Fic: White (Lie)

Title: White (Lie)
Fandom: Exo
Focus: Xiumin-centric
Genre: Gen, Sci-fi
Rating: G 
Length: Drabble, 200 words
Summary: Minseok knows what to expect in the facility.

Minseok knows the women in white are there to pick him up even before he hears the clacking of their heels outside his door. As expected, the noises stop right outside his cell rather than the others', replaced by the unlocking mechanism's beeping. The women don't speak, though it's not like he requires instruction. He lies down on the gurney they've brought along, allows them to strap him down. Minseok knows how this goes. Knows exactly where they're taking him.

As they wheel him away, he closes his eyes and sees only white -- white uniforms and corridors and bedsheets. The white ceiling of the operating room they've brought him to once he's reopened them.

Unsurprisingly, Kyungsoo is already there, similarly bound but struggling against his restraints unlike Minseok, who watches, passive.

"Procedure will begin in five minutes," the intercom states. Warns. Kyungsoo jerks even more wildly as a woman empties a syringe of a familiar black serum into his bloodstream. Minseok's body relaxes just like Kyungsoo's, and even more so as his restraints are undone.

He's handed his own white lab coat -- the same white as the facility and the sclera of Kyungsoo's pleading eyes.

"Please. My gloves as well."

Original Post: Here.
Cross-posted: Here.
Prompt: Lucky One - MV
Author's Note: So some backstory first: EM ran a week-long(-ish) drabble event called "EX'ACT - Last Opger Team Standing" based off of the old "Seouldout - Last Fanfic Writer Standing" challenge, where everyone would be given one day to write and submit drabbles (100wc, 150 wc, or 200 wc in length) based off of mod-presented prompts for Exo members. The teams the drabbles were for would be kept anonymous and other anons would vote on them based off of whatever criteria worked for them. I was pretty excited actually -- I was a huge fan of the original Seouldout and even indirectly participated in the last round on my own when I was first starting out in Exo ficdom. For this event, I wrote for Team Suho... and was probably one of the driving forces behind it lol. I contributed to 16/21 of his fics and 217 points out of the 221 points earned by his team throughout the event... One anon does make a difference lol. Anyway, he ended up winning an event for the first time. Yay!

Anyway, this drabble performed pretty well, was the top scoring one of Round 1 and got a lot of positive feedback, which was flattering. It was based off of a lot of pre-comeback speculation that Xiumin had always been working against the other Exo members since Overdose/Pathcode era due to a series of coincidental visual cues. The MV teaser for Lucky One actually made him and Chen seem kind of suspicious, though ultimately SM didn't seem to go down that route which is a pity. I spent really long working on it, but now that I'm reposting it I don't have much to say. Maybe I'll add in a comment later or something. But I was really pleased with this, I think it was one of my favorites. 

Fic: Proxy

Title: Proxy
Fandom: Exo
Focus: Xiumin-centric, Chen/Xiumin
Genre: Romance
Rating: G
Length: Drabble, 100 words
Summary: Minseok and Jongdae watch the sun rise over Paris, but not quite. 

Minseok sets his laptop down in the empty chair across from him, angling the webcam towards the morning sky and the city skyline instead of himself. It's not as good as seeing the City of Light in person, but neither he nor Jongdae can really help the fact that SM's design team had seen fit to fly them off to opposite sides of the world for their latest album photoshoot.

"I bet you're loving this, aren't you, hyung?" says Jongdae's distorted voice from the laptop speakers. He sighs, long and wistful and loud enough for his microphone to pick up. "The Eiffel Tower at dawn, a freshly brewed cup of coffee. What more could you ask for?"

'Company,' Minseok thinks as he leans back into his chair, clutching his cooling drink closer in lieu of Jongdae's soft hand. There's just enough warmth left for him to pretend it's enough. 'You'.

Original Post: Here.
Cross-posted: Here.
Prompt: Silhouette of a person drinking something and sitting alone on a balcony in front of the Parisian skyline at daybreak.
Author's Note: Submitted for the EX'ACT Drabble Competition's Round 1. It was actually the last one I finished writing, submitted right before the deadline. In retrospecct, I liked it a lot more than I expected. It's only 100w because I was rushing, but originally I was planning on mentioning that Chen was sent to Vietnam for his shoot and Xiumin finding a sort of irony in that, and hoping that Chen's trip went smoother than his own did this year when hundreds of fans kinda ruined his trip... Anyway, honestly the part of the prompt that inspired me the most was the fact that there was an empty chair in the picture next to the silhouette. That and the Eiffel Tower standing tall alone gave the picture a sort of lonely atmosphere. I really wanted to write Xiumin for this prompt as well, because the pink sky made me think of daybreak and he mentioned in his album interview that that was his favorite time of day lol

Last note: the title is meant to refer to Chen having to watch the sunrise through a webcam and Xiumin having to use a video chat and that coffee cup as a substitution for the lack of Chen being there to keep him company. It doesn't adhere to the proper definition of proxy, but the connotation matches I think.

Fic: Compass

Title: Compass
Fandom: Exo
Focus: Suho-centric
Genre: Gen
Rating: G
Length: Drabble, 200 words
Summary: Everyone's heart comes with a compass, pointing to their heart's true desire.

It's been a long time since the compass in Junmyeon's hand has held so steady. Far too long, he thinks, feeling more than ever the lingering ache in his left knee. He'd gotten used to the sight of its needle wavering between the SM building in Apgujeong and his university in Seokgwan, had forgotten what it felt like to know which path his heart had truly wanted as both the silence from upper management and his experiences in his university's acting department piled up.

Now, it points to the stack of unsigned papers in front of him, and the offer that had come along with them.

It's not the first time SM's promised him something over the past five years. But it is the first time they've promised a debut, as real as the contract clutched between his fingers, so close he can already see himself on stage, microphone in hand rather than the compass he's spent the past few years checking uncertainly. He feels fifteen again, when everything he'd ever wanted had seemed within arm's reach.

"Follow your heart," everyone says, and for once Junmyeon does find it that easy, thanks to the compass his heart's come along with.

Original Post: Here.
Cross-posted: Here.
Prompt: Lucky One - No matter, this silver compass / Will point to you
Author's Note: Written for Round 1 of EM's EX'ACT Drabble Competition, based off of the lyrics of "Lucky One". It's really based off two short lines bringing up a compass, but as I was discussing connotations with a friend, I remembered the compass from "Pirates of the Caribbean" and how it points to what your heart wants at that moment and it was hard to throw the image away after that. Obviously this is set pre-debut, when Suho was offered his position in Exo.

I drew a lot from one of his Glory Day interviews, about how he actually mentally wavered when it came to deciding whether to continue as an idol trainee with SM or to remain at K-ARTS and pursue an education and career in acting, maybe even becoming a professor. K-ARTS has a strict policy about their students not engaging with the current K-entertainment industry while enrolled -- that's the reason other idols like Kim Himchan and Lee Joon also were forced to leave K-ARTS after their debuts, why Kim Go-eun had to take a hiatus after filming her breakout movie -- so Suho literally had to choose between SM and K-ARTS despite the fact that his enrollment into K-ARTS was what brought him out of his slump/depression after his leg injury, and was a source of great, personal pride for him. In the end, Suho chose Exo and for that I'm so happy, but he did say that he debated over it for a very long time, which I think is natural after suffering years of uncertainty at SM while accumulating a lot of more positive experiences at K-ARTS. I think what ultimately would've drawn him back was the actual promise of a debut, of what he wanted for so long.

It's funny, but I had actually meant for this drabble to go in a completely different direction. The original plan was for Suho's heart compass to always be pointing towards SM because he was so certain that he wanted to become and idol, and so far no conflict had been brought it between that and his K-ARTS attendance. But once he got the offer to join Exo, his heart was going to waver because he was finally going to have to choose between two things he felt really passionate about. The first draft of this was:

It's been a long time since Junmyeon's compass has spun quite so wildly. Not nearly long enough though, he thinks, feeling more than ever the ache in his left knee. He had gotten used to the sight of the arrow of his compass pointing straight ahead regardless of which direction he turned, towards a future he always dreamed about whether awake or asleep. Gotten spoiled, the way his fellow trainees and classmates had always teased him about. Not everyone is lucky enough to know what they want.

Apparently that holds true for Junmyeon as well.

It's not the first time SM's promised him something, though to be fair they've kept most of their promises to him over the past five years. But the promise of a debut -- so real, so close he can already see himself on stage -- makes him feel fifteen again, when everything he ever wanted had seemed to be within arm's reach. But university has given him promises too, promises a stage as well.

He's given his own promises to both. He doesn't know which one he's willing to break, and neither does his compass, it seems.

I actually liked it a lot, but I felt like it wasn't working and I couldn't end it the way I wanted to. So I took a chance and tried writing it from the opposite angle, and found that I was much happier with that. There are some lines in this version that I miss, but ultimately I'm happy. I wish I could say the same about the title lol

Fic: Growth Spurts

Title: Growth Spurts
Fandom: Exo
Focus: Chen-centric, Kim Bros
Genre: Humor
Rating: G
Length: Drabble, 200 words
Summary: The Kim family has a Big problem. 

Jongin's hands are folded behind his back as he hunches over, as if to make himself smaller. An impossible task, considering the way he currently towers over all three of his older brothers, his head nearly banging against their ceiling. Jongdae glances between Minseok and Junmyeon and wonders which one will address the very large, Jongin-shaped elephant in their living room.

"What have we said about accepting food from Baekhyun?" Junmyeon starts sternly, crossing his arms. He's got that disappointed look Jongdae absolutely hates, that he only resorts to when he knows his usual genial approach won't get him anywhere.

Minseok nods his head in agreement, standing firmly in support of their second eldest. "You ate a mushroom off the ground. It probably wasn't even washed." He sounds more upset about that than Jongin's glaringly obvious disobedience, honestly.

The pout on Jongin's face is more pronounced than ever after his scolding, and not even because of his new size. "If I didn't, Jjanggu would've finished it off!"

"Jjanggu?" Jongdae asks, his heart sinking. His face pales as he's answered by a bark that echoes far too loudly and the sight of a giant black puppy nose outside their window.

Original Post: Here.
Cross-posted: Here.
Prompt: Alice in Wonderland
Author's Note: Written for Round 1 of EM's EX'ACT Drabble Competition. I wanted to go for a playful angle and decided to focus on the size-changing mushrooms in Alice in Wonderland lol. The sad thing is that having so many characters squeezed into 200 words means characterization couldn't be too fleshed out, but I think I captured what I wanted of each Kim? Suho is responsibility, Xiumin is support and reliability (and cleanliness lol), Chen isn't quite so severe and just follows along with the others, and Kai... is a bad decision maker lol. This was fun to write, sigh. I really love Kim Bros lol. I actually had a lot of ideas for AiW as a prompt, but unfortunately I had work and limited time so I only got to try this one out. Pity.