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don't request me or ask me about non syongseoknen ships i really don't care also read the rentry PRETTY PLEASE
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Every time I reread comfy liar I cry a little when SC asks WB what he likes about him & when WB is still processing he’s like “yeah whatevernevermindyoudontneedtoanswer”
actor who can't hide how he feels... [cracks knuckles] thank you for giving me an excuse to yap about comfyliar because man i've been having so many thoughts lately. as usual but esp abt wb's inner monologue and [gestures vaguely] comfyliar sungchan in general
i'm not sure if people have caught onto this (i really hope they did...) but wonbin is quite a bit of an unreliable narrator. the entirety of comfyliar i was leaning into his inner monologue very heavily, it's why there are breaks in narration (switching from 3rd person to 1st person often, sometimes 2nd person) and why there is sometimes informal writing (gonna, wanna, stuff like that). i was trying to make it seem like it was actually wonbin's real time thought process as everything was happening around him, which is why there are so many asides and parenthesis in comfyliar too! we often remember really random things in the middle of random tasks or events, so i added them as both world/narrative building AND to make it a realistic train of thought.
all of this is to say that it is intentionally sort of made to be read as like. "wonbin is the worst person in the world" throughout most of it. because that is how WONBIN thinks of himself. when wonbin describes his relationship towards tiffany and hierophant, he never mentions the times he's gone out of his way to protect them both verbally and physically when needed because he doesn't think it's that big of a deal. it's tiffany who reveals that he's protected them like that before. wonbin questions how much hierophant actually like him and their loyalty towards him because he thinks of himself as a martyr of sorts, as the most unlikable, selfish and horrible person alive. tiffany reveals that they would drop everything for him in a heartbeat. this is not to say that wonbin doesn't do things that are genuinely selfish and unlikable, but it IS to say that wonbin is not a bad person and no one in his life thinks of him as one. they get frustrated and angry with him (cough cough room 403...) but they have never thought of him as a bad person. he protects the ones he loves, he goes out of his way for them, he sacrifices so much for them. his mother has never been good or kind to him, and he decided to put his desires on the backburner for her anyway, because he deems her as more important. he does not like her, but he does love her and because he does, he will do anything for her.
i don't think anyone has caught this little detail quite just yet but it's important so. undoubtedly wonbin is in the wrong for room 403, but. when tiffany reveals that hierophant are going on tour in asia, wonbin's FIRST thought is "How long does it even take for them to get to China? How many miles is it? How long would it take for him to go home if Sungchan needed him?"
guys. sungchan did drop everything for him to fly to japan, yes, but the thing is. wonbin would have done the exact same thing. if sungchan had a medical emergency, if he was in trouble, if he did nothing but call wonbin and say "i need you" the exact same way wonbin did to sungchan, wonbin would have dropped every single thing to go to new york. fuck the tour. sungchan is more important. sungchan is THE most important thing.
speaking of sungchan - one of the very first major narrative decisions i had to make was to decide between whether i should write sungchan or wonbin's pov, but i ultimately decided to go with wonbin's because i liked the music/song motif better than a film one (i am huge on music and not so much on film, anyway). if i had written sungchan's pov, he would also be just as much of an unreliable narrator. he wouldn't have been seen or written of so tenderly as he was in wonbin's pov, because sungchan is insecure. he appears confident, and most of the time he genuinely is, but there are many, many cracks in his facade and if it was from his perspective, he would have been cracked wide open, and ultimately, i would have written of wonbin in a very tender and soft way. sungchan loves wonbin because he's a fighter, because he's extremely passionate about music and songwriting, because he does not believe in himself so sungchan will do it for him. i'm aware that it's almost hard to believe why sungchan would love wonbin and fight for him so much in comfyliar, but that's the thing. wonbin doesn't know why sungchan loves him either.
i've said this before, but it's also why i associate "touching yourself" by the japanese house SO heavily with the bus scene because it is SO sungchan's perspective in that scene. "know i shouldn't need it but i want affection / know i shouldn't want it but i need attention / know i shouldn't say it but i had to mention / it makes me wanna die, every time i have to / picture your face / i wanna touch you, but you're too far away / and when you call me, i'm all over the place now / you think it's different, but it's always the same / i wanna touch you, but." sungchan wasn't planning on taking the phonecall in a sexual direction, but it ended up that way because he was just as terrified of being honest about his feelings for wonbin as wonbin was for him. he didn't have the courage to say "i'm in love with you," but he had enough to say "i love your eyes, your lips, your wrists." there were multiple times he was trying to nudge wonbin to say that he's in love with him ("are you in love with me, maybe?" (some of the very first pieces of dialogue in the entire thing) / "i already know you’re in love with me") so that wonbin could take the burden off HIS shoulders, so he wouldn't have to muster up the courage to say it first. even in room 403, sungchan didn't say he was in love with wonbin, he said wonbin was in love with HIM. yes, yes, most of the reason why it took them so long to (officially) get together is because of wonbin and his mother, but. getting together is a two way street. sungchan had five years worth of oppportunities to say "be mine." he never did until they were both pushed to the absolute brink. he is responsible, too.
this is literally an entire essay on my own fic jesus christ sorry BUT I HAD TO GET THE BRAINWORMS OUT. nobody has mentioned or talked about this yet and it's been 2 months already so i don't think anyone has realized it and that's terrifying. thanks for coming to my tedtalk <3 thank u for reading and loving comfyliar <3 everything i write lives inside of me <3 i love u so matcha <3
how close do you think jsc and pwb are?
it's honestly hard to gauge how close they actually are just because so much of their closeness comes from offscreen interactions and when they think no one is recording them lol! i think it's pretty obvious that they consider each other friends, but how close their friendship is, i don't know! they often hang out in group settings (that's a given), but i'm not sure how often they hang out one on one. we know they eat together often, someone saw syongseoknen eating out at a restaurant once, and we know that they knew each other as trainees as well. in my personal opinion, i think they have a long way to go but i think they ARE getting there! they are together 24/7 whether they want to be or not. they're bound to get closer and they have gotten visibly closer over the past couple of months :-)
i think their bond will have the sort of renaissance that syongseok did because i don't know how long you've been a fan for, but when eunseok got introduced as an smrookie, we actually didn't know how close him and sungchan were! we didn't even know that they knew each other as trainees/in high school. they were even a fair bit awkward, but as you can see now that they're in a group again and their bond is closer than ever. we legit had no idea that they've known each other for 7 years, which is why i think that clip of eunseok choosing shotaro as his fav nct member and sungchan getting jealous from "welcome to nct universe" is hilarious now because like. DUDE!!! picking the guy you barely know over the dude you've known since high school... zero shame. those bastards fooled us all didn't they <3 (extremely lovingly and affectionately btw)
sungchan and wonbin have a history too, it's going to be 5 years this year (don't know the exact month because i don't think we know what month wonbin joined sm, if someone knows please lmk!!!) in total that they've known each other! they're a little different from 01z just because those two knew each other as trainees for around 3 years, and for wonbin and sungchan it'd be more like 1½-2 years ish maybe, but that's not nothing! it's just been a while since they've been in each other's presence, i feel like. they're definitely going to get much closer over this upcoming year as they get used to each other again because no doubt that they've changed a lot after about 2½-3 years since they got to see each other a lot i think! eitherway, i think the lack of information but the many crumbs of their relationship is what makes syongnen so inticing for a lot of people. they're fun! they're mysterious! they clearly have some kind of a history! that's very fun to explore! i love them anyway and as much as i write them romantically, i love them as friends too. i hope they eat well together :-) <3 <3 <3
just read local boy makes god series and i am beyond obsessed with it i dont think i have the intelligence to fully convey my thoughts. no seriously, i felt like you changed the trajectory of my life solely with that. also, ive been wanting to read books for quite some time and was wondering if you have any suggestion that is similar to what you wrote :)) or any personal favs would be fine too!
thank you so much for reading! i'm glad you enjoyed it so much <3 it's basically a mentally ill situationship The series. someone had to do it!
my most obvious suggestion is actually a book i haven't read! my dear dear boyjeans/brachioios on twt told me that for both of the fics, it really reminded them of "heaven" by mieko kawakami. (as a side note go read their entire bibliography of fics they're amazing i love them). onto my personal reccomendations!
if you're having trouble reading longer things consistently, then i would start off with short stories and poems. "crush" by richard siken is an obvious choice for a poetry book and i've even used someone of his lines in "in cages of desire." "kingdom animalia" by aracelis girmay is also another amazing one, i think about her poem "i am not ready to die yet" more than what is considered healthy. my favourite short story collection is "awayland by ramona ausubel. another one is "slaughterhouse" by yves olade, it's 17 pages and worth your time. here's the link for it, you don't have to pay for it but you can tip! https://payhip.com/b/RKhp
these are all novels that are between 150-350 pages: "convenience store woman" by sayaka murata, "flowers for algernon" by daniel keyes, "in the dream house" by carmen maria machado, "on earth we're briefly gorgeous" by ocean vuong, "the perks of being a wallflower" by stephen chbosky. as always, please look up any content warnings for the books themselves if the summary intrigues you and you have any sensitivities towards certain content! stay safe always. if you ever end up reading one of these, please let me know your thoughts by popping in here, i'd love to know what you think (and so sorry for how long this is) <3
reminds me of syongnen from your latest fic 😣 https://open.spotify.com/track/7GjOb7jRRrB3nrNqFeKzff?si=cFoRKOx4RoSqBoxF3JqTvg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A5DfKDonIvNlxlzA4ORIOFm
I don’t know if you’ll believe me or not, but I am in my fifth read if “you’re such a comfortable liar” … saying this story is a masterpiece is an understatement I honestly like it from the bottom of my heart so yes, I read it whenever I am free and absorbs every letter, every word and every line, I could recite it if you ask me to. I am this obsessed with it !! I don’t usually leave a comment or write my opinion to the authors but I mastered the courage to write you this🥹… I love syongnen’s dynamic and I have a fantasy of them in my mind and you were able to capture just that and left me mesmerized… fwb + internalized homophobia + secret relationship (….) ugh I loved it and I will keep cherishing this story until I get bored of it (I will never tho!) ++++ I know you said you don’t take requests but I think you’ll be able to write a canon complaint syongnen with the same tags (fwb + tension + secret relationship + slight internalized homophobia,,,,) 🥹 ..
sorry if my words are all over the place tho…love your stories and they way you convey them !!! Thank you for writing syongnen I hope you keep writing for them because there are people like me who’ll die for a syongnen fic from you and will reread them for thousands times 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
i do believe you! lol thank you. i still don't take requests however :-) while i'm sure reading that would be fun for you, it'd be incredibly boring for me to write another story with the exact same combination of tropes, and there's a lot of important reasons as to why i made the setting 90s new york with rockstar wonbin and actor sungchan, and not canon compliant. try and read up on 90s new york and the gay scene of the 80s and 90s then, it might help you understand. thank you for your kind words however, i appreciate them :-)
goregrief just gave me another will to live. cant die yet bfr ur next work. with that being said i hope you'll have a wonderful rest!
🤖
"are non-fandom friends aware that u write fanfic?"
lol absolutely fucking not i think i'd rather die. i've had some friends admit to me actually that they used to write or read rpf (and sometimes kpop rpf) but that was all like in the context of middle school or maybe early hs. the thought of my friends finding out i still actively write kpop rpf is MORTIFYING i also just like having these two sides very separated anyway so yeah over my dead body
yap sesh!!! 🐇
"do you write for yourself, others, or both?"
well ngl at the beginning of my goregrief journey i definitely wrote for others in the sense that it kind of became like. instant gratification/a huge rush of dopamine to post a new fic and wake up the next morning to see all the kudos, bookmarks, hits and esp the comments. compliments on my ability in any sense will always hit harder than crack cocaine. i honestly got hyperfixated on writing in that sense for a couple of months lol and now i just kinda write for myself. i can't say i don't consider my audience at all in writing (and if anyone does say that they're lying) but i mostly just dgaf and write what i think is interesting and fun and enjoyable for me to write!
++ continuous from the previous anon but jsc and jyh are on the same side of loyalty’s to a fault and i’m-the-last-one-i-need-to-worry-about-isms buttt they’re like on opposite sides of emotional constipation (virgo jsc you mean so much to me….) you opened a portal that never needed to be opened im sick
just finished tu tornerai and for context i’ve never been an f1 fan (only word of mouth of brocedes horror) i’ve been a briize for about 10 months but like 10x of that of yunjae trauma so every single line and reference was like a punch to the gut…i’ve loved your writing and the way you convey deeper notions but in a way that makes you #get #it just!!! this fic changed me made me believe in syongnen and especially w all the jaej 2024 context this fic wouldn’t be the same had it been released a year prior i think i wanna throw up now #neverkeepthefaith
alwayskeepthefuckery i'm actually not a cassie i'm just a yunjae #horror and #implications enjoyer (and i do rly like jaejoong in general) but either way yes. the sungchan/yunho/lewis hamilton and wonbin/jaejoong/nico rosberg parallels only make sense to fucking crazy insane in the head people and i'm one of them
hey river! i want to say im a big fan of your work and trying to pursue a career in writing like you are! do you have any tips or what are your sources of motivation?
okay interesting question because i've rarely gotten another writer asking for tips or motivation. so [cracks knuckles]
- if u write fic try and keep topics for ur fics and ur novels separated. theres lots of ideas i could explore in published novels but never in fic and vice versa. couldn't ever explore formula one or soulmates, much less at the same time, in published novels, for example
- try and keep some kind of a word count tracker that specifically tells you when you'll end up being finished if you keep going at the pace that ur going, it helps a lot
- try and carve out at least 30-60 minutes out of ur daily routine for writing (IF U CAN). doesn't necessarily have to be WRITING writing but could be also editing or reading. reading is essential
- if u get stuck turn the text to the color of the page and just start writing. prevents u from going back and rereading what u wrote constantly trust me it works
- my main sources of inspiration are music, literature and my personal life in no particular order. a lot of writing comes from observation. even if u just take some time to observe a little more on ur usual route to class or to work or whatever, ur improving ur writing. trust me
super surface level so sorry but if you have anything specific please feel free to ask!
nbmb cool about it boygenius lyrics: "Once, I took your medication to know what it's like
And now I have to act like I can't read your mind
I ask you how you're doing and I let you lie" i feel SICKKK
….i must also be an old man because idk the origins of the “please don’t die” meme either… i’ve seen it around but i have no idea where it’s from 😭😭
https://x.com/913x302/status/1834430478386078112?s=46&t=a0dYbt8A4zaIM43t6_HhXA
they did this to celebrate the second chapter of tu tornerai🙂↕️
https://x.com/913X302/status/1833889077311201465 pwb in his WAG era
https://x.com/BaeBaelicious/status/1833439594005549404 idek where to start with this
Sorry for asking all f1 related questions but… River…
On Nico’s birthday… 😭😭😭 https://x.com/sim3744/status/1833075303003914428?s=61&t=U4J0iUZF3pnVT15GmPDOMw
i saw someone saying they became sc biased after reading your works... its been weeks since i read nbmb AND I CAN'T GET OVER es...... help??????
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