dollhouse » chapter one.
Title: Dollhouse.
Pairing: Yunho/Jaejoong.
Genre: AU, Action, Angst, Drama, Romance.
Rating: I'm going to say R, just to be safe.
Summary: Jung Yunho works with Shim Changmin at Seoul's particular branch of Dollhouse - a underground corporation in which programmes volunteers with temporary personalities and skills whilst their own personalities are stored on hard drives in exchange for money or legal favours. A job that requires a hardened mind. Dollhouse clients are able to hire out specific dolls for their own personal needs - be it romantic, scientific or even for murder. Kim Jaejoong and Park Yoochun find themselves in a predicament where the Dollhouse is their final solution, and so they volunteer. When Jung Yunho meets Kim Jaejoong and emotional attatchment becomes a nagging factor at the back of Yunho's mind, things start to become more than difficult. Especially when Jaejoong starts remembering a little about who he is...
Based loosely on the American TV series, Dollhouse.
Chapter One;
15 months before*
A frozen wind blasted through the streets of Gongju like electricity, carrying the whistling of ghosts and unspoken words from awkward situations. The winds carried secrets - secrets that people could hear but not interpret, and it was a moment of sudden force and then they were gone again, carrying the whispers to another place for someone else to listen.
A figure of a boy stood engulfed in the shadows of the suffocating buildings paired with the blackness of the night, only particular areas of his face lit by the flickering street lamp standing proudly to his right. He was shivering yet trying to mask it, using his arms as shields from earth's prodding breath as he waited patiently.
Removing the cigarette hanging from his lips, he tapped away the ash onto the frosty pavement, watching as the ember inside it slowly died out. The areas of his face glowing under the scrutinising glow of the lamps showed age of no older than eighteen, an age that many people judged him harshly for the smoke exhaling from the pretty little mouth of his.
His feet were accompanied by a suitcase, the same feet that were holding up his body in front of the very familiar house of his best friend, the number 83 shining under the dim light. His eyes ran over the cracks in the brickwork of the small house and he smiled to himself.
"Jaejoong?" Yoochun questioned as soon as he opened the door to reveal his angelic looking best friend, luggage by his side and a backpack slung over his shoulder.
The other smiled gently, enjoying the confusion that marred the face of the one he held so dearly, "Hi."
"What're you doing?" Yoochun frowned, his expression passing through the phase of confusion and slipping slowly into the worried phase. Predictable, Jaejoong thought, as he watched Yoochun eye his suitcase.
"It's okay. I just came to say goodbye," the dark-haired youth admitted, dropping the remains of his cigarette to the floor and stepping out the light.
"Goodbye?"
Jaejoong's eyes lit up, the sparkle of the starlight reflecting in his dark centre, "I'm leaving. I'm finally doing something with this poor excuse of a life. You know I always wanted to become a model. This could make it for me."
"What?" Yoochun frowned, pulling his hoodie tigher around his frame, "Are you insane? I assume you're thinking about running away. You can't do that all alone, Jaejoong-ah. It'd be stupid and unsafe."
"I'm not thinking about it - I've done it," shrugging his shoulders and directing his gaze towards the suitcase at his feet. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and sighed, "I've made my choice, Yoochun. I can't stay here and I thought that you'd understand."
"You expect me to sympathise with your stupid idea?"
Jaejoong laughed. As usual. He never expected anything else from his best friend. Yoochun had the tongue of Lucifer, speaking his thoughts without restricting himself. Jaejoong had admired that about him since the very beginning of their friendship. And for Yoochun, he was just glad to have found someone to put up with his free-thinking mouth and uncontrollable verbal diarrhoea.
"Well, I thought that maybe..." Jaejoong trailed off, tilting his head sideways suggestively.
"Maybe...?" Yoochun worried.
The raven haired grinned and his face flashed with hope, "Come with me?"
"You have actually lost your mind, Kim Jaejoong," Yoochun said, reaching out a hand to hit Jaejoong around the back of his head. The latter smiled again, a wicked grin that made Yoochun's skin crawl.
"It's not a bad idea, Chun," he reasoned, "You always wanted to be a musician, right? And your parents hate that idea much as mine hate my modelling dream. You're good, Yoochun-ah. I want the world to hear what you can do. We can work towards our dreams together if you just come with me."
"Well now you sound like you're from a drama," Yoochun chuckled.
"Tell me that you aren't at least contemplating the idea."
Yoochun stopped, his eyes tracing the face of Jaejoong's haunting expression before dropping to watch his own shifting feet. The idea of Jaejoong running away on his own was utterly ridiculous - yet he knew that he would do it if his mind was totally set on it. His intentions were always set in stone, and it took one hell of an impact to change what he wanted to do. Yoochun couldn't say that he wasn't attracted to the idea of at least attempting to make it in the music business. He had so many self-composed songs that it was getting slightly difficult to move around in his bedroom.
And going with Jaejoong would ease Yoochun's conscience. He'd be safer with someone by his side. And anyway, if Jaejoong left, Yoochun would have no one to understand him in this lonely city of ignorance and introverts.
Though Yoochun knew that the idea was absurd and could only lead to something worse, something that boiled blood and made his head explode, he knew he'd do it. Just because the power Jaejoong held over him was excrutiatingly strong.
"I'm taking your silence as an agreement," Jaejoong clicked in front of Yoochun's face, extracting him from the world inside his head, "Come on, Chun. I know you want to. You just need someone to push you towards it."
Yoochun bit his lip as Jaejoong ran his cold fingertips over his cheek, "Okay."
**
It was an old saying that if the fog was coming, it was a sign. A sign of sin and secrecy - that the fog and mist only came to encase the streets in it's embrace when a human commited an unforgivable act of decite or crime, perhaps not to law, but to the Heavens above. Many believed that it was God's way to hide the immoral activity from the pure people that littered the cities in their few numbers. Other's said that the weather blanket was a way for the sinners to creep around and do their deeds without being noticed - perhaps to even make it easier for them to commit their wrong-doing by using the fog to hide beneath to attack their innocent prey with less prying eyes.
Great numbers believed that God had gotten it wrong when he placed the fog blanket over the earth.
The world holds many sins within it's walls, yet it was not uncommon for it to take place, not even hidden by the eyes of the righteous. Millions of people had dipped their toes in the unattainable wave of forbidden pleasure by stepping out of their immaculate states of mind and delving into the world of taboo and restriction.
A man for instance, in his clean cut suit with perfectly styled hair, seemingly making his way through the streets of Seoul, innocence clouding his entire aura. Ladies smiled at him, other males nodded in his direction, for his appearence told that of a accomplished and respected businessman. Yet as he stepped ever closer to his destination, people could see that perhaps things weren't always as they seemed.
The man took a route into the Itaewon district, his shiny shoes gleaming in the pink lights that lit the area. He smiled gently at the oblivious people he crossed paths with, until he reached his desired building. To continue the unsuspecting attitudes of the humans around him, he opened the door to what appeared to be a hair salon, though his feet took him straight past the waiting area, the counter and the actual seats.
Perhaps the young man was a relative of the hair salon's owner? Perhaps he was a shareholder? There was no need to jump to such devious conclusions - that is of course if you were blissfully unaware of the ulterior motive that this small building held.
The male moved elegantly through the back rooms and down a set of stairs to find rows and rows of beds, each with one young, slim, dirty-faced girl sat upon it. He took his time, strolling through the lines of broken hope and crushed dreams, the eyes of the girls staring back at him cold and unforgiving, their lives sucked from them from clients kisses and rough touches.
A brothel. A fantastic example of the seven deadly sins rolled into one. Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.
Even the innocent look suspicious.
So, miles from the centre of Seoul, part of the outskirts lining their city of suspicion, lay another building. One not so filthy and a little more respected.
It was a business. A business that was successful around the world and had wound itself into Korea, clutching at the very last strings of the word 'humane'. And although this business could be called many names, criticised in a thousand fashions, it still remained fairly legal under the law of that people joined by choice.
At the top of this 15-storey building, sat the manager of the Korean branch in her office, surrounded by two men, gazing into the pleading eyes of her most frequent job applicants.
Lee Chaeyeon smiled to herself and pointed her pencil, "You."
**
7 months before.*
Yunho sighed, the expanse of his whole body ached and his mind slowly became fogged over with the information that Hyukjae was belting at him.
"Slow down," he said, placing his coffee on his desk (a small little pleasure escape from the reality that he lived and breathed), "Who's not working properly?"
"Changmin sent me Jessica because she's failing to upload personalities properly," Hyukjae gripped his clipboard, reading the information he'd collected from an analysis, "I told him to check his machine, but he got shitty with me, saying that his machine could never be broken and that it was obviously just Jessica's mechanics and something that I'd done wrong."
Yunho nodded, chuckling slightly at the image of Changmin in his head ranting and raving in protection over his precious technology. It wouldn't be the first time that he'd heard reports of Changmin getting spiteful with people who dared to insult his 'babies'.
"And so..." he led Hyukjae to continue with a twist of his wrist.
"And so I checked her over and she was battered when she was sent the mission to be that creepy guy's girlfriend... uh... Mr Cho," Hyukjae checked, "It's broken something in her brain that connects to the machine and so she's stuck in her doll state."
Yunho bit his lip, "Right."
"I wanted to know whether I should put her to sleep," Hyukjae watched as his boss' face stiffened with the prospect of sending Jessica to the attic, "I don't know what else to do with her. She's no good to us in dollstate, and we can't upload her real self back."
"Don't do it," Yunho hissed, a voice torn from morals disagreeing with the reality that he'd forced himself to attempt to get used to, "Not yet."
"But sir..." Hyukjae blinked, cut off when Yunho interrupted.
"Have you contacted any other of the Dollhouses?" he asked solemnly, his last hope for the girl exhaled.
Hyukjae shook his head, embarrassment playing with his eyes, "I suppose I could ask them about it."
"Exactly, Hyukjae," Yunho said, a breath of relief escaping him without allowance as he dismissed the subject with his hand, "There you go, find out if they can help you with it."
Yunho grabbed his coffee with the hand he'd directed Hyukjae out with, glass breaking behind his eyes and his composure.
As Hyukjae opened his office door, Changmin appeared on the other side, reading his clipboard uninterested and therefore accidently bumping into the exiting Doll Maintenance Manager.
"Ah, Hyukjae, you're here," Changmin said as he looked up from his papers, smiling, "Actually, I was looking for you. I need your help with some checks."
Yunho looked up from logging himself into the Dollhouse's system on his computer, watching as Changmin's footsteps were joined by two others, the melody of the clinks against Yunho's laminate flooring instantly making him uneasy.
"The newest ones," Changmin announced, his eyes still glued to some unimportant information on his clipboard, "Chaeyeon made an immediate decision over them without anyone else's confirmation, so I assume they fit the standards," the bitter tone souring the atmosphere in the room even more.
"They were considered the most deserving out of the recent batch, hardest working and also loyal and eager - both agreed to sign the contract after fifteen minutes of meeting with us, though this one did hesistate a little," Changmin pointed towards the shorter of the two, his head decorated with 'too-long' black hair pulled back into a ponytail, "Apparently, these two are friends. He checked with him to make sure that this was 'a good idea'," he scoffed.
Yunho looked back towards his computer to make an attempt to remove the face of the boy standing before him. Recently, they had begun their replacement of the older dolls and so it was regular that Changmin brought him new dolls so Yunho could properly upload them into the system. Each time, he found himself trying to ignore the unfamiliar people in the room, trying to sort them as quickly as possible so as not to imprint the face of the memoryless person in his mind.
"Real name, Park Yoochun. Nineteen years old. Born and raised in Gongju. Payment agreement after five years, 2.5 billion won. Aspiration, musician," Changmin read from the clipboard, seemingly ticking off boxes as he and Hyukjae muttered things to each other, inspecting 'Yoochun's' figure.
It was at this point that Yunho's eyes made their vital mistake. His wandering gaze laid itself upon the other boy that Changmin had mentioned but not introduced, the one that stood lifelessly and free from scrutiny. Yunho drank in his features, his mind clicking to tell him that from the moment he did so, things were going to change.
Something brewed inside Yunho, the moment that his eyes locked with the boy's figure - an emotion of which he couldn't distinguish as sympathy for his situation or just plain attraction to him. The figure before him was a large mix of perfection and mystery. He had pale skin wrapped around supple flesh wrapped in white clothing. He looked healthy, to the point where muscles showed through his clothes - not extensively, no, Yunho thought it was just right. The eyes of the white-clad angel glittered from Yunho's overhead light and the latter found it enchanting - how someone who had had their life wiped from them could still look... anything like this.
His presence gave that of submission and brokeness, something that Yunho felt prone to use as an excuse for being so interested. The boy looked a little over eighteen, though his face told the tales of his youth, his now dead eyes exposing his soul.
Yunho was slightly taken aback by his analysis of 'just another doll', wondering why he'd never done the same thing with any of the other dolls that had come and gone from his office just the same. He assumed it was instant attraction - nothing remotely related to 'love at first sight', Yunho had grown up from believing in such things - but no one could deny his beauty, even for a male.
Apparently not even Hyukjae.
"This one's pretty," he announced, causing Changmin's eyes to fall intensely over Hyukjae's form, ensuring the statement to be just a pass-and-go comment rather than a heatfelt declaration. He couldn't be dealing with stuff like personal attatchment.
He quickly finished his analysis of 'Yoochun' and made his way to stand beside Hyukjae in front of the unidentified boy, the defeated look on the Technology Manager's face revealing to Yunho that perhaps this person was someone to sympathise with afterall.
Changmin sighed, "Real name, Kim Jaejoong. Also nineteen years old. Also born and raised in Gongju. Payment agreed after five years, 2.5 billion won."
It was unusual for Yunho to see Changmin open up emotionally about a particular doll and so grew slowly suspicious of what he was hiding.
"Do you think he's pretty, sir?" Hyukjae questioned, his eyes flicking to Yunho for mere seconds before flitting back to the lifeless boy.
Coughing, Yunho brushed the question off, "I don't think that's appropriate, Hyukjae," he said. Changmin subtly glanced at his shuffling figure from the corner of his eye, watching as Yunho became uncomfortable with the question. Actually, his awkward aura tugged at his lips, pulling them into a short-lived smirk.
"Thank you, Hyukjae. That'll be all," Changmin dismissed, "I'll bring you the papers with their names in about half an hour. In the time being, can you check up on Vicky please?"
Hyukjae caught the aura of the room, his eyes exchanging from Changmin's supposedly 'ignorant' expression to Yunho's lost one. Aware that it would've been awkward if he stayed even if Changmin hadn't requested his departure, Hyukjae nodded, "Sure."
He turned on his heel and began to leave, one last flick of his eyes on the two figures left in the room told so much. They were close, but suspicious of each other's intentions - protective, even. Changmin obviously had something serious to discuss with Yunho, yet the words remained in the air as unspoken tension as he waited for Hyukjae to leave. And so leave he did.
"Why don't I get to interview?" Yunho's voice pierced the air, shocking himself that he'd even uttered his own thoughts. It felt strange to hear them jolted aloud, the question spoken more of annoyance than in the form of a real question.
Changmin remained composed, twisting to catch Yunho's attention, "Are you serious?"
He nodded, "Deadly."
A pause.
"You're too emotional," Changmin blunted, twirling a pen between his fingers as he shrugged his shoulders, "We both know that you'd never let someone like him in here."
Yunho's eyebrows worried and his voice strained, "Does he look like he deserves this? Spending years of his life trapped into the equivilent of a prison when he has his whole life ahead of him?"
"Don't Yunho. All of the older guys that we had are being replaced by this third generation, they're all young boys and girls with bodies to do the job. The second generation have done their time and this is the future. I'm afraid you're going to have to get used to it whether you like it or not," he stated.
"Their bodies make no difference to the job - the older people we hired three years ago are perfectly capable to 'do the job'. Their skills originate from their personalities and what their brains tell them to do and that's all down to you and what you upload them with and so if you're no-"
"He wants to be a model," the Technology Manager interrupted off-topic, the sentance lingering in the air between them before Yunho could even grasp at what had carelessly been put out there.
"Why does that make a difference?" Yunho's words had slowed and his viciousness has faded, leaving behind the true layer of his person, revealing the sincere worry that bursted from his brain, "He just wants us to make him famous?"
"No. He wants to be a model, but nothing has gone right for him. His future is fucked if he doesn't get what we can give him. It's not just about getting some more money or self-worth or making yourself better - he and young Yoochun over there are genuinely desperate."
"How?" Yunho asked but Changmin waved it off.
"That's another story, one that I'm not sure you're going to be able to handle. Reality doesn't seem to hit you in the same way as other people," he said, waving his hand in front of Jaejoong's face to check his blankness.
Yunho stood in silence, knowing that his argument would just get shot down, not just because of Changmin's wit, but also because of the fact that he knew he was wrong.
"There are only three names left. The last doll is joining us tomorrow," Changmin said bleakly, the loss of all need to seem remotely caring dissolving into the air with his previous words, "Park Yoochun will now be known as Micky and Mr Kim Jaejoong shall be known as Youngwoong."
Nodding, Yunho accepted his copy of the paperwork and scrawled the names at the top of their respective sheets, "Micky and Youngwoong."
"That leaves Xiah for the doll joining us tomorrow," Changmin confirmed, "I'll upload their doll personalities and then hand them over to Hyukjae. He'll complete their induction by Trance** tonight."
"Sure," Yunho said simply, unwilling to remain in the presence of the lifeless bodies and his scrutinising best friend, "I'll add these files to the system. I assume they'll be up and running by morning and we can start booking them in?"
Changmin smiled, "Of course," and lead the two human shells from the office.
And as he left the room, a bitter thought attacked the shells of his brain - no matter how hard he argued with Yunho, his emotions always flowed freely, and there was just something about this Jaejoong character that intrigued him, and that just wasn't right. Not in a job like this.
_____________
*15/7 months before: This timelogging is how many months it was before the prologue took place. I hope this makes sense. I can scrap it, but I wanted to have some kind of sense of time for this. XD
**Trance: Trance is the name for the time that Dollhouse sends all of it's dolls to sleep. Trance shall be explained more in future chapters.
I will admit that this is impulse posting. I want to see what you guys think of this writing style. I want to continue it, but it's not coming out the way I wanted it to in Chapter Two, so I'm just checking that you like it in this chapter. :3
Hopefully you enjoyed this - I'm quite enjoying writing it and hopefully updates will come as quick as this. I cannot promise Chapter Two will be up by next week, but hopefully it'll be up before Valentine's Day... /crosses fingers.
OH. Speaking of valentines day, does anyone have any ideas they would like me to write for a Yunho/Jaejoong valentine fic? I'll see what I can come up with from your ideas, and perhaps I'll write more than one~ but I have to say, I might not use them all because sometimes I get awful writers block for fantastic ideas, it's so annoying! FML.
Thanks again for reading, guys! Comments are appreciated, too~
Pairing: Yunho/Jaejoong.
Genre: AU, Action, Angst, Drama, Romance.
Rating: I'm going to say R, just to be safe.
Summary: Jung Yunho works with Shim Changmin at Seoul's particular branch of Dollhouse - a underground corporation in which programmes volunteers with temporary personalities and skills whilst their own personalities are stored on hard drives in exchange for money or legal favours. A job that requires a hardened mind. Dollhouse clients are able to hire out specific dolls for their own personal needs - be it romantic, scientific or even for murder. Kim Jaejoong and Park Yoochun find themselves in a predicament where the Dollhouse is their final solution, and so they volunteer. When Jung Yunho meets Kim Jaejoong and emotional attatchment becomes a nagging factor at the back of Yunho's mind, things start to become more than difficult. Especially when Jaejoong starts remembering a little about who he is...
Based loosely on the American TV series, Dollhouse.
Chapter One;
15 months before*
A frozen wind blasted through the streets of Gongju like electricity, carrying the whistling of ghosts and unspoken words from awkward situations. The winds carried secrets - secrets that people could hear but not interpret, and it was a moment of sudden force and then they were gone again, carrying the whispers to another place for someone else to listen.
A figure of a boy stood engulfed in the shadows of the suffocating buildings paired with the blackness of the night, only particular areas of his face lit by the flickering street lamp standing proudly to his right. He was shivering yet trying to mask it, using his arms as shields from earth's prodding breath as he waited patiently.
Removing the cigarette hanging from his lips, he tapped away the ash onto the frosty pavement, watching as the ember inside it slowly died out. The areas of his face glowing under the scrutinising glow of the lamps showed age of no older than eighteen, an age that many people judged him harshly for the smoke exhaling from the pretty little mouth of his.
His feet were accompanied by a suitcase, the same feet that were holding up his body in front of the very familiar house of his best friend, the number 83 shining under the dim light. His eyes ran over the cracks in the brickwork of the small house and he smiled to himself.
"Jaejoong?" Yoochun questioned as soon as he opened the door to reveal his angelic looking best friend, luggage by his side and a backpack slung over his shoulder.
The other smiled gently, enjoying the confusion that marred the face of the one he held so dearly, "Hi."
"What're you doing?" Yoochun frowned, his expression passing through the phase of confusion and slipping slowly into the worried phase. Predictable, Jaejoong thought, as he watched Yoochun eye his suitcase.
"It's okay. I just came to say goodbye," the dark-haired youth admitted, dropping the remains of his cigarette to the floor and stepping out the light.
"Goodbye?"
Jaejoong's eyes lit up, the sparkle of the starlight reflecting in his dark centre, "I'm leaving. I'm finally doing something with this poor excuse of a life. You know I always wanted to become a model. This could make it for me."
"What?" Yoochun frowned, pulling his hoodie tigher around his frame, "Are you insane? I assume you're thinking about running away. You can't do that all alone, Jaejoong-ah. It'd be stupid and unsafe."
"I'm not thinking about it - I've done it," shrugging his shoulders and directing his gaze towards the suitcase at his feet. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and sighed, "I've made my choice, Yoochun. I can't stay here and I thought that you'd understand."
"You expect me to sympathise with your stupid idea?"
Jaejoong laughed. As usual. He never expected anything else from his best friend. Yoochun had the tongue of Lucifer, speaking his thoughts without restricting himself. Jaejoong had admired that about him since the very beginning of their friendship. And for Yoochun, he was just glad to have found someone to put up with his free-thinking mouth and uncontrollable verbal diarrhoea.
"Well, I thought that maybe..." Jaejoong trailed off, tilting his head sideways suggestively.
"Maybe...?" Yoochun worried.
The raven haired grinned and his face flashed with hope, "Come with me?"
"You have actually lost your mind, Kim Jaejoong," Yoochun said, reaching out a hand to hit Jaejoong around the back of his head. The latter smiled again, a wicked grin that made Yoochun's skin crawl.
"It's not a bad idea, Chun," he reasoned, "You always wanted to be a musician, right? And your parents hate that idea much as mine hate my modelling dream. You're good, Yoochun-ah. I want the world to hear what you can do. We can work towards our dreams together if you just come with me."
"Well now you sound like you're from a drama," Yoochun chuckled.
"Tell me that you aren't at least contemplating the idea."
Yoochun stopped, his eyes tracing the face of Jaejoong's haunting expression before dropping to watch his own shifting feet. The idea of Jaejoong running away on his own was utterly ridiculous - yet he knew that he would do it if his mind was totally set on it. His intentions were always set in stone, and it took one hell of an impact to change what he wanted to do. Yoochun couldn't say that he wasn't attracted to the idea of at least attempting to make it in the music business. He had so many self-composed songs that it was getting slightly difficult to move around in his bedroom.
And going with Jaejoong would ease Yoochun's conscience. He'd be safer with someone by his side. And anyway, if Jaejoong left, Yoochun would have no one to understand him in this lonely city of ignorance and introverts.
Though Yoochun knew that the idea was absurd and could only lead to something worse, something that boiled blood and made his head explode, he knew he'd do it. Just because the power Jaejoong held over him was excrutiatingly strong.
"I'm taking your silence as an agreement," Jaejoong clicked in front of Yoochun's face, extracting him from the world inside his head, "Come on, Chun. I know you want to. You just need someone to push you towards it."
Yoochun bit his lip as Jaejoong ran his cold fingertips over his cheek, "Okay."
**
It was an old saying that if the fog was coming, it was a sign. A sign of sin and secrecy - that the fog and mist only came to encase the streets in it's embrace when a human commited an unforgivable act of decite or crime, perhaps not to law, but to the Heavens above. Many believed that it was God's way to hide the immoral activity from the pure people that littered the cities in their few numbers. Other's said that the weather blanket was a way for the sinners to creep around and do their deeds without being noticed - perhaps to even make it easier for them to commit their wrong-doing by using the fog to hide beneath to attack their innocent prey with less prying eyes.
Great numbers believed that God had gotten it wrong when he placed the fog blanket over the earth.
The world holds many sins within it's walls, yet it was not uncommon for it to take place, not even hidden by the eyes of the righteous. Millions of people had dipped their toes in the unattainable wave of forbidden pleasure by stepping out of their immaculate states of mind and delving into the world of taboo and restriction.
A man for instance, in his clean cut suit with perfectly styled hair, seemingly making his way through the streets of Seoul, innocence clouding his entire aura. Ladies smiled at him, other males nodded in his direction, for his appearence told that of a accomplished and respected businessman. Yet as he stepped ever closer to his destination, people could see that perhaps things weren't always as they seemed.
The man took a route into the Itaewon district, his shiny shoes gleaming in the pink lights that lit the area. He smiled gently at the oblivious people he crossed paths with, until he reached his desired building. To continue the unsuspecting attitudes of the humans around him, he opened the door to what appeared to be a hair salon, though his feet took him straight past the waiting area, the counter and the actual seats.
Perhaps the young man was a relative of the hair salon's owner? Perhaps he was a shareholder? There was no need to jump to such devious conclusions - that is of course if you were blissfully unaware of the ulterior motive that this small building held.
The male moved elegantly through the back rooms and down a set of stairs to find rows and rows of beds, each with one young, slim, dirty-faced girl sat upon it. He took his time, strolling through the lines of broken hope and crushed dreams, the eyes of the girls staring back at him cold and unforgiving, their lives sucked from them from clients kisses and rough touches.
A brothel. A fantastic example of the seven deadly sins rolled into one. Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.
Even the innocent look suspicious.
So, miles from the centre of Seoul, part of the outskirts lining their city of suspicion, lay another building. One not so filthy and a little more respected.
It was a business. A business that was successful around the world and had wound itself into Korea, clutching at the very last strings of the word 'humane'. And although this business could be called many names, criticised in a thousand fashions, it still remained fairly legal under the law of that people joined by choice.
At the top of this 15-storey building, sat the manager of the Korean branch in her office, surrounded by two men, gazing into the pleading eyes of her most frequent job applicants.
Lee Chaeyeon smiled to herself and pointed her pencil, "You."
**
7 months before.*
Yunho sighed, the expanse of his whole body ached and his mind slowly became fogged over with the information that Hyukjae was belting at him.
"Slow down," he said, placing his coffee on his desk (a small little pleasure escape from the reality that he lived and breathed), "Who's not working properly?"
"Changmin sent me Jessica because she's failing to upload personalities properly," Hyukjae gripped his clipboard, reading the information he'd collected from an analysis, "I told him to check his machine, but he got shitty with me, saying that his machine could never be broken and that it was obviously just Jessica's mechanics and something that I'd done wrong."
Yunho nodded, chuckling slightly at the image of Changmin in his head ranting and raving in protection over his precious technology. It wouldn't be the first time that he'd heard reports of Changmin getting spiteful with people who dared to insult his 'babies'.
"And so..." he led Hyukjae to continue with a twist of his wrist.
"And so I checked her over and she was battered when she was sent the mission to be that creepy guy's girlfriend... uh... Mr Cho," Hyukjae checked, "It's broken something in her brain that connects to the machine and so she's stuck in her doll state."
Yunho bit his lip, "Right."
"I wanted to know whether I should put her to sleep," Hyukjae watched as his boss' face stiffened with the prospect of sending Jessica to the attic, "I don't know what else to do with her. She's no good to us in dollstate, and we can't upload her real self back."
"Don't do it," Yunho hissed, a voice torn from morals disagreeing with the reality that he'd forced himself to attempt to get used to, "Not yet."
"But sir..." Hyukjae blinked, cut off when Yunho interrupted.
"Have you contacted any other of the Dollhouses?" he asked solemnly, his last hope for the girl exhaled.
Hyukjae shook his head, embarrassment playing with his eyes, "I suppose I could ask them about it."
"Exactly, Hyukjae," Yunho said, a breath of relief escaping him without allowance as he dismissed the subject with his hand, "There you go, find out if they can help you with it."
Yunho grabbed his coffee with the hand he'd directed Hyukjae out with, glass breaking behind his eyes and his composure.
As Hyukjae opened his office door, Changmin appeared on the other side, reading his clipboard uninterested and therefore accidently bumping into the exiting Doll Maintenance Manager.
"Ah, Hyukjae, you're here," Changmin said as he looked up from his papers, smiling, "Actually, I was looking for you. I need your help with some checks."
Yunho looked up from logging himself into the Dollhouse's system on his computer, watching as Changmin's footsteps were joined by two others, the melody of the clinks against Yunho's laminate flooring instantly making him uneasy.
"The newest ones," Changmin announced, his eyes still glued to some unimportant information on his clipboard, "Chaeyeon made an immediate decision over them without anyone else's confirmation, so I assume they fit the standards," the bitter tone souring the atmosphere in the room even more.
"They were considered the most deserving out of the recent batch, hardest working and also loyal and eager - both agreed to sign the contract after fifteen minutes of meeting with us, though this one did hesistate a little," Changmin pointed towards the shorter of the two, his head decorated with 'too-long' black hair pulled back into a ponytail, "Apparently, these two are friends. He checked with him to make sure that this was 'a good idea'," he scoffed.
Yunho looked back towards his computer to make an attempt to remove the face of the boy standing before him. Recently, they had begun their replacement of the older dolls and so it was regular that Changmin brought him new dolls so Yunho could properly upload them into the system. Each time, he found himself trying to ignore the unfamiliar people in the room, trying to sort them as quickly as possible so as not to imprint the face of the memoryless person in his mind.
"Real name, Park Yoochun. Nineteen years old. Born and raised in Gongju. Payment agreement after five years, 2.5 billion won. Aspiration, musician," Changmin read from the clipboard, seemingly ticking off boxes as he and Hyukjae muttered things to each other, inspecting 'Yoochun's' figure.
It was at this point that Yunho's eyes made their vital mistake. His wandering gaze laid itself upon the other boy that Changmin had mentioned but not introduced, the one that stood lifelessly and free from scrutiny. Yunho drank in his features, his mind clicking to tell him that from the moment he did so, things were going to change.
Something brewed inside Yunho, the moment that his eyes locked with the boy's figure - an emotion of which he couldn't distinguish as sympathy for his situation or just plain attraction to him. The figure before him was a large mix of perfection and mystery. He had pale skin wrapped around supple flesh wrapped in white clothing. He looked healthy, to the point where muscles showed through his clothes - not extensively, no, Yunho thought it was just right. The eyes of the white-clad angel glittered from Yunho's overhead light and the latter found it enchanting - how someone who had had their life wiped from them could still look... anything like this.
His presence gave that of submission and brokeness, something that Yunho felt prone to use as an excuse for being so interested. The boy looked a little over eighteen, though his face told the tales of his youth, his now dead eyes exposing his soul.
Yunho was slightly taken aback by his analysis of 'just another doll', wondering why he'd never done the same thing with any of the other dolls that had come and gone from his office just the same. He assumed it was instant attraction - nothing remotely related to 'love at first sight', Yunho had grown up from believing in such things - but no one could deny his beauty, even for a male.
Apparently not even Hyukjae.
"This one's pretty," he announced, causing Changmin's eyes to fall intensely over Hyukjae's form, ensuring the statement to be just a pass-and-go comment rather than a heatfelt declaration. He couldn't be dealing with stuff like personal attatchment.
He quickly finished his analysis of 'Yoochun' and made his way to stand beside Hyukjae in front of the unidentified boy, the defeated look on the Technology Manager's face revealing to Yunho that perhaps this person was someone to sympathise with afterall.
Changmin sighed, "Real name, Kim Jaejoong. Also nineteen years old. Also born and raised in Gongju. Payment agreed after five years, 2.5 billion won."
It was unusual for Yunho to see Changmin open up emotionally about a particular doll and so grew slowly suspicious of what he was hiding.
"Do you think he's pretty, sir?" Hyukjae questioned, his eyes flicking to Yunho for mere seconds before flitting back to the lifeless boy.
Coughing, Yunho brushed the question off, "I don't think that's appropriate, Hyukjae," he said. Changmin subtly glanced at his shuffling figure from the corner of his eye, watching as Yunho became uncomfortable with the question. Actually, his awkward aura tugged at his lips, pulling them into a short-lived smirk.
"Thank you, Hyukjae. That'll be all," Changmin dismissed, "I'll bring you the papers with their names in about half an hour. In the time being, can you check up on Vicky please?"
Hyukjae caught the aura of the room, his eyes exchanging from Changmin's supposedly 'ignorant' expression to Yunho's lost one. Aware that it would've been awkward if he stayed even if Changmin hadn't requested his departure, Hyukjae nodded, "Sure."
He turned on his heel and began to leave, one last flick of his eyes on the two figures left in the room told so much. They were close, but suspicious of each other's intentions - protective, even. Changmin obviously had something serious to discuss with Yunho, yet the words remained in the air as unspoken tension as he waited for Hyukjae to leave. And so leave he did.
"Why don't I get to interview?" Yunho's voice pierced the air, shocking himself that he'd even uttered his own thoughts. It felt strange to hear them jolted aloud, the question spoken more of annoyance than in the form of a real question.
Changmin remained composed, twisting to catch Yunho's attention, "Are you serious?"
He nodded, "Deadly."
A pause.
"You're too emotional," Changmin blunted, twirling a pen between his fingers as he shrugged his shoulders, "We both know that you'd never let someone like him in here."
Yunho's eyebrows worried and his voice strained, "Does he look like he deserves this? Spending years of his life trapped into the equivilent of a prison when he has his whole life ahead of him?"
"Don't Yunho. All of the older guys that we had are being replaced by this third generation, they're all young boys and girls with bodies to do the job. The second generation have done their time and this is the future. I'm afraid you're going to have to get used to it whether you like it or not," he stated.
"Their bodies make no difference to the job - the older people we hired three years ago are perfectly capable to 'do the job'. Their skills originate from their personalities and what their brains tell them to do and that's all down to you and what you upload them with and so if you're no-"
"He wants to be a model," the Technology Manager interrupted off-topic, the sentance lingering in the air between them before Yunho could even grasp at what had carelessly been put out there.
"Why does that make a difference?" Yunho's words had slowed and his viciousness has faded, leaving behind the true layer of his person, revealing the sincere worry that bursted from his brain, "He just wants us to make him famous?"
"No. He wants to be a model, but nothing has gone right for him. His future is fucked if he doesn't get what we can give him. It's not just about getting some more money or self-worth or making yourself better - he and young Yoochun over there are genuinely desperate."
"How?" Yunho asked but Changmin waved it off.
"That's another story, one that I'm not sure you're going to be able to handle. Reality doesn't seem to hit you in the same way as other people," he said, waving his hand in front of Jaejoong's face to check his blankness.
Yunho stood in silence, knowing that his argument would just get shot down, not just because of Changmin's wit, but also because of the fact that he knew he was wrong.
"There are only three names left. The last doll is joining us tomorrow," Changmin said bleakly, the loss of all need to seem remotely caring dissolving into the air with his previous words, "Park Yoochun will now be known as Micky and Mr Kim Jaejoong shall be known as Youngwoong."
Nodding, Yunho accepted his copy of the paperwork and scrawled the names at the top of their respective sheets, "Micky and Youngwoong."
"That leaves Xiah for the doll joining us tomorrow," Changmin confirmed, "I'll upload their doll personalities and then hand them over to Hyukjae. He'll complete their induction by Trance** tonight."
"Sure," Yunho said simply, unwilling to remain in the presence of the lifeless bodies and his scrutinising best friend, "I'll add these files to the system. I assume they'll be up and running by morning and we can start booking them in?"
Changmin smiled, "Of course," and lead the two human shells from the office.
And as he left the room, a bitter thought attacked the shells of his brain - no matter how hard he argued with Yunho, his emotions always flowed freely, and there was just something about this Jaejoong character that intrigued him, and that just wasn't right. Not in a job like this.
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*15/7 months before: This timelogging is how many months it was before the prologue took place. I hope this makes sense. I can scrap it, but I wanted to have some kind of sense of time for this. XD
**Trance: Trance is the name for the time that Dollhouse sends all of it's dolls to sleep. Trance shall be explained more in future chapters.
I will admit that this is impulse posting. I want to see what you guys think of this writing style. I want to continue it, but it's not coming out the way I wanted it to in Chapter Two, so I'm just checking that you like it in this chapter. :3
Hopefully you enjoyed this - I'm quite enjoying writing it and hopefully updates will come as quick as this. I cannot promise Chapter Two will be up by next week, but hopefully it'll be up before Valentine's Day... /crosses fingers.
OH. Speaking of valentines day, does anyone have any ideas they would like me to write for a Yunho/Jaejoong valentine fic? I'll see what I can come up with from your ideas, and perhaps I'll write more than one~ but I have to say, I might not use them all because sometimes I get awful writers block for fantastic ideas, it's so annoying! FML.
Thanks again for reading, guys! Comments are appreciated, too~