Danny:Oh Fiddlesticks! Zack: Look, I Understand This Is A Tense Situation, But Let's Watch The Fucking

Do you think Daniel Park misses dreaming?

Zack: Where are you going? Danny: To get ice cream or commit a felony, I’ll decide on the way there

#23

"Jay, love of my life, apple of my eye, treasure of my heart, darling of my soul can you do me a favor real quick?" Daniel purred seductively, his hair a dirty mess and dried blood on his knuckles. Jay nodded helplessly.

----------------

"Where were you on the evening of July 8, between 9 pm and 2 am?" the police officer questioned the nervous blonde with a stern expression.

'In my home' Jay wrote, trying to convey as much sincerity as possible into his gesture. Technically speaking, he wasn't lying. He had been at home, just not the one they were probably referring to. But they didn't ask, so Jay didn't tell. Home was where his dearest beloved was, even if that meant in the middle of the woods digging up some endangered flower specimen to plant over their 'package'.

He remembered the smell of copper lingering on his body, and how gently Daniel had helped him scrub every inch of the vile blood off of his skin. The thought made a blush rise to his cheeks, which thankfully went unseen by the officer. The phantom touch of delicate fingers scrubbing his scalp sent a shiver down the boy's back as the memory etched itself into the very fabric of his mind clinging to him like an intoxicating perfume.

Daniel had been quiet after 'that', but later confessed to being worried he had scared the blonde. It only took one reassurance to make him bounce back to being his usual preppy self as if he needed nothing more than Jay's word and he would believe that the sun rose for the west. It made something twist in his chest like a pleased feline and then settle into a comforting warmth that would surge forward every time he laid eyes on the brunette teen.

He may not have understood why they had done 'that' but he wasn't about to question his beloved. Danny always had a reason to do things, even if sometimes he didn't share it. Nevertheless, Jay felt that wherever the man's sin was, he deserved his fate. His love had never been unkind to people, even those who sought to take advantage of him, so whatever his motive it had to have been important, so he would do his utmost to protect him from any legal repercussions, even if that meant having to face suspicion from his own family.

After all would be said and done, he could finally enjoy melting into his lover's embrace once more. There was no body, no murder weapon, and no DNA or digital evidence, so nothing could be pinned on them anyway. He just had to be patient, then maybe Daniel would reward him~

"Can anybody confirm this?" The policeman's rough voice rudely cut through his reminiscing and brought him back to reality. This interrogation was really starting to get on his nerves he ought to have the man fired for this later.

'My butler' he wrote, briefly pausing and adding something else onto the notebook before he handed it back to the man.

"Your boyfriend, huh? And does this midnight Romeo have a name?"

'Daniel Park'

#13

It wasn't uncommon for certain physical traits, mostly scars, and tattoos to travel loops with Daniel. It was, however, extremely inconvenient when fresh injuries would travel over with him.

That's how Daniel found himself kneeling over in an alleyway, bleeding profusely from one eye and covered in bruises. One of his arms had a few patches of missing skin that had been scraped off when he skidded down the pavement after a pick-up had rammed straight into him. Someone had ordered a hit on him in the last loop. The boy had been ambushed by over a thousand trained and armed men and when he'd finally made his escape leaving their limp bodies behind he had been hit head-on and thrown through a glass panel. Then he was hit again just as he was regaining his bearings and finally died from the trauma.

Tentatively he reached with shaky fingers and touched his swelling eye. It felt gummy and something liquid was leaking out, but thankfully it was already numbed by the effects of time travel. At least that was one good thing he could get out of his 'predicament', his body didn't hurt. In a few hours, it would start to, as the effects of the loop wore off, and by then he would probably be writhing in a hospital bed (if he even made it there), but for now, he could focus on figuring out when and where he was.

"Fuck!"

He spun around in a panic, coming face to face with a certain black-eyed male looking at him incredulously. Danny tried to square his shoulders and straighten his back, but his abdomen was bleeding profusely and he had to keep one hand in place to slow the flow of he blood. As he was, half-leaning onto the wall with one arm while looking like he would collapse at any minute he was pretty sure he didn't look intimidating enough to get the male to leave him alone.

"Fuck!"Gun repeated, as if not believing what he was seeing.

Danny steeled his nerves and tried to slightly shift his body into a fighting stance but failed, his right leg almost giving away beneath him. He was sent stumbling right into the wall, but kept his head up, glowering and showing his teeth in an almost animalistic threat not to get closer. It didn't matter that he was slowly dying, he wouldn't let a bastard like him have the satisfaction of seeing him vulnerable.

"You" He paused as if unsure of himself "You need medical attention"

"Yeah, no shit" The injured boy spat out alongside a few flakes of blood.

The fighting maniac shifted from one foot onto another and looked around hesitantly. Daniel stifled a disbelieving snort. Was he actually debating on being a decent human being for once and helping him out? He hoped that was just wishful thinking on his part because if it wasn't, surely something must've gone terribly wrong with this loop!

"Who?"

Danny just let out a scratchy hum in inquiry. He very much doubted he could keep this up much longer, already feeling like his insides were going to spill out at any moment. He was really pushing his luck right now, but the boy found he didn't care much. The loop would reset and his wounds would probably disappear. Death was just another part of the circle, something he had come to accept could happen at any time.

"Who did this? Who could have beaten you so bad? You, who just a few days ago fought me and broke my arm like it was second nature to you!? You're a fighting genius! This should be possible! How is this possible?" His voice began showing traces of hysteria and Danny rolled his eyes. The stock he put in his own skills would have seemed warranted to him before the loops, but now that he had far surpassed him, Gun only seemed like a lunatic with illusions of grandeur and a perverse way of seeing the world.

A rough, dry laugh fell past his bloodied lips, startling the raving man out of his hysteria. He turned just in time to see blood pooling beneath the boy, whose body had slid down the wall and onto the concrete, leaving behind a trail of crimson. He gurgled a mouthful of blood just as the Japanese man rushed towards him, and Daniel Park slumped over lifeless, his face twisted in a mocking grin and his eyes fixed forward, dull and unseeing.

A full-body shiver ran through Gun and he silently despaired at losing such a promising fighter with so much untapped potential. He could have been his masterpiece or even his rival. It wasn't fair!

With shaking hands (why were his hands shaking?) he pulled out a cigarette. It took him three tries before he managed to light it and finally took a mouthful of the addictive smoke(just don't think about it). Slowly, the substance calmed him down enough to get up and clumsily stumble off to god knows where(it happens, people die all the time). Without realizing it, Gun reached the port and sat down on the cold concrete, hypnotized by the sea. His hands were dripping red, staining his expensive clothes (when had he touched the blood?).

"Maybe...Maybe I should've..."

The sound of crashing waves covered his words. He stood there for a while longer, until his phone began blowing up and night had fallen. He threw his phone into the water carelessly and sat back down. The sun rose over the horizon like it always did, and a single man, waiting on the docks was there to greet it. (Death could not be undone)

In another timeline, Danny felt the sudden urge to yell SIKE!

Sinu: Violence isn't the answer. Sammy: You’re right. Sinu: sighs in relief Sammy: Violence is the question. Sinu: What? Sammy, bolting away: And the answer is yes. Sinu, running after her: NO-

#14

A squeaky hammer hit the desk hard enough to dent the wood.

"Alright folks, the first meeting of the 'Ulrta Mega-Simp Club' has officially begun!" Daniel announced before pointing to his vice president, Zack. "What's on today's list of discussions?"

The boy cleared his voice and adjusted his fake mustache before reading loudly from his clipboard.

"To begin with, we must welcome our new members and let them introduce themselves and the reason they have decided to join our glorious army-cough! club."

"Did he just verbally cough?" Someone whispered incredulously, causing Danny to slam his hammer repeatedly onto the desk for silence.

"Then we must inspect the status of their inner simp through a trial...TO THE DEATH! Afterward, we have a 30-minute break for tea and snacks and proceed onto the usual afternoon program of simping."

The president adjusted his own neon green fake mustache with a thoughtful look, before motioning for them to go ahead as planned. He sat up and cleared his voice gravely.

"My name is Daniellicus Maximus Eugeneseternalbaneicus Park. I am the devoted and eternal simp of the beautiful, brilliant, generous, superb, glamorous-"

Zack coughed and was rewarded a nasty glare in response before Danny continued.

"JAY HONG, soon to be Jay Park, loop-willing!"

He unraveled a poster bigger than himself with Jay's face while confetti rained down on him from the vents. It made it entirely worth it to have stuffed Vin Jin's goons into the vents the previous night with the confetti cannons. His performance was rewarded with deafening applause before Zack took the stage.

He looked around, leaned into the microphone, and just said, " I love Mira."

His 'secret' was received with deadpan stares that all seemed to say 'we know'. The boy left the stage silently, the tips of his ears burning brightly, but with a proud expression, as if daring anyone to protest.

The whole Burn Knuckles came onto the stage to express their adoration for their cinnamon roll leader, then the Beauty Dept. girls, who had to be escorted off the stage for expressing their love for Eli in a manner that was too frightening for the male population to bare. After that whole fiasco came a few other no-name simps who sang their praises for the object of their affection (someone had literally read a poem about how much they loved the cafeteria, which...fair, it was free food and free drama, what more could you ask for).

The first stage of their meeting ended somewhat peacefully.

Then came the trials.

DUN! DUN! DUN!

Everyone jumped and turned towards Zack, who sheepishly lowered the beatbox he had pulled out from god knows where. They were all lined up and Danny pulled out a tube of toothpaste, while the boxer fished his phone out of his pocket and began filing the interrogation/interviews with the flair of a professional cameraman.

"What would you do for your bias?" was the question addressed to all members and each of them gave an answer that was more worrying than the other, up to the point where homicide and world enslavement was mentioned.

Satisfied with their new simps the two concluded the interviews and awarded each of them with a badge made out of the lid of a noodle cup with the words 'I'm a proud member of the UMSC' written on in sharpie.

Afterward, the newly established UMSC had a wonderful, peaceful tea party in which they bonded over their shared love of their bias and other various things. Unknowingly, Daniel had created the ultimate weapon against the 4 Major Crews, whose own members would slowly be baptized into the simp way and join the UMSC, turning it into an unstoppable force of over 3 thousand fanatic followers and devoted simps.

Danny: Sorry I’m late, I was doing things. Jay:[in jaynese] Hi, I’m ‘things’.

#20

"Jesus..."

"Actually, It's Daniel."

Zack craned his neck to look at the tiny figure sitting atop the - frankly massive - pile of bodies. He had stumbled upon the sight on accident and frozen in shock, mouth agape. If he looked more closely all the bodies seemed to belong to well-built muscly men who, judging by the various bats and DIY weapons strewn on the ground, had been armed. This was no accident, but a coordinated attack that had been thwarted by...by a toddler?

"Uhh..." Zack said, ever so eloquently.

The midget turned around a did a backflip (and almost gave the boxer a heart attack in the process), landing in front of him with a large toothy smile. Now that they were standing next to each other he seemed even smaller, no way older than 5, Zack noted after he stopped gaping. He wore what looked like an old yellow t-shirt with a smiling cat, splatters of blood clear on the thin fabric, and a pair of brown cargo shorts. In the middle of December, at night.

Zack resisted the urge to voice some choice words about the kid's parents as another freezing wind cut through his own thick winter coat. He kneeled to be on eye level with the smiling little menace and extended his hand, deliberately slowly not to spook him.

"I'm Zack."

"Oooh, nice to meet you!" Daniel shook his hand eagerly.

'Yep, his hands are freezing', Zack thought bitterly, looking around for his guardian or someone that could resemble a responsible adult. He found none. The alleyway they were in was pretty out of the way, not a place where a child should be, although... judging by the piled gangsters behind him he could handle himself. A bead of sweat rolled down the boxer's cheek, 'Not even I could beat so many at the same time' and wasn't that saying something? Even after being trained by that monk, Gongseob Ji, there were still people who were stronger than him without even trying.

"Achoo!"

That broke him out of his thoughts, and he wasted no more time in unzipping his coat and scooping the child in his arms, before rezipping the coat with the midget's head poking out. Uncaring of what he must've looked like [*cough* pregnant *cough*] Zack got back up and began walking out of the alleyway.

"We're going to get you something warm to eat and then we can try to figure this whole thing out, mkay?"

The midget nodded his head furiously and gave him another blinding smile before settling on his chest like a happy cat. Neither spoke until they finally found an open convenience store. By the time they got what they wanted to eat and sat down in the little eating area of the shop it had begun snowing heavily. Zack put the kid on one of the stools, with his coat still wrapped around him before opening the two cups of instant noodles and pulling out the little bags of condiments. He kept an eye on Daniel as he moved to pour warm water from the dispenser. To his credit, the little one waited patiently, swinging his legs in the air, his eyes glued on the taller male as he prepared their meal.

"So, where are your folks, midget?" Zack asked as they waited for the noodles, trying to keep his tone light.

In spite of his efforts, the boy curled in on himself, his eyes dimming. 'Sore spot, then' he thought, making a mental note to avoid bringing it up again. He couldn't imagine anyone willingly abandoning this ray of sunlight of a child, so he assumed they must've been dead. 'Yes, that's the only explanation' Zack nodded to himself, before addressing Daniel again.

"Do you have anywhere to go?"

The kid nodded eagerly, but the boxer still had his reservations.

"Let me rephrase that, do you have anywhere to spend the night that you know you can reach and where you won't freeze to death?"

"Uhh."

"Right, so that's a no. Great!" Zack rubbed his forehead tiredly.

He pulled the top packaging off the cups of noodles and broke apart a pair of chopsticks mixing them into the steaming meal before handing it to the midget and doing the same for his own cup.

"Ah, thank you!" Daniel chirped before digging in like a starved child.

'He probably was' he thought bitterly, swallowing a mouthful of noodles. For a few minutes, all you could hear was the sound of them eating, but soon enough the boy pushed away his empty cup. Once more, Zack didn't hesitate or even find it weird how his arms moved on their own to place a small packet of chocolate biscuits in front of the kid's nose.

"Eat up, midget." he encouraged, cringing at how sappy he sounded. "Those aren't going to eat themselves."

'Damn it, why am I acting like this?!' The older boy bemoaned mentally, thankful that none of the people who knew him were here to witness how fucking soft this little menace was making him. After finishing his noodles Zack got up to throw the two cups away when he felt a tug on his sweater. Looking down he found an impossibly large pair of doe-like black eyes gazing uncertainly up at him.

'Ah, my heart!' he mentally clutched his heart which had been pierced by an arrow marked "CUTENESS".

"I'm just going to throw these away!" He quickly reassured the little one, gesturing towards the two empty cups in his hand.

"Are you going to come back?" Daniel asked in a small voice which nearly made the boxer kneel over.

"Of course! Of course! I'll be right back!" Zack assured before nearly sprinting to the trashcan and back, to the bewilderment of the cashier.

"See, right back!"

Daniel hummed happily in agreement with a big smile that made him ponder the benefits of having a pair of sunglasses always on hand. he would probably need a pair if he didn't want to go blind from this unbearably bright ray of sunshine. 'How has no one kidnapped him yet?' Zack wondered, sparking a flame of protectiveness in his chest.

You know how you hear people say that they see something, usually a small child or an animal, and go 'yeah, that's mine now'? That was exactly what happened at that exact moment in Zack The Wimp Lee.

Did it raise questions the next day when he showed up to fight with a toddler on his shoulders? Maybe. Did he care? Absolutely not. He kicked names and took ass looking like an absolute badass and a brilliant model for his new little brother. The highlight of his day was when some random extra tried to hit Daniel as a way of getting back at Zack and got promptly locked through a brick wall by a giggly 5-year-old waving around a purple dinosaur plush in one hand and a blueberry popsicle in the other. The looks on everyone's faces had been enough to make his week.

Throughout Lookism you get these cut-aways where different characters comment upon things happening in the main storyline, and while at first they’re framed as convos between two or more characters, at one point they start to come across more as like a third party interview:

And I just want to know who is interviewing them???? And how do I get that job???

#21

It began as you would expect, Daniel did something stupid. It wasn't meant to be stupid, but as most of the time-loopers endeavors, it ended up that way. Was it the will of the universe or was it just pure danielness? We'll never know.

"What is that?" Hudson shrieked when he entered the room, although he would deny this fact till the end of his days.

"I'm not a good Sia." Was the reply he got back.

Daniel stared owlishly at him from atop the crashed crystal chandelier whose remains were scattered all over the floor. An abomination of a neon-green mustache hung only barely from between his eyebrows and he was sporting a pair of squiggly antennas complete with foam eyes and taped on a sparkly pink headband that had seen better days. The smell of cheese puffs clung to him like a bad perfume, sending the blonde into a coughing fit the moment he opened the door.

"What the hell happened?" He finally managed to ask after regaining his bearings and using the fur coat to cover his nose and mouth (it smelled a bit like smoke and snake intestines but he wasn't complaining).

"He didn't kill anyone," Vasco assured unhelpfully from the side while poking at his own DIY eyes headband. "And these do look rather stylish on us!"

"And that's why the oaf didn't get into the fashion department, not that I think he had any business designing buildings and shit." Zack drawled from his seat, looking rather disgruntled with his own bright orange headband (which looked like it had been taped to his head with scotch).

Hudson gulped and took a step back, ramming straight into a blonde boy whose hair covered his eyes and who had appeared out of nowhere. He gulped again. Sure enough, he was adoring the same abomination of a headband, looking quite complacent with the crime against humanity that was his new accessory.

"Uh-" The Sun of Ansan began ever-so-eloquently. "We-we can talk about this guys-"

Before he had the chance to finish his sentence he was tackled from behind by what he could only describe as the second coming of the antichrist. His high-pitched screams echoed through the empty streets of Seoul and into the cold starless night.

--------------

Somewhere a black-eyed man unexplainably shivered. He paused and took a drag of his cigarette before turning to the large window overlooking the city.

"Something just happened."

if only he knew...what a menace to society his new masterpiece would become...