going to kill him for touching the top shelf liquor cabinet. “Hmmm.” Marco takes his time because really, there’s so much he can ask. In the end, he goes with a question kind of like what Mer asked him when he brought Meg to their grandmother’s house four years ago. “Why Jiyong? Why him?” he asks. Meg was and still remains the only girl out of all the hundred girls Marco’s ever dated that nona ever met. Seunghyun takes a sip of liquid courage from his glass. Marco thinks he doesn’t need it because he’s smiling and people who were scared don’t usually smile like that. Seunghyun starts to talk and Marco listens. He’s good at listening. But he’s even better at watching. So Marco really didn’t need to hear all the words Seunghyun ends up saying, because he sees everything he needs to know just by the look on Seunghyun’s face. “It was the night we met,” Seunghyun replies. “At first he tried so hard to be cool. But when he laughed, a genuine laugh, y'know the ones we try to hide because our faces do weird things and give us away...I could see him. And this is really fucking cheesy, but he was so...” “Hot?” Marco helps. He’s secure enough in his manhood to admit that Jiyong is totally spankbank material to dudes who are into other dudes. They’ve shared enough shifts at Alchemy, both at the restaurant and at the bar, that Marco can tell. Seunghyun laughs so hard that he actually has to rest his forehead on the counter. "It's not just because he's easy on the eyes, all right?" Marco laughs. “I’m just playing, dude,” he says, bumping his fist on Seunghyun’s shoulder. Marco gets it. He’s just teasing Seunghyun. He knows it’s not only a physical thing when it comes to Jiyong. He can tell by the way Seunghyun’s eyes look right now. They’re too soft for it just to be called lust. Seunghyun plays with his fingers for a while, then he continues, grin on his face bearing both his teeth and his dimples. "Jiyong is a lot of things. A lot of things I haven't figured out yet,” he says. “But when he laughed, I saw all of them." Marco smiles. It’s the biggest smile he’s given Seunghyun tonight so far. He’s also starting to understand what Jiyong told him the other day. About how Seunghyun’s eyes looked different when he said Jiyong’s name. Jiyong said it was hard to explain using words and that you had to see it for yourself. “Right. I know a thing or two about how a laugh can change your life,” Marco says, “I get it, dude.” He’s thinking about the day he met Meg and knew right then she was the girl that would help him become a person again. Marco realizes he’s smiling so wide Seunghyun can probably see the silver crown covering one of his molars. “Hey, Boy Benenati!” Marco sighs. Tender moment over, he thinks, because that voice signals the end of his and Seunghyun’s little bro bonding sesh. That voice also means LJ finally caught him lollygagging way too long. “My name is Marco, new girl!” he shouts to the opposite end of the counter. The counter that’s twice as packed as Marco recalls. How long have they been talking? He doesn’t wait to hear what LJ yells back at him, but he’s sure she’s seconds away from dragging him away from Seunghyun. “Want me to leave you a glass before I go?” Marco asks, bottle of Reservoir Rye already in hand. "Please," Seunghyun says over a smile. Marco grabs a glass and fills it almost to the brim. “Here you go.” Seunghyun laughs. "You really do like me.” Marco laughs too because it’s true. He had a good feeling about Seunghyun, even right off the bat. There was something in the way the boy stared at his friend that was special that Wednesday night at Alchemy. And it never changed. Not when Marco saw it at the bookstore in Wicker Park, and not even at this moment where Jiyong is nowhere around for Seunghyun to see. - - -
Jiyong picks up after the fifteenth ring. This tells Marco his guess was right-- Jiyong fell asleep. “You fell asleep,” he deadpans. Marco hears a yawn. “What time is it?” “Almost 10:30.” There’s the sound of plastic thunking against wood and the word “shit” being yelled over and over in the distance. Marco’s never heard Jiyong curse so much. “Ji? Ji, you there?” Marco waits a full minute before getting a response. “I have you on speaker. I need to get dressed.” Marco snorts because duh. “And I need to brush my teeth. And figure out what to wear. Crap. Do you think I need to wash my hair?” Marco sighs. “No, what you need to do is to get off the phone and hurry up because Prince Charming is here.” Marco thinks the line goes dead. “Ji?” He picks up a whoosh of air and pictures Jiyong doing some serious yoga breathing. “He’s there?” Marco barely hears Jiyong over the line. Marco smiles even though he knows Jiyong won’t see it. “Yeah, he is. I could take a picture of him and send it to you…” Marco contemplates how hard Jiyong is going to hit him when he finds out he and half the contents of a whiskey bottle may be the reason why Seunghyun’s whole face is red right now. “...but I won’t because it’ll ruin the surprise.” Nice save, Marco. “You got him drunk, didn’t you?” Marco whips his head around just to check if Jiyong is three miles away in his condo unit and not somewhere behind the bar counter. “No, I didn’t. Why would you even think that?” “Because I know you. And I know you’ve been dying to give him the third degree since that day at the bookstore.” Touche. Marco tsks. “Sober or not-so sober, your boy is here. He even wrote something on your dedication wall.” Marco hears a choke. “My what?” “It was LJ’s idea.” “Wow.” Marco laughs. “I know. Who knew she had a heart.” Jiyong laughs too, but hides it over a cough. “Don’t be mean. She could kill you in your sleep.” There’s a pause and all Marco hears now is the faint sound of Jiyong breathing. “So, uh. He... Seunghyun. He, uh, he’s really there?” Marco almost, almost, laughs because it’s so weird hearing Jiyong stuttering over his words like this. Even weirder when he realizes Jiyong’s game drops to zero when Seunghyun is involved “Yeah, he is. He was the first one here. First one that isn’t Alchemy fam.” Marco pauses, doesn’t expect Jiyong to reply so he adds, “That should mean something, yeah?” It’s quiet. But for some reason, Marco can tell Jiyong is smiling on the other side of the line. “Yeah. Yeah, it does.” Marco coughs. “Alright, I’m hanging up now before you start crying.” Marco hears a scoff underneath Jiyong’s laughter. “You’re such a dick, I swear.” “Yep. The biggest one you’ll ever see.” Jiyong snorts. “You’re gross. And we don’t know that yet. I haven’t seen Seunghyun without his clothes on.” Marco chokes, coughs, half-gags. “Jiii,” he whines. “No gay sex talk without warning me first, remember?” “Bye! See you in a bit!” - - -
Marco tries not to dance to the Katy Perry song blasting from the bar speakers when he makes his way back to where Seunghyun is. He left Seunghyun with his fourth (or was it fifth?) glass of whiskey before Mer told him to check up on Jiyong. Marco is about to give Seunghyun the 411 about Jiyong’s ETA when he sees that his new friend is having a moment with his drink. “Heyyy, buddy,” he prods, gathering all of Seunghyun’s empty glasses in one hand. “You doing okay?” Seunghyun has his hand in his hair and he’s looking down at his whiskey like it just asked him a really hard Math problem. “Yes?” he asks, looking up at Marco like he can answer that for him. “Yes.” Oh boy. Marco may be a dick but he isn't a heartless one, so he grabs a glass and fills it with water. "I think that's enough fancy whiskey for tonight," he says, sets the glass down and replaces the half-empty tumbler of liquor on Seunghyun’s coaster. Seunghyun takes a sip of water and gives Marco a hint of a smile. The smile doesn’t last and a few seconds later, Seunghyun is back to having a staring contest with the glass in front of him. “You know,” Marco starts. “I've been a bartender here for a long time. And when people look at their drink like that, they usually have something heavy on their mind. Or someone." Seunghyun lifts his head a little, meeting Marco’s gaze. He huffs quietly. “You don’t say.” Marco laughs lightly because he doesn’t miss the sarcasm. He should just stop dicking around and cut to the chase. “Jiyong?” he says with zero subtlely. Marco uses Jiyong’s real name because that’s the Jiyong Seunghyun met first. Not GD, not Ji. Seunghyun breathes out, and nods. Marco waits out the silence. He knows this is important. “When left to my own devices for too long, my brain tends to overanalyze,” Seunghyun begins, words slow. “So, naturally, I’ve started second-guessing myself. Which is probably stupid.” He laughs but it doesn’t sound like a happy laugh. Marco leans in closer, plants his elbows on the counter like he’s trying to shield the rest of the bar from him and Seunghyun. So Seunghyun knows this is a safe space to say what he’s thinking. Seunghyun sighs, but he keeps talking. “I’m just wondering if I was right to come here. I mean...not that Jiyong isn’t worth it, never that. But he’s leaving in two days.” Seunghyun’s shoulders slump, and it’s probably not just because of all the alcohol. “And I’m questioning the universe’s sense of humor.” Seunghyun used a lot of big words, but Marco has a sense of what he just said. “So… what I’m getting is, you like my friend and you’re not sure if he likes you back? Seunghyun laughs again, but his eyes still look sad. “More that I’m not sure what three months is going to mean for…us.” He sighs again. “I like Jiyong a lot. A lot a lot. Too much, maybe, for someone I just met. And I don’t know if I should put all my cards on the table or hold off.” Marco blinks, looks up for inspiration because he didn’t expect Seunghyun to let everything out like that. He’s no love guru, and he’s not very good with words. What he’s good at is honesty, so that’s what he shoots for. "Look," he says, resting his palm on Seunghyun's shoulder. Seunghyun looks him in the eye and only then does Marco continue. "I don't know if I should be saying this. But trust me, Jiyong is worth all the cards you'll ever have." Marco hopes he isn't screwing up the metaphor too bad. "I don't know you that well yet, but I know Ji. I know his face, I see it almost every day. He smiles a lot and he has different smiles for different people. And the thing is, I don't think I've ever seen him smile at someone like the way he smiles at you.” Marco coughs because whoa, didn’t mean to get too mushy there. “So…” Marco rubs his hands, waiting for Seunghyun to react. “That should mean something, right?" He laughs a little because they’re the same words he told Jiyong not more than ten minutes ago. A grin pulls at Seunghyun’s cheeks. “Yeah,” he says, smile growing when Marco beams back at him.
- - -
“Here,” Marco says, setting down two plates of fries in front of Seunghyun. “I didn’t know if you wanted plain or curly.” Marco almost feels bad for laughing at how Seunghyun is nearly falling off his bar stool. Almost. “Thank you.” Seunghyun smiles back, popping a curly fry in his mouth. “Do you want ketchup? More water?” Marco checks his watch. He hopes Seunghyun is one of those lucky bastards who can sober up quick. Jiyong is for sure gonna knee him in the nads if he walks into the bar and sees how much damage he’s done. “Um, both? Both would be great.” Marco nods, grabs one of Seunghyun’s empty glasses of water and refills it from the tap. “Here’s your water,” he says, placing the glass back on a coaster. “And give me a sec, I’ll get you your ketchup.” Marco makes his way to the other end of the counter, crouches by one of the bottom cabinets and grabs a bottle of Heinz. He barely takes two steps towards Seunghyun when a figure a couple rows of heads on the other side of the counter catches his eye. “Ji!” He flaps his arms around, ketchup bottle in hand, trying to get Jiyong’s attention because he knows, Marco knows, exactly who Jiyong is looking for. He’s about to shout Jiyong’s name again when his friend stops and stares at a spot on the far end of the counter. Marco sees the person Jiyong is pushing against the crowd to get to and tries not to sigh because fucking finally. He barrels back to where he left Seunghyun, makes it just in time to watch Seunghyun lift his head from the two plates of fries and turn to find Jiyong smiling at him. “Heyyyy you,” Seunghyun slurs a little. Jiyong laughs, leaning towards Seunghyun. “Hey yourself.” Jiyong and Seunghyun have the same expression on their faces-- eyes barely there, smiles so blinding it’s like staring at a lighthouse. Marco gives in and lets out a sigh, Disney Princess-style while holding the bottle of ketchup against his chest. He probably shouldn’t have made a lot of noise because the next thing he knows, Jiyong is looking up at him and giving him the evil eye. “What did you do to him?” “I didn’t do anything, man. I just gave him what he asked for.” Marco backs up from behind the counter, both arms raised like he’s saying I have nothing to do with this. Even though he’s probably has a lot to do with this. “I might be drunk but I’m not deaf,” Seunghyun tells Jiyong. “Don’t blame Marco.” Seunghyun’s smile begins to drop, just a fraction, and he looks away before locking eyes with Jiyong again. He takes a deep breath before he speaks. “I was…nervous.” “Nervous? Why would you be nervous?” Jiyong asks. He turns to Marco, chewing on his lip like he has a question he wants to ask. Marco doesn’t say anything but answers by tapping the side of his nose and giving Jiyong a wink. He nods, two times, then quietly mouths “Mer” and gives Jiyong a thumbs up. Jiyong scrunches his nose. Marco knows he does that when he’s trying not to smile. Marco leaves them then. He thinks he hears Seunghyun say “you” in response, but he’s not sure because some dubstep track starts playing over the speakers. He keeps an eye on the two of them, not out of necessity anymore because he knows in his heart Seunghyun is someone that could be Jiyong’s keeper from now on. Marco does try to eavesdrop on their conversation because he’s only human, but gives up when the beat drops in the Skrillex song, filling the bar with even more noise. He sees Seunghyun stumble out of his chair, pulling Jiyong to walk beside him so easily while Jiyong guides them so they don’t bump into anyone in the crowd. Marco lets out sigh number two tonight because it looks like something they’ve been doing all their lives. Marco very nearly overfills a mug of beer when he realizes Jiyong is leading them to The Alcove. It’s a small corner of the bar, hidden beneath the heavy black curtains where Jiyong’s Bon Voyage banner is hanging. Only a few people know it’s there, mostly those who work at Alchemy. People go there “to talk” and Marco’s had his fair share visits, oh yes he has. Marco has never seen Jiyong bring another person there, not in the almost three years Jiyong has been working at the bar. He’s the only one on Mer’s payroll who hasn’t broken her unwritten rule about funny business at the workplace. Jiyong hasn’t even let anyone willingly kiss him at Alchemy, working or not working. So Marco thinks, Marco knows, this is a big deal. And if he knows Jiyong, he more than likely brought Seunghyun there to talk. The drapes fall shut and Marco is left to wonder. He’s smiling, though, because he feels like his job as Jiyong’s personal cupid comes to a close tonight. Marco did his part. He watched and he listened, and he talked when he felt like it was needed. But now, it’s time for him to step back. For now, Marco stops looking. A/N: This is the final fic in the narrative for Act 1. The last major update in this act gets posted on Thursday 4/24 over at the LJ comm. So, that's it! Thanks for reading. And if I were you, I'd keep an eye out on the boys' Tumblrs in the next few days. 'Ta for now x El A/N 2: There's bonus material for this chapter here. And for clarification purposes, the last few posts Jiyong has on his main blog he meant to post on his private journal. But. Yknow. Stuff happens. People get sloppy. *cough*alcohol*cough* 05/18/14 ETA: here's something you might have missed if you weren't following Jiyong's Tumblr from the beginning