row 17; myungsoo/suzy one-shot
angst/broken!myung
1.7k (also, this was partially written backwards and makes sense in my head, but I'm sorry if it seems confusing)
I haven't written fic in forever and I've started again, so this is the first one-shot I finished. Hopefully more to come!
Myungsoo opens his eyes; he's laying down in some weird white room. The very first thing he notices is his empty hand lying limply by his side; the second is the hospital band around his wrist. He shuffles around trying to get a better view of his surroundings, but his muscles are stiff and aching. Soon, there are about six other guys around him seemingly attracted by the sound of his movements.
“Myungsoo,” they all say simultaneously and he can detect the relief, sadness and pity in their voices.
“Hey,” he manages to get out of his scratchy throat.
“Do you remember what happened?” asks Sunggyu.
“Yes,” he turns his head to look out of the window to the blue sky filled with bright, fluffy clouds.
but I wish I could forget.
-
Traveling alone is his favorite. Much more relaxing than the chaos of seven guys trying to get somewhere together. Everything is quieter, more peaceful. Your thoughts are a dance choreographed to whatever music you choose. The only words you have to say are the mumbled “yes, please”s or “no, thank you”s to the flight attendants. Myungsoo loves to lose himself in his thoughts from the moment the plane leaves the ground. His head is in the clouds, literally and figuratively. He does his best thinking here, staring out the window watching land and ocean beneath the belly of the metal bird grow smaller and smaller.
She hates traveling alone. With nothing to do, she begins to grow restless. Her hands twitch and her leg shakes. Suzy’s never been that talkative of a person, but for some reason she has the strongest urge to talk to whoever she sits next to on the plane. She wants to figure out their story. Her goal for every flight is for strangers at lift off to become friends when they land.
“Hi,” she turns to the guy sitting next to her in the window seat and smiles. “I’m Suzy.”
-
He gets discharged from the hospital two days later and Sunggyu and Woohyun insist he stay at their apartment. “We want to make sure you’re comfortable,” they say but he really knows they’re thinking, “we want to make sure you’re okay” as in he’s moving on, getting out of this funk of depression he seems stuck in. He hasn’t said anything more than a few curt answers to their questions.
“Are you thirsty?”
“No.”
“Is the couch okay?”
“Sure.”
“Do you want anything?”
To fall and never wake up.
“No, I’m good.”
-
He listens to the girl next to him talk for at least ten minutes straight, but he doesn’t really mind. She has a nice voice and Myungsoo has always liked listening more than talking. She’s telling a story about her pet cat and she’s so full of life and animated that it makes him feel more alive just being around her. Her laughter momentarily drowns out the engine and he doesn’t realize he’s laughing along with her. He’s not even looking out the window.
-
“Tell us about her,” says Hoya quietly one night they’re all laying in the apartment’s living room. There was a movie on at some point, but now it’s just background noise. He doesn’t even have to specify and Myungsoo knows it’s directed at him.
He’s quiet for a few minutes before he finds his voice, “She was pretty.” He tucks his arms behind his head and stares at the ceiling, picturing her face on the dull white space. “She was the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. And that’s not the rose-colored glasses of memories. She really was.”
-
“Tell me about yourself,” she’s sipping a glass of orange juice and he’s never seen something so mundane look so graceful in his life.
“I’m a photography student,” he shrugs.
“You should take my picture sometime,” her eyes light up and he can see the plans formulating in her head. Her ideal outfit, makeup, and hairstyle flash before her eyes. But he wants to capture her just like this- with her slightly messy airplane hair, comfortable traveling clothes, and small plastic cup of orange juice. The light, the kind that only seems to occur in the sky, spills in through the window and hits her perfectly. He knows it would’ve be the most beautiful photograph he would ever take.
-
He switches his major to literature and packs away his camera. His professor asks him why and he says he’s just not feeling it anymore. “What a shame, you’re one of my brightest students.”
Myungsoo wants to apologize and offer a better explanation, but he knows he wouldn’t understand. He can’t take photos anymore because nothing measures up to that one photo that won’t get out of his head. It replays over and over. When he’s walking to the bus stop, eating Woohyun’s ramen, watching tv and always when he closes his eyes to sleep. He would give anything, do anything to have that picture. But there’s no way, so he gives up completely.
-
He shocked to find out that four hours have passed by when it feels like they’ve just taken off.
“Have you ever been in love?” he doesn’t even recognize his own voice. It’s practically acting on its own accord.
She smiles sadly and even that’s heartbreakingly beautiful to Myungsoo, “Once.”
By the fifth hour he finds out the whole story and he sees how much it used to hurt her. He doesn’t know how a guy could possibly do that to someone like her. But she loved freely and he admires that because it’s more than he could ever do.
“What about you?”
“Nope,” he feels almost ashamed for this answer and he doesn’t know why.
“You should try it sometime. Parts of it sucks, but the rest of it is beautiful.”
And he believes her.
-
“There’s a memorial service. You should go.” Sunggyu tells him one morning while they eat their breakfast.
Myungsoo doesn’t answer because it takes all of his concentration to ignore how much it hurts and focus on eating his fruity pebbles instead.
“We’ll all be there with you.”
So he dresses in black and they all walk together in their dress shoes and stiff ties. They stand in the back of the rows, behind all the family members that are crying and holding onto each other.
He mumbles, “These are the parts that sucks.”
-
They’re in the middle of listing off their favorite authors (they both have a certain love for words and pretty sentences) when there’s a loud crack that comes from slightly behind them. A panicked flight attendant rushes by offering a stretched smile to the passengers. No one buys it.
Seconds later the pilot is on the pa system listing off procedures calmly and everyone knows their fate. He feels sick to his stomach, not because he knows he’s going to die exactly, but because of the fact that he doesn’t get to fall in love with Suzy. He wants the beautiful parts, he wants the sucky parts, he wants it all and he wants it with her.
He looks over to her and she’s not crying like most of the others on the plane. Her eyes are closed and she looks so calm. He knows she coming to peace with what’s coming in the near future. Probably writing the closing lines to the movie adaptation of her life in her head because that’s something she’d do.
And Myungsoo realizes that he already has that with her- the weird journey of falling in love. Their story is more like a chapter than a novel, but it’s theirs. He realizes that no one will hear this story, of how they met, fell in love, and died together in row 17.
-
He’s searching frantically through the rows of graves quickly reading the small headstones paid for by the airlines as a menial way of paying back the loved ones. He doesn’t even know her last name. His tie feels like it’s beginning to tighten around his neck. She’s his first love, tragic soul mate and all he knows is that she called herself ‘Suzy’, she loved kittens, drank orange juice, and she reminded him of words from a Charles Bukowski poem.
He finally finds it, flowers wilted in his hands, it’s under Bae; Bae Suji. There are white roses already there and he can’t help but smile because he knew he’d guess her favorite flowers correctly. He sets down his bouquet and when he rejoins his friends (brothers, really) he knows that their story is not just a chapter. It is not an unfinished story abandoned by some writer who has decided to give up. He will finish their novel.
-
The stewardesses have abandoned their calm facades and have begun to panic with the rest of the passengers. They’re sitting in their little pull down seats clutching each other, crying and praying. Soon they’ll start to plummet and that’s the part Myungsoo dreads the most. He hates rollercoasters.
“It’ll be just like Splash Mountain, won’t it?” He ignores the crack in her voice and the moisture in her eyes and focuses on her lips instead.
“I think it will.” His voice is as steady as he can keep it.
“Good,” she smiles that beautiful smile and it’s genuine, unlike the forced ones of the flight attendants minutes earlier. “It’s my favorite ride.”
-
It’s been five years and he’s back at her little gravestone with white roses. Before he didn’t even know her last name, but now he has every single character (every crack and detail) on that headstone memorized. Myungsoo knows more concrete details about her from her parents. They like to talk about their lovely daughter and he loves to listen.
He sets down a small stack of papers, bound by a clip, on the grass. It’s his final for his masters in creative writing and he hopes that someone, anyone, will stumble upon it one day and read it.
It’s their story- The Girl in Row 17.
-
falling
She grips his hand, "I didn't think it was possible in less than eight hours-"
falling
"and even if this wasn't happening, I'd feel the same way." She grins at him; the light is still highlighting her hair perfectly and if he squints it looks like a halo.
falling
"I love y-"
1.7k (also, this was partially written backwards and makes sense in my head, but I'm sorry if it seems confusing)
I haven't written fic in forever and I've started again, so this is the first one-shot I finished. Hopefully more to come!
Myungsoo opens his eyes; he's laying down in some weird white room. The very first thing he notices is his empty hand lying limply by his side; the second is the hospital band around his wrist. He shuffles around trying to get a better view of his surroundings, but his muscles are stiff and aching. Soon, there are about six other guys around him seemingly attracted by the sound of his movements.
“Myungsoo,” they all say simultaneously and he can detect the relief, sadness and pity in their voices.
“Hey,” he manages to get out of his scratchy throat.
“Do you remember what happened?” asks Sunggyu.
“Yes,” he turns his head to look out of the window to the blue sky filled with bright, fluffy clouds.
but I wish I could forget.
-
Traveling alone is his favorite. Much more relaxing than the chaos of seven guys trying to get somewhere together. Everything is quieter, more peaceful. Your thoughts are a dance choreographed to whatever music you choose. The only words you have to say are the mumbled “yes, please”s or “no, thank you”s to the flight attendants. Myungsoo loves to lose himself in his thoughts from the moment the plane leaves the ground. His head is in the clouds, literally and figuratively. He does his best thinking here, staring out the window watching land and ocean beneath the belly of the metal bird grow smaller and smaller.
She hates traveling alone. With nothing to do, she begins to grow restless. Her hands twitch and her leg shakes. Suzy’s never been that talkative of a person, but for some reason she has the strongest urge to talk to whoever she sits next to on the plane. She wants to figure out their story. Her goal for every flight is for strangers at lift off to become friends when they land.
“Hi,” she turns to the guy sitting next to her in the window seat and smiles. “I’m Suzy.”
-
He gets discharged from the hospital two days later and Sunggyu and Woohyun insist he stay at their apartment. “We want to make sure you’re comfortable,” they say but he really knows they’re thinking, “we want to make sure you’re okay” as in he’s moving on, getting out of this funk of depression he seems stuck in. He hasn’t said anything more than a few curt answers to their questions.
“Are you thirsty?”
“No.”
“Is the couch okay?”
“Sure.”
“Do you want anything?”
To fall and never wake up.
“No, I’m good.”
-
He listens to the girl next to him talk for at least ten minutes straight, but he doesn’t really mind. She has a nice voice and Myungsoo has always liked listening more than talking. She’s telling a story about her pet cat and she’s so full of life and animated that it makes him feel more alive just being around her. Her laughter momentarily drowns out the engine and he doesn’t realize he’s laughing along with her. He’s not even looking out the window.
-
“Tell us about her,” says Hoya quietly one night they’re all laying in the apartment’s living room. There was a movie on at some point, but now it’s just background noise. He doesn’t even have to specify and Myungsoo knows it’s directed at him.
He’s quiet for a few minutes before he finds his voice, “She was pretty.” He tucks his arms behind his head and stares at the ceiling, picturing her face on the dull white space. “She was the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. And that’s not the rose-colored glasses of memories. She really was.”
-
“Tell me about yourself,” she’s sipping a glass of orange juice and he’s never seen something so mundane look so graceful in his life.
“I’m a photography student,” he shrugs.
“You should take my picture sometime,” her eyes light up and he can see the plans formulating in her head. Her ideal outfit, makeup, and hairstyle flash before her eyes. But he wants to capture her just like this- with her slightly messy airplane hair, comfortable traveling clothes, and small plastic cup of orange juice. The light, the kind that only seems to occur in the sky, spills in through the window and hits her perfectly. He knows it would’ve be the most beautiful photograph he would ever take.
-
He switches his major to literature and packs away his camera. His professor asks him why and he says he’s just not feeling it anymore. “What a shame, you’re one of my brightest students.”
Myungsoo wants to apologize and offer a better explanation, but he knows he wouldn’t understand. He can’t take photos anymore because nothing measures up to that one photo that won’t get out of his head. It replays over and over. When he’s walking to the bus stop, eating Woohyun’s ramen, watching tv and always when he closes his eyes to sleep. He would give anything, do anything to have that picture. But there’s no way, so he gives up completely.
-
He shocked to find out that four hours have passed by when it feels like they’ve just taken off.
“Have you ever been in love?” he doesn’t even recognize his own voice. It’s practically acting on its own accord.
She smiles sadly and even that’s heartbreakingly beautiful to Myungsoo, “Once.”
By the fifth hour he finds out the whole story and he sees how much it used to hurt her. He doesn’t know how a guy could possibly do that to someone like her. But she loved freely and he admires that because it’s more than he could ever do.
“What about you?”
“Nope,” he feels almost ashamed for this answer and he doesn’t know why.
“You should try it sometime. Parts of it sucks, but the rest of it is beautiful.”
And he believes her.
-
“There’s a memorial service. You should go.” Sunggyu tells him one morning while they eat their breakfast.
Myungsoo doesn’t answer because it takes all of his concentration to ignore how much it hurts and focus on eating his fruity pebbles instead.
“We’ll all be there with you.”
So he dresses in black and they all walk together in their dress shoes and stiff ties. They stand in the back of the rows, behind all the family members that are crying and holding onto each other.
He mumbles, “These are the parts that sucks.”
-
They’re in the middle of listing off their favorite authors (they both have a certain love for words and pretty sentences) when there’s a loud crack that comes from slightly behind them. A panicked flight attendant rushes by offering a stretched smile to the passengers. No one buys it.
Seconds later the pilot is on the pa system listing off procedures calmly and everyone knows their fate. He feels sick to his stomach, not because he knows he’s going to die exactly, but because of the fact that he doesn’t get to fall in love with Suzy. He wants the beautiful parts, he wants the sucky parts, he wants it all and he wants it with her.
He looks over to her and she’s not crying like most of the others on the plane. Her eyes are closed and she looks so calm. He knows she coming to peace with what’s coming in the near future. Probably writing the closing lines to the movie adaptation of her life in her head because that’s something she’d do.
And Myungsoo realizes that he already has that with her- the weird journey of falling in love. Their story is more like a chapter than a novel, but it’s theirs. He realizes that no one will hear this story, of how they met, fell in love, and died together in row 17.
-
He’s searching frantically through the rows of graves quickly reading the small headstones paid for by the airlines as a menial way of paying back the loved ones. He doesn’t even know her last name. His tie feels like it’s beginning to tighten around his neck. She’s his first love, tragic soul mate and all he knows is that she called herself ‘Suzy’, she loved kittens, drank orange juice, and she reminded him of words from a Charles Bukowski poem.
He finally finds it, flowers wilted in his hands, it’s under Bae; Bae Suji. There are white roses already there and he can’t help but smile because he knew he’d guess her favorite flowers correctly. He sets down his bouquet and when he rejoins his friends (brothers, really) he knows that their story is not just a chapter. It is not an unfinished story abandoned by some writer who has decided to give up. He will finish their novel.
-
The stewardesses have abandoned their calm facades and have begun to panic with the rest of the passengers. They’re sitting in their little pull down seats clutching each other, crying and praying. Soon they’ll start to plummet and that’s the part Myungsoo dreads the most. He hates rollercoasters.
“It’ll be just like Splash Mountain, won’t it?” He ignores the crack in her voice and the moisture in her eyes and focuses on her lips instead.
“I think it will.” His voice is as steady as he can keep it.
“Good,” she smiles that beautiful smile and it’s genuine, unlike the forced ones of the flight attendants minutes earlier. “It’s my favorite ride.”
-
It’s been five years and he’s back at her little gravestone with white roses. Before he didn’t even know her last name, but now he has every single character (every crack and detail) on that headstone memorized. Myungsoo knows more concrete details about her from her parents. They like to talk about their lovely daughter and he loves to listen.
He sets down a small stack of papers, bound by a clip, on the grass. It’s his final for his masters in creative writing and he hopes that someone, anyone, will stumble upon it one day and read it.
It’s their story- The Girl in Row 17.
-
falling
She grips his hand, "I didn't think it was possible in less than eight hours-"
falling
"and even if this wasn't happening, I'd feel the same way." She grins at him; the light is still highlighting her hair perfectly and if he squints it looks like a halo.
falling
"I love y-"