present : the butterflies
november 11, 2019
zhong xiyue had finished all her schoolwork, and decided she wanted to re-read some of her favorite books. her roommate was out at other peoples' dorms and she didn't want to paint, so that was what she did.
carata - korehao
at this specific chapter, there was a particularly funny line that made her laugh. xiyue checked the comments, because it was one of the first things she'd do when she saw something that gave her a reaction- check other peoples' reaction.
a username called 'wOOOoOoZi' had a bunch of comments under her comment (which just happened to be her being as savage as anything. people in the comments were dying about the username, telling the person she was obviously actually seungkwan, and the person acted like she was being exposed and shocked. so, because she thought the person's comments deserved recognition from her, she typed in
M4DJ2M1
you're funny c:
almost immediately she received a reply
wOOOoOOZi
what did you expect from the almighty seungkwan?
december 23, 2019
xiyue just happened to be reading a book called bloodline - seventeen when she saw a hilariously savage comment and a familiar username, 'wOOOoOoZi'.
smiling, she replied to the comment.
M4DJ2M1
hi!! it's you from carata!
wOOOoOoZi
ayyoo it's me yes woozi technically seungkwan
well my name's yeji actually, you?
M4DJ2M1
joy
wOOOoOoZi
from red velvet? lmAOO just kidding hehe
how you doin boo
M4DJ2M1
fine c: where are you going for christmas?
wOOOoOoZi
destroying a restaurant
and then she sees a reply from the author of the book
btssoka
i'm confused but i see carata and i love korehao so hello
wOOOoOoZi
right let's talk elsewhere authornim is gon be pissed
M4DJ2M1
okay c:
and that was when xiyue unknowingly started a whole new journey for herself and others.
december 24, 2019
heaven horowitz was absolutely bored, and so she clicked on the book 'bad boy' on a familiar profile. "dandy91? oh yeah, the one who wrote demons! right, i'm doing this." her face fell as she saw a notisfication pop up.
KittytheMochi
heav, im going to a meeting
okayyyy stay safe have fun!!
frowning, she taps into chapter twenty four- her favorite number, and plus it was the twenty-fourth of december today- and writes down "@dandy91 tell me @_starriix @daughteroffreya @WOOOoOoZi @caratarmy04 and @KittytheMochi what the HEŁL kind of "MEETING" she went to"
she clicked post.
kim misun, otherwise known as dandy, was sitting on her couch, in hawaii, smiling at her screen as a notisfication popped up.
wavyyross17 on bad boy - twenty four
@dandy91 tell me @_starriix @daughteroffreya @WOOOoOoZi @caratarmy04 and @KittytheMochi what the HEŁL kind of "MEETING" she went to?
dandy smiles and replies with
@wavyyross17 hey heav!
december 27, 2019
a notisfication pops up and dandy reaches for her phone to check it.
WOOOoOoZi
oiii dandy
hey, yeji
how you doing my boo
i'm doing great. you?
as fabulous as me, baby
okay, what's up
BROOOO I FOUND A BOYFRIEND
WELL A GIRLFRIEND BUT WHO GIVES A FLYING FUCK
reALLY?! OKAY. NAME, AGE, WHERE DID YOU MEET HER
her name is SEO ANHA and told us to call her ACE
AND SHE'S BEAUTIFUL
I MET HER HERE, LIKE HERE, SHE LIVES IN THE SAME COUNTRY
AS ME BUT NOT THE SAME CITY
she's younger than me for a month
sweet you guys actually dating?
nah not officially until we meet
you'll see your girlfriend someday!
yessss thank thou kind heart dad!
december 28, 2019
on the other side of the world, chwe yeji moved her arm from the strings attaching her to medication and put her phone down. a minute later, she picks it up again, remembering someone she hadn't texted in a month.
M4DJ2M1
yooo joy it's me yeji woozi technically kwan
hi yeji c: how are you?
doing greaaaat, remember like last month where we
were trying to find each other siGniFicAnT oTHeRs?
yesterday i found myselft one
congratulations.
YEAH THANKSSSSS OK BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT NOW
THE POINT IS I MIGHT HAVE FOUND YOU A SIGNIFICANT OTHER
:o
you know me boo i'm gonna tell her to create a groupchat for us on monday. you know what- be there at the online book 'bad boy' and go to chapter 24. ya know that one sentence that has like a million comments on it? click on that boo and say hi tomorrow
k
seeeeee ya joy
take care yeji c:
<3
before putting her phone down, yeji changed her username to match her counterpart's 'vernonie99'. deciding on 'kwannie99', she was satisfied and shoved her phone aside, reaching for a pencil to sketch something.
in a country far north, xiyue sat next to her roommate, lee nini, and thinks of what yeji said. bad boy, chapter 24.
she searched it up, under it was a purple-profile-pictured icon with the username 'dandy91'. she taps into the said chapter, to find that it had around five hundred comments already.
@M4DJ2M1
@M4DJ2M1 oiii joy where are you i found you someone
she sees the messages from the username wOOOoOoZi, also known as yeji, mentioning her in the comment section. confused, the youngest goes into the comments and says "hi?".
"yue, what the heck is happening to spongebob?" nini shouts, shaking her best friend and pointing at the screen. "you can watch first, someone texted me." xiyue replies. nini nods and continues watching nervously, spilling popcorn everywhere.
almost immediately, yeji replies with '@dandy91 @dandy91 @dandy91 @M4DJ2M1 you two have been arranged by the one and only chwe yeji to be significant others. now go do whatever you want. also, joy, dandy's our leader and our dAdDy, so that makes you our mommy!'
xiyue sighs, and clicks on one of the other contacts randomly. it landed on the one called @_starriix. she types in 'hi c: @_starriix' and closes her phone, going back to watching spongebob with her best friend.
all the way from hawaii, way more right in the world, dandy looks at the bad boy chapter twenty four comment section groupchat again, to find that yeji, had already 'matchmaked' her with the username @M4DJ2M1. to her absolute shock, the comment section already had over six hundred comments! this isn't going to work.
clicking on 'new book', she creates a book called seventeen groupchat - happened on chapter twenty four of bad boy. and, going back to the original groupchat to mention everyone's usernames in her new book, she smiled and waited for the notisfications.
oh! quickly going back to editing mode, she added on the first line: 'don't kill each other please! jun @KittytheMochi and @kwannie99 i'm looking at you two!'
ping! immediately, she received a comment saying 'not my fault jun is fightable' from yeji. jinwon quickly gets in and says 'i'm not going to guarantee you're not in a wheelchair after this kid'. dandy laughes and puts her phone down. those two were always like that.
december 31, 2019
55
56
57
58
59
00!
'happy new year!' heaven keys into the comment section in their new 'seventeen groupchat' book. immediately, there were replies from @daughteroffreya, otherwise known as heo jilin, dandy, yeji, jinwon and joy. things like 'happy new year!' '2020 is going to be lit y'allllll' 'happy new year haoi' and 'it's not new year for me yet, but happy new year!' filled the comment section. jilin and her 'significant other', @_nitrx_ , the quiet and blunt kwon wonyoung, nickname weiwei, were having a sweet lovely conversation in the comment section now. @caratarmy04, their soft babysitter angelita, was wishing a good year ahead for everyone, while saying all types of sweet things to her counterpart @TheDarkWolf7, han yeojin.
with a bright smile on her face, heaven looks at the firework-filled sky and thinks of the future.
dandy91
hii!
dandy91. her counterpart that yeji assigned her to. she should probably go say hello, it was new year after all, she wanted to cheer more people up.
hi
and then she leaves her phone aside, proceeding to stand up and stop her other friend mark from calling nini a 'green witch'.
january 18, 2020
and then day after day, they get closer.
in january, yeji got pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital. jinwon found xiyue, yeji, alex, and heaven's instagrams account and created a groupchat, which they later on added dandy and weiwei to. anha, otherwise known as ace or vernonie99, got in an accident with a motorcycle and was sent to the hospital too. this started a whole riot in the seventeen groupchat
kwannie99
VERNON
vernonie99
wait i can explain baby-
kwannie99
i saw you kiss a nurse stay away from me and don't
you dare call me baby
KittytheMochi
what's happening here @vernonie99
kwannie99
he's offline :[
i'm going to cry alone now
vernonie doesn't want me ;-;
M4DJ2M1
wait we love you, what's happening?
KittytheMochi
hansol cheated on kwan with a nurse ono
kwannie99
*cries*
_starriix
i'm going out to the mall to buy some things for
kwannie okay??
KittytheMochi
be back quickly!! owo
_starriix
yesss siiirrr junnn
M4DJ2M1
emmm,,, there's smoke coming out of dandy's room,,
kwannie99
*sniff* vernonie doesn't like me and he doesn't care about me ;-;
KittytheMochi
there's no time to be crying anymore kwan get out of the house it's
on fire!!!!! ono ono ono
@M4DJ2M1 @ M4DJ2M1 WHERE ARE YOU JEONGHAN
M4DJ2M1
jun run go get help i'm in the fire!
KittytheMochi
you'RE WHAT??!
kwannie99
and... i'll be... alone
KittytheMochi
fUCK AAAAAAHHHH IT'S BURNING
this is all vernon's fault! watch me karate him to planet mars! ono
kwannie99
eomma and jun hyung have both been burnt... and i'm all.... alone
wavvyross17
HI WHAT'S HAPPENING TO KITTY
KittytheMochi
THROW ME INTO THE SEA HAO
wavyyross17
what?!
KittytheMochi
JUST DO IT THROW ME INTO THE SEA
wavyyross17
NO!
KittytheMochi
fine i'll do it myself ono
*jumps out of burning house into the sea*
M4DJ2M1
i- i'm back as a ghost
KittytheMochi
s- same
kwannie99
*cries*
M4DJ2M1
it's all okay, kwan, you have us c:
_nitrx_
what's happening?!
_starriix
hey guyss im back from the shopp- EW whats that smell?
kwannie99
*stll crying and eating food* i'm so annoying
M4DJ2M1
no you're not, kwannie :c
KittytheMochi
vernon cheated on kwannie with a nurse and dandy burned the house down
hannie and i are dead
_starriix
where do we live now? D:
_nitrx_
oh dear god guys
kwannie99
waaahhh vernon left us
KittytheMochi
@vernonie99 get your ass back here!! ònó
kwannie99
he's gone, jun :(
_staarriix
here's your ice cream, kwan >:
dandy91
OKAY WHAT IS GOING ON
_nitrx_
vernon cheated on kwannie with a nurse and you set
the house on fire, dad
dandy91
I, SET THE HOUSE ON FIRE?
oh hell nah, this is ridiculous. did you see minghao here at
any point of time? and where's hannie?
kwannie99
dead
_nitrx_
dead.
kwannie99
like my heart ;-;
KittytheMochi
you'll pay for this, kim misun and seo anha :[
right duties as a ghost is done i'm going now
dandy91
NO GET YOUR GHOST ASSES BACK HERE I'M NOT FINISHED
kwannie99
it's all my fault T _ T
KittytheMochi
*hugs kwan* it's not your fault broski, vernon is just a dick
dandy91
can someone explain why vernon is being targeted?
_nitrx_
he cheated on kwan with a nurse
dandy91
well? what do we do now?
_nitrx_
well @dandy91 you were the one who burned down the house so..
kwannie99
we need money to buy a new house
and as weiwei went to explain to dandy the situation that had happened, xiyue laughed at the skit they had made up in the span of minutes. it was just about right to cheer up yeji and give her all the drama she needed, who was probably bored locked up at the hospital. "hey, yue, you wanna go to the roof after this?" mark asks. xiyue smiles. "sure." they had gotten into a habit of crawling up to the school roof by the music room trapdoor everyday at midnight.
febuary 11, 2020
story after story, then febuary came.
yeji was still in the hospital, constantly updating them with stories like how her cousin turned on 'the nun' when it was two am and she was scared to death, and how she was definately going to break out of the hospital to see dandy.
xiyue, being the youngest, was having class, coding class to be exact, sitting next to one of her closest friends liu huanling, was texting dandy on the class computers. huanling kept peeking over her table and typing in weird things such as 'drink dumb bitch juice' and sending them to dandy, making xiyue have to explain everything.
and then she smiled. huanling would probably get along with the moonwalkers. and so she opened up the seventeen groupchat and typed
M4DJ2M1
i would like to introduce you to my classmate, @CANADIANBOYE
she saw huanling checking her screen, and typing back.
CANADIANBOYE
i dumb dumb i go by rose ganggangyumyumhihi
_nitrx_
im sorry but you just kinda made the biggest mistake in your life
_starriix
well would you look at the time i need to go have an appointment
with my couch
dandy91
@_nitrx_ oh shush. we're one big amazing family!
kwannie99
nono don't listen to this little shit
CANADIANBOYE
i've seen this groupchat before through yue's screen come on
_starriix
trust me it gets weirder
a smile is seen on xiyue's face as huanling proceeds to to talk to them.
CANADIANBOYE
so wanna hear the story where i messed up my friends house
because i was trying to drink milk? :)
xiyue almost laughed out loud at that. huanling had snorted milk in miyeon's house because she was laughing (or, cackling, yodeling, you name it) while drinking milk. she sees heaven getting into the conversation, saying hi and all that, and goes back to listening to the coding teacher.
yeji, on the other hand, was getting comfortable with the hospital. she didn't like it or anything, but the people who were there for her when she was at the hospital, and all those memories such as horror movies before bed and ace cheating on her with a nurse and all that made her laugh and realise it was something she could keep in her heart forever.
then in late febuary, a person who they were not familiar with showed up in the groupchat. dandy immediately asked who they were. and after a round of riots and chaos, everybody scared, nervous and annoyed, dandy managed to get out of them that in discord, a bunch of twenty or more people were stalking the groupchat and taking their personal information, making fun of their friendship, and so on.
dandy wasn't taking any of that, immediately asking the person to tell the 'stalkers' to leave them alone, and that she has thirty-eight other books for them to read and they can stay away from this, because their friendship wasn't any of those busybodies' business.
as you could see, that was dandy's job. to keep her family happy, safe, protected, and she would do anything to do that. they were lucky to have a hero for a leader.
march 14, 2020
the moonwalkers cherished many memories together, such as valentines day being a total flop of everyone asking everyone out and ace taking a picture of a pirate ring and sending it to yeji along with a proposal, making everyone crack up and collapse, xiyue and angelita holding dandy back from flamethrowing everything, yeji putting alex in 'bird box' so she couldn't see blood, everybody calling dandy old and kept sending her walking sticks, and of course alex being kidnapped by an ice cream truck while yeji, xiyue and huanling were unbothered and jinwon had to go rescue them.
and it wasn't just all the funny and weird conversations. they had deep conversations too, where everyone opened up to each other about bullying, mental health, parent issues, friend issues and so on. they were all becoming more, and more like a family, always being there for one another when they needed it.
march was the month where everyone started making use of the instagram groupchat, taking the 'stalker' warning's advice. dandy had made a chapter called 'no more mission chapter', telling them to talk there instead of the mission chapter. after returning from dance class, xiyue would always text yeji and dandy there. they started filling in each other's hobbies. dandy liked to write, golf and bowl, xiyue liked to dance, paint, and read, while yeji liked to draw and take selfies.
yeji was overjoyed that she turned her little cult of friends into a true family. she receives a text from huanling, or 'rose', asking if she liked ice cream, and she almost squealed as she sat next to her sister, replying with yes.
as they got deeper into the conversation, yeji decides to ask: 'would you like to try all the ice cream flavors with me when we meet?' and huanling replies with 'YESAJDASJLJL :D', making yeji smile and say 'right i promise we'll go around the world trying all the ice cream flavors that exist!'
she sets her phone aside and went back to clinging onto her sister as alex and xiyue starts to pile in and say they want to go with them to try the ice cream flavors, and jinwon telling them that she'd be the one to drive them there.
dandy had long created chapters in their seventeen groupchat book, asking them to fill in hobbies, timezones, interesting facts and all that, and it helped them get closer. when they first met, everyone was all scattered across the world, and nobody was used to being online at one time when for the other side, or just simply their counterpart, was asleep. but now, after dandy had gotten everyone to tell each other their timezones, they'd all found time for each other.
yeji had finally, finally, finally been released from the hospital. she was overjoyed that she could now go back to her beautiful, beautiful room and prance around the place taking selfies like the carefree, sassy and self-loving thirteen year old she is.
april 5, 2020
dandy smiles as she sees two contacts pop up on her phone. going into the seventeen groupchat, she channels her idea into action.
dandy91
let us welcome two new members of our family, @hoonsters and @jjeonwons!
introduce yourselves please!
jjeonwons
hellloooooo guuuuysss i'm jules!!!
hoonsters
i'm mai <:
dandy laughs as yeji, ace, jilin and weiwei sees the chat and comes up.
caratarmy04
hello! and welcome :D
zuanshishengming
welcome, i'm yeojin!! (originally thedarkwolf7 if y'all don't know!)
kwannie99
right this jules is so adorable and vernon-ish dad can we adopt
her please please please
dandy91
fine, i need some grandchildren of my own now.
kwannie99
@vernonie99 you wanna?
vernonie99
sure boo im naming this kid... chwe hanseung sandwich nugget
M4DJ2M1
i'm adding hanyoung to that c:
jjeonwons
wOOaH i like that chwe hanseung sandwich nugget hanyoung
thanks mom and dad
daughteroffreya
and we'll take mai! <3
@_nitrx_ right weiwei?
_nitrx_
yes yes :) hello mai
nO stupid names @daughteroffreya
daughteroffreya
can't guarantee that
CANADIANBOYE
'08?
jjeonwons
:o yes i'm '08!!
hoonsters
'07
_starriix
yoooo '08 liners
M4DJ2M1
c: '08
jjeonwons
october
M4DJ2M1
august
_starriix
april 😎
CANADIANBOYE
fuckety
december...
dandy91
can't relate i'm 04 lol
CANADIANBOYE
olddieieeee
dandy grins as she realised her idea worked on making the place even more active than before and she was bursting with ideas for the future.
april 21, 2020
alex hong stares in confusion at her phone. in the past five months, there had not been one day when her phone did not have over two hundred notisfications. their comment section on 'seventeen groupchat - happened on chapter 24 of bad boy - mission chapter' had went over fifteen thousand comments from their chat alone. but today, there was not one notisfication.
she immediately went to mention yeji in the comments, because she was the loud core of the family that gave everyone motivation to say something, and basically went around shouting over the place and making everyone happy and basically dying of laughter.
it kind of became a little more quiet this week, and she didn't know why.
_starriix_
@kwannie99
hey you guyssss are y'all awake
instead of notisfications immediately popping up, she saw one, single text from yeojin.
zuanshishengming
hellooo
and then the whole place went quiet again.
april 30, 2020
thankfully, the silence was in the past again. yeji had returned, saying that there was some personal issues. jilin and yeojin had been there all along, just didn't know how to start a topic. xiyue and huanling were stuck in online learning. ace, heaven and weiwei had the same reason as yeji. dandy just went on a hiatus and came back. however, jinwon and angelita were still inactive. alex changed her username to -selenic.
-selenic
heyyy y'all let's go steal hosh's vehicles
jjeonwons
dude that's lit yeessss bro
daughteroffreya
you are not touching my cars
kwannie99
i'm driving that shit to ice cream
or you wanna take a truck?
vernonie99
yooooo party on the night where the heat is on
CANADIANBOYE
wElcOMe tO miAMi
dandy91
what the pineapples is happening?
daughteroffreya
the '08 liners and yeji are gonna steal my carrrr
dandy91
no stealing!
-selenic
too late 😎✨
but on a much more serious note... who's free on may 2nd - may 19th?
M4DJ2M1
me
CANADIANBOYE
me 2
dandy91
me three
wavyyross17
what have i missed
wait
me toooo mate
zuanshishengming
ayyy gang yeesss
vernonie99
yes me
kwannie99
ME
jjeonwons
why not?
hoonsters
me too!
-selenic
who can plane?
dandy91
the answer is all of us, asked according private chat yesterday
just in case of emergency visits
M4DJ2M1
^^
zuanshishengming
^^^
-selenic
perfect
we're going on vacation to my house in la and we're sleeping there!
dandy91
YES!!!!! WE'RE ALL IN!
daughteroffreya
yes!!!
wavyyross
we'll be packing!
hoonsters
:o :D :D :D
M4DJ2M1
:D
jjeonwons
that
vernonie99
is gonna be
jjeonwons
lit
kwannie99
*sighs* like father like son
may 2, 2020
and then it's may second, the day they'd all been waiting for. alex had gotten ready to pick her friends up at the airport, knowing they'd arrive at different times. according to the timezones, the first ones to arrive would be heaven and weiwei (judging that they live in the same country), the first one to arrive by plane would be dandy and the last one to arrive would be (if, jin was not coming) huanling and xiyue, who had probably went to the airport together.
it was first a whole hour of chaos, with dandy (who did naturally arrive first) calling the roll call about eighteen times, huanling realizing she didn't bring her fridge with her and heaven shrieking for fifteen minutes straight because she forgot her hair curler. angelita was not there, neither was jinwon, but thankfully the rest were.
finally, everyone had arrived, minus the fridge and the hair curler.
"'kay, my parents ain't home, so you can mess up the entire house." alex says, after they were all done remembering who is who and hugging each other like koalas. "but if you don't help me clean up and i get grounded i'm throwing y'all to the sharks." everyone nods.
alex herself was trying to remember everyone. the one with the coconut haircut was dandy, the one with green hair was weiwei, the one who looked absolutely fabulous (but everyone did anyways) was heaven, the one who looked like a frog and wore cute stuff was huanling, the one in all black was xiyue, the one who kept flipping her hair was yeji, and so on.
"anyways, i'm going to make lunch. actually, i can't make lunch. who can?"
yeji, dandy and xiyue raised their hands. "actually, i'll go make lunch for us, yeah?" dandy says. "if i need help finding things i'll ask. can you take me to the kitchen, lex?" alex nodded and proceeded to guide the oldest into the kitchen, leaving the others in her room.
"so, what did you tell your parents?" ace smirks, turning around. "because i know some of y'all parents are strictassbroccolis." "i told my parents nothing. they didn't ask." huanling cackles. "vacation, friend visit, the usual, you know. that wasn't technically a lie," yeji snickers, holding ace's hand. "holy shit, your hand is crusty!" she exclaims dramatically a minute later, making ace yell "oi!" "you?" "i said i had business. i mean, come on." weiwei snorts, holding onto jilin like a koala as usual. the '08 line were talking to each other about school life and all that, while heaven was looking at herself in the mirror. nobody was different from how they were online.
alex enters the room a moment later. "hey y'all." "okay, can we just take a moment to appreciate heav's beauty? like, yooooo." jules gushes, pointing at the beautiful girl with honey blonde hair. heaven grins. "i know i'm beautiful."
"i'm sorry," xiyue says sadly. everyone was confused. "sorry for what?" "for heaven, her counterpart isn't here." heaven gives her 'soulmate' a hug, smiling. "it's alright! there's you guys! and that's all that matters now! we'll text kitty." her face fell. "but she hasn't been answering for a while already."
yeji had ran to alex's bed and started jumping on it. "she will one day. she's probably busy, or going through something. she'll probably read though, you can send her love through private chat!" heaven nods, reaching for her phone. "i'm gonna do just that!"
mai, who was conversating with xiyue, smiled. "hey, your english is not bad!" xiyue returns the smile. "thank you. after meeting you guys, my english has actually improved a lot."
"right, story time. so you know when yue and i went to camp like two years ago?" huanling starts off a topic, making everyone interested and gathering around the the bed, with huanling in the center. "so in camp we had this arrangement, where there's like three blocks, right? yue's room is next to mine, we're in block b. and then we had a classmate who was in block a. she texted me, and was like 'hey, you wanna sneak to my room? my roommate has a vr machine' and we were all 'yeahhhhh'. so we went there. and then we had this teacher, ms jang, who was the discipline guy, and she was patrolling the halls to see who was awake after ten pm, which was lights out.
"it was going okay and we went there and were all playing games and stuff, until the door was knocking at like, ten pm. our classmate's roommate said 'oh my god, it's ms jang!' and then we heard her say 'yes, it's me, are you guys asleep yet?' and we knew we were gonna like be in big fucking trouble if we didn't hide our asses and so our classmate turned off all the lights and stuffed the two of us in the closet. yue told her to open the god damn door but then she was a pussy and of course she wouldn't and so ms jang kept knocking until we were convinced it was a serial killer and the two of us were hugging each other in the closet because we were scared of the dark and all that-" "wait, wait, wait. did she leave or something?" jilin asks. "yeah, eventually she did, but she said she'd come back. and we knew we had to get the fuck outta there but we couldn't by the front door.
"our classmate told us to go by the balcony back door, so we had to get all our stuff in the dark, and we were all in parkas and shit. we went out into the woods in like the dark, like mate it was almost eleven pm! and then i fell down and nearly dropped my ipad, which was our only light source." huanling shudders at the memory. "did you find your way back?" mai asks. "yep, i mean we were lost until we found the bridge thing that connected the two blocks. we tried to sneak through the back doors too but it was locked so we had to go in front."
"one of my roommate and her friend was injured, they had someone over to our room and an accident happened. so a teacher was standing there and was about to take them to the infirmary. we snuck huanling in and then because the teache didn't see, i went inside my room and pretended to just come out." xiyue continued.
"and all my roommates went to the infirmary to nick snacks, because the nurse is kind. so we couldn't go out of our room because ms jang was like a demon jailer out there. we were texting each other, i was watching videos, she was playing granny with her roommate and waiting for the other roommate to come back. when my roommates came back, i stopped texting her and fell asleep, but yue had to wait for longer and she was texting the chinaline groupchat." huanling laughs. "i fell asleep a little before twelve thirty." xiyue confirms. everyone was in shock. "woah, that was legendary. i would've bumped into a wild animal and climbed a tree." yeji says impressively.
"hey, and this one time when me and my sister-" heaven continues her story and they had a great ten minutes until dandy called them for "lunch, y'all!"
before bed, they were telling each other horror stories until they all had a heart attack. everyone decided that weiwei was the best at doing it, with all the mysterious acts and all that, while huanling was the worst because she just kept laughing and swearing while she was telling stories. dandy, mai, huanling and alex were the ones that were actually scared, ace, jilin and yeojin were the ones clowning around the whole time, and while yeji, ace, and jules were the ones trying not to laugh, weiwei was the one who was unbothered throughout, heaven was the one who hadn't even been paying attention and xiyue was the one paying more attention to scientisfic details in the story than the storyline itself.
then, because everybody wanted to suffer what yeji suffered some nights at the hospital, they decided to turn on 'the nun' and watch it.
the result being: nobody laughing at all, xiyue falling asleep, dandy letting out the most earpiercing scream in the history of mankind, huanling and jules actually sobbing, heaven and ace firing fashion sense insults to the characters, yeojin and mai clinging onto each other, yeji pennywise dancing in the front of the tv to block it, and everybody else hogging all the popcorn and blankets and screeching in fear at everything. minus weiwei, who was calmly eating the ice cream and popcorn provided.
everyone fell asleep with happy thoughts on their heads and hopes for the further future in their minds.
the next day, alex took them to a shopping mall.
"anha? and who are you people?"
a foreign voice came from behind the girls. "who are you?" dandy asks back, and the guy glares at her. "why are you with her?" alex steps up. "who?" the boy points at anha. "her. what are you doing with her? are you the people who ruined her mind?" "who are you?" dandy repeats. "i'm anha's friend. i live with her. you were the ones who poisoned her mind, aren't you?" he replies venomously.
"may i ask, what do you mean by that?" xiyue asks, feeling that there was something not right with the situation and that it was right to speak up.
that seemed to offend the boy more than all put together. "what do i mean by that?! ever since she's been going online looking for friends she'll never have, it's been ruining her. she said we were useless to her. she became so clumsy. and that's not all! her eyesight is getting worse, she's-"
"stop. this is despicable of you. leave ace, and my family alone." dandy glares at the boy. "ace? we don't call her ace anymore. no. i need to distance her from these," he gestured at the girls, "shits. her family is mad, her grades are going down, and it's all because of you. stay away from her, go study or something."
alex had enough and stepped up. "excuse me? we poisoned her mind? she's probably angry at you because you're trying to control her life. and as if we don't study?"
"i'm taking her home." the guy persists, striding over to ace, who was blocked by yeji. the boy raises an eyebrow. "and who are you?"
"i'm her girlfriend." yeji says fiercely, as the boy's eyes widen. "girlfriend- i'm telling your father, anha. he's going to be pissed.
he reached out to grab ace's arm, but dandy cut him out. "no. leave us alone, go back home yourself, and do not come back. don't control someone you don't understand. if you come back, or if i receive any news of you from ace again, i'm calling the police. you live with her? i know your address. try me."
the guy went red and left, holding the middle finger up. everyone crowded around ace, asking questions and comforting her. ace didn't take the situation seriously at all, laughing, but they could tell she was annoyed at the male. "his name is bernadict. i call him coconut shit. he's trying to report everything i do to my father. he's a bitch, in short. don't worry about him, he can't bother us or take y'all away from me."
"hey guys, my parents are coming back two days later. where are we gonna go after this?" alex asks, worried that their little adventure together was going to come to an end. xiyue brightens up at this. "i spent two years in canada. it's not that far from america. when your parents are home you can ask them if you can go and we can all go together."
jilin, weiwei and mai clap simultaneously at the third youngest's words. "hell yeah, is it snowing there?" xiyue scrunches up her face. "if you go further north then maybe. vancouver, where i live, is south-west, so no."
yeji cheered. "i wanna go ride moose and eat some maple syrup!" "do you have any friends there?" xiyue nods. "mark, tina, crystal and nini. well, nini's not there, she's where i live now, we're roommates, but the others are. tina and crystal are both half chinese. mark's half korean half american and he just went there to visit his family. he lives with us now, though, but in different buildings." "did you learn anything there?" alex chimes in. "of course! i picked up french basics there but i started seriously learning in april this year. disappointing." "can i kick mark in the balls when i see him-" "-huanling, nO,"
may 20, 2020
alex's parents agreed. and just like that, they were taking a plane to vancouver. there was the usual chaos, with yeji walking too slowly and everyone thinking they'd lost her, heaven forgetting her suitcase on airport sidewalk and jilin (the fastest runner) had to run back and get it, and dandy calling the roll call about thirteen times again. xiyue and huanling kept taking photos, despite the two being the ones who grew up there. jules, alex and mai were dabbing and walking down the street singing old hiphop songs.
after settling at xiyue's house (which was a bit of a squeeze to fit all of them in but nobody cared), huanling and xiyue introduced them to their friends, mark lee, tina wang, and crystal ao. heaven and tina got along well, both being boss bitches who were, well, beautiful as fuck. crystal and mai dragged xiyue with them to talk about dancing, while mark just started annoying everyone and everything as ace joined in and yeojin facepalming and calling them insane, as dandy screamed 'y'all are weeeeirddd' to everyone while doing the pennywise dance.
"i'm gonna introduce you to the place i used to hide around by myself after school if i didn't want to go home." xiyue says, walking into some thin woods filled with maple trees. "follow me." everyone followed her as she told them too, and it past the woods, it was a small abandoned cottage, a wall seperating the woods and the things past it, and a pond.
the pond was shining green, with dragonflies flying around, and lily pads floating on the top of the pond surface. the cottage didn't look like it was really abandoned, and as the squad went inside, they saw quite comfortable furniture, a red carpet, a music box and a few books.
"mark's cousin lydia together with nini found this place when we were kids. it's been almost two years since i've came here. lydia probably comes and cleans the place up once in a while and maybe mark now that he's here. no one's ever found it before. we used to sit around, eating food." xiyue explained. "oh yeah, remember when we brought watermelons and chocolate? lydia and i kept saying the watermelons were disgusting while you and mark said the chocolate was gross." huanling cackled. "that was the one out of six times i came here."
"wow. it looks like a great place to hang out," yeojin marvels, walking in with jules. "it's kinda small, but it's really cozy. and bro, it's literally out there, in like, nature! it's beautiful out here!" ace grins, looking at the music box. "i like this place." "can we play this?" mai asks, pointing at the music box. "sure," xiyue says, going over to twist it.
a beautiful, melodious piece of music floats out of the music box, like a tinkling waterfall falling down into a stream, or like glass clicking very, very gently. yeji finds herself smiling at the sound, for she thought it was something she heard before.
it was a dream yeji had a month ago. that dream was really sad though, she thought. this is a happy time. this is a melody representing happiness.
"spray paints?" dandy points at a cluster of spray points at the side of a bookshelf. "what are these for?" "they're for the wall. we never actually sprayed that particular wall though, we sprayed other walls instead." huanling explained. jilin smiles at this. "hey, guys, if y'all don't mind, we could spray 'the moonwalkers' out side there, on that wall! you can explain to lyds or something about it, and tell her to keep it."
"lydia. okay, it's a cool idea though." huanling snickers and reaches for a spray paint bottle. "fuck y'all waiting for?" heaven asks, grabbing for a purple one.
and together, the moonwalkers sprayed the two meaningful words onto the wall beside the cottage, and when alex and xiyue finished the waxed moon shape at the end of the words, everyone stared impressively at the colorful masterpiece.
june 16, 2020
the rest of the days in canada was absolutely memorable. yeji got to try out the maple sauce. huanling got her ice cream, although it was absolutely unnecessary. xiyue explained the spray paint situation to lydia and lydia agreed with keeping it. they hung out with huanling and xiyue's old classmates, daring mark to treat them to cheesecake, getting crystal to teach them french, going on rollercoasters under tina's pay and all that. they celebrated heaven's birthday six days ago, having fun at the cottage and nearly shoving the birthday girl into the pond.
jinwon came after hearing the message. they picked her up at the airport and she got to know about the things they all did together. she quickly joined in the fun, with cheesecakes and maple sauce and the cottage. everybody was excited and happy.
until the chewing gum's bubble of fun had turned too large and popped.
"i have to go back to australia." jinwon says firmly after checking a message on her phone. everyone was confused that she didn't say anything, but they sent her to the airport and bid farewell to her, heaven giving her counterpart and sweet kiss on the cheek. she went back to her hometown two days ago.
and then today. "sorry to break it to you, but school starts on june nineteen. we have our exams a week after, so bro, even though school fucking sucks we have to go back." huanling points at herself and xiyue. "i don't wanna get a d minus or something like that. we have three days bro. we gotta go back. y'all can stay if you want though! i'm pretty sure you already have the hang of it. and if you don't, there's always tina, crystal and morky porky!"
yeji smiles.
"hey, before you leave, i just wanted to tell y'all. it's to all of you. worrying for the future, remembering the past, it's going to be over soon, so live it fast. i mean, you only live once. so live it to the fullest, yeah?"
everyone agreed to that.
and so, everyone bid farewell to the two chinese individuals.
soon, the moonwalkers scattered again, going back to where they came from. they never lost contact, and had a bond stronger than ever now that they met.
july 18, 2020
where is everyone?
the whole place had became silent. yeji was inactive, and had changed her username to 'daddykwan99', ace was inactive, and she had changed her username to 'juntle-', weiwei was inactive, and had changed her username to '030w819', jinwon was inactive. mai (who had changed her username to wonhaengilchi') was suffering personal difficulties, while yeojin was partially inactive too, username changed to 'yeosnac'.
dandy (who had changed her username to 'cherrycoups91'), huanling, alex (username changed to 'httpsjihyoo'), jules, or xiyue (changed her username to 'joynana') would sometimes pop bye to say 'hi' or 'how are you' or 'y'all dead lmao come back to life', but that was just about it and it ended there. sometimes nobody replied. the seventeen groupchat book had been deleted due to too many comments being there, and dandy, not giving up, created a new book called 'you are incorrect: it's seventeen again'.
but then it didn't spike up like before. the most comments were 124 comments on heaven's introduction page for almost a whole month. and that was the number equivilant to the number of notisfications they used to get in two hours like seven months ago.
alex, jilin, heaven, xiyue and huanling started making use of their twitter groupchat, once alex had created it for the sake of the family members of the moonwalkers who had twitter. xiyue and huanling had just graduated to high school. huanling was leaving xiyue's school, and even though they were still in the same school chain, huanling went back to her birthplace, thailand, while xiyue stayed where they originally were. they'd known each other for four years and had not seperated.
july 29, 2020
alex feels her phone vibrate and she looks down at it to see a private message notisfication from someone she hadn't heard form in a while, someone she missed a lot.
Daddykwan99
alex
we need to talk
when the conversation was over, alex was in tears, and quickly jammed in xiyue's number.
"j- joy, yeji is le- leaving our family!"
xiyue puts down the book 'pride and prejudice' and her eyes widen.
"what?"
"yeji is leaving!"
"did she tell you why?"
"no! she-"
the internet connection broke and cut off the call. xiyue turned around to see nini standing there. "hey, lele, is everything okay?" xiyue sighed and faced her best friend. "i don't think so."
angelita, who they hadn't heard from for a long time, had vanished. in place of her 'caratarmy04' account, the title now said 'account deleted'. dandy, alex, xiyue, heaven, jules and yeojin tried to find another way to reach out to her, but they couldn't find any contact formation.
angelita was gone.
august 12, 2020
dandy sits in the middle of her cardboard box, frowning as she looks at her empty notisfication box once again. "this has got to stop."
CherryCoups91
@joynana @KittytheMochi @daughteroffreya @030w819 @yeosnac @wavyyross17@juntle- @httpsjihyoo @wonhaengilchi @jjeonwons @CANADIANBOYE anyone wanna help me plan a break out and a into Disneyland or Alaska in this case?
surprisingly, it was ace who replied.
juntle-
hey yooo
joynana
ace!
juntle-
heyyy mommaaa!
and then the happy conversating started again, but with less people and less drama.
august 19, 2020
it was still holiday, so xiyue, nini, and of course, mark were spending their days at vancouver. tomorrow would actually be their last day.
as xiyue was reading 'pride and prejudice', which she had never been able to finish because of the constant academic interruptions, she received a text from heaven.
wavyyross17
hey lele
i just wanted to say that i'm going to stop being online on
wattpad now. and i'm sorry for that, even though you can
always talk to me here and on twitter with the others, i'll
be leaving our first 'home'. i know it's hard. i'm not going to
delete it, but i feel like i have to distance myself for stupid
reasons. i love you, because i know i always have you.
hey, it's okay. i understand. i love you too, take care please.
i love you 💖💞💞💛💛
heaven, her soulmate in thinking and the person who she could always fill in with her difficulties and she'd understand, was leaving their original home.
xiyue grabs her book and distracts herself from the memories, planning to have a chat with heaven and jinwon later. she really misses them.
august 20, 2020
xiyue steps in front of the spray painted 'the moonwalkers' that they had made at the cottage two months ago. she smiles at the colorful memories, and how all those plans and dreams for the future had all fell down to the ground, her smile following it.
she reaches for a black marker and writes something beside the spray paint on the wall.
𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗼𝗻𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀:
𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱, 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗯𝘆𝗲. 𝗶 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗻'𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄. 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀, 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘂𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘃𝗮𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲. 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗲, 𝘄𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀. 𝘄𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲. 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗮 𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁. 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿. 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘄, 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱. 𝘄𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿, 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄. 𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗲'𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻. 𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸. 𝗶'𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸.
-𝗷𝗼𝘆
𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝙬𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩.