TIL DEATH DO US PART

[grimbound]

have u ever seen a face & got such an overwhelming urge to fc that it temporarily drove u insane?? yeah, that’s what’s up. HELLO, i’m jay ( they/them ), and i’m here with lucas ( profile ). tl;dr runner-up on everything, campus rebound, on all levels except physical, he’s a cat. pls give this a like for plots & i’ll come hit you up ~ ◡̈

cw. death

his life is quite literally a series of unfortunate events. first his mom died, then his dad died, then the convenience store lady, the fisherman, the taoist priest. pretty much anyone he’d ever loved? dead. and what did he learn from it? certainly not life is precious so i should make the most out of it, nooo. he thought—damn, i’m cursed. and from that point on, he swore off getting too close to anyone.

so that’s why he’s widely known as the campus rebound. got your heart broken? going thru a break up? yearning for someone you can never have? gaeum suites, he’s your guy. it’s the perfect set up: emotional needs ✅ physical needs ✅ no strings attached = no dead body ✅✅✅

alexa play that’s not how this works

trauma aside, he’s an astrophysics major, philosophy minor—i know, shocking. turns out, he’s good at this thinking thing. but only when he actually tries. most of the time, his motto is why do the work when i can have someone do it for me?

he’s a part of antares social club ( prob the guy that reserves the entire fifth floor of the library by sweet talking the front desk ) and the chess club. he was once in the paranormal club, but thought he saw a ghost resembling a past loved one, freaked the fuck out, and never went back. he also did boxing but trash talked someone so badly, they sent him straight to the hospital. so now he trash talks on the basketball court.

plot bunnies.

friends, a core group, gym buddies, please. maybe a childhood friend? a confidant. someone he can go to because i don’t know where else to go. someone he can have deep talks with—he is a philosophy minor

maybe a sibling? he was adopted by korean parents because they were indebted to the taoist priest for …something

a rival. he rarely tries bc what’s the point, i’ll never be first, but when it comes to you, whoo boy. something about you gets his competitive drive going

someone from the paranormal club that he was close to before he ghosted ( pun fully intended ) them after that one freak out incident

that person in the boxing club who beat the shit out of him 🤝

gaeum neighbours who’s annoyed as hell that he keeps bringing people over, blasting music, etc

since he’s known as the campus rebound, i would love any and all plots with that—rebound and you catch feelings? rebound and he catches feelings? recurrent rebound because you can’t catch a damn break? one hit wonder rebound and you never want to see him again but for some reason, he’s not leaving you alone?

someone who avoids him like the plague bc of his reputation

someone who straight up tortures him. baits him and keeps him on the hook so he keeps crawling back, but never gives into him

someone he really, really likes but can never, ever have because he’s terrified that they’ll end up dead in a ditch somewhere

or plot twist, you’re his rebound—despite his best efforts to not get attached to flings, he gets attached anyway, and when he inevitably gets his heart broken, he goes to you

[grimbound]

don't go insane w. @andechoverie ( backdated )

two days. that's how long it's been since he last saw hwaseong. more specifically, it's been two days, six text messages, and three missed calls. what the fuck. is hwaseong ignoring him? him, as in lucas? as in his best mate and most favourite person in the whole wide world?

but hwaseong isn't the type to just ignore people. or at least, the type to ignore him. which brings him to the worst possible conclusion: hwaseong is dead. lucas laughs at that thought. hwaseong? dead? the guy's got nine lives. he's fine ... but what if this was his ninth life? what if this is it? and just like that, it's no longer a laughing matter.

"hwaseong!" lucas pounds on his door. "open up!" he tries the doorknob, curses at how cold it is to the touch. ( december night, snow on the radar; he ran out in nothing but a t-shirt and sweatpants because he needed to get to hwaseong, he needed to make sure that he was all right, unhurt, and alive. )

( he hates the cold. it reminds him of that day he came back late and found the taoist priest, his caretaker at the time, passed out in the snow in front of the temple. he shouldn't have been outside at that hour; they followed a strict schedule—inside by nine, bed by ten. it was midnight then. )

"i swear to god, if you don't open the damn door, i'm going to kick it down—" and trust, he won't be the one paying for it.

[0hw3llw0rld]

this is the last thing minhyun was expecting to see tonight.

yeah, he was aware that lucas had.. gone rouge, to an extend, but it wasn't the first time this has happened and minhyun expected nothing else but for everything to go back to normal. this.. this felt somewhat normal, if it wasn't for the dried up blood he could see in the corner of lucas's lips and it just makes him frown. he's still at the door, holding onto the handle so tightly he knows his knuckles are turning white without even looking. 

he hears lucas speak again and has to inhale through his nose, because he doesn't know what to expect. his mind is racing faster than he would like for someone just woken up from his sleep, he can feel the headache that was forming in between his temples. before he can even straighten out his own thoughts, lucas gets to him first. 

"of course." he sighs, shoulder slumping ever so slightly as he pulls the door open, shuffling to the side as finally lets go of the handle and turns around to get a pair of slippers- lucas's own slippers actually, out of the closet. they have been in this situation more than enough times to know how it goes, but to minhyun.. it feels oh so odd and new, he doesn't exactly know what to do with himself as he turns around to drop the slippers at his friend's feet and reached to push the door closed.

"do you want..." he starts, his voice dying down as he gets a better look at lucas, he feels a lump in his throat that he does his best to swallow "new clothes or water? you can have a shower, you might need it." minhyun adds, unsure of what lucas might actually need at this unholy hour of the  night.

[grimbound]

he doesn't answer. doesn't really look at minhyun either as he steps inside and toes off his sneakers in exchange for a pair of black cat slippers—cute. he wonders why minhyun got them when the regular ones are perfectly fine. wonders when he got them too. ( wonders if he got them for anyone else. wonders why he wonders that. )

the thought doesn't linger. better if it doesn't. lucas makes his way to the kitchen, opens up the cabinets, and grabs a cup. he comes over so often that it's basically his second home. at least, that's his excuse to helping himself to a box of white cookie pepero as well.

he's a glass of water down before he finally speaks. "these are my favourite." he holds up a pepero stick for minhyun to see. as if minhyun didn't buy these too. "no one goes for them so they're always on sale. that's why i like them." he finishes two of the sticks and toys with a third, rolling it between his thumb and forefinger.

"i fucked up." what's new. "i don't know what came over me. why i said what i did." the pepero snaps in half. he eats the plain end, unbothered. "y'know how, when someone hurts you, all you want to do is hurt them back?" his eyes flick up. mistake. "of course, you don't." lucas smiles, but it's tight. a taunt. "patient, perfect minhyun. always so understanding. always so forgiving. you're really a catch, aren't you?"

[grimbound]

softcore w. @0hw3llw0rld ( minhyun )

he doesn't know how he got here. here being minhyun's doorstep, half-awake, half-alive, drunk to the point where he can't even think, lest see, straight. the only reason he knows it's minhyun's place is because minhyun opened the door.

"can i ..." the words come out cracked. parched, like he hasn't had a sip of water in a while. he hasn't. not that it matters. there's dried blood on his tongue, cheap alcohol on his breath, and they taste just as sweet.

( he remembers now. how he got here specifically. he'd cycled through the first two stages of grief, denial and anger, within 24-hours. fought some randoms at the bar over it, got his ass hauled out. spent the next hour or so walking around, dragging the weight of bargaining along. he thought of minhyun then. blamed him. as if minhyun had any hand in this. as if he was at fault for why lucas was this fucked in the head. )

( he spiralled after that, funnelled right down to depression, and found himself thinking about everyone he had lost. everyone he had pushed away. and the one person who stayed. )

"can i come in?" lucas tries again, voice small. quiet. so unlike his usual over-the-top self-assured façade. his shoulders are slumped forward, and he drowns in an oversized hoodie that he once filled with eye-rolling arrogance. he looks up at minhyun. searches his eyes for empathy, sympathy, anything. "please." and for good measure, "hyung."

[prodbyzinnia]

she stares at him for a long moment, and at the food that he has before she just shrugs a little. she had planned ahead , just in case there were people who didn't have food, though she had hoped that they would ask before taking some.

it's fine. she's not mad or anything.

"if you're trying to distract me from the fact that you're eating the budaejjigae that we made, it's not going to work," jiahn says, though she keeps her tone of voice light-hearted. she's not annoyed or anything, just glad that he's eating, if she's honest.

"you should get seconds though, if you want," she says, nudging him with her shoulder in amusement, "i brought way too much. and i made dessert too," she adds, sighing after.

glancing back up at the sky, she squints a little. "can you show me again? i don't see it?"

[grimbound]

if this were a scene in a movie, this would be the part where there's a record scratch screeeech! ... so you're wondering how i got here—coupled with a close up of the one and only lucas stopping mid-bite, eyes widening like a deer caught in headlights. oh, no! what should he do? beg for mercy? strike a deal? blackmail?

juuust kidding! he doesn't give a fuck. and he also doesn't have any blackmail material on jiahn. ( unless you count the pictures of him giving her a piggyback ride in their unintentional couples cosplay ).

( not that it would work as blackmail, considering the amount of times it's been cropped and reposted as canon jinmao! )

antics aside—"there. above the trees." lucas points with his spoon, tracing the seven stars to form a ladle. "and if follow the two stars up top—there and there—you'll get polaris aka the north star. so if you're ever lost ... well. it can't really help you, but that's north." a little astronomy lesson for a bite of dinner. that's a fair trade, right?

lucas glances over to the table where a pair of pre-law students are engaged in a ... heated discussion. "must be life-changing dessert if they're about to go to war over it." he doesn't move from his spot. sure, some people may compare him to a raccoon, but he's not fighting for scraps. "got seconds of those hidden anywhere?"

[onlygaram]

the watching pastime aside, she had been doing very little when she spotted him, beckoned him, really. standing just far enough from the fire not to feel it (the only heat was already wrapped around her shoulders), and with the beer in her hand. garam is not surprised— lucas talks to someone, a spark of light casts over him and to her eyes it was brighter and more compelling than the fire raging nearby. she isn't surprised he came to her, ditched whoever he was talking to (he was good at that), to find her specifically (he was oddly good at that, too, she thought, though he usually denied it).

he folds in next to her and she breathes him in on the air.

here's what she could say: 'of course it's been a while. you told me to go to somewhere else, someone else, and i said i would leave. i can keep my promises to you. it's the least i should do.' . . . she could sigh, she could maintain the distance they had been doing so, so good to stretch out. for the first time since she'd met him, she wasn't an island, stalwart, surrounded by him, sometimes fully submerged.

the words hang in her throat, the thoughts in her eyes. elusive. one word for it. one word for him. instead of all that she could say, should say perhaps, the words come from a different place instead. head tilts his direction, licking her lips to deliver the words. "i was distracted." distracting herself. she dares to look amused about it, like an inside joke.

her eyes focus on the way it touches his lips, but mostly his fingers that hold it. meets his eyes when he looks, never afraid to do that (she loved and hated the things she saw in their depths). she pants a bit of a laugh through the smoke that kicks up. "never liked these, even from a distance," she scrunches her nose, a shake of her head, reaching out, careful not to touch those fingers as she pulls it from them. she had half a mind to throw it to the ground and stamp it out. do them both that favor. but what's one cigarette going to save? there's too many more where it came from and he won't be stopping, will he? not just because she said so. she makes lasting eye contact and the smoke waves between them, and the cigarette shrinks for a few seconds... she looks at it, then to her lips it goes without much more hesitation.

she inhales it tentatively, inexperienced and light (it burns just a bit, she can feel it expanding in, dragging through her)— her head is already floaty, tipsy, body heavy in an inexplicably, bone deep fatigue. she blows smoke and grimaces with a heavy, pouty sort of frown. her bottom lip is consigned between her teeth after, then she shakes her head, "not a fan," she sounds quite serious but then she glances to him with a radiant softness, a little teasing grin. "it's worse this way." her dark eyes flick to his lips. she prefers the taste another way, she supposes. she tries again, another drag, this one a little more steady, and exhales it through her nose (might as well try it all while she can, right?)

finally a bit done testing, she passes it back with a delicate (trembling) hand. and she stares at him... can't help it. at least 3 weeks since she'd seen his face on more than her home screen. leaning down she blindly places her beer to the ground, uninterested, and shifts herself so she's angled on the bench towards him. "can i tell you a secret?" the words are so quiet that she can't even hear herself. "or is that not allowed?"

[grimbound]

garam is—

she is an enigma.

in every sense of the word.

she says what she doesn't mean, does what she doesn't want to do. ( not a fan—she'd told him before going for a second try, less hesitant. he watches her, watches the way her lips wrap around his cigarette, watches how the smoke escapes from her, slow, like it wants to stay. "not your first time," he muses. same enunciation, same teasing grin. as if it's some sick inside joke. )

( they're good at that, aren't they? pretending. always pretending. )

there are a lot of things he doesn't know about garam now that he thinks about it. there are also a lot of things she doesn't know about him. she doesn't ask. usually. not the important questions, at least. ( not that he would answer them. ) and him—well, he doesn't care to ask. distracted—that was her excuse. i was distracted. he doesn't know what she's been up to, but he knows that, if he were to ask, his question wouldn't be 'by what?' it would be 'by whom?'

the answer stares him right in the face, two sizes too big.

"a secret?"

here's the thing about lucas. the thing that everyone loves and hates about him: he's got the audacity. so what if garam is wearing another guy's jacket? that's practically code for staking claim. he knows, and yet he still shifts onto his back so he can lay his head on her lap. at the end of the day, if garam doesn't want him around, she can push him away. tell him to fuck off, and he'll respect that.

but he has a feeling that she won't.

not when he gets like this.

lucas brings his hand up, fingers loose around the cigarette he's taken back from her. he catches it with his teeth. takes a drag, lazy, non-committal. draws it out half-way and drops his arm to the side, letting it dangle off the bench. his eyes appear to smile up at her as he exhales through slightly parted lips. smoke—suffocating, intoxicating smoke wafts between them, shrouding his view of her for a moment. and then—

it clears, its scent the only memory left behind.

"depends," lucas says. hums it, really. "is it going to break my heart?"

[0hw3llw0rld]

"fuck me, been a rough week." she says, and definitely feels it. maybe especially the last few days, and nights, she has had to leave her room to be a functioning human being, and that was only because she had classes left and stuff to hand in. any other time, she wouldn't have left her room for anything but maybe getting food if her snacks ran out. on top of that, to keep her mind of things and people in specific, she has been drinking and partying every night. maybe not tonight, she's too tired to keep it up so many days in a roll.

lucas, is in front of her quicker than she takes notice of. she see's him, can't help but squint at him even as he looks at her. she doesn't think they have ever been this close, he isn't exactly in her face but she doesn't know how to feel about being this close. her brows furrow, and she sighs softly at his words. her shoulders and back straighten up, pulling away from her knees so she sits better, so its easier for him to look at her and despite the fact she doesn't really want to be seen, to be perceived, she is looking at lucas with her lips pressed in a thin line.

"sorry," eunwoo clears her throat "i've had a rough few days, i look as horrid as i feel." she has to reach up, to rub her face with both hands and can't help but sigh, shoulders deflating. she runs her hands through her hair, almost cringes at how short she's cut it before they drop back to her knees, gaze locked with lucas's own "i'm looking." she says, voice small and stretched thin, can't help but pout.

[grimbound]

"wow." lucas lets out a whistle. "you look like shit."

okay, sure, maybe not the greatest thing to say to a girl who's clearly been through hell and back—but eunwoo knows him. knows he's no frills. what you see is what you get. that doesn't mean he's a complete asshole, though; he's got some merit where it counts.

lucas leans in, almost as if to observe her sullen face up close and personal—only to then reach past to grab a beer from the bag she'd brought. "lemme guess," he starts, cracking the can open with one hand and holding it out to her. "got your heart broken? hit rock bottom? if there's one thing i know about you guys, it's that you do a lot of—" he makes a vague gesture at her short hair. "—that when you're going through some serious shit."

as if her bloodshot eyes aren't evident enough.

he grabs a beer for himself. cracks that one open. bumps it against hers—cheers, but not really—before settling on the step below her and taking a sip. they're not that close, but he figures she might want the company.

"talk to me."

[typicaljisung]

jisung doesn't like whatever is that's happening here. he doesn't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's prompting numerous flags. confusion is present, certainly, but every second that ticks there is a certain, inexplicable foreboding. something not right, something he doesn't understand which is worse, maybe.

"since when do you care how often i'm with my sister, bro?" it isn't so bad, but miyeon insists they're good (her pitiful little tugs at his t-shirt), and now micah is here... micah. those eyes flicker to him and jisung makes momentary eye contact (a dark, nasty emotion flares up in his chest at micah seeing him in any sort of negative engagement— resentment; he points it to lucas, lucas's fault). "i'm talking to him," emphasis sounds spat out, and lucas doesn't disappoint in the same thing and it's frustrating more than anything right now. "i'm not the one who started it." he mutters it, half whispered really, because he's teetering on the edge of something he hasn't felt in years.

jisung watches lucas glance at his sister and it sways him just as much as his sister's pleading (an opposite effect). "don't do that." he replies, "i'm not being difficult; it's my sister, and you're talking to me like an asshole." he pushes off the bus seat, that propped knee finally moves and his feet are on the ground, full height and really; it's a dangerous sign. "somebody tell me what's going on, right now." a rapid looks to micah again (maybe a mistake, because his expression is still hard as nails), then back to lucas, his blink is quick, his jaw is set, "starting to think it's the safe bet. and i don't fucking like that." his fingers are fists now, on instinct, he's almost standing out into the isle. closer to lucas, closer to micah... farther from the sister he knows he can't look at right now.

[0hw3llw0rld]

lucas throws her under the bus like it's nothing and she feels her cheeks burn with embarrassment. she can’t exactly tell why it’s escalating like this. well, she can, lucas seems very set on his words or swapping her wrist bandages out, even though she insisted it was fine, she was fine, everything should have been fine.

jisung doesn’t sound like himself either and she doesn’t think practically begging micah with her eyes to join this was a good idea now. and then her brother is stood fully up and miyeon can no longer see lucas and can barely catch the top of micah’s hair over jisung’s shoulder, but he’s moving further into the ilse and she speaks up.

“i fell over when we played volleyball,” she starts, a bit rushed, sparing details , not the full truth nor a full lie and her gut twists a bit because she never lies to jisung “lucas just wants to see if i’m fine-” her head pokes over her brother’s shoulder, a very pleading look aimed at lucas in the hopes he will get the memo.

“which i am by the way!” her voice is pointed as she reaches to grab jisung’s wrist, tugging him back towards her, in yet another sad attempt to get him back in between the seats, further away from lucas, micah and the aisle.

[moonmancy]

this, whatever this is (honestly, micah still doesn't fully understand what's going on), seems worse than he had initially expected. his hand on lucas' shoulder is quickly shrugged off, echoing words spat out from both of them — micah isn't sure if they're mostly directed at him, or each other.

for a moment, he just stands there, watching — though he doesn't like the direction this is going. jisung is standing up now, and micah takes notice of how his hands are clenched into fists— this is looking more and more like a situation where words won't be enough to stop it.

then, miyeon speaks up, finally: an explanation. "okay, why don't we all just take a step back," micah interjects again, figuring it's worth another shot to solve all of this with words. it seems almost like a... misunderstanding? though, admittedly, he's still not completely sure, even after miyeon's words.

despite being shrugged off once, micah returns his hand to lucas' shoulder. somehow, it feels safer at the moment than jisung's — who he still can't quite look at without his chest feeling heavy. "if miyeon says she's okay, then we should all trust her on that." his gaze flicks to miyeon, searching — trying to gauge if she actually is okay, or was just saying that to get them to back off. "so now you know, lucas." another squeeze of his shoulder. "so maybe we can all find a seat now, then? so the bus can start moving." @grimbound

[grimbound]

lucas this, lucas that, lucas don't do this here, lucas go find a seat so the bus can finally move—jesus fucking christ. he doesn't just shrug micah's hand off this time; he knocks it off with such hostility that he clocks micah in the jaw. "so now i know?" lucas echoes, turning around to face the one innocent party of all of this. "the fuck is that supposed to mean? why are you always taking other people's side?" maybe if he were a little more self-reflective, he'd have the answer to this. but now's not the time for self-reflection.

"and you—" lucas turns back to face jisung. there's glint in his eye, pupils blown wide and not from delight. "why can't you back off for once, yeah? you're always in miyeon's way. got people afraid to get close to her 'cause they don't want to deal with you." a little projection with a side of white lies doesn't hurt anyone ... right?

out of the corner of his eye, lucas catches a glimpse of miyeon giving him a pleading look. he almost falters. almost. if not for the adrenaline that's got him strung up tight like a rope that's about to snap. he scoffs. prods his cheek with his tongue 'cause now he's pissed off. "you wanna go?" lucas gives @typicaljisung a small shove. "c'mon, ji." another shove. "let's go."

[onlygaram]

( blue fire burns best ) ; ⸺ + @grimbound !

fiddling with an led light and flag was all but required to keep her hands busy, but the same couldn't be said for her desperately wandering eyes. garam chews the corner of her lip, blinks heavy from her tired eyes, an incomprehensible buzzing between her ribs as her heart turned into a butterfly. or maybe it's more like the dragon and the stream... something big comes from, well, nothing, right? she watches jinyoung cross the grass, so focused, locked in as if it was less a nighttime field, less a silly game of capture the flag and more a battle. it's where she was... watching the game with the flames of the slowly, slowly quieting fire behind her. it's where she was when her world goes crooked again.

weeks since she'd told lucas she was going. weeks since he agreed and said to leave. she hadn't reached out. the quietest, loneliest weeks she had gone through in so long, and that's even with being almost always surrounded by others. but it felt good too, not to have to those badgering, bleeding questions.

lucas is a bitter fruit, and she was accustomed to it before, the sweetness and the bite. now, her taste buds don't crave the aftertaste. not tonight, not right now.

right now she can only taste beer. can only smell smoke... smoke and... she looks down at herself. at the white dress she wore (borrowed, of course), that was now rather covered. it's so stupid. her thoughts, she wonders why she's like this.

when she looks up, looks around to escape them (those stupid, stupid thoughts), she spots him instead— lucas.

it's really not fair how it's like a light switch. like a key that sticks in and winds up her posture like a little doll as she straightens slightly, holds his eyes with dancing flames hiding her pupils. like a cat in the night, lit up yellow in pools of dark. the frustration has long fizzled, she gave it weeks and normally it just took days. but there is something. curiosity? and something worse, harder. something she wanted to kill, told him she would when she said she would go.

frozen to the spot, she fights the instinct to go to him. she bites her lip, looks down away from him to where her hands fiddle with his her jacket.

then she looks back to lucas, again. hey— she mouths, silent. maybe he would ignore her. maybe they could go back to leaving each other alone like they both said. if he said nothing, it would be an answer.

[grimbound]

it helps. the nicotine. just a little, just to take the edge off where alcohol couldn't. lucas draws the cigarette from his lips and taps it with his index finger to loosen the ashes. a wisp of smoke escapes from him, swirling into the late summer night sky. to his right, stragglers from the talent show continue vying for their pride. to his left is a stranger on their fifth beer. ( they offer lucas a sip. he waves them off. )

"garam looks pretty tonight," the stranger muses.

lucas follows their gaze across the bonfire where a familiar face ( and a familiar ache ) sits with a jacket too big for her slender shoulders. he knows it's not hers. at least, not originally. but he doesn't let that thought linger longer than it needs to. it's been three weeks since he last heard from her. that's three weeks without a hit. the first 48 hours were absolute hell, but like most things in life, he got used to it—the absence of warmth. the loneliness of it all.

he catches her eye. or perhaps she catches his. her lips move to form a word that he can't decipher, but he has a feeling that it's hey.

how have you been?

did you miss us?

the stranger shifts next to him. "i haven't been able to catch her all weekend. ... hey, you're tight with her, right? think she'll talk to me?"

"fuck off." his heart thrums against his chest, steady, as he pushes himself up from leaning back against the log. there's still a light buzz in his head, beer still fragrant on his tongue as he makes his way over. it's casual, the way he settles into the space next to her as if he owns it. "you've been elusive"—is how he greets her. not with a hey, hello back, not with a well-warranted apology, but with a quiet, listless observation. "haven't seen you around."

the cigarette dangles between his fingertips. he toys with it, flicks it, touches it to his lips. pauses. then offers it to her, his dark eyes coaxing. "wanna try?" his intentions are no longer innocent. if she borrows her breath from him, she'll be breathing in poison.

[saltyxsweetx]

event thread: bonfire party, case of the missing leds. feat. @grimbound

grasping up another pair of cold beers, akari has already had quite a few drinks in and she isn't planning on stopping any time soon. looking across the way at her favorite partner in crime, she finds lucas easily in the crowd while the other students were preparing a talent show of sorts. she wasn't planning on participating in that, but she enjoys sharing a cold drink with the guy and makes her way over to take a plop next to lucas.

"enjoying the bonfire so far?" she wonders curiously, offering him the second bottle of beer she's been holding. the rosette's eyes are glossed over in amusement, watching the other drunken students act tipsy or fall over from the alcohol consumption already in play. she feels tipsy herself, tipsy enough to know if she continues to drink, she'll be slurring her words in no time.

akari takes a swig of the beer, finds the bubbly substance something she's grown accustom to around lucas. after all the nights in her dorm or outdoors sharing a smoke, she isn't as opposed to the flavor or bubbles as she used to be. her amber hues land on the bonfire that's sizzling, crackling like a wildfire and her smile catches her face, lips twitching upwards in a delighted manner. "i could not be paid to partake in the talent show but, it's nice to see a familiar face over here." her words honest, smile brightening further.

[grimbound]

his head is killing him, and he's trying his best not to show it. he smiles, tight-lipped, through the small talk that people run by him—for once, it doesn't pay to be one of the more social students here. they eventually leave him alone, though, having fucked off to the far side of the bonfire where a talent show is taking place. ( he makes a face at the current vocalist. too nasally for his taste. )

( they stop after being booed, thankfully. )

he leans back against the log, eyes closing for a brief moment before another voice interrupts him. this time, it's akari. he likes akari, so he doesn't fuss.

"kari," he greets. slurs, really. his lips stretch into a small, clearly drunken smile. "my favourite person." against better judgment, he accepts the beer she hands him as a temporary substitute for water. there's water somewhere in the vicinity, but he's too out of it to go scavenger hunting. "thanks."

lucas tips the bottle to his mouth, pausing for a second before taking a sip. "catching a break." her questions go in one ear and out the other. he offers a hum to acknowledge them, his capacity for a coherent conversation at an all time low. "—'s too bright. that shit." he makes a vague motion at the led lights lined around the campsite. "how much trouble would we be in if we just. y'know. knock 'em out?"

[grimbound]

beggars can't be w. @entropicue

for someone who spent a good fifteen minutes trying to make a case for why you should feed me, lucas sure as hell isn't appreciative when he actually gets fed.

his nose scrunches as he picks out the colourful array of vegetables with his chopsticks and pushes them to the side. it's not that he can't eat them. he can, if someone held a gun to his head. it's just—he grew up on convenience store ramyeon and fish roasted over charcoal grills. his childhood knew next to nothing of fresh legumes.

"you want?" lucas offers the small pile on his plate to shiyu. despite his immense desire to dispose of these tasteless accompaniments, he unfortunately has trauma around wasting food ( some days, he still hears the taoist priest's voice berating him for leaving a grain of rice behind ).

he then picks at another thing. tries a teeny, tiny bite. frowns. "what the hell is this?" certainly not beef, that's for sure. he lifts it up for shiyu to see. "mushroom?"

[grimbound]

asphyxiation w. @engraveing

the last time lucas came this close to deep water, it was summer of 2012.

he doesn't recall much from that day, but the body evidently remembers what the mind has tried to lock away. and this is what it remembers—shoulders hunched forward, arms locked around knees, pulled tight against his chest. it's how he was found, drenched to the bone, eyes wide yet empty.

the only difference between summers in taitung and summers in seoul are the nights. there, it's much more humid, like a thick smog blanketing the city. here, it's a lot cooler.

tonight, it feels the same.

for some time, lucas tracks the ripples along the shoreline. in the distance, a handful of drunken students are splashing each other with their paddles. they sound like they're having fun. usually, this would give him a serious case of fomo, but the queasiness in his stomach keeps him seated.

"my therapist gave me homework," he hears himself say. "asked me to think about what being healed looks like. not sure what she meant by that." lucas turns his head to face noeul, his cheek now pressed to his arm. "i'm perfectly fine not knowing how to swim, so why would i need to heal that?"

[typicaljisung]

he had his plans; talk to his sister, check in (he had much to talk about, and he loved to talk to her about things... normally)... jisung thought to mention micah to her, at some point. if it made sense. if it worked out that way, of course. and if there was no where to mention it? oh well!! he had flopped next to his sister and checked in, got as far as the hello what weird shit did you get up to—

but then... his weekend was so insane, what's a little more. the look he sent up to lucas started with a grin (it's got to be some sort of joke, probably), but the woodenness of the smile (jisung knew that smile too well), the one, all of it. jisung's expression contracted into something a bit more serious, ever so slightly offended even.

"uh? no." he shrugged, shifted sideways in his seat, "actually, i don't want to." in fact it bothered him so much (that assumption, that demand), he pushed himself up, leaning one knee in the seat and propping himself to height (taller than lucas as it were). "i'm here already, in case you can't see. we good?" it comes out a bit tight too, a question in his eyes that's a lighthouse, a warning. his expression also a bit suspicious, controlled in an abnormal way.

[0hw3llw0rld]

miyeon would like to think that she has never been stuck between a rock and a hard place. but her current situation of watching lucas and jisung exchange words, is probably the closest she will ever get to experiencing that. it was all fine, it should be fine, right? she can hope, she really hopes, she even laughs because this is such a silly situation. it would be funny if jisung didn't decide to stand up and despite seeing only her brother's back, she knows by the tone of his voice things are not good.

"guys-" she pipes up, because she can see people turning to look at them, she catches micah's eyes, thank god it was micah otherwise she would have probably died from embarrassment right then and there. she’s practically pleading in his direction, for some help, before her attention switches to the two idiots at hand "yeah, we're good." she speaks, on behalf of both of them to get the hint. she stands up as well, peaking over jisungs shoulder and practically begging lucas with her eyes, to drop it. she doesn’t get why lucas needs to be like this, so demanding despite all the time she has said it was fine. sure, it was nice that he cared, but this was getting out of hand.

“the bus is gonna have to move soon, can we all sit down?” miyeon asks, voice a bit strained as she reaches with her right hand, it's neatly bandaged, thumb support and all,, she does her best to pull jisung down, to get him to sit. there is a wince from her, a nose scrunch at how tender her wrist felt, but she’s quick to ignore it, if anything pushing harder at her brother.

[moonmancy]

perhaps against his better judgement, micah remains loyal to yujin as his bus-seat partner on the way back to campus — despite just having been on the receiving end of his friend's merciless teasing. he hopes that maybe he'll be able to switch yujin onto other topics, there's no reason why they need to be focused on the current state of failure in his love life (if you could even call it that).

he's barely settled into his seat when voices from a few rows behind catch his attention. the sight that greets him — three close friends engaged in what looks dangerously close to a physical altercation — befuddles him. lucas, he isn't surprised by, has come to expect even, but jisung? (micah does his best to ignore the pang in his chest upon laying eyes on him.) miyeon? something isn't right, made clear by the pleading expression in miyeon's eyes as his meet hers.

mumbling a quick 'be right back' to yujin, micah gets up from his seat, heading directly for the trio before the situation goes any further. he places a hand on lucas' shoulder, squeezing lightly — fully prepared to physically holding back if needed, but hopeful that the grounding touch alone is enough so that he won't need to. "guys?" he questions, eyes darting between them. his gaze eventually lands on lucas, knowing how he gets, he figures it's best to remove him from whatever this is entirely, before it escalates. "lucas," he murmurs, voice low but steady. "you should go sit somewhere else. don't do this here." his words are stern, but there is a softness in his eyes — making it clear his words come from a place of caring.

gaze flicks to the pair of siblings, lingering on jisung for a moment. "don't make this worse," he pleads, then averts his eyes, settling on miyeon — the one he figures will be the most sensible out of the three. his expression softens as he looks at her. "miyeon. what's going on?"

[grimbound]

jisung usually isn't this stubborn. then again, lucas usually isn't this much of a prick. but desperate times call for desperate measures, and seeing miyeon wince as she tries to pull jisung down is more than enough for lucas to double-down.

"dude," is how it actually starts. his tight smile, friendly, fake, or not, disappears as lucas moves in to size jisung up, his eyes narrowed into cat-like slits. "you're always with her. what's one bus ride back?" he distantly feels micah's presence long before micah's hand finds his shoulder in a warning squeeze. lucas shrugs it off without a single glimpse back. "we're just talking," he says, words heavy, jaw clenching as he hears an echo of it from across the way.

of course. they're like two peas in a pod. no one gets him more than jisung, which makes it even more frustrating that jisung isn't getting him now.

"we've already agreed on it. that i would sit with her." his eyes flick over. "right, miyeon?" there was no such agreement; lucas had only told her, while patching up her knee, that he'd change the bandages on the bus. he peers back over to @typicaljisung and relents just a little. just for micah. since micah already sounds exasperated as it is. "c'mon, man. don't be difficult."

[grimbound]

second servings w. @prodbyzinnia

"stars are pretty tonight," lucas starts as he comes around to jiahn's side with a fully loaded bowl of budae-jjigae from the pre-law cookout.

now, before we rag on him for stealing, consider these points: the astrophysics department is relatively small in comparison to the other departments. and not only that, but 90% of them? not social, so not here. only three of their more extroverted mates had signed up for camp ( lucas being one of them ) and somehow bring your own ingredients had flown right over their heads. so for lunch, they were a pack of starving strays. and now, for dinner, they've decided to divide and conquer.

lucas picks pre-law because he took a class once on a whim, so maybe just maybe, they would recognize him from there and wouldn't realize ...

"see that?" he points to a cluster of stars, tracing the seven in a quick strokes. "that's the northern dipper, seven stars that look like a ladle."

[grimbound]

grounds for divorce w. @cmyujink

"it wasn't my fault," says the guy who is entirely at fault.

let's get the facts straight: sure, it was technically lucas's turn to watch over the cat him and yujin have shared custody over ( ... and subsequently smuggled into camp because lucas couldn't find a last-minute cat-sitter ). and sure, he technically left the door ajar when he went to take a piss. but he was only gone for two minutes, and he didn't want to be fussed with keys. besides, yujin was in their room anyway. so. this was partially on him.

"how was i supposed to know that he could paw the door open? he's never done anything like that when he's with me." lucas smacks some branches out of his face as he makes his way through the thicket of the campground's wooded area. if howl is out here, he's definitely ... waiting to be found! ha ha! lucas is not thinking of any alternatives, thank you very much.

"cats aren't supposed to be that strong anyway." he glances over his shoulder at yujin. "what have you been feeding him?" accusatory, as if lucas isn't entirely responsible for all the wet food.

[grimbound]

highway to hell w. @typicaljisung @0hw3llw0rld @steadycompass

to no one's surprise, lucas has, once again, found himself in deep shit. the damage this time? miyeon's scraped knees. and sprained wrist. among several other small wounds that are the direct result of him not calling out GOT IT! on the volleyball court. ( really, out of all the other instances where shutting the fuck up would've helped him, lucas chose to do so then. )

which brings him here—to the seat where jisung and miyeon have already settled in. it only takes a glimpse at miyeon's wrist to twist him all up. god, he feels so bad.

"you heard me." lucas tries to be casual about it. that is, if propping up an arm over the seat in front of the pair while sporting a ( suspiciously ) tight smile can be classified as casual. "i wanna sit with miyeon. so move." there's definitely a better way to go about this, but jisung knows him so lucas isn't fussed about formalities.

( and if something happens—well, at least micah's in the vicinity. )

[grimbound]

[ unlocked ]

this bitch is so chronically offline, screen time is nil. but he does have an ig, twt, tiktok, snapchat, bereal, etc etc, and they're all under the same handle liu6cas because he dgaf about hiding his identity.

he used to be more active on snapchat and bereal when they were a thing. now, they're just ... there. his longest streak was 4 days lol. he only has a tiktok so he can open the videos people send him. twt is empty, save for a few likes and a single quote-retweet that ratio'd the op.

most "active" on instagram. follows everyone back whether he knows them or not. usually only logs in to check things when he's shit-faced and waiting for a ride. likes every post he comes by, may occasionally leave a snarky comment.

he doesn't post people on his instagram, save for that one picture of him having hotpot with antares, first year. also yes, that's seven posts in seven years. nothing is archived. he just doesn't post 💔 if you want to see his lovely face, the tagged tab is where it's at. sometimes he goes through it when he's feeling sentimental.

his ig pfp features his cat that he's twice divorced co-parenting with yujin! don't ask about his name; lucas changes it depending on his mood. ( it's howl. )

last screenshot is probably of a take-out restaurant address that he sent to eunwoo being like this one?

social media aside, his home screen is the stock photo starry night you see up there on the left. his lock screen changes depending on who gets a hold of his phone ( face to unlock or 0000, bro has no sense of security ) or whatever funny pic he took last. it's currently a blurry, barely recognizable pic of a drunken jisung.

ever wonder who's the target audience for a 1TB phone? yeah, it's lucas. his camera roll is a mess, containing well over 30,000 pics and videos dating back to whenever he got his first phone. most of them are of other people, even those he's fallen out with. he doesn't delete anything because he's afraid that one day, they'll die, and all he's got left are these pictures.

on that note, he exclusively uses live photos because they're like mini-video clips. sometimes when he's missing someone, he'd go through and watch them. currently, he has the most pictures of seoyun, but with garam. his videos are mostly antares events and trips, like his recent one to japan with akari.

the only hidden photos on his phone are a picture of a newspaper clipping featuring his kid self and the fisherman who took care of him; and a selca of him, hayun, and their mutual friend who tragically passed.

lucas also doesn't save contacts. i know, wild. everyone is just a phone number that he somehow remembers. the exception is if anyone changes it for him + these three:

garam, "the best cutest most brilliant amazing girl that i'm very lucky to know"

wook, "emergency contact"

minhyun, "hyung"