Joo Won 주원 [Current Drama 2024 - The Midnight Studio/ 야한(夜限) 사진관]

[kittyna]

1 hour ago, moonstrike said:

What's wrong with my soompi?????!!! Its lagging. So slow.

 

Soompi sometimes gets slow to load when we're getting close to the maximum number of posts on one page (i.e. another new page will be starting up soon). This is especially the case when there are a lot of pictures to load, as is usually the case here.

 

So if that's what it is, don't worry about it. But if not, maybe it was glitching for you when you were online?

 

2 hours ago, moonstrike said:

Since then I more understand why his camp is special not because there are celebrities in there but because they are more stiff, harder, and like you said, hardcore. Harder and hardcore because the temperatures and all exercise or activities is more dangerous. Especially they are exactly near the border of south korea and north korea. And also the temperature will be colder than other camp in winter and hotter in summer.

 

No, the White Skull isn't special because there are celebrities there - it was a special unit to begin with, and it just happens to have some celebrities in it  

 

I do wonder if it ends up popular among celebrities because it's tougher, though. Something to think about....

 

2 hours ago, moonstrike said:

And I'm proud that Joo won is first rank in 5 weeks training in that camp. He even become an assistant instructure there. I've heard that he became the first rank after showing unbelievable physical strength and also mental. It makes me remember that he said he has confidence in his stamina. And he proove that and also nailed it.

 

Same here. I think I was expecting him to do well in training, but I wasn't expecting that he would be ranked first in his group - or that he would become an assistant instructor because of it. lol - It fits him, though; he's mentioned numerous times that he wants to go into teaching (i.e. that he wants to become a university professor in acting), so this is a good time to get some experience there, I think  

 

And now for the pics for today - Throwback Thursday, but some other things too.

 

First off - the throwbacks!

 

Spoiler

I love his expression in this pic (from the 2010 KBS Drama Awards) - it's really funny and cute

 

 

Another advertising pic for Morning Calm Village

 

 

This one goes all the way back to his musical theatre days

 

 

 

Interesting coat - I'm not sure if I like it on him, though

 

 

This one's from a Japanese magazine - I recognize the picture to be from "Ojakgyo Brothers" promotions

 

 

This is from the music video for "Missing You" by SM the Ballad

 

 

 

I did say there was something else I wanted to share today, and it's this. I recently came across some pictures of the booklet that came with the "Nae Il's Cantabile" soundtrack, and they're really nice. There are several pages' worth of collages of photos from the show, but I noticed that the three main actors (JW, Shim Eun Kyung, and Park Bo Gum) each had their own page of pictures - autographs included.

 

So here's JW's (FYI: to this day, I still can't make out what's on the left of his autograph; I can make out his name on the right - and he usually does that part smaller - but the large sign on the left...help?):

 

 

Here's Shim Eun Kyung's (by the way, can I just say that her autograph is so cute???):

 

 

And here's Park Bo Gum's:

 

 

[kittyna]

Just a quick disclaimer in advance: I'm writing this out because the thought just occurred to me earlier today, and I want to test it out a bit. Depending on what you guys think about this, I may end up working it into my "Seolleim in Salzburg" series - or not.

 

Either way, I actually have to credit @moonstrike here, because it was this exchange we had about a week ago that started to get me going:

 

On 2/20/2018 at 9:13 PM, moonstrike said:

He is so handsome!!! His hair is an upgrade version of cantabile style. Love it! With different color and little bit messy. He looks like a super handsome mixed-race here.

 

On 2/21/2018 at 1:36 PM, kittyna said:

It hadn't crossed my mind before to think of JW looking interracial - I guess because he doesn't look that way to me. However, most of the interracial Asians I've seen have been part-Asian, part-white, so that probably affects the results a bit.  

 

Still, I'm with you in thinking that that look is like a slightly wilder version of his Cha Yoo Jin style - or, as Stresemann would put it, the "wilder and sexier" version  

 

On 2/22/2018 at 9:15 AM, moonstrike said:

Hmmm.... he looks like an arabian-korean with that kind of style. I love that! And the plain background also makes it more like that.

 

So, at the time, it hadn't even occurred to me that JW - either as himself or as any of the characters he's played - could pass as interracial. I did, however, think it was interesting that @moonstrike brought it up, so I just sort of filed it away in the back of my mind. I wasn't necessarily planning on doing anything with this, but...I guess it was just one of those ideas where once you see it, it's so interesting that you can't forget it?

 

Anyway, I should probably explain the whole story, or the conclusion I'm trying to get to won't make much sense. So, yes, I will come back to JW - but it will be a while, so please just bear with me.  

 

What happened soon after that conversation I just quoted was that I was just browsing around on my Pinterest feed - not looking for JW pics, just fooling around in general - and I came across some rather interesting photos from a children's formal clothing brand in Japan:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Point is: these kids, even if they didn't actually look like him, still somehow reminded me of mini-Cha Yoo Jin in "Nae Il's Cantabile":

 

Spoiler

 

And, originally, several days ago, that's as far as this ever got. So I just set the photos from that clothing brand aside for future reference - just in case I ever want to, say, write about Cha Yoo Jin as a child and need a visual reference.

 

But here's the thing about Pinterest: whenever you open up one picture, a ton of different suggested pictures appear beneath it. It's the website's way of saying, "If you liked the picture you're looking at now, you might like these, too."

 

And for those Japanese photos I'd saved, besides additional pictures from other Japanese kids' clothing brands, the big thing that started showing up in that recommendations section was pictures of these two boys, who were half-Korean, half-white.

 

(I'll include names where I found them, because credit should go where credit's due)

 

Spoiler

Daniel Hyunoo Lachapelle

 

 

 

 

Dennis Kane 

 

 

 

And, well, when I looked at these photos alongside the image I'd already shared of the younger Cha Yoo Jin, I noticed that there was some resemblance. Maybe not a lot, but the same features from the interracial kids that made them look, well, mixed were features I noticed in the younger Cha Yoo Jin as well.

 

More importantly for our purposes - I started seeing it in the adult Cha Yoo Jin (i.e. once he's played by JW) as well.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't get this same sense from any of the other characters JW's played, and it took me a while to realize why. Remember how we'd observed several times that, for JW, things like camera angle, lighting, makeup, etc., can lead to drastic changes in his appearance? Well, I noticed that the same things that made Cha Yoo Jin look different from the other characters I've seen JW play (i.e. sharper and more angular features - especially his profile - as a result of hairstyle and makeup; fairer skin because of his extreme "don't get tanned" tactics prior to filming) were also features that could make him pass as interracial.

 

Let me be clear: I don't think Cha Yoo Jin actually is mixed. His parents are who they are, so there's not a whole ton I can do on that unless I want to get into some serious makjang-level birth secret territory, and I don't. However, it would be fun to include some sort of reference to this in a "You're Korean? But you don't look Korean..." "You mean you're not actually Austrian? Not even half?" sort of way.

 

I don't know - this is just at a very experimental "new idea" stage. So thanks so much for putting up with my stream-of-consciousness, trying-to-process-this-idea-by-talking-about-it rambling  

 

And, yes: please feel free to let me know if it's just me or if any of you are seeing it as well.

[moonstrike]

On 3/2/2018 at 1:36 AM, kittyna said:

Soompi sometimes gets slow to load when we're getting close to the maximum number of posts on one page (i.e. another new page will be starting up soon). This is especially the case when there are a lot of pictures to load, as is usually the case here.

Ooo... I noticed that. But it still annoying. Especially when I have so much interest to say, and this soompi will lagging so long. So it makes me forget what I want to say. I want soompi quickly fix this. 

 

So because I can't say much word this time. Since the loading is soooo long, I will just Give this happy news again to all my friends here.

 

HAPPY NEWS TO ALL MY FRIENDS!!! JOO WON IS SHOWING IN ARMY MAGAZINE. I'M SO PROUD OF HIM!!! BECAUSE FIRST, HE DID A TOUCHING AND AMAZING INTERVIEW. I SAID TOUCHING BECAUSE AS ALWAYS, HE SHOW HIS SINCERITY IN EVERY QUESTION HE ANSWER. AND I SAID AMAZING BECAUSE THIS INTERVIEW IS SHOWING HIS HARDWORKING AS AN ASSISTANT INSTRUCTURE. ITS ALSO SHOWING HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT ASSISTANT INSTRUCTURE AND WHAT KIND OF INSTRUCTURE HE IS. SECOND, HE GETS ONE SEGMENT OR MORE LIKE ONE PAGE ABOUT HIM IN THAT MAGAZINE. THEY ALSO INCLUDE HIS DASHING PHOTOS. OOOHHH.... I LOVE THIS! AND THIRD, STARING IN MAGAZINE MEANS THAT HE IS DOING AN AMAZING JOB IN THERE. SOMETHING THAT WE WILL PROUD OF. IT SHOWS THAT HE IS REALLY DOING HIS BEST THERE. HE IS WORKING HARD TO MAKE EVERYONE, HIS PARENT, HIS FANS PROUD OF HIM.

 

he always outstanding in whatever he is doing. I understand almost half of the interview. what makes me proud is this :"in our head, the image of assistant instructure is cold and stiff to make the troops feel goosebumps (the mean is almost like this, i can't think of other word that fit) but Joo won is different. His image is like a warm brother rather than a cold boss. This get acknowledge by all the troops."

 

Joo won also share some of his troops personality. Its shows that he cared and watch his troops. He said that he talk with them everytime the troops has problems. 

 

More translate soon!

 

Bonus!!!

 

This looks so cool. Looks like the other solder is giving him a sign of respect(?). And joo won is receive that with cool and amazing pose.

 

 

[kittyna]

27 minutes ago, moonstrike said:

Ooo... I noticed that. But it still annoying. Especially when I have so much interest to say, and this soompi will lagging so long. So it makes me forget what I want to say. I want soompi quickly fix this. 

 

So because I can't say much word this time. Since the loading is soooo long, I will just Give this happy news again to all my friends here.

 

Then I suppose I should give you some time to backtrack on stuff and reply in your own time  

 

28 minutes ago, moonstrike said:

HAPPY NEWS TO ALL MY FRIENDS!!! JOO WON IS SHOWING IN ARMY MAGAZINE. I'M SO PROUD OF HIM!!! BECAUSE FIRST, HE DID A TOUCHING AND AMAZING INTERVIEW. I SAID TOUCHING BECAUSE AS ALWAYS, HE SHOW HIS SINCERITY IN EVERY QUESTION HE ANSWER. AND I SAID AMAZING BECAUSE THIS INTERVIEW IS SHOWING HIS HARDWORKING AS AN ASSISTANT INSTRUCTURE. ITS ALSO SHOWING HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT ASSISTANT INSTRUCTURE AND WHAT KIND OF INSTRUCTURE HE IS. SECOND, HE GETS ONE SEGMENT OR MORE LIKE ONE PAGE ABOUT HIM IN THAT MAGAZINE. THEY ALSO INCLUDE HIS DASHING PHOTOS. OOOHHH.... I LOVE THIS!

 

That's awesome - and the sort of news I like to see. Thanks for sharing  

 

28 minutes ago, moonstrike said:

he always outstanding in whatever he is doing. I understand almost half of the interview. what makes me proud is this :"in our head, the image of assistant instructure is cold and stiff to make the troops feel goosebumps (the mean is almost like this, i can't think of other word that fit) but Joo won is different. His image is like a warm brother rather than a cold boss. This get acknowledge by all the troops."

 

Joo won also share some of his troops personality. Its shows that he cared and watch his troops. He said that he talk with them everytime the troops has problems. 

 

Aw...I love that bit. I think that teachers, instructors, leaders, etc. really need to genuinely care for those who are under them. It's not just a job, and it's not just about holding a position of authority or power. So I love that JW's really taking the human side of his role so seriously as well  

 

lol - We know he can be a serious/scary sunbae, especially just by example (i.e. people see how he's doing and feel bad for finding things difficult or tough when he's hanging in there). But I like that he's also the warmhearted sort that younger soldiers and recruits can feel like they can just talk to if they need help or advice.

 

And now for pics! This time, I'm focusing especially on what I suppose could be called cinematography - it's a term used in the film industry to refer to the artistic or aesthetic side of film-making. So things like how shots are composed, the use of colour and light, etc.

 

What I think is interesting about these shots is how JW might actually be a rather small presence in them, but the image as a general whole looks really beautiful.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Can I just say really quickly that "Nae Il's Cantabile" was particularly awesome for this?

 

 

 

And moving on to some more...

 

 

 

 

 

This shot from "Level 7 Civil Servant" is another good example: so simple, but really well-composed

 

 

A good example from "Gaksital" - Love the use of composition and colour here

 

 

 

Finally, one last more indirectly related quickie before I go.

 

This weekend is the Academy Awards (a.k.a. the Oscars), which is Hollywood's biggest awards show for films from around the world, with categories for everything from acting to direction/production to technical behind-the-scenes stuff (e.g. sound, costumes, makeup, etc.).

 

Not that JW's actually involved in any way this time around - although Korean films can apply for the "Best Foreign Language Film" category - but I saw this video this morning that was talking about a style of acting known as method acting that has become very well-received among film critics and that tends to draw in lots of awards.

 

And while I don't know enough about acting styles and techniques in general to know whether JW actually fully uses method acting, I do see some similarities between this and his style. You may also recognize at least one of the actors discussed (Leonardo DiCaprio) as being one whom JW likes and looks up to  

 

 

[moonstrike]

On 3/3/2018 at 1:19 AM, kittyna said:

Aw...I love that bit. I think that teachers, instructors, leaders, etc. really need to genuinely care for those who are under them. It's not just a job, and it's not just about holding a position of authority or power. So I love that JW's really taking the human side of his role so seriously as well  

Awww.... Now my image of him being stiff is almost gone. Because knowing that he became a brother for the troops rather than what I see in every "real man" video makes me melt and what I imagine is he take good care of the troops without making them feel terrified but makes them respect him without fear. Like a little brother that obey all his orders because they love and respect him. Joo won might be using his stiff and cold feature in some occasion but not everytime. He prefer using his warm and gentle side of him to educate the troops. And that's why all soldiers and troops loves him.

 

I also love that he gives advise and talk with troop that has problems. I remember that there are many soldier write a comment that say joo won helps him and take good care of him. I also remember the photo where all his soldier friends hugs him in cold winter. He is exactly in the middle.

 

On 3/3/2018 at 1:19 AM, kittyna said:

lol - We know he can be a serious/scary sunbae, especially just by example (i.e. people see how he's doing and feel bad for finding things difficult or tough when he's hanging in there). But I like that he's also the warmhearted sort that younger soldiers and recruits can feel like they can just talk to if they need help or advice.

Hahaha... i remember that UEE said Joo won is scary in the university. Joo won said that he doesn't like people that break rules or seeing people that do something that shouldn't be done. Especially when he sees his hoobae does that. So when he saw that, he will immediately take action and punish his hobbae that break rules. UEE said first she was so scared of joo won but seeing Joo won on set makes her not scared of him anymore. Instead, after she saw that joo won is so cute and always do aegyo makes her adore him.

 

NEW PIC FROM ARMY FESTIVAL! SHE WAS THE ONE THAT SELL BARBEQUE IN THE FESTIVAL. JOO WON, IM SHI WAN, AND RYEO WOOK BOUGHT HER BARBECUE. SHE TOOK PICTURE WITH JOO WON AND LEE JANG WOO. SHE SAID ALL OF THEM IS SO HANDSOME. SO ENVY...

 

 

Joo won's uniform. He looks good in all of it. 

 

 

Did you found him? I can't tell who is Joo won. I zoomed in but it makes the picture blur.

 

Ooohhh... I miss 1N2D maknae. I miss the cool but cute guy that always do his best everytime. Especially if food is the prize. Hehehe..

 

By the way, I found this fanfic on the internet. Its so sad, makes my heart hurts... Imagining him feeling this and being treated like this.

This is the link:

https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1197759/abandoned-again-joowon-kdrama-kdramafanfic-naeilscantabile

 

Next part:

https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1197759/1/abandoned-again-joowon-kdrama-kdramafanfic-naeilscantabile

 

Now pics!!!

 

How joo won do his signature. I love his signature. Its so unique. I see that his signature is like a route of a planet in space. Its simple and beautiful.

 

 

I love this scene. Makes me hope that Shi on and Cha yoon seo can be happy like other couples. They are like dream couples in this scene. Love is in the air. I also loe their kiss scene. Its pure and innocent. Showing how much they love each other with pure way.

 

Where is all charisma that bridal mask has? Why I see Park shi on inside Lee kang to? He is so cute...

 

So true!!!

 

You are right. I miss him a little too much.

 

[kittyna]

2 hours ago, moonstrike said:

Awww.... Now my image of him being stiff is almost gone. Because knowing that he became a brother for the troops rather than what I see in every "real man" video makes me melt and what I imagine is he take good care of the troops without making them feel terrified but makes them respect him without fear. Like a little brother than respect and love their older brother and obey all his orders. Joo won might be using his stiff and cold feature in some occasion but not everytime. 

 

I also love that he gives advise and talk with troop that has problems. I remember that there are many soldier write a comment that say joo won helps him and take good care of him. I also remember the photo where all his soldier friends hugs him in cold winter. He is exactly in the middle

 

I think there's no need for JW to be stone-faced if the soldiers are behaving well - and he does seem to be someone who would use a more positive style of instruction than a negative one (i.e. preferring to praise someone when they do well and stay silent when they do poorly, rather than stay silent when they do well but sharply criticize them when they do bad).

 

I still remember that time someone said that JW showed him how to put on his cap, saying, "Ya, let Hyung help you with that" or something along those lines. So I knew pretty early on what sort of style JW would adopt with the recruits.  

 

I also think that if JW is the sort of person who is concerned for his recruits as people and encourages them to talk to him about any problems or concerns they might have, that that is a really good quality to have as a teacher. Because teachers don't just teach knowledge; they are influencing their students. So if JW's doing that even as an army instructor, I can imagine what he would be like in the future if, as he'd said before, he achieves his dream of teaching drama in university.  

 

2 hours ago, moonstrike said:

Hahaha... i remember that UEE said Joo won is scary in the university. Joo won said that he doesn't like people that break rules or seeing people that do something that shouldn't be done. Especially when he sees his hoobae does that. So when he saw that, he will immediately take action and punish his hobbae that break rules. UEE said first she was so scared of joo won but seeing Joo won on set makes her not scared of him anymore. Instead, after she saw that joo won is so cute and always do aegyo makes her adore him.

 

Again - he only needs to be mean when his hoobaes break the rules  Otherwise, I think he would be a very kind and caring sunbae: one who prefers to be loved rather than feared (I'm flipping the popular phrase from Machiavelli, which said "It is better to be feared than loved", in his book about political leadership).

 

2 hours ago, moonstrike said:

Joo won's uniform. He looks good in all of it. 

 

Hm...does anyone know if the different colour on the rope means anything? Because when I saw it, I at first wondered if JW had been promoted from Private First Class to Corporal - but he's still got just the two bars on the insignia in the front, so that can' be it. Or is it something that changes with formality, where no rope is the most informal, then a white one, then a gold one (or the other way around, since he had the white one when meeting the chairman of the national assembly)?

 

I can't read Japanese, so if it said in the Instagram post already, sorry for my ignorance!

 

2 hours ago, moonstrike said:

By the way, I found this fanfic on the internet. Its so sad, makes my heart hurts... Imagining him feeling this and being treated like this.

This is the link:

https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1197759/abandoned-again-joowon-kdrama-kdramafanfic-naeilscantabile

 

Next part:

https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1197759/1/abandoned-again-joowon-kdrama-kdramafanfic-naeilscantabile

 

Oh, I remember this story! It was one of the first ones I read when you recommended the Asian Fanfics site to me, @moonstrike. And I remember really liking it, too.

 

It's funny, though, coming back to read it again. Because the first time I read it, I hadn't started writing fanfics of my own yet. But now...there's something a little bit surreal about it all.

 

See, the thing about fanfiction, or any other sort of derivative work (fanart, fanmade videos, etc.), is that every person who makes these things uses the same original story and characters, but fills them in and fleshes them out in completely different ways. So, as I'm reading the story now, I can see how this author's version of Cha Yoo Jin and my version of him have the same root - in the original character from the drama - but I can also see how this author and I went in different directions. We choose to emphasize different personality traits and different feelings; we have different backstories for him; we even have Cha Yoo Jin coping with sadness in different ways (although, I will admit, there is going to be a bar/drinking scene in the next installment of "Seolleim in Salzburg", so maybe not so different after all? )

 

Don't get me wrong: it's not a matter of better or worse. It's just different, and I, for one, am always curious to see how other people interpret these characters differently from me.  

 

The classical music nerd in me, though, did pick up one mistake in that story: unless one is conducting from piano, it's impossible to be both on the conductor's podium and playing the keyboard part of a piece at the same time, and highly unlikely for the same person to take on both roles in two different pieces in the same performance. So that performance bit felt like some odd merger between the Grieg concerto (where Cha Yoo Jin was the pianist and Stresemann the conductor) and the Rachmaninoff concerto (where Cha Yoo Jin was conducting and Sohn Su Ji was the pianist).

 

But that's no big deal, because that's not really the point of either the story or that scene  

 

2 hours ago, moonstrike said:

How joo won do his signature. I love his signature. Its so unique. I see that his signature is like a route of a planet in space. Its simple and beautiful.

 

Thanks for sharing! I was wondering what it would like being formed, too.

 

But I'm so jealous of his nice handwriting now....  

 

2 hours ago, moonstrike said:

I love this scene. Makes me hope that Shi on and Cha yoon seo can be happy like other couples. They are like dream couples in this scene. Love is in the air. I also loe their kiss scene. Its pure and innocent. Showing how much they love each other with pure way.

 

I always think this scene is both one of the sweetest and one of the saddest moments in the whole drama. Because we can see here what Park Si On wants to be able to do with Cha Yoon Seo. I love that it's so sweet and innocent - there's no dirty thoughts here, he just wants to do normal things like playing basketball or eating ice cream or sharing a very pure and childlike kiss. But at the same time, in the moment that this scene appears, we know that Park Si On thinks it's impossible, and that just hurts so much: seeing how much the things we take for granted are things he believes are beyond his reach.

 

So the payoff in the end, when Park Si On really does end up dating Cha Yoon Seo...that was just so awesome  

 

(And, once again, just to confirm: I will be doing a White Day fic featuring these two, so stay tuned!)

 

2 hours ago, moonstrike said:

You are right. I miss him a little too much

 

lol - We all know we're being insane, but at the same time, we can't help it.

 

I just found this earlier today, and although it's not directly related to JW, I imagine that the fan who shared it was thinking of him - as I am now.

 

 

Because I know that, for me, it's not about lust. It's not about sexual attraction, "moaty thoughts", or anything like that. Yes, I do find JW handsome and attractive in his own way, but the connection I feel is different from that. "Lust" can't describe it; "Like"...maybe. But sometimes, I think even "Love" is too shallow a term to use for what I'm feeling.

 

(Maybe the English language needs a word that goes beyond romantic love still....because I'd need a word like that to describe what I feel.)

 

And now for pics!

 

Spoiler

One of the kiss scenes from "Level 7 Civil Servant" - Not many people talk about this drama, it seems. But the person who shared this on Instagram is a fan  

 

 

 

Nice magazine pic!

 

 

 

lol - I remember this moment! JW was talking about how the topknot hairstyle used in sageuk would look weird if the actor's ears stuck out too much. And since he was saying his own ears weren't like that, he folded his forward to demonstrate  

 

 

The gym scene from "Life Log" - I doubt I was the only one who was really impressed at his pull-ups at the end there

 

 

JW with a bouquet gift

 

 

lol - It's Cha Yoo Jin emojis!

 

 

Did I share this shot already...? I don't remember. But just in case I haven't, I think it looks really cool

 

 

Counting down the days to when I finish watching "Goddess of Fire" and pick up "Yong Pal"!

 

 

I always love it when JW gives fans this look, as you already know

 

 

A few more pics from "Life Log"

 

 

 

Finally, just want to end things off with a video, because I think it's so perfect for JW and his spirit.

 

The video predates his winning the Daesang in 2015, but the song has the same tone as his acceptance speech: that moment when JW realized that all the hardship paid off and that he had done the right thing.

 

 

[kittyna]

Popping by quickly with another goody for you guys: Preview #3 of my current "Gaksital" fic!

 

To be honest, there's no real chance for spoilers with this story, because it's just retelling events from the drama from Shunji's point of view. But, what I do want to keep at least somewhat of a surprise isn't so much what happens, but how I tell it  

 

Anyway, here's another passage for you guys to whet your appetites for what's to come.

 

Spoiler

Just then, in the back of his mind, Shunji heard the metallic screech of the rings sliding along the rod above his head as someone pulled the curtain back. He did not move, however, until he felt a warm hand come firmly down on his shoulder.

 

“I know this is hard for you, Kimura-sensei,” a man’s voice said from somewhere behind him. “But we must go; we have delayed enough as it is.”

 

Nodding slowly, brushing the tears from his eyes with both hands, Shunji scooted back and got up on his feet, clearing the way for the orderlies. Silently, his feet rooted to the floor, his eyes unable to look away, he watched them pick up Kenji’s body from the bed and place it onto the gurney. Then, joining them at one corner, he followed as they wheeled his brother out of the hospital room and into the hallway.

 

He would follow them to the morgue.

 

He had still not finished his goodbye.

 

Making his way down the corridor with the others, Shunji’s gaze flitted back and forth between where the sheet covered Kenji’s face and the way up ahead. And it was at one of those points when he glanced up that he made out the figure of a patient stumbling unsteadily out of one of the rooms in the emergency ward.

 

Blinking back his tears, Shunji narrowed his eyes and squinted as he tried to bring the newcomer into focus. Something about his height, his build, the way he stood looked strangely familiar….

 

Eyes widening in recognition, he left his place by the gurney and dashed on ahead.

 

“Kang To! What happened? Are you all right?”

 

It seemed to take Kang To a moment to recognize him. And no wonder. Shunji could see just how pale his friend was, how much he was swaying on his feet.

 

“Where were you? Did Gaksital attack you, too? Is that why you’re here like this?”

 

But Kang To didn’t seem to hear him. Instead, he was looking beyond Shunji, staring with haunted eyes at the covered gurney.

 

“I know. It’s hard for me to believe it, too,” Shunji murmured, nodding heavily as his eyes followed his friend’s. “It was Gaksital. He broke into the police station and he…he…he killed Kenji.

 

“But Kang To, I don’t understand. They said you were there. They said that you shot Gaksital last night. So what are you doing – what was he doing – how does this make any sense?!”

 

Somewhere, deep in the back of his mind, Shunji knew he was being a fool with all of his questions, that Kang To was in no physical condition to respond. But he was not asking to get answers. He was asking simply because Lee Kang To was the only person in the entire world to whom he could pour out his heart, and say what he had been holding in since this entire incident started.

 

Kang To was the one who had first told him about the legend.

 

Kang To was the only one who wouldn’t think him mad now.

 

So he was not surprised when Kang To did not answer. Indeed, nor had Shunji expected him to.

 

Yet he was still caught off guard when the blood suddenly drained from Kang To’s face and he fainted dead away on the ground, so abruptly that Shunji could not even step in in time to catch him.

 

In an instant, he was down on his knees, gathering his friend’s limp body up in his arms.

 

“Kang To,” he cried, lightly smacking his cheek in attempts to wake him. “Kang To! Can you hear me?” Getting no response, he jerked his head up, looking frantically from side to side until his eyes met the two orderlies’.

 

“Why the hell are you two just standing there?” he screamed. “Get a doctor!”

 

[kittyna]

Looks quiet here again today - so I'll just drop some pics and go.

 

This time, the focus will be on group/partner pics

 

Spoiler

JW with Jin Se Yeon for Edwin

 

 

 

 

JW with UEE for Cantata Coffee

 

 

Love this pop-up cafe shot!

 

 

JW with Kim Ah Joong MC-ing at the 51st Baeksang Awards - The first shot is a rehearsal photo, and the second is from the red carpet

 

 

 

JW with Kim Young Kwang for GGIO2

 

 

These next two are not group photos in the strictest sense, but show JW with others in some sort of collage:

 

 

 

 

[moonstrike]

On 3/4/2018 at 12:44 AM, kittyna said:

I think there's no need for JW to be stone-faced if the soldiers are behaving well - and he does seem to be someone who would use a more positive style of instruction than a negative one (i.e. preferring to praise someone when they do well and stay silent when they do poorly, rather than stay silent when they do well but sharply criticize them when they do bad)

Yeah... he prefer using his gentle and warm side to educate the troops. Without making them scared with cold aura that i often see in real man video. But I've seen that there are some occasion that needs him to use his stiff and cold feature in front of the troops. But beside that, he might be using his everyday feature, the warm brother that lead his dongsaeng. 

 

I remember read comment that the troop wrote in DC Gallery that said Joo won is a angel assistant instructure in the camp. For your Information, In every camp, the troops gives all assistant instructure a nickname based on how they teach or lead the troops. They also gives nickname by their personality. I was so happy and giggling while read that comment. It means that Joo won is acknowledged by all troops as a nice person and also a nice assistant instructure that everyone respect. And not as a stiff and cold assistant instructure that everyone scared. 

 

On 3/4/2018 at 12:44 AM, kittyna said:

I still remember that time someone said that JW showed him how to put on his cap, saying, "Ya, let Hyung help you with that" or something along those lines. So I knew pretty early on what sort of style JW would adopt with the recruits.  

That is one of many momments that the troops share with outside world, I mean us. I believe there are so many precious momments that we don't know but will be revealed once Joo won comeback to entertainment world. He might be tell his story in reality show or entertainment weekly. As we know that he loves to tell and share his experience. And going to military is one of his precious momments in his life. And I will be happy to listen to his story. 

 

On 3/4/2018 at 12:44 AM, kittyna said:

I also think that if JW is the sort of person who is concerned for his recruits as people and encourages them to talk to him about any problems or concerns they might have, that that is a really good quality to have as a teacher. Because teachers don't just teach knowledge; they are influencing their students. So if JW's doing that even as an army instructor, I can imagine what he would be like in the future if, as he'd said before, he achieves his dream of teaching drama in university.

Aww... I remember that he said he wants to be like his hyung in bridal mask, Shin Hyun Joon. Teaching drama at university. His dream is very noble . 

[moonstrike]

On 3/4/2018 at 12:44 AM, kittyna said:

Hm...does anyone know if the different colour on the rope means anything? Because when I saw it, I at first wondered if JW had been promoted from Private First Class to Corporal - but he's still got just the two bars on the insignia in the front, so that can' be it. Or is it something that changes with formality, where no rope is the most informal, then a white one, then a gold one (or the other way around, since he had the white one when meeting the chairman of the national assembly)?

I don't know either. There's fan that searching what's the meaning behind those clothes. But seems like they still can't find it. 

 

All I know is he looks handsome and manly wearing that army clothes. Especially when he wear all the attributes and lead the troops with high spirit.

 

On 3/4/2018 at 12:44 AM, kittyna said:

It's funny, though, coming back to read it again. Because the first time I read it, I hadn't started writing fanfics of my own yet. But now...there's something a little bit surreal about it all.

Yeah... although we already read the story and know how the story will end. But its fun and interesting to read it again and imagine the character (Joo won) do their action inside our head. 

 

Sometimes I read again the stories that I already read and imagine their story inside my head when I'm boring. 

 

On 3/4/2018 at 12:44 AM, kittyna said:

Thanks for sharing! I was wondering what it would like being formed, too.

 

But I'm so jealous of his nice handwriting now....  

Hahaha.... yeah. I'm jealous too. I can recognize his signature and his handwriting if you put his signature and handwriting in a pile of papers containing other people's writing because his signature is so unique and well-formed. it is so beautiful. Sometimes I compare his signature with other celebrities but I still prefer his signature. I've seen a slightly chaotic signature. And I do not know what the signature means. 

 

 

On 3/4/2018 at 12:44 AM, kittyna said:

 

I always think this scene is both one of the sweetest and one of the saddest moments in the whole drama. Because we can see here what Park Si On wants to be able to do with Cha Yoon Seo. I love that it's so sweet and innocent - there's no dirty thoughts here, he just wants to do normal things like playing basketball or eating ice cream or sharing a very pure and childlike kiss. But at the same time, in the moment that this scene appears, we know that Park Si On thinks it's impossible, and that just hurts so much: seeing how much the things we take for granted are things he believes are beyond his reach.

Yeahh... while the scene is being played, I know that its not real and its impossible. They never can do this in real life. That is the sad part. But at least we can see their life if Shi On is a normal person. They can do anything that all couples can do. And the highlight is when they kiss. I've heard that many people like that childlike dream kiss. Its so sweet and romantic.

 

In episode 20, we can see one more kiss again but this time is more like surprise kiss. The culprit is none other than Shi On. This kiss is also very sweet and make us giggles and surprised too, like cha yoon seo. Its like first step in their relationship. So pure and innocent. 

 

On 3/4/2018 at 12:44 AM, kittyna said:

And, once again, just to confirm: I will be doing a White Day fic featuring these two, so stay tuned!)

Woo... can't wait. As I know that white day is like valentine, right? So can I expect some cute romance in it? 

 

On 3/4/2018 at 12:44 AM, kittyna said:

Because I know that, for me, it's not about lust. It's not about sexual attraction, "moaty thoughts", or anything like that. Yes, I do find JW handsome and attractive in his own way, but the connection I feel is different from that. "Lust" can't describe it; "Like"...maybe. But sometimes, I think even "Love" is too shallow a term to use for what I'm feeling.

 

(Maybe the English language needs a word that goes beyond romantic love still....because I'd need a word like that to describe what I feel.)

Owh... your words is exactly describing what i feel now. I can't describe my feelings so well but this is right on the target.

 

On 3/4/2018 at 12:44 AM, kittyna said:

One of the kiss scenes from "Level 7 Civil Servant" - Not many people talk about this drama, it seems. But the person who shared this on Instagram is a fan  

Actually, I've never been watching this drama until now because I can't stand the female lead. I just can't. Even though I'm Joo won's fan, but I still can't watch this drama because of the female lead. Sometimes, I will watch the clip because I want to see Joo won's aegyo. He do a lot of cute and funny things in that drama. I love Joo won's acting in that drama but when the female lead appear, I don't know... I think that they are not match. Many comments said that the female lead is too much older than joo won and makes them not match. They still can feel the age gap between him and the female lead. 

 

I watch all his drama. From Baker King kim tak gu until My sassy Girl. Except 7 grade civil servant. I just watch joo won's part in that drama. 

 

[kittyna]

The new fic's ready, so I'll quickly do the replies/pics first, then come back later to post that.  

 

7 hours ago, moonstrike said:

I remember read comment that the troop wrote in DC Gallery that said Joo won is a angel assistant instructure in the camp. For your Information, In every camp, the troops gives all assistant instructure a nickname based on how they teach or lead the troops. They also gives nickname by their personality. I was so happy and giggling while read that comment. It means that Joo won is acknowledged by all troops as a nice person and also a nice assistant instructure that everyone respect. And not as a stiff and cold assistant instructure that everyone scared. 

 

Aw..."Angel Assistant Instructor" - I like the sound of that  

 

7 hours ago, moonstrike said:

But I've seen that there are some occasion that needs him to use his stiff and cold feature in front of the troops. But beside that, he might be using his everyday feature, the warm brother that lead his dongsaeng. 

 

Of course, angels can be quite strict beings as well; they have to be if they are the servants of God. So perhaps that nickname actually reveals a bit more about JW's style than originally intended  

 

3 hours ago, moonstrike said:

Yeah... although we already read the story and know how the story will end. But its fun and interesting to read it again and imagine the character (Joo won) do their action inside our head. 

 

Sometimes I read again the stories that I already read and imagine their story inside my head when I'm boring.

 

Same. I'll re-read favourite fanfics, and I definitely stick around to re-read some of my own as I continue to work on new ones. It's one of the ways I have to make sure that I stay consistent between stories, especially ones that are meant to be taken as a set (like the "Seolleim in Salzburg" series or my current series of "Gaksital" fics).

 

The interesting thing, though, for me is that by this point, I have actually detached JW from the characters he's played in my head by this point. As I write and as I continue to flesh out characters like Lee Kang To or Park Si On or Cha Yoo Jin...I'm starting to see them as completely separate entities from JW himself. On the one hand, it makes sense: since they are fictional characters with personalities of their own that may not necessarily reflect JW's. But on the other hand, it feels a little weird to be so conscious of the fact, like I am now.

 

So, for instance, in one sense, I am imagining JW performing the characters' actions in my head, since he was the actor who played them. But in reality, I'm imagining the characters themselves, not JW - they have his face, his body, and his voice, but that's it.

 

Okay, the main exception would be Park Si On, since he and JW really are very much alike. But Lee Kang To and Cha Yoo Jin...definitely separated now from the vision of JW I have in my head.  

 

3 hours ago, moonstrike said:

Hahaha.... yeah. I'm jealous too. I can recognize his signature and his handwriting if you put his signature and handwriting in a pile of papers containing other people's writing because his signature is so unique and well-formed. it is so beautiful. Sometimes I compare his signature with other celebrities but I still prefer his signature. I've seen a slightly chaotic signature. And I do not know what the signature means. 

 

Sometimes, when I see a celebrity's autograph, I like to try to make out what it is that they wrote: can I see their name in there, or do they use something else?

 

It's hard, though, because they all have to be so distinctive and stylized, and there are only so many Korean characters to go around  

 

So, for instance, I could make out some of the other autographs that have made it into pictures I've posted recently (e.g. Shim Eun Kyung's, Park Bo Gum's, and Yu Hae Jin's), but some others might be completely lost on me.

 

3 hours ago, moonstrike said:

Yeahh... while the scene is being played, I know that its not real and its impossible. They never can do this in real life. That is the sad part. But at least we can see their life if Shi On is a normal person. They can do anything that all couples can do. And the highlight is when they kiss. I've heard that many people like that childlike dream kiss. Its so sweet and romantic.

 

In episode 20, we can see one more kiss again but this time is more like surprise kiss. The culprit is none other than Shi On. This kiss is also very sweet and make us giggles and surprised too, like cha yoon seo. Its like first step in their relationship. So pure and innocent. 

 

Both kisses - the imagined one and the real one - were so sweet. They really fit with Park Si On's personality, I think  

 

And, yes, that real kiss was just a first step. I'm not sure how I would write a kiss scene between Park Si On and Cha Yoon Seo, though - so I can't guarantee that I will have one in the White Day fic. But I do already have something cute and fluffy planned, so I think you'll like it, kiss or no kiss  

 

3 hours ago, moonstrike said:

Woo... can't wait. As I know that white day is like valentine, right? So can I expect some cute romance in it? 

 

 

Yeah. In short: Valentine's Day in Korea is when girls give guys (usually their boyfriend or spouse, but now sometimes friends as well) chocolates, and White Day is when the guys return the favour.

 

I think it used to be that that was a way a girl could reveal her feelings to her crush without feeling embarrassed, since she would find out the guy's response by the size of the gift he gives to her on White Day (if it's noticeably smaller or plainer than hers, he just wants to be friends; if it's the same or even bigger, then he's interested in dating her). But again, now that it's sort of done between girls and guys more generally, I'm not sure on all the rules about the gift-giving anymore.

 

All I know, though, is what I think Park Si On might give to Cha Yoon Seo - I imagine that that's enough  

 

3 hours ago, moonstrike said:

Owh... your words is exactly describing what i feel now. I can't describe my feelings so well but this is right on the target.

 

I need a word that describes a pure love: one that's not sexually driven, one where I'm not looking at a guy and wanting him as a boyfriend. It's simply a feeling of...wanting the best for him with all my heart. Always wanting what is best for him and what will make him happiest in the long run.

 

lol - I guess my feelings would be the sort that the typical second male lead has for the first female lead  Where it's not about whether he could get the girl, but only that she is safe and happy and stays true to the goodness inside of her.

 

4 hours ago, moonstrike said:

Actually, I've never been watching this drama until now because I can't stand the female lead. I just can't. Even though I'm Joo won's fan, but I still can't watch this drama because of the female lead. Sometimes, I will watch the clip because I want to see Joo won's aegyo. He do a lot of cute and funny things in that drama. But beside that, I'm not watching it. I love Joo won's acting in that drama but when the female lead appear, I don't know... I think that they are not match. Maybe I will watch it if they change the female lead.

I watch all his drama. From Baker King kim tak gu until My sassy Girl. Except 7 grade civil servant. I just watch joo won's part in that drama. 

 

Well, no one said that JW's fans have to like everything he's done  And chemistry between the main leads is something that can be so subjective: some viewers think it's there, others don't. And there's nothing wrong with being one of those who doesn't see it.

 

Personally, I didn't see all that much chemistry between the characters as they were written. They were cute and funny to watch, but that was about it.

 

However, I did see a little bit more in terms of connection between JW and Choi Kang Hee themselves. Because, let's be honest, seeing him follow her around like a little puppy on 1N2D was just adorable. But I can also see why nothing ultimately came of that and how they just stayed friends. So...I acknowledge and respect the feelings that it seemed JW did have for CKH at the time they were working together on the drama, but I'm not someone who would ship them after the fact.

 

I'll come back around later (after the One Hour rule) to share the fic. But for now, here are today's pics!

 

Spoiler

This is an interesting idea for a composition - taking a photo through a wineglass

 

 

The Angel showing his sterner side

 

 

Okay, this jump shot is just hilarious  

 

 

I love the vibe this picture gives off: it's so warm and cozy and inviting

 

 

And here, he just looks really cool in that casual and effortless sort of way

 

 

JW's contagious laugh

 

 

I'm usually not a huge fan of pics coming out too white and overexposed - but this one turned out pretty interesting

 

 

This one is just cute

 

 

Finally: JW performing JYP's "Honey" at the 2016 Thailand Fanmeeting

 

 

 

[moonstrike]

Now pics!!!!

 

This makes me so proud as his fans. To be a fan of a kind and handsome down to earth warm guy. You can see in the comment that everyone is so happy and proud that their man is a kind person in real life. Even though they already know, but its nice to know it again from new people. It means that they already feel the kindness of Joo won.  And it will be more after he enlisted to the army. We already see the proove. Many troops share their precious momments with joo won in the camp.

 

You see the picture after you watch the scene.

 

Spoiler

 

 

This is so cool!

 

Awww... this is so cute and adorable 

 

His waist is so slim. Until now. Wow.

 

 

Edited March 6, 2018 by LyraYoo
please compress under spoiler tag multiple photos , thank you

[moonstrike]

NEW PICTURES!!! THIS IS SHOCKING AND MAKES ME SO HAPPY. THE INTERVIEWER IS REALISING PICTURES OF JOO WON WHEN HE DID THE INTERVIEW. THE INTERVIEWER SAID THAT HE IS SO HANDSOME. AND THE INTERVIEWER ALSO SAID THAT THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO HIS MIND WHEN HE SAW HIM WAS HE IS A REALLY HARDWORKING MAN. 

 

THIS IS THE LINK:

Open this first:

https://m.blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=myjiminstory&logNo=221222427564&proxyReferer=&proxyReferer=

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[kittyna]

Spoiler

 

And now it's time for the new fic!

 

Title: Yōkai

Drama: "Gaksital"

Characters: Kimura Shunji, Lee Kang To

Premise: It was with no small sense of relief that Kimura Shunji read the news of Gaksital's death in the paper. Finally, he thought, Lee Kang To could have some peace from his madness. But then Shunji had his own encounter with Gaksital, and it turned his entire world upside-down. After all, how could a dead man do what he did?

Warnings: Violence; Some Japanese profanity/racial slurs

 

Note: This story picks up from my two earlier "Gaksital" fanfics that were written from Shunji's perspective: The Strange One and Bushidō, and focuses particularly on events from Episodes 6 and 7 from the drama. Although, for the most part, I try to stay true to events from the show, there are a number of plot and character points that are of my own creation, so reading the previous two stories would help this one make more sense.

 

Notes on Language

Although most of the dialogue in "Gaksital" was in Korean, with only a few Japanese words and phrases here and there, I imagine that in "reality", the characters were speaking Japanese for the most part. However, since this is a K-drama forum, I can't expect all the Japanese words/phrases I use in the story to be familiar. So, in advance, here is a brief glossary of terms, in the order in which they appear.

 

Yōkai - A term used to refer to spirits in Japanese mythology (see "Author's Note" for more)

Arigato gozaimasu - Thank-you very much (for a simple "Thank-you", "arigato" is used on its own)

Sensei - Teacher (i.e. "Kimura-sensei" means "Teacher Kimura")

Oniisan - Older brother (Note: Used when speaking to one's older brother)

Kudasai - Please

Otousan - Father (Note: Used when speaking to one's father)

Hai - Yes

Keijō - Japanese name for Seoul during the time of the Occupation (Note: The drama uses its Korean equivalent, Kyeongsung, but I thought it would make more sense for Shunji to use the Japanese version.)

Bushidō - Literally "The way of the warrior"; the set of moral and cultural rules created to guide the Japanese samurai class 

Gomen/Gomenasai - Sorry (Note: "Gomen" is more casual, while "gomenasai" is more formal)

Iie - No

Baka - Idiot (Note: "Baka" is generally lighter in tone, and may even be used jokingly between friends, the same way "Babo" is used in Korean. But if you pay attention to the Japanese dialogue in "Gaksital" itself, it's usually "Bakayarou" - a harsher, more profane version of the term - that is used instead.)

Chōsenjin - A Japanese racial slur used to refer to Koreans

 

One last note on "Chōsenjin" - Because it literally means "person from Joseon", I want to distinguish between when Japanese characters are referring to Koreans in an insulting manner or not. So, in this story, I only the Japanese word directly when it's meant as an insult, and translate it into English (i.e. "Joseon person/boy/girl/etc.) when it's just meant as a descriptor with no racist intent. And, yes, in this story, it's Kang To using "Chōsenjin" as opposed to anyone else - think about what that means  

 

Once again, please do not repost any content from this story on any other website without my permission! If you want to share it, just share the URL - thanks!

 

Spoiler

Yōkai

 

“Did you get them?”

 

“Of course we did, Shunji! I told you that you could trust us,” Tamao said breezily as Kang To, kneeling beside him, carefully took the carved wooden masks out of the canvas bag, laying them out carefully on the tatami in front of him.

 

“We did have to lie for them, though.”

 

“Oh?” Shunji, who had just been on the verge of reaching out to pick up the first mask to take a closer look at it, now peered up in interest at his two friends. Rocking back on his heels, he raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

 

“Go on,” Tamao whispered to Kang To, giving him a nudge in the side for good measure. “You tell him.”

 

Although they had already known each other for a few years, Shunji knew that Kang To still had this shier side to him. He did a good job hiding it as one of the junior officers of the Imperial Police, choosing to present a front of stern and charismatic confidence. But Shunji knew the truth: just how much of that was a bluff, and just how vulnerable Kang To still was underneath the surface.

 

Shunji knew that he was the only person in the entire world around whom Kang To fully let down his guard: not even to his own family would he do that. So it came as no surprise to him now that this one of his two Joseon friends would hesitate a moment longer before speaking.

 

“Remember how the man who made these had said that under no circumstances would he sell them to Japanese collectors?” When Shunji nodded, he continued. “So instead, I told him that I was with –” he grimaced for a moment, as though he had a hard time even forming the words “– the ‘independence movement’ and that I wanted to get the masks for safekeeping.”

 

“Basically,” Tamao cut in, “it’s a good thing that Kang To is still almost unrecognizable without his uniform – for now, anyway.”

 

Shunji almost didn’t hear Tamao’s comment, though, because he was focused instead on the way Kang To’s features had settled into a grim frown. He knew that any talk of the Joseon rebels, those who spoke of and fought for “independence”, was still painful for his friend. It was, after all, the rebellion that had driven Kang To’s older brother, Kang San, to madness: harmless and childlike, but a shadow of the kind and loving protector he had once been. And it was his own resentment towards the rebels for what they had done to his family that had led Kang To to the Imperial Police in the first place.

 

So to not only have to talk about the rebels kindly but masquerade as one of them?

 

Smiling warmly at his friend, Shunji reached across the masks spread out between them and patted one of Kang To’s hands where he was bracing them on his knees. “Arigato gozaimasu – I know this wasn’t easy for you.”

 

Only then did he feel Kang To relax under his touch, as though his Joseon friend only needed his acknowledgement to be able to forgive himself for this show of disloyalty to the empire. However, that did not stop him from murmuring a joking, “The things I do for you,” in response; Kang To being Kang To, he always wanted to have the last word.

 

Now, finally, Shunji could take a closer look at these new pieces of his collection. The masks were simple and rustic in their design, brightly painted, their features carved into exaggerated expressions. He was sure that his students would love these; and as Tamao and Kang To explained what character each one represented, he began brainstorming for a way to include them in his lesson plan: a study comparing Japanese and Joseon forms of drama, perhaps?

 

“And this one,” Tamao said, tapping a finger on one mask in particular, “is the Gaksi – the Bride. So, combined with the Joseon word for ‘mask’ – ‘tal’ – it becomes ‘Gaksital’.”

 

“It’s different from the others, though,” Kang To cut in.

 

“Oh?” Shunji leaned forward in interest. “How so?”

 

“I remember hearing my mother talk about it once: while the Gaksi is a bride for most of the performance, she is not just that. Instead, at the very beginning, she enters standing on the shoulders of another dancer. In that moment, she is not a woman – but the goddess of the land.”

 

~~~~~

 

A goddess?

 

Years had passed since that day when Kang To had first brought the masks to him, but Shunji could not help remembering the incident now.

 

He had dismissed the story at the time, only accepting it for its value as a traditional custom and belief of the Joseon people. But now, looking closely at the mask in the classroom he had put aside for his collection of Joseon artefacts, he wasn’t so sure.

 

A white oval face, its main decoration three spots of red: one on the forehead, one on each cheek.

 

This was just a mask, was it not? A simple object carved out of wood, used in a traditional theatrical dance. Yes, it was meant to represent a goddess, but the person wearing it was still just that, right? A person. A human being, no more powerful than Shunji himself.

 

And yet, why?

 

Shunji had seen and heard it himself.

 

His older brother, Kenji, raving like a lunatic – accusing him, of all people, of being Gaksital.

 

His best friend, Kang To, beating Joseon civilians in a mindless rage, drinking himself into oblivion, laughing hysterically as he declared that he would even be willing to kill the woman he loved, if it meant being able to capture Gaksital and bring him to justice.

 

Such a simple object, worn by what must just be an ordinary man.

 

So why was it driving everyone around him mad?

 

Or maybe it’s not the mask. Maybe the mask had no power in and of itself, and instead, it was the man who wore it who was driving everyone mad.

 

It had to be. Gaksital simply just had to be a man. A man who could live – a man who could die.

 

That was easier to think about than the alternative.

 

So as much as he hated the thought that he could possibly rejoice at someone else’s death, Shunji could not fault himself for the relief that had rushed through him when he had heard the news that Lee Kang To – finally – had succeeded. By shooting Gaksital – by presumably killing Gaksital – his friend had finally put the ghost to rest.

 

But, then, what about Esther?

 

It was the thought of her that made Shunji touch the mask more gently than he would have thought possible under the circumstances.

 

Because, in spite of everything else, Gaksital had saved her life several times already, if what she said was true. And so, no matter what, Shunji was indebted to him for that.

 

“Kimura-sensei!”

 

Shunji turned around, mask still in his hand, just in time to see a little boy, one of his students, open the sliding door and burst into the room. He shot the child a questioning look: wasn’t he supposed to be home by now?

 

“It’s my sister, sensei; she has something to tell you.”

 

The boy hadn’t even finished speaking before a teenaged girl also burst into the room. Shunji recognized her as one of the performers from the Far East Circus, and also the older sister and main guardian for this particular student.

 

“Thank goodness you’re still here, Kimura-sensei,” she gasped, her words coming in short bursts that suggested she had run all the way here from the circus. “Mok Dan – Mok Dan’s in trouble!”

 

Shunji had been able to stay calm thus far, but the girl’s words made him nearly drop the mask in his hands in shock. Hurriedly, he moved to place it back on the shelf, but already, his thoughts were turning to the news.

 

“Is it the hospital?” he asked, his mind flashing to the fact that Esther was still recovering from a gunshot wound. “Has she gotten worse?”

 

The girl shook her head. “It’s the police. The Imperial Police took her!”

 

In a flash, Shunji whirled around to face her. “What? Why? What do they want her for this time?”

 

“I – I don’t know! I just – I just heard it from – from the others.” She glanced up at him, eyes wide and shining with unshed tears. “You – you know people there, right, Kimura-sensei? You can get Mok Dan out, right?”

 

Shunji grasped the girl on the shoulders, holding her firmly in place in attempts to calm her. “I can’t promise anything, but I’ll do my best,” he said, looking earnestly into her eyes. Then, without waiting for a response, he dashed out of the classroom, out of the school building, and retrieved his bicycle from where he had propped it against the front wall.

 

Only as he made his way to the police precinct in Jongno did Shunji allow his calm façade to melt away. After all, it would not have done anyone any good if he were to panic while he was still in the schoolhouse. He was the teacher; he had had to stay calm for his student and the boy’s sister’s sakes.

 

But now Shunji could feel his heart racing in panic as he willed himself to pedal faster, faster, as fast as he possibly could.

 

Just moments before, he had felt relieved for Kang To’s sake that Gaksital was dead.

 

But now, more than anything, for Esther’s sake, he wished that that was not the case.

 

~~~~~

 

Whatever it was that Shunji expected to find as he rushed up the stairs leading up to Kenji’s office on the second floor of the police precinct, it was certainly not this.

 

It started with the sounds.

 

The sound of blows. Of crashing furniture.

 

But no voices. No one shouting orders, or calling for help.

 

And then…a single scream. A single shouted battle cry.

 

And that was when he saw it. The image that Shunji knew would be burned into his mind for the rest of his life.

 

A single police officer falling backwards to the ground. And, just beyond him, Gaksital, his hands covered with blood.

 

Gaksital. Gaksital?

 

Gaksital wasn’t dead?

 

Was he already here to rescue Esther like she’d said he would?

 

But then, whom did…?

 

Shunji’s eyes slowly trailed down to the ground where the fallen officer lay. He was unconscious, the front of his uniform completely covered with blood.

 

The cry burst out of him before his brain could even register what he was seeing:

 

“Oniisan!!!”

 

Seeing Kenji lying there, seeing Gaksital clearly as the culprit, all thought of Esther flew from Shunji’s mind. Instead, before he even realized he was moving, he had run across the room at full speed, jumping up to throw a punch at the man standing in front of him.

 

But Gaksital, too, was fast, raising his hands up well in advance to deflect the blow.

 

Punches wouldn’t work. He needed something better.

 

Groping blindly behind him, never once daring to take his eyes off his opponent, Shunji felt his hand close on a familiar shape: the hilt of a katana. Grabbing it and drawing it in a flash, he dashed forward again.

 

There was no time to think. No time to plan. Just act and react.

 

Not since his kendo sessions with Kang To had Shunji dealt with an opponent like this. No matter what he did, how he tried to attack, Gaksital was ready for him, always dancing just inches away from the katana and its blade until, finally, Shunji found himself in a deadlock with his opponent.

 

The white mask with its red dots, its eyes slanted cunningly like those of a fox, mocked Shunji for his incompetence. Perhaps, under any other circumstances, he would have tried to look underneath the surface, to try to see who was underneath. But all the little details he could have picked up – the man was young, not much more than a boy; underneath the fox-eyed holes, the man’s real eyes were wide with fear – were things that he saw but did not register.

 

All fell away in the face of that demonic mask.

 

Just then, Shunji saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. Stepping quickly backwards to avoid Gaksital’s punch to his head, he also kicked out instinctively, sending both of them reeling apart to opposite sides of the platform.

 

Once again, Gaksital recovered first. By the time Shunji turned back around to face him, he had climbed up onto a desk – was it Kang To’s desk? – and began to make his escape. As for Shunji, he could only look on, shaking in helpless rage, as the man – if he was even a man – vaulted from one desk to another and then up onto the third floor balcony that overlooked the room.

 

No. It couldn’t end like this!

 

Left with no other options, Shunji threw the katana as hard as he could in Gaksital’s direction. It was a gamble, and hardly an effective way to fight, but it was all he had left.

 

Almost, he succeeded in hitting Gaksital. Almost. The katana missed him just by a hair, embedding itself in the wall just beside him.

 

But it did succeed in slowing him down, as Gaksital glanced back from the katana down towards where Shunji still stood glaring up at him. Then, once again, he was gone, dashing along the length of the balcony further into the building.

 

In an instant, Shunji moved to follow, but he found himself stumbling to a halt as he came once again to the place where Kenji had fallen. For a moment, he was held frozen in horror at the sight of his brother’s broken body, but then his eyes focused on the holster at Kenji’s waist.

 

“Forgive me, Oniisan, but I need this right now,” he murmured as he reached down to take the gun. “I’ll return this as soon as I’ve got Gaksital; I promise.”

 

~~~~~

 

“Have you found anything?”

 

The diver shook his head, raising his arms to form a cross that Shunji could just barely make out in the darkness.

 

“Nothing? Not even a trace?”

 

The man shook his head again, although this time, he was gracious enough to look away shamefaced at his failure.

 

It was a good thing that Shunji was only surrounded by police officers and that none of his students were around, because he finally felt himself unable to hold back the string of curses that had been building up inside of him for the past several hours.

 

This should have been easy. He had shot Gaksital’s horse out from underneath him with his own hands. He had seen Gaksital fall down over the edge of the cliff with his own eyes.

 

So why the hell was there no body?

 

“Damn this son of a – where the hell could he possibly have gone?”

 

Shunji turned to glance at Koiso, who had just appeared by his side. “You think so, too?”

 

The police detective nodded, only answering with a grunt of assent. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, he went on.

 

“Look, Kimura-sensei. We’ve already looked at every possible place he could be and –”

 

“We have to find him.”

 

Koiso took off his cap, running a hand through his hair in exasperation. “But –”

 

“We have to,” Shunji barrelled on, his voice rising in his agitation. “Even if we take this mountain apart, stone by stone. Even if we have to drain this stream. We must find him!”

 

The detective scoffed. “Look around you. It’s dark now – even if we kept trying, we wouldn’t see anything. Perhaps we should call it off for today –”

 

But Shunji could not hear what else the other man said after that.

 

“Fine. If you won’t do it, then I will,” he barked, ripping open his jacket and throwing it off in one fluid motion before marching resolutely into the river.

 

“Wait! Kimura-sensei! Shunji!”

 

Shunji felt Koiso grab him roughly by the elbow, but rather than stopping, he rounded on the other man.

 

“What else do you want me to do?” he cried, flinging himself out of Koiso’s grip. “This is Kenji we’re talking about – I can’t go back to my father like this!”

 

“Do you know what the locals call this place? Next World Cliff. It’s because no-one has ever survived a fall from it. Ever. Every single person who has ever fallen here has died: drowned in the river if not dashed against the rocks. One hundred percent.

 

“Look, Shunji – you’re not the only one who is upset here. You have to remember that Kimura Kenji is not just my superior; he’s my friend.”

 

And did he know it.

 

Finally feeling himself start to calm from his outburst, Shunji turned to glance up at Koiso. Personally, he detested the man – after all, Koiso, along with Kenji, were the main bullies who had made it their mission to make Lee Kang To’s life in the police precinct a living hell. But this point, at least, he could not deny: Koiso was, if anything, Kenji’s only friend in the world.

 

This time, he did not resist when the detective firmly placed a hand on his shoulder. “I want to find that perp as much as you do. But we’re not going to be succeed by groping around in the dark like this. If Gaksital’s already dead – and I know for sure that he must be – then it won’t make a difference whether we recover his corpse tonight or tomorrow.”

 

You don’t understand, Shunji wanted to say. Gaksital was not like most men. He had already died once. Lee Kang To had killed him. But somehow, he had come back from the dead. And not only that, but he had come back with a vengeance: tracking down and attacking the very officers who were assigned to his case.

 

Koiso hadn’t seen how Gaksital had fought today. Shunji had.

 

No-one who had been shot by Kang To could fight like that.

 

No human being, anyway.

 

But Gaksital couldn’t be a demon, could he? Or a god? The stories that Kang To and Tamao had told him years ago…they couldn’t be true, could they?

 

Of course not. Those were just stories. Legends. Fairy tales. Shunji would have to be mad to believe them.

 

And yet…and yet….

 

He said none of this aloud, of course. He knew how crazy the entire idea sounded. Instead, he only nodded wordlessly at Koiso, who then turned to order the other officers to stop the search for the night.

 

To be honest, were it not for his desperation that Gaksital’s body be recovered as quickly as possible as proof that he was, in fact, an ordinary man, Shunji would have felt relieved at the chance to rest.

 

He had only had to deal with hunting Gaksital for one day, and already his head felt like it was about to explode.

 

Kenji and Kang To had been at it for months.

 

No wonder the hunt had driven both of them mad.

 

~~~~~

 

Shunji had not thought that he would be asked to report to his father so soon.

 

But with so much happening – Kenji’s death and Esther’s escape from her cell – he really should not have been surprised.

 

What did surprise him, however, after he left Koiso alone berating Abe for his negligence, was what he saw when he entered his father’s office.

 

He had thought he would see his father in a rage. It had even crossed his mind, strange as it seemed, that he would see his father in tears – the first he would have shed since the death of Shunji’s mother so many years ago.

 

What he did not expect, though, was to see his father practicing his golf putt, acting as though nothing was out of the ordinary.

 

For a long moment, Shunji could only stare, gaping in wide-eyed astonishment.

 

Kenji, his father’s favourite, was dead.

 

How could he possibly react like this?

 

It was only when his father had finished and looked up to see him standing just inside of the doorway that Shunji found his voice to speak:

 

“We chased Gaksital all the way to Next World Cliff; I saw him fall over the edge with my own eyes. But we still have not found his body; we will continue the search tomorrow.” With that, offering a stiff bow in apology, he turned to make his exit.

 

“It’s me: Chief Kimura. Connect me to the newspaper, kudasai.”

 

Shunji froze in his tracks when he heard his father speak into the phone.

 

“I have something to report,” his father said as soon as the call was connected. “Kimura Shunji, my younger son, has killed Gaksital.”

 

Shunji whirled back around in astonishment.

 

“Otousan!” he gasped. “I’ve already told you; we don’t have a body yet. How can we be sure Gaksital’s dead when –”

 

“‘By Kimura Kenji’s sacrifice and Kimura Shunji’s bravery, Gaksital has finally been suppressed’” his father continued, as though he had not heard Shunji’s protest at all. “Hai. Write it like that. I want my sons to be remembered as the most loyal pair of brothers in all of Keijō.”

 

“Otousan,” Shunji stammered once again as soon as his father had hung up the phone, “didn’t you hear what I’d said? We’re still not sure –”

 

“Gaksital killed your brother: the eldest son in our family,” his father cut him off, in a voice that would broker no argument. “Even if he is still alive, you must kill him. It is your duty: both as a Japanese, and as a Kimura.”

 

For a long moment, Shunji could not find anything to say in response. He knew, of course, the way it was among the Japanese: honour, especially that of one’s family, was everything. That was, after all, what the samurai code, Bushidō, had been built upon.

 

But after having already tasted it once – the rush for vengeance, the thirst for blood – Shunji was not sure that he could bring himself to face it again. He had seen what that had done to Kenji, what it had done to Kang To.

 

He could not do the same. He had to stay sane – for all their sakes.

 

So, bowing his head in apology and sighing heavily in defeat, he reached into his jacket and retrieved Kenji’s gun from where he had tucked it into his belt. Then, stepping resolutely to the table between him and his father, he placed it down firmly onto the wooden surface.

 

“Gomenasai, otousan – I cannot do that.”

 

Keeping his eyes directed away from his father, unable to bring himself to meet his undoubtedly disapproving gaze, he moved to make his case.

 

“When I saw what Gaksital did, I was consumed with rage. I acted without thinking. But I was wrong to do so. After all, I am just a simple schoolteacher, not a police officer. Killing a criminal is their job, not mine. And if I tried, if I took matters into my hands, I would just be a murderer.

 

“But,” he pressed on earnestly, “I can promise you this, Otousan. I will help the Imperial Police however I can. I know that Lee Kang To is still on the case; he will work even harder to capture Gaksital now that he has resorted to murder. So I will do everything I can to help Kang To; that is the only way I can avenge Kenji’s death.”

 

Shunji knew his father wasn’t happy with his response, not least for his mention of his Joseon friend. But he believed that he had made his point perfectly clear: this was the most his father was ever going to get from him.

 

So, with one last firm bow, he turned once again to leave.

 

“Don’t even bother trying to find Lee Kang To – he did not report for duty this morning.”

 

Shunji paused, his hand resting on the door latch. His eyes widened and he felt his breath catch in his throat.

 

“Did – did he say why?”

 

His father’s silence was answer enough. It sent a dread chill running down his spine, which was coupled with an overwhelming sense of frustrated guilt as he finally made his way out of the office. There, in a burst of temper that he would have frowned upon coming from anyone else, Shunji turned and kicked the baseboards near the office door, just barely managing to hold back a muttered curse.

 

How could he have been so damned stupid? How could he have failed to notice that Kang To – the one officer who should have met him on Gaksital’s tail – had been missing the entire time?

 

Where was he? What could have happened to him? According to the newspaper, Kang To – not Kenji – had been the last person to see Gaksital last night. According to the newspaper, they had fought and Kang To had won.

 

But Shunji was not as naïve as he used to be. He knew that, at times, the papers would lie: try to cover up the failures and tragedies of the Empire in order to maintain morale.

 

Still, if it was true that Gaksital really had run into Kang To first, and then come back to the precinct to kill Kenji, then that meant that Kang To must be…must be….

 

No.

 

Shunji shook his head furiously as his steps quickened towards the main central office.

 

It could not be. He would not let it be!

 

He had already lost his brother like this – he would not lose his best friend as well!

 

Shunji spotted Abe at his usual spot near Kang To’s desk, slumped over, his face in his hands.

 

Of course. This officer had been the one who rushed Kenji to the hospital, even as the others joined him in chasing after Gaksital. Who knows what horrors he witnessed along the way or once they had arrived only to discover that they were already too late?

 

Shunji hated having to disturb Abe yet again. But he also couldn’t wait any longer without an answer: just what had happened to Kang To last night?

 

Rushing urgently closer, he reached out and planted a firm hand on the young man’s shoulder. Startled out of his daze, the officer jerked his head up to look at him.

 

“Gomen. I did not mean to scare you,” he said in as soft and soothing a voice as he could manage. “But I need to ask you something: have you seen Kang To around lately?”

 

The officer’s forehead furrowed in thought for a moment, and then he shook his head. “Not since Lieutenant told me to keep an eye on Oh Mok Dan in the hospital, I haven’t.”

 

“So you haven’t seen him since news of the bank robbery got out?”

 

Another shake of the head.

 

“All right. I understand,” Shunji said, giving Kang To’s friend a light squeeze on the shoulder in thanks.

 

“Why? Is something wrong? Did – did something happen to Lieutenant?” Abe gasped, eyes widening in worry.

 

Shunji forced himself to suppress his own rising wave of fear, eking out a small reassuring smile that he was sure could not reach his eyes. “Iie. I was just wondering why I hadn’t seen him earlier. I had thought, with him being in charge of Gaksital’s case, that he would have been part of the search party.”

 

“Oh. I see.” That seemed to calm Abe, as he then added, “Do you want me to look for him?”

 

Noting the hopeful look in the officer’s eyes, Shunji nodded. “Arigato. That would be great. If you find him, or hear anything from him, let me know, kudasai. I promise that I will do the same.”

 

~~~~~

 

Going to the hospital to start making arrangements for Kenji’s funeral would have been easier if he and Shunji had actually gotten along.

 

At least then, when he pulled back the sheet and looked down at his brother’s unnaturally still body, his blankly staring eyes, his bloodstained face, the only thing coursing through him would be grief.

 

But rather than being stabbed in the heart with one knife, Shunji had to contend with two.

 

For the one thing that constantly echoed in his mind as he stood in the hospital ward where his brother’s body lay was the fact that the last words they had ever exchanged with each other were harsh ones.

 

Insults. Accusations. Words born out of years of rivalry and resentment.

 

Hand shaking in agitation, Shunji reached out and gently closed Kenji’s eyes: a curtain closing on an actor’s last performance. A curtain fell over his own vision as well, his brother’s image growing blurry as the tears finally came.

 

“Oniisan…gomenasai. Gomenasai! I should have known what it was like for you; why did I make things worse by calling you Father’s toady?”

 

Crocodile tears, some might have called them. Tears that were only shed to create a false illusion of love and concern.

 

After all, it was no secret that Shunji and Kenji had lived in open hostility and resentment. Brothers by blood, but enemies all the same.

 

But nothing quite matched death in its ability to bring clarity and illumination to what had previously been hidden and unknown. And the truth – the truth that had been hidden thus far – came to Shunji’s mind in a rush:

 

The surreptitious and cautious glances Kenji would send their father’s way before scolding or striking him. And the hopeful and yearning glances he would send yet again after he was done.

 

The hands clenching into fists at Kenji’s sides whenever their father praised him for his prowess in the police force. The way he would bite his lips or tear his eyes away just in time so that their father could not see him rolling them in disdain.

 

The last conversation they had ever shared, when Kenji had admitted that just as their father had favoured him for his obedience, he had also favoured Shunji for his intelligence.

 

Kimura Kenji and Kimura Shunji were enemies – but they were enemies only because their father had made them so.

 

Peel away all the layers, let them all fall away…and they were simply two lost brothers, groping blindly in the darkness.

 

At some point, he did not know when, Shunji’s knees had buckled and he had collapsed, sobbing, onto the ground.

 

Why did he only notice these things when it was too late to do anything about them?

 

Just then, in the back of his mind, Shunji heard the metallic screech of the rings sliding along the rod above his head as someone pulled the curtain back. He did not move, however, until he felt a warm hand come firmly down on his shoulder.

 

“I know this is hard for you, Kimura-sensei,” a man’s voice said from somewhere behind him. “But we must go; we have delayed enough as it is.”

 

Nodding slowly, brushing the tears from his eyes with both hands, Shunji scooted back and got up on his feet, clearing the way for the two orderlies who had just arrived. Silently, his feet rooted to the floor, his eyes unable to look away, he watched them pick up Kenji’s body from the bed and place it onto the gurney. Then, joining them at one corner, he followed as they wheeled his brother out of the hospital room and into the hallway.

 

He would follow them to the morgue.

 

He had still not finished his goodbye.

 

Making his way down the corridor with the others, Shunji’s gaze flitted back and forth between where the sheet covered Kenji’s face and the way up ahead. And it was at one of those points when he glanced up that he made out the figure of a patient stumbling unsteadily out of one of the rooms in the emergency ward.

 

Blinking back his tears, Shunji narrowed his eyes and squinted as he tried to bring the newcomer into focus. Something about his height, his build, the way he stood looked strangely familiar….

 

Eyes widening in recognition, he left his place by the gurney and dashed on ahead.

 

“Kang To! What happened? Are you all right?”

 

It seemed to take Kang To a moment to recognize him. And no wonder. Shunji could see just how pale his friend was, how much he was swaying on his feet.

 

“Where were you? Did Gaksital attack you, too? Is that why you’re here like this?”

 

But Kang To didn’t seem to hear him. Instead, he was looking beyond Shunji, staring with haunted eyes at the covered gurney.

 

“I know. It’s hard for me to believe it, too,” Shunji murmured, nodding heavily as his eyes followed his friend’s. “It was Gaksital. He broke into the police station and he…he…he killed Kenji.

 

“But Kang To, I don’t understand. They said you were there. They said that you shot Gaksital last night. So what are you doing – what was he doing – how does this make any sense?!”

 

Somewhere, deep in the back of his mind, Shunji knew he was being a fool with all of his questions, that Kang To was in no physical condition to respond. But he was not asking to get answers. He was asking simply because Lee Kang To was the only person in the entire world to whom he could pour out his heart, and say what he had been holding in since this entire incident started.

 

Kang To was the one who had first told him about the legend.

 

Kang To was the only one who wouldn’t think him mad now.

 

So he was not surprised when Kang To did not answer. Indeed, nor had Shunji expected him to.

 

Yet he was still caught off guard when the blood suddenly drained from Kang To’s face and he fainted dead away on the ground, so abruptly that Shunji could not even step in in time to catch him.

 

In an instant, he was down on his knees, gathering his friend’s limp body up in his arms.

 

“Kang To,” he cried, lightly smacking his cheek in attempts to wake him. “Kang To! Can you hear me?” Getting no response, he jerked his head up, looking frantically from side to side until his eyes met the two orderlies’.

 

“Why the hell are you two just standing there?” he screamed. “Get a doctor!”

 

But his shouting had already done the trick, as a young man in a white coat now burst out from another room and ran towards them. Shunji moved back just enough to let the doctor examine Kang To, gesturing for the two orderlies to continue moving Kenji without him.

 

“What’s the matter with him?” he asked breathlessly as the doctor worked. “Will he be all right?”

 

The doctor nodded grimly, and then gestured for Shunji to help him carry Kang To back into the room from which he had emerged. As, together, they got him settled back in bed, the doctor began to explain.

 

“I was the one who examined him when he was first brought in: a man had him found unconscious in the street. My initial examination showed only minor injuries: bruises, cuts, that sort of thing. But nothing more serious than that. If anything’s done this man in, it’s exhaustion and overwork: nothing that just simple rest can’t fix.” He took one of Kang To’s hands and lifted it up to show Shunji. “You can see it here. I had hooked him up to an IV not too long ago, but he must have pulled it out himself before the treatment was finished.”

 

Hearing the diagnosis, Shunji let out a massive sigh of relief. If Kang To had gotten into some sort of altercation with Gaksital, at least he had survived. And if all he needed was time to recover, then that was a greater blessing than Shunji could ever have asked on his friend’s behalf.

 

But the doctor was not yet finished.

 

“The thing is, though,” he began, “when this patient was brought in, he didn’t have any identification on him. I decided to proceed with treatment first, in case he turned out to be one of our own, but –”

 

“Wait.” Shunji held up a hand to stop him. “Did you say, ‘One of our own’?” His eyes narrowed and a tight warning edge crept into his voice. “So if he were Joseon, you would…?”

 

The doctor shrugged helplessly. “I don’t dictate this hospital’s policy, Kimura-sensei.”

 

“And you are the stupider for it,” Shunji growled out, fully aware of just what the other man was implying. “Do you have any idea who this is?” When all he got in response was a shake of the head, he pressed on. “This person here is Lieutenant Lee Kang To from the Imperial Police. And if he’s wound up like this, it is only out of zeal for our Empire, going for days on end without food or rest in order to bring Gaksital and other traitors like him to justice.

 

“So don’t give me any of this ‘Japanese’ versus ‘Joseon’ crap – if you deny him treatment now purely because of his race, the trouble will be on your head!”

 

Shunji knew he had made his point clear when the doctor could only stare at him for a moment in wide-eyed astonishment before taking off like a shot, brushing past him back out into the hallway, calling for assistance in getting Kang To to a better room.

 

After watching the doctor’s hurried exit with the first real smile he had made since his encounter with Gaksital, he then turned to glance down at Kang To, taking one of his friend’s hands into his own.

 

This was, after all, the least that he could do.

 

~~~~~

 

Although he had promised to inform Abe about Kang To’s whereabouts right away, Shunji did not have a chance to do so until the day of Kenji’s funeral.

 

It was, as befitting for a police superintendent who was also the eldest son of the chief, a lavish affair. Shunji’s father had spared no expense in his arrangements for the ceremony, which was held in a grand Buddhist temple; and among the mourners who came to pay their respects, Shunji noted many local dignitaries whom he only vaguely recognized from seeing their names and faces in the newspaper.

 

One face, though, was familiar. Tamao had come along with his father and stepmother, and as they bowed to each other in greeting, Shunji noted the penetrating glance his friend sent towards him.

 

He knew what Tamao was thinking about: all the times when Shunji had complained to him and Kang To about his brother, all the times he had griped to them about how he wanted his brother off his back.

 

Had they been meeting before Kenji’s death, Shunji knew the secret knowledge in Tamao’s eyes would be a fair assessment. Now, however, not so much.

 

They were just seeing Tamao’s family out when the police delegation, led by Director Konno, suddenly appeared to pay their own respects. And while Shunji’s father only paid notice to Konno - who was both his superior and his political rival – Shunji himself noted the surprised look Tamao shot over his shoulder as he passed the group of officers on Konno’s tail.

 

In an instant, their eyes met.

 

Where’s Kang To? Tamao seemed to be asking. Shouldn’t he be here?

 

Shunji replied with a pointed look and a slight shake of the head as he turned to make his way back into the hall.

 

Not now – I’ll tell you later.

 

From his previous encounter with the Director, Shunji knew that Konno was a shrewd man: one who most likely had eyes and ears all over Keijō. But it still caught him by surprise when Konno sent him a pointed look as he and his father exchanged barbs that were only thinly veiled as formalities.

 

“Imagine. An elementary school teacher succeeded where the Imperial Police had failed.”

 

Against his better judgment, Shunji swallowed nervously, his head still bowed.

 

Ultimately, he had failed to stop his father from selling the story to the newspaper: that Gaksital had killed Kenji, but that Shunji had properly avenged his brother by shooting Gaksital in turn. And there was something in Konno’s tone that suggested that he knew just how much of a lie it was.

 

“I hope, then, for the sake of the police, and for your own peace of mind, Kimura Taro, that his body will be found soon.”

 

Shunji and his father exchanged wary glances, but he was the first to respond aloud.

 

“It will be found soon.”

 

Konno turned to look pointedly at him. “Really? Can you vouch for that?”

 

“I saw Gaksital fall into the ravine with my own eyes – and dead bodies, given enough time underwater, will eventually float to the surface. With all due respect, Director, even my students know that.”

 

The Director had nothing more to say to that. And only Shunji knew that his words had not been spoken to corroborate his father’s lie, but to convince himself that they were true.

 

Gaksital had to be dead, because if he was still alive, that haunting fear that he was not quite human would never leave Shunji’s mind. It would drive him mad, just as it had Kenji and Kang To before him.

 

Sometime later, when the police delegation, too, made their exit, Shunji happened to spot Abe in their midst. Gently excusing himself from his father, he made his way down the steps and prodded the young officer on the shoulder.

 

“Can we talk for a moment?” he whispered. “Just the two of us.”

 

Nodding in understanding, Abe stepped over to one of the senior officers, asking for permission to be excused for a moment. Then, once that was settled, he followed Shunji off the main pathway to a quieter spot on the temple grounds.

 

“What is it?” Abe asked once they were alone. “Is it Lieutenant Lee? Have you found him?”

 

“Hai.” Quickly, knowing that they only had a few minutes to spare, Shunji told the officer what he could of his encounter in the hospital.

 

He was, however, cut off when Abe urgently grabbed onto his hands.

 

“Arigato gozaimasu!” he gasped, punctuating his words with several consecutive bows. “You’re a lifesaver, Shunji – did you know that? You don’t want to know how worried I was about Lieutenant, what with the fire and –”

 

“Wait!” Shunji cut him off, pulling himself free from the other man’s grip. “What fire?”

 

Abe’s jaw dropped. “You…you didn’t know?”

 

He shook his head, his pulse ringing loudly in his ears with dread. “What happened?”

 

“It was the same night as the bank robbery,” Abe said, his words rushing out in his urgency. “While Lieutenant Lee was off investigating the crime scene, some local street thugs firebombed his house.”

 

Shunji gasped in horror. “What?”

 

“They’d been planning it for a long time, is what I’ve heard – they’d just never had the courage to do so until then.”

 

With shaking hands, Shunji lunged forward and grabbed desperately onto Abe’s shoulders.

 

“What of Kang To’s family, then?” he asked, although he was beginning to suspect the answer. “His brother? His mother? What about them?!”

 

Abe’s eyes suddenly filled with tears and he looked down, shaking his head. “They were still inside. And from what I’ve heard, by the time Lieutenant Lee got home…it was already too late.”

 

No.

 

No….

 

With all the wrongs that Kang To had done, perhaps some punishment from the gods was in order.

 

But when all of that had been done for the sake of his family…this was how they chose to repay him?!

 

Slowly, a shudder passing through his entire body, Shunji fell down to his knees on the grass. He could feel himself heaving, the breath building up and building up inside of him until it finally burst out in a keening wail, both his and Kang To’s twin bereavements swirling together like a maelstrom in his head.

 

In an instant, Abe had gotten down beside him and wrapped his arms around his shoulders. Shunji could feel the young officer trembling even in the act of trying to comfort him, so he reached out his own arms and returned the embrace in kind.

 

If anyone were to stumble upon the two of them then, it would have looked like they were both mourning for Kenji.

 

Only they knew otherwise.

 

~~~~~

 

The world had well and truly been turned completely upside-down.

 

Shunji had accompanied his father back to the Kimura villa after the funeral; since he was already in Keijō to begin with, he had wanted to make a quick visit to the housekeeper, his old nanny.

 

Just as she had been after his mother died so many years ago, the housekeeper was a warm ray of sunshine in his life now. She had comforted him with kind and soothing words, and had even prepared a care package for him to take home with him.

 

But it was what had happened afterwards that Shunji found unable to shake from his mind now as he made his way back through the city centre:

 

He had gone to his father’s room to take his leave – and had found his father in tears, only able to mourn for Kenji when no one else had been around to see him.

 

Was this the same man who had tried to raise his sons to believe any displays of emotion or softness were signs of weakness?

 

Was this the same man whom Shunji had seen reacting with calm stoicism on the day of the tragedy itself?

 

Was this the same man who hitherto had seemed more concerned with the family name than the fact that his son had died?

 

Throughout history, Shunji knew, sons had looked to their fathers as pillars of strength in times of trouble. But what was to be done if even the father succumbed?

 

“Everyone, come quickly! It’s Lee Kang To!”

 

Startled, Shunji came to a halt, turning to look in the direction from which the cry had come. Just in time, he caught a glimpse of several men running past him towards the marketplace he knew was a popular gathering place for the Joseon people. Scrambling off of his bicycle, he ran after them, letting his bicycle fall unheeded to the ground in his haste.

 

What was Kang To doing here?

 

Wasn’t he still supposed to be in the hospital?

 

By the time Shunji arrived on the scene, a small group of police officers had already driven back the crowd, forming a circle around Kang To in the centre. Fortunately, they recognized him from Kenji’s funeral and opened up their ring to let him through.

 

“Kang To!”

 

At the sound of his voice, Kang To turned to look blearily at him, and then, without so much of a word in reply, he collapsed, barely conscious, into Shunji’s arms.

 

Frantically, Shunji scanned his friend for any injuries, and it took only an instant for him to see just how dire Kang To’s situation had been. His hair and clothes were filthy, stained from the eggs and refuse that the mob had thrown at him. But what really made Shunji gasp in horror was the blood he saw trickling down from a gash on his forehead.

 

Garbage, vegetables, eggs…those he could understand.

 

But the mob had tried to stone Kang To as well?

 

Furious, he swept his eyes over the crowd that was still standing there.

 

“Are you crazy?” he cried out. “Do you have any idea what he’s been through? Haven’t you already done enough?!”

 

Shunji did not get a reply to that, nor had he been expecting one. Instead, after glancing over the crowd one last time, he turned and half-led, half-carried Kang To back through the police cordon and out of the marketplace.

 

“It’s all right, Kang To; I’ve got you,” he whispered as he made his way back to his fallen bicycle. “Just hang in there for me, all right?”

 

Fortunately, Kang To had recovered enough by now to be able to sit on his own on the bicycle’s extra back seat. But just to make sure, Shunji instructed his friend to put his arms around his waist as they set off, and he held onto Kang To’s hands with one of his own, steering the bicycle one-handed until they had made it out of the city.

 

At some point on the road between Keijō and his own home in the countryside, Shunji was finally confident enough that Kang To would not lose consciousness on him that he let go of his friend’s hands, which now fell to rest limply at his sides. But he could still feel Kang To’s head resting heavily on his back: sign of just how weak he must still be if he could not yet sit up on his own.

 

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Shunji asked. “The last time I checked, you were still not supposed to discharged from the hospital. I won’t ask how or why you escaped from there, but you’re hurt even worse now.” His hands tightened on the handlebars as the thought occurred to him. “We shouldn’t be here; we should go back!”

 

“I’m fine,” Kang To murmured in response. “I mean it, Shunji; I’m not hurt.”

 

In an instant, Shunji brought the bicycle screeching to a halt.

 

“You’re not hurt?” he asked incredulously. “Baka – I don’t just mean your body. I mean on the inside, too! After everything that’s happened, how could you not be hurting?”

 

He could feel Kang To trembling behind him, and could hear him taking in a shuddering breath, struggling not to cry.

 

Even now, despite everything, his friend was still trying to hold it all in.

 

“I…I only found out about what happened at Kenji’s funeral,” Shunji said, tears now prickling in his eyes. “I can’t even begin to imagine how hard these past few days must have been for you, having to bear all of this by yourself. Had I known, I would have come straightaway; you know that. I…I really miss Kang San, too.”

 

At the mention of his brother, Shunji felt Kang To turn to bury his face in his jacket.

 

“If it…if it weren’t for Gaksital, none of this would have happened, would it?” he added. “Kenji, Kang San, your mother…they would all still be here. If Gaksital had already been caught, if you had been home instead of chasing after him…

 

“But I still don’t understand. How could they? Those people who did this to your family – how could they?” Shunji’s voice grew into a wailing cry. “I’d always believed that there was good in Joseon people – how dare they show me otherwise!”

 

For a long moment, Shunji found himself unable to speak as his outburst gave way to wracking sobs. Kang To, he could feel, was still trembling, but he remained strangely silent, most likely still trying to keep everything bottled up inside.

 

“And that’s not the only thing that confuses me,” Shunji added once he was able to go on. “My father – I saw my father crying. Could you believe it? I had always thought that he was strong at best and heartless at worst. But now even he’s crying.

 

“Kang To, none of this makes any sense. And the only thing I can think of – the only possible cause or explanation to any of this – is Gaksital.

 

“I tried to help, that day Kenji died. I chased after Gaksital. I saw him fall. I know he should be dead by now. But Kang To, I’m scared. What if, somehow, he’s still out there somewhere? What if Gaksital’s still alive? Or what if, like some ghost or demon, he can’t be killed? What do we do then? Tell me, Kang To: what should I do then?”

 

Finally, Shunji could feel Kang To start to open up as his shuddering breaths gave way to keening cries. And he glanced down at his lap just in time to see his friend’s arms reach back out to wrap around his waist.

 

At least, despite everything else they had been through, Shunji knew they still had each other.

 

Perhaps they could take some comfort in that.

 

~~~~~

 

By the time Shunji got home, Kang To still seated behind him on the bicycle, darkness had already fallen. And he could tell from his friend’s deep breaths that he had fallen asleep at some point along the way.

 

“Kang To,” he murmured softly, rolling his shoulders back a bit to nudge his friend awake. “We’re here.”

 

He peered over his shoulder just in time to see Kang To stir and open his eyes, and it broke his heart to see how his friend’s gaze darted around nervously at the shadows.

 

“Don’t worry; it’s just my place,” he whispered. “Come with me; you must be hungry. My old nanny packed something for me, and there should be enough for both of us to share –”

 

But to Shunji’s surprise, Kang To just shook his head before scrambling off of the bicycle. “I have to go,” he murmured in a haunted tone of voice. “I can’t stay here.”

 

Shunji dismounted after him, setting the brake in place. “Where are you going? It’s night now – and besides, you don’t even have a place to stay.”

 

“Don’t worry; I’ll be fine.”

 

In a flash, Shunji lunged forward and grabbed firmly onto Kang To’s elbow, stopping his friend in his tracks.

 

“You…you aren’t thinking about…about suicide, are you?” he gasped urgently. “Baka – if anything happens to you as well, how do you expect me to go on?”

 

Slowly, Kang To turned around to face him.

 

“And why the hell would I do something like that?” he scoffed incredulously, some of the old fire finally returning to his eyes. “After what those Chōsenjin did to my family – to me – do I look like someone who would choose to die?”

 

He made to pull himself free then, but Shunji tightened his grip.

 

“Right. Because you’re Lee Kang To. You’re a survivor; you’ve always been. No matter what happened, no matter what people said about you, you always kept on going. So remember to do that now: if Gaksital is still out there, you must catch him, no matter what it takes.”

 

Kang To glanced up questioningly at him. “‘No matter what it takes’?” he echoed, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “That’s not like you, Shunji. What happened to your Bushidō?”

 

“Well, look what my telling you to wait has done,” Shunji replied. “I won’t try to hold you back any longer; in fact, I’ll help you in any way I possibly can. So you go out there and bring Gaksital to justice, understood? Don’t worry about me.”

 

Kang To gave him a shaky nod in reply, and then turned to leave without saying even a word in farewell.

 

Shunji, in turn, looked on silently as his friend was swallowed up by the darkness. And this time, he made no move to stop him.

 

Author's Note (in Hidden Contents because of possible spoilers)

Spoiler

Well, this series is just getting crazier and crazier - and we all know it will get darker still.

 

So here's the behind-the-scenes look at this story:

 

1. Figuring out Shunji's perspective

 

The most interesting thing about putting this fic together, for me, has been the fact that we as drama viewers knew way more than Shunji did at this point in the story. 

 

So just what did he know, and how did he know it?

 

As it turns out, there are a number of plot gaps, especially on Shunji's side of things, in Episode 7 of the drama, which was my focus for this fic. I don't fault the scriptwriters for that - there was so much character development for both Kang To and Shunji that they had to squeeze into a one-hour-long episode, and going into all the details on both sides would have become redundant - but it did mean that I was left with a number of questions I could try to answer:

 

1. How did Shunji find out about the fire? (It seemed like he didn't know yet when he ran into Kang To in the hospital, but he did afterwards in the marketplace)
2. Why didn't it seem to cross Shunji's mind that Kang To was missing until he saw him in the hospital? (Yes, I know he was still mad about what happened between Kang To and Esther, but, come on - he's got to be a better friend than that!)
3. What exactly happened in the hospital after Kang To passed out? (We know from both the doctor and Abe that Shunji was the one who identified him, but not how or what the consequences of that might have been)
4. How did Shunji interpret Kang To's rather odd behaviour and comments at the end of the story? (We as viewers know why Kang To's so withdrawn, but there's no way the truth would have crossed Shunji's mind - so what did he think instead?)
5. And, the biggest question I chose to focus on: how would Shunji wrap his mind around the fact that Gaksital, who was supposed to be dead, was not only still alive but also Kenji's murderer?

So, really, most of the planning for this story was just trying to figure out some possibilities for that. And in my brainstorming, I came across the theme that you may have noticed running throughout this fic:

 

2. Gaksital as a Yōkai

 

I can't claim to know all that much about Japanese religion, mythology or spirituality, but I do know that Shinto - the native Japanese religion - is an animistic one, meaning that there is a strong belief that objects, forces of nature, etc. are inhabited by spirits.

 

Oftentimes, spirits in the Shinto tradition are called Kami, but those are not the only spirits out there. One such group of others are the Yōkai , an explanation of which I am taking from this page on Cryptid Wiki:

 

Quote

Yōkai (妖怪?, ghost, phantom, strange apparition) are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "bewitching; attractive; calamity" and "apparition; mystery; suspicious". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them. Often they possess animal features (such as the Kappa, which is similar to a turtle, or the Tengu which has wings), other times they can appear mostly human, some look like inanimate objects and others have no discernible shape. Yōkai usually have a spiritual supernatural power, with shapeshifting being one of the most common. Yōkai that have the ability to shapeshift are called obake.

 

The main thing I'm drawing upon here is how the Yōkai, for the most part, seem to be a more negative: mischievous tricksters at best, malevolent spirits at worst. However, the term also seems to be more vague or ambiguous than other Japanese terms for ghosts, demons, monsters, etc., which is why I am choosing to use it for the title of this story: to show Shunji's confused or conflicting views on just who (or what) Gaksital is.

 

By the way, one last point before I go: the story referenced here about the Gaksital and the role it takes in the traditional Korean masked dance is real. I only hinted at it in the story, but here's a more detailed explanation, this time from this page on Wikipedia:

 

Quote

The exact origin of the Hahoetal masks is not clearly known, although there is a colorful legend about their original construction. It is said that a young man named Hur received instructions in a dream from his local protecting deity to construct the masks. The decree was that he had to create all of the masks in private, completely unseen by any other human being. He closed himself off in his home, hanging straw rope around the house to prevent anyone from entering while he finished his task. A young woman in love with Hur grew impatient after not seeing him for several days. She decided to secretly watch him by making a small hole in his paper window. Once the deities' rules were broken, Hur immediately started vomiting and hemorrhaging blood, dying on the spot. It is said he was working on the final mask of Imae when he died, leaving it unfinished without a chin. The girl then died of guilt and a broken heart. The villagers performed an exorcism allowing for their souls to be raised to the rank of local deity, and they were able to marry in the afterlife. The Hahoe Pyolshin-gut ritual ceremony was developed to honor them and console their tormented souls.^[7][8]

 

[...]

 

Kaksi (the young woman/bride): This mask represents a goddess in the first play of the cycle and a young bride in later episodes.This mask has a closed mouth and closed downward lowered eyes, indicating that she is both shy and quiet. Her eyes are not symmetrical, and the mask is carved and painted to have long black hair. The mask is constructed from one solid piece of wood.

 

[...]

 

When the Pyolshin-gut t'al nori ceremony is performed in its entirety, it consists of ten "episodes." They are:

 

Opening rituals/"Piggyback" episode: The ceremony begins with a forty to fifty foot pole being erected to honor the village's guardian deity. The pole has five brightly colored pieces of fabric and a bell on top. A second, smaller pole is built for the "Deity of the Home-site," also with five pieces of fabric on the top. The villagers and audience then prays for the Gods to descend and bless the proceedings, and the bell on top the larger pole rings to signify their approval. The villagers then throw pieces of clothing at the poles, trying to have them drape over them. Success would ensure personal blessings of prosperity. The master of ceremonies and performers then start marching down to the performance site followed by the audience, playing music and dancing along the way. The performer wearing the Kaksi bride mask is carried to the performance, as she is representing the deity of the girl form the legend of the masks, and deities cannot touch the ground. This action earns the deity's blessing for the proceedings.

 

By the way, for anyone who is wondering, the "opening ritual" from the Wikipedia article is what we also see in the last few minutes of Episode 4 of "Gaksital" when Oh Mok Dan, taking on the Kaksi role in the performance, is carried into the square by her companions (the jumping down and attacking Kang To with a knife, though, is not part of the original performance )

 

Once again, if anyone wants to see a master list of all my K-drama fanfics and other Hallyu-related writings, you can find that under the "About Me" tab on my profile page. Thanks for reading!

 

 

[moonstrike]

On 3/5/2018 at 8:51 PM, kittyna said:

Aw..."Angel Assistant Instructor" - I like the sound of that  

Me too! I love his nickname in the camp. And this is the latest photo that shows the appearance of angel manager. Looks like the troops is so close with him. I'm so happy all people in there loves him. 

 

 

The cap is special made for him. With his name written in hanja. ❤❤❤

 

On 3/5/2018 at 8:51 PM, kittyna said:

Of course, angels can be quite strict beings as well; they have to be if they are the servants of God. So perhaps that nickname actually reveals a bit more about JW's style than originally intended

He have to do that to make sure everything is in the right place. Being strict but gentle at the same time is quite difficult but he can do that and make everyone acknowledge his hardwork.

 

Doing an interview and showing in a magazine is some proove that he is doing an amazing job that we don't know there. In his interview, Joo won said that he is doing his best to improve himself to be an understanding and caring assistant instructure. It makes us know that this is harder and his work makes him busier than other celebrity that enlisted to the army.

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/mooon_struck/status/970669041604964353

 

 

On 3/5/2018 at 8:51 PM, kittyna said:

So, for instance, in one sense, I am imagining JW performing the characters' actions in my head, since he was the actor who played them. But in reality, I'm imagining the characters themselves, not JW - they have his face, his body, and his voice, but that's it.

Joo won is different person when he act. He is the character and not joo won anymore. He will be back after the director say "cut". I've seen it many times. He will be back to charismatic and cool yong pal to cute and adorable joo won with just a blink of an eye. This also happen when we imagine him inside our head when reading a fanfic. We just using his body, his voice, and his face. 

 

On 3/5/2018 at 8:51 PM, kittyna said:

Okay, the main exception would be Park Si On, since he and JW really are very much alike. But Lee Kang To and Cha Yoo Jin...definitely separated now from the vision of JW I have in my head.  

Hahaha... even Joo won said He and park shi on is almost the same. Joo won is like the normal version of park shi on. His passion and all expression that park shion shows is like the what joo won usually shows in 1N2D.

 

On 3/5/2018 at 8:51 PM, kittyna said:

think it used to be that that was a way a girl could reveal her feelings to her crush without feeling embarrassed, since she would find out the guy's response by the size of the gift he gives to her on White Day (if it's noticeably smaller or plainer than hers, he just wants to be friends; if it's the same or even bigger, then he's interested in dating her). But again, now that it's sort of done between girls and guys more generally, I'm not sure on all the rules about the gift-giving anymore.

Wow... i don't have white day in my country. We just have Valentine's day. And the one that give the present is the boys. So girls just wait and not do anything. But sometimes they gift each other a gift in the same day.  

 

On 3/5/2018 at 8:51 PM, kittyna said:

lol - I guess my feelings would be the sort that the typical second male lead has for the first female lead  Where it's not about whether he could get the girl, but only that she is safe and happy and stays true to the goodness inside of her

That is kinda sad... hahaha... every second male lead has a sad painful story. Leaving the girl with her happiness and he just looking from afar with smile and tears on his face. That is the fate of fangirl. At least he is happy... 

 

Pics!!!

 

This is so cute!!!! 

 

I want to pet him!

 

And take him home. 

 

I also watch again his appearance video in festival.

 

Although its acting, its kinda hurt seeing thing hitting his face. 

 

 

[moonstrike]

On 3/5/2018 at 11:40 PM, kittyna said:

Title: Yōkai

Drama: "Gaksital"

Characters: Kimura Shunji, Lee Kang To

Premise: It was with no small sense of relief that Kimura Shunji read the news of Gaksital's death in the paper. Finally, he thought, Lee Kang To could have some peace from his madness. But then Shunji had his own encounter with Gaksital, and it turned his entire world upside-down. After all, how could a dead man do what he did?

Warnings: Violence; Some Japanese profanity/racial slurs

Wow... thanks for the fic. Its getting deeper and darker. What will shunji think if he know that his bestfriend is the one that killed his brother? 

[kittyna]

1 hour ago, moonstrike said:

The cap is special made for him. With his name written in hanja.

 

Thanks for sharing this info - now we know what his actual name is in hanja  

 

By the way, although I don't know what the hanja characters would mean specifically in Korean, if I were just to do a Wiktionary search on them individually as Chinese characters, here's what I got in terms of meaning:

 

Quote

Han character[edit]

晙 (radical 72 日+7, 11 strokes, cangjie input 日戈金水 (AICE), four-corner 6304₇, composition ⿰日夋)

1. early
2. bright
3. respect

 

Quote

Definitions[edit]

原

1. meadow; field; plain; prairie; tundra; wilderness
2. source; origin; beginning
3. Original form of 源 (yuán, “fountainhead; source”).
4. basic; fundamental
5. original; primary
6. originally; at the beginning
7. to originate; to arise
8. to trace the source; to probe into
9. to forgive; to pardon
10. A surname.

 

And, by the way, one of the possible meanings for the latter (原) overlaps with the second character in JW's stage name (元), which also means "origin" or "source" in Chinese  

 

1 hour ago, moonstrike said:

Doing an interview and showing in a magazine is some proove that he is doing an amazing job that we don't know there. In his interview, Joo won said that he is doing his best to improve himself to be an understanding and caring assistant instructure. It makes us know that this is harder and his work makes him busier than other celebrity that enlisted to the army.

 

Given that I initially thought celebrities who enlisted literally just disappeared from the public eye for 21 months, I wasn't thinking about whether JW's limited appearances were the norm or the exception. I expect all of them to work hard and stay out of trouble - and that's all I expect from them.

 

1 hour ago, moonstrike said:

Hahaha... even Joo won said He and park shi on is almost the same. Joo won is like the normal version of park shi on. His passion and all expression that park shion shows is like the what joo won usually shows in 1N2D.

 

Well, of course there are still notable differences between JW and Park Si On  But I definitely think they share similar values and would make similar decisions, even if the thought patterns that lead to those choices might be very different  

 

1 hour ago, moonstrike said:

Wow... i don't have white day in my country. We just have Valentine's day. And the one that give the present is the boys. So girls just wait and not do anything. But sometimes they gift each other a gift in the same day.  

 

We don't have White Day where I am in Canada either - I just know it's a thing in Japan and Korea. Where I'm from, Valentine's Day is the big holiday for lovers - and while traditionally, guys gave gifts to girls, now I think it's more mutual (couples give gifts to each other). Granted, it's also hard to stick to a traditional "guys initiate" custom when couples are now way more diverse (heterosexual and homosexual), so I think it's just become a general time when couples do stuff for each other.

 

1 hour ago, moonstrike said:

This is so cute!!!! 

 

Aw...Bunny JW! Those pics are so cute  

 

53 minutes ago, moonstrike said:

Wow... thanks for the fic. Its getting deeper and darker. What will shunji think if he know that his bestfriend is the one that killed his brother? 

 

Yeah, I know, right? This is probably why I usually only come back to this "Gaksital" fic series from time to time - I checked, and I literally wrote all four parts of the "Seolleim in Salzburg" series thus far between this one and my previous "Gaksital" fic.  

 

Writing darker stories like this are not necessarily pleasant, but they are interesting - I just prefer spreading them out, so I'm not in that same darker mental space all the time.

 

So the next one will be the White Day "Good Doctor" fic. Funny, because I actually started watching "Good Doctor" immediately after finishing "Gaksital" the first time around, too - I needed something more cute and fluffy after all that dark violence and angst.  And it looks like the same thing's gonna happen here.

 

And now for pics!

 

Spoiler

Nice sweater - and nice plushie  

 

 

A couple of signing pics

 

 

 

 

Some really nice shots from "Nae Il's Cantabile"

 

 

 

Kudos to the people who edited this collage: the combination of the pink background with JW's darker grey clothes looks really nice  

 

 

I'm not sure where/when this was from, but I like it. There's a very casual "boy next door" vibe to this shot, almost like you and JW are friends meeting up in a café or something. (Yes, overactive imagination, I know )

 

 

He's got a treasure map!

 

Just kidding  That's not a treasure map. What it is, though, is a copy of a really old centuries-old map of the eastern part of Canada (i.e. my country), which is actually just as cool, in my opinion.

 

I do wonder, though, if that specific map was original to this photo or was Photoshopped in afterwards....

 

 

And since my next fic will be about Park Si On and Cha Yoon Seo....

 

 

 

[kittyna]

Hm...is today another quiet day? Okay, then - I'll just post some pictures for now.  

 

BUT before I get to pics, I also want to share this behind the scenes video from "Nae Il's Cantabile" that I found earlier today. It's pretty interesting to watch JW practicing the conducting part specifically - I will admit, though, that I lost it and burst out laughing towards the end when he got so into it that his hat flew off  

 

 

And now for pics!

 

Spoiler

I love how the camera caught him adjusting one of the soldiers' salute - It's like the whole, "Ya, let Hyung show you how!" moment

 

 

In writing the "Seolleim in Salzburg" series, I realized that I was having a hard time judging Cha Yoo Jin and Seol Nae Il's heights in relation to each other (i.e. where does she come up to on him?), because it wasn't all that consistent throughout the drama. Well, now I know why I was getting confused: MANNER LEGS!

 

(Just a quick FYI: I eventually settled on Nae Il coming up to a little bit above Yoo Jin's shoulders, for three reasons: 1) because that seems to be JW and Shim Eun Kyung's height difference in real life; 2) since Yoo Jin marks that height himself when looking for Nae Il's competition dress; and 3) because the idea of her face being at his chest level works best for the hug scenes I imagine)

 

 

 

Comparing some shots from the Korean and American versions of "Good Doctor"

 

 

Fanservice from the 2014 visit to Hong Kong

 

 

 

 

And, finally, a collage from that same trip, just because the pictures look cool.

 

 

 

[kittyna]

Popping by quickly with this week's Throwback Thursday pics!

 

Spoiler

A couple of cute shots from "Ojakgyo Brothers"

 

 

(I love the top photo in this collage. Hwang Tae Hee and Baek Ja Eun watching TV together on their honeymoon...I love how ordinary that is! It tells me that this will be a couple that appreciates the little things in life, and not just the big romance.)

 

 

(Although they certainly get a good deal of that romance as well )

 

 

And now for just some miscellaneous older pics

 

 

 

 

(Can we just talk about JW's Disney T-shirts, though? Yes, I know they're probably pieces from the brand he's promoting here - but they're clearly also something from his earlier style )

 

 

 

Love this shot from "King of Baking, Kim Tak Gu"

 

 

Ending it off for today with a couple of shots from 1N2D

 

 

 

 

[moonstrike]

On 3/7/2018 at 1:17 AM, kittyna said:

Thanks for sharing this info - now we know what his actual name is in hanja  

 

By the way, although I don't know what the hanja characters would mean specifically in Korean, if I were just to do a Wiktionary search on them individually as Chinese characters, here's what I got in terms of meaning:

Its nice to learn and know new things about him. I love his name and the meanings of it. Its beautiful and also have a deep meanings in it. And I also love that his name's meaning is showing in his action. 

 

On 3/7/2018 at 1:17 AM, kittyna said:

Given that I initially thought celebrities who enlisted literally just disappeared from the public eye for 21 months, I wasn't thinking about whether JW's limited appearances were the norm or the exception. I expect all of them to work hard and stay out of trouble - and that's all I expect from them.

I don't following other celebrities but i know that he is doing his best and really hardworking in there. News and all his troops comments is some proove of that. And I'm waiting for more good news from him.

 

On 3/7/2018 at 1:17 AM, kittyna said:

We don't have White Day where I am in Canada either - I just know it's a thing in Japan and Korea. Where I'm from, Valentine's Day is the big holiday for lovers - and while traditionally, guys gave gifts to girls, now I think it's more mutual (couples give gifts to each other). Granted, it's also hard to stick to a traditional "guys initiate" custom when couples are now way more diverse (heterosexual and homosexual), so I think it's just become a general time when couples do stuff for each other.

I wonder what is joo won doing in valentines day and white day? He might be spending his time with his family and friends. Like he said, he likes to hang out with his hyungs and friends. And he also love to spend his time with his family in his spare time. I doubt he receive many gift in valentine day and white day. Especially chocolate and flowers because its very identical with valentine. How will he eat that many chocolate? Hahaha...

 

On 3/7/2018 at 1:17 AM, kittyna said:

Aw...Bunny JW! Those pics are so cute

I know, right? This is more photos of joo won cute pose. 

 

This is natural without filter at all. Joo won is indeed a very cute beany bunny. He has cute cheeks everytime he smile, eye smile, those deep dimples, and also rabbit teeth.

 

Our bunny is sleeping so peacefully. Like a baby.

 

The comments is so true. Our cute shy guy is becoming a tough manly man now.

• pooipek That time he's still bit shy and gentle @zu.won_moon.jun.won never expect he'll become assistant trainer. Can see from his real army picture, now he's so man and cool. You did well. ❤you, proud of you and fighting
• yunie_ok I know he will do his best in the army. But I also never expect that he will become the best recruit, first rank! Be an assistant instructure, front line soldier, and I also heard that he also the squad leader (the troops leader, 분대장) in his camp. He already has many achievement just in some months in the army.
• yunie_ok This is some proove that he is indeed doing his really best in the camp. So proud of him.