Soul of the Rose

[lotusk]

Title: Soul of the Rose
Author: lattelotus
Rating: PG
Fandom: EXO
Pairing: Jongin/Sehun
Length: 3174 words
Summary: Jongin is trapped in his house and garden with no one for company but his middle-aged parents. His life is an endless stretch of monotony until he meets Sehun, the new milk boy.
Notes: This fic is inspired by John William Waterhouse's painting Soul of the Rose. It was written as part of the ateliers fic challenge project, which seeks to bring together multifandom fics inspired by literary works of art, prose, poetry and film.


Jongin's body is almost healed and yet he's still caged here. It's a beautiful prison cell, but a cell nonetheless.

Comments

[bluedreaming]

I'm sorry - I wanted to leave a nice and Long and lovely comment but I'm keep falling asleep so I'm leaving this here for now so that you know how much I love this and when I wake up later hopefully I can add to it.

I really really love this story ♡

[lotusk]

I'm just happy you loved it Ansa! And take your time!

[bluedreaming]

NOW I GOT THE COLOURS

Sorry it took me so long to get to this;; life happened and yeah. sadness and wedding dresses

ANYWAY.

you know how much I love colour. I loved the deep rusty blood red of his mother, such bad feelings, the blue of loneliness of repetition of waves of the silent ocean dragging him back under, but into that comes the boy, the voice, the possibility, the gate opening...dark blue dawns lighter, the orange of sunrise ☆彡

and I already talked to you on kkt about it, but the parallels: the cage of his walls, the boxes formed by the lines on paper, his excruciating copy of the picture, so stilted, so walled in by his mother's expectations—I love how for Sehun's tiny suggestions, change a bit of this, add a bit of that, let's go for a walk, they were like the knocking at the gate, the words Jongin isn't supposed to exchange with a stranger but he does anyway.

I love the way everything in this story is a contrast, with Jongin stuck in the middle. Sehun, outside, reality vs the wall, his mother, colouring in the lines. It's not his mother vs Sehun. It's Jongin emerging from the hardened shell of his chrysalis.

I know his mother is only trying to protect him but she's smothering him, and even if the velvet glove is soft and oh so sweet, so easy to want to please, family obligation and guilt and filial piety and whatnot—

dead is still dead.

I love how you wrote the mother. She was so frustrating, so closed, so tangible; I could almost feel my fingers reaching around her throat and throttling her, the mottled bruises on her neck so satisfying, a different kind of flower to offset the pretty walls that are killing her son. Of course I don't approve of really throttling people, though I wouldn't say no to some friendly arsenic. . .

I've said this before and I'll say it again. People don't owe their parents anything. That's not part of the equation. We respect and care for our parents because we love them. And if they're killing us, we respect ourselves and DON'T LET THEM DO IT.

I loved the prose of this story; it's not something I come across very often in fanfiction and it felt almost nostalgic, like reading The Little Lame Prince and his Travelling Cloak or many other children's books I read growing up, or books like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, your prose felt very precise, metred, like a metronome with varying beats according to Jongin's mental tone, his colours, and I loved it.

I also was so—it's not that the ending was abrupt because it wasn't. It was exactly a perfect spot to end the story and I would have done it that way myself, but I was so absorbed in the prose, the flow of the words, that I saw the tags at the end of the post and was kind of. . .jarred? Like, I wasn't ready for it to be over. Not necessarily plot-wise, because like I said it was an excellent ending, but rather, I was coasting the waves of the ocean, sailing along on the prose and then I ran aground?

Which I think is the best sign of the fact that I loved the prose, and the story of course, so much.

I'm sorry if I forgot something btw ;; but I really really liked this!

[lotusk]

Thank you for the wonderfully beautiful comment as always, Ansa ♡. You got the colors just exactly right - as I knew you would. Thank you for reading and commenting and for coming up with this wonderful project because I would probably never have written anything like this otherwise!

And I can only dream of writing anywhere near as well as the writers you mentioned ;-; but thank youuuu

[xxhna.livejournal.com]

Aww this is so lovely. Jongin being that caged bird and Sehun is just a kind, friendly spirit who notices how lonely he must feel. I hope Jongin goes on many walks with Sehun.

[lotusk]

jongin does go on many walks with sehun and sometimes they even hold hands ^^

[xxhna.livejournal.com]

YES /throws hands up in triumph/

[jeynebesterling.livejournal.com]

jongin's desperation to be free is so wonderfully conveyed and his relationship with sehun is so sweet

[lotusk]

Thank you for reading this, Gabi! I tried really hard to show how trapped Jongin felt. Wait, this is Gabi right??

[servetel.livejournal.com]

Woah! Another amazing piece from you! Everything was portrait so beautiful, i really liked that part where jongin, after craving for human interactions so much, finally became so sick of being captive that when he regain his originality(not the right word but i can't think of another one) he start fighting for his freedom; well, obviously in that time and the way you described the parents made it clear that he couldn't jump out the window and run towards the sunset, but sehun's presence gave him some courage by being a little taste of the world he longs to see . Aaahsj

[lotusk]

Hi how are you?! I haven't seen you on my TL since we talked abt my chankai fic. I hope you're well! I'm glad you like this ^^ yes, Jongin is very much caged in - not just by the wall but by his parents' expectations of him. And Sehun will help him break away a bit ^^

[servetel.livejournal.com]

Im good. I'm not active on twitter, i'm shy and im good just by seeing what other people are joking about there. ^^" Weird but meh. Hope you are doing well too!

[lotusk]

That is perfectly fine! Take care, dear!

[wolfodder.livejournal.com]

This is so well written! I love the parallel to the butterflies and how Jongin has been confined so long that he has begun to sometimes confine himself, and then he sort of traps the butterflies he's drawing too, but Sehun inspires him to free the butterflies and thus himself, albeit perhaps slowly. Even the ending is open, it's apparent that Jongin will want to free himself and I like this, wow. Thanks for sharing!

[lotusk]

Thanks so much Karen! I'm glad you liked this! I didn't expect anyone to read it TBH ;-; so this means a lot to me ♡

[misszhangyixing.livejournal.com]

One can really feel Jongin's longing to see what's behind the walls of the garden. Sehun's character is so endearing, that somehow through him, Jongin can have a little taste of what the world is outside those brick walls. This is so beautifully written Adele 💕

Also this is my very first time reading sekai!

[lotusk]

Bless you Isabel for the lovely comment as always /hugs/ but wait, this is your first sekai? Omg I need to ask you abt this on Twitter but I hope you'll read my first sekai fic "lost and found". It's high school au BFF fic. Pg!

[misszhangyixing.livejournal.com]

Onto it! But why add 'pg' haha, you know i read anything ^^

[lotusk]

Bc some people don't read certain pairings bc they can't imagine them doing the do lol. And for people who are starting out with a new pairing they can't handle reading anything but pg first ^^ my first ever pwp was a sekai anw - slices of summer. And I wrote a silly high school lipstick sekai a couple weeks ago. Also pg haha

[aprilclash.livejournal.com]

I read this yesterday night and the thing that struck me most was how I wished for it to be longer. I wanted to see them together, Jongin changing, Sehun helping him change, and them walking around in London and watching daffodils and sugar maple trees. It leaves so much for the imagination. I hope Jongin can learn how to draw whatever he wants and color outside the lines.

Also, I really love the imagery and the way you used nature in this fic, ivy and Sombreuil roses and daffodils, the way you included them in the fic made it so real and vivid.

And I love your style because it's clean and neat, so easy to read, so pretty.

[lotusk]

Thank you so much, Cla!!! This was supposed to be a really short fic and then a longish fic and then I just ran out of time ;-; there was supposed to be more - like sekai meeting and getting to know each other better and writing each other letters but DEADLINE ;;;;;

And thank you for saying such nice things abt my writing /cries

[bianca747.livejournal.com]

This was such a beautiful fic for one of my most favorite pairings. Thank you! <3 You captured the feeling of Jongin being trapped so well. Then Sehun comes along to stir things up a little. I hope Jongin will sneak out of the house that night to walk and talk with Sehun.

[lotusk]

Tysm for reading this! And yes, Ofc Jongin sneaks out and they get to have walks together ^^

[durianparfait.livejournal.com]

WHY YOU END THERE T-T I was looking forward to their walk and some drama from the mum. THE MUM aiyo why she liddat her son is lonely leh, talk to the help also cannot meh!!! Why is Sehun so educated? Did J manage to sneak out to meet Sehun successfully? Did he get sick again?? Do people really have milk in their porridge? Questions questions~~ thank you for writing this, I enjoyed reading this!♡

[lotusk]

I ran out of time ofc! There wasn't going to be any drama with the mom. You know me. Idk how to write drama lol. And she's over protective of Jongin -- doesn't want him to grow apart from her.

Questions -- literary stories are full of questions so I was trying to leave a few since this is supposed to be literary-ish kind of fic project lol. But since you asked, yes j snuck out and they walked and talked. Repeatedly. No, Jongin didn't get sick again bc the exercise was good for him anyway (and kisses are nice too). And porridge in the UK usually refers to oatmeal!!

As for Sehun, his family used to be rich and he went to a posh boarding school for boys. But the family went bankrupt when he was 17 and so he has to work a few jobs so he can get by and also save up money for university. That's basically it ^^