"Do you ever think that you can’t remember because there is nothing to remember? If you do the exact same thing every single day of the week, every week of the month, all twelve months of the year, doesn’t memory lose purpose? What do you think will happen if you begin breaking the routine?"
Anterograde Tomorrow is an AU RPF fanfiction in the EXO fandom. The plot revolves around D.O, an anterograde amnesiac who falls in love with Kai, a dying writer who wants to write a book about him. This is no comedy, though. The story is written using the members' real names rather than their stage names, but for the sake of clarity we'll use their stage names here. For reference: Jongin=Kai, Kyungsoo=D.O.
The fic is by changdictator
and can be found on LiveJournal here.
Anterograde Tomorrow contains examples of:
- Alternate Universe Fic - D.O is a toy factory worker with anterograde amnesia and Kai is a dancer-turned-writer with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease.
- Amnesiac Lover - Most of the plot revolves around this.
- Arc Words - "Hot. The weather. It's hot."
- Book Ends - "See you tomorrow, hyung! Don't forget!" Also the scene in the elevator after D.O returns from the bar.
- The Cameo - Quite a few. Sehun is Kai's editor, Luhan is Kai's ex-boyfriend who is now dating Sehun, Kris is a model, Tao is a waiter in the bar where D.O sings, Xiumin sings with D.O, Baekhyun is D.O's dead best friend.
- Creature of Habit - D.O, by necessity. He wouldn't be able to remember any changes he makes to his routine, so he sticks to it.
- The Cynic - Kai (although falling in love considerably improves his outlook).Kai: I’m going to be dead in three years, maybe two. Probably less. But you know, people won’t love me when I’m dead. That’s a fact. People might pity me. Worship me. Say that I was a genius mind, revel in the great performance art that was my life. And what do I do with all that? Can I sell it? Can I have a future and a white-washed house and argue about what plants to put in the front yard with their fucking assembly-line pity?
- Dark and Troubled Past - Let's see: D.O gained anterograde amnesia in a car crash that also killed his best friend. Kai was an aspiring dancer who was brutally crushed under the pressure, then discovered that he had an incurable lung disease.
- Downer Ending - Oh god. So much. Not only does Kai die, but D.O forgets everything the next day. And then Kai's editor, Sehun shows up with the book Kai wrote about him...
- Diabolus ex Machina - Kai gets pneumonia on top of his lung disease.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me! - Kai returns a stuffed toy that D.O leaves for him on his doorstep with the note, "Pity's pretty fucking expensive for someone who can't care."
- First Love - Luhan for Kai.
- From Bad to Worse - See Your Days Are Numbered below.
- Hope Spot - D.O remembers Kai smoking on the balcony and there's a moment when he thinks that maybe he'll get his memory back and Kai might live. Neither happens.
- Ironic Echo - The sticky note saying, 'See you tomorrow, hyung! Don't forget!" Originally it's already sad, but after Kai's death, it's so much worse.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold - Kai. He is a jerkass to D.O at first. But it's really all because he's jealous of D.O's idealism and once he realises this, he is nicer.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia - Truth in Television. D.O has anterograde amnesia and his memory resets to the time of the accident which caused it at the beginning of each day.
- Money to Throw Away - Kai uses a fan to blow hundred-thousand won bills out of the window of his Seoul penthouse.
- Morning Routine - D.O wakes up in his room. He has the feeling he's forgotten something. Then he reads all the sticky notes pasted around his room.
- Planning for the Future Before the End - D.O and Kai talk about Christmas, their birthdays and making kimchi together while Kai is in hospital. Kai only makes it to their 'anniversary' (the day between their birthdays).
- Posthumous Character - Baekhyun, who was killed in the accident that gave D.O his anterograde amnesia.
- Secretly Dying - Zigzagged. Kai tells D.O during one of their first meetings but D.O forgets by virtue of his amnesia. It happens several more times until D.O finds out himself. And then forgets.
- Ship Tease - Tao/Kris, Luhan/Sehun and Luhan/Kai are all mentioned.
- Slash Fic - Yeah. Kind of a given. Complete with smut scenes.
- Umbrella of Togetherness - Kai and D.O walk back to D.O's apartment under the same umbrella.
- Watching the Sunset - Invoked in a poignant conversation about remembering tomorrows rather than yesterdays.Kai: I remember that the water is going to be ablaze with light. The sun will be setting, all violet and red into the clouds. But it’ll be quiet, mostly just the sound of water and wind, and your voice.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist - D.O. As Kai says, " He was everything sad, but he was so happy chasing after impossible dreams...He was an amnesiac forced to abandon himself at the end of each day and who refused to comply. Someone who struggled against the overwhelming odds of loss, for a dead-end."
- You Are Not Alone - D.O to Kai. Kai believes that when he dies, he will be forgotten. D.O tries to reassure him that he won't. Doesn't really work because of D.O's anterograde amnesia.
- Younger Than They Look - Invoked with Kai. Granted, he's a smoker.
- Your Days Are Numbered - Done twice. Kai has idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and knows he will die in less than two years. Then he gets pneumonia and the outlook is six months left.
