king of hearts || wayv

T h r e e - Ferris Wheel

Xiaojun, Yuna and their parents ate Indian takeout as they watched the end of 'The Bachelorette'.

It was a family ritual.

Videochatting in from her dorm on an iPad was Xiaojun's older sister, Yeri in her college sweatshirt.

"There is no way they went into fantasy suite just to give eachother 'foot messages'." Xiaojun shook his head.

"Seriously. How dumb do they think we are?" Mr. Xiao shoved a large chunk of food in his mouth aggressively.

"I dunno. Cody is from Utah which is super Mormon and virgin-y." Yeri spoke from inside the iPad.

"Virginal." Yuna giggled.

"You'd know." Xiaojun laughed.

"So would you." She spat back, shutting Xiaojun up.

"Even if they did more than foot massages, it doesn't mean they made love." All three kids groaned at their mother's comment.

"Oh my god, you guys are so repressed-"

"Don't therapize us, mom. We're not your patients."

"Oh, I know, Xiaojun. If you were my patients, you'd be way more well-adjusted."

"Nice therapist burn, baby." Mr. and Mrs. Xiao fist bumped in victory.

"How's our little college bachelorette doing? Any special someones?" Mrs. Xiao asked Yeri.

"Ew, no, I'm not talking about my life."

"We raised a vault, honey." Mr. Xiao fake sobbed.

"I think she's gonna pick Daniel C. He's the hottest one." Yeri went back to the show.

"The gay one?" Mr. Xiao raised his eyebrows.

"Daniel's not gay." Yuna stated.

"Look at that haircut, the cotton candy pink mullet? The guy is a one-man Pride Parade. At least a bisexual. ~It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A~" Mr. Xiao sang.

That was his sense of humour.

Bad and out-of-touch but not malicious.

Still, Xiaojun tensed up.

"Dad, stop."

"~It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A~ With Daniel C! ~It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A~" He continued singing.

"Would you cut it out? That is so offensive. You don't even realise how pervasive your casual heterosexism is!" Yeri continued to throw around words she learned in her gender studies class.

Mrs. Xiao and Yuna laughed a little in spite of themselves and nobody noticed Xiaojun, who was wildly uncomfortable.

●○●○●

Xiaojun listened to one of his favourite songs as he scanned the latest SMsecrets Tumblr gossip: a stuffed bra-gate, a lacrosse player caught getting head under the bleachers, etc.

It was the usual.

He was about to close the site when a post caught his eye.

It was a stock photo of a ferris wheel accompanied by a short entry.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm stuck on top of a ferris wheel. One minute I'm on top of the world, the next I'm at rock bottom. Over and over, all day long because a lot about my life is great but nobody knows I'm gay." Xiaojun silently read the post to himself.

It was signed with only the pseudonym: King Of Hearts.

Xiaojun sat back, stunned.

There was another secretly gay kid at SM?

He considered for a beat, then navigated to Gmail and registered for a new email account.

Gmail asked for a username.

Xiaojun considered it before putting in a random lyric he heard a few minutes ago.

ijustwannabeyourdog.woofwoofwoof@gmail.com

Available!

He clicked back to the SMsecrets entry and commented: "I can relate."

He pondered a pseudonym for himself then noticed a framed photo of him in a snapback hat with a dj set in front of him from when he was a little boy.

Xiaojun thought about it, was DJ anonymous enough?

He shrugged before adding the new email address so "King Of Hearts" could reach him.

Xiaojun hesitated for a moment then hit post, feeling both excited and terrified.

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(a/n: rv members are going to be characters too because i've already run out of itzy members 😔 daniel c. is yeonjun if you didn't pick up on that 😔 any moas here? what was your favourite song from the chaos album? there was absolutely NO skips at all but 'frost', 'what if i had been that puma' and of course the soty 'anti-romantic' are my faves.)