... I wanted to get that out of the way first. Zen and Jieun obviously have physical similarities (especially when they were both younger and drawn with thick eyelashes), but let’s go beyond this. After all, Cheritz has a habit of making the love interests in their games have similarities to each other. In every game, you always have 5 love interests and 1 MC pursuing them because of reasons (V and Ray's routes broke this pattern, but the original MM only had 5 routes so...). There are more specific similarities like 707 and Red, Yeonho, and Yoosung, arguably Lance and Jumin, etc. Now, I think this goes deeper in the case of Zen and Jieun.
In another post, I talk about how there is a pattern with Cheritz boys who have red eyes, and it's that they all have powers. It is explicitly stated/heavily hinted they have this power, and I pointed out that Jieun and Zen’s power is basically the same. (There’s gonna be a lot of screenshots as points of evidence/to get my points across).
I don’t have the exact screenshot of Zen saying that his dreams predict the future, but I’m sure he explicitly mentions this at some point in the game. If he didn’t, in my other post I mention 2 examples of him predicting the future. What am I suggesting exactly? Well, I think that Zen is not only royalty but also related to Jieun somehow.
Let’s start with what we know about Jieun’s power:
This is Jieun’s explanation from his route when confronted by Heejung. I have no idea where it is mentioned, but having red eyes is also another sign that you have these powers. (If someone knows where in the game this comes up let me know!). When he sees the future, wind flies everywhere and he uses it on purpose to see Heejung’s future specifically.
This is different from Zen, who only sees the future in dreams, and they come to him randomly. Though, I think Jieun does mention that he had to train his power in order to use it at will. If Zen was gifted this power by the gods, then doesn’t that mean that he is from Grass? And not only that, he has the potential to become king? If that is the case, why is he not there, and living a normal life?
To answer that question, we have to talk about Jihae/Eddison:
He is key to this theory. He is Jieun’s knight and his duty is to protect him. In Jieun’s route, he talks briefly about their past:
Jieun is talking about his own mother, and how she was a maid, while his father was presumably the king because Jieun still retains his prince status, despite his parents being from different classes.
He was separated from her after he was born, and the only way she can hear about Jieun is through Jihae (Jieun calls him ‘Eddie’ as a nickname).
Dark blue text is Jihae. Light blue is Jieun:
A lot to unpack here. This dialogue shows how Grass has a strict hierarchy. Aristocrats and commoners shouldn’t have relations. If they do, the child of such an affair is treated badly. Even though one of Jieun’s parents was of low birth, because he can see the future and has white hair, he is left alone. In fact, he’s still eligible to become king despite everything. Jihae was in the same boat, but because his hair was gray he was judged, called ugly, and a bad omen. In the dialogue above we see Jihae call himself filthy, a testament to how people treat him on the daily. Jieun recognizes how beautiful Jihae truly is, and that isn’t an exaggeration! When they come to Earth, Jihae is offered modeling jobs when he’s in Busan and starts a career out of it.
The 2nd screenshot shows him in one of his modeling gigs (Let’s take a second to appreciate him). It’s not that the rabbits in Grass do not see that he is beautiful, but that his social status as a child of a commoner/outsider derides everything else. In fact, his good looks probably garner even more disgust. Heejung also considers Jieun to be beautiful, so it might also be a facet of being noble/royal to be beautiful by Earth's standards.
What does that have to do with Zen? Well:
1. Has gray hair.
2. Is considered extremely handsome, and is so popular that even Jumin has offered him to model for his company.
3. Has red eyes and can see the future in his dreams.
4. His healing ability! Magic is a thing in Grass so maybe that has something to do with it?
5. His own ‘family’ have voiced how much Zen doesn’t look like them:
“Why do we look so different?” I wonder why too Zen’s bro.
Poor Zen still gets bothered by people because of his looks. At least it's not as hostile as Jihae’s experience, but it’s upsetting nonetheless.
All of this added up, and you can see where I’m going with this. Zen could be a prince, one parent royal, and the other a commoner/outsider. This gives him gray hair, but he is still born with the power of precognition, making him eligible to become king. Who knows if his power would outweigh his status? It might not, if he ended up on Earth in the end.
Jieun stated that once every 3 generations, a divine child like himself is born. Zen and Jieun are clearly not the same people since their hair color is different.
I believe Zen is either a prince:
1. 3 generations after Jieun.
2. At some point in Grass’ history was a prince, whether in the past or the future.
The reason I say this is because of the timeline. Dandelion and Nameless have very explicit dates for when and where it takes place. Most of the time both take place on Earth in South Korea between the years 2012-2013. But Mystic Messenger is a big question mark. D & N’s years correspond with the year the games were released in. If we follow that pattern, then Mystic Messenger would have happened in 2016. The thing is, that is not confirmed in-game, and is just speculation. So, we can give the timeline some leeway.
There are 3 possibilities for how Zen got sent to Earth:
1. Zen made a desperate wish to leave Grass: This is the sad option. Based on how we see Jihae be treated, especially if you get deeper into his backstory, Zen could have been neglected/verbally abused/etc. for his hair. The Wizard in Dandelion can grant any wish you desire, as long as that wish is desperate. If Zen arrived on Earth as a child, then the implications of that are even worse. In exchange for a wish, your memories relating to that wish are taken away. Perhaps his memories of Grass was the price and that’s why he doesn’t remember anything. The earliest memory we see in-game was from when he was studying with his older brother as a child when he was 7 years old.
2. Sorcerers from the royal family: They sent him to Earth as a child. I bring this up because, in Dandelion, travel between the planets was seen as impossible. Of course, with the exception of The Wizard and making a desperate wish. He was the one who brought the rabbit and cat boys to Earth, after all. BUT THEN, Jieun came in.
At the end of Jieun’s route, he gets separated from Heejung and has to go back to Grass. 3 years after, Heejung is summoned to Grass by a group of sorcerers Jieun got together (Whether they are actually other wizards is up for debate). Jieun overcame the odds. This is why I suggested that Zen is a prince 3 generations after Jieun. Perhaps this spell was tweaked to send Zen to Earth instead of the other way around. Going back to what I said before, if Zen is a prince 3 generations after Jieun, and got sent to Earth in South Korea specifically, then it can make sense why it happened. 3 generations down the line I think records would remain of a former king (Jieun) summoning a woman (Heejung) from another planet, and maybe Jieun documented his stay in South Korea. A portal dropping Zen in South Korea of all places on the planet could make sense from this angle. Maybe he had some protection spells cast on him (his random fast healing?) and maybe even his human family has been bewitched to believe he is their birth son? Maybe some member of the royal family orchestrated all of this for Zen’s sake, so that he can live a life free of judgment (didn’t quite work out but still). This is mostly conjecture though.
The details of how all of that would happen are up in the air.
3. Zen was unwillingly sent to Earth/MM universe(?) and is now trapped: I think this one needs an entire post by itself. This has to do with Saeyoung being a wizard and April Fool’s DLC stuff. This one is the one I believe in the most.
Nonetheless, I have brought up all the points why I believe Zen could be a prince from Grass. (Also lol Zen hated Jumin for being a trust-fund kid, but he could be a divine child blessed by god and is a bunny prince lmaoooo).
Rockstar!Eddie finally spiralling in his late twenties. He hits a massive writing and music block and it affects his self esteem greatly. He gets caught up in drugs and drinking again and he feels like a complete failure.
At thirty, in a seedy Las Vegas gay bar, he comes across a blond man in burgundy bat wing sleeves and clingy bell bottom corduroy pants. His hair is just edging on shaggy, curling around his ears and falling into his eyes, lips shiny with chapstick. His bare stomach is muscled, belt around his slim waist, and he wears a silver cross around his neck, a diamond in the centre. He’s so obviously high, and Eddie is far from sober.
Eddie takes him home. He’s a warm body, and he’s gorgeous, and he tastes sweet like fruity cocktails compared to Eddie’s beer bitter mouth.
When he wakes up the next day, he’s struck by inspiration for the first time in two years. As his inspiration lays naked in his motel room, blankets pooled around his waist and tangled around his legs, Eddie finishes writing a whole song; verses, chorus and bridge. He taps the rhythm out against his thigh and he knows he has to call the guys. Tell them he’s got his mojo back, or at least a single.
All thanks to his little hookup. He practically crawls on top of him, kissing him awake, and it’s not until he hears his first and last name against his lips in a questioning tone that he pulls back and really looks at him without the drunken haze obscuring him.
It’s hard to place him for a moment, but it clicks.
“Jason Carver?”
The blond groans. Jason rubs his eyes, cursing softly under his breath.
“I hate reunions.” Eddie has to agree this time. He looks back at his pen and paper, scattered across the bedside table.
He hates reunions. But he’s determined to keep his first muse in a long time around.
How do you seduce your old evangelical high school bully who refuses to talk about how they become a gay man in Las Vegas with a complicated relationship with God into sticking around?
