❑❑❑

( song of the day :
dispatch - heize &
simon dominic )

[ seongsu's aug. 2020 funeral that jaehyun mentioned in the christmas special. pledis ent pls dont sue me for defamation 사랑합니다 <3 ]

warning : includes death & characters' insensitivity in 'events where one should be serious'. set at a funeral home.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

kiki and jungwoo walked hand in hand to the funeral home. ahn and doyoung were only a few steps behind them, loudly joking about something they assumed was very, very gay.

once they opened the door, youngmi, seoyeon, taeil, johnny, and taeyong were all early and seated on one row of chairs closest to the entrance.

"i missed you!"

"oh my god, you too!"

"you're . . . . taller?"

jungwoo replied, smiling, "nah, my shoes just have heels."

taeil dropped his friendly grin.

"you know, that is so unfair! you're depriving actual short people from the things they—"

"shhh."

his statement for 'height righteousness' was silenced by the other visitors who were annoyed by his exclamation, him politely shutting up.

"sorry."

❑❑❑

halfway through the supposed last time to visit before leaving to the cathedral, they noticed how their large group was incomplete.

"where's haneul?"

"family outing," jaehyun replied.

"without you?"

"he's scared of her parents."

"by the way, haechan and saerom said they won't attend either because of his singing thing," kiki added upon hearing that the topic was about their friends, "yuta and byul weren't invited for some reason, but they want updates so they're basically with us through text."

"how about ryot?"

"at the tattoo shop. she's been really busy lately," it was taeyong this time. "she said she'll video call in a bit."

❑❑❑

"i should vlog this." a title idea soon popped into his head. "jace's funeral fantasia!"

"our channel would get cancelled in a minute," sicheng opposed.

"and he won't?"

"mmmm, maybe he would too."

"imagine him getting memes like prince philip."

both boys' eyes light up at their mini idea, looking like they plotted the best thing ever.

seoyeon managed to hear their conversation, shooting them a glare from the side. "oh come on, let him rest. yes, he was an asshole, but he's dead so move on."

"more reason to film!"

"i swear to god."

❑❑❑

"where are you again?"

taeyong was on a video call with their three friends who couldn't attend to the place itself (as mentioned earlier).

"seongsu funeral."

"he died?!"

"you just knew?!"

"oh, he deserves it." ryot said, both byul and yuta agreeing with small nods. "kill him again."

the others around him shot glances of horror. due to both the panic and embers, he lowered the volume to its quietest right away.

"y'all are on loudspeaker goddammit."

❑❑❑

[ fast forward to cathedral scene ]

mrs. han's eulogy sure took an insufferable amount of time. they did not enjoy it at all.

they were all preoccupied with the thoughts in their own world with additional actions yawning, or thinking of what to have for dinner, or preventing themselves from falling asleep.

oh if only it didn't look rude to leave.

❑❑❑

"mark's crying."

thanks to the boredom, they decided to treat mark's so-called 'teary eyes' like high school students' gossip, passing it around their circle to chuckle over it.

"no, i'm just sleepy."

"sleepy, or broken . . . by nixie?"

"that rhymed!" kiki pointed out.

"i know right!"

"you're gonna make him cry more."

the poor boy could only sigh. "dude, just stop."

❑❑❑

"he was such a good man—"

youngmi, being the only one who was actually listening to the eulogy, managed to hear that one (untrue) sentence shakily muttered by mrs. han.

and she snorted. loudly.

her last resort to forming an excuse after all eyes turned to her (even mrs. han's), was to lie, pointing to jace who was beside her. "i'm sorry, sorry, you can continue. h-he just stepped on my toe. on accident. it was nothing, now look away!"

he mouthed, you blamed it on me?!

i said it was an accident!

❑❑❑

after everything, the fourteen of them decided to visit the cafe.

"that was a hell of a day."

"you didn't even try to make an effort to act a little nice."

ahn snickered. "me and doyoung cancelled a trip to bali for this. he doesn't deserve any effort."

❑❑❑

"imagine if we all work at networkly again. well, minus the dispatch because he's dead."

"you wouldn't want that," johnny expressed his distaste, "technology has become more advanced. customers became more demanding. office needs younger employees because of their capabilities. most young people don't want to work in a place like that. it's turned bullshit."

"aren't you just mismanaging the company so it's turned to bullshit?"

"are you calling me an incompetent leader?"

"incompetent i—"

❑❑❑

with one last stretch, jace looked out from the surroundings occupied by glass, noticing how the sky darkened. "it's getting late. i'm gonna miss out on that one episode of—"

"wait," doyoung intervened, sensing the moment of their parting for the day, "group pic!"

"but what about the ones who aren't here? not including them would be quite mean."

"hold up pictures of them on your phones. quick!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

it's been a year since this dropped oh god i'm getting teary-eyed no.

(the flashbacks this gives me is the worst though. i could be focusing on something then my brain would remind me of a shitty scene from here and i ?? would be sooo so so so disgusted ?? yeah anyway)

this is still the fic with my most favorite characters and readers (and that one user who tried to apply 3 months after its finishing date) so thank you, once again, for the experience! network love will always be another level of special for me!!

thanks a lot. i love you.

— gabri <3