Fake Fic Summaries 33/?, the Enter Author Number Four edition
Okay, okay, okay, yes it HAS been over a year since I’ve written and this is still not a fic so much as yet another rambling outline-y not!fic that I’ll probably never write properly due to my crippling perfectionism, BUT!!! This particular plot bunny has turned into one of those massive Flemish Giant rabbits that it’s preventing me from thinking about anything else, so thus I present:
plum blossoms pressed between poetry
Within their newly made family of three, no one has lied… … and yet misunderstandings abound. Or, in which Evandel earnestly struggles with verb tenses and differentiating between dreams and memories; Hajin honestly tries to balance how much logic and loneliness rule his life; and Suho legitimately thinks his future self might be a neglectful, absentee, workaholic father and husband (if even that lucky!)
Hello, it’s recursive fic (or rather, extremely long outline for a fic) for Flowers of Agápē by DescendedGaia (@descendedgaia) a fanfiction of the Korean webnovel The Novel’s Extra (although I have currently only read the manhwa)
Brace yourselves, this is a long one and I'm rusty so you know I've gone off track multiple times.
I love this fic so much, it is so sweet but also does address a lot of the issues in the original canon that makes it better without being entirely salt (although a little salt is good because GODDAMN CHAE NAYUN has been getting shoved in the manhwa readers’ faces as a love interest and it’s just like… there are SO MANY other characters I would rather have 1) end up with Kim Hajin and even 2) get that “screen time” instead of CHAE NAYUN?!??!!)
But I digress.
The main difference in Flowers of Agápē (will be referred to as FoA onwards) from canon is that Kim Hajin isn’t as emotionally detached so which is SO LOVELY (and honestly, it would only make sense that canon Kim Hajin has from the start disassociated to such a degree just to mentally protect himself from what he knows is death or at least 10 years of danger and violence because the Kim Hajin that we see acting in the world of the novel does not match up to the IRL Kim Hajin who as an adult cried in public and was comforted by his parents. DOES NOT MATCH UNLESS SOMETHING IS SEVERELY WRONG)
I’M SORRY I KEEP DIGRESSING
Basically, Kim Hajin is more emotionally mature?—hm… maybe just emotional? … Emotive?—such that he is a much better father figure to Evandel (as opposed to the frequent out of sight out of mind “parenting style” that was shown in the manhwa)
And also, instead of Rachel’s blood, Kim Hajin used Kim Suho’s blood.
… I’m realizing how little of this will make sense unless you’ve read at least The Novel’s Extra (TNE) but also may still require FoA reading…
Let me try again, again:
Kim Hajin wrote but did not complete a novel in which his Protagonist Kim Suho is seemingly kind of perfect in the way that protagonists are when they have a lot of spotlight and pressure on them. Some entity called the Co-Author asks if they can remake/finish Kim Hajin’s novel to which he agrees because I think IRL he’s depressed and/or super stressed and does not have time to think about the novel that he wrote as a hobby/in his spare time.
In FoA there is also an entity called the Deviant Author who asks if they can write fanfiction based on his novel, to which Kim Hajin also agrees because why wouldn’t he?
(And then there’s me, Author Number Four, aka the Recursive Author so far removed from Kim Hajin but I found the idea funny enough that I named this post after it)
AH DIGRESSING!
Anyway, the Co-Author somehow pulls Kim Hajin into the world of the novel that he wrote so that he is 1) a teenager, 2) a student of the Cube which is an international (but mostly Korean) academy that essentially teaches super-powered youths to fight the supernatural threats in a typical dungeon break setting, and 3) makes things a LOT HARDER AND MORE DANGEROUS because it’s “more interesting.” In FoA the Deviant Author pushes back as much as they can—but it kind of seems like the Co-Author has more authority? Possibly based on the initial permissions Kim Hajin gave them in the set up chapter.
In both the original novel that Kim Hajin wrote and the actual The Novel’s Extra canon, there is a “monster” (ie non human being from a dungeon) named Evandel that is originally the “Witch of Despair/Curses” who, uh, yeah Kim Hajin does “kill” in order to “reset” her back to a seed. Then the seed needs blood and mana to grow back into a humanoid witch again. In canon, Kim Hajin does remark that ideally he would use EITHER Kim Suho OR Rachel’s (another student, super love what FoA does with her character) and goes with Rachel’s because it’s hard to get someone’s blood without being a creep and the opportunity is there because she’s injured and I think he lends her his handkerchief and then belatedly realizes, like, when he’s about to do laundry or something that oh shit he has the blood of one of the two candidates how convenient.
In FoA, a similar blood acquisition opportunity happens but this time with Kim Suho instead and so this Evandel looks like a HajinxSuho mix instead of a mini Rachel clone. And then also because Hajin is more emotive and talks to Evandel even in her seed form and because the Deviant Author is there and lovely she become the “Witch of Dreams” instead of the “Witch of Despair/Curses.” Kim Hajin thinks it’s because of Kim Suho’s Good Boy Protagonist Blood, it’s actually because of Kim Hajin’s Good Parenting. And because she’s the Witch of Dreams instead of the Witch of Curses (and because FoA is very good about expanding on characters who really did not get enough screentime) she could kind of dream the memories of both of her parents while she was growing from seed form.
In FoA, Kim Suho shows up almost immediately after Evandel first corporates her human form and then SHE immediately spills the beans about Hajin being “Appa” and Suho being “Papa” so then Hajin likewise has to come clean about, you know, this is sort of our daughter that I made with your blood without your consent sorry, my bad, uhhhhh. BUT because this is fanfic and because Kim Suho was already pretty infatuated with Kim Hajin instead of being, you know, freaked out or something rational like that, I’m guessing in Kim Suho’s brain it went sort of like “Kim Hajin baby trapped himself to me? I’m going to be the Best Father and Husband.” And then after that, in terms of domestic cohesion, pretty smooth sailing all things considered.
ALL OF THIS TO SAY! I just really can’t stop thinking about a divergence recursive of FoA starting from Chapter XXIX (or maybe even the end of Chapter XXVIII) in which things take just a SLIGHT turn from “we are all on the same page in regard to being a surprisingly wholesome family comprised of teen parents (not currently in a romantic relationship) and their witch daughter” to “we are all somehow in entirely different genres while still being a surprisingly wholesome family comprised of teen parents (not currently in a romantic relationship) and their witch daughter.”
For the most part Evandel’s experience is the same as FoA canon in that she is being cherished and cared for by her teen parents (not currently in a romantic relationship) but there are some conversations that she has with Kim Suho in which she is saying the truth as she understands it, but Kim Suho is interpreting SO HILARIOUSLY incorrectly. I will get to that in a bit.
Kim Hajin, in contrast, would need to be a LITTLE less communicative with Kim Suho—or, at least, less VERBALLY communicative—which I will attribute guilt/embarrassment (which still abides by FoA’s premise that Kim Hajin is more emotionally driven than TNE canon). So he doesn’t tell Kim Suho immediately that Evandel is a witch made out of Kim Hajin’s mana and Kim Suho’s blood, but he can’t exactly deny that they are her parents when she so blatantly calls them Appa and Papa so he says a lot of, hm, easily misinterpreted “reassurances.” Like, for example: “She’s my responsibility, you don’t need to be involved. You’re probably busy with other things anyway.” And also, timing wise, I think I would want him to have at least a few days of taking care of Evandel by himself before Kim Suho discovers her existence.
And then, where MY fun begins (because I LOVE silly convoluted pining) is that Kim Suho truly just misinterprets the situation based on not ENTIRELY wrong inferences about Kim Hajin’s abilities and Evandel’s description of her “early childhood” which only consists of a few days of Kim Hajin single parenting, but Kim Suho doesn’t know that.
Basically: Kim Suho thinks that Evandel is their actual daughter from the future. Because he knows that Kim Hajin’s abilities include knowing the future and also being able to do time shenanigans. And he’s not wrong, really—Bullet Time does freeze time, and Kim Hajin does know A VERSION of A FUTURE (ie the version that he originally wrote before the Co-Author and Deviant Author got involved)—but Kim Suho may think that future!Kim Hajin can do actual time travel at least enough to send their child from the future to the present and that through clairvoyance present!Kim Hajin knows enough about the future situation to have accepted responsibility.
And Kim Suho would LOVE to step up in a similar manner. But he’s up against Kim Hajin’s previously mentioned guilt/embarrassment as well as… hm… Evandel’s honest but not necessarily the most accurate statements. For example, as she was growing in seed form she saw both of her parents’ pasts. And in my slightly tweaked canon, she had a few days of single parenting from Kim Hajin before Kim Suho stumble onto the scene. All this to say, she may say things like “When Appa was bigger, he was sad a lot,” (Kim Hajin IRL was an adult with depression) or “It’s nice that Papa can join us now! Before it was just Appa and me,” or “Appa said that Papa is his favorite hero, the strongest in the world!” etc. etc.
All completely true statements from her point of view, but which may then convince Kim Suho that oh no, future!Kim Suho was clearly a neglectful, absentee, workaholic husband and father. So now present!Kim Suho is like—wait, I can do better. I’ll be such a good father and boyfriend (please please please) now and I won’t make the same mistakes as that other future version of me that’s an idiot, I can fix this.
And then if we want to add a dash more angst into this, we can have Kim Hajin saying something—again, similarly to Evandel’s statements, not entirely wrong but not necessarily applicable to this new version of the universe—in reference to the original novel’s canon in which Kim Suho ends up with Yun Seungah (which I’M still kinda ugh by, because as far as SHE knows, Kim Suho is a normal, if very powerful 16 year old boy and she’s fully an adult woman and leader of the strongest guild in Korea(/the world?) and then also his future boss? That's pretty fucked up Yun Seungah)
Anyway, that reference then sends Kim Suho into another tailspin because it’s like. NOT ONLY was future!Kim Suho a neglectful, absentee, workaholic husband and father, he CHEATED on Kim Hajin?!?!?!?!?! Present!Kim Suho is going to somehow jump into the future to kick future!Kim Suho’s ass. But also! No wonder why present!Kim Suho’s efforts to woo Kim Hajin into being his boyfriend (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE) aren’t working if Kim Hajin’s had his heart broken before.
Then, if we need to ease off of Kim Suho’s self flagellation, we could have Kim Hajin (attempt to) clarify the situation by informing him that they were never together. That Evandel is only biologically Kim Suho’s. And more easily misconstrued but true statements from Kim Hajin like “even though it was a surprise to see you that night, you treated me well,” and that he’s “sorry for using that night as an opportunity” and "not asking for Kim Suho’s consent in contributing to Evandel," etc. etc.
Now, Kim Hajin is referring to Chapter XIV, aka when Kim Hajin and Kim Suho first encounter the djinn Yoon Hyun, but depending on how much we want to string Kim Suho along in his internal suffering he may interpret it as: they had a one night stand which somehow got Kim Hajin pregnant (maybe not actually, but here’s looking at DescendedGaia’s extremely sexy omegaverse mpreg series) and then future!Kim Suho FAILED TO FOLLOW UP? LET THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE DISAPPEAR? SETTLED FOR YUN SEUNGAH INSTEAD?
Basically, all of the same domestic cohesion and bliss of FoA but just add some Kim Suho internally suffering (but in a fun way?) due to him jumping to conclusions and imagining a bleak future because his imagined future self is an idiot or a scumbag or both.
… if I rally my mental fortitude, perhaps I will try my hand at actually writing this (or other TNE fic? I love the premise and the characters but given what’s been spoiled of the ending it does seem like one of those teeth gritting, just ignore the ending and live in fanon kind of media. RIP).
Anyway, thanks @descendedgaia for writing such a lovely fic that has taken over all of the free real estate in my brain :D
