If growing up with money has taught Soleil anything, it’s that right people are stingy about opening their wallets, right up until there’s an opportunity to do it under a spotlight where everyone can see just how generous they are. The amount of upper class fetes they’ve been dragged along to, forced into suits with their hair styled Just Right by a professional stylist hired by their mother, both in Seoul and abroad, has given them enough insight into the minds of people with money, and just how to get it out of them.
So when the student council of their university announces a competition of sorts to see which club can raise the most money for a local charity, they aren’t afraid to finally play the ‘I’m rich, you know?’ card.
(Thankfully, the rest of Z0NE and B4SE are right alongside them in the plan.)
The crew is an almost even mix of backgrounds, ranging from the highest echelons (the twins, more specifically, and Mystique, a politician’s daughter), all the way down to those who had experienced true poverty (and Dokkaebi only sometimes makes faces at the frivolity behind some of the expenditure he witnesses, far too used to his small-town rural life). It makes splitting jobs easy, with those with networks to grease up with a promise of positive image setting off to write emails and invitations and put a price on tickets.
Soleil excuses themself from that particular group, leaving Oberon to handle matters on their behalf, and instead teams up with the other members. There’s a stage to secure the use of, odd items to collect for an auction, tickets to design, a dance to choreograph, and a number of other logistical requirements.
It takes almost two months of planning.
(It had originally taken a month, but they had received a more positive response to their ‘pay what you what’ tickets than first expected, which required them to not only book a bigger venue for the performance and auction, but to organise more items to auction off for a second night of the show.)
The performance goes off without a hitch, and Oberon and Mystique hold the crowd captive with their MCing throughout the night, and Soleil finds their belief that most of B4SE should be models instead of street dancers reinforced with the way they dress up and walk the various auction items around the tables of guests (and there’s a brief moment where they don’t wonder if the amount of money goes so high on some items more specifically for the dancer showing them off).
The largest benefactor comes in the form of their own father, announcing that he personally will match the price of the highest bid in any of the auctions as his own ticket price, and Soleil is sure they’re about to break into tears on stage.
It takes them a week to remember this had all started as a way to win a competition at the university, but, by this point, they’re not interested in a competition.
Instead, they gather together in one of the studios on a late Saturday evening and run through all of their totals, and take votes on which charities the money should go to. Dokkaebi, Misfit and Kirin hold the heaviest sway, with their own personal experiences in being less fortunate than the rest and having had to reach out to charities themselves growing up.
Lillia makes the final decision with a suggestion (her first of the night after hiding quietly behind her bottle of beer).
“Give them a third each,” she murmurs, quiet and yet still able to cut through all of their voices. “Take it home. Give it directly back to the groups that helped you.”
No one challenges her.
(Dokkaebi hides his face and watery eyes, while Misfit and Kirin both sweep her up into a tight hug.)
right after having breakfast, kyungwon drives to yeoreum kindergarten where she is volunteering for the day. she’s been spending more time with kids lately; partly as a pr stunt for her newest book, but also because she genuinely enjoys seeing the smiles on their faces whenever she comes to read stories with them. pulling up to the small school yard, she parks her car and walks inside.
her eyes spot a bit more personnel than usual− the school is having a bigger event today. “good morning.” she greets the head teacher. they talk for a short while, the older lady explaining that there are other volunteers today who will help conduct the class and play with the children. kyungwon is going to read them a story after lunch, right before their nap time. prior to that she’s free to join the other volunteers in entertaining the children. additionally, just as her publisher had told her, she spots a filming crew.
“are they the ebs staff?” she asks, curious. the teacher nods, “they will be using some of the footage for their tv program. it’s ebs so we’re hoping more parents would send their children to yeorum.” thanking the teacher, she enters one of the classrooms, noting that a young man has already started playing with some of the kids. another child tugs on her hand as she sets her bag down and she responds with a wide grin.
chaewon is happy to be back in seoul - she’s starting to think that next year, if she even ends up celebrating the holidays at all beyond getting absolutely sloshed, she probably won’t go back to london for christmas. it’s becoming more and more obvious that her old friends have moved on.
she used to be the most important, and the most interesting. chaewon would argue that she’s still the prettiest to this day, but that’s about all she’s got on them now. after the initial pleasantries and confirmations that she looks well, that her new blonde hair suits her, the conversation quickly petered out. what gossip chaewon picked up from instagram stories simply hadn’t been enough to keep her in the loop. she missed the city itself though. it was her one friend that was still there for her, even after she’d been gone for so long.
but chaewon’s childhood house still felt too cold and too empty to call home anymore.
if it weren’t for sophie’s kind invitation to her home in brighton, it would have felt truly like a wasted trip from start to finish.
now that she’s as close to being home as she imagines she’ll get, chaewon is feeling the need to do something good - it’s an unfamiliar feeling, but it’s not totally unwelcome. her motivations are ultimately still self serving. she doesn’t want to be good for others, chaewon only wants to be good to make herself feel better. ultimately, as far as chaewon’s concerned she’s still volunteering so her intentions didn’t matter that much at the end of the day.
either way, she’s still standing there in the freezing cold with a donation bucket in her hands, shaking around its contents so far to try and encourage more people to give money to the children’s ward’s refurbishments. chaewon’s made a promise to herself not to check her phone for the duration of her two hour shift, but it’s making the time pass so slowly, especially when nobody seems to be biting. people are too busy trying to get through the big hospital doors to see loved ones or make appointments - they don’t care to see what the tiny blonde’s bucket’s writing says.
by the time someone comes to take over from her, chaewon practically shoves them with the force she hands the bucket over with. she goes inside and collects her handbag from the receptionist, expecting to see her saviour suffering just as badly - but no, not at all. they have a whole gaggle of people surrounding them, wallets open. what was she doing wrong? chaewon barely spares them a second glance.
There was a good feeling attached with doing something for others. Tzuyu liked helping and though she didn’t feel like she was directly contributing, she baked as many things as she could: cookies, macarons, brownies and a cake. These were then brought to her table at the bake sale. Before setting shop, she’d stopped by every table and bought something from each one. The direct contribution of giving money. This would go to charity to feed people who were less fortunate. She did wonder why they all didn’t just cook and give them that food. Maybe it wouldn’t be enough. It saddened her that there were so many poor and hungry people. Hopefully her table made enough to contribute a good amount that would feed a lot of people.
Tzuyu was very surprised to see how well it was going and how many people were buying. In fact, some people had told her that they heard others talking about her table and they came over to try her pastries. The number of compliments actually made her quite happy and proud. She, of course, knew that she was good at baking and she did it quite often for her friends. She didn’t expect this much popularity though. Her table was starting to become bare and she was worried that maybe she hadn’t done enough since her table was becoming empty quicker than others. Some other tables she could see from hers had much more product than she did. What had she done wrong? She looked at her cash box and smiled because she’d at least made a good amount to donate. Anything helps, she kept telling herself.
How it had come to this Eric wasn’t entirely sure -- his mother had said that he shouldn’t just sit at home all day and do nothing for the summer and thus signed him up for various activities. He tried to argue that he was active and that he was busy and totally didn’t have time to play nanny for a bunch of brats, but it was already too late and thus he had made his way to the orphanage without really knowing what was in store for him.
When arriving he had found it ridiculous. Walk around all day dressed up as a ghost to scare children with something that wasn’t even scary? Only babies would get scared by a haunted house he told himself mainly to gain courage, for he wasn’t a baby, he was adult now. To make matters worse it was charity work, and Eric knew nothing worse than having to work and get nothing in return. He’d make sure his mother paid him back later somehow.
Dressing up in costume was one thing, but actually going into the maze of horror was another. A low tune was playing, sinister, dark, sometimes growling, sometimes the sound of something being dragged across the floor. The dim light made it hard to see where he was walking too and Eric could feel his skin crawl as he tried to find his position. He wasn’t scared. He definitely wasn’t sca-- “AARGH!” A loud shriek left him as he rounded the corner and almost walked straight into a monster if not for the fact that he jumped back in a severe attempt to avoid the creature.
His eyelids drifted shut, letting the background noises fade away as he rested the instrument against his shoulder. A deep breath was taken - a habit he’d picked up in his childhood to soothe nervousness before a performance. Now, however, it was but a part of the routine and Kyungsoo’s fingertips remained perfectly steady as they pressed into the violin’s slender strings. After more than a decade of practice and just the right amount of passion, playing the violin became as natural of a task to him as talking was.
This was an event organized by his talent violin instructor. The woman was as gifted as she was kind and often hosted charity shows like this. This particular one was at a hospital at the edge of the city, tucked away from all the excitement. It was small and cramped, but the nurses kept everything clean despite the fact they were severely understaffed.
Kyungsoo’s schedule was hectic as ever and a part of him didn’t want to drive for hours to play songs for the sick and the miserable. The violin instructor, however, revealed this show was different from her others because her own father was a patient.
In the end, only three people showed up with instruments - Kyungsoo, his instructor and Jang Dongyoon, another student of the instructor’s. They took some violin classes together and afterward, Dongyoon moved onto other instruments while Kyungsoo stayed on violin to perfect it. He was not as musically talented as Dongyoon was and saw no reason to spread out his precious time.
“Long time no see,” Kyungsoo greeted during break time. They had a whole half-an-hour because all of the kids needed to pee for some reasons.
maybe this has been a long time coming. volunteering with animals isn’t something won thought he’d never do; he loves dogs with his whole heart and whilst he knows how humans struggle, he’d always thought it harder for animals, since they can’t help themselves or ask for help in the same way he could when he faced hardships. giving his time to do what he can for animals ( especially those who have been abandoned or rescued, as it hits a little close to home ) makes his heart warm and being able to do it with mingyu is even better.
he just wouldn’t have been able to tell you a year ago, or even a month ago, that it’d be cats they’d be helping.
in truth, won wishes he could pin down a specific reason why he detests the four-legged creatures so much. perhaps then he could feel like it’s more justified, feel like he has an argument when people react so strongly to the fact he, who quite resembles a cat in more ways than he likes to admit, hates them. he’ll say it’s their incessant meowing, but dogs’ barking has never bothered him. he’d say it’s their lack of care what they scratch up, but he knows not all cats are ruthless against a brand new sofa. maybe he’s just not had enough experience with them. regardless, he’s not surprised that sujin was the one who finally pushed them to change their minds. ( sujin always knows what’s best for them no matter what. )
“you know,” he starts, looking up at the sign above the entrance to the rescue centre, “mum’s power is really dangerous— if she can persuade me to come here, she can persuade me to do anything.” his laugh is soft, airy and laced with nerves. “are you r-ready?”
volunteering. it was something minju had been doing since she was young. her mother would often volunteer throughout minju’s earlier years (partially because she wanted to help out her community, but mainly so that the media would see her in a positive light), and the girl would be forced to go along with her mother and lend a helping hand. the two had travelled to the poorest areas in korea, even going outside the country for volunteer work once or twice, playing with orphaned children, building homes in extremely impoverished areas, cooking meals for the homeless, and basically anything and everything else they could do to help out. she grew to love volunteer work. sure, it was a lot of work sometimes, occasionally dealing with somewhat rude people and being put in awkward situations that weren’t the best for her panic disorder, but this never discouraged her. she loved knowing that she had the ability to make a change in someone else’s life, and the smile she would see on the orphan’s or homeless person’s face in return made it all worth it.
a homeless shelter that minju regularly volunteered at had a project going on for the homeless people who were stuck outside in the cold weather, and minju thought it would be a brilliant idea for her and her friend to help out by donating some blankets. she had no idea how to sew, let alone sew a blanket, despite it being a hobby she had always been interested in. so when yuri had suggested to teach the girl how to sew, she was delighted and immediately took her up on the offer. “erm, h-how exactly do i do this?”
