Tutor, Translator, Driver, and Assistant Manager at Dreams Ent.
Gay.
Dating Kangwan.
02/04/1999.
23.
Tiger (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Thomas Fan Qiwang on Mar 3, 2019 22:52:59 GMT -8
It had taken six months, more paperwork than Thomas had expected, and Qiwang getting actively involved so that Thomas could help him study for Thomas to finally have permission to visit Kangwan's dorms. Thomas had gotten through his first semester in Korea with flying colors, and he was surprised with how much more natural the language felt in his mouth after six months of living there. He'd not been able to go home for winter holidays or Lunar New Year because money was too tight, but he'd been slowly saving up from tutoring English, math, and science students, both high school and college level, during what down time he had. He was getting used to the dorms, and while he and his roommate got along comfortably for the most part. He and Kangwan had seen each other less than either of them would have hoped, but it was still far more than if Thomas had been back in the US. Now that he finally had the go ahead to actually visit Kangwan, it would be easier too.
He used the code that he had been given to get into the building, and slowly made his way up to the dorm, suddenly anxious about what his reception would be like. He knew that Kangwan was excited for his visit, and the groceries that he was carrying in a rather heavy cloth bag hanging over one shoulder, but Kangwan hadn't known if any of his group mates would be there when Thomas arrived. Thomas hoped at least that the promise of fresh cooked food would make them at least relatively pleasant towards him. He'd also been promising Kangwan that he'd help clean up the space when he was finally allowed over every time Kangwan grumbled about the mess for months.
Finally, he got to the door and rang the bell, trying to keep his breathing steady so that his nerves wouldn't show too much on his face.
Kim Kangwan
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Idol - Vocalist/Songwriter / Seoul Cyber University Student (2025) Major: Applied Music.
Bisexual.
Dating Thomas Fan.
10/24/1999.
23.
Rabbit (Korea)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Kim Kangwan on Mar 7, 2019 11:35:26 GMT -8
Kangwan was honestly relieved when Shihyun and Taehoon mentioned earlier that day that they were going out for activities and a couple other things. He was nervous enough about Thomas coming over, but at least now he didn't have to worry about Shihyun. His bandmate was getting better at dealing with things like lgbtq issues, but he still had a long way to go, and would much rather have Thomas meet the friendlier band members before Shihyun.
He had tried cleaning up a bit so as not to overwhelm Thomas with the mess, but ended up falling asleep on the couch instead. With his other band members either practicing or still sleeping, he wasn't woken up until the doorbell rang. He shuffled off the couch and to the door, unable to stifle a yawn as he opened the door. "Hi" He said in Korean, and through his yawn. "Come on in." He added after his yawn finally left him alone, motioning for Thomas to follow him as he stepped inside.
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Tutor, Translator, Driver, and Assistant Manager at Dreams Ent.
Gay.
Dating Kangwan.
02/04/1999.
23.
Tiger (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Thomas Fan Qiwang on Mar 10, 2019 0:51:13 GMT -8
Thomas replied with his own "Hi" in Korean as well, with a little smile with relief that he'd gotten their correctly and that it was Kangwan who'd opened the door. He'd have been alright with Qiwang too, but he was pretty sure that Qiwang had said that he wouldn't be around that evening when they'd seen each other at school, though he hadn't sounded incredibly set in his schedule.
Thomas stepped inside after Kangwan, and he shuffled his shoes off in the little area by the door where they lived, glad that his shoes were at least visually distinct from the mess of other shoes that had congregated around the door. He made a mental note of it as something that he'd organize a little bit if he had the chance.
He wrapped Kangwan in a slightly awkward one armed hug and said, "I missed you! I'll give you a better hug once I put the groceries down, but I brought ingredients for a stir fry, so I can bribe your group mates. Is anyone else here? Qiwang didn't think that he would be, at least not at first, when I saw him in our shared math class this morning."
As he looked around, he almost itched to work on tidying up the space. It wasn't as bad as Kangwan sometimes made it sound, but a lot of it was pretty low stakes stuff that would make the space feel better. In a weird way though, it made him feel at home because this was the sort of stuff that he'd always tidied up for Theo and Teagan when they'd been living in the three bedroom apartment.
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Idol - Vocalist/Songwriter / Seoul Cyber University Student (2025) Major: Applied Music.
Bisexual.
Dating Thomas Fan.
10/24/1999.
23.
Rabbit (Korea)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Kim Kangwan on Mar 24, 2019 9:22:19 GMT -8
Kangwan chuckled as he got the awkward hug, shuffling into the living room and leading Thomas towards the ktichen. He thought a moment, "Um... Joshua hyung and Kihoon hyung are practicing, but they've been practicing for a while now so they should be back in soon. Taehoon hyungand Shihyun hyung are out doing activities, didn't say when they'd be back, but I'd presume not until late." He paused, then added, "Kiwoong hyung probably wasn't sure if he'd be here because he was going back and forth of joining the activities that the other two went to, but in the end the broadcast decided they only wanted two of us."
He cuddled up to Thomas once all the groceries were put down. "I missed you too. I'm so glad we finally got you clearance to come over! It took far too long."
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Tutor, Translator, Driver, and Assistant Manager at Dreams Ent.
Gay.
Dating Kangwan.
02/04/1999.
23.
Tiger (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Thomas Fan Qiwang on Mar 25, 2019 21:34:17 GMT -8
Thomas hugged Kangwan closer once he was unencumbered, and after glancing around to check that they were in what felt like a relatively private part of the dorm, he leaned in to give Kangwan a kiss, hesitating to make sure that it was OK.
Then, he turned to look at the state of the kitchen. He kept an arm around Kangwan's waist and said, "So, if I'm going to cook for you, I'm going to need to get this into a semblance of order and find a few things. I brought what I absolutely needed to cook for you, but I figured you'd have at least a few things in the kitchen. Do you want to tell me where things go, or is there no real organization and I should make it have an organization?"
He didn't seem in too much of a hurry to let go of Kangwan and actively start tidying the little kitchen though, waiting for an actual decision from Kangwan to start.
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Idol - Vocalist/Songwriter / Seoul Cyber University Student (2025) Major: Applied Music.
Bisexual.
Dating Thomas Fan.
10/24/1999.
23.
Rabbit (Korea)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Kim Kangwan on Apr 16, 2019 20:56:51 GMT -8
Kangwan reciprocated the kiss, once done, he rested his head against Thomas' chest and left it there, listening to his boyfriend talk while also feeling it. "Uhm..." He pointed in a couple directions, "Except for pantry food going there and pots and pans are there," he pointed to a third area, "and dishes are there, I'm not sure what else... you may need. I don't really cook so..." He paused a moment, looking around. He didn't really like cleaning, but since he had been trying to do it earlier, at least the cleaning urge was still in his system despite his mid-work nap. "I clean the dishes if you want help cleaning up the kitchen." He seemd to remember something with a slightly loud "oh!" and turned them so he could easily point under the sink. "Garbage and recycling are in there. Compost is the only covered bin."
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Tutor, Translator, Driver, and Assistant Manager at Dreams Ent.
Gay.
Dating Kangwan.
02/04/1999.
23.
Tiger (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Thomas Fan Qiwang on Apr 16, 2019 23:57:22 GMT -8
Thomas nodded along as Kangwan explained where things were. He looked over the layout of the kitchen. It was pretty straightforward, but it wasn't very big. It was open to the area right near it though, and there was clutter there as well, some of which he knew was Kangwan's because he recognized it. He said thoughtfully, "I'll probably get this done faster if I just do it, so you could either just keep me company or work on the patch of stuff right outside the kitchen. I want to get to the part where we eat together and hang out over the part where we're cleaning."
Thomas had been the primary keeper of order in the three bedroom apartment he'd lived in with Theo and Teagan. He knew how to quick clean a kitchen, especially one where the primary bringer in of groceries didn't always have a good grasp of what they needed and how long food stayed good for. He started quickly going through the pantry, checking expiration dates on everything as he went. About half a dozen things came down to a pile on the counter, to be put in the trash. Most of the rest of the things, he rearranged a little bit so that things that were the same were together. He also took down a few seasonings that he had hoped that they would have so that he could use them while cooking. It had seemed silly to buy entire bottles of things that were most likely in the Yuseong dorm kitchens though when they weren't necessary to the flavor. He was glad that he'd guessed right.
At the beginning of the process, he asked Kangwan, "How have things been recently? I know you've been busy. Has there been anything interesting or fun?"
The entire process took him less than five minutes, and suddenly everything in the pantry was organized, and he was turning around to dump the expired things in the trash, muttering, "Some of these things should have been thrown out at least two years ago."
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Idol - Vocalist/Songwriter / Seoul Cyber University Student (2025) Major: Applied Music.
Bisexual.
Dating Thomas Fan.
10/24/1999.
23.
Rabbit (Korea)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Kim Kangwan on Apr 18, 2019 19:06:18 GMT -8
Kangwan nodded, pointing to the stuff just outside the kitchen. "I'll take care of that..." He said a bit sheepishly. He gathered up as much as he could carry and went into his bedroom, unceremoniously dropping it all onto his bed, then returning to the pile and repeating the process. He had just finished and sat at the counter when Thomas spoke. "Interesting or fun? Honestly, not particularly. Uh... I guess... it's cool that the company is going to put one of my songs on the next album. That hasn't happened since I returned so it's been a really long time since I've been able to see my name under the songwriting section of the album. But otherwise, things have been good. A couple reporters keep trying to get me to talk about... y'know, everything that happened from the last time they talked with me, but the other members cut that topic off pretty quickly, thankfully." He smiled, "The fans are starting to get upset about it, cause I guess I look pretty upset when they bring it up."
He blinked and went silent at the mention of things that should have been thrown away two years ago. "I got really bad food poisoning when I was a little kid - like, dehydrated and had to be taken to the hospital kind of bad - and so I was always really on top of throwing food away if it looked bad or had expired. I just didn't think I was.... the only one? To do that?? That's a bit unnerving..."
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Tutor, Translator, Driver, and Assistant Manager at Dreams Ent.
Gay.
Dating Kangwan.
02/04/1999.
23.
Tiger (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Thomas Fan Qiwang on Apr 19, 2019 23:13:38 GMT -8
Thomas smiled a little bit listening to Kangwan talk about getting to have his song on the album. It was clearly something that was important to his boyfriend, and that made him happy. However, a scowl took over his face at the mention or reporters prying about what happened to Kangwan. His tone stayed relatively calm as he replied, "I feel like the fans have the right of it being annoyed at the reporters for your sake. You deserve your privacy. I hope that it calms down on that front and they find other things to do with their question time."
Thomas made a face at Kangwan's explanation and said, "Honestly, I think that most of it just got pushed to the back, or was up on the high shelf and got forgotten about. Even people who are trying to go through it will sometimes do that, but it probably was something that you were the most conscientious about. But now it's sorted out and it can stay that way."
He turned to the other cupboards, pushing his sleeves up a little bit and said, "I'm going to get this untangled and find the stuff that I need for cooking with so that I can feed you. I brought enough that there will be food for everyone else too, though depending on when they show up, it will probably be leftovers."
He turned to sorting the pots and pans and various utensils and plates and bowls and such. There wasn't a huge amount in the kitchen for him to sort, but he rearranged the systems as he went so that things weren't likely to fall out or keep higher use items buried under awkward, rarely used items. He wiped down counters in areas as he went, and asked Kangwan, "I know that they've been keeping you pretty busy with events. Has everything been going well with those performances? I've watched the videos of your stages, but I've not had time to catch up on anything else between work and classes."
He'd started tutoring at a tutoring cafe and center near the university only a few weeks into his first term, and he had a surprising to him number of long term students at this point. It had been nice to have spending money that he didn't have to worry about. He had a scholarship for school that included a housing, living, and flight stipend for the beginning and end of his degree, but it wasn't focused on much outside of school and important to life stuff. He'd gotten the chance to join some club sports as well, which used up even more time, but he would have gotten completely stir-crazy without it. He was doing well though, and reaching most of his goals for himself, and in many cases going beyond them. He'd even already gotten into his majors, but he wasn't sure what of that would just sort of be boring to Kangwan, and he mostly was looking forward to feeding his boyfriend and just getting to relax with him for a bit, even if he was a bit apprehensive of maybe seeing some of Kangwan's groupmates later in the evening. Qiwang was fine, since they actually saw each other more regularly than he and Kangwan did, but he didn't know any of the others well enough to be sure how it would go.
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Idol - Vocalist/Songwriter / Seoul Cyber University Student (2025) Major: Applied Music.
Bisexual.
Dating Thomas Fan.
10/24/1999.
23.
Rabbit (Korea)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Kim Kangwan on Apr 22, 2019 18:54:52 GMT -8
Kangwan nodded, that made more sense. They were all busy, and things could easily get lost if any one of them just spent any extra energy they may have had cleaning out the cupboards really quick. It probably also only happened when they noticed something else had expired, so he supposed it shouldn't be too surprising.
"Okay." He replied softly. He wasn't sure what Thomas would need help finding, so he hoped Thomas had it all under control. The guys would probably love a home cooked meal, especially one that was healthy and so didn't go against their diets as much as say, delivery. He swivelled his chair slightly, watching Thomas. "I've missed your food." He admitted. "Most of the time we don't have any time to cook." Talking about time reminded him he was supposed to be working on a song tonight, and he straightened up in his chair. "Oh. Do you mind if I work on songs while you're cooking?" He grinned, "Maybe you can even give me input occasionally. Have a hand in making our next big hit." He joked.
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Tutor, Translator, Driver, and Assistant Manager at Dreams Ent.
Gay.
Dating Kangwan.
02/04/1999.
23.
Tiger (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Thomas Fan Qiwang on Apr 22, 2019 22:14:34 GMT -8
Thomas smiled at Kangwan, pride and fondness clear on his face, when Kangwan asked about working on his music. He said, "I'd love to hear what you're working on, and yes, that sounds like a great thing to do. I'm happy to talk about it, and I love listening to your music, but I'm not really creative in that direction. I can tell you if it sounds nice though."
He figured it would be a good thing to do, and strangely domestic, while he cooked and Kangwan worked right near him, close enough to see, and maybe go give a hug when he had a moment's pause in cooking. It didn't take him long to find the couple of sauces that he'd been looking for and an extra pot and the rice cooker, and in the process, he got the rest of the kitchen organized and cleaned. He sighed a little bit at the rice cooker that hadn't been washed since the last time it was used, but he made quick work of scrubbing it off and getting it running with rice to add to the meal. He knew that all of them had busy schedules, and probably they just washed it as they needed to use it. He'd make sure that everything he used that day went back tidily.
Once the the rice was started and everything else was in place, he started quickly cutting up the vegetables for the curry that he was making. He knew that making something that would be mild but flavorful with some meat in it was a good way to get Kangwan to eat his vegetables, and he figured that Qiwang would appreciate the more homestyle flavors of what he was making. He didn't know what the others would think, but from what he had heard, they liked food kind of in general.
As he prepped the vegetables, he asked Kangwan, "So what kind of song are you working on?"
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Idol - Vocalist/Songwriter / Seoul Cyber University Student (2025) Major: Applied Music.
Bisexual.
Dating Thomas Fan.
10/24/1999.
23.
Rabbit (Korea)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Kim Kangwan on Apr 29, 2019 23:27:30 GMT -8
Kangwan went off to grab his laptop after Thomas replied, setting it up on the counter and opening the music program. As he waited, he watched Thomas as he cleaned and cooked. It was very homey-feeling, and suddnely his mind wandered to them a little older, maybe ten or fifteen years from now, living in their own home and cooking and cleaning and overall having a relaxing life. Thomas' words knocked him out of the daydream and back to the present, though.
He looked to his music program, opening the song he had saved and looking over what he had so far. "Since it would be for a summer album, I was going for upbeat, kind of Caribbean vibes. But combining it all and then adding the lyrics another member wrote just... isn't working." He frowned, "I may have to tell hyung to make his own song..."
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Tutor, Translator, Driver, and Assistant Manager at Dreams Ent.
Gay.
Dating Kangwan.
02/04/1999.
23.
Tiger (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Thomas Fan Qiwang on Apr 30, 2019 1:14:35 GMT -8
Thomas listened as Kangwan told him about what he was struggling with. As he finished chopping everything he would need for the dish he was making, and checked that he had the pans he wanted and that the rice cooker was doing alright, he asked, "It almost sounds like you're trying to write two different songs maybe? Not with song writing, but with other things, other problems, I find that sort of thing happens to me sometimes. It's hard to try to solve two tangled up problems, and it can get easier when you break it down into their own things."
He started heating the oil and got the onions and garlic and ginger in so that they would flavor it. He remembered not too add too many hot spices, but he did make sure that there was a flavorful aroma to the base that would soak into everything else that he cooked. As he stirred it he asked, "What sort of song does the one that you have lyrics for want to be? And if you came up with something that sounded like what you were thinking for the summer album, is there someone who could write lyrics for it?"
Thomas shrugged a little bit and added, "I mean, I don't know if you wanted to write two songs?"
He glanced over at Kangwan, trying to see how frustrated his boyfriend looked with the music writing while not letting himself get distracted with from the cooking. Finally, the oil was hot enough and the onions and garlic were browning properly, and he dropped the meat in.
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Idol - Vocalist/Songwriter / Seoul Cyber University Student (2025) Major: Applied Music.
Bisexual.
Dating Thomas Fan.
10/24/1999.
23.
Rabbit (Korea)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Kim Kangwan on May 13, 2019 19:59:42 GMT -8
Kangwan tilted his head to one side, looking between his computer and Thomas. "You really think so?" He looked at the lyrics, and then to his computer. "The lyrics are more for a love song. It could be a fine upbeat song, but not the feeling I am going for. I wasn't planning to write two songs, but I might have to to make it work." He stared at his screen, absently patting his hand against his chin. After a moment of silence, he looked up to Thomas, "Geez, that smells good." He said with a small chuckle.
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Tutor, Translator, Driver, and Assistant Manager at Dreams Ent.
Gay.
Dating Kangwan.
02/04/1999.
23.
Tiger (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Thomas Fan Qiwang on May 13, 2019 20:51:05 GMT -8
Thomas laughed and said, "You're the song writing expert. I'm just trying to listen to what you say as carefully as possible and let you know what it sounds like you're struggling with. If you think that it would work, why not try it. It sounds like you don't think that the song will be as good if you try to force it to be something it doesn't want to be."
He covered the dish to let the meat finish getting cooked enough for him to be ready to put in the other vegetables, and while that was going on, he washed the dishes that he'd accumulated so far, drying them and putting them neatly away. He moved the vegetables into bowls that they could eat from later and washed their cutting boards too. He told Kangwan, "I'm glad it already smells good. It's about halfway done."
Soon enough, it was time to add the hard vegetables, and then he had to cover it again for a little while after stirring it vigorously so that nothing would stick to the bottom of the pan. The rice finished then, and he opened it, fluffed it, added a touch extra water to keep it from sticking and covered it back up, putting it on the warming setting.
He looked back towards his boyfriend, getting a little smile on his face and asked, "Have you been eating OK at least?"
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