소주 있으면 시간을 한잔 // Shinhwa
Getting a feel for writing the characters and group dynamics, mostly.
소주 있으면 시간을 한잔 (if you have the soju, let's have a shot of time)
Shinhwa
PG, 1100 words
Soju, laughter, time (and a petty argument, as expected).
When Hyesung whines about his dislocated knee and suggests staying in for the night instead of going to the new sooljib Andy’s been swearing by these days, he’s shot down immediately. (Jun Jin goes so far as to inquire if anyone’s heard the wind blowing.)
Twenty minutes later, when Minwoo arrives, late from some work meeting, he says “let’s just hang out on Hyesung’s balcony and drink all his soju tonight” and everyone agrees immediately because, after all, it’s Minwoo. He so rarely asks them for anything that they’re happy, even eager, to comply. Not even Hyesung does more than make a token complaint, a balm for his pride, before focusing his energy on making sure these bastards don’t drink all of his precious alcohol.
They phone for jjajangmyun, along with a trillion side dishes, and they all do their best to cheat at rock paper scissors in the ten minutes it takes to be delivered from the restaurant up the street, to figure out who’s paying for dinner. Dongwan loses in a moment of distraction, and his smile is blinding even as he bitches about throwing away his money on their bottomless appetites.
Hyesung’s balcony is unusually big, large enough to accommodate both his and Eric’s long legs, and everyone else’s as well. There’s still plenty of shin-kicking however as they all settle in: Minwoo wants to be close to the alcohol, Andy wants to be close to the food, Jin wants to be close to the alcohol and the food, and Dongwan wants to be far away from Hyesung’s second hand smoke.
“Settle down kids, settle down,” Eric says placidly from his seat at the far end of the balcony. But his words get lost, somewhere amidst the general chatter, the open night sky, and the utter disregard they all have for Eric’s attempts at maturity.
The jjajangmyun disappears almost as quickly as the soju does. Their sobriety goes at a slower pace, but eventually that’s eliminated too. Andy is a quiet drunk, becoming serious and contemplative and a little sleepy; Eric and Jin get loud and raucous; and Dongwan stays much the same. Minwoo is prone to love confessions when he gets tipsy, all the sentiment and affection in his personality spilling over, and today is no exception. He wraps an arm around Dongwan, sitting next to him, and plants sloppy kisses on anyone who comes within range.
Hyesung has a tendency to get reckless when he’s drunk, but tonight his injured knee and the limited scope of movement on his balcony leaves him with little to do but hang over the balcony railing dangerously and chain smoke. He lets the chatter carry on behind him, hearing without listening, content to stop thinking and just feel.
It’s a surprisingly warm night for this time of year. The air is heavy with warmth and humidity, and when he leans back out of the wind it feels like the darkness wraps itself around him. If he un-focuses his eyes, the lights from the houses nearby blur, backgrounding the nearer red glow of his cigarette. It’s almost suburbia, where he lives, so he can hear the cicadas too, in the lulls of their conversations, happily chirping away. It feels a whole lot like summer, and like youth, but before Hyesung can follow that train of thought any further, Jin speaks up and beats him to the punch.
“Remember when we lived in the dorms and fought to sit by the window in the summer so we could feel the breeze even a little bit?”
A low rumble of assent from five voices, all sounding sleepily content.
“Can you believe that was more than 10 years ago?”
“Never thought you’d get sentimental in your old age, Choongjae,” Andy murmurs.
Jin casts a glance of superb disdain in their maknae’s direction. “Yah. That’s Choongjae hyung to you.” And when Hyesung turns to make fun of him for pulling rank, he says, with no less disdain than before, “Pilgyo.”
That's all, but it's enough. Eric laughs so hard he almost tips out of his chair, even though it’s not clever or funny at all. His laughter pulls Minwoo along too, and then Dongwan who can never keep a straight face, and soon all of them are in stitches at nothing.
It’s a pretty good summary of their relationship. A lot of drinking, a lot of weird inside jokes and senseless laughter, and lately some old jokes. When they stop laughing, Hyesung finally manages to get a word in edgewise to say as much.
Nodding sagely, Eric agrees. “Isn’t that our recipe though? Time, and laughter, and alcohol?”
The night ends in a stupid argument, and somehow that’s also fitting. Dongwan gets offended because the smoke Eric’s blowing out keeps wafting into his face. They don’t even bother to argue with each other anymore, with 14 years of arguments under their belts-they just skip straight to the cussing each other out and macho posturing. Minwoo rolls his eyes and lazily slaps them both upside the head and again, after 14 years, this tiny action is enough to dispel the tension into rueful laughter.
It’s also enough to remind them all of the time. It’s past midnight now, and they have early filming tomorrow for some music show. Someone cracks a joke about getting old not being able to stay up as late as they used to; someone else ribs Minwoo to not show up at recording tomorrow too hung over.
Everyone picks up empty bottles as they leave, arguing that it’s easy enough to just toss them in the trash on their way out. Hyesung knows they’re really doing it for him, to save him the trip to the dumpster. It’s not like he’s going to argue, anyway, if the others are going to clean up after themselves for once in their lives.
He’ll just have another cigarette, then, and sit out on his balcony, where the warmth and laughter seem to still linger, just for a little while longer.
OUTTAKE 1
Somebody discovers Hyori’s face on one of the Chum Churum bottles’ packaging and somehow that’s hilarious, so they laugh uproariously until Hyesung’s neighbor comes out onto his balcony to see what all the noise is about. Hyesung apologizes with a wobbly bow, then flicks the aluminum caps of emptied soju bottles at the others’ heads, as punishment for disturbing the peace of the neighborhood.
OUTTAKE 2
“I can dance too!” Dongwan says, affecting to look mortally offended.
Eric snorts into his soju and Jin laughs right in his face. “You should stick to exercising.”
Note(s):
1. sooljib = a Korean bar that serves a variety of side dishes with drinks; like an izakaya
2. it's pretty common for Shinhwa members to get injured during activities (sigh). Hyesung managed to dislocate his knee during their comeback concert, lol ;;
3. Jun Jin's real name: Park Choongjae. Hyesung's real name: Jung Pilgyo.
4. Eric's thing about their recipe references this quote from him (in response to antis, I believe): “Just as each person has their own particular food suited to their taste from the large variety of foods, if our food does not suit your taste eat something else. We don’t cook for people that don’t like our food. Luckily there are people that love the food that we work so hard to make and again we just work hard for those people.”
소주 있으면 시간을 한잔 (if you have the soju, let's have a shot of time)
Shinhwa
PG, 1100 words
Soju, laughter, time (and a petty argument, as expected).
When Hyesung whines about his dislocated knee and suggests staying in for the night instead of going to the new sooljib Andy’s been swearing by these days, he’s shot down immediately. (Jun Jin goes so far as to inquire if anyone’s heard the wind blowing.)
Twenty minutes later, when Minwoo arrives, late from some work meeting, he says “let’s just hang out on Hyesung’s balcony and drink all his soju tonight” and everyone agrees immediately because, after all, it’s Minwoo. He so rarely asks them for anything that they’re happy, even eager, to comply. Not even Hyesung does more than make a token complaint, a balm for his pride, before focusing his energy on making sure these bastards don’t drink all of his precious alcohol.
They phone for jjajangmyun, along with a trillion side dishes, and they all do their best to cheat at rock paper scissors in the ten minutes it takes to be delivered from the restaurant up the street, to figure out who’s paying for dinner. Dongwan loses in a moment of distraction, and his smile is blinding even as he bitches about throwing away his money on their bottomless appetites.
Hyesung’s balcony is unusually big, large enough to accommodate both his and Eric’s long legs, and everyone else’s as well. There’s still plenty of shin-kicking however as they all settle in: Minwoo wants to be close to the alcohol, Andy wants to be close to the food, Jin wants to be close to the alcohol and the food, and Dongwan wants to be far away from Hyesung’s second hand smoke.
“Settle down kids, settle down,” Eric says placidly from his seat at the far end of the balcony. But his words get lost, somewhere amidst the general chatter, the open night sky, and the utter disregard they all have for Eric’s attempts at maturity.
The jjajangmyun disappears almost as quickly as the soju does. Their sobriety goes at a slower pace, but eventually that’s eliminated too. Andy is a quiet drunk, becoming serious and contemplative and a little sleepy; Eric and Jin get loud and raucous; and Dongwan stays much the same. Minwoo is prone to love confessions when he gets tipsy, all the sentiment and affection in his personality spilling over, and today is no exception. He wraps an arm around Dongwan, sitting next to him, and plants sloppy kisses on anyone who comes within range.
Hyesung has a tendency to get reckless when he’s drunk, but tonight his injured knee and the limited scope of movement on his balcony leaves him with little to do but hang over the balcony railing dangerously and chain smoke. He lets the chatter carry on behind him, hearing without listening, content to stop thinking and just feel.
It’s a surprisingly warm night for this time of year. The air is heavy with warmth and humidity, and when he leans back out of the wind it feels like the darkness wraps itself around him. If he un-focuses his eyes, the lights from the houses nearby blur, backgrounding the nearer red glow of his cigarette. It’s almost suburbia, where he lives, so he can hear the cicadas too, in the lulls of their conversations, happily chirping away. It feels a whole lot like summer, and like youth, but before Hyesung can follow that train of thought any further, Jin speaks up and beats him to the punch.
“Remember when we lived in the dorms and fought to sit by the window in the summer so we could feel the breeze even a little bit?”
A low rumble of assent from five voices, all sounding sleepily content.
“Can you believe that was more than 10 years ago?”
“Never thought you’d get sentimental in your old age, Choongjae,” Andy murmurs.
Jin casts a glance of superb disdain in their maknae’s direction. “Yah. That’s Choongjae hyung to you.” And when Hyesung turns to make fun of him for pulling rank, he says, with no less disdain than before, “Pilgyo.”
That's all, but it's enough. Eric laughs so hard he almost tips out of his chair, even though it’s not clever or funny at all. His laughter pulls Minwoo along too, and then Dongwan who can never keep a straight face, and soon all of them are in stitches at nothing.
It’s a pretty good summary of their relationship. A lot of drinking, a lot of weird inside jokes and senseless laughter, and lately some old jokes. When they stop laughing, Hyesung finally manages to get a word in edgewise to say as much.
Nodding sagely, Eric agrees. “Isn’t that our recipe though? Time, and laughter, and alcohol?”
The night ends in a stupid argument, and somehow that’s also fitting. Dongwan gets offended because the smoke Eric’s blowing out keeps wafting into his face. They don’t even bother to argue with each other anymore, with 14 years of arguments under their belts-they just skip straight to the cussing each other out and macho posturing. Minwoo rolls his eyes and lazily slaps them both upside the head and again, after 14 years, this tiny action is enough to dispel the tension into rueful laughter.
It’s also enough to remind them all of the time. It’s past midnight now, and they have early filming tomorrow for some music show. Someone cracks a joke about getting old not being able to stay up as late as they used to; someone else ribs Minwoo to not show up at recording tomorrow too hung over.
Everyone picks up empty bottles as they leave, arguing that it’s easy enough to just toss them in the trash on their way out. Hyesung knows they’re really doing it for him, to save him the trip to the dumpster. It’s not like he’s going to argue, anyway, if the others are going to clean up after themselves for once in their lives.
He’ll just have another cigarette, then, and sit out on his balcony, where the warmth and laughter seem to still linger, just for a little while longer.
OUTTAKE 1
Somebody discovers Hyori’s face on one of the Chum Churum bottles’ packaging and somehow that’s hilarious, so they laugh uproariously until Hyesung’s neighbor comes out onto his balcony to see what all the noise is about. Hyesung apologizes with a wobbly bow, then flicks the aluminum caps of emptied soju bottles at the others’ heads, as punishment for disturbing the peace of the neighborhood.
OUTTAKE 2
“I can dance too!” Dongwan says, affecting to look mortally offended.
Eric snorts into his soju and Jin laughs right in his face. “You should stick to exercising.”
Note(s):
1. sooljib = a Korean bar that serves a variety of side dishes with drinks; like an izakaya
2. it's pretty common for Shinhwa members to get injured during activities (sigh). Hyesung managed to dislocate his knee during their comeback concert, lol ;;
3. Jun Jin's real name: Park Choongjae. Hyesung's real name: Jung Pilgyo.
4. Eric's thing about their recipe references this quote from him (in response to antis, I believe): “Just as each person has their own particular food suited to their taste from the large variety of foods, if our food does not suit your taste eat something else. We don’t cook for people that don’t like our food. Luckily there are people that love the food that we work so hard to make and again we just work hard for those people.”