#Consumer Packaging Preferences

[mastergarryblogs]

Canned Food Packaging: How It’s Evolving to Meet Consumer Demands

Executive Summary

The global canned food packaging market is experiencing remarkable growth, driven by evolving consumer preferences, technological advancements, and increasing demand for convenience foods. The market, valued at USD 40.1 billion in 2023, is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.8%, potentially surpassing USD 62.1 billion by 2032. Key drivers behind this growth include the increasing popularity of ready-to-eat meals, advancements in packaging technologies, and a growing emphasis on sustainability.

As consumer habits shift towards long-shelf-life products, packaging solutions that ensure product integrity, safety, and freshness have become essential. Furthermore, the demand for environmentally friendly packaging options, such as biodegradable and recyclable materials, has surged. The competitive landscape is marked by the presence of prominent industry players who are focusing on sustainable innovations to address both consumer and regulatory expectations.

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Canned Food Packaging Market Dynamics: Drivers, Challenges, and Opportunities

Rising Consumer Demand for Convenience Foods

With the acceleration of urbanization and busy lifestyles, the demand for canned food products, particularly those offering convenience and longer shelf life, is on the rise. Canned foods, such as ready-to-eat meals, soups, and vegetables, have become staple products due to their ease of storage and minimal preparation time. Additionally, canned food products preserve nutritional value, ensuring that consumers can enjoy high-quality meals at home or on the go.

Advancements in Packaging Technologies

The shift towards sustainable, innovative, and functional packaging technologies plays a crucial role in expanding the market. Packaging solutions such as smart packaging, temperature-sensitive labels, vacuum-sealed cans, and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) help maintain food safety and product quality throughout the supply chain. These technologies enhance consumer confidence in canned products and improve overall product appeal.

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Environmental Concerns and the Push for Sustainability

Environmental concerns surrounding the excessive use of non-recyclable materials, particularly plastics and aluminum, have created a strong demand for eco-friendly packaging alternatives. Companies are increasingly investing in biodegradable, recyclable, and lightweight materials that do not compromise the integrity or shelf life of the packaged food.

Sustainability is no longer a trend but a significant market force. The industry is shifting towards materials that reduce carbon footprints and plastic waste, which aligns with growing consumer demand for environmentally conscious products.

Innovations in Packaging Formats and Materials

The evolution of packaging materials has made a significant impact on the canned food packaging industry. Metal remains the dominant material in canned food packaging, accounting for over 70% of the market share due to its durability and ability to protect the contents from external elements. However, the glass and plastic segments are experiencing growth, driven by their premium appeal and versatility.

The use of aluminum, glass, and plastic packaging is steadily increasing, especially in premium food segments. Glass packaging, valued for its high-quality preservation capabilities, appeals to health-conscious consumers who prefer non-toxic, eco-friendly options. Meanwhile, plastic packaging is gaining traction due to its lightweight and cost-effective nature.

Health and Safety Concerns

Health consciousness is one of the primary factors influencing consumer behavior towards canned food. Consumers are becoming more aware of the implications of packaging materials on their health, leading to an increased demand for BPA-free, non-toxic, and food-safe materials. Packaging technologies that maintain food quality and safety without the need for artificial preservatives are becoming more popular, especially in the dairy and beverage sectors.

E-commerce Growth and Changing Retail Dynamics

With the rise of e-commerce platforms and online grocery delivery services, there has been a marked shift in consumer buying habits. The need for durable and secure packaging that can withstand the rigors of transit while maintaining product quality has increased. As online shopping becomes an integral part of the retail landscape, the demand for effective, consumer-friendly packaging solutions has also risen.

Canned Food Packaging Market Segmentation Analysis:

By Material Type

The global canned food packaging market is segmented into several material types, each offering distinct advantages:

Metal Packaging: Metal packaging, primarily in the form of aluminum and steel cans, dominates the market due to its excellent barrier properties, durability, and ability to preserve food for extended periods. This segment held a market share of approximately 73% in 2023 and is expected to maintain steady growth throughout the forecast period.

Glass Packaging: Glass packaging is witnessing steady growth due to its premium appeal and its ability to preserve food quality without the use of synthetic chemicals. Glass jars are typically used for high-end products such as jams, sauces, and some soups, where product quality is paramount.

Plastic Packaging: Although less common in the canned food sector, plastic packaging is growing in popularity due to its lightweight nature and cost-effectiveness. Flexible plastic pouches, often used for soups and meals, are increasingly being adopted as a convenient, space-saving solution.

Other Materials: This category includes composite packaging materials such as paper-based containers and hybrid solutions that combine several materials for enhanced durability and eco-friendliness.

By Food Type

The canned food packaging market is segmented by food type, with the following key categories:

Meat and Poultry: The meat and poultry segment accounts for the largest share in the canned food packaging market, driven by the growing demand for convenient protein-rich meals. This segment is expected to maintain its dominance with a projected CAGR of 5% from 2024 to 2032.

Soups and Stews: The soups and stews segment is growing at a CAGR of 6.37% during the forecast period, as consumers increasingly seek easy-to-prepare meal options. Canned soups are an essential part of the convenient food sector and continue to see strong demand.

Fruits and Vegetables: Canned fruits and vegetables offer long shelf lives, and their usage remains widespread. This segment benefits from the increasing desire for healthy, convenient food options that retain nutritional content.

Other Categories: Other canned food products include dairy-based canned goods, ready-to-eat meals, and beverages, all of which contribute to market diversity.

By End-User

The key end-users in the canned food packaging market are:

Retail: The retail segment dominates the market, accounting for more than 50% of the market share. Supermarkets, convenience stores, and online platforms are the primary channels for consumer sales of canned food products.

Foodservice: The foodservice sector, including restaurants and catering services, is also a significant consumer of canned food products, particularly ready-to-use and pre-packaged meals.

Industrial Use: Industrial use of canned food packaging involves bulk packaging for food processors and manufacturers. This segment is smaller in comparison but plays an important role in the supply chain for bulk foods.

By Packaging Type

Packaging types are essential for preserving food safety, enhancing product appeal, and providing convenience:

Cans: The traditional can remains the most widely used packaging format, accounting for 78% of the market share. Cans are cost-effective, durable, and excellent at preserving food freshness.

Pouches: Flexible pouches are becoming increasingly popular due to their space-saving properties and ease of handling. They are particularly suitable for products like soups, stews, and ready-to-eat meals.

Tins: Tins offer a premium packaging solution and are commonly used for high-end food products like gourmet soups and delicacies.

By Technology

The technology used in packaging impacts product quality and longevity:

Traditional Canning: This method remains the most widely used, accounting for around 70% of the market share. It is particularly suited for vegetables, meats, and soups.

Aseptic Packaging: Aseptic packaging preserves food quality without the need for preservatives, making it popular for dairy and beverage cans.

Vacuum Sealing: Vacuum sealing offers enhanced preservation by removing air from packaging, thus extending shelf life while maintaining freshness.

Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP): MAP technology replaces the air in packaging with a gas mix, often used in the preservation of fruits and vegetables, to slow down deterioration and preserve food quality.

Canned Food Packaging Market Regional Insights:

North America

North America leads the global canned food packaging market, with the U.S. and Canada dominating consumption. The region is expected to maintain steady growth, driven by strong retail infrastructure and a high demand for convenient food products.

Asia-Pacific

The Asia-Pacific region is projected to grow at the highest CAGR of 6.3%, with increasing disposable incomes and urbanization fueling demand for canned foods. Countries like China, India, and Japan are central to the expansion of the canned food sector.

Europe

Europe holds a significant share in the market, with a growing emphasis on eco-friendly packaging and premium canned food products. European consumers are increasingly seeking sustainable and high-quality canned food options.

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Conclusion

The global canned food packaging market is on an upward trajectory, driven by consumer demand for convenience, sustainability, and innovative packaging solutions. As technology evolves and sustainability becomes a primary focus, the market will continue to adapt to meet the needs of consumers and regulatory standards. With a focus on innovation, packaging companies can seize opportunities for growth by developing advanced, eco-friendly packaging materials and leveraging smart technologies to enhance food preservation and convenience.

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[apekshamore6799]

Bacon Market trends you must watch to predict consumer behaviour shifts

The Bacon Market has evolved rapidly, driven by lifestyle changes, health considerations, and innovation in food technology. Understanding key trends is essential to anticipate consumer behavior shifts and maintain a competitive edge in the food and retail sectors.

Health-Conscious Choices Are Redefining Preferences

One of the most prominent trends in the Bacon Market is the increasing demand for healthier options. As consumers become more mindful of their dietary intake, there is a rising interest in reduced-sodium, low-fat, and nitrate-free bacon products. Brands have responded by introducing alternative offerings such as turkey bacon, plant-based bacon, and organic pork bacon.

Moreover, labeling transparency is now a significant deciding factor for buyers. Products that highlight "no antibiotics," "hormone-free," and "grass-fed" claims see higher engagement levels. Health-driven consumers are not just trend followers—they are brand loyalists if their values align with product offerings.

Technological Advancements in Processing and Packaging

Technology continues to reshape how bacon is processed, packaged, and preserved. Smart packaging solutions with freshness indicators are gaining traction, offering real-time shelf-life data and minimizing food waste. Vacuum sealing innovations and modified atmosphere packaging are also becoming standard to ensure longer shelf stability.

Advanced automation in bacon slicing, curing, and quality control not only enhances consistency but also reduces production costs. These efficiencies directly contribute to pricing strategies and enable brands to reinvest in R&D and customer-centric innovations.

Digital Grocery Channels Driving Bacon Sales

Online grocery platforms have emerged as powerful distribution channels for bacon products. During the pandemic, digital shopping behaviors surged, and this trend has held strong post-lockdown. Consumers now browse for bacon not only based on taste but also based on reviews, pricing, delivery speed, and sustainability credentials.

Retailers are investing in personalized marketing strategies—suggesting bacon variants based on previous purchase behavior, dietary filters, and even local cuisine preferences. This customization elevates the shopping experience and builds brand trust in digital environments.

Globalization of Bacon Flavors and Regional Adaptations

Global cuisines have significantly influenced flavor innovation within the Bacon Market. From sriracha-glazed bacon to maple-infused and curry-spiced versions, manufacturers are experimenting to satisfy diverse palates. In India, for example, fusion bacon options catering to both Western and local taste profiles have seen considerable growth in metros.

Brands that can adapt and localize their offerings without compromising on quality are more likely to gain market traction. Limited-edition flavors and region-exclusive launches are also proving effective in driving short-term sales spikes and sustained brand recall.

Premiumization and Artisan Appeal

Consumers are increasingly willing to pay a premium for artisanal bacon. This shift is being driven by a preference for traditional curing techniques, small-batch production, and traceable sourcing. Premium bacon segments also include products with enhanced flavor profiles, such as applewood or hickory-smoked variants.

Artisanal bacon brands are leveraging storytelling and origin-based marketing to appeal to connoisseurs. Whether it’s handcrafted in a specific region or smoked over real hardwood chips, these elements add depth to product narratives and create emotional purchase triggers.

Rise of Sustainable and Ethical Consumption

Sustainability and ethics are no longer niche concerns. They are central to consumer decision-making in the bacon category. Shoppers are scrutinizing carbon footprints, water usage, animal welfare practices, and packaging recyclability.

Brands that adopt regenerative farming practices or partner with certified humane suppliers stand to gain not only consumer trust but also regulatory benefits. In urban centers, particularly among millennials and Gen Z consumers, eco-conscious branding directly influences basket value and brand loyalty.

Snacking and Convenience Formats

Busy lifestyles have redefined how bacon is consumed. There is a growing market for ready-to-eat bacon snacks, microwavable strips, and bacon-infused products such as wraps, dips, and salads. Convenience formats that maintain flavor and freshness are driving incremental growth in non-traditional segments.

Retailers and CPG companies are also bundling bacon with complementary products like eggs or breakfast kits to create value-added offerings. These bundles cater to working professionals, students, and nuclear families looking for easy meal prep solutions.

Influencer-Driven Buying and Social Proof

Social media platforms play a pivotal role in shaping bacon trends. Food bloggers, chefs, and fitness influencers are actively showcasing bacon recipes, reviews, and comparisons. This digital word-of-mouth not only drives awareness but also triggers impulse buying through clickable links and discount codes.

Brands are now collaborating with influencers to create visually appealing content that highlights bacon’s versatility—from breakfast dishes to gourmet meals. High-quality visuals and relatable messaging significantly increase consumer interest and online sales.

Consumer Data and Predictive Analytics

Brands that harness consumer data are better positioned to anticipate behavior shifts. Predictive analytics tools track purchasing patterns, seasonal spikes, and taste preferences. This data informs inventory planning, product innovation, and even promotional timing.

Advanced AI models are now helping bacon producers forecast demand by integrating social sentiment analysis, climate impact, and even competitor pricing shifts. This proactive approach ensures timely interventions and better alignment with market demand.

Conclusion

The Bacon Market is far more dynamic than traditional assumptions suggest. From health-conscious adaptations to tech-driven packaging, consumer preferences are being influenced by a range of evolving trends. Businesses that track these signals early and respond with agility are best positioned to thrive in this fast-changing landscape.

[kannaujheaven]

What Are Some Emerging Trends in the World of Luxury Attars and Perfumery?

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A Glimpse into the World of Luxury Attars and Perfumery: Exploring Emerging Trends

A world where tradition and innovation collide is reflected in luxury attars and perfumery, which envelop wearers in an atmosphere of luxury and rarity. The tastes of contemporary consumers are constantly changing, and fragrances are no exception. 

This blog examines the newest trends in luxury attars and perfumery.

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Trends in Luxury Attars and Perfumery

Unique Combinations of Scents

Luxury attars and perfumes are increasingly experimenting with bold and unusual scent combinations to appeal to sophisticated customers. 

These inventive blends frequently combine conventional fragrances with unanticipated notes. 

For example, oud, a classic in Middle Eastern perfumery, is increasingly combined with light floral or citrus notes to create complex, multifaceted scents. 

These innovations bring new life to classic fragrances and appeal to a younger audience that is searching for unique and contemporary scent experiences.

Creative Designs for Packaging

The luxury perfume industry considers perfume packaging as an important aspect of the customer experience.

 High-quality, handcrafted materials that offer a hint of exclusivity and can be preserved as collectibles are a popular choice in recent times. 

Novel design features like magnetic closures, individualized bottles, and tech-enhanced, interactive perfume packaging. 

These features improve usability strengthen brand identity and appeal to a technologically savvy demographic.

Consumer Preferences in Luxury Fragrances:

Shift towards Natural and Organic Ingredients:

The demand for perfumes and attars made with natural and organic ingredients has significantly increased.

This change is driven by a desire for richer, more complex scents produced by natural ingredients and to stay away from synthetic chemicals.

 In response, the industry has produced products attracting this savvy customer base.

Rising Demand for Personalized Fragrances:

Customization is starting to play a major role in luxury perfumery customer satisfaction. Consumers are looking for fragrances that are not only unique but also customized to suit their moods and individual tastes. 

This has resulted in services by choosing the essences and concentration levels that best suit them. 

This trend is redefining perfumery as a more intimate and expressive personal journey.

Influence of Social Media on Scent Preferences:

Social media platforms impact how customers search for and choose perfumes. Influencers and specialized perfume reviewers shape public perception and trends. As a result of a fragrance's online presence and engagement, social media has become an essential marketing tool in the luxury perfume industry.

 Future Outlook for Luxury Attars and Perfumery

Looking ahead, the luxury attar and perfumery sector continues to embrace innovation rapidly. 

More growth and development in this industry are anticipated due to ongoing technological advancements and shifting consumer preferences. 

sustainability will also be important since more brands are investing in eco-friendly sourcing and packaging. 

With Kannauj Heaven, discover the shifting landscape of luxury attars and perfumes

Luxury attars and perfumery trends are constantly changing, driven by cultural influences, advanced technology, and shifting consumer preferences. 

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From sustainable production practices to the use of rare ingredients, these trends not only push the limits of traditional scent creation but also provide consumers with a more personalized and exclusive experience. 

Keeping up with these changes promises an exciting journey for fragrance enthusiasts and connoisseurs alike. 

[rubys-domain]

hoooooooo boy

the amount of drama and subterfuge in part 1 chapter 4 is putting years on my life

plus 2wink finally showed up and i couldn't be more thrilled

[nineteenninety-six]

── ⟢ ・⸝⸝ Chocolate Bars and Injuries [3]

Pairing: Jack Abbot x Reader

AN: This is a fluff filler chapter but I do love this lil family so sue me. I want to post these more frequently but I can't write as fast as I used to lol. I need some angst ideas for these two and Robby ideas if any of you have any <3

TW: Parental death, usual medical inaccuracies. drunk driving. mentions of death by drunk driving. mentions of Jack's amputation.

Synopsis: Your's and Jack's relationship progress and you meet a few people at The Pitt properly.

TAG LIST: @darksparklesficrecs @flyinglama @lonelyloomis @antisocialfiore @impossibleblizzardstudentposts

PART ONE PART TWO

Jack’s presence in your life has brought immense happiness. The past few months were consumed by mourning your parents and learning to parent Caspian, leaving little time for self-reflection. However, Jack has transformed everything.

Now, you’re a few months into your relationship, and it’s a new experience for both of you. Things were going slow, Jack's schedule being the biggest reason but also he had never dated someone with a young child and you were trying to navigate it together. Jack cringes whenever you introduce yourselves as girlfriend or boyfriend, feeling too old for the term, preferring the term ‘partner.’ But you don’t mind; you love calling him your boyfriend.

The chime of the doorbell echoed throughout the house signifying Jack's arrival and you skipped over to open it, immediately smiling at the man on the other side

"You're spoiling him y'know" You say as you spy the toy store bag amongst the many Jack holds.

"You gonna tell me to stop?" Jack asks as he steps in the house, passing you the flowers he held. Jack waits until the flowers are firmly in your grasp before he pulls you into a kiss, deepening the kiss as he tries to figure out the flavour of your lip gloss.

"What is that, strawberry?" Jack's brows were furrowed as pulls away.

"Grape!" You grin, pecking him once more before you step away.

You sniff the flowers as you walk into the kitchen as Jack follows you automatically, the routine ingrained amongst all the others he held, "No, but what's your plan for when he grows old and out of Hot Wheels?"

Jack retrieves the vase from where it rests and fills it up with water as you trimmed the stems. This was another part of the routine that the two of you had formed, built- off of weeks of dates and flower gifting.

"I don't know... does the kid like fishing?"

"Fishing?" You laugh, "When was the last time you went fishing? Besides the kid is five, what he likes changes every week."

"I went a few years ago with Robby and Frank." Jack tells you, holding the vase out for you.

Your fingers rest over his on the vase as you peer up at him, "And how did that go?"

"Two days one night camped out in one tent next to a lake in the height of summer and all we managed to catch were fish only big enough to feed a starving feral cat" Jack grimaced," You can imagine how well it went."

You laugh at his expression before you turn back to finish up with the flowers, "Well maybe it's best we stay away from fishing but you know, he has been talking about going camping recently. I was thinking about doing it in the backyard."

"Now camping I know alot about. I can take him camping. I can do the whole nine yards... smores, campfire Stargazing and campfire stories"

Jack's hands grasp your hips, giving them a squeeze before he turns you around, an almost hesitant look on his face, "Or is that too much? I don't want to overstep."

"You're not overstepping. I think Cas will really enjoy that." You stretch your arms to wrap around Jack's neck, "Obviously me and Cas are a package deal, it's the both of us or none of us but... are you really sure you want to do this? If you want to get really serious with me, you get serious with Cas and I don't want my relationship with you to be separate from my life with Cas, you all have to tie in together."

"Hey" Jack pulls you into a gentle brief kiss, "I know that. I really like Cas and spending time with him. I also really like you and dating you, I know all of this and it doesn't change a thing."

You beam at him before you pull him into a deep kiss that lasts until your phone chimes reminding you that you had to collect him from his regular weekend Karate lessons.

"Just to let you know, Cas will be showing off all his Karate moves tonight." You say as you leave the house, heading to your car, Jack following behind you.

"I am a more than willing practice dummy. I have a few moves of my own that I learnt when I was serving..." Jack quips, squeezing his body into the passenger seat, "Why can't we take my truck?"

"First of all, you're not using any combat moves on a five year old and secondly, you don't have a car seat for him" You remind him. "C'mon doctor Abbot it's child safety 101."

Jack huffs a laugh but he makes a reminder on his phone for his next free day to do research on the best car seats for children Cas' age to have in his truck.

With Cas down for his afternoon nap, immensely helped by his Karate class, you decided to watch a film with Jack and so you delegated the task of finding a film to watch to Jack whilst you did snacks and drinks. So you were in the kitchen making popcorn while he explored your living room, staring at the many family portraits hanging around and looking through the immense music and film collection accumulated by your parents.

"You've got Heat, Top Gun, The Shining… I remember watching these when I was young. Plus the music collection over there... this is amazing." Jack said in amazement as he continued to flick through the collection.

You laugh at him as you place the drinks and popcorn down on the coffee table, soda for you, beer from one of the many bags he brought with him, for him.

"Yeah my parents collected them. There's more in the loft but they've got a massive collection spanning decades. They used to go to garage sales, flea markets—you name it." You smile as you think about your parents, "Those were my parent's favourites from their childhood so I guess that tracks, you're like the same age as them."

Jack's face goes through many emotions as he looks at you with wide eyes, "I didn't mean to bring them up."

"You mean you don't like being reminded that you're the same age as my parents?" You tease, "Don't worry I don't have daddy issues— well not like that."

 "I don't want to bring up something you're uncomfortable with." Jack says.

"It's not illegal. You can ask about them." You take a seat, Jack quickly joining you, "Don't get me wrong it's a sore subject but my therapist always likes to remind me that not everything is captured on camera or film and if we don't share our memories, we forget them and I have about twenty five years more of them than Cas has."

"Yeah, therapists are great at reminding you to take your head out of your ass." Jack mutters, remembering the reality checks his therapist gives him.

Jack hesitated for a moment before speaking again, asking, “How did they pass?”

You tuck yourself into Jack's side, bracing yourself to talk about something that you've only spoken about to your therapist," Drunk driver. Ran a red light and T-boned them."

"Shit..." Jack swore as he wrapped his arm around your shoulder and squeezed it, comforting you.

"Cas was in the car with them." Your words were quiet but Jack could hear the underlying grief, "My dad died at the scene, mom died in surgery. Cas was in PICU for a week. I was so close to losing my entire family that night."

There's a pause where you take a mouthful of your drink, creating a break, pacing yourself before you reveal a part of you that weighed heavily upon you everyday. 

"A part of me still expects them to walk through those doors and then everything will go back to how it was. A part of me still feels like a teenager, always looking towards their parents for guidance but I'm grown now. I'm scared about letting Cas down, about failing him. I became a guardian— a parent overnight and I feel so out of my depth." You sniffle, emotions beginning to creep up, "It's why I haven't gone through any of their stuff yet. It's why I'm still sleeping in my childhood bedroom and why I haven't had a single sip of alcohol since."

Jack wraps his arms around you as you sobbed into his chest, it was obvious this was heavily weighing on you. Sure you spoke with a therapist but you hadn't let yourself really vent and cry having put all of your energy towards Cas. You cry until you fall asleep in his arms and he nods off shortly after, movie long forgotten. He's awoken by Caspian an unknown amount of time later, the kid crawling underneath his other arm and shaking him as he calls out his name.

"What's up kid?" Jack asks, blinking off the nap brain he had.

Caspian holds up his empty water bottle, "Water please"

"Sure." Jack nods before he untangles himself from you, making sure you dont wake up before he picks Caspian up, easily settling the child on his hip.

Jack had gotten comfortable with Caspian over the last few months and Jack had never imagined himself bonding with a young child the way he had with Caspian but Jack loved the little set-up he had with you and Caspian. He had never married or had children, his past and preference towards working the night shift usually turning people off but he believed he had something special with you and by extension Caspian.

Jack sits Caspian on the kitchen island before he opens the fridge looking for the water jug when your croaky voice speaks up from the doorway.

"Just use the tap, it's filtered for drinking." You say as you approach Caspian, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"Huh... bougie" Jack mutters as he fills the water bottle.

"I know right" You laugh,"I never had any of this stuff when I grew up or lived alone, so I'm indulging in the gadgets my parents splurged on."

"Have you thought about moving?" Jack asks.

"Yeah, sometimes" You answer as you putter around the kitchen making Caspian's snack plate,"It's complicated though. This house is great, it's paid off, it has plenty of space and it's in a good location with Cas' school and my job but this place is filled with the ghosts of my parents and a part of me wants a fresh start especially if I have my own children..."

"Don't read too much into that last part" You quickly say, realising what you had just said.

Jack waits until Caspian is distracted eating in the other room before he says,"... Do you want kids?"

You shrug, "Before all of this yeah but now... I'm not sure. Cas is my top priority now."

"You'll have to prioritise yourself too at some point."

You shrug once again, something that Jack has now come to realise was a way for you to not answer a question, it was a non answer before you diverted the conversation.

"What about you? Do you want kids?" You ask.

Jack keeps eye contact with you as he shrugs, watching the smile on your face as you realise he was mimicking you with sharp eyes, "I didn't think I would be a good father and according to Dana, I'm a bit of a dark and grumpy bastard that turns off most women."

"Not me though"

"Yeah not you"

"Wonder what that says about me"

"I don't" Jack crowds into your space, brushing his lips against yours, "I like you exactly as you are."

"You're such a charmer" You mumble before you tug him into a kiss.

"Alright kid, your sister told me you wanted to show off what you learnt in class today" Jack said as he kneeled down so he rested on one knee, groaning underneath his breath knowing that his body will regret it in the morning.

Caspian perked up, immediately jumping up from the couch to get into position in the middle of the living room rug.

You watched from your place in the kitchen, thankful for the open plan layout so that you can see everything as you cooked. Jack had tried to convince you to order in but you had to remind him that every date you have been on had consisted of dinner dates and you wanted to treat him to a home cooked meal, especially since this was the first time he's actually spent time at your house, having usually just stopping by to pick you up. 

"Ready?!" Caspian asks, ready to show off.

Jack nods, a small smile tugging on his lips. "Yep, c'mon!"

Caspian gives his own nod and he takes a couple of steps before he throws himself into Jack, the impact knocking him backwards onto his back, breath leaving him roughly. 

"Oof!"

"Cas!" You gasp, running over to them, trying your hardest not to laugh but oh man the scene was so funny. "That was not a karate move!"

You lean over Jack, fingers drifting over his head fearing that he may have cracked his head open, "You okay doc? You able to self-diagnose?"

Jack's eyes crinkle as he erupts into laughter, his whole body vibrating as he does so, "Help an old man up?"

Jack reaches an arm up and you swiftly grab it to help him up, missing the devious smirk on his lips as he tugs hard, pulling you on top of him with a muffled huff. There's a beat of silence before you burst into laughter as well, giggling at the absurdity of it all and not wanting to be left out, Caspian jumps on top of you, squashing you in between the both of them.

"This is ridiculous" You giggle, "I'm supposed to be cooking dinner, not doing whatever the hell this is."

"Stay, this is fun!" Caspian speaks, his words coming out mushed as he spoke into your back.

"This is very fun," You agree as you push yourself off of Jack, Caspian's weight not affecting you as you stood, "Unfortunately dinner will be burnt if I don't go back to the kitchen."

This time Jack doesn't drag you down when you grab his hand to pull him to his feet before you turn back to Caspian and tickle his belly, "And I know what monster you turn into when you don't eat so I shouldn't let it get burned should I?"

At Caspian's admitting nod, you return to the kitchen but not before you warn both of them that if they do any more 'karate' moves then neither of them are getting dessert.

It's nearing two am when you finally peel yourself away from Jack's side and the couch where you had been glued to for the past who-knows how many hours finally watching the films that Jack found earlier. Caspian was on the other end of the couch, curled up underneath a blanket after falling asleep midway through the first film and you couldn't be bothered to take him to bed so you left him there.

You let out a soft moan of pleasure as you stretched your tense muscles. Sleep was tugging at you and all you wanted was to crawl into bed.

"What do you want me to do?" Jack's words are murmured as he stands behind you, warm hands resting on your hips.

"Let me lock up and then you can take him upstairs"

Jack nods and gives your hips a squeeze watching as you leave to turn off the lights and lock the doors before you return to him.

Once Caspian is tucked in bed and snoozing away, you close his bedroom door, leaving it open just a smidge for when he wakes up in the morning and you pull Jack to the landing.

You glance up at Jack , "You know you're staying the night right?"

Jack did not know that. 

Jack wasn't going to drive home, he had seen and treated too many people who were the victims of drunk driving but he was planning on taking a taxi home.

"I was going to call a taxi…" Jack admitted.

"Not anymore you're not," You roll your eyes before pausing and looking back at him, "You don't have any problems with sleeping in my parent's bedroom  do you?"

Jack eyes her, trying not to reveal his shock, "Your what?"

You grin, winking at him, "I'm just joking, we have a guest room."

Jack's shoulders untense, "Not funny."

"You can use some of my dads clothes to sleep in, unless you have spare ones in your little go-bag."

"Tactical rucksack" Jack corrects

"Right, right of course" You giggle, "I apologise."

You take him to the guest room, waving him in, "It hasn't been used in a while but it's clean and there's a bathroom next door. I'll be back with clothes and towels for you."

Jack quickly peels off his trousers once you've left, kicking them off as he sits on the bed and takes off his prosthetic, massaging his leg with practised ease, soothing the usual ache that lingered when he wore it all day.

He hadn’t mentioned his leg or what had happened, and it wasn’t entirely deliberate to keep it a secret. However, he was clueless about how to bring it up naturally. He knew you well enough to understand that you wouldn’t pressure him for answers or perceive him differently. Nevertheless, the lingering anxiety in his mind kept his thoughts racing with ‘what ifs’.

Jack was so engrossed in his thoughts that he missed the knock on the door. He only looked up when you let out a surprised yelp. He watched as your eyes trailed down his body, momentarily pausing at his crotch. The image of him in tight boxer briefs was seared into your mind before they continued down his body to his legs. As you realised what you were looking at, you knew you had intruded on a private moment, you quickly slammed your eyes shut, arms thrust in front of you holding the towel and clothes and squeaked out an apology.

Jack grabs the items out of your hand silently and you immediately scurry out of the room, apologising once more before you shut the door behind you.

"Well that takes care of that" Jack laughs incredulously. 

You threw yourself onto your bed with a groan, feeling embarrassed about your impulsive action. You should have knocked until you heard him speak, but instead, you barged right in and then fled like a child.

As you changed into your pajamas, you realised how little you truly knew about Jack. You knew he had served in the military and had friends at the hospital, but you hadn’t actually met any of them. Jack was a complex individual, and you hadn’t even scratched the surface of his layers.

A knock at the door startles you, and you take a deep breath, knowing that it could only be one person.

Jack stood on the other side of the door, hair still damp from his shower, his curls refreshed and smelling of the shampoo whilst he stood in a simple t-shirt and joggers.

"Hey," Jack's eyes flicker over you, searching for a sign of disgust or anything.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to barge in on you," You instantly apologise, "Especially not when…"

Your words trail off, not knowing the right words to say.

"Can I come in?" Jack asks and you immediately nod, shuffling him towards your bed.

"I realised I hadn't told you anything about me, not really. So where do I start?" Jack sighs as he sits up against your headboard, "I'm an old man with a long list of stories."

"You're not old," You say as you easily climb in bed beside him. You couldn't help it, it was like your body craved being next to him, "You talk about whatever you want and I'll just listen."

And so Jack did, he told you about his life story, not all of it but you had definitely peeled back a few layers of the man. You hear about his enlistment and attending medical school and then he briefly talks about the incident that resulted in losing his foot, it still being a topic that he finds hard to discuss. Then he talks about coming to Pittsburgh and meeting Robby and why he likes to work the nightshift.

"Will I ever get to meet Robby or any of your other friends?" You ask once he's finished speaking.

Jack looks down at you with a half frown, half smile, voice teasing "You've already met Robby."

You roll your eyes, "No I didn't. I saw him at Tanner's party, that doesn't count."

"Huh, really…"

"What's stopping me from visiting during the day shift hmm?"

"I'll tell security to ban you, I'll hand your mugshot out as well."

You muffle your laughter into your palm, "I'll tell Frank to let me in, they'll trust him right, since he's a doctor"

"He's still a resident, I outrank him." Jack leans down to press a kiss to your lips. "Nice try though."

"You going to go back to the guest room?" You ask, curling up to Jack's side.

Jack's words are whispered, "Do you want me to?"

"No" You whisper back.

Jack pulls away causing you to groan in disappointment but you take the opportunity to slip underneath the duvet. Your eyes never left his form as he bent off to take his prosthesis off with ease that takes years of experience.

You curl back into Jack's side once he joins you underneath the duvet, melting into his warmth. Jack switches off the bedside light and your limbs twisting around each other as you relax into the bed. You want to thank Jack for opening up but you are quickly lulled into sleep, mind going blank as Jack wrapped his body around yours.

You eventually meet Jack’s hospital colleagues, but not on his terms.

Jack stayed at yours like he usually did on his day off but this time it was slightly different since his truck had been in the shop for a week. On Friday morning after he got off of shift he went home and did his usual routine and then you picked him up after work and took him to yours. He had Saturday off, spent it with you and Caspian, slept over, and then had lunch with you and Caspian on Sunday before you dropped him off for his Sunday evening shift. However, when he left the car, his wallet fell out of his pocket and dropped onto the seat, unnoticed by either of you.

You didn’t realise until the next morning on Monday when you pulled up at work after dropping Caspian at school. Since you wouldn’t see Jack until the end of the week, you decided to drop it off on your lunch break. So, you left him a message saying you’d leave it at the front desk of the hospital’s ED.

The waiting room was loud and crowded when you entered, filling with people bleeding, limping, coughing and sneezing as they waited for to be finally called back to be treated. You tapped your foot as you waited in line, Jack's wallet clenched tightly in your hand.

You flinch when a hand grabs your arm and you look back to see a doctor that looks vaguely familiar.

"Hey, I remember you," The woman says, casting a cursory look up and down your body, "Are you okay?"

You frown as you face the woman, still unable to place where you recognised her. "Yeah I'm fine…I'm sorry I don't know…"

"I'm Dr McKay. Cassie. I was at Tanner's birthday party with my son."

"Ah." You nod, finally remembering, "Yeah sorry I'm fine, I've just got Jack's- sorry, Dr Abbot's wallet. I was just leaving it here so he can pick it up on his next shift."

Dr McKay's expression changes as her brows rise on her head and her eyes widen as she slowly nods her head, "Why don't I take you through and you can just leave it at the charge station."

"Why can't I just leave it with you?" You question but you let her guide you through the doors through to the ED.

"You could but if I let this opportunity fall through I'll never be forgiven." Dr McKay tells you as you walk towards a hub of activity, presumably the charge station.

"Hey Dana, Robby!" Dr McKay calls out catching the attention of a blonde nurse and dark haired doctor. You recognise them from Tanner's birthday as well, which of course makes sense considering Frank's job.

You introduce yourself and Robby instantly recognises you and introduces himself and Dana.

"I'd hate to interrupt your work, I just planned to leave it at reception," You say as you flash the wallet, "I told him I'd leave it there anyway…"

A smirk grew on Dana's face once she caught sight of the familiar wallet and Robby's smile stretched so wide his cheeks bunched up. They were loving this and they couldn't wait until Jack clocked in for the evening shift.

"You are so not interrupting." Robby's words were interrupted by his laughter.

Your own smile dances on your lips when you realise why they were so giddy, "Don't be too mean to him."

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity here," McKay interjects, "Abbot almost never slips."

You pass the wallet over to Robby who slips it into his pocket so that Jack will have to go up to him personally to get it back. 

"Is a grumpy Jack the best person to work with?" You ask with a laugh.

"It's why he works the night shift," Dana chimes in, "Usually less people than the day shift during the week."

"He was plenty nice to me" You shrug.

"That's because you're a pretty woman." McKay snickers, Dana nodding along.

"Ooh-kay. I have to get back to work but it was nice meeting you all, officially." You wave at them before you turn and leave, bumping into Frank but you only have enough time to simply say 'Hello' before you're disappearing through the doors.

Frank watches you go with a raised eyebrow before he turns back to the group at the charge station, "What's that all about?"

"Did you know she's with Abbot?" Dana asks.

Frank nods, not knowing what the big deal was, "Yeah for at least a couple of months or at least that's what Abby said."

"Huh…" Robby nods, "Interesting."

Jack grumbles as he leaves the frontdesk empty handed, heading towards the charge station hoping that his wallet was there instead, he just hoped the usual suspects were busy with patients. He deliberately arrived an hour earlier in hopes of collecting his wallet without being ambushed.

The charge station was empty and Jack quickly made his way over and began to search through the desk, pushing files and tablets aside as he searched for his wallet. He was midway through pushing a computer to the side when somebody clears their throat behind him, causing him to straighten slowly and turn around.

"Looking for something?" Robby asks, holding up the wallet in question.

Dana was next to him, failing miserably to conceal her smirk, "She's pretty. When were you planning on introducing her to us?"

Jack grumbled once again, stomping over and snatching the wallet from Robby and putting it in his bag.

"I wasn't."

"Not that it matters anyway," Robby laughs, before deciding to torment Jack even further, "We got enough info anyway."

"Langdon!" Jack immediately snaps his head over to the clueless doctor who looked up from his tablet with wide eyes, "What the hell is your problem?"

Langdon frowns in confusion, "What did I do?"

"Talking about shit that doesn't concern you." Jack snaps, "Whatever your wife tells you, you keep it to yourself."

Langdon continues to look at him wide eyed and confused, "What are you talking about?"

Finally Robby cuts in, sparing his resident from anymore abuse from the night shift attending.

"Frank didn't say anything, Jack. Stop bullying the poor man."

Jack turns Robby, "Were you just fucking with me?"

Robby laughs, "Yeah pretty much but she seemed nice."

Jack's tense shoulders relax slightly, "She is nice."

"Pretty too." Dana adds.

"Uh-huh." Jack doesn't try to entertain the conversation even further. They knew enough already.

"You have to let us meet her properly, you know!" Robby called out as Jack walked out of the ED, heading to the lift so he could have some peace on the rooftop before his shift started.

Jack simply threw a middle finger up behind him as he walked through the doors.

[definitelynotanalien]

Boyfriend!Chigiri who has a quite frankly meticulous haircare routine, with special shampoos, conditioners, and hair masks to use on rather specific days

Boyfriend!Chigiri who spends hours (and hundreds of dollars) buying new hair products, at least the ones that aren’t delivered in his PR

Boyfriend!Chigiri who uses around 500 hair products for every little thing, trying to ensure the health of every cutical

Boyfriend!Chigiri who has the mason pearson hair brush (actually three pairs. One for regular use, one for trainings, one for travel)

Boyfriend!Chigiri who has to bring an extra suitcase for his hair stuff whenever you go on vacation

Boyfriend!Chigiri who snaps at you when you ask if it’s necessary (“are you necessary?”)

Boyfriend!Chigiri who cringes whenever you get a new hair idea, knowing it’ll end up with someone’s hair in knots, although preferably not his

Boyfriend!Chigiri who refuses to use heat on his hair in case it damages it, no matter how strong the heat protectant may be

Boyfriend!Chigiri who somehow has a sponser from every hair care brand (fino, &honey, fenty???) and frequently receives the most ridiculous PR packages

Boyfriend!Chigiri who only lets you touch his hair when he’s feeling especially nice (and vulnerable)

Boyfriend!Chigiri who always ties up his hair before doing something important

Boyfriend!Chigiri who braids his hair when you’re especially needy, choosing to dutch braid it into two neat little things

Boyfriend!Chigiri who will eat you out like you’re a michelin star meal, devouring your essence with his purposeful strokes

Boyfriend!Chigiri who immediately stops if your hands get near his hair, glaring at you with half lidded eyes as you squirm underneath him

Boyfriend!Chigiri who once in the zone, starts to suck onto your clit and bite at you, while he still doesn’t allow you to even think of touching his hair

Boyfriend!Chigiri who effortlessly carves orgasm after orgasm out of you, while you’re stuck clutching the air, trying to not reach out for his beautiful red locks as to prolong this heavenly experience

Boyfriend!Chigiri who licks his lips as he adjusts himself over you, making sure to align perfectly for your entrance

Boyfriend!Chigiri who gradually loses his composure, living up to his nickname as the red panther with his quick unrelenting movements

Boyfriend!Chigiri who pounds into you, his braids long destroyed, like an animal. His red mane surrounding him as he craves the most fulfilling release he can obtain

Boyfriend!Chigiri who chews on his hair as he gets closer to his own edge, always gaining more split ends after each and every session

Boyfriend!Chigiri who spits out his own hair after he releases, disgusted by his chewing and feeling bad for his poor scalp

Boyfriend!Chigiri who showers with you after a long night, massaging various products into your scalp and racking care of you

Boyfriend!Chigiri who’s the big spoon, cuddling you softly as his final form of aftercare

Boyfriend!Chigiri who always has a good sleep after eating you out, waking up with beautiful long locks the night after

Boyfriend!Chigiri who wakes up with atrocious bedhair almost everyday, no matter what he does, and the only solution seems to be consuming you

[cueloki]

Midgard wide web: TBR

Loki gets on the internet and makes quite a few discoveries in the process.

Wordcount: 2372

Pairing: Loki x f!reader

Warnings: 18+ MDNI, Loki the explorer; Loki discovers social media and smut, unsupervised use of internet, credit card fraud (sorry)

A/N: I really want that book with the pretty illustrations. | divider credit: firefly-graphics

Loki wasn’t someone who particularly wanted to develop mortal habits. Knowing about them was one thing, picking them up himself was another.

The only problem was he fell in love with a mortal and now he wanted to understand the weird things humans do, to understand you; your peculiar humor and quirks. 

He wanted to show you he cared about the stuff you cared about, no matter its level of importance. 

In an effort to do just that he asked if you could help him sign up for social media. 

You were a little surprised. Loki never showed anything but disdain for socials before but you figured he simply caved to curiosity so you guided him through setting up accounts.

First he explored instagram and your dms filled with countless cute animal videos and funny posts. Next he discovered the wonders of stan twitter where people begged him for a tiny bit of his attention on the daily. His little ‘Daggerians’ as he named them wanted to know more about him. They tweeted questions at him left and right and it was all very innocent at first…

“Darling, someone asked me what my favorite ‘me me’ is. What's a ‘me me’?” “A me-me? … OH, you mean a meme!”

Until it wasn’t. 

“Darling, I have ligma?” “Loki, I am not falling for that.” “Pardon?” “I know it's a trick.” “I don't understand. Somebody told me I have ligma.” “Who told you that?” “A Daggerian! What’s ligma?” “Oh baby, I hate to be the one to tell you but… It's a set up, they want you to ask what ligma is so they can say ligma balls.” “...” “As in lick my–” “Yes, I get it!” “...” “...” “...” “That is no way to talk to a god!”

That was the day Loki learned about the block button and some poor unfortunate soul got the privilege of being the first on his blocklist. 

Loki didn't take kindly to tricking attempts, especially unoriginal ones. Unfortunately his fans were just as mischievous as him so they tried their luck in pranking the god. You had to stifle your laughter as he scarcely avoided a taste of his own medicine…

The questions about internet culture kept popping up and even though you told him a lot of what he asked about would be answered with a quick google search, he insisted he preferred your explanations.

Eventually the novelty of the ‘stupid bird app’ wore off but most of all Loki tired of stan twitter’s shenanigans. Needing a break, he decided to sign up on tiktok and hide out there. 

That very first day after hours of scrolling he ended up watching a book review of the latest book everyone on booktok was obsessed with.

“This is quite explicit in its topics.” He hummed. It was full of taboos, violence but most importantly, it was packaged with a hefty set of steamy scenes. You would know. You had read it.

“It's a spicy dark romance book.” You explained. You were curled up on the couch with him, sketching in your journal and vaguely paying attention to what he was watching.

He paused the video. “A spicy book?” He narrowed his eyes as his fingers kept idly tracing your upper thigh.

“Mhm, like you know… it has smut.” Your hand stilled as you stopped drawing and peered up at him.

“What’s a smut?” His face scrunched.

“Not a smut, just smut. It's sex scenes.” You chuckled at his evident confusion. You weren't used to Loki being the one out of his element, it was usually you.

“Do you read those kinds of novels?” He had asked.

“Sometimes.”

And that's what kickstarted it all. In the coming weeks your boyfriend was catching up with all the books booktok raved about, consuming smut like it was the very air he needed to breathe.  

“Darling, this is awfully kinky. We don’t have anything like it on Asgard.” He commented while reading the first one on your kindle. 

After getting through it he decided you ‘needed to start getting physical copies again to save your eyesight and get the proper reading experience’ but really you knew it was because he preferred to read that way and as you agreed – for his sake – all hell broke loose.

Three months later he barged in while you were getting some work done on your computer. By this point Loki had built his own dark romance book collection, filling up multiple shelves and it was anything but innocent. 

He roped you in as well.

“I think you'll enjoy this one,” He smirked as he placed another book he finished onto the desk of your home office. “Enemies to lovers and it has touch her and die.”

“I can't believe you pitch me books with tropes now. Booktok owes me compensation for teaching you these things. You've been corrupted!” You teased him gleefully. He leaned onto the desk with his forearms, cocking an amused brow. You picked up the book and examined the pretty cover with the gold foil details. As you turned it around you noticed the sprayed edges.

“Special edition? It's pretty. Where did you get it?” You mused before your eyes flicked up to his.

“Last month I signed us up for a subscription box… or… a few… Under your name. This was the first one that arrived.” He explained.

You hummed, continuing to admire the book’s design until his words sank in and your head shot up. 

“Wait, did you say a few? On my card?” Your eyes widened.

“Of course not. Stark’s.” He smiled proudly.

“That explains it.” You nodded, worry melting away slightly. “Should I even ask how you have his credit card information? Probably not right?” You pursed your lips.

He shook his head. “Best not to make you an accomplice, darling.” 

You snorted. “Okay well, thanks, my love,” You reached to put the book away but he stopped you.

“No, this one should skip to the top of your TBR. Open it.” He urged fervently.

So you did. Only to discover a breathtaking illustration of a woman, her body covered by nothing but Rapunzel-long hair. She was riding on a white horse while a raven haired man was depicted walking beside her. From far away he kind of resembled Loki even down to his clothes.

“I think he's gorgeous, don't you?” Loki grinned smugly. “She as well… Reminds me of you.”

“Does she now?” You asked dully, presenting a facade of disinterest though you knew he saw right through you.

“If you take off your clothes right now she does.” He shot you a mischievous wink.

You laughed. Your heart still skipped a beat even when his flirting was silly.

“Get out of my office you dork, I have work to do!”

Loki straightened and raised up his hands in defense. “Alright alright, what do you want for lunch?” He smiled softly.

You spun in your chair and placed the book onto the growing stack behind you. 

“Surprise me,” you returned his smile.

As much as you tried you couldn’t keep up with the pace Loki read books. 

That didn't seem to matter to him at all. With his impeccable memory as soon as you finished one he'd be eager to discuss it with you. You'd be lying if you said you weren’t happy to share this with him even if it meant giving up the comfort of your kindle.

What you could never foresee was how engaged Loki became with booktok during all of this. He was in the depths of it then one day his algorithm spiraled onto the fandom side of tiktok…

“Darling, what's tumblr?” He asked.

You paused typing on your laptop and slowly exited out of your fanfic wip document, peeking over the screen at him from your side of the couch. 

“Blogging site, has a lot of art, fandom communities… Why?”

“Seems like something you’d enjoy. Are you on it?” He tilted his head curiously.

You hadn't exactly shared that part of your life with him yet but you couldn’t in good conscience lie about it. You wanted to be honest in your relationship. And it's not like he would know what was on your tumblr.

“Yeah, yeah… I'm on it.” You admitted. And then came the question that made you wish the ground swallowed you whole.

“May I see your account?” He was completely serious too.

“Oh baby, it's such an old blog, it'd be cringy to look at.” You tried to divert Loki from his idea.

It wasn’t solely about cringe. Fact of the matter was you’d have no problem with him seeing your blog if it wasn’t also littered with hundreds thousands of Loki fics you had reblogged back in the day before you two got together… when you had a hopeless crush on him and were indulging. Which was embarrassing enough on its own. But that wasn't the worst of it… 

The truth was you had found yourself writing your own Loki fanfic pieces. If you could call it fanfic. The stuff you had posted was borderline real event recounts and you had no idea how he'd react to that.

“Alright, my love.” He shrugged and dropped the topic suspiciously fast, going back to tapping on his phone. 

Relieved that he didn't press you about it, you didn’t question it at the time and simply thought that was that. And everything was fine…

Until the next day when he barged into your office in the middle of your work day. 

“There's smut of me on tumblr! So much of it!” He exclaimed in delight.

Guess cat’s out of the bag.

You cleared your throat and looked up from your screen. “That's nice, sweetheart,” You smiled. “But I have a meeting in–”

“No, darling, you have to see this, it's impressively accurate!” He crossed the room in quick strides and handed you his phone. 

He leaned against your desk as he waited patiently. You watched how his fingers tightened around the desk’s border then finally scanned the post on his phone. Immediately you recognized it as one of your own. You tried to push down your internal panic as you glanced up at him. His expression was blank.

Does he know? Either way you probably have to come clean.

You bit your bottom lip and discarded his phone on the desk. 

“Is this a joke?” You searched his face for any sign of what he was thinking. He cocked an eyebrow. You hesitated, unable to read how much he already knew but then you gave in, confession leaving your lips, coaxed out by his silence.

“That's my blog. How did you find it?” 

He crossed his arms and smirked. “And here I was so sure I would have to extract the truth out of you because you wouldn't admit it. My darling, pray tell, what other secrets do you keep from me?” His eyes twinkled with mirth.

You rolled your eyes and got up. “I told you I didn't want you to look at it.” You wrinkled your nose. You knew this would be revealed at some point so you weren’t necessarily mad, just blindsided.

“I wasn’t searching for it, I happened to stumble onto it.” His hands landed on your hips, pulling you closer. Your arms snaked around his neck without hesitation as you relaxed into his touch. 

“Happened to? How'd you know it was mine, Mischief?” You narrowed your eyes at him skeptically.

“Oh I don't know, maybe the fact that the writing’s akin to a page out of your journal or perhaps the fact you made your username our inside joke?” He laughed.

Your cheeks warmed up. Okay, in hindsight, you understood how it would be obvious to him.

“Stop reading my journal, nosy god–”

“If you didn’t want me to know you’d hide it better–”

You quirked a threatening eyebrow at him. 

“Apologies my darling, continue.” He smiled sheepishly.

“I’ll take it down, the smut.” You declared offhandedly. The last thing you wanted to do was make him uncomfortable because you’d splashed your intimate details onto the hellsite.

“You will do no such thing.” His eyes darkened as his fingers dug into your skin possessively. 

Your eyebrows pulled together in confusion. 

“You like it that people know what we do together, what your god does to you, you get off on it, don't you?” His voice lowered.

You snickered, ignoring the heat that shot to your core. “Okay Mr. Dark romance, I see you've learned some new tricks.” 

He lifted you onto the desk, positioning himself between your legs. “Maybe you'll even get to write about them on your blog.” He whispered huskily in your ear.

to be continued…?

→          BONUS

ONE MONTH AGO

“How the hell– This is completely busted.” Tony mumbled to himself as he examined the malfunctioning part of his new invention. “Jarvis, order a new one. Product number…” He squinted at the almost too small font. “6L0R10VS” He read off the sequence.

“On it sir.”

Minutes passed and Tony’s lab filled with a haunting silence, he tapped his foot and looked to the ceiling as if talking to god himself and not just Jarvis. 

“What’s taking so long?” He complained.

“I’m sorry sir, it looks like their website doesn’t let artificial intelligence access it.” The synthetic voice announced.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Tony groaned, rubbing his forehead in frustration.

He walked over to his desk and slumped into his chair that let out a weary squeak from years of abuse. “Gotta do everything myself,” He grumbled to himself as he pulled up the website and looked for a new part. If Jarvis had feelings he might have been offended at the notion. 

Tony tried to get it over with as fast as possible so he could get back to tinkering soon. He rolled his eyes when he tried to check out his cart and the site he used regularly didn't have his information saved anymore.

With a sigh he reached into the back pocket of his jeans, pulled out his wallet and got to entering his credit card details.

Loki smirked in the shadows. This will set him up nicely for those book box subscriptions.

[piplup335]

Cruel King x reader! (ya have his call card lol)

hello, F E L L A S

yeah so uh I got bored lmao

there really isn’t anything much to it, and I just felt like creating fluff of this guy

short one lol

enjoy! :D

⋯⇋ ૮(•͈⌔•͈)ა ⇌⋯

Another day, another eight hours of training for Shedletsky's quests.

After fighting some sort of Egyptian god to retrieve the Firebrand, you realised that everything would probably only get more bizarre from there.

You started out having to fight two children with their uncle, and now you were moving up to full-on deities. So, of course, you went training to ensure you wouldn't get brutally beaten up by anything else.

However, this time, your training left you exhausted and spent. Not even the soothing restorative energy that coursed through your veins as you stepped on the healing pad could get rid of that feeling of utter lethargy.

As you flopped down on the bed, you were ready to use some of your consumables to rest and relax. Some of the things you duelled today did have pre-packaged ice cream with them when you looted their dead bodies, and you did get quite a bit of Tix from beating up all those Camels today...or whatever they were. Really, what normal camel would be able to inflict some unknown curse of the gods upon you?

To make matters even worse, the air conditioning in Vermillion Village's Inn broke down, so you were stuck in the sweltering desert heat. After a short back-and-forth debate with yourself, you decided to munch on some ice cream.

As you reached into your inventory for the sweet treat, your fingers brushed against something cold. Thinking it would help you cool down, you pulled it out, expecting it to be one of your desserts.

What you did not expect was to pull out a flat object- a card with a red and blue vortex in the background. A golden crown sat in the middle of the card, coloured jewels adorning its exterior.

Cruel King's call card.

"...oh, shoot-"

The card glowed brightly in your hand, and Cruel King appeared before you in a puff of frost and snowflakes.

"Go forth, my l- oh?"

His cyan eyes glanced around the room, scanning the area for any threats.

"...you're not fighting?"

You sat back in your bed, looking up at him with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry...I wanted to grab an ice cream to cool off and accidentally summoned you instead..."

The King sighed. He could feel the heat of the room, but the relaxing chill emanating from his body served to cancel out the humid environment. With a soft sigh, he sat down on the edge of the bed and glanced down at your smaller form.

"...I can cool you off if you'd prefer, my dear."

The both of you lay in bed as you clung onto him like a koala. You were basically using him as a cooling pad at this point, and Cruel King didn't seem to mind one bit.

"Cruel King, you're cold..."

"If I am too cold for you, allow me to warm you up."

He draped his thick, fluffy silk cape over your form. Since he was significantly taller than you, his cape easily wrapped around you like a burrito.

The King pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead, the chill of his lips lingering on your skin as his arms wrapped around your smaller form.

"It's nice spending time with you outside of battle, my sweet. Every moment with you is one I will always cherish and hold dear to my heart."

His crown lay on the bedside table, forgotten. For now, all he cared about was not his past status as a respected king. He cared about you.

The person who brought him out of the Ice Dagger's trance.

The person who finally opened his eyes and broke him free from the illusions he had been fed.

He had fallen for you, purely because of the amount of time he had spent with you.

He loved you for always sticking with him even when he lashed out at you, oblivious to your true intentions behind getting the Ice Dagger.

When you struck him down in his own personal Nirvana for the fifth time, he felt something stir within him.

Affection. Love...for you.

He wanted to see you more. He needed you in his life.

So, he gave you his Call Card. He wanted to aid you in every step of your journey, even if it meant putting his soul in peril.

He wanted to see you smile every time you won a battle. He wanted to celebrate your little moments with you.

He loved you dearly. He loved you with every fibre of his being.

As you lay there, arms wrapped around his torso, one of his hands snaked around your waist while the other caressed your face. His icy exterior melted for you, and only you.

"My sweetheart...my beloved..."

He moved his hand up, his fingers tenderly carding through your hair. He gently straightened out the tangled strands, calmly massaging any parts of your scalp he thought he pulled too hard on.

"Rest, my dear...you must be tired from all that training."

You pressed the side of your face against his chest, enjoying the cool surface. You felt exhausted, and you were ready to crash right then and there.

"...I will...thank you..."

Cruel King glanced down at you with a tender, loving smile, his arms tightening their grasp on you.

"Don't thank me, sweetheart. It's simply my duty as your King, after all."

You let out a small, tired yawn. You felt so comfortable in Cruel King's arms, that it was almost impossible to stay awake. The tender scalp massages, the way his fingers caressed your back...it was all so relaxing.

You didn't even realise you needed the comfort until then.

With the softest of sighs, you finally drifted off to sleep in his embrace, Blackrock's King silently vowing to watch over you as you slept.

Not even the old King could resist the sweet temptation of sleep, though.

Maybe you'd call him outside of battle more often.

⋯⇋ ૮(•͈⌔•͈)ა ⇌⋯

aaaand that’s all for today! I hope you enjoyed, and I’ll see you all soon :D

do drop any feedback in the comments or the askbox, it’s always open! :)

[dat-town]

p.s. but i like you

Characters: Taesan & female reader

Setting & genre: to all the boys i’ve loved before au; she fell first, he fell harder; fluff, comedy

Summary: When your love letters are sent out to your ex-crushes and you spend your last break before university trying to get them back, the last thing you expect is your neighbour tagging along.

Alternatively; you write love letters when you’re ready to move on from an all-consuming crush. There are four in total: Kim Donghyun from science camp in middle school, Park Sunghee’s older brother who tutored you once, Lee Chanyoung from the holiday resort last summer and Han Dongmin, the boy next door.

Warnings: MC is a bit chaotic, a bit of jealousy

Words: 10.3k

Author’s note: shoutout to the anonie who told me that the she fell first, he fell harder trope would fit Taesan because that’s so true. i hope i did it justice!

Letting your mother help you declutter your room before moving to Seoul for university was a big mistake. You realize it the moment you open your desk’s bottom drawer only to find it perfectly organized, colorful pens and highlighters in one corner, cute stationery in the other with stacks of important documents in the back, very unlike the usual mess you had in this exact drawer, the one you use to keep little trinkets like movie tickets and your old diary with lock and key you have been too embarrassed to throw out in fears of somebody finding it. You quickly scan the contents of the drawer, check all the others too, half-relieved when you find the diary with its lock secured but it doesn’t dissipate your nerves entirely.

“Mom...” You walk up to her where she’s currently sorting your clothes by color after you’ve already separated them by season. “Have you seen the envelopes in my drawer?”

“The letters? Ah, yes. I had to pick up a package from the post office today anyways, so I mailed them for you,” your mother says matter-of-factly, not noticing the way you’re biting your lower lip nervously.

“What?” You shriek, louder than you intended, in pure panic.

“Well, except for Dongmin’s, of course. I gave his to his mother,” she continues as if it was a light-hearted chit-chat, unaware of the storm clouds collecting over your head because she’s too focused on deciding whether to put your beige or cream colored sweater on top. “What’s with them by the way? Is it one of those letter chains we used to do when you were younger?”

“No. No, no, no,” you throw yourself onto your bed and scream into your pillow when you realize she’s totally serious. She found those simple white, addressed envelopes on the bottom of your drawer and took them thinking you just never got around to send them.

However, those letters were not meant to be sent. Ever.

The thing is: you write a love letter whenever you’re ready to move on from an all-consuming crush. So they are rather goodbye letters, your closure after spending days, weeks imagining your life with just another boy before realizing that it wouldn’t work out anyways. Not that you ever do anything about your crushes and you prefer it this way. In your head you can make up all these little scenarios about holding hands, amusement park dates, watching the stars together because at the end of the day you’re a hopeless romantic. You can giggle about seeing your crush smile from far away without the disappointment getting to know them could possibly bring. You have seen enough of your friends get rejected or dumped, so nah, you don’t plan to ‘put yourself out there’ anytime soon. Especially now that high school ended and you got your acceptance letter from your dream university in Seoul and you’re so ready to leave Gwangju behind.

But now the letters are out and it ruins all your plans of a peaceful winter break.

You’re knocking on the Han family’s door as if the building was burning down, tapping your house slippers against the corridor’s floor because you couldn’t be bothered to waste more time by putting on proper shoes and outerwear just to walk one door down.

You’re still going with the momentum and almost hit Dongmin’s lovely mother in the chest when she opens the door for you but you manage to scramble backwards and try to regain your composure by forcing a polite smile on your face.

“Good evening, Mrs. Han. Is Dongmin home?” You ask tentatively, hoping, praying that she would say no, so you could ask for your letter back from her by making up some excuse. Your smile almost falls though when the woman nods and looks behind her shoulder.

“Dongmin! Y/N’s here for you,” she shouts down the hall before turning towards you with a kind smile and ushering you inside like she has always done ever since your family moved in next door when you were fifteen. “What are you waiting for? Come in.”

You mutter out a quiet thank you and awkwardly wave when you see Dongmin’s younger siblings in front of the tv in the living room but no sign of the boy.

“He must have his headphones on like usual. Just knock loudly on his door,” his mother clicks her tongue in disapproval and puts a bowl of sliced fruits in your hands before gently pushing you towards the bedrooms inside the apartment.

You gulp and follow her instructions but even if you haven’t been there before, you would know which door is Dongmin’s because it’s full with stickers of his favourite bands and there’s the unmistakable sound of guitar playing resonating through the door when you get close enough, the same sound you hear from your own room because you (unfortunately?) share a wall with the guy. You knock on the wood three times, loud enough for the music to stop and one and half inhales later it swings open, revealing the tall boy with tousled dark hair, wearing an oversized The Beatles tee and sweatpants.

It’s been a while since you have seen him from up close, so for a moment you’re rendered speechless and a wave of self-consciousness washes over you due to the state of your homey clothes and messy bun but then you remember that he has already seen you taking out the trash in you pajamas and with greasy hair as well as with the braces you had back in freshman year. Not to mention, you have a bigger, more embarrassing problem at hand than how you look.

“What?” Dongmin eventually speaks up, raising an eyebrow in question as he leans his side against the doorframe and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

Okay, if he doesn’t know what you’re here for nor he’s calling you out on your childish letter, he must not have read it yet, right?

“Uhm, did you perhaps get a letter today? From me?” You find your voice finally, albeit it’s more high-pitched than normally as you awkwardly choose your words to sound as vague as possible. Dongmin stares at you nonchalantly before reaching for somewhere behind his back and holds an envelope ‒ your letter! ‒ out for you.

“You mean this?”

“Yes, exactly! Can I have it back?” You get excited and relieved, reaching for the paper only for Dongmin to raise it higher, out of your reach. You pout as you pull your hand back and dare to look the boy in the eyes as you pose the question you’re afraid to hear the answer for. “Or… did you read it already?”

Dongmin looks at you impassively, eyes searching as if he’s trying to figure you and your intentions out. Then he shrugs.

“What? The part about my beautiful eyes or that I drive you crazy?” He asks with one corner of his mouth lifting cockily as he quotes your words and you are going to have to dig a grave for yourself. Especially because both statements are still very much true apparently.

“Shh!” You hiss and you don’t even know what comes over you when you push at his chest with enough force (and the element of surprise) to push him back inside his room and you slip in too, quickly closing the door behind you before his family could hear what you’re talking about.

A moment later you realize what exactly you have done and your eyes widen at your own brazen behaviour. Based on the confused, dumbfounded look on Dongmin’s face you managed to surprise him too.

“Uhm, your mom made this for you,” you clear your throat as you push the bowl of fruits into his hands and look anywhere but his face. Which in turn results in looking around in his room that’s very like him. Band posters on the wall, concert tickets half-filling a glass jar, a keyboard by the desk, CSAT preparation books on the shelf, clothes thrown on the bed…

“Look Y/N,” he starts, his voice deeper than you remembered. But again, when was the last time you had a proper conversation other than hellos when running into each other in the corridor? “About your letter. I'm flattered but…”

“Don’t be!” You cut him off before he could reject you. Even if it’s years late and you aren’t crushing on him anymore, it would hurt your feelings, so you would rather not hear it. “You’re not the only one. I’ve written four letters.”

“Damn, Y/N. Is this some kind of prank?” Dongmin furrows his brows. He looks like he can’t decide whether he should be amused or annoyed by the sudden turn of events. You’re not sure which would be worse.

“I wish it was. My mom mailed my deliberately unsent love letters,” you sigh, face buried in your hands while Han Dongmin has the audacity to let out a short laugh.

“So who are the others then?” He asks casually while sitting down at his desk chair, putting the fruit bowl next to his laptop. Then he turns to you and motions for you to sit down or whatever that vague hand movement is supposed to be but you’re too busy fiddling with your fingers while hovering by his door, half-ready to flee.

“Uhm, Kim Donghyun from a science camp back in middle school, Lee Chanyoung from a holiday resort we went to in Jeju last summer and Park Sunghee’s brother,” you list, counting each name on your fingers. You aren’t even sure why you’re telling him this. Maybe you just want to get this off your chest and it’s not like he would post about it on his social media for laughs. He rarely posts anything unrelated to his band anyways. Plus he doesn’t even know these guys…

“Park Sunghoon? Isn’t he too old for you?” Dongmin raises a brow and you want to smack yourself. Of course, he knows him, they went to the same all boys school. It’s the best high school in the neighbourhood after all.

“Yah! He’s just two years older than us,” you correct him, defensive.

“Whatever,” Dongmin shrugs. Then he eyes the envelope slipped under the fruit bowl and mortification washes through you again. You don’t even remember half the things you wrote but you certainly remember pointing out that you were sure his band’s popularity would get to his head and that’s why it was better for you to not like him anymore. You cringe at yourself because a year and half and a few dozen screaming girl fans later, Han Dongmin seems still as laid back as ever behind his Taesan persona. “So you came to take it back before I could read it?”

“Well, yeah,” you admit, not seeing a reason to lie. It’s not like this could get any more embarrassing. “Though honestly I wasn’t really thinking. I only noticed the letters missing literally ten minutes ago.”

Dongmin hums like he finds it interesting which is funny because most of the time he looks like he doesn’t give a damn about anything. Except when it comes to music. Shit, what if he’s thinking of turning this situation into a song? He should credit you for inspiration.

“And what are you planning now? Will you break down the other three guys’ doors too?” He asks and it’s teasing, taunting. You can tell he’s pretty much laughing at you behind his raised eyebrow and curious eyes.

To be real, you weren’t thinking that far ahead yet.

“How fast do you think the Korean postal service is?” You purse your lips.

“Wait. You don’t actually plan to steal the letters back from their mailbox, right?” Dongmin scoffs but you might be considering it, so your silence is enough of an answer. “Oh you do.”

“I don’t want them to read it,” you throw your hands in the air. Just thinking about it gives you a headache and anxiety. “It’s bad enough that you read yours and now everytime we will meet, I will overthink it because you know I used to have a crush on you but I’m still friends with Sunghee and it will be even more awkward if she gets to know I liked her brother. Gosh, I should have dated my letters. Now Donghyun will think I wrote it now and not when we were fourteen.”

The more you think about it, the worse the situation is. You shudder just thinking about how cringe your letters could be looking back. Especially the one you wrote at the prime time of middle school.

“You know, maybe instead of dating them, you should have not written down the addresses,” the boy across from you points out, oh so very helpful.

“Wow, good advice, thanks. I will keep that in mind next time,” you deadpan and decide that it’s been enough of an embarrassment for a lifetime in front of the neighbourhood’s resident cool boy. You need to come up with a plan on how to get the letter back from the Park family before they could open it or forward it to Sunghoon abroad. “Anyways, I’ll be going then. Can I, please, have my letter back?”

You hold out your hand, trying your best puppy eyes at the guy but Dongmin doesn’t budge.

“Nah. It’s my letter now.”

You scowl but after a few long moments of staring contest that has you hot in the cheeks, you let out a deep sigh. He has already read it, it doesn’t really matter anymore.

“Okay, bye then,” you roll your eyes and let yourself out of his room, bowing awkwardly to his mother when you pass by her and face plant yourself into your bed once you’re alone again. Stupid Han Dongmin and his amused crooked smile and pretty brown eyes. Why did he have to read it?

You plan to get back Sunghoon’s letter via Sunghee and it goes smoother than expected.

You text the girl asking about the letter and tell her not to open it or send it to her brother because it’s just a prank someone pulled on you. If Taesan gave you the idea, she doesn’t have to know nor about the white lie. It’s in the afternoon when Sunghee texts you that they just got the mail and you decide to meet up both to catch up and get the letter back. Like the sweetheart she is, Sunghee offers to throw it out but you don’t want to leave anything to chance, so you meet in a cute café, drink way too sweet winter lattes and talk about post-graduation plans.

You’re walking back to the apartment complex from the bus stop with your letter safely tucked inside your bag when you spot the unmistakably tall figure of your neighbour in the nearby park, playing football with his little brother. At least the younger boy wears a puffy coat, gloves and beanie all tucked in but Dongmin, who has always acted a bit like the street was his runway, wears jeans, a wool coat half open and only a long, fluffy scarf pulled up to half-cover his already reddened, cold-bitten ears, February cold be damned. He has his hands in his pocket as he lazily kicks the ball back to his brother but it passes him by. That’s when his eyes meet yours and you react a tad bit too late to convince him that you weren’t staring. Luckily, he doesn’t call you out.

“Mission success?” He yells over to you though and it’s so silly. Why does he even care?

“Yeah,” you nod anyway and you’re about to ask how come he’s not cold when his little brother tugs on his coat sleeve.

“Hyung, can we go back inside now? I'm freezing. Why did you even wante‒”

“Sure, back we go,” Dongmin cuts him off hurriedly and you pretend not to pay attention to their brotherly bickering. You’re surprised to hear that this time it was the older who insisted on playing outside because usually it’s the other way around based on what you have heard before but it doesn’t concern you, so you just follow the two boys, watching maybe a bit too fondly as Dongmin ruffles his brother’s hair when he takes off his beanie inside the building. On the second floor, the older boy steps to their door to key in the code and ushers (meaning: lightly push) his brother inside. Before you could do the same down the corridor, he turns to you after the closing beep of their door.

“So what’s next?”

Once again you’re taken aback that he seems so invested in the mess you've gotten yourself into but it’s not like you have anybody to tell about these things. Normally you would gossip about boy things with Sunghee but since she can’t know about her brother being concerned, you would rather keep it to yourself. Or well, since Dongmin’s asking…

“Well, Sunghee got the letter today on the other side of the town, so I’m assuming that Donghyun’s will arrive in Busan tomorrow. So…” You explain, running on the adrenalin of successfully getting back one of the letters.

“Wait, Busan?” Dongmin interrupts, furrowing his eyebrows, confused. Oh, right. You only told him about the science camp.

“Yeah, he lives there or at least used to, four years ago. So I’m thinking of catching an early bus tomorrow,” you tell him about the plan you made up during your way home from Sunghee. Taking an express bus is the fastest and cheapest way to get to Busan and make it a quick day trip. Even if the letter’s not there, you will just ask the person who lives in that house to mail it back to you when they get it. If you still have time to kill, maybe you can even go down to the beach to make it seem like you’re a sane person and you wouldn’t travel 3 hours back and forth just to get a letter back.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to look him up online?” Dongmin, the voice of reason as always, asks and you look at him unimpressed. Does he really think it didn’t cross your mind at all?

“I tried! He either has no social media presence or at least not with his real name,” you pout because seriously just how many Kim Donghyuns could there be for you to not find the one you’re looking for?

Your neighbour apparently didn’t run out of his questions though and you can see genuine, bewildered curiosity on his face when he asks:

“How do you even know his address still after four years?”

That’s a fair question (and you hate that all he asks are logical questions actually). Considering that you were fourteen when you wrote it, you should have long forgotten the exact address of your ex-crush but lucky for you, you have it written down in your dusty notebook under lock and key.

“Uhm, I might have it in my old diary. We were supposed to become pen pals after the camp but well, life happens,” you mutter, feeling a bit self-conscious admitting that yes, you are one of those girls who have written diaries. But Dongmin doesn’t judge, not for that.

“You mean, you never wrote to him,” he raises an eyebrow challengingly and it triggers a defensive reaction out of you.

“He never wrote to me either!”

“Well, good luck then, Miss Letter Thief,” he waves and slips inside their apartment before you could come up with a good retort and the way he always seems to have the last word makes you want to tackle him down in the old-fashioned kindergartener way just to shut him up. Jeez, good thing you got over him so long ago because he’s dancing on your nerves.

Even though your mother doesn’t try to hide the fact that she thinks you’re acting a bit too dramatic over ‘some letters’, she at least looks sheepish and doesn’t stop you when you tell her that you will go to Busan in the morning and come back in the evening. She even packs you snacks for the long bus ride and you throw a book into your bag as if you wouldn’t fall asleep ten minutes into the journey.

The Sun has been barely out when you leave the apartment, rubbing your palms together while you stand in the bus stop and wait for the local bus to take you to the terminal. A movement catches your eyes on the window next to yours but you think you just imagined it until the building’s door opens and Dongmin rushes out in his long coat that makes him even taller than he already is. You turn to him suspiciously when he stops a good two meters from you at the bus stop because what the hell he’s doing there at seven in the morning during winter break. You stop yourself from questioning him though because the bus pulls up in front of you soon enough and he sits behind you on the vehicle, so you don’t see where he gets off.

With upbeat music playing from your earbuds, you almost forget about him by the time you get to the bus terminal. Luckily the queue at the counter is not too long, so you manage to buy a ticket to Busan before the next one leaves. You barely get comfortable in your window seat when the aisle one next to you is taken even though there are plenty of available seats in the unreserved area due to the morning hour.

You look at the sudden occupant and your eyes widen in realization.

“What are you doing?” You shriek a little louder than what’s publicly acceptable, so you immediately apologize to the other, sleepy-looking travellers.

“What? Can’t a guy go to Busan to check out this one music store?” Dongmin shrugs nonchalantly and it’s your turn to raise an eyebrow at his nonsense answer. He really doesn’t seem like the spontaneous type but admittedly, you don’t know him that well. You didn’t have to know him to catch feelings after all.

If you wanted to be honest, a few encounters around the apartment building was enough to get interested in him, even more so when you got to know that he had a band and your crush became embarrassing when you dragged your friends to the local festival where the band performed. Even though their music style isn’t really your go-to genre, he just looked so cool on stage, really in his element, very unlike the usual distant demeanor he greeted you with around the house. Then Minah started dating their drummer and you saw the band on stage a few more times, getting to love their music more and more, hanging out sometimes as parts of a bigger friend group until that one party where you saw your school’s most popular girl throw herself at Dongmin. The taste of unreasonable jealousy was all it took to snap out of it and forget about the boy’s pretty eyes, beautiful voice and rare smiles you treasured. Minah and Wonjin broke up around the same time, so at least you had an excuse not to see him more than necessary around the house.

So yeah, you probably talked more with him in the last two days than ever before and he has certainly never acted like this around you. It was getting suspicious.

“Han Dongmin… are you coming with me to make sure I don’t go alone?” You question because you really don’t know what to make of it and you can’t help but let your voice take on a playful tone.

“Pff…” The boy snorts and then looks at you with his practiced deadpan face. “I’m going, so I can laugh at how you embarrass yourself in front of this Donghyun guy.”

You roll your eyes at him. He thinks he’s so funny, huh?

“For real, why are you tagging along?” You try to come off as at least a bit authoritative with your crossed arms and serious face but it probably doesn’t work. Dongmin answers anyway.

“Because I don’t have more exciting plans for the break and it’s fun enough,” he shrugs as he slides down in his seat a bit to get more comfortable with his height. He fixes the hoodie over his head and turns his head against the backrest, looking like he’s about to go to sleep after telling you that while there you are with a hand over your heart. 

“Are my love letters funny to you?” You gasp, dramatic on purpose but a part of you really wants to shove him outside of his seat (of course, you won’t do it, not now that you’re on the highway already).

“I mean it was pretty funny that you misspelled the word gorgeous twice in mine.”

He says it so matter-of-factly but you desperately wish that he’s just teasing or else it’s mortifying that you couldn’t spell that correctly when you were almost seventeen.

“I was nervous! And it’s a difficult word to spell!” You splutter.

Seriously, what’s it about him that makes you so defensive all the time? Especially when he’s nothing but casual about your old love letter? Or is it exactly because of that?

“Do I make you nervous?” Dongmin raises an eyebrow at you with an almost smile on his lips and for a moment you’re speechless because you can’t tell whether it’s supposed to be teasing or flirty.

“I was once young and naive,” you tell him, refusing to answer because if you wanted to be honest (you don’t), then yes, he makes you very nervous, especially when he holds eye contact so long that you have to look away and stare out of the window instead.

“If you say so,” he hums and you refuse to give him the satisfaction of answering. You turn the music back on in your app and try to nap a little.

Dongmin must have the same idea because when you look his way the next time he’s peacefully sleeping. You know you shouldn’t but you can’t help but take in every small mole on his face and the curl of his eyelashes. Gosh, how is it possible that he’s even more handsome now than before?

When he stirs, you quickly look away and fish out the sliced fruits and hotteoks your mom prepared, offering to share them but Dongmin dismisses it with a shake of his head.

“What’s the order of the letters?” He asks instead when your cheeks are puffed with the sweet food but you decide to entertain him anyway.

“Donghyun’s the first, obviously. It was a two week long camp and he was the cutest boy I had ever seen. I knew I would never see him again, so I wrote that letter when I got back home. Then I befriended Sunghee in high school and met Sunghoon when I was over at hers. I had one actual conversation with him and imagined our entire lives together until he graduated and went abroad. Then I wrote yours in second year and I met Chanyoung last summer over the vacation my family went to in Jeju,” you list them off and it seems to put the boy into thinking mode because he’s quiet for a short while, letting you eat in peace.

“You don’t get crushes when there’s an actual chance of dating them? You barely interacted with any of these guys,” he points out and then gestures between him and you. “We never really talked either before this and then you stopped liking me because I ‘got too popular’,” he adds drawing ditto marks in the air probably quoting from your letter which makes you wince quietly.

You might have written to him that you got over your crush on him when their band started getting more attention, claiming that arrogant rock stars aren't your type. You certainly didn’t go into details about how their song about liking a popular girl made you feel stupidly jealous, especially after seeing him with Yein.

“It’s safer like this,” you shrug, casting your eyes down. “I like the idea of romance, like in books and movies, but not the reality of it.”

Real romance is scary. Full of rejection, heartbreak and embarrassment.

It might be the songwriter in him but Dongmin sounds intrigued to say the least.

“So you don’t actually have real crushes. You like the version of the guys you make up in your head,” he says like you’re a puzzle to solve and he’s slowly figuring you out. You don’t know how to feel about that.

“The way you say it sounds bad but… aren’t all crushes like that? You don’t have to know the person to like them,” you say and it’s funny because you never really thought about your feelings this way. But it’s true that even if you have had your fair share of crushes, none of them were very deep. You would never admit it to him but actually your ‘Dongmin phase’ was the longest but you can’t be sure whether it’s because he has been a permanent fixture in your life unlike the other boys or something else.

“I don’t know. To me, that’s just attraction. You can like them for who they are only when you get to know them,” he says and he sounds like he did think about it before.

“You don’t believe in love at first sight, huh?”

“Yeah, no,” Dongmin shakes his head and pops a piece of grape into his mouth from your snack box. You scoff but hold it closer to him and the rest of the ride is spent in relative silence interrupted by occasional short conversations.

This is how you get to know that the boy has been in Busan before with his family, so you pretty much let him lead when you get to the bus terminal in the coastal city because you’re not the best with direction. Dongmin has to stop you by holding on to your scarf when you almost get on the subway in the wrong direction and teases you about how you will get around in Seoul like that. You shrug, not worrying about it much since you will have enough time to learn getting around in a big city like the capital.

For now, you’re navigating through Busan on this impromptu day trip and you’re kind of glad you are not doing this alone. Not just because you would have most likely gotten lost a few times but because Donghyun’s address is almost an hour more away from the bus terminal and time flies faster while you talk with Dongmin. It’s nothing special, just your likes and dislikes, high school drama, sibling anecdotes and such but you find yourself smiling and laughing more often than not. When your shoulders brush at an abrupt stop of the subway car, you pull away shyly and something stirs in your chest, something familiar and almost forgotten.

By the time you get to the address written in your cute pink diary, you almost forget about the main reason why you’re here. You can’t decide whether fate is on your side or not when you manage to bump into a vaguely familiar figure on the ground floor of the building with a very much familiar letter in his hand among others.

“Donghyun!” You shriek in realization, resisting the urge to yank the letter out of his hand. He definitely grew up, almost as tall as Dongmin behind you, hair longer, covering his ears but his eyes are the same.

“Uhm… sorry, do we know each other?” He furrows his eyebrows, visibly confused. Dongmin tries to cover his snort-like laugh with a cough behind you which really doesn’t help with your embarrassment.

“Oh, I’m Y/N. From science camp four years ago,” you introduce yourself a tad bit awkwardly but luckily that’s all it takes for the boy to recognize you because his face brightens.

“Oh, hey! What are you doing here? Came to check out the Sealife Aquarium?” He asks, almost excited, and you find it cute that he didn’t lose his childhood fascination with such things.

“Uhm, actually I came for that,” you point at the mail in his hands which leaves the boy confused once again.

“Our electricity bill?”

“No, dude, the prank letter you just got with her name on it,” Dongmin speaks up from behind you and you can tell just from his voice alone that he’s rolling his eyes. But it gets Donghyun to check out the envelopes in his hand and nonchalantly gives you the one addressed to him from you, like he doesn’t even care what’s in it. But when you actually take it, he leans in closer.

“You’ve got a scary boyfriend,” he whispers just as casually, so only you could hear it and you can only splutter in shock while he pulls back and jogs up the stairs with the other letters in hand.

“Thanks,” you clear your throat as you turn to Dongmin who looks as nonchalant as ever.

“For what?”

“For not telling him that it’s a love letter,” you explain, which makes the boy shrug. He opens the door for you and points towards the metro station.

“I’m choosing lunch then,” he says and you laugh at his logic, but follow him anyway. He still asks if you’re okay with Korean food and since you’re not picky, you let him choose whatever he craves.

You end up at a jjigae place, the warmth of boiling spicy soup filling you up and you blame the heat in your cheeks on it, definitely not in the casual way Dongmin serves you water or opens the hot rice bowl for you as if it’s nothing.

“So only Jeju’s left,” he comments between two spoonfuls of kimchi jjigae. Looking at you from across the table, he almost challenges you: “Tell me you’re not seriously considering flying there.”

“I mean there’s also a ferry…” You make a thinking face just for the sake of it but laugh at your own ridiculous idea and the face Dongmin makes. “Okay, okay, I know. He probably received the letter already anyway.”

You shrug casually and the boy seems surprised and maybe a bit impressed too. Getting back two letters out of four is actually a better ratio than you expected and you care surprisingly less about Chanyoung receiving his now. What’s the worst thing that can happen? Nothing much. Like Dongmin got his own and he doesn’t act weird about it. At least he certainly doesn’t avoid you or looks at you as if you were crazy like you would have thought so. He’s actually quite… kind about it. Without the letter you surely wouldn’t have spent this much time with him nor would he have joined you on this spontaneous day trip either. Speaking of which…

“Do you actually have a music store you want to check out here? We have time, so we might as well look for it,” you say, eyes on your food, blowing on the soup to make sure you don’t burn your tongue. When your suggestion is followed by silence, you look up self-consciously and fidget with a stand of hair hanging in your face. The look of surprise is clearly written on the boy’s face but when your eyes meet, he recovers quickly, shoving the rice sitting on his spoon into his mouth before taking out his phone and showing you the Instagram page of this cool store he found. You drop down your gaze from his face to his phone, feeling heat creeping into your cheeks once again as both of you lean forward over the table.

Luckily, in the winter cold outside it doesn’t stand out. Dongmin’s nose, cheeks and ears also redden by the time you make it to the music store by the sea. You look over the vinyl collection with him, asking about his favorites, inspirations and such, and while you don’t know half the bands he mentions listening to him talk has something special in it. It’s actually cute how enthusiastic he gets as he talks about music, like sure he’s all cool and nonchalant but still, you can tell he’s excited beneath that facade and…

Wait. Did you just call Han Dongmin, cool, mysterious, plays in a band neighbour, cute?

But how can you not when he walks out of that store with a new LP and a happy smile he tries to suppress when you look his way or when he’s like oh, yeah, sure, let’s go down the beach and there he is shivering from the wind like a rain-soaked black cat because he’s too cool to wear gloves even if he has ice americano in his hands unlike your hot hazelnut latte that’s warming your body and soul or the way he tries to secretly take pictures of you with your wind-blown hair in your face, laughing when you chase him down the waterfront or how he hesitates to accept the hot pack from you on your way back to the bus terminal but immediately switches places with you when a car passes by you a bit scarily close. It’s a totally new side of him that you’re discovering and you aren’t sure how to feel about it, about realizing that he isn’t the kind of guy you imagined him to be.

He’s so much more and so much better.

On your way back to Gwangju, he steals one of your earbuds and makes a comment on your music taste and you bicker about that half the journey but you wouldn’t have it any other way. Your cheeks almost hurt from laughing so much when you notice new notifications on your phone and the device almost falls out of your hands.

chnyng_lee started following you. chnyng_lee hi yn! i got your letter…

“Oh my god!” You whisper-yell when you see the beginning of the message received, then quickly cover your mouth with your hand and pull the phone to your chest as if not seeing it would make it go away.

“What?” Dongmin asks with worry evident in his voice but you’re swimming too deep in embarrassment to detect it.

“Chanyoung just texted me,” you explain, still in shock and the moment it leaves your mouth, something shifts in the air. The previous light atmosphere turns heavier.

“Ah, Jeju boy?” Dongmin mutters, force nonchalance draped over his words as he turns to look ahead before silence settles on you both.

You take three long, deep breaths before unlocking your phone and opening the app to read through Chanyoung’s message properly. He’s so sweet, just how you remembered, telling you that of course he remembers you and he doesn’t think that your first meeting with you falling into the pool and him having to pull you out was awkward. He says it’s cute that you wrote to him even though you got over your crush and asks about your winter break. A sweetheart, really.

You find yourself chuckling fondly over his shy reactions and coo when he tells you about the group of elementary students he taught swimming that day. You want to show the video he sent to Dongmin too but he’s fast asleep next to you, so you spend the rest of the ride chatting with the cute boy who saved you back in Jeju.

Dongmin is quiet on the local bus too after you transfer in Gwangju but when you ask about it, he says he’s just tired, so you leave him be until you reach the apartment complex.

“Thanks for coming with me today. I… had fun,” you admit, more bashful than you would have liked to but the guy’s back to his distanced attitude, so he doesn’t even tease you about it.

“Sure, no problem,” he shrugs, seemingly eager to leave and you don't know why it bothers you so much but after everything that happened that day it’s his sudden change in behaviour that keeps you awake at night.

You wouldn’t say Dongmin avoids you. It’s more like things go back to normal. You have spent the last few years rarely running into him, so really, it shouldn’t annoy you. Still, whenever you leave the house, you find yourself looking for him and whenever you’re in your room you wait to hear his music through the thin wall between your rooms. 

It’s a random weekday evening when you run into him as you take out the recycled trash and he’s just coming inside the building.  It’s awkward, both the silence and the small talk idea but eventually it’s him who breaks the silence as he holds the door open for you:

“So how are things going with loverboy?” 

“Who?” You blink at him in surprise before realizing that he must be referring to Chanyoung with that weird nickname. “Oh, good. We’re thinking of meeting up in Seoul. He’s going there to uni as well.”

It’s actually crazy that in about a week you will be in the busy center of Seoul, getting ready for orientation week and trying not to get overwhelmed by everything that university life throws your way. You’re about to ask Dongmin when he will move to his dorm but before you could do so, he just hums and passes you by.

You refuse to think too much into it nor you allow yourself to mourn the closeness you unexpectedly found with the boy for it to turn out to be merely a fleeting experience. You cannot miss him suddenly, that’s ridiculous.

You can’t be desperate enough to wish it’s him knocking on the door two days later, can you?

“Uhm, hi!” You smile a tad bit awkwardly while looking down at Dongmin’s little brother standing on your doormat wearing a Kakao Friends Ryan patterned tee and a determined look on his face.

“Noona, can you please talk with hyung?” He asks and when he mentions his brother you can’t help but glance towards their closed door, chest heavy with unsaid feelings.

“Uhm, why?” You question curiously but keep your tone light and friendly, so the boy would know you aren’t dismissing his request, you just find it strange and unexpected. You aren’t that close to Dongmin after all.

“He listens to a lot of sad and angry music,” the boy sighs as if it was the world’s biggest problem and you have to fight a chuckle at how cute it is that he’s worried about his brother because of the music he listens to.

“Isn’t that normal for him though?” You find yourself asking because you do hear music through the wall between the two apartments from time to time and describing some of it as ‘sad and angry’ wouldn’t be far from the truth.

“Yeah, but even more than usual,” the little boy pouts and sighs again, all the world’s weight on his young shoulders. “And he says you can’t come over because you’re busy with your boyfriend.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” you frown, confused where Dongmin got that from. Does he think that you texting with Chanyoung automatically meant you got yourself a boyfriend? Did he miss the fact that the letter for him was also written after getting over your crush on him? Oh come on, he knows you had four crushes over four years and never got a boyfriend, so what makes him think two days changed it all? And even if you had a boyfriend, what’s it to him unless… Wait, is he jealous?

“Then can you come over to play? We need four players,” Dongmin’s brother voice pulls you out of your thoughts and you let yourself be roped into a game of charades in their living room.

Needless to say your ex-crush is taken aback to see you there but he apparently doesn’t have the heart to say no to his siblings when it comes to playing a game. You pair up with his little sister who is seriously the cutest with her pigtails and excitement but her drawings are more postmodern than anything exhibited in galleries and you can’t for the life of you figure those out. Dongmin and his brother are a good team though but the eldest always makes sure that their little sister doesn’t feel bad about being on the losing team which in turn obviously means that he teases you about it instead. You still have a lot of fun though, so when you leave once it’s bedtime for the younger ones, you are giddy and high on sugar from Dongmin’s mom’s heavenly chocolate pudding.

“Sorry that my brother dragged you over,” Dongmin apologises once their entrance door closes behind him and you two stand in the corridor. You didn’t expect him to come after you despite his mother’s obvious suggestions because come on, you literally live next door, you don’t need him to walk you home. But you don't mind it because unlike your last encounter, he doesn’t seem to have his guards up making him much more approachable. Even if there’s nothing more to it, it would be nice to be friends with him, not just neighbours who pass each other by.

“No problem, it was fun,” you reassure him with a smile and don’t let the silence settle on your duo for too long. “Maybe we should make it a tradition in Seoul too, ask Chanyoung and Yoonah to join us.”

There’s definitely intent behind your words as you gawk at the guy’s reaction like a nature photographer waiting for something to happen in the wild and you can clearly see a bit of frustration blended with confusion on his face before he schools his expression back into cool nonchalance.

“Who’s Yoonah?” He asks predictably which makes your smile wider because being able to guess his reaction is almost like you know him.

“Chanyoung’s girlfriend! Didn’t I tell you? She’s so cool,” you chirp and pull up your Instagram app to show him a lovely picture of the two. Dongmin acts like he doesn’t care but he doesn’t stop you and somehow the air between you feels much lighter.

You tell him what you know about the couple’s plans in Seoul and somehow, in the middle of it all, you end up sitting on the cold concrete stairs right between your two homes and talk about the upcoming changes in your lives. You share how weird it feels to leave behind Gwangju, the only place you have really known in your life for an unknown city where you don’t know anybody. Sure, some of your classmates also move to the capital but none of your close friends, so it feels a bit like a fresh start which is both scary and exciting. He’s in similar shoes except that he has always had dreams of moving to a bigger, busier city, so he can’t wait to start his life in Seoul.

“As expected of Han Taesan. Fearless as always,” you note with a smile playing on your lips without thinking and you don’t even notice your slip-up until Dongmin points it out.

“You called me Taesan,” he says, his dark eyes wide and surprised.

“Ah right. Was I not supposed to?” You ask sheepishly because you have heard most of his friends call him Taesan as well as girls in your school who knew his band.

“No, it’s just…” The boy trails off, ruffling his hair, avoiding your eyes. “In your letter you said it’s cringe that I took up a nickname when we started the band.”

You wince audibly when he once again reminds you of a part of that infamous letter you don’t even remember and now you’re mature enough to admit that part of it was written out of petty jealousy due to his skyrocketing popularity among girls.

“I wrote that a long time ago. I got used to Taesan since,” you explain, drumming your fingers on your knee pads just to do something with them while the boy nods and seemingly contemplates your words. He sounds almost shy as he admits:

“I like it when you call me Dongmin.”

And if your breath hitches at that, it goes unheard by everybody but you because your upper level neighbour chooses that moment to arrive and complain about the two of you ‘barricading’ the entire staircase. Amidst polite apologies you say goodbye to each other and in the safety of your room, only one wall away from Dongmin, you can admit to yourself that maybe you’re not that over your crush on him as you thought.

Realizing that you still (or well again) have a crush on the boy next door doesn’t make things easier for you. Especially because in less than a week both of you are set to go to Seoul for different universities and if living next door with your schools across each other you managed to not interact all too much over these years, you fear being in the same city won’t make it easier to run into the enigma that is Han Dongmin.

It’s different this time though because you’re friends. Kind of. You text sometimes about random things like a black cat in the snow video that reminds you of him while he sends you music recs ‘to educate you on good taste’. You are over at his place every other day to play board games with him and his siblings or play snow fights in the newly fallen snow.

Like right now, when the two of you sit on one of the swing sets at the playground watching the two kids trying to build a snowman that will melt by tomorrow. It’s cold, you feel it sweep into your bones as your gloved hands hold the metal chain of the swing, barely swaying in place. It’s comfortable, sharing silence with Dongmin by your side but you like it better when he speaks, when he talks to you, when he looks at you which he doesn’t do, not now, not since he chased you down with a handful of snow only to drop it when you slipped and he caught you. Which eventually left you just chilling on the swings before either of you breaks a bone a few days before the semester starts.

“What are you doing tomorrow evening?” Dongmin speaks up in his usual, casual tone, the tone that’s passive enough for you to think that he doesn’t really care about the answer but you know it better now, it’s all just a facade.

“Nothing much, maybe watch a movie. Why?” You lean forward, holding your weight by the chains to be able to look at him even if he doesn’t turn your way.

“Would you like to come to the band’s last gig?” He asks eventually and your eyes widen, heartbeat starting to act up for no reason at all.

“Yeah, of course!” You answer, not even hesitating but you have to ask: “Last though?”

“Well, for now. We will be pretty scattered around the country once the semester starts,” Dongmin explains to your tentative question. You don’t even know how much of a relief it is until you hear it because somehow it’s hard to imagine him without music, without his band.

“Ah, okay, that’s good.”

Now that makes Dongmin look at you, all intrigued as if asking what’s it to you and it makes you flustered because heck now you have to explain yourself.

“It’s just… you’re good. You shouldn’t give up on music, especially when you like it so much,” you say, looking away, sitting back on the swing, kicking the ground a bit to give yourself momentum.

“Not worried anymore that I would become an arrogant all too popular rockstar?” The boy asks in a clearly teasing tone.

You sigh exaggeratedly and nudge him in the side but he just laughs. Of course he would use your letter against you, but for some reason it doesn’t bother you that much anymore and no, you’re not worried about that either. You’re more worried about moving to Seoul and drifting apart, losing the closeness you have now. Maybe that’s why he isn’t saying anything more either, that’s why you don’t address his unreasonable jealousy over Chanyoung or all those late night talks, the lingering looks and diverting glances. It’s not just a crush anymore, you’re one confession away from making it real because for the first time since you developed all those crushes you feel like it’s worth the risk. Dongmin is worth the risk of getting your heart broken.

The next morning Dongmin texts you to let you know that they will have a last minute practice with the band, so he just sends you the location of the local art café they will perform at on Naver Maps. You answer with a bit too excited ‘see you there!!’ which you immediately regret until he sends a heart reaction to the message. It has you squealing even when you see the icon turn into a simple like and he claims that his fingers slipped. Just to tease him, you tap a like on that message.  

You definitely make a bigger deal out of choosing an outfit for the gig than you probably should. You even ask for Sunghee’s opinion over a video call and in a weak moment of yours, you ask her to go with you but she just snorts and tells you that she doesn’t want to be stuck as the awkward third wheel when you eventually leave with ‘your neighbour boy’. You protest because why would you leave with him? But at the same time you kind of wish that you would. You live next to each other, wouldn’t it make sense? Are you too hopeful?

Scratch that! You’re young once and you swore to yourself that you won’t let insecurity or fears hold you back this time. You’re allowed to be a bit delulu sometimes.

You get to the café just in time for the performance to start. You’re still terrible with directions when it comes to new places but you calculated with that beforehand, so it’s all good. You order a dalgona latte, sweet on your teeth and warm in your hands, and settle down at a table close to the cozy winter-decorated stage where the band does last minute tuning and setup checks. You look around and see a few familiar faces from your school as well as some guys from Dongmin’s rare Instagram stories. They all cheer when the lead singer introduces the band and they start with an upbeat, alternative rock-style song. He might not sing the most but your eyes are glued to Dongmin behind the keyboard, at the way he is bobbing his head to the beat or the way he smirks when the audience reacts to certain parts, clearly enjoying it all and that’s what matters the most to you. They perform quite a few songs and you enjoy it thoroughly, regretting a bit that you stopped listening to their new stuff in the middle of second year, thinking it would be easier to move on from your crush like that. And look at how that turned out.

You have so much fun watching Dongmin perform that you aren’t even disappointed that you don’t get your own ‘Y/N moment’ by locking eyes with him through the crowd mid-song. At least not until it’s his turn to introduce the upcoming song after all the other members have already spoken between sets. 

“The last song we have for today is a new one. It’s called Just you and me and it’s a bit unpolished but I wanted to perform it tonight,” he says into the microphone propped above his keyboard and glances at you right when the audience starts clapping. You’re pinned to place by his gaze and can’t look away, not even after he does, not when he grabs the microphone and starts singing.

The song is not heavily instrumental, there’s only a soft guitar layer and a simple beat of drums from the chorus, but it stands out because Dongmin sings the whole thing and its lyrics are much sweeter than their usual songs. It sounds like a confession, echoing your own heartbeat.

When it ends, the band says thanks for all the support and drops their social media info, so fans can follow their journey along even when they are not active in Gwangju anymore. Some people, probably friends and family, go up to them to chat while they pack their instruments. You contemplate whether you should say hi to Dongmin or wait it out but you don’t have to worry about that for long because he soon comes to find you by your table.

“Hey.”

“Hi,” you beam at him brightly despite the nervous butterflies in your stomach. “You were great up there. I loved the new song a lot.”

“That’s good,” he hums, looking just a bit shy with his downcast eyes and boxy smile, so different from the usual confidence he exudes on stage or when he’s teasing you.

Maybe that’s where the sudden courage comes from, the urge that prompts you to ask:

“Was it… a love song?”

Your tone is tentative, not too pushy, not too hopeful, but Dongmin’s gaze finds yours, earnest but amused, very much like him.

“Maybe. Somebody said she likes movie-like romance,” he shrugs, his smile turning smug when he notices the blush painting your cheeks. This time, you can’t blame it on the cold.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Dongmin confirms and clears his throat, clearly out of his element a bit. “Are you heading home now? Cause if you wait a bit, we can go together.” 

You nod shyly and send him off to pack and say goodbye to his friends. Before you know it, you’re on your way back, talking about the band’s future plans, places he already knows he wants to check out in Seoul, how your dad plans to take you to move into the dorms by car and your mother is already emotional about it. You don’t talk about love songs and confessions, the possibility of a future together. However, you don’t want to say goodbye tonight without acknowledging your feelings out loud.

Dongmin unexpectedly beats you to it though. Once you’re in the corridor of the apartment building, he calls your name, reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a wrinkled envelope, handing it over to you. You see your name scribbled on the paper and for a moment you’re taken aback because you expected his handwriting to be almost unreadable, rushed and messy but it’s so spacey between characters that it’s cute, especially if he made the effort to make it readable for you.

“To make it fair that I have your letter,” he shrugs oh so casually and scratches his nape. “Just… don’t read it in front of me.”

“You just sang a love song in front of a crowd,” you remind him of his previous bravado which makes him groan in protest and you get it now why he likes it so much, teasing you.

“It’s different!”

“Okay, I will read it when I’m alone,” you promise, holding the envelope to your chest, a part of you wanting to run into your home so you could read it as soon as possible, another part not wanting to part from the boy. But curiosity is killing you. “Bye then?”

You turn, ready to head inside but before you could change your mind and let overthinking ruin your sudden bravery, you turn back to face Dongmin and pushing yourself to your tiptoes, you peck him on the cheek.

“Kiss like we do, huh?” You ask playfully, quoting a bit of his new song and dash inside your family home before Dongmin could react or see how red you get.

If his letter is unlike what you expect it to be, you will probably dig yourself a hole in the playground and hide forever for this but you let yourself hope as you hold your breath and unfold the paper in the safety of your room.

Dear Y/N,

I can’t write sappy letters like you but I can try because you like this stuff. Romantic gestures or whatever.

I know it’s late, that it’s been almost two years since you liked me but I still want to get this off my chest. I don’t know what would have happened if you confessed in our second year because I didn’t really know you. I didn’t know how you ramble when you’re nervous or that you have this cute habit of brushing your hair out of your eyes even if it isn’t there or that you have the prettiest laugh. You’re a bit crazy because who writes love letters complimenting my gorgeous (that’s how you spell it by the way) eyes at the same time as accusing me of becoming arrogant? Who travels to the other side of the country just to get their love letter back? Who stays over playing charades with my siblings on a random weekday?

Half the time you don’t make any sense and ever since you showed up at my door asking for your letter back, you’re driving me crazy.

Sincerely, Dongmin

P.S. But I like you (if it wasn’t clear)

You squeal. Loud enough for the boy to hear through the thin wall between you. He has the audacity to laugh which makes you grab your phone.

you: don’t laugh!! you: btw i like you too! you: again you: still you: if it wasn’t clear dongmin: so unromantic you: ??? dongmin: write me a letter back you: on it! you: ♥️

[zewik7]

How to gain weight on a budget

First of all, a premise: different countries have different "cheap foods" (eg. here in Italy we don't have eggs costing 12€, they cost just around 2€ for a pack of six!), so this guide may be only partially of help if you're not in Italy and/or EU.

Cheapest sources of calories are things like (kcal stated are per 100 grams):

Olive Oil (~899 kcal)

Lard (~891 kcal)

Seeds' Oils (~884 kcal)

Butter (~717 kcal)

Peanut Butter (~625 kcal)

Mayonnaise (~655 kcal)

Seeds like Sweet Almonds, Nuts and so on (~610 kcal)

Chocolate (~552 kcal)

Nutella (~540 kcal)

Bacon (~458 kcal)

Sugar (~387 kcal)

Whole Grain Pasta (~353 kcal)

Flour (~341 kcal)

The list might go on, but these right here are the most caloric foods and ingredients you can find for a relative cheap price almost anywhere.

Noticed anything? The vast majority of food considered "caloric" didn't made to this list... things like rice (~130 kcal), potatoes (~77 kcal) and whole milk (~64 kcal) can't even get near the last entry (flour) value! Even avocadoes (~231 kcal) are nowhere near it!

Let's now go fetching prices... Disclaimer: you DON'T HAVE TO buy brand products! In fact, I almost always buy off brand. I'm in no position to pay for the name of something and not for the actual product...

I wanted to use LIDL prices since it's a pretty common discount superstore chain here in Italy and, I presume, in the whole EU, BUT I had a lot of difficulties finding their prices. So, I'll use instead another common superstore chain here in Italy, EUROSPIN, which has a database that can be consulted via its phone app.

Now, some prices might be tricky, because some items on the list actually arent' that cheap... but, if we consider them "long-term consume" items, those prices are actually more sensible.

For this reason, I'll then point for each item how many times I buy the item.

Olive Oil (5 liters bottle = 24,50€. I buy it once every 5 months)

Lard (500 grams = 1,70€. I buy two of them every 10 days)

Seeds' Oils (5 liters bottle = 7,50€. I buy it once every 6 or 7 months)

Butter (1 kg = 8,50€. I buy it once every month)

Peanut Butter (350 grams = 2,30€. I don't use it (I don't like it very much lol))

Mayonnaise (500 grams = 1,70€. I buy two of them every month)

Seeds like Sweet Almonds, Nuts and so on (200 grams = 3,00€. I bulk on them 2 weeks per month, so I buy 7 of them  every month)

Chocolate (500 grams = 5,00€. I buy two of them every month)

Nutella (NOT THE REAL BRAND ONE!! 750 grams = 3,50€. I don't buy it since I don't like it, but my wife does lol)

Bacon (Strips: 1 kg = 7,50€; cubes: 200 grams = 1,50€. I buy it in bulk when on sale and freeze it)

Sugar (1 kg = 0,90€. I buy it whenever it's about to end, less than 1 a month tho)

Whole Grain Pasta (1 kg = 0,90€. I buy it in bulk, preferably on sale but not necessarily; I eat it twice a day so we end up buy it a lot (more than 10 packs per month)

Flour (5 kg = 1,90€. We buy it every once in a while when it's about to finish).

What to eat and stuff on

My daily eating routine is usually about baked snacks and pasta: at the meals I eat pasta (usually paired with legumes like lentils or beans) and fried finger food (you HAVE to eat your greens, so why not frying them and eating them with mayo?), between the meals I snack on muffins and cakes and cinnamon rolls. 

I understand that mine is a privileged place, since my wife works just half of a whole day, so this arrangement could not work for everyone and someone may rely on packaged snacks more!

I hope this little guide could be of help to anyone needing it 🥺

Stay strong, stay fat! 🐷♥️

[marzipanandminutiae]

the one thing I am full-bore conspiracy theorist about?

daily contact lenses

or, well, not their existence, period. they're a valid health option that is best for some people, medically. but the sheer aggressiveness with which they're being pushed nowadays

the last few times I went to the eye doctor for my annual check-up, she was HEAVILY on my case to switch to dailies. like, to the point of arrogance and condescension when I said I preferred to stick with monthlies (I've worn contacts since I was 12, for reference). I also posted about it on a forum and got massive negativity in response, as well as being talked down to by someone claiming to be an optometrist himself

now if this were like...anti-vaxxer sentiment I'd understand that reaction. but from what I've heard, while monthlies do carry a higher risk of eye infections and such, they're not medically unsound or unsafe across the board. I'm willing to accept that risk, and since science has not found that they're terrible and should immediately be discontinued, I feel like my wishes should be respected and not belittled

point two: plastic waste. they say it's somehow less than using monthlies, but frankly I just don't see how that's possible. 365 of those little eye chips- times two! -and their packaging, add up to less than a case and a bottle of solution every few months, plus 24 contacts and their packaging? it doesn't make sense to me, and it doesn't help that I mostly see contact lens websites repeating this "fact." of course all contacts produce plastic waste, and I'd be perfectly willing to accept this as one of those You Have To Consume; You Just Decide What Areas Of Your Life Are Optimal For Minimization of Waste And What Aren't things, if dailies weren't being pushed so hard

(also I found two studies showing that monthly-replacement soft lenses produce less plastic waste than daily disposables. which, like. yes, this should be obvious, but here we are. granted, that's only two, and both studies emphasize that dailies and their accoutrements can be recycled, but see below)

some big companies have "contact recycling programs" but like. who's to say that's not greenwashing? where's the oversight? where are the investigations into what these programs actually DO? god knows we've been there before with recycling and corporations trying to pull the nylon-poly-blend Vegan Wool(TM) over our eyes

they're also more expensive than monthlies, which like. does not lend a positive slant to optometrists pushing them so stridently

on top of that, I and some other monthly users have noted that our contacts aren't lasting as long as they used to. for me, it was 17-18 years of smooth sailing with barely any problems, and as of like a year ago my contacts barely last two weeks without clouding up, ripping, chipping at the edges, causing my vision to blur, becoming uncomfortable...my brand did change around that time, so I hope it's just that, and the sample size of other monthly users I've pooled is VERY small. but it sure seems interesting that they suddenly started pushing a product that doesn't last long enough for people to notice low quality, around the time that at least some users of the longer-lasting version start having problems

you're pooh-poohing all of my concerns- which are indeed backed up by science, it seems! -with a "fix" that relies on big companies being honest about recycling, to push me from a non-ideal but still medically sound option to another that makes you more money?

I'm normally a pretty grounded person but I'm full-on tinfoil hat about this one

[mushimatsu]

jeweler headcanons

now that i've posted my jeweler translations i wanna post my headcanonssss

The stories don't really have a lot of substance to them. Basically they travel through portals called GATEs and it seems like it's for the purpose of traveling to alternate universes where the objective is just to give each Totoko of each universe a pretty gem. They run a shop together in a back alley of Akatsuka ward.

However the Hesokuri canon is kind of nothing and gems and minerals have been a huge interest of mine for months soooo I wanted to expand on that

Osomatsu

He’s got a loupe in his attack art which i think is soooo cute but there’s like a 7/10 chance he would scam you I think. Now there’s a chance he’s just looking through the loupe to make it seem like he knows what he’s doing and he’s bullshitting you but I prefer to think he actually does know his shit and knows what he’s talking about and how to spot a real gem bc ummmm it’s hotter that way.

In my heart I want him to be an honest, trustworthy man. I want to tell you you're safe buying things from him but it's osomatsu......

HOWEVER I think if he does sell fakes, he does have quite a few of them. A lot of glass filled rubies that he sells at the full price of a genuine Burma ruby, imitations and synthetics that are not disclosed as such, and he also doesn’t usually disclose any treatments. Although I don’t think his standards are Quite so low that he’d sell straight glass. But if you give him a good gem to appraise he’ll try to buy it at a lower price and sell it at a hell of a markup. Perhaps the real, high quality gems are only saved for Totoko?

He’s got the charisma to trick a lot of people into buying something that is not worth nearly as much money as he’s asking for, and is probably smart enough to be able to tell when a buyer knows their shit and when he can and can’t get away with bullshitting them. Probably makes conversation first to get a feel of how much you know.

Obviously he still takes on that "leader" role among the brothers. Like they all own the shop but maybe if you ask for the manager, he's the one that'll show up?

Mostly sells faceted gems that are not yet set in jewelry. Doesn't have any rough stones or mineral specimens, and might carry jewelry sometimes, but not much.

Will sell to anyone, but I think his clientele is usually like, the casual jewelry/gem consumer. Doesn't appeal to mineral collectors very much, and will sometimes sell to very very rich people but not often.

It's also shown in the story and his art that he will just shove the gems in his bag carelessly. No wrapping or special packaging, I guess he just throws them in there (which can cause scratches, fractures, and breakages among gems, especially of varying hardnesses)

The gems mentioned in the story are emotites, originally from Pazzmatsu, but I think he also deals mostly in red gems, particularly rubies, but of course he's got stuff like spinels, fancy sapphires, tourmalines, etc

Karamatsu

His attack shows that he only has jewelry, but it's jewelry made of all different types of gems so he may not focus on one particular type like Osomatsu. It also seems to be very big, extravagant statement pieces. In the story he's also shown at what looks like very expensive rich people parties, so while Osomatsu is more geared towards selling to the general public, Karamatsu may specialize in very very rich customers. Also explains why he's dressed so well lol my mans so put together.......

His personal favorite is probably sapphires, or some other blue stone. PERSONALLY. I think his favorites are specifically star sapphires. look at these

I think he’s honest enough that he’s the most reputable of the six to buy from. I think he’s about as skilled as Osomatsu, if not more, when it comes to identifying and appraising gems, but he’s not Perfect so he’s bound to make mistakes and maybe there’s some misidentified things in the mix. But I think he’s like 2/10 most likely to scam you. If you get something you didn’t expect he probably just genuinely didn’t know lmao he somehow doesn’t look as shady as the rest of them so I think he’s probably involved in reputable circles, sells to people that know their shit and doesn’t try to prey on those that don’t know anything.

He also properly packages and cares for his gems, he's not careless like Osomatsu. Also probably something required of him if he's going to be selling to a very wealthy clientele

Choromatsu

This guy will fucking scam you he is going to tell you shit that just straight up isn’t true. 9/10 chance you are not getting what you asked for. I went to a gem show in may with my friend and I saw a ‘gem’ that looked like fordite - which is tumbled paint scraped off the bottom of ford car factories. Very pretty but absolutely not a real gem, it's paint. I held it up and asked what it was - expecting the answer to be fordite - and he said some other name that I forgot but upon googling it its basically the same thing as fordite and this mfer said “and that’s naturally occurring!” do you think I am fucking stupid. anyway that’s the shit jeweler choromatsu tells you.

In the story and his art he's shown selling amulets of some sort, and he tries to sell one to Dekapan that's meant to increase libido and claims it's got something to do with cavemen. Despite him only being shown selling amulets, I do think he has small specimens and loose stones. just for me

look hes such a FREAKKKKKKK i need him bad

He does Have real gems in his collection, but you can’t trust anything he says about them. He’ll try to pass off any fucking green thing as emerald yes he will sell straight glass. It’s a grab bag of anything. He tells some kind of made up story about the history of it, usually full of some kind of mysticism and what it could bring you. He knows a bit about how to identify a real gem but isn't as skilled as his older brothers.

He also seems at least a little disorganized, what with the amulets hanging on the inside of his jacket and all. It's a system that's organized enough at least that someone unfamiliar could figure it out, but it's also a little bit of like "I know where everything is" kind of a deal

Ichimatsu

His art makes it look like he digs up his gems himself, just cause the gloves and backpack and hat and map makes me think he's out in the field and stuff

The umbrella and blanket sale in his attack art also makes me feel like he’s not As shady as choro but is probably trying to sell them as like “this stone will cure your anxiety” type stuff.

His items are most likely genuine but overpriced. I get the vibe that maybe he digs a portion of his stuff out of the ground himself and is more of a traveling salesman kind of a thing. So part of the stuff he sells is stuff he dug up and cleaned himself and some is stock that he bought from others. But because of this, he's decently good at identifying more common minerals, like the kind you'd find at these spiritual shops. Maybe not that great with rarer minerals, though.

Most of his stuff is likely rough pieces, although I'm sure he has polished points, worry stones, those things carved like hearts.

6/10 likely to scam you just based on the fact that a 2 inch chunk of low quality amethyst is not worth $30 fuck off. he’s essentially the same as any overpriced metaphysical spiritual shop that sells crystals in the shape of penises for $20

I think he does know his shit in terms of scientific information, but he's selling them on the basis of like crystal healing and shit. He also doesn't know that much about crystal healing though he makes up the meanings whenever you ask

Jyushimatsu

the big bag and devious hat and cloak makes me think he stole that shit lmao

He looks like he has a citrine geode in his attack (natural citrine is actually quite rare, a lot of citrine on the market is heat treated amethyst) also it's fucking HUGE so it would be pretty expensive.

I get the vibe that maybe he steals expensive shit like big statement pieces? I don't know. I dont know ......

In the story it seems like he can appreciate both rough and polished stones. He might lean a little more towards rough specimens, but it sounds like he's quite happy with either one

As a salesman I think he's a bit more trustworthy as well? He was trying to sell something to Hatabou in the story but in his own Jyushimatsu way I have trouble truly understanding him.....

Todomatsu

His art and costume makes him look very well traveled, I like to think that he mainly collects rough mineral specimens, usually very rare and expensive collector's minerals. He's got the super niche expensive stuff that the average person doesn't know but that collectors would pay thousands of dollars for. In the story he also mentions picking something up from a mining location, which tells me he's taking shit that's coming straight out of the ground rather than stuff that's already been processed in some way.

Very very knowledgable about his stuff. His clientele is also very niche, like Karamatsu's, because the main people interested in his stuff would be people that are already into mineral collecting.

He's less likely to scam you solely because the people he sells to are usually skilled enough to be able to tell the difference between something real or fake, or an imitation. He has a reputation to uphold, so he can't risk ruining that.

[halfnekoslair]

My dolls)

Photo by ig @gray_valet

Hi guys) The package with the previous mouse group order arrived in the US. The rest does not depend on me. So I'm making a post to show everything I can offer. Shipping from Russia is quite expensive, starts from about 70 USD for EMS, which I usually use. So it makes more sense for foreigners if someone organizes a group order to share the shipping cost. This has already been done twice. And I believe there is a discord group about this. But I will give you approximate numbers: This is about 70 USD for up to 1 kilogram 90 USD for up to 2 kilograms and about 105 USD for up to 3 kilograms.

This post is going to be huge so I'll put the prices on top:

15cm mouse. 73 usd for standard colour. +7 usd for extra colour.

25cm turtle. 230 usd.

28 cm 1/6 boy doll. 110 usd for Eirwyn 120 for character heads cause of their hair/ear parts.

MSD Eirwyn. 180 usd.

Speaking of group orders I would prefer not to go above 1000 USD in one box because I don't trust US Customs one bit. And if something bad is destined to happen - I would prefer it not to be a terribly large amount of money.

I can change the prices over time. I most likely will. I'm just groping for a while. The difference in price is more due to the amount of manual work I have to put into the doll than to the size. Turtles are far and away the most complex. And human dolls are less time-consuming. If I make a few and feel that it is more difficult or easier than I thought - I will change the prices. As you can see, so far I have only sold mice.

So what do I offer?

I'm obviously offering mice.

This is around life size mouse doll. Almost 15 cm standing tall and including ears.

I use ABS-like photopolymer resin for these dolls. Because it is easier to work with and looks more polyurethane-like. Mice have a lot of small delicate parts that would be harder to make look good with a harder resin. So it's a tradeoff. I prefer aesthetics over durability. I am not saying that ABS-like resin is too brittle. Many people use this type of resin for dolls. Especially small ones. I am just explaining why I use different types of resin for different dolls. I might consider printing a mouse with the tough resin I use for my larger dolls but that would cost more because it would take more time to post-process.

The colors "from the can" are gray and white. I can also print beige and chocolate at any time. Because these are the most basic colors and I can cut the leftovers. (Beige and chocolate may differ slightly from time to time because I due them myself. White and gray are constant.)

I can mix any color (green, purple). But there must be 2 or more mice of this color in the order. Otherwise it will be counted as an extra color because I will have a lot of leftovers that I will not be able to use.

There is also an option to add pink paws or tail or both. If the doll has 2 colors in it, it is counted as an extra color.

2. Turtles.

Photo by ig @gray_valet

Yes, I finally decided to try and start selling them.

They are 1/6 size. About 25 cm. A little shorter than Barbie. But wide and heavy.

There are 4 sculpts. Each of which has an individual head and some differences in the body.

Officially I name the sculpts by numbers, not by character names. but I think the characters are pretty obvious.

So #1 (Leo)) He's my princess >W< Lol. Sorry. This sculpt is quite beefy. But has the most delicate face and front shell of them all for my taste.

№2 (Raph)

This one the widest and most monstrous of them all. He was actually designed to be a little shorter than the first one, but he refused and ended up the same height.

№3 (Don) He is a little taller and thinner than the others. I tried to make him more human in proportions and face.

№4 (Mike) He's the baby of the group. I still wonder if I made him too small. But I like him as is.

Each of them has 3 faces on magnets. Neutral, angry and happy.

For turtle dolls I use a tough resin. Because they are actually big, even though they are short. And they have quite a strong elastic tension. It's a little less pretty than the ABS-like. But it's really tough. I have a video of me throwing it on the pavement.

Turtles have 3 colors. For the skin, plastron and shell. You can send me a picture and I will try to dye the resin as close as I can.

I will add 2 pairs of the chosen color eyes and 1 pair of white to the doll.

I can also print basic katanas and sais in a size suitable for the doll. In a random color.

3. 1/6 youth doll.

This body is about 28cm and is sculpted to represent a teenage boy in a Barbie-proportioned world.

This can go with my original Eirwin head and resin hair

Or an anime head with a hairstyle representing a character from the Genshin Impact game.

(Keep in mind that 1/6 of the sculpts has sculpted eyelashes) At the moment I have

Tighnari with magnetic ears (It's my friend's doll)))

and Cyno

Lol I even made his hair articulated.

I also tried to put a Barbie head on this body and it wasn't terrible)

I print these dolls with tough resin as well. Even though they are small they aren't very detailed so it's just nice to have a little more durability.

I can try to dye the color you want. But I can't promise 100% accuracy because one is the pictures on the screen and the other is the resin and pigments. And also I do not recommend dark skin colors. because this resin is very thick and it can reject the pigment while printing. With dark colors it can lead to a slight difference of the color between parts in one doll.

And last but not least...

4. MSD Eirwyn.

The MSD version of this sculpt has some differences from the 1/6 version. It has a wider neck, smaller eyes, and no sculpted eyelashes.

Eirvin is 45cm tall and is adjusted to fit into my company MSD doll group. (Photos with Dollzone and Resinsoul)

10mm eyes, 55mm feet. The only non-standard part of him is his butt. It's quite wide for a MSD) But I like the silhouette.

I print my dolls with full infill so it weighs the same as the cast doll.

Obviously I'm printing such a big doll with tough resin. And with such a size of parts I'm mostly calm for this doll. My cat has already given it a couple of test falls from the table.

For color - I also do not recommend dark here. For large parts and almost 10 hours of printing it can give a big difference in color.

I don't mind answering questions and taking additional photos if needed.

Congratulations) You survived my longest post.

[tonkatsubowl]

hsr men reacting to you eating kitkat bars the wrong way

listen

dan heng: "..." dan heng stops, and stares at you. then he continues eating. he was a bit concerned, but if you have a preference of how you wanted to eat the kitkats, then... so be it.

welt: he bats an eye- then he looks at you. he slowly eats his own kitkat bar, properly, but decided not to say anything. he coughs awkwardly.

blade: "...that's bothering me. stop." blade gruffs, sighing to himself. "did silver wolf teach you how to eat that? ugh. here, let me show you the proper way of eating it."

sampo: "i didn't know that's how you eat a kitkat bar! let me try!" he grabs another packaging and mirrors your actions.

luocha: he doesn't bat an eye- he lets you do your own thing. but he quietly thinks that he should do it too. it seems more efficient that way.

argenti: "such elegant, exquisite moves. is that the proper way to eat these?" argenti questioned as he looked at his own chocolate treat before mirroring your actions.

jing yuan: "ah." jing yuan blinked, staring at you. "i suppose i'm doing it wrong? or... well. i prefer breaking the pieces like this and eating it. but i guess i can give what you're doing a try."

dr ratio: "...why are you eating it like that?" the man questioned, raising his brow. "do you not realize that these treats were made to be broken in half, and consumed properly?" he sighed. "allow me to show you."

aventurine: "are you in a hurry?" aventurine blinked. "or do you just prefer eating the kitkat like that? i'm not judging you, love, dearest no. if anything, i'm intrigued."

[iolypse]

hi hi is anyone interested in potentially beta-ing for a drv3 chapter 5 fic? it's a hanahaki au in which kokichi kidnaps shuichi instead of kaito, and it makes all the difference

snippet of the first chapter below

"Hey," Ouma calls, dragging Shuichi from the memory. "I won't ask a third time. Strawberry or lemon?"

Shuichi's thoughts snag on the idea of open cuts and lemon juice. "... Strawberry?"

Ouma clicks his silver tongue. "That's too bad! I actually only have lemon."

The door swings open with such a force that it hits the wall and bounces closed behind Ouma, who skips inside clutching a colorful bag. He unceremoniously drops onto the ground, sitting criss-cross, and spills the bag's contents all over the floor. Wrapped pieces of candy scatter across the tiles— one with a cute pink design bumps Shuichi's foot. A lie. Of course it was a lie, but why lie about that?

Ouma promptly begins to sort the candy into piles; grape, strawberry, and lemon, judging by the colors. Shuichi takes him in while he works.

He's sectioning them in groups of five like pills, though his hands shake almost imperceptibly— he only notices because Ouma misses one and only gathers four, and the brief furrowing of his brow makes Shuichi certain it's a mistake. The sides of his pinkies— both pinkies, Shuichi notes, what has he been writing so much of that he has to switch hands when one begins to cramp?— are stained with ink, and his nails are practically bitten down to their beds. The bags weighing at his eyes are dark and heavy. Ouma is pale, paler than he normally is, and it's not the poor lighting of the bathroom diluting him, either. Shuichi can't help but think he looks sickly.

"Poisoning these was so annoying, you know," Ouma drawls, not looking up from his task. His voice holds a harsher rasp than usual, like he's hiding blades in his throat. "I had to unwrap and then rewrap every single piece! Do you know how time-consuming that was? It took forever. You better be grateful. I'd make you get down on your knees and lick my shoes if I weren't feeling so generous right now."

Shuichi takes the piece at his foot. The packaging crinkles as he rolls it between his fingers. As far as he can tell, it was never opened— there's no signs that the wrapper was resealed, and he can't find any holes Ouma might've poked with a syringe, either. Satisfied, he peels open the taffy and pops it into his mouth. Strawberry, as promised. Artificial.

"So, Saihara-chan!" Before Ouma are three piles, and Shuichi can't help but notice that the grape pile has half of either of the other piles. He sweeps the grape pile towards himself with an arm, then rolls the strawberry and lemon piles to Shuichi. "What's it like being my prisoner? Five stars? Eleven out of ten? Tell me! I wanna know!"

Shuichi blinks. "Uh. Two stars, I guess?" He tugs at his bangs. Conversing with Ouma is always a challenge— he's volatile, and when his eyes begin to fill with tears, Shuichi is quick to add, "I mean— I'm not exactly here willingly, Ouma-kun. You, ah, you did kidnap me. But you haven't hurt me, so it's not too bad? Maybe three stars?" He winces. Nice save.

"Oh?" Ouma tilts his head, tears gone in a blink. The action casts a shadow across his face, and the narrowing of his eyes, the constricting of his pupils, tells Shuichi he means business. "Does Saihara-chan want me to hurt him? Would that make the experience better?"

"No! Ah, no, that's— not what I meant. I'd really prefer if you didn't, actually." He swallows, heart jackrabbiting in his chest, and it's almost painful. "Thank you for the candy." Shuichi tries his chances with one of the lemon pieces and immediately regrets it. Ouma giggles at the puckered expression he makes, happily chewing his own grape taffy. There's a growing pile of empty purple wrappers in his lap.

The following silence is neither comfortable nor suffocating. There's no conversation, just the crinkling of candy packaging and Ouma obnoxiously smacking his lips every time he eats a new piece. Shuichi should be acting right now. Although Ouma's sitting right in front of the door, his back pressed against it, Shuichi's fairly certain he could get up fast enough to dive past him, but what then? He doesn't know what Ouma has done to the rest of the hangar, and he definitely couldn't reach an exit before Ouma sicced the exisals on him— even Momota's training couldn't prepare him for that. Maybe he could fight him for the remote, but Ouma's slippery, and between the assortment of items he holds on his person, Shuichi isn't sure which pocket he's keeping it in.

It's an ultimately useless endeavor. Shuichi resolves to choke down more strawberry taffy in lieu of hatching an escape plan. He'll have to bide his time, wait for more information, an opportunity. He wonders, casting a sideways glance towards the small window casting light into the bathroom, when Momota will visit him again.

[caesarflickermans]

Thoughts one week from sotr???

I feel strangely calm and it does not feel real.

I've accepted the fact that this prequel will likely touch much more on characters I deeply care about, but I'll withhold judgement until I have seen their on-page presence. I know Caesar will be there, but I hope that will be limited to some snide remarks on Haymitch's part during the interviews, hopefully without comments on his family or age, but I doubt it. Plutarch I'd like to see and not see, and I hope for him not to play a too strong role.

Despite what I've said elsewhere, I'd be pleasantly surprised if the victory tour doesn't occur in the prequel, so it can be my free grounds for creative writing.

I'm genuinely curious to find out what the main part of the fandom thinks about the book. In contrast to TBOSAS, this one touches on aspects that are near and dear to many fans—Haymitch, the 50th Games, District 12 at a relevant time. I can see this going either way from the most beloved book in the entire series to Cursed Child vibes. Maybe it'll be both in a splitting the fandom way, depending on who you ask. I have my thoughts and feelings on the excerpts we received so far, but I think these are secondary to my main concerns that touch on the characters I care about.

I'm also in collaboration with Scholastic now, and will receive a fan package sometime this or next week depending on shipping. That alone feels very surreal. I'm utterly grateful for that collaboration both as a fan and my own career—knowing how campaigns work is quite helpful for politics jobs. As I'm not much of a collector and already ordered the UK edition I prefer over the US edition they'll send me, I've been thinking about reaching out to my local English bookstore if they'd like to do a giveaway just knowing how long it took last time to receive English editions here.

And I think that's quite a strong indicator for how I interact with the book series; so much about it has changed from being a mere consumer of the written text to being a creative first and foremost, and having a strong group of long-standing fans I call friends. Like, I'd never have assumed I'd ever be friends with or write letters to PanemPropaganda's admin!

As you've seen, that also affects my thoughts on the prequel, as they predominantly are concerned with my creativity and any community. The text itself is so secondary to my experience of the book series. And I know there's people out there who'll excitedly type out paragraphs about how I am a fake fan for valuing my own creative expression over that of the original text, but it's the place I've settled in after over a decade in the fandom—and spaces like these are perhaps necessary to be an *active* fan for as long as I have been.

That said, first thing I'll do upon receiving my digital preorder is to press ctrl+f and check up on how often my favourites are mentioned. Based on that, I'll know what kind of feelings I can have when reading the book. I hope I will sigh in relief.