#Entertainment Streaming solution

[dailydoseoffunblogs]

OXS Sound Bars for TV: Home Theater Audio System

Gadgets and Home Essentials may earn a commission. You incur no extra cost when you buy through links on our site. I love making our home a place where everyone wants to be. A top-notch home theater system is key to this. That’s why OXS sound bars for TV have changed the game for me. OXS is a big name in audio, known for their sound bars. They turn your TV’s sound into a full, rich experience.…

[amrutmnm]

Top Trends Shaping the Inflight Content Market in 2024 and Beyond

The Inflight Content Market is projected to grow from USD 691 million in 2024 to USD 931 million by 2029, achieving a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.1%. As airlines enhance passenger experiences through innovative inflight entertainment (IFE) options, this segment of the aviation industry is poised for significant expansion. In this article, we’ll explore the Inflight Content Industry growth drivers, challenges, key players, and emerging trends, providing a comprehensive overview of its future trajectory.

Market Overview

The inflight content market has evolved rapidly, reflecting changing consumer preferences and technological advancements. Inflight content encompasses various entertainment options, including movies, TV shows, music, and games, which are accessible on individual seatback screens or passengers' personal devices. This trend has transformed the passenger experience, helping airlines distinguish themselves in a competitive market.

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Key Market Drivers

1. Rising Demand for High-Quality Inflight Content

Today's travelers expect an engaging inflight entertainment experience. Airlines are increasingly investing in diverse and rich content offerings to meet this demand, with popular options like movies, TV series, and music. According to Honeywell, 73% of passengers consider the quality of the inflight experience an important factor when choosing an airline. Furthermore, 89% of travelers now view fast Wi-Fi as essential for streaming content during flights, prompting airlines like JetBlue and Southwest Airlines to introduce high-speed connectivity on their fleets.

2. Technological Advancements

Technological advancements have made it possible for airlines to deliver high-quality entertainment and internet access. Innovations like cloud-based streaming and 5G connectivity enable passengers to access vast content libraries seamlessly. For instance, cloud-based systems allow airlines to refresh content more frequently, providing a continuously updated selection of entertainment options.

3. New Revenue Streams for Airlines

In addition to enhancing passenger satisfaction, inflight content serves as a potential revenue source for airlines. Many airlines now offer premium content that passengers can purchase during their flight. Additionally, the integration of targeted advertising and partnerships with streaming services generates ancillary revenue.

Market Restraints

1. Data Security Concerns

With the rise of digital inflight entertainment platforms, data security has become a crucial concern. Passengers' viewing preferences, personal information, and payment details are stored on these platforms, raising the risk of data breaches. The potential for unauthorized access to sensitive information could make passengers hesitant to use onboard connectivity services, affecting the overall adoption rate of IFE systems.

2. High Installation and Maintenance Costs

Implementing and maintaining IFE systems is a significant expense for airlines. The cost of installing seatback screens, servers, and connectivity infrastructure is high, with ongoing maintenance and upgrades required to keep the systems up-to-date. Smaller airlines or those with tight budgets may find these costs prohibitive, potentially limiting their ability to offer advanced inflight entertainment options.

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Key Market Opportunities

1. Cloud-Based Content Streaming

The trend of cloud-based content streaming presents a considerable opportunity for airlines to deliver seamless and high-quality entertainment. With cloud technology, airlines can provide a broader and more frequently updated selection of content, enhancing the inflight experience for passengers. This method allows content to be stored remotely and streamed directly to passengers' devices, reducing the need for pre-loaded media on aircraft.

2. Rise in Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) Models

As passengers increasingly prefer using their personal devices for entertainment, airlines can reduce costs associated with installing seatback screens. By offering Wi-Fi connectivity and a content streaming platform, airlines can provide a personalized entertainment experience while avoiding the added weight and maintenance of seatback IFE systems.

Market Challenges

1. Expensive Installation and Equipment Costs

Installing IFE systems is capital-intensive. Airlines must invest in advanced hardware, such as high-quality screens and servers, which can increase operational costs due to added weight and fuel consumption. Regular updates are also required to keep up with technological advancements, which can add to the long-term expenses.

2. Variability in Internet Connectivity

Providing consistent internet connectivity across different flight paths and altitudes remains challenging. Connectivity interruptions can lead to passenger dissatisfaction, as they expect seamless access to streaming services. Airlines must navigate these challenges to meet passenger expectations for continuous internet access.

Inflight Content Market Segmentation

1. By Type: Movies Leading the Way

The inflight content market can be segmented by type into movies, TV shows, music, games, and other forms of entertainment. The movie segment is expected to experience the highest growth rate at a CAGR of 6.9% from 2024 to 2029. Airlines offer a wide range of films, from recent releases to international cinema, catering to diverse tastes.

2. By Access Method: Rise of Portable Devices

Inflight content is accessed either through seatback screens or personal devices. The use of portable devices is gaining popularity due to the increasing adoption of BYOD models. Passengers can stream content directly onto their smartphones, tablets, or laptops, offering flexibility and reducing costs for airlines.

3. By Operation Mode: Stored Content Still Leading

While cloud streaming is gaining traction, stored content remains dominant. This method allows passengers to enjoy entertainment without relying on Wi-Fi availability, providing a consistent inflight experience regardless of internet connectivity.

4. By Platform: Commercial Aviation Holds the Lion’s Share

Commercial aviation dominates the inflight content market, as airlines prioritize providing a comprehensive entertainment experience on long-haul flights. High-quality inflight content has become a key differentiator in the commercial aviation sector, helping airlines build customer loyalty and enhance the passenger experience.

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Regional Insights

North America: A Leader in Inflight Content Innovation

North America is expected to hold the highest market share in the inflight content market, driven by strong technological infrastructure and a significant number of frequent flyers. The region's well-established media industry and high investment in aviation innovation also contribute to its dominance. With the demand for premium entertainment content on the rise, North American airlines are at the forefront of adopting advanced inflight entertainment systems.

Key Market Players and Recent Developments

Major Players:

Panasonic Avionics Corporation (US)

Collins Aerospace (US)

Astronics Corporation (US)

Thales (France)

These Companies have been active in expanding their market presence through partnerships, technology advancements, and new product offerings. Notable recent developments include:

In February 2024, Thales secured a contract with Air India to equip 51 aircraft with its AVANT Up system.

Panasonic Avionics Corporation signed agreements with Icelandair and EGYPTAIR for its Astrova inflight entertainment solution in 2023.

Anuvu, in collaboration with Podeo, launched the largest Arabic podcast platform for inflight entertainment in October 2023.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the current size of the inflight content market? The inflight content market is estimated to grow from USD 691 million in 2024 to USD 931 million by 2029, with a CAGR of 6.1%.

Who are the leading players in the inflight content market? Key players include Panasonic Avionics Corporation, Collins Aerospace, Astronics Corporation, and Thales.

What are the major trends in the inflight content market? The trends driving the market include the adoption of cloud-based streaming and the introduction of 5G technology onboard, enhancing connectivity and content access.

Which region holds the highest market share? North America is anticipated to lead the market, driven by technological advancements and high passenger demand for premium inflight entertainment.

The inflight content market is set to experience steady growth as airlines continue to prioritize passenger satisfaction and differentiate their services through advanced entertainment options. While challenges such as data security and high installation costs exist, the industry is poised for innovation, with cloud-based streaming and BYOD models presenting significant opportunities. As the market evolves, key players like Panasonic Avionics, Thales, and Collins Aerospace will continue to shape the future of inflight entertainment.

With North America leading the way and technological advancements driving growth, the inflight content market remains a dynamic and integral part of the aviation industry, promising enhanced travel experiences for passengers worldwide.

[callmecoke]

Thinking of the first time the 141 discover you on a website for Sugar Babies...p2

CW: mention of sex work (being a sugar baby), SFW much like the last one, but it does deal with adult topics so proceed with caution!

Thinking about the time your friends introduced you to this website, partially as a joke. A place where ‘Sugar babies’ can do live videos for rich guys and galls so they can rack in tons of money just by talking. Honestly, you didn’t even consider it initially. It was all just a fun litle joke.

But, eventually, life caught up to you. Out of a job with bills to pay and school to go to, you were left scrambling to get ahead. Of course, friends were more than happy to lend you some cash for your hard times, but that wasn’t even a temporary solution to your problem. You needed something that could keep you afloat long enough to find a job. Ergo, the website. It was the last idea on your mind and honestly, as you were opening up your laptop you were starting to regret it. Felt kinda embarrassing to put yourself out there and admit you needed money from rich older guys to get by. But your dignity would have to wait for later; you had bills to pay and food to put on your table.

You booted up the livestream and, having no idea where to go from there, just started talking. Eventually A small amount of viewers would pop in and you had questions to entertain. No one really tipped over 10 dollars on the stream. You tried to be energetic, hoping that maybe you would bring in more viewers that way, but it clearly wasn’t working. Nearly an hour goes by, and you’re starting to be disillusioned and a little disappointed. You start considering closing the stream down when a 200 dollar tip lights up your laptop screen, followed by a question from a no name account.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

You hadn’t been paid that much the entire stream, and it got the excitement back rushing in your veins. You answered “No!” a little too quickly for your liking but when the answer was followed up by another 100 dollar tip, you knew you didn’t embarrass yourself too much. 

All then you started chatting with this mystery account. They asked you all sorts of questions. They asked about your old job, the course you're studying, what you want to be when you leave school, your hobbies, ect. And you started to actually enjoy talking to this person. Not even for the money (All though, admittedly, still a big part of it), but just because there’s someone on the other side of the world that’s interested in your life. 

Eventually the stream did have to end when you looked up and realised how late it had gotten. By the time you were closing the stream and checking your account, you realised you had made around 1,000 dollars already. It felt great to see some actual money in your account for once. Before you finally shut down your laptop for good, you got a private dm request on the website, along with another 500 dollar sent to you.

“Hey, Love. Me and the boys want you to know we appreciate the chat. Hope to hear that sweet voice of yours again soon. 

Sincerely,

-Price.”

[mobileappdevelopmentsolution]

How Netflix and Spotify are Changing Their Monetization Strategies

Spotify was founded in 2008 and has since grown to become the world's leading Music Streaming App, generating over $11.2 billion in 2022. 

Netflix, on the other hand, remains the top OTT video streaming app, despite growing competition, generating over $31.6 billion in 2022 revenue. Like Spotify dominates music streaming, Netflix leads in video with over 238 million subscribers worldwide.

However, both applications have different markets and target audiences, but a fundamental similarity between these streaming giants is relentless innovation across all aspects of their business, from marketing to monetization. Whether it's Spotify's expansion into podcasts or Netflix's shifts to owned original content, both platforms creatively evolve their offerings and strategies. These mobile streaming apps always think outside the box, finding new ways to attract and retain subscribers to stay ahead. This constant innovation to "go beyond" has fuelled their leadership in streaming entertainment.

If you’re also thinking of building a Music Streaming App or OTT platform, then this guide is for you. We, the leading Music App Development Company In California, will explore how Netflix and Spotify are changing their monetization strategies to meet the demands of today's audiences that can help you develop a reliable app monetization strategy to drive a higher ROI.

So, let’s get started.

Before exploring how industry giants like Spotify and Netflix have evolved their monetization strategies, look at how you can monetize your On-Demand Music Streaming App.

How Netflix and Spotify are Changing Their Monetization Strategies

Spotify and Netflix, have become the giant in the streaming world by disrupting traditional business models for music and video entertainment.  Initially, both companies relied on simple subscription plans as their primary revenue driver. However, as the streaming wars heat up against deep-pocketed rivals, Spotify and Netflix have had to get creative with monetization strategies beyond just subscriptions. Let’s look at their monetization strategies.

Spotify Innovative Monetization Strategies

Spotify rapidly became a top global Music Streaming App through its convenient, on-demand access to millions of songs. However, its freemium model meant revenue from premium subscriptions alone could not sustain long-term profitability. Spotify realized it needed to diversify monetization early on. Here is a summary of how Spotify's creative revenue-generating methods evolved.

1. Premium Subscriptions Established Early Revenue  (2008)

When Spotify first launched, one of its key monetization strategies was offering premium subscriptions. Now it's pioneered Music Streaming Mobile App Development subscriptions, offering ad-free listening and advanced features for $9.99 monthly. This set the foundation for their business model.

Moreover, Spotify introduced the family plan in 2014, but much has changed. An entire household may now enjoy Spotify Premium for less than the cost of two Premium memberships. At present, Spotify is still exploring its premium strategy and upgrading its offerings for users to provide a seamless experience. 

This premium model accounted for over 90% of Spotify's $11.2 billion in 2021 revenues. Price hikes and discounted family plans aim to improve ARPU. Converting more of Spotify's 515 million total users into paying subscribers is a key profit driver. 

2. Harnessing Data to Hook Listeners Through Personalization (2009- Present)

As Spotify grew, it leveraged data and analytics to provide users with personalized recommendations and curated playlists. 

Now Spotify has over 515 million users generating over 5 billion streams daily. 

This data-driven personalization hooked users, increased time spent on the platform, and enhanced discovery features like algorithmic playlists leading to higher conversion rates and lower churn. The more tailored Spotify's experience via data, the more addictive its platform becomes for its users.

3. Targeted and Programmatic Ads

Beyond subscriptions, Spotify monetized its ad-supported user base through highly targeted audio/video ads in 2014. Spotify aims to match the right promotions to each user based on their listening habits and demographics. 

Spotify's streaming ad insertion (SAI) tech also enables precise programmatic ad delivery. As personalization improves, Spotify can charge brands higher premiums. This provides significant revenue from free users.

4. Diversifying into High-Margin Podcast Content (2015 - Present)‍

Spotify has wisely diversified beyond the Music Streaming Application development industry by investing over $1 billion in podcast content in  2015. Acquiring networks like Gimlet, Anchor, and Parcast gave Spotify a library of over 3.2 million podcasts. Podcasts can be monetized through ads at high margins without any royalty fees. JP Morgan estimates Spotify's podcast margins exceed 70%. Podcast ads delivered $200 million in 2021 revenue, doubling over 2020. 

With exclusives like The Joe Rogan Experience, Spotify is quickly capturing podcast market share from Apple. Podcasts also increase user engagement and retention while attracting new demographics. Podcast content represents a lucrative second revenue engine for Spotify beyond just premium music subscriptions.

5. Strategic Partnerships Expand Reach and Users

In 2016, Spotify did key partnerships with Facebook, Samsung, and Google, which helped Spotify to pre-install apps and drive sign-ups through bundle deals. These partnerships are crucial for entering and dominating new global markets. 

Spotify's valuable first-party data also allows artists and brands to target promotions via sponsored playlists and other engagement opportunities finely.

Netflix's Evolving Monetization Strategy

Netflix pioneered the subscription video-on-demand(VOD) model when it transitioned from DVD rentals to streaming in 2007. This recurring subscription revenue has been the core of its business. However, it slowly adopted new technology and strategies to position itself well in this dominant Video Streaming App landscape. Let's have a look at them.  

1. Tapping into Mobile Gaming Revenue 2021

Netflix's move into video games represents a bold diversification beyond video content. Mobile games offer Netflix a new revenue stream while increasing subscriber engagement. However, Netflix faces stiff competition from gaming giants like Apple, Google, and Electronic Arts. 

To stand out, Netflix aims to leverage hit shows like Stranger Things into engaging, high-quality games integrated with the broader viewing experience. If Netflix can convert even a small portion of subscribers into gamers, it could translate into meaningful revenue. The key will offer exclusive games tied to Netflix IP rather than generic add-ons. 

2. Diversifying Revenue Streams with Ad-Tier in 2022

After years of resisting ads, Netflix launched a lower-priced ad-supported plan in November 2022. The cheaper ad tier targets more price-sensitive users, increasing advertiser revenue from Netflix's addressable audience of over 220 million households. 

To support this new tier, Netflix acquired ad tech firm MediaHive and partnered with Microsoft for sales and delivery. With viewership data rivaling social media, Netflix aims to reinvent TV advertising. And this is how it becomes the most favorable Video Streaming App for users.

3. Clamping Down on Password Sharing

Netflix has allowed password sharing among family members in the same household since its streaming service launched in 2007.

The ability to share one account with multiple profiles made it easy for households to share access. As per an estimate, over 100 million households are "borrowing" Netflix credentials instead of paying. To convert this usage into revenue, Netflix tests payment features for account sharing. 

Strategically, some subscriber loss is acceptable if offset by payments from non-subscribing viewers. The challenge will be finding the right balance of pricing and rules to minimize churn. For now, Netflix is taking a cautious approach by rolling this out in limited markets.

4. Owning Bigger Pieces of IP  (Ongoing)

As licensed content costs are soaring, Netflix wants to own a larger share of its hit shows and movies. Original TV Series  like  Stranger Things, The Witcher, Ozark, and films like The Irishman, The Old Guard, etc., have major merchandising potential once Netflix controls the IP. 

This mirrors Disney's success capitalizing on owned franchises. While risky, Netflix is betting big budgets on owned IPs like The Gray Man universe. The potential of long-term franchises and licensing revenue makes the upfront investment worthwhile.

For those interested in diving deeper into the intricacies of video streaming apps, our Video Streaming Apps-Attributes and Development Costs guide is a valuable resource. 

Want to build an app like Netflix? Check out this guide. 

Analysis & Comparison of Strategies

Netflix and Spotify have some notable similarities and differences in how they change their monetization strategies as subscription streaming giants.

Both are focused on growing their global user bases and retaining loyalty. However, their approaches reflect the differences in their markets. Netflix leverages investments in original movies, TV shows, and documentaries to give subscribers exclusive, entertaining content they can't get elsewhere. This builds value for the subscription. 

On the other hand, Spotify doesn't create music but competes through curation and personalization. By recommending music catered to individual tastes, Spotify creates a continually engaging experience that locks in listeners.

Interestingly, both companies are exploring supplemental advertising revenues but in different capacities. Netflix is considering an ad-supported subscription tier at a lower price point. Spotify already offers a free, ad-supported tier as well as a Premium no-ads tier. Netflix would introduce ads to customers accustomed to an ad-free experience, while Spotify's users can select their preferences.

Challenges for both lie in balancing revenue growth with user satisfaction. Measures like password-sharing crackdowns, subscription price hikes, and inserting more ads may drive revenue but risk alienating subsets of the user base. 

Netflix and Spotify must invent monetization in a way that aligns with subscribers' perceptions of value.

The Music Streaming Application development landscape is growing more competitive, so retaining loyal users through compelling and reasonably priced services will be the key.

Strategic Differences: Netflix Vs. Spotify

While Netflix and Spotify both aim to diversify revenue streams, their strategies leverage different advantages that reflect the nature of their content and markets. This table outlines critical contrasts in the two streaming giants' emerging monetization approaches.

Conclusion:

Netflix, and Spotify exemplify rapid innovation in streaming monetization, evolving their models beyond just subscriptions. Netflix has added an ad tier, clamped down on password sharing, and invested heavily in owned IP, aiming to extract more revenue from its base.

Similarly, Spotify has complemented subscriptions with a booming podcast business. Both leverage personalization and partnerships to optimize engagement and penetration.

But have you ever wondered what's the secret behind it? They constantly innovate to create new revenue streams that coax more value from existing ones. This constant experimentation and evolution are precisely what any budding streaming firm must emulate.

Rather than copying established models, stand out by envisioning creative new monetization frontiers.  As you consider venturing into music streaming app development, remember that it’s not just about technical prowess; a blend of innovation and creativity is paramount. At Consagous, we embody this synergy. 

We are a premium music-streaming mobile app development company that can transform your business with cutting-edge mobile streaming solutions. 

Our data-driven approach finds the optimal balance between monetization and satisfaction. With strategic subscriptions, targeted advertising, and incremental models, generate revenue while keeping users engaged.

Further, our Music Streaming App developers team is just as creative as technically proficient. Whether employing sophisticated algorithms to personalize content or leveraging data-driven insights to engage users, they think outside the box. Their creative problem-solving delivers innovative features that satisfy and delight users.Don't miss the mobile streaming app revolution—unlock your app's potential with Consagous Technologies. Contact us now to achieve unprecedented success and revolutionize your digital entertainment presence. Seize the opportunity today!

[haberai]

TUBİDY

In a world where music and entertainment are just a click away, finding the right platform to access your favorite tracks can be a challenge. Enter Tubidy, your ultimate solution for seamless music enjoyment. Whether you want to discover new tunes or download cherished classics, Tubidy has you covered. This innovative platform makes it easy to search and find any MP3 file you desire, allowing you to download music without the hassle. From trending hits to timeless melodies, Tubidy mp3 offers an extensive library designed to cater to every music lover’s taste.

Tubidy

Tubidy serves as an exceptional multimedia platform that makes accessing and downloading music an effortless experience. If you’re looking for a vast library that caters to your music needs, Tubidy is designed to provide exactly that. With its user-friendly interface, navigating through your favorite tracks has never been simpler or more intuitive.

Key Features of Tubidy

Extensive Library: Tubidy offers a broad range of music genres, ensuring that you can find everything from popular hits to hidden gems.

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Fast and Reliable: Downloading music is quick and hassle-free, allowing you to listen to your favorite songs without delay.

Why Choose Tubidy?

Choosing Tubidy means opting for convenience. Whether you're looking for Tubidy mp3 files or seeking Tubidy music options, the platform provides you with comprehensive solutions tailored to all audio needs. Its simple navigation and instant access to downloads ensure that you spend less time searching and more time enjoying your tunes.

Tubidy MP3

If you're looking for a versatile platform to find and download your favorite music, Tubidy mp3 is your best choice. With an extensive library of songs across various genres, Tubidy mp3 makes it easy to search for, stream, and download high-quality audio files. Say goodbye to the hassle of searching for music on multiple sites – Tubidy is your one-stop destination for all things music-related.

One of the main advantages of using Tubidy mp3 is its user-friendly interface. You can navigate the site effortlessly, allowing you to find specific tracks or discover new favorites quickly. Whether you’re a fan of pop, rock, hip-hop, or any other genre, Tubidy provides a seamless experience tailored to satisfy your musical cravings.

Additionally, Tubidy mp3 offers a variety of download options to suit your needs. Whether you want to enjoy music offline or create a personal playlist, Tubidy mp3 download ensures that you can easily save your favorite tracks on your device without any complications. Enjoy your music anywhere, anytime, with the convenience of offline listening.

Experience the benefits of using Tubidy mp3 today and immerse yourself in a world of endless music possibilities. Visit Tubidy and start your musical journey now!

Tubidy MP3 Download

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In addition to its comprehensive collection, Tubidy ensures high quality in its downloads. Each mp3 file is optimized for sound quality, allowing you to enjoy crisp and clear audio that enhances your music listening experience. Plus, with regular updates, you can expect to find the newest releases on the platform, keeping your playlists fresh and exciting.

Don’t miss out on the chance to enrich your music library with ease. Start using Tubidy mp3 download today, and discover how simple it is to find and download your favorite tracks. Experience the joy of having the music you love accessible at any time with Tubidy’s efficient and effective platform.

Tubidy Music

Tubidy music offers an unrivaled experience for music lovers seeking a seamless way to access their favorite tracks. With a massive library of songs that spans various genres, Tubidy ensures that you can find exactly what you’re looking for, whether it’s the latest chart-toppers or timeless classics.

What sets Tubidy apart is its user-friendly interface, making searching for music incredibly simple. You can easily navigate through categories, allowing you to explore new artists and discover hidden gems without any hassle. This feature is particularly beneficial for those who love to explore different styles and trends in music.

For music enthusiasts who are always on the move, Tubidy music provides an excellent solution for downloading tracks quickly and efficiently. The convenience of having your favorite songs available offline allows you to enjoy them anytime, anywhere, without relying on a constant internet connection.

If you want to elevate your music consumption experience, make Tubidy your go-to destination. Discover, download, and enjoy the best music around with just a few clicks. Don’t miss out—dive into the vast world of Tubidy music today!

[jaeminvore]

Credit Card Baby | Z.CL

“Who do I gotta fuck for barricade tickets to Sabrina Carpenter around here?”

PAIRING: Chenle x Fem!Reader

SYNOPSIS: Four days, three broke girls, two possible outcomes, and one solution. What are you willing to sacrifice in exchange for a night seeing a long-awaited Juno pose five feet away from your eyeballs? Your dignity, probably because it just so happens that one (1) Chenle Zhong could be the solution to your current girl problem. Only, you don’t really do well with charity. Nothing in life was free and everything had a price, but Chenle likes to think differently—that he's simply helping a friend out. Like the many times he did before. There should be sugar-daddy-sugar-baby joke around here somewhere.

alternatively: ‘three dumb bitches telling each other ‘exactlyyyy’.’ — ‘A sugar-daddy (kinda) au with no age-gap, but with a financial gap that no one asked for’.

WORD COUNT: 15.5K

NOTE: first Chenle fic kinda nervous but also excited because I've been wanting to write for pookie for a loooong long while!! So I gathered all the remaining brain cells I have and came up with this hot garbage (affectionate). This is legitimately the most unserious piece of fiction I’ve written so far, so if you’re in the mood for some fun and entertainment centered around vibes n mild-horniness you’ve come to the right place! The title comes from a song with the same title which is funny to me because the song itself (Credit Card Baby by Wham!) is the complete opposite of the story I'm telling here LMAO

CONTENT TAGS & WARNINGS: mildly suggestive themes (as in, there's very little implication to sex and masturbation here if it bothers anybody. Just to put it out there so proceed with caution), crude jokes and language, crack treated seriously, comedy, college au, fluff, friends to a secret third thing, sugar daddy au (kinda), Chenle majors in business, MC majors in architecture, everyone yaps a lot... for some reason, Chenle’s also a micro-celebrity (streams and posts on TikTok), brief discussion of OnlyFans, but I am in no way encouraging it.

DISCLAIMER: none of this is meant to represent anyone in real life. This is purely fictional and for entertainment purposes only.

According to an article you’d come across, an OnlyFans creator earned an average of one-hundred-eighty dollars a month. Multiply that four or five times, you’d have enough for one ticket.

“Alright,” you sighed, bringing your knees up as your eyes glued to what laid out in a neat pile right before you and the girls you lived with. “how much do we have all together?”

“Twenty-seven dollars and thirty cents. One banana flavored condom. Three sticks of gum—a chewed piece of gum, ew—a crumpled tissue and a… hairball.”

Jesus. This was getting ridiculous.

“Fantastic!” You clapped, looking at both girls with a wide smile and desperate eyes. “Anything else?”

“A maxed out credit card,” Minjeong sniffed as she threw the offending piece of useless plastic onto the pathetic pile. “That’s all we have to our names combined. We’re broke as shit.”

No, really. You had everything you needed for a flourishing career of flashing your nether regions to the world behind a paywall.

A laptop with a webcam. A pretty face. A small collection of toys. Very small. A pink two-in-one vibrating dildo the girls had gotten you as a gag gift for your birthday still in its packaging type of small. Vaguely resembling a swirly ice pop you’d get on a hot summer day, and you had lovingly named it ‘Pinky’ before it had gotten shoved into the depths of your drawer, never to be seen again.

Your imaginary audience probably wouldn't mind, right? So long as they’d get an eyeful of a pretty girl playing out starved men’s depraved fantasies.

Then again, the idea didn’t seem too hard in theory considering how far gooners were willing to throw a couple of dollars for a  five seconds long clip. They wouldn’t even notice the difference between an overexaggerated moan resembling a cat’s mating yowl and a genuine moan of pleasure, far too busy jerking it until their keyboards were dank from their own mess. You’d be earning enough to broaden your pathetic sex toy collection.

Simple-minded people were easy customers and you sure had no problems capitalizing off of that.

It was a good plan. A perfect long-term plan even, if it didn’t earn less than minimum wage and if you weren’t racing against time.

“This sucks,” Yizhuo whined, throwing her head back and staring forlornly at the ceiling. “Where the hell are we gonna get that kind of money in four days?”

Minjeong raised a groomed eyebrow. “Can’t you ask your parents? Say it’s an emergency or something.”

Yizhuo’s head lolled to the side, frowning at her. “They still have me cut off, remember?”

And the thought wasn’t just devastating to Yizhuo who, up until a few months ago, had been living the life of a spoiled princess with the world right in the palms of her dainty, never-worked-in-her-life hands. Naturally, being the closest to Yizhuo where you all were practically sisters, you and Minjeong were tangled up in the punishment as well. That meant leeching off of her and her unlimited access to her parents’ money was ineffective until she learned her lesson. 

After all, she was the reason why you and Minjeong had a roof above your head because apparently buying a house out-of-pocket was much more cost-efficient than renting, leaving you girls the responsibility of paying for groceries and sparing you just enough to spend for personal items. Yizhuo handled the rest as she had become somewhat of a sugar mommy.

“Apparently Daddy thought I was being very irresponsible with their money.” Yizhuo rolled her eyes. “Whatever that means—that I spend most of my time shopping rather than studying, which is so stupid when I already know the business like I know Daddy’s card details by heart! Why should I go to university when I’m set for life?”

She had gotten a job a week after spending what was left of her savings in a fit of panic. Lavishly, one could say, where the amount of clothes, bags, makeup and accessories had your eyes bugging out at the exorbitant prices printed on each receipt. Minjeong hadn’t been responsive all throughout. You didn’t think she was breathing either when she stared hard at a receipt from Prada.

Lucky for Yizhuo, Minjeong’s job at a thrift store had recently let go one of their former employees after her boss had caught them doing lines in the break room.

It was perfect for Yizhuo, low effort as she’d be manning the cashier and would occasionally keep the racks in stock. And best of all, she won’t be alone. She’d be with Minjeong which also came as a relief to you since it was a huge adjustment from not lifting a finger all her years on Earth thus far, to suddenly contributing enough to keep your mouths fed for at least twice a day.

“Wow,” Minjeong drawled, “your life must be so hard.”

“Ugh,” Yizhou groused, crossing her arms as she leaned against the foot of the couch with a moue reminding you of a spoiled child being told ‘no’. “You don’t even know.”

Judging by the look on Minjeong’s face, she was not having Yizhou’s tone-deafness in the slightest, and while you silently shared the sentiment—that the youngest of the household could have refrained from flaunting her privileged life, you didn’t want any casualties that could potentially turn into a court case. Because as sweet as Yizhuo was, she could be just as evil and vindictive to anyone that wronged her in some way.

“At least your parents let us keep the house,” you joked, patting Yizhuo’s knee with a smile. She at least appeared genuinely apologetic by the situation. “Any ideas on how we could get at least fifteen hundred dollars for three barricade tickets in”—you glanced at your calendar app—“four days?”

“Girl, you are asking for a goddamn miracle,” Minjeong sighed, “even Jesus took three days to resurrect.”

You nodded sagely and added, “took him six days to create the world,” which got a confused noise from Yizhuo.

“I thought it took seven?”

Minjeong shook her head. “No. He rested on the seventh day. Didn’t you go to Sunday School?”

“Not really. I barely lasted half a day.”

Well, all of you were definitely losing the plot here, quoting holy scripture, or whatever, but Minjeong was right; none of you were divine beings capable of pulling miracles out of your proverbial asses in time when the goddamn concert was in four days.

One could argue that you were given a long enough timeframe to save up for pre-sale, but when you had a friend like nepo-baby heiress Yizhuo Ning who had connections everywhere, it was guaranteed that you'll get the best seats at a concert of a big-named artist with her influence regardless of the limited time frame. Perhaps backstage passes if Yizhuo liked them enough. And she liked this one. A lot. She could never resist Sabrina Carpenter’s big blue eyes and bouncy blonde curls.

So, no. None of you had the forethought of pulling out the ‘Saving Up For A Concert For Dummies’ manual. Not when you had Yizhuo and her endless pockets full of hard cash to fall back onto.

Then she lost access (temporarily) to the Ning family vault, with barely anything saved up from her job because her spending problem wouldn’t vanish with just a snap of her father’s fingers, apparently. Now here you were: sitting in a circle on the plush, mauve, floral embossed carpeting that must have costed a fortune with crumpled dollar bills and junk you found deep in your purses like you were all trying out a crude summoning ritual for fat wads of cash.

Nothing could get worse than this. You’ve been through worse than this.

“We could sell feet pics?”

“Hell no. Feet freak me the fuck out,” Minjeong shivered.

You plucked the condom from the pile and lifted it up at face-level. “Would a used condom sell a lot to some weirdo freak out there?”

“Maybe,” Yizhuo replied the same time Minjeong said, in absolute disbelief that one of you would ever think of something so unhygienic, “I wouldn’t know, I’m a lesbian.”

“Yeah, no.” You wrinkled your nose. “You would not catch me pulling out a condom with some guy’s jizz in it from the trash. Ew.”

“How about a sugar daddy?”

“Eh. I’m not really into older men.”

“You saying you wouldn’t let the guy who played M-C-U Bucky Barnes hit?”

“Oh sure,” you said, sarcasm dripping thickly with each word that followed, “let me just hit up my buddy, my pal, Sebastian Stan on Instagram. Maybe I should call his phone number too! Y’know, the number that I don’t have.”

“Okay, sheesh. You don’t need to be so mean about it,” Minjeong mumbled.

“Oh! OnlyFans!” Yizhuo suggested with reverence as if she figured out how to attain world peace, earnest as her eyes rounded with excitement. “I’ve heard plenty of success stories. It can’t be too hard for any of us.”

A beat of silence, and then—

“Not it!” Minjeong exclaimed, touching the pad of her index finger to the tip of her nose.

“Not it!” came Yizhuo’s shrill voice a close second, copying Minjeong.

“Not it—fuck!” you wailed, half from being the sacrificial lamb and half because you smacked yourself in the fucking face from momentary panic which the girls didn’t seem to catch, too busy shrieking and hugging each other in relief. “No fair.”

“Oh, I think it’s plenty fair,” Minjeong shrugged, pressing her cheek against Yizhuo’s. “You were just slow.”

“And if anything, this’ll be easy for you!” Yizhuo cheered.

“Easy? okay—this“—you motioned wildly to your own body—“isn’t for the masses.”

Minjeong snorted. “Oh, sure. Tell that to the three guys you keep on rotation.”

“They’re just three guys. God forbid a girl has a healthy sex-life,” you whined. It was either wither away when you weren’t agonizing over your Architectural Design course—any of your courses, really—or fuck around with the guys you’ve met through mutual friends as your mode of relief.  “and why does it have to be me? I’m sure either of you could pull off being an O-F model.”

“One,” Minjeong raised a finger, “don’t ever call me that. Even if it’s in a hypothetical sense. And two, the thought of men being the majority of my audience unnerves me. I don’t think you could make it so only women could see me, so fuck that.”

“Fine. I’ll allow it.” You turned to Yizhuo with an expectant look. “What about you?”

She returned it with an unimpressed one, bordering on disbelief the longer you stared at her, waiting to say her piece.

“You’re kidding, right?” No, you were not. Was there a joke hidden in those three words forming a question? Not that you knew of, so you gestured for Yizhuo to get on with the program. “I’m like, the last person you should send to the wolves.”

“Why not?” You pouted. “You’re like, the most charismatic of us three. Got a pretty face too, if that wasn’t obvious enough.”

“Uh-huh, yeah—calling me pretty won’t change my mind,” Yizhuo said, firm and that meant she won’t tolerate any more of your pushing, yet the pretty blush tinting her cheeks told you enough that you almost got through her. “I’m an heiress to one of the largest Chinese conglomerates back home. How’d you think that would look for me?”

Bad, I’m guessing, and you knew this first-hand. 

There was an approximate six-thousand mile distance from where Yizhuo was brought up to where all three of you resided, yet that didn’t stop the Chinese media from getting their updates on how Yizhuo Ning was faring as an international college student.

You had a few run-ins with the paparazzi just dying to get dirt on Harbin’s sweetheart, fought with some too which had caused quite a buzz on both Weibo and Xiaohongshu when pictures of Yizhuo stumbling down the stairs of a frat house, looking drop-dead gorgeous were shared. No one could tell she was barely clinging onto sobriety. Or that she had already emptied her stomach twice in one of Sigma Chi’s bathrooms and a plant that surely had seen better days being under the care of jaunty frat boys who barely knew the concept of photosynthesis.

There was also a handful of you elbowing one of the paparazzi in the face when they had gotten too close. Your face, thankfully, had been blurred out. Same with Minjeong’s who had been trying her absolute damndest to keep you from getting aggravated assault charges while being tipsy herself.

If they had somehow caught wind of Yizhuo being involved in something so obscene—and you knew they would eventually—her life would be over. And yours. And Minjeong’s, because God forbid her parents might as well treat you as their own children with how often their darling daughter talked about you during their weekly check-up calls.

“And my parents would literally kill me if they found out their only daughter isn’t as virginal as they thought!”

“But you haven’t been a virgin since sophomore year.”

Yizhuo rolled her eyes. “They don’t know that, obviously.”

“And so that leaves me to be the breadwinner of this fucking household,” you said, heaving a conceding sigh. “God I hate you rich people.”

“I know you do. You say ‘eat the rich’ at least three times a day like it’s ‘grace’.” Yizhuo didn’t even sound remotely annoyed by your diss, basking in the relief of not taking your place and sacrificing her dignity. “It’s just until we get the tickets. Then you can be boring and gate-keep yourself until we have to slut you out again.”

“My body is a temple,” you said, feigning offense as you crossed your arms, cupping your breasts in a protective hold while Minjeong cackled. “Besides, OnlyFans might be easy on paper, but executing it? Four days won’t be enough. There are many factors involved and engagement won’t be that easy from how oversaturated it is. I’d be a no name. It’d probably take me months to get the amount we need and Miss ‘have you ever tried this one?’ would be in Europe by then.”

“And you did the math for that?”

“Only since we took all the shit out of our purses.”

“Right, because you always do the math for everything.”

“It’s a reflex.” You shrugged. You could even say it had been ingrained in you, haunted by the fact you almost failed Calculus I. You struggled less with it now, spending all summer drilling numerous Youtube tutorials into your brain and electing one of your classmates as your tutor. “How do you think we’ve survived this long without your parents’ money?”

Yizhuo shrugged. “Fair enough. Nerd.”

She gets a pillow to the face for that.

“Well,” you said with a clap. “If that’s all, I gotta go in”—you glanced at your watch and then panicked as you scrambled to get up—“five minutes ago. Fuck, I’m gonna be late!” The pop in your knees made you wince when getting on your two feet, making a bee-line towards your bedroom and stumbling over Minjeong’s thighs in the process.

“For a dick appointment?” 

“If you count AutoCad fucking up my chances for a four-point-oh, then sure.”

So maybe you had lied about the dick appointment, but in your defense, you actually had shit to do.

It just so happened Renjun also majored in Architecture, and that you shared all of your classes with him because if you were walking into five years of hell, you sure as hell weren’t going to suffer alone. You were simply hitting two birds with one stone.

If only those two hypothetical birds you hypothetically murdered coughed up fat wads of cash enough for three tickets, then you’d be set.

You let out a defeated sigh. “I need fifteen hundred bucks.”

Renjun, who just got back from a shower, blinked at the bold request.

“Say that again? You need how much?”

“Fifteen hundred bucks,” you repeated.

Renjun's face twisted as he stuck his pinky into his ear and wiggled it around. “I’m definitely hearing things ‘cause there’s no way.”

You rolled your neck to blankly stare at him. “I can say it again in Mandarin, if you want.”

“Please don’t,” Renjun shook his head, not minding that you were trying really hard to set him on fire with your eyes. “That’s like, using what I taught you for evil.”

“Well that’s too damn bad,” and you repeated what you said in near flawless Mandarin.

The conversation should have ended there. He just had the most underwhelming orgasm to-date due to whatever weird headspace you were in throughout your—ahem—session that made it less passionate and more robotic, but getting blue-balled was considerably worse than having to act as your last-minute financial adviser.

He simply could ignore anything that had just left your mouth when your attention was set onto the glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to his ceiling, but the unfortunate thing was that Renjun was nothing but indulgent at the moment. 

Dregs of lust in his brain prevented any of his usual no-nonsense approach and it certainly didn’t help that he could never say no to a girl—a pretty girl, no less—no matter how insufferable they were. Specifically you with his sheets wrapped around your still naked body. Renjun was still a man, and his IQ could still lose a few points if a girl so much looked his way.

Since you were both things, a girl and pretty, he calmly graced your dilemma with an answer.

“I can only give you orgasms, I’m afraid.” He said with a pout you knew was meant to be patronizing, mocking almost, especially with a detached lilt to his voice.

This wasn’t new to you as it was one of his methods to get under your skin. He knew you hated it, and you could definitely tell he’d prefer to discuss something else. Or nothing at all, but he had already poked the bear which meant he had to listen to you whinge until you either 1.) get it out of your system yourself or 2.) or he did something about it, and Renjun knew exactly the choice he made, yet that obviously didn’t work.

“What’s the fifteen hundred for anyway?” he conceded, barely tampering down the reluctance of circling back on your current financial struggles while rubbing his hair dry.

“Barricade tickets to Sabrina Carpenter,” you said shifting onto your side so you could face him properly. “VIP too if possible. For me, Ningning and Minjeong.”

He closed his eyes, jaw clenching. Saying other girls’ names post-coitus should be considered an act of violation or something, but he digressed.

“I thought Yizhuo got you tickets already?” His eyes snapped open to regard you with a lost look. “Before the whole cutting her off from her parents’ money fiasco?”

“Well, no one was really expecting her to go broke. She didn’t think it was a priority when she could just get the tickets last minute.”

“And since they took away access…”

“No money for us until further notice.”

Both of his eyebrows rose at the sheer ridiculousness of Yizhuo, self-proclaimed number one Sabrina shooter who could not go one day without singing Feather as much as her lungs could take, not being able to cop tickets. “The concert is in four days.”

“Oh don’t I know it.” When it rang like a giant alarm in your head, it was hard to not think about it. “I’m thinking of taking out a loan from my bank.”

“Absolutely not,” he snapped and tossed his damp towel onto your face. You shrieked and clawed it away because, ew, gross. “No way in hell are you going into debt because of a concert. Are you fucking crazy?”

“It’s not like I can ask someone to buy them for me either!” 

Renjun just barely resisted the urge to groan at the fact your persistent yapping almost ruined your then stellar bed chem.

“Like, who would be dumb enough to buy me a ticket? Let alone three?”

It’s surprising how you were able to come up with coherent sentences aftergetting your brains fucked out, but Renjun had always thought you were a weird one. Stamina on good days, yet a common cold could have you acting like you were knocking on death’s door.

“I’m sure I can name at least one person,” he said, thoughtful.

“Does this person have two-toned hair, perchance?” you wheedled, rolling onto your stomach to cup both of your cheeks with your hands looking like a flower in bloom for him. “Is his name Renjun Huang? A-K-A my favorite guy in the whole wide world?”

“You’re cute,” Renjun snorted, sitting on the foot of his bed. “But no.”

Your bottom lip jutted out in a pout. “You’re no fun.”

“There’s Jaemin,” he offered.

You grimaced. “Too needy.”

“Haechan?”

“Too mean.”

“And you still go to that asshole?” Renjun asked, incredulous. 

“He’s a good lay?” you offered, sheepish almost under the glare of his disbelief and the full force of his eyebrows. “C’mon, at least one ticket for your best girl?” you cooed, laying it on thick with a flutter of your eyelashes. “The other two can probably work something out.” 

Minjeong and Yizhuo were your girls. No one could ever doubt the love you had for them, being housemates for two years and counting, but desperate times called for desperate measures. It’s every man (well, woman) for themselves and if there was an opportunity right in front of you, might as well take it.

“Yeah…” he trailed off with a wince and you already didn’t like what he was about to say when he glimpsed at you and then at some random spot behind. “about that—“

“Whatever you’re about to say, don’t,” you ground out.

Renjun pretended like he hadn't heard you. “Someone from the student association gave me a ticket.”

“And you’re going?” You hoped he wasn’t.

As if he read your mind, Renjun’s mouth parted in offense. “It’s Sabrina Carpenter. It’s a great opportunity to clout chase.”

Oh he was definitely going to be insufferable on Instagram, talking about it for days on end. Just like you would be.

“Seriously?” you exclaimed, both hands covering your face, muffling your scream. This felt way worse than the time you almost didn’t meet the deadline of a plate submission that made up a large chunk of your grade. “Is everyone and their goddamn moms going except me?”

“Guess so.”

You peeled your hands away to Renjun scrolling through his phone in mild interest.

“Can you at least pretend to feel sorry for me?” 

Renjun let his phone drop in between his crossed legs. “My condolences that you won’t get to see Sabrina do her Juno pose five feet away from you.”

“You’re the worst,” you groaned, sitting up and holding the blanket tightly to preserve your modesty. “I’m literally out of options and you’re already kickstarting the FOMO.”

“And what were your”—he waved absently to the air—“options exactly?”

“There was the OnlyFans route—and before you say anything else,” you gave Renjun a look that was sharp enough to make him think twice about his needling. He said nothing, thankfully, but his pursed lips and scrunched eyebrows said a lot. “yes, I did the math and we all agreed—surprisingly—that it would be impossible to earn that amount of money before the concert. Then Minjeong suggested a sugar daddy, but I’m not really up for being a geraitric’s pretty play-thing. What if he dies mid-sex—”

You got cut off from Renjun doubling over with laughter. “Sugar daddy? Why don’t you just ask Chenle then?”

“Why should I ask Chenle?”

“Why shouldn’t you ask Chenle?”

“That’s why I’m asking you,” you quipped back.

Renjun laughed again. A rich, belly-deep equal parts loud and grating. “You cannot be this dense,” he said as he calmed down. “I just mean—you guys are close, right? Close enough that he bought you a replacement T-square.” He watched you, amused, as you considered the question. Renjun can almost see the gears turning in your head, chin resting in his palm and using his leg to balance his elbow.

“It was an emergency,” you stressed with an eye-roll, though you didn’t exactly fight the fond smile settling on your lips at the memory of Chenle getting rung up for a new sixty-four-inch long acrylic T-square while you perused the rows upon rose of cute stationery. You hadn’t meant for your old one to snap cleanly in half, but when there was a guy who didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and, well, there was a reason why the running joke of a T-square doubling as a weapon was still relevant to this day.

“Doesn’t he pay for you guys when you hang out?”

Renjun snorted. “Sure. If you count him demanding us to Venmo him later.”

“Huh. He usually just pays for us both.”

Actually, now that you’ve thought about it, his housemates hadn’t ever gotten the privilege of Chenle covering for any of their expenses, much less a cheap meal from a well loved hole-in-the-wall restaurant. You didn’t think it was favoritism either. Was that a thing in friendships too? You had no idea, and you never had to ask when Chenle never thought twice to remind the waiter or waitress that he was paying for two. For me and her—he would nod his head towards you—only and leave the rest to settle their shared bill among themselves.

“Huh.” you repeated.

“Yeah-huh,” Renjun echoed with one corner of his mouth lifted up in a smirk. “Seriously, if you’re that desperate to see Sabrina up close, I’m sure he can work something out for you. What’s fifteen hundred gonna do?”

You both knew the answer to that. Nothing, because although Chenle wasn’t as high profile as Yizhuo and her family was, you had a vague idea on how deep his pockets ran if he barely spared a glance at his receipt from Gucci for a track-suit set he’d been meaning to get. He might as well have slapped you in the face with a thick stack of one-hundreds.

It would have invoked the same feeling of being too poor to even breathe inside the store and it had been a relief you thought of dressing up that day too despite the fact you’ve pulled an all-nighter to complete a handful of plates for design class the night before. You were at least spared from any judgment from the sales reps.

Still.

Renjun clicked his tongue, sensing your mental turmoil. “Just ask him. If he says no, then there’s your answer.”

Just ask him. Easy for Renjun to suggest when he wasn’t the one stewing away in a puddle of anxiety. He already had a ticket! Of course he’d think nothing of it. 

Walking into Yizhuo’s obscenely large living room, you were once again reminded how excessive it was.

There was a grand piano in there, for fuck’s sake, in the far end after the actual living area with the plush seating, yet none of you could play any elaborate musical pieces except for Twinkle Twinkle Litter Star. Right next to it was a sunken conversation pit with a modern fireplace built into the large concrete column and there were a series of floor-to-ceiling windows and glass sliding doors encompassing the pit.

Other than overlooking the luscious, grassy backyard, the doors led straight to the deck where a round pool resided as its main attraction. There was a goddamn fountain just beside it, too. Who needs a fucking fountain in this economy anyway?

Actually, everything about the house was ridiculously extravagant for three college girls to live in. Your bedroom included. Yizhuo ended up giving you one of the bigger rooms and you were sure the drafting table you bought off of a grad student for cheap would do its job and cramp it up, but you knew the saying about gift horses and Mom raised you better than complaining about convenience being handed to you on a silver platter.

The round floor table of the conversation pit was vacant, though there were scattered papers, notebooks, textbooks and all sorts of pens on top of the reflective glass surface. That meant either one of the girls was home. Or both, as Minjeong’s and Yizhuo’s voices grew louder by each step towards the kitchen.

“Guess who might have found a solution to our ticketing problem!”

You slid onto the cushioned seats of the breakfast nook—a breakfast nook, Jesus—right across from Minjeong sipping her to-go cup of thai milk tea. She wordlessly slid on towards you. You took a generous drag of the stuff.

“Actually, it was more of Renjun’s idea—which I am effectively stealing.”

Yizhuo, who was in the middle of plating a hefty amount of pad see ew, looked like she swallowed something toe-curlingly sour. “Oh so you were with Renjun-ge.”

An easy smile curled on your lips as you lifted a shoulder to shrug, sweetly batting your eyelashes. “What can I say? The guy gives good head—” (“I did not need to know that.”) “—anyways, my idea.”

“Mine was probably better.”

“Oh yeah?” you drawled, egging Yizhuo on. “Let’s hear it then.”

“Breaking into the thrift store and stealing everything from the cash register.”

“What?”

“She claimed if her parents found out about her crimes, they’d have to bail her out from prison and then restore her money privileges,” Minjeong glared at the youngest who simply whistled to Espresso as she carried on with the food. “Then I had to remind her of her reputation.”

“Good thing you did ‘cause that’s the dumbest fucking idea I’ve ever heard,” you said and you made sure it showed on your face as Yizhuo wilted underneath your tangible disappointment that she would even risk an integral part of her privileged life when she had used it as a counter-argument to the whole OnlyFans thing. “So we’re going with my solution to our broke-ness—Chenle Zhong.”

Yizhuo did not look pleased whatsoever. “What does Caillou have to do with Sabrina Carpenter?”

You ignored Minjeong shrieking with laughter. “Chenle’s got money,” you said as if you were talking to a toddler barely getting a grasp on words having their designated meanings. “And do you know what we need to get tickets? Money, and Chenle has a lot of it.”

“It took Renjun for you to realize that Chenle could be our solution?” Yizhuo exclaimed in disbelief, head in her hands. “Oh my God—it took Renjun telling you, then you telling us that he could be our solution? How could I’ve been so stupid?”

Her head jerked upwards, ponytail swishing along and gave you a look so sharp and abrupt that you jerked in surprise. You fixed your posture so fast that your grandmother would have been proud. For once. “You’re definitely asking Chenle.”

“Uh—first of all, why me? Don’t rich people have, like, some sort of kinship with one another? Like, hey, can I borrow ten-thousand dollars? I’ll pay you back with five-percent interest.” That definitely wasn’t how deals between rich people were made, but whatever. “Second, why not you, money bags?”

“He’ll never say yes to me,” she said brusquely, clicking her tongue. “I kicked his ass a bunch of times in PUBG and he’s still bitter about it. It’s not my fault he sucks absolute balls. There’s like, a compilation of him complaining on stream about how I was cheating”—Yizhuo made air quotations—“on TikTok. It’s so funny. Actually, I’ll send you the link—”

You turned your gaze towards Minjeong for help, eyes widened a fraction for an added pathetic flair as the younger one focused on scrolling through the damn app.

“Don’t look at me. Chenle’s just cheap with everyone—actually, maybe except for you,” Minjeong pointed a long, black almond tipped nail in your direction. “the favorite.”

“You say it like it’s an insult.” You slurped your milk tea at an obnoxious volume, shrinking in your seat. “Maybe he’s just nicer to me because I’m nice to him unlike you two.”

“Is that what we’re calling it these days?” Minjeong said, eyeing you curiously.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She moved her gaze elsewhere. “Nothing.”

You squinted. “Uh-huh.”

“Anyways,” she said, pointedly keeping her gaze forward. “He started it. I asked him if I could borrow money for my Lyft and he laughed in my face.”

You pressed your lips together to keep yourself from laughing too because, yeah, the image was a little funny. “You’re exaggerating,” you said evenly.

Yizhuo made a half-wince, half-smile sorta thing with her face. “Are we though?”

“Lele’s not that much of an asshole,” you defended. “He drives me home. You could have hitched a ride with us is all I’m saying. And if I can remember correctly, he still gave you more than enough for your Lyft.”

“He didn’t have to laugh at me, then.” Minjeong looked like she was heavily debating whether she should smack you upside the head, or not. “For someone smart, you’re real stupid.”

You frowned. “Hey.”

The argument still carried on deep in your weekly ‘everything shower’.

“Face it, babe. He’s like your personal A-T-M.”

“Chenle doesn’t always get me things.”

You were aching in places you never knew existed as you passed the foamy loofah over your skin, yet the girls had denounced what it meant to have boundaries, making themselves at home in your bathroom to prove their joint points.

Yizhuo scoffed from where she sat on top of the closed lid of the toilet. “The shampoo you used earlier? That was imported from Japan.”

“So? He noticed I ran out the last time he was here. It’s just shampoo.”

“From Japan,” Yizhuo countered.

You pulled a face. “Is that supposed to mean anything? It’s fucking shampoo.”

She just threw her hands up in the air, visibly annoyed.

“And the body wash you’re using? From Chenle.” Minjeong piped up from the separated bathtub, pointed at the towels hanging on the towel warmer and added, “The bath towel set? Chenle.”

“Alright, fine, maybe—”

“The year’s supply of assorted sheet masks in the fridge we use?” she offered.

“The gargantuan tin of tea leaves you’ve mentioned you liked.”

“Okay. I get it—”

“A new backpack because your old one ripped at the seams.”

“Your underwear—”

“Hah!” You pointed triumphantly in Minjeong’s direction. “No, he hasn’t bought me any.”

“Not yet,” girl-in-bathtub emphasized, resting her chin on top of her arm propped on the tub’s edge. “Shit, he probably bought everything you own.”

“Okay, now you’re definitely exaggerating.” You snorted, walking into the spray of the shower to rinse off the suds. “I’m not that broke.”

“Should I also mention that if it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t have met us? Or that you would have been homeless?” Well, yeah, and you would have figured something out eventually, but you weren’t expecting Yizhuo to bring that up to one-up you in an argument.

“I can’t believe you would use the ‘you would’ve been homeless if it weren’t for me’ card against me.”

“If it weren’t for Chenle, you mean,” she corrected, propping her cheek on top of her bent knee. You glared at the needless addition, though the usual effect wasn’t as strong with warm water sluicing down your face. To Yizhuo, you were definitely doing an almost perfect rendition of ‘wet cat’. “You can’t be this stupid. You’re literally his favorite. I doubt there’s another guy out there that would willingly—again, listen—willingly spend money on you.”

“Does Jaemin buying me a pack of gum the other day count?”

“Oh my fucking God, you’re hopeless.”

Minjeong shrugged. “Maybe he was lowkey telling you your breath stinks.” (“Ex-fucking-scuse you?”) “Didn’t Chenle buy you a ring that looked like a bent nail?”

“As a gift, yeah?” Your wince was immediate the moment Yizhuo gasped at your confirmation.

“That was Cartier!” She whipped out her phone from fuck knows where and showed you the website and its price. Did she have that tab open all this time just for a ‘gotcha!’ moment? Jeez, she scared you sometimes. “Look—Juste un Clou ring. Classic model. I would’ve given you rose gold, personally, but the white gold looks pretty too,” she mumbled, nodding approvingly. “He knows his stuff, at least.”

“Viola!” You turned to Minjeong making jazz hands with flourish. “If he can blow three grand on you without blinking, fifteen hundred would be nothing.”

You let out a heavy sigh, rinsing the loofah free from the suds. “How sure are we that there are any tickets left? Last I heard, three nights sold out.”

“It’s Chenle. He has connections everywhere. He’ll probably end up tracking scalpers too if he could help it.” She weighed her own words for a moment. “As long as you’re the one asking.”

“If you say so,” you trailed off, still not entirely convinced even by her radiating certainty.

“Uh-oh.” Yizhuo promptly sat up. “That’s not good. What’s wrong?”

“It’s just—I feel kinda weird. Asking him. Like, I’ve never really had to ask him for… stuff before.”

“What,” the girls said in a way so dry that you most likely would have broken out in sweat with how serious their faces were right now. Thunderous even.

“What do you mean by ‘not having to ask him’?” Minjeong asked, deathly calm.

“Just as I said. He just does it on his own. Without me telling him.”

In hindsight, Chenle might have been an option right from the very start if the thought of simply asking for help financially didn’t bother you in the slightest, but that’s the thing. The idea did bother you to your very core because, again, it wasn’t like you were broke. A victim to capitalism? Absolutely.

Once you broke the news to your parents and brother about your acceptance to one of the top universities in the state on a full-ride scholarship, they had insisted on a monthly allowance. They hadn’t minded extending a helping hand at all, and it was the least they could do to lighten the burden with the condition that you should be devoted to your academics.

Consequently, you were also good with multi-tasking, so you’ve managed a healthy work-play balance so far. What your parents and brother didn’t know wont hurt them and you hadn’t given them a reason to not trust you on your own, miles away from home, either. Not yet at least.

Deciding for a part-time job was after the realization that majoring in architecture was a bit heavy on the pockets from the consistent need for materials and printing out your designs brought to life by the handful of software provided by your department. The café pay was decent, you were tipped just as okay, and you wouldn’t say no to some cash on the side. Adding that to the remnants of your monthly allowance, it was enough to buy a thing or two at the end of the month as a treat.

And then came Chenle, guns ablazing, with no qualms swiping his card on your behalf.

You never really had to ask him.

Literally.

He would already have it taken care of before you could even pluck your wallet out and split the cost. You couldn’t remember if you had a time where you outright asked (begged) him for a few bills, and if you did, you always always promised to pay him back.

That being said, Chenle wouldn’t let you fight him on it either. When his mind was already made up, it was like talking to a brick wall, standing tall and impervious to almost everything. A losing battle when you’re up against someone headstrong yet so goddamn stubborn.

That’s where your hesitation had stemmed from, because it could either go two ways: he could say no and you could kiss your chances of brushing hands with Sabrina Carpenter goodbye, which would be the best case scenario, or he’d say yes, and once he said yes, there was no turning back. A yes from Chenle was law—signed and sealed that not even expressing the preconceived regret of asking a favor would shake him.

This was entirely different from Chenle just doing whatever the fuck he wanted with his own money without any of your persuasion. You never had to ask him for anything before and the fact of the matter was, you were damn terrified of asking if Chenle could be a bro one last time and drop what was equivalent to the price of a newly released iPhone for you.

Asking him would literally be so detrimental to your conscience that you would probably go insane with guilt and you couldn’t afford getting thrown into the nearest psych-ward when you had tons of deadlines to meet.

Minjeong leaned back to stare forlornly at the ceiling. “Lord, I see the luck you’ve bestowed upon this girl so stupid.”

“Hey!” You whined.

“Congratulations on getting a sugar daddy,” Yizhuo said, dry. “Can you ask him for tickets now?”

Oh God, you thought with abject horror. What if Chenle is my sugar daddy?

Technically speaking, though, you both fit the description. Minus the ‘sugar’ part so, quasi-sugar-daddy then?

Okay, no. That’s definitely not a can of worms you’re gonna open, like, ever. Chenle just happened to be there whenever you had to go out and buy shit. Just happened to be faster whipping out his wallet than you were. After all, he’s the spry athlete while you were five cans of Monster Energy away from keeling over.

What you’d like to get into now was how this conversation developed backwards where you had to be naked and wet to get some sort of pep-talk. Was this even considered pep-talk? This was somebody else’s form of nightmare for sure.

“This is really weird,” you said, neither confirming or denying Yizhuo’s so-called congratulations as you glanced between the two girls unabashedly staring at you in your birthday suit, expecting. “Can you guys leave?”

“Nothing we’ve seen before.” You met Minjeong’s eyes for a second before they strayed to your naked breasts and back up again. “Bet Chenle would love to see you right now.”

For whatever reason, Yizhuo mirrored Minjeong’s sentiments as she bobbed her head so fast you would think the idea was exciting for her. “Only right for you to give him some sugar, too.” 

“Or—get this—I don’t do that?”

“Why not?” Minjeong frowned. “You fuck anything that moves.”

“Correction: I do not. I’ve only been with, like, five guys my entire life,” you said, brandishing one hand so they would get the picture. “And Chenle’s my friend! We’re like this”—you crossed your fingers, shaking them for emphasis—“tight, y’know? Literally everything’ll change if I go… do that.”

“You and Renjun are also”—she copied your crossed fingers—“like this, but you’re still fucking.”

“Well… that’s—that’s obviously different! He doesn’t count!” you said with each word increasing in pitch.

“Oh pray tell why you wouldn’t sleep with Chenle Zhong,” Minjeong goaded. “I may not like guys, but looking at him through an objective lens, he’s one of the good ones.”

“There’s no risk with Renjun because it’s strictly casual and platonic, and I know I wouldn’t get attached and develop—” you quickly clamped your mouth shut. Shit. “Uh—um—you’re breaking up,” you blurted, closing your eyes as you stepped into the heavy downpour of the rainfall shower. “I can’t hear you,” you said, though that likely sounded like incoherent blubbering. You were sure you’ve got your point across with that piss-poor save anyway.

“We can literally see you.”

You turned your back to them. They could talk to your ass if they wanted. Out of sight, out of mind. “Not anymore, you don’t.”

You hoped that was the end of it, though it was made clear time and time again that the girls weren’t satisfied with your hedging. A growl was heard, followed by the quick plap plap plap of feet against the cold tiles. As the glass door squeaked, the brief water prison you’ve enclosed yourself in stopped soon after and you opened your eyes to a hand retracting from one of the knobs.

There was barely a second for you to complain before an undignified yelp was forced out from your throat when you were spun around to find Yizhuo’s dour face, her hands clamping down on your shoulders.

“You’re just admitting this to us now?” she said, incredulous, and a little surprised that you’ve managed to keep a crucial detail from them for this long. 

“It wasn’t like an immediate thing I needed to resolve!” you argued, “but the thought was always there, I guess. Just sitting in the back of my mind until you brought up sex with Chenle. And I’m busy, in case it wasn’t obvious enough to you non-architecture majors. Never had the chance to explore it, y’know?”

Busy was the biggest understatement of the year. Your life revolved around sketching, drafting, rendering—hell, even printing your designs on sheets of paper almost (more or less) half your height had never been this stressful. Adding a part-time job to that? It was a miracle you were still kicking.

With all that combined, you didn’t have the time to give a damn about relationships running deeper than casual, less emotionally charged flings. Those were easier to manage without the messiness of feelings involved. 

“Well, Dora the Explorer,” Yizhuo tendered as she handed you your heated towel. “you better start explorin’ because you’re gonna fuck him either way.”

You swiped the towel from her. “No I’m not.”

“No you’re not,” Yizhuo agreed, and maybe the shrewd glint in those beady eyes of hers was only your imagination, toweling yourself dry and wrapping it around you once you were less damp. “but at least keep it as your trump card if he gets difficult—which I’d doubt, really.”

“You guys’re that confident he’d say yes?” you mused, pushing past Yizhuo to grab the other towel for your head. “It’s gonna be so embarrassing if he says otherwise.”

“To the tickets? Or the sex?” Minjeong then heaved a dramatic gasp, eyes wide as her voice dropped to a staged whisper. “Or worse, your alleged feelings.”

You puffed out your cheeks, ignoring the rush of warmth blooming onto your face. “Now I’m hoping he says ‘no’.”

“Oh, girl, trust me when I say ‘no’ is the last thing he’ll say to you.” Yizhuo said, looking very sure of herself. “So. How soon can you get to him?”

“God I hate you rich people.”

Yizhuo beamed. “I know.”

Well, it wasn’t like you were a stranger to testing your luck.

You: wyd

Lele: ? Lele: I’m not one of your groupies Lele: need something?

You: wanna get groceries with me? :D

Lele: be there in 15 Lele: need to grab Daegal’s kibble too

You: ur the best ✨✨

Lele: i know i am

You: girl whatever.

Lele: ❤️

“You know, when you said groceries, I was expecting personal stuff—like skincare or some shit,” Chenle said loftily. “Pads? Tampons? God forbid a menstrual cup—“

“How do you even know what a cup is,” you muttered. “and my period ended a week ago.”

“I know.” You looked up from your work to Chenle squinting down at his phone. He caught your eye and beamed, pocketing the device. You were too afraid to ask what that was about. “We could have gone to Sephora after.”

Oh you definitely could have if you had been more specific with what groceries meant, but you simply said to take both your asses to the nearest H Mart. Cute as the thought was, you weren’t exactly in the mood to watch Chenle try and figure out which products were on your current rotation. It would have made good content for him though, a sure hit for his predominantly female fanbase, yet the looming three days left to secure tickets above your head kept you from suggesting that.

“Well, I can’t exactly cook you a five-star meal with hyaluronic acid now can I?” 

He blinked and answered with a bland, “I have no idea what that is.”

You squinted at him, taking in the way he’s got his head tilted at an angle where the lighting hit one side of his pale face just right. No texture whatsoever, like a smooth, almost blank canvas marked by a singular mole on the cheek.

“‘Course you don’t,” you grunted, envious of his near perfect skin.

Chenle’s gaze slid towards the pot on the stove, then to his wooden chopping board where a humble spread of your additional ingredients had been neatly organized in small piles with two open noodle packets. “Also, that’s just your classic Shin ramyeon and some crab balls.”

“Well damn, Chenle, I’m no Gordon fucking Ramsay,” you snapped, swatting at his arm. “So ungrateful.” An elaborate recipe was out of the question when you were too busy panicking about how the hell you were going to pull this off.

(“The one thing you’re gonna ‘pull off’ is your top,” Yizhuo instructed as she followed you out the gargantuan front door. “You know how guys are with boobs. They’re like catnip for them.”

“Please don’t compare my tits to catnip.”)

He cackled, tucking himself into your side with an arm thrown around your shoulders in a side-hug. “Thank you,” he cooed, and like a cat, rubbed his head against yours. “You didn’t have to do all this, but I’d never say no to food.” You couldn’t exactly see his face like this, but you could hear his appreciation. Your heart squeezed at the press of his cheek against your temple.

See, it’s little moments in time like this were what jump-started the on-going betrayal you would never expect from your own beating heart, and Chenle made it extremely hard for you to not entertain any straying thoughts formed by the casual intimacy between you. It really didn’t help that Chenle was physically affectionate, and it especially didn’t help that you spent most of your time with him despite majoring in vastly different programs.

Starting the day with Chenle waiting in his car to take you to school, ending it with him driving you home and everything in between was a sure gateway for neutral feelings to gradually do a one-eighty. Reaching that level of comfort where you felt safe with him was just as inevitable, too. Chenle was safe. Always has been.

But for both of your sakes, it had been a conscious choice of burying yourself into your work—letting yourself get fucked over by the workload you had to do. The minor breakdowns you’ve had every time your calculations went wrong, or when color or material swatches didn’t seem to go together than you’d originally thought saved you from overthinking every single interaction with him.

You wouldn’t risk it. You couldn’t risk it.

“What’s the occasion?” Chenle prodded. Still there. Still close. Still trying his hardest to weld himself to your side that he would soon figure out something was up the moment you went stiff in his hold, but you were just as quick coming up with some bullshit excuse to save your own ass. Though it begged the question whether it will hold up against Chenle’s incessant need to stick his nose into anyone’s business.

The longer he stayed quiet, the more your nerves fried. His house—house because Chenle was a loose cannon with money like Yizhuo—was always set to a cool temperature and you wore an outfit that wasn’t meant to cover up much at all, yet you could feel yourself break into sweat the moment he pulled himself away from your space. You still stood there frozen and the pot was taking too long to fucking boil.

“No occasion!” you exclaimed, spinning on your heel to face him with the sweetest and most disarming smile you could muster at the moment. A drop of sweat trickled from your temple down to your cheek when all Chenle did was wrinkle his nose as he took a step back. “‘was just in the mood to cook… something. For you—uh, for us. I was craving ramyeon.”

“You were craving Shin ramyeon,” Chenle echoed, not looking at all convinced. “Shin ramyeon that Yizhuo has stocked in her pantry.”

“That’s why I asked you to get groceries with me,” you replied in haste. “We were running out.” 

Which wasn’t a lie. Technically.

The three of you used to gorge on whatever there was in the kitchen, fridge or pantry, or DoorDash when any of you craved something specific. Key words were ‘used to’ because snack options had been limited to cheaper alternatives and what was cheaper and filling than a packet of noodles that took less than five minutes to cook? Really, it was like you were back in your freshman dorm, living off of instant noodles.

“Running out.” The more Chenle repeated whatever you said, the more you started to realize how deep of a grave you had dug for yourself. “You bought just enough for two people to eat.”

“Right.” You drawled, snapping your fingers and hitting him with the finger-guns. Might as well make yourself look even more like a jackass than you already are with the dogshit lying. “Right—so no plans later? I could use another H Mart run.”

Chenle cracked this time. “You’re a shitty liar,” your name tapered off into laughter. “You want something, don’t you? You’re never this nice to me.” He simpered with a certain type of fondness you’d usually see in people witnessing a puppy scaring itself with its own bark—he should really stop that. You were already kind of a mess from the way he’d freely insert himself in your bubble like he owned the space. You didn’t need the ooey-gooey, cavity-inducing stares to go with that too.

This was all clearly very amusing to him—you stumbling over your own words picked out from throwing darts at random in an attempt to gaslight him. He shouldn’t find any humor in this, really, but Chenle had always been chill like that. Marching to the beat of his own drum or however the saying went that the ease of falling into character, the jester to his court, wasn’t surprising.

If it made him that happy, then you’d continue shaking your fool’s cap for him. As a friend, of course.

“What? Me?” you said, guileless and with a hand flat on your sternum, eyes rounded with that faux gleam of innocence for the full effect. “I have never wanted anything in my life.”

“Anything?” he pressed and received a firm nod. “Not even barricade tickets to Sabrina Carpenter?”

You gaped at him, stuttering out words that weren’t even qualified to be in the English dictionary until you settled with a broken, “who told you that.”

Chenle smiled serenely in kind, not at all fazed by your brain blue-screening in real time. “Renjun.”

The mention of a name sobered you up in record speed.

“That snitching bitch,” you seethed, pinching the bridge of your nose. “I only told him because I was hoping he'd help me think of options, or buy me a ticket himself. The girls could figure something out.” You paused, absorbing the situation as your hand fell back to your side. “Less work for me, though. I've been shitting my pants since, like, yesterday.”

“Yeah?”

You huffed a short laugh. “Oh yeah. There’s this theory going around—not that I believe it—that it’d be easy convincing you.”

“Easy,” he huffed, amused.

“Easy as in—I just have to ask you.”

Chenle tilted his head, considering you for a moment. “Alright. Ask away.”

You balked, grasping straws for a response.

“Ask away?” Nod. “Just like that.” Nod. “I’m not asking just for me, y’know? I’m also asking for Minjeong and Ningning. Since we’re broke and desperate girls who just happen to love the same singer.” Chenle only raised an eyebrow, slowly nodding in a way that said, ‘yeah. I know. What are you trying to say?’.

“Are you not worried how much it’s gonna cost you? Even just a little bit? I’m already feeling sick just thinking about it.” You grimaced.

“Not really, no.” He shrugged, slanting an easy smirk.

You pursed your lips. Right. Okay. So maybe you had severely underestimated how disposable money was to him, then. It didn’t seem like he minded at all, barely showing any negative emotion sans the boredom slowly coloring his features.

You, on the other hand, were already knee-deep in a bog of guilt and regret that you could honestly spit-up today’s lunch from how nerve-wracking this was; standing in front of him while carrying as much audacity a human being was allowed to and asking for something so expensive.

“You’re insane if you actually say yes. I don’t know about you, but if someone asked me for a thousand bucks and told me, ‘oh, bee-tee-dubs, I’m not gonna pay you back. Like ever.’, I’d consider suing the hell out of that person until they have to file for bankruptcy.”

“I mean, money’s never been an issue so I don’t see why my attorney should be involved.” The fact that he actually has an attorney (or a full-blown legal team. You never know) at the ready did not bring you comfort in the slightest. Chenle still tried though. You could at least appreciate that. “I wanna circle back on your so-called theory, though.”

“Don’t look at me.” Both of your hands raised in defense. “I’m not the one who came up with the ‘I’m Chenle’s favorite’ theory. The girls did.”

“Did they?” And for some ungodly reason, he looked delighted by the claim. “Well, can’t say they’re wrong.”

“Chenle,” you warned with a tone so biting you would think it’d have him think twice with this blasé approach.

Though maybe there was something on your face that betrayed the annoyance you’ve vocalized when all Chenle did was smile genially as the syllables making up your name passed through his lips in smooth succession.

“I’m not a charity case,” you muttered, flexing your fingers then curling them into fists. You weren’t too sure if you were pleased hearing it from the source. That you were Chenle’s favorite, confirmed by the man himself. Whatever that meant, or more annoyed that he really couldn’t care less about the money he’d wasted on you because you were his favorite. “You know I don’t take charity as well as normal people would.”

“Why do you think I never let you argue?” He said cheekily. “It’s easier and faster that way. And it’s no big deal! Seriously,” Chenle emphasized quickly at the sight of your deepening frown.

“But it is to me! If there’s one thing I know, it’s that nothing is ever just free. People these days are always expecting something in return. Maybe not right away and what if you’re just letting me rack up enough debt so you could ask me for my soul, or something.”

Chenle snickered. “So this is an exchange, then. Your noodles for concert tickets. You drive a hard bargain,” he wondered with an impish quality to his words, giving you a once over. Twice. It made you a little self conscious, shifting from foot to foot the longer sharp, cat-like eyes passed over your form. “Is that why you’re dressed like that? In case your cooking didn’t make a good bribe—oh, sorry—exchange?”

“Like what, exactly?” You asked, a little offended that he wouldn’t completely fold—or at least crease—at the first bite of a dish that earned its Michelin stars back in Yizhuo’s kitchen. Or that your chosen outfit wasn’t creaming any pants.

“Didn’t you wear this exact outfit when you skipped class to meet with Haechan that one time?”

“It was a different top, I think.” A top that was just as fast to remove too, so you understood the confusion. “How do you even remember that?”

“I remember lots of things,” he clarified, closing the distance until you could make out the top notes of his five-dollars-per-spray perfume with each inhale. “Like how you dress differently whenever you meet with one of your guys.”

“Gee what a coincidence. I wonder why I’m dressed like I am about to meet with one of my guys while in your kitchen.”

This time it’s Chenle who got the surprise of a lifetime, eyes almost bugging out of his skull as those lips you had once imagined yourself kissing just to see how they’d give under the soft pressure parted in a delicate ‘o’. He was quick to recover though, with a sly uptick of his mouth replacing the initial shock of finding out that, yes, you’d probably sleep with him if it came to that.

“Didn’t think you’d be that desperate for tickets.” He’s closer now, too close for comfort that you backed into the edge of the kitchen counter. “Is that how you’re gonna repay me?”

“It’s charity work,” you answered blithely, emboldened by Chenle’s interest because, fuck, might as well. “Fuck knows if you’ve been getting your dick wet or not. I’d literally be doing you a favor.”

Chenle didn’t seem to take offense to that as he threw his head back in raucous laughter.

“Charity for charity.” He grinned. “Seems fair.”

And the words had never sounded sweeter until they came from Chenle’s mouth. You could already hear yourself screaming with the crowd filling up the arena, with your girlfriends who you absolutely did not resent for essentially pimping you out to the one guy who could arguably make your dreams come true—

“I’ll think about it.”

Both Minjeong and Yizhuo were dead to you.

“Think about—” you paused, taking steady breaths until you were calm enough to start talking again. “Chenle. Lele,” and out came the big guns, being sweet to him and using the cutesy nickname the girls from the Chinese Students and Scholars Association would croon to get at least five seconds of his attention. Watching that play out from the sidelines always left a sour aftertaste, how they all would go as far as touching him when they decided holding eye-contact wasn’t enough to fuel their delusions. 

You’ve soon come to realize that it was jealousy that caused your eye to twitch when Chenle’s capitalistic smile turned honeyed towards his junior. Because there wasn’t a day where you were short of his attention.

Perhaps the thought was a little unhealthy, but what if you said it was what you were used to? Can anyone fault you for being a little catty after that interaction?

Calling him Lele worked, you thought. Or so you hoped. You weren’t sure rendering him silent was a good thing, actually. Silence never bode well with larger-than-life Chenle Zhong whose entire personality was being loud, especially with eyes as expressive as his. Dark as shots of espresso you’ve brewed countlessly at work laced with something you couldn’t quite put your finger on.

“The concert is in two fucking days! There’s no time to think—you know what? This was a bad idea. I don’t know how Ningning talked me into—” you shook your head, pressing the back of your hand to your cheek with a heavy sigh. “We can just eat the goddamn noodles and forget all this. I’ll just tell the girls they were wrong, and you said no—”

“Oh, no no no,” you would never admit to making such an undignified sound when Chenle pulled you back by his steady grip on your wrist. “you can’t make that offer and leave just like that, c’mon.” And he had the audacity to whine on top of it.

“Well that’s before I—what are you doing.”

“Making sure I am getting something out of this,” he murmured, crowding in on you further where all you could see right in front of you was Chenle, and whatever you could see over the slope of one hoodie-covered shoulder.

Which by all means wasn’t a lot to begin with, him being taller and broader than you. And Chenle wasn’t even super tall. You knew plenty of people that exceeded the one-hundred-and-eighty centimeter mark, like that Jisung kid who hung out with you both on occasion. Wasn’t even built like a brick shithouse like Jaemin and his friend, your on-and-off tutor, Jeno.

Yet the way he had you cornered, hands planted firmly on the polished quartz countertop boxing you in, kind of screwed with your perception—made him appear bigger than he actually was. Perhaps it was the intensity of his gaze, pinning you down with deep pools framed by gradually thinning rings of brown the longer this stare down went on.

Coupled with the heat radiating off of Chenle, from standing so much closer where it totally crossed the limits of what it meant to be platonic, something just as heated unfurled beneath your navel.

“What—whatever you want,” you stuttered, swallowing thickly when the soft material of his jacket brushed along the strip of skin left exposed by your cropped top.  

“Whatever I want?” Chenle’s tongue darted out, wetting his lips as he studied you. “Even outside of sex?”

It was really hard trying not to not stare at his mouth. “I think being your errand girl will get you your money’s worth than a regular pump n’ dump.”

“The mouth on you.” Chenle cracked a lipped smile, wide enough that a hint of teeth peeking between the soft rosebud pink of his lips. “‘My girl’ does have a nice ring to it.”

Warmth creeped up your neck. “You forgot the word ‘errand’.”

“I know what I said,” he murmured, coming in closer that the tip of his nose gently nudged yours. “Kiss me.”

Your breath hitched, eyes growing into saucers because kiss me could imply anything. Everything.

“What—“

“You said whatever I want,” Chenle pointed out. “and I want you to kiss me. Or I want to kiss you, actually. Real bad.”

Words, apparently, weren’t enough to prove how much Chenle could want something as simple as a kiss.

Slender fingers splayed themselves along your waist, just marveling that you’re allowing him to touch you like this—with reverence. Palms cooled by the counter and the calluses earned from years of basketball raised gooseflesh along your skin when dragging them along the expanse of your stomach. The dips of your waist again—like he couldn’t resist how softer you were there—your back, until one of Chenle’s hands settled beneath the curve of your spine, the other just shy under the side of your breast. 

Chenle was impossibly closer now and your body’s natural response was to arch into him and—oh, he’s hard. So hard—straining against the fly of his jeans pressed against your stomach, and you’ve barely done anything except letting him feel you up, leaving phantom brands of his touch along the way.

“Feel that?” Chenle said, voice low and gravely, delivered like it was a secret only you two should know. He pushed his hips further into yours causing him to groan quietly as you gasped, your hands laying flat on his chest to steady yourself. “You’re definitely getting your tickets if it’s the last thing I do.”

Somehow, out of everything Chenle said, that knocked the breath out of you. The utter conviction. How positive he was in his own right that he will get those tickets for you, one way or another.

Frankly, you couldn’t care less about them now, nor what you had to do in exchange for what was essentially overpriced pieces of paper. All you cared about was who you were getting them from: Chenle, his mouth just a couple of centimeters—all yours for the taking, how secure his hold was around you as if the mere thought of you drifting away any second unnerved him, and the fact that he wanted to kiss you.

Because maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t at all one-sided. Maybe what Minjeong and Yizhuo had been speculating held some substance that, yes, it wouldn’t be too hard if it was you appealing to Chenle’s sweeter side. Maybe the notion was that gratifying to your dwindling self-esteem because how could you deny his simple request? 

So with a breathy, almost breathless, “just—just shut the fuck up about the tickets for a second,” you cupped his face with both hands and yanked him down for a kiss.

Chenle’s kisses were syrupy-sweet, if not purposely drawn out as though he was savouring a once in a lifetime opportunity; uncertain if he’d ever get the chance again. The most surprising thing about kissing Chenle, other than the act itself, was the unhurried pace. So unlike the man you would see loping over with this restless energy ready to leave him bursting at the seams, harrying his friends (anyone, really) to play ball with him. 

It had been near impossible, forcing him to sit still when all Chenle knew was to keep on moving. Keeping close at his heels was a fixed workout you didn’t remember ever signing up for. It was only to your relief that he made sure to keep you right behind him. Beside him, rather. There wasn’t a time where Chenle would knowingly leave you behind and if that ever happened, he would always wait for you to catch up.

There was no rush, and maybe that was the point of it all. Chenle’s willingness to adjust for you with no terms and conditions applied, and you have yet to see him stop.

With each push and pull, worrying teeth on lips and a shallow press of a warm wet tongue, Chenle kissed you like he was a man starved, stumbling upon an oasis and letting himself drown after a drought lasting so long. He kept with the pace, not doing too much or too little, lips slotting together like perfect puzzle pieces. Sweet and deliberate, each movement holding intention. Chenle really wasn’t fucking around when admitting he wanted to kiss you.

You shared that want too. More than you had initially allowed yourself, but that was to be expected when you’ve basically repressed every not-so-platonic thought regarding Chenle for a long while. And you know what they said about bottling it all up.

It came bursting in a flurry rush of movement. From their tender cradling, your fingers reached up to curl into Chenle’s freshly dyed jet-black hair just as he mirrored your own growing need, lithe arms coiling around your torso as your mouths grew greedier by the second. A show of teeth pulled an airy moan out of you turned muffled the second he licked into your mouth.

From there, kissing just became a mere afterthought. Devolving into a carnal dance of tongues, lapping it all up to get your fill.

Chenle tasted just as sweet as he kissed before, like the lemon ginger candy he had stocked around his house, his car and sometimes you would catch him plucking a piece or two out of his pockets. And it was quickly becoming a problem where you just knew there was no coming back from this.

That nothing will ever be the same once you walk out of that door when all of this is over. You couldn’t go back, not when you’ve gotten a taste of what it was like swapping spit with the guy, the same guy who you had thought wasn’t worth the risk.

Fuck it, might as well risk everything, then. You’ve already kissed him, already bulldozed past that boundary you swore you would never cross. So long as Chenle wouldn’t mind a kiss, or two, or three—until he has to pry you off of him and say enough is enough, you’d let yourself crave the sensation of having his mouth give under yours.

Just like how you chased after the plushness of his lips with a meek whine when he drew back, grinning at the state he reduced you to—a needy little thing this high strung over a kiss.

Please. As if he didn’t pop a boner at the thought of kissing you.

Just as you were about to voice out the retort, one of his hands raised to cup your cheek. You leaned into the touch, feeling small under his thoughtful gaze as his thumb swiped over your kiss-swollen lips. You chased after that feeling, too, each drag winding the coil of your self-control tighter and tighter ‘til it snapped like you did, catching his thumb in between the edges of your teeth.

Chenle’s gaze darkened then, no traces of the playful glint you were used to seeing as he surged forward and kissed a searing path from the corner of your mouth, all the way up to the swell of your cheek. Then lower, and lower until the scrape of teeth under the hinge of your jaw made your knees buckle from the sensation with a gasp.

You gripped his hair tighter, though you made no move to pull him off. “That—this is more than just a kiss,” you lightly chided, voice shaky. “Greedy.”

“So what if I am?” He mumbled, mouthing his way down your neck. Your fingers left his hair and curled around his nape. “Want me to stop?”

Pulling him in further by his neck told him enough. The vibration of his pleased humming against where your pulse was at its strongest made you shiver. You could feel him smirk. Like a knife to your neck.

“Thought so.”

Staying true to his words, he didn't stop. Chenle latched onto your mouth again and you’ve quickly grown familiar with his rhythm. Only this time, his hands joined in the fray, seemingly needing more than just having you secured in his arms.

Though perhaps you bit off more you could chew. 

Like, yeah, getting fucked by Chenle wasn’t the most horrible idea you’ve had so far in your early twenties, but thinking about it was vastly different from actually doing it.

So you were definitely in your right to squeal when one of your best friend's wandering hands went up your skirt.

Chenle stilled and pulled back with his eyebrows knitted together. Your face was on fire, both from his bold move and the embarrassing sound you made.

“You okay?” He asked, the same hand that was under your skirt—right below your ass cheek—rubbing soothing circles. It was anything but soothing. When you’ve got thighs as sensitive as yours, the only thing Chenle was helping with was making you hornier.

If he moved his hand a little further up and a little further in, he would have felt just how soaked your panties were.

“I—uh—I’m not ready.”

He blinked. “My hand is literally up your skirt that’s barely covering your cute little butt,” he pointed out as his hands trailed higher and squeezed the plump flesh. “and you’re not ready.” Now he’s looking at you like you’re crazy. Shit, maybe you were. And it’s his fault. He’s just as crazy for calling your ass cute to your face, too.

“I mean yeah, that’s nice and all—your hand is really warm, um—but I may or may not have been talking out of my ass about fucking you.”

Chenle snorted. “I dunno. Your outfit clearly screams ‘fuck me!’. Cute shirt, by the way.” A stray hand wedged itself under the tight fit of your tube-top, earning him a sharp intake of breath when his fingertips grazed the underside of your tit. His touch didn’t go further than that, hand simply splayed across your ribs. “If you can call it that.”

“You bought me this shirt, dumbass.”

“Even better,” he said, delighted by the thought. “Feeling cold?” Chenle wondered, almost in an innocent, offhanded manner you wouldn’t think much of if the twitching of his mouth slipped under your radar. You caught his leering stray south, too. Just what could he possibly be intrigued by when he was quite literally sharing your breathing space?

With eyebrows furrowed, you let your curiosity get the best of you, tracing his line of sight.

You should have stayed curious.

Better yet, you shouldn’t have acknowledged the change of his focal point because of course he’d take notice of your nipples poking against the soft material of your shirt; as if they were saying ‘hi’ to the man who had come so close to giving them some attention.

Chenle dissolved into a fit of cackles. You could only imagine how embarrassed you looked to him. Why were you even embarrassed? You chose to forgo a bra in hopes of distracting him with your boobs if all else failed.

“Yeah, yeah,” you acquiesced, keeping your chin up as you blindly reached for his hands. “Hands where I can see ‘em, pervert.”

Only, you don’t exactly take his hands off of you. This was like, casual touches here and there dialed up to an eleven, right? It wasn’t a foreign concept to you, being held by him. Being friends with him for this long and counting, hugs were a thing you were frequently subjected to, and Chenle loved those, so you did your due diligence of settling his hands on your hips as a pseudo form of it.

A peace offering, if you will, for cutting the closeness short and a little because you were starting to like the warmth emanating from a more intimate touch.

Seemingly pleased by your initiative, Chenle graced you with the sweetest of smiles, squeezing you. That got him a snort and a fond shake of your head, though the amusement dimmed into contemplation as you lingered on the silver padlock-shaped pendant hanging from the dainty chain of the same metal around Chenle’s neck, not knowing where to go from here.

Eventually, you found your voice. “That better be worth fifteen hundred bucks,” you joked because if there was one thing about you is that you had a knack for making light out of an emotionally charged situation.

“I’ve spent more on you before, and you're worth every single penny so far.”

That shouldn’t have flustered you. Really, it shouldn’t have you hot in the face when you weren’t sure if he meant the dig towards you unintentionally milking him of his fortune. But Chenle’s ease of letting weighted words spill from his mouth was the sure contender here, and to deliver the final blow was the charming grin that ensured you everything was going to be just fine. He’d make sure of it.

“That’s definitely something a sugar daddy would say,” you said with a wry curl of your mouth. “Are you my sugar daddy? Because I can’t remember the last time I had to pay for my shit when you’re around.”

There was one time you went out for a bagel on your own, though that didn’t seem like a big girl purchase compared to your ergonomic chair he had ordered from Amazon. The look he had given you when you told him you made do with the many dining chairs Yizhuo had around her huge glass dining table had been the funniest thing you had ever seen. Like stiff chairs having multiple uses was a foreign concept to him.

You didn’t have the heart to tell him that you were mostly on your feet when you had to (by hand) draft floor plans and vignettes that took up almost the entire space of your choice of paper. And the chair was comfy. Good for your back too.

“It does look like that, huh?” Chenle laughed at that, shaking his head as he did so out of endearment because you just wouldn’t get it. “What if I just like taking care of you?”

Now wasn’t that an insane thing to say out loud? Granted that you could kind of see where he came from as he did save your sorry ass a bunch of times with either a tap or a swipe of his card, this was Chenle you were dealing with. The likelihood of him just pulling your leg under the guise of flattery was great and backing down that easy had never been your forte. No matter how sweet he was being about it.

You could count the serious conversations with him on both sets of your fingers and this regularly scheduled bout of psychological warfare won’t even count.

“You just want to get in my pants,” you accused with a defiant raise of your chin.

“You almost let me in your pants,” Chenle pointed out, his fingers gently grasping your chin so he could tilt your head back at its normal angle. “My hand was literally up your skirt and I heard no complaints until you got stage fright.”

“Fair,” you allowed with a shrug. “Still not gonna fuck you though. Not now at least.”

“Whatever you want,” he said softly as he bent down to catch your gaze. “and you know I won’t do anything you don’t want to.”

You hummed, thinking Chenle’s words over. “I’ll give it a few days until you’re on your hands and knees begging to stick just the tip in.”

Chenle’s smile wobbled then turned pained. “If I have to.”

It took three whole seconds for his admission to register in your brain before you sputtered a laugh, falling forward until his shoulder cushioned your forehead. No wonder you and Chenle worked so well. There was not a serious bone in any of your bodies and you wouldn't want to change it for the world.

“Down, boy,” you teased, still cackling as you nuzzled into his neck. “Who’s desperate now?”

He huffed. “Like you weren’t trying to eat my face moments ago.”

You pulled back with a pout. “I could say the same about you.” You poked him in the chest. “Were you actually trying to suck my soul out?”

“Regret anything yet?” Chenle’s question was posed as playful, but there was undertone of uncertainty to it too and over the years, you’ve gotten good at figuring out his tells. The uncharacteristic sudden stiffness in his frame, the way he chewed the inside of his cheek (subtly as he could) and the tightness around his eyes—he thought you did. Regret it, that is, but it was the farthest from what you were feeling right now.

“The only thing I regret is not seducing you sooner.” 

And that did it. Anything that fell in the same vein of uncertainty gave way to the radiance you were much more familiar with.

Chenle looked like an absolute winner—the cat that caught the canary and washed it down with cream in celebration of his win before diving in for his prize.

Until Daegal barked at the sound of jingling keys the moment your lips were a hair breadth away from touching, her excitement piercing through the bubble and granting you awareness from beyond it; namely the pot barely having any water being left on the burner for too long. 

There was a flash of white from your peripheral as you shared a panicked look with your qausi-sugar-daddy when the front door opened, followed by one of Chenle’s housemates, Beomgyu, announcing his arrival with a loud, “I’m home!”

“Shit,” you whispered and the two of you set into motion. Harried, if anything, yet still efficient with the swiftness Chenle displayed in fixing your clothes just as you smoothed stray strands of his hair back in place.

For a quick moment, he took a good look at you, a crease in the middle of his eyebrows before he was shucking off his hoodie and urging you to wear it.

“Didn’t take you for the protective type,” you teased, yet took it without question as Chenle rolled his eyes with a gentle shake of his head, watching you pull on the sleeves; a smile equal parts warm and mischievous playing on his lips.

With the zipper in place, you glanced at him then down to his very obvious problem beneath those denim jeans. “You gonna do something about”—Chenle’s eyes blew wide in alarm and stuck his hand in his pants—“yeah, okay,” you mumbled.

His smile widened into something annoying and you quickly pushed him towards the kitchen sink, a silent command to wash his hands once Beomgyu walked right into the kitchen, surprised that you were here. Daegal trotted closely behind, her tail wagging happily as you bent down to pick her up.

“We’re going to get groceries after some noodles,” Chenle answered the silent question for you while pouring water into the pot. “Want some?”

“I’m starving,” Beomgyu groaned. “I’ll eat anything.”

“Hope you’re excited for Shin ramyeon and crab balls, then.”

Over Beomgyu’s shoulder, Chenle winked at you and you nuzzled into Daegal’s fur, hiding your smile.

In the end, after letting Beomgyu devour most of your noodles, Chenle did take you out for another H Mart run.

“Are the two carts necessary?”

You didn’t think so. One full cart was pushing it, but two? For a second, you feared he might just buy out the whole store if you dared him. Then again, Chenle wasn’t familiar with the concept of limiting oneself and it seemed like it applied to you too. Well, in a way where he showed you it was okay to want things. That it was okay to ask him for things.

Because it’s Chenle who did most of the shopping. Fresh produce, different kinds of meat that didn’t need to be cooked in complicated ways for it to come out edible—namely the humble samgyeopsal. Quick, easy and absolutely delicious—he glossed over most of the condiments seeing you still had them at home, then he absolutely went insane when it came to the snacks, ice cream and, of course, packets of instant noodles.

Chenle had another pack of a different variant in his hands, tossed it into the snack-filled cart he was pushing around.

“You’re really playing into the sugar daddy thing,” you said as you mentally calculated the amount of debt you were in now with the addition of groceries that could last you and the girls the whole month.

“Better than you starving,” he said cheerfully, grabbing a dozen of Buldak Carbonara noodles and dumping them into the cart like a dad finding out their kid’s favorite snack. “Wouldn’t want you living off of shin ramyeon and crab balls.”

You scowled. “It wasn’t that funny.”

Chenle laughed and laughed and laughed anyway because your failed seduction plan was that hilarious if he was still making jokes about two-person groceries.

The drive home was quiet. Peaceful. Less awkward than you had initially expected when the soulful drone of music filled in the spaces with you sat in the passenger’s seat, reaching over to feed Chenle the Pepero you elected on sharing. When it all ran out, you relaxed in your seat and just… watched.

Watched your best friend in his element with his hand on the wheel while the other patted his thigh along the beat of the current song. He looked good. Unfairly so. With the lights glinting off the watch that likely made up your yearly university tuition and the high points of his face, the ruffled look of his hair and the way his jaw flexed every time he sang along the melody.

All this filled you with the urge to kiss him. Reach over and plant one on him and the thought still lingered even as you drove past the house’s gates opened with an app on your phone.

As Chenle helped put away the groceries while you pretended not to notice the leering from the peanut gallery.

As he helped himself to a Melona while keeping up with the verbal spat between him and Yizhuo munching on something yoghurt and blueberry flavoured.

It was all you could think about as you saw him out the door, and if you couldn’t help yourself and acted on it—a quick peck to the corner of Chenle’s plush mouth as thanks—leaving a sheen of your lipgloss, then that was between you, God and the security camera angled to where you stood.

Yizhuo wouldn’t notice if you deleted a few seconds of footage anyway.

Late into the night and you could still feel it. Feel him—the ghost of his kiss, his touch as everything that had transpired in the afternoon played on loop in your head.

You couldn’t sleep. Not when your mind was chanting Chenle Chenle Chenle like a mantra set to summon him. Like an itch you couldn’t get rid off no matter how hard you scratched.

If only…

That night, you decided to get well acquainted with Pinky, fishing her out deep within your drawer.

Mornings like this were rare, where all of you were awake at the same time. Even rarer that you were all up before ten, quiet. Relaxed.

No sense of urgency found on anyone’s person. No school, no jobs to clock into, no not-so-secret meetings—none of you girls had anything of priority today.

There was breakfast, arguably the most important meal of the day, though it seemed Minjeong and Yizhuo weren’t exactly in a rush demanding their eggs be cooked just the way they liked. Just fine with nursing a steaming cup of whatever energized them for the day ahead as they sat at the island counter.

Your phone chimed in the middle of cooking Yizhuo’s scrambled eggs. A text from Chenle—a sent photo to be specific and—

You screamed, nearly dropping the spatula.

fine shyt: [IMG_6969]

You: WWHAT THEBFUCJ

fine shyt: got your tickets 🤓

You: YEA I SEE THAT???????????

When you screen faded into Chenle’s caller ID, a photo of him holding up Daegal, Minjeong immediately took over the cooking as you rushed towards the living area.

“You got the tickets,” you said as you accepted the request to FaceTime, half in wonder and in disbelief that he was able to nab tickets in less than twenty-four hours and a day before the concert. You really should stop doubting Chenle and his ability (see: privilege) to get whatever, whenever. “Not that I doubted you, but the first night usually sells out quick—so how the hell.”

“You underestimate how far money can get you,” Chenle laughed. He looked sleep-ruffled, like he had just woken up. This was his cutest state yet and you really wished you were with him right now. “Think you’re ready to find out?”

“As I’ll ever be.” As long as he held your hand through it, sure. What the hell. You could survive future heart attacks caused by six figures by sheer will alone, you thought. “I asked for three tickets though. Who's the fourth one for?”

“Me,” he answered, beaming. “Someone has to drive you girls.”

“What? I mean—thanks.” That was one less thing to worry about then. “But since when do you listen to Sabrina?”

“Since last night. Still at it, by the way.” he clarified, a little too happy and if you listened closely, you could make out Sabrina’s crooning of Read your Mind on his end. “An enlightening experience, I might say.”

“Good luck on memorizing twenty-one songs then.”

“Oh, Princess. I released an album when I was eight. Memorizing the setlist is light work. Bet I could sing louder than you.”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll grill you on the album thing next time because what the fuck.” The ‘Princess’ thing you elected to ignore, too early and dire to suffer an aneurysm when a concert was waiting for you.

“I’ve lived quite the life,” he mused (“oh I’m sure.”) combing his fingers through his hair. “So what do we say?”

You scoffed, fond and grateful for his generosity whether you were deserving or not. “Thank you.”

“Thank you what, baby?”

Your face twisted in horror, quickly clocking what he was trying to get you to do. “Bye Chenle.”

He was cackling when you hung up, your face on fire, yet you didn’t put in any effort to tamper the giddy grin threatening to split your face.

The tickets were yours. Chenle got the tickets and they were yours. Gosh, this was probably the best morning in your life so far and nothing could dampen your mood from doing your girls proud.

“Now do you believe us when we say you’re Chenle’s favorite?” Yizhuo asked with a mouthful of scrambled egg.

You laughed, cheeks aching from how hard you cheesed at a simple fact. “I’m starting to.”

And selfish as it sounded, you hoped that it would remain that way for a long time because you couldn’t remember a life so dull when Chenle walked in with colors so bright that it sung, and because he was your favorite, too.

a/n: waow you've reached the end! Here, have a cookie 🍪 as always, thank you soo so much for reading until the end! I'd like to thank the girls: Aria, Moon and Aeriel for letting me talk my shit about this fic and help with ideas! and yes, brainstorming with them is an almost daily occurrence and it's great mental exercise imo lol! I hope you had fun reading the chaos that was this fic. I know I had fun laughing to myself writing all this 😆 and please please please let me know your thoughts! Likes, reblogs and comments are always appreciated <3

TAGLIST: @jaylaxies @hoondrop @gojosmojodojo @justalildumpling @dammit-jjk @learnthisfeeling @90s-belladonna @spacejip @ykvdani @drunkhee @neozon3nha @dinosaurtoothbrushwithninjasauce @sunghoonsgfreal @champagne1221 @yuyita-rosier @grimlinshere @jvngw0n @nanaxwi @kissesfromdarling @peterm4rker @haechology @evergreeneyesx @bbina @nctseventeensworld (special thanks to those who asked to be part of the taglist!)

[fagtainsparklez]

Hey I've been observing from afar through your reaction blogging, I haven't been in mcyt as much since the dsmp ended but I still care about a lot of the people in the mcyt circle and I'm interested in what goes on - care to give a rundown of what happened at this twitch rivals thing everyone keeps talking about? (no pressure only if you want to) Aside from the fact I'm sure it was terribly run like most twitch rival events are, but it sounds like there was more to it than that

okay so. i am going to be missing quite a few details because i missed a day myself + my streamer could not care less, so i heavily encourage others to add on stuff i missed

this was a multi-day competition, running for 5 days with prize rewards from 1k to 100k. it started with i think 150 players, with select numbers of people getting eliminated each round. day 1-2 are fairly normal, at least for twitch rivals. of all the games that got played through the whole event, i'd say like 1 was actually good, and maybe 2 were decent, at best. most are bad, poorly-executed, poorly thought out, or just boring in terms of both player enjoy-ability and content creation.

DAY 3 EDIT:

now, sapnap's been sapnap for this entire event already. obnoxious, a bad sport, but most notably, playing DMCA'd songs. the event ran on proximity chat, so while he was unmuted, everyone around him would also be subject to said songs, which could mute vods at worst and terminate accounts at best. most people are fed up with him at this point. while everyone's trying to come up with solutions for the glitch, sapnap spams the discord with useless shit. couriway calls him out in the discord, calling him annoying and obnoxious, then later calling him a cunt in twitch chat. sapnap uses couriway and feinberg's name in his stream title for clickbait and talks shit about them + their friends (hbg/house builder gang). he also makes some weird comment asking if couri is homophobic because sap was talking about having skeppy's dick in his mouth?? or something?? i'm unsure exactly how day 3's issue of the glitch resolved.

day 4 is also your average experience with your usual range of average to horribly painful games. sapnap continues to be a bitch and not take responsibility for his stans attacking anyone in sight, but what else is new

day 5 is. bad. the game set for deciding the final competitors can be cheesed (if you let someone else do all the work, you can punch them in the last second and steal their win) and eliminates like 20 people at once. on top of that, a glitch happens that leaves the server on standby for at least 30 minutes while admins decide what to do. firebreathman sends a picture of a bare naked ass in the discord. someone else sends a photo of their debit card. streamers entertain themselves in various ways, including growing a cactus (fulham), playing osu (purpled), collecting other people's streams for their overlay (fruitberries), playing slime rancher (badboyhalo), and building real-life furniture (couriway). tubbo (who was already eliminated at this point) starts jumping between streams and asking in chat for the tea. the game is eventually replayed, deciding the final 4 players, but it's just as broken and at that point, no one wants to be there anymore. it's revealed through multiple streamers (purpled, i believe also feinberg) that twitch rivals games are not tested before being ran. the only testing done was a stress test to see if the server could handle all original 150-some players. this explains why the games are so bad and poorly organized (some games take over an hour, others barely 30 minutes).

the final four are sapnap, shadoune, sneegsnag, and i think feinberg. it's the most anticlimatic game of connect 4 you can imagine. sneeg eliminates sapnap, and shadoune eliminates fein. notably, fein's game glitches during a throw, which despite being obviously a glitch, the coordinators brush off as being "part of the game". fein and multiple other streamers spend time analyzing every pov frame by frame and all agree that yeah, that was a glitch. shadoune and sneeg are left for the finals. they come to an agreement that this is stupid and a horrible event. tired of this bullshit, they purposefully stall the games and run a podcast for approximately 2 hours, forcing the coordinators to bend to their commands hunger games-style. essentially since the first glitch of the day people were begging twitch to just split the money, something that wouldn't be easy according to tubbo, because everything is pre-signed and delegated before the event. sneeg and shadoune give no fucks, and force the coordinators to split the money anyway, winning the day through the power of friendship. i cannot stress enough how no one wanted to fucking be there by the end of all this.

[kpoplustzone]

Blurred Lines: Therapy and Temptation

This is going to be a very long series with a lot of Idols and actresses from the Korean industry. This is instantly updated for the Diamond Tier and only the first 3 chapters for the other tiers. 

https://ko-fi.com/epiclude/tiers

Dr. Kang Tae-joon, a seemingly normal psychologist, stumbles upon a potent power: the ability to hypnotically sway the desires of others. Soon, his consultations became legendary, leaving clients not just happy, but yearning. His growing fame unexpectedly draws in the glittering world of Korean entertainment, with Mina of TWICE as his first celebrity patient. What she and the stream of A-list idols and actresses who follow don't know is that Dr. Kang’s therapy goes far beyond talk, as he secretly experiments with his power, ready to unlock and command the hidden cravings of Korea's biggest stars, one susceptible mind at a time, turning their public images into private playgrounds of pleasure for his secret desires.

Blurred Lines: Therapy and Temptation - Chapter 1: The Revelation

By all accounts, Dr. Kang Tae-joon was a successful psychologist. He ran a private practice in a trendy district of Seoul, and while he wasn't a household name, his clients generally found his sessions helpful. Tae-joon prided himself on his empathetic listening skills and his ability to guide people to their solutions. He considered himself a rational man, grounded in science and the proven techniques of his profession.

That all started subtly shifting after a strange electrical storm rolled through Seoul one evening. Tae-joon had been working late, the only one left in his quiet office. A particularly violent flash of lightning had illuminated the room, followed by a strange tingling sensation that ran through his body. He’d dismissed it as stress, a lingering effect of a long day.

The first sign that something was different came during his next session with a long-term client, a young actress struggling with anxiety. Tae-joon found himself focusing intently as she spoke, not just on her words, but on an almost palpable undercurrent of longing beneath her nervousness. Without consciously intending to, he’d found himself suggesting, his voice taking on a slightly different cadence, a deeper resonance, “Perhaps… perhaps what you truly desire is to feel completely at ease, to crave the spotlight, to find comfort in the attention.”

The effect had been immediate and startling. The actress’s eyes had glazed over for a moment, her breathing becoming deeper. When she blinked, a serene smile had replaced her usual anxious expression. She’d simply nodded, a sense of profound agreement washing over her. The rest of the session had proceeded with an uncharacteristic calmness and a newfound confidence radiating from her.

Over the next few weeks, similar incidents occurred with other clients. Tae-joon would find himself uttering suggestions, almost instinctively, his voice taking on that strange, compelling quality. His clients, ranging from stressed office workers to struggling artists, all seemed to experience a remarkable shift during their sessions. They left feeling unusually content, their anxieties eased, often expressing a newfound clarity about their desires – desires that seemed to align perfectly with Tae-joon's subtle suggestions.

Word began to spread. Clients raved about Dr. Kang, describing his sessions as “transformative” and “strangely fulfilling.” His practice, once moderately successful, exploded. His waiting list grew exponentially, filled with people eager to experience his unique form of therapy. Soon, whispers about the “miracle doctor” started appearing in online forums and then, inevitably, in the Korean media. Tae-joon found himself the subject of intrigued articles and even a few television segments, his calm demeanor and the glowing testimonials of his clients captivating the public.

Tae-joon himself was both fascinated and slightly disturbed by these developments. He started experimenting in private, focusing his intent, trying to replicate the effects he seemed to be having on his clients. He found that by focusing his thoughts and speaking with a certain conviction, his voice taking on that resonant quality he’d noticed, he could indeed influence the desires and even the immediate moods of those around him. It wasn’t a forceful command, but rather a subtle, irresistible nudge in a particular direction.

He began to understand the true nature of the power he had unknowingly acquired: the ability to subtly manipulate the desires of others, to make them crave certain feelings, certain experiences… perhaps even a certain person. The implications were staggering, and a new kind of curiosity, tinged with a growing sense of intrigue, began to bloom within Dr. Kang Tae-joon. His practice was booming, his name was becoming known, and he held a power that could unlock the deepest yearnings of the human heart. He knew, with a thrill that both excited and unsettled him, that his work was about to become a lot more… personal.

Dr. Kang’s burgeoning reputation had begun to attract attention from circles he never anticipated. Whispers of the psychologist who could seemingly unlock hidden contentment and desires even reached the ears of the demanding K-pop industry. Mina, a member of the globally famous girl group TWICE, found herself increasingly overwhelmed by the pressures of fame and the constant scrutiny. While outwardly composed, a deep-seated longing for something more, something intensely personal, often gnawed at her.

Through hushed recommendations from stylists and industry insiders who had either been clients themselves or knew someone who had, Mina learned of Dr. Kang Tae-joon. His name was spoken with a mixture of awe and secrecy, his methods described as unconventional but undeniably effective. Intrigued and desperate for a genuine escape from the relentless spotlight, Mina, using a discreet alias, managed to get in touch with Dr. Kang’s clinic.

The day of Mina’s appointment arrived, casting a palpable buzz over the usually calm atmosphere of Tae-joon’s clinic. His small team of receptionists and assistants was practically vibrating with excitement. Though sworn to secrecy regarding the identity of their high-profile client, the hushed whispers and furtive glances were impossible to ignore. Mina’s manager, a stern-faced woman in dark sunglasses, had arrived first, meticulously checking the waiting area for any potential breaches of privacy before giving the all-clear.

When Mina finally walked through the door, even Tae-joon, usually so composed, felt a slight flicker of surprise. Despite the casual disguise of an oversized hoodie and a baseball cap pulled low over her eyes, her ethereal beauty and unmistakable aura were immediately apparent. The receptionists, trying to maintain their professional demeanor, exchanged wide-eyed glances. Today was certainly not going to be a typical day at the clinic. Dr. Kang, observing the subtle commotion, knew this session had the potential to be very interesting indeed.

[lazilybeinglassie]

Coiled In Sweet Lies (Shadow Milk × Reader)

CW: Hypnosis, Coiling, Gaslighting, Bad End

Characters: Shadow Milk

Summary: Never ignore the Beast of Deceit. He'll give you something to look at.

Note: This fic is Safe For Work! BUT, if your not a fan of nagas, then this ain't your fic.

You breathed in slowly, then breathed out slowly. Breathing in again, it was a little faster. And so was breathing out. It wasn't working, you were far too freaked out to calm down now.

One moment, you were in the silver kingdom, helping the group find answers to sealing the beasts away again. The next, you were waking up in a garden near a river. No, a courtyard. One that belonged to some sort of palace.

It had a strong scent of blueberries and yogurt filling the air. A serene place that would be nice to embrace in any other situation than this.

But right now, you needed to figure out how to leave. And fast. You had to get back with the others. You had to be there for when the beasts would attack. You needed to be there!

Trying to head to an exit, you climb up some stairs towards a door. When you open it, you find yourself on the other side of the courtyard. What the-? Back tracking, you look for another way. Through a small hole, down another path, every door you could find. But it was no use. It all lead back to the garden and the stream. Something was keeping you here.

Great.

Heading near the river, you decide to take a break and clear your head. Maybe taking a drink would help. Reaching for the river, you dip your hand in, licking it for a taste. Despite the blueberries floating above the surface, this yogurt held none of it's flavor. It was kind of bitter.

Watching the ripples, you start thinking of some alternate solutions. If you couldn't leave the garden physically, maybe there's someone who was making you stay here. Or there was some sort of curse binding you here. Was there a way to find out? Surely there had to be something to this whole place that made it function.

It was then you became distracted with your own reflection. It was changing. The colors tainted into blue as a familiar face appeared instead of you. He grinned and stared right back.

"Lost in thought, aren't we?"

Jumping in reaction, you back up against a tree and breathe heavily in shock. Watching with wide eyes as he rose from the river, floating above it with his usual playful act.

"Hehehe~! You are so easily spooked. I would have never guessed, considering how you handled yourself last time."

You grit your teeth as you glare at him. Of course the beast of deceit would drag you into his trap like this. Must be planning to torment you until Pure Vanilla or someone came to save you. Pulling yourself together, you stand up and sigh. No matter what he did, you weren't going to break.

Noticing your composure, he tilts his head in confusion. "What? Am I suppose to be intimidated by that?"

Without a word, you walk away. Beginning to search the courtyard for any hints as to how you can escape this prison. Starting at the edge of the walls, you search for some sort of markings or spells. You knew nothing of how magic worked, but you did wonder if there was a seal you could break or some markings to erase. Surely there could be something-

A tug on your wrists pulls you away from your position and dangles you in front of Shadow Milk. His smile faded into a pouty frown. "Honestly, how rude of you. I've brought you to my spire to play with me and you're just ignoring me."

You look away. "You're the one who's rude by kidnapping me."

"Come now, you can't want to leave when we've hardly had our fun!"

"It's only fun for you."

Shadow Milk pulls you close as he hugs you. "I'm a professional entertainer. Surely you don't assume I've brought you here to make you miserable~!"

Clenching your fists, you turn to face him. "Look. I know what your game is, so let's get this over with! Go on and do what it is your wanting to do with me! But don't think for a second I'm going to let you enjoy it!" He blinks for a second. Almost surprised by your little outburst. Then he answers back, more calmly. "And what is it do you actually expect me to do to you?"

"I don't know! Anything that involves me screaming and you laughing! What, are you trying to fish for ideas!?"

Once more, he was silent. But then he smirks. Cutting your threads, you fall down to the ground as he backs up. "Well well well. I see you are determined to keep up the charade then." Charade? What was he talking about? "Why don't we try something else then, little cookie~."

Suddenly you feel something wrap around your waist. It clings to you tightly as it pulls you up one of the willow trees. Higher and higher, as though it were as tall as a redwood. You scramble for branches, trying to grab something, anything! Yet your grip keeps slipping as you reach to the top.

All around you are other branches, winding and twisting around like a cage of some sort where light was barely peaking in. Getting a good look at what is around you, it appeared to be a snake tail. Following the coil, you notice a large black snake entwined with the branches, and hissing as it stares at you.

You struggle against your restraints. But looking down once, you can see the danger in trying to get out now. The drop was long, and most likely wasn't going to end well if you did. Shadow Milk may not want you to die, but he could make you feel the impact and damage of it all.

Appearing in a puff of confetti, the clown himself lands on the serpent, next to his head. "Much nicer of a view, isn't it?" He strokes the reptile in approval as he walks down, closer to you. "Although, I can understand you aren't comfortable yet. Don't worry. That will be earned later."

You scowl at him, hiding your nervousness. You weren't giving him another drop of fear or weakness. If he wanted to feed you to his pet, then you would face it head on. You weren't going to . . . wait . . . was Shadow Milk . . .

"PFFFFFF-! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH, you really have a wild imagination, don't you!"

Wh-what? You didn't say anything! What was he talking about!?

"It is a creative idea though. Feeding cookies to a summoned monster, I should use that next time~!"

Your jam ran cold as you could guess what he was talking about. But that would mean . . .

"My my, are you piecing it together?"

A small gasp escaped your lips. Could he be reading your mind?

"RING DING DING! Smart cookie you are, smart cookie!" He applauds you as he leapt off the ground, floating right next to you. "Do you now get it? Here, everything belongs to me. Which means you belong to me. Body, soul, and mind."

Flinching, you feel vulnerable. What did he want with you? What was he going to do now? You wanted to ask these things, but you were unable to put it to words! And technically, you didn't have to.

The beast runs his hand across the scales of the serpent as he grins. "All it took was a little digging for a couple of seconds, and I was able to find something interesting. Mrehehehe! Who knew you were into this kind of thing~!"

Trying to piece together what he was talking about, you look back at the snake. Something you were into . . . oh no. Your entire face turned red. A small squeak escapes you when you feel the tail coil another loop around your torso.

Covering your eyes, you shut the lids tight in defiance. Nope nope nope! This was not happening! There was no way you were going to fall for this! NO!

Of course, now you couldn't see what was going on, so you had to guess as you heard Shadow Milk continue to ramble while floating in front of you. "Now now, you know this won't work if you're not playing along. What? Are you embarrassed?"

"Shut. Up." Your tone was warning him to back off. You didn't want him to know this, no one was suppose to know! HOW DID HE FIND OUT!?

"It's not that bad. Just a little peek is all it takes~." The beast's voice was trying to sound sweeter. Less silly and loud, now softer and alluring.

No! This was still the beast of deceit. He can't be trusted. If you opened your eyes, he would put you in a trance for sure. You would be vulnerable. And you hated that thought so much. You had to fight back, but how!? How could you fight him!?

For a moment, your body could feel the breeze of wind hitting your dough. You were being moved. The tail dropped you into something, and you tried to stand up. However, the ground wasn't stable enough to do so. It was . . . moving. And smooth. Using one of your forearms to cover your eyes, you use your other hand to properly feel the area you were dropped in. It was a nest of coils. Just big enough for you to move around, but small enough to contain you from running or tempting to stand up.

In defense, you sit on the floor of the nest, continuing the plan of keeping your eyes covered until the nightmare was over. Someone was going to come for you. So there was no reason to rush things. You could wait this out.

"Oh, I don't think you will be able to," he teases, leaning in closer and closer, "your temptation will soon give way. I know so."

A thick coil slides up your back slowly. You stiffen and straighten yourself up as you squeak. Your heart races a little.

Stop it, stop it, stop it, STOP IT! Your mind is screaming for it to stop. For him to leave you alone, to be released from the cursed snake. To get out of here! You didn't . . . you didn't . . .

Shadow Milk leans into your left ear as you hear him whisper gently. "I already have seen it. Buried deep within you, under a lie you tell everyone. Including yourself. The scales and the colors are all but flash and flare compared to what you truly wish to gain. The core of your desire."

You bite your lip. Stop. Stop!

He hovers a little back away as he circles you. His voice echoing all around. "The world sees you as a brave hero! Strong and resilient! Hopeful in the darkest moments! Fighting every day to have victory and peace be yours! And it does come . . . but not for you. Everyday you continue to show the bold you, and it never gets a break. An endless charade you play to give them what they want. Because the one thing you want is something you cannot show. The one thing you don't want anyone to find out."

He leans into your other ear, whispering again.

"Vulnerability."

You curl into yourself, turning redder than you ever had been in your life. You knew that he was grinning at that, even as you could feel him backing up again to circle around once more.

"Tough on the outside, yet soft deep down~! And if you had any say in it, you wouldn't show it to anyone until the day you crumbled. HAHA! Oh you've imagined how awful that would be if they knew. That they would look down on you. See you as lesser. Or treat you like you were nothing more than a fragile thing."

"Stop . . . Please . . . stop!" You lost a bit of your bravery. Your tone no longer harsh and cold. It was sounding more like a plead then a demand. You weren't sure what to do anymore.

Hearing Shadow Milk's voice becoming closer again, you could tell he was right in front of you. "Awwwww, but that just left you with only one option. To double down and keep up the act. All in the hopes they won't hate you for the scared little cookie you are." The tip if the snake tail lifts your head a little. You squeeze your eyelids tighter together. He places his hands on your arms. "There's no need to hide from me though. I can see right through you. Every little truth and lie that makes you who you are. And I know you want nothing more then to finally let it all go."

With little effort, he pushes your arms away from your face. You didn't offer any resistance. You just let him do it as you keep your eyes shut and turn your face away. Still blushing like you were ashamed of what was happening. His voice was so gentle and sweet, it was throwing you off with how blunt he was.

"It's not like anyone else will be willing to do this for you. Or at least, you won't have the courage to ask anyone to do it for you. Heh!" Shadow Milk reaches his hand to your cheek, resting it on there with nurturing care. "So do yourself a favor . . .

Indulge yourself for once. And open your eyes~."

Swallowing your breath, you wavered. You have been fighting. Fighting for so long. To be this person you knew everyone needed. And yet, you were too scared to let it all go. To relax yourself for one moment. You always were on edge. Always thinking of how to survive. Not a single word he said was wrong.

But you knew what would happen if you did cave. If you looked into his eyes. If you did, you would lose. He would have everything. And leave you with nothing. There was nothing to gain. And yet . . .

More and more, your focus on your sense of touch was becoming more aware of the shifting coils around you. The serpent slithered around, containing you in your nest.

A thought crosses your mind. That temptation to just . . . sink in a cocoon of coils. Easing yourself of worry and fear. To just have everything stop for a moment. To just finally . . . stop.

One of your eyes gives up. Peaking a little. Darkness. There was darkness around you. Except for a few blue diamond patterns shifting around in fixated circling spots. Opening your eyes a little more, you were piecing together where you were. The snake had coiled into a cage. One that felt like you were trapped in a dome of it's body.

Looking around, you take in the scenery. Only for the room to fill with some eyes that opened wide to stare at you. You stare back at them. A mistake for sure.

You focus on one of them as it begins to illuminate. From it's center, you see colors bloom from it. Like ripples in a river. Each one being a shade of blue, or white, or black. The pattern was slightly slow and steady, but none the less a display to behold. You kept watch as the colors continued to ripple over and over again. Looping endlessly before your eyes.

It doesn't take long before a hand touches your chin, turning you away to a new pair of eyes. Shadow Milk's grinning face stares back at you, with a similar yet brighter rippled pattern in his own. "There you are~!"

Unlike before, you could feel yourself becoming lost. The aura was strong, and alluring. Eyes widening, you freeze in place like deer in headlights. Blue, white, black, blue, white, black, blue, white, black.

The longer you stared, the dizzier you seemed to feel. Head spinning to center yourself as it dragged you in closer and closer into the illusion.

"All that bravado just melted away, didn't it," he says, "bet all that stress has left you tired. So so tired and exhausted."

You blinked. "N-No, I'm not- . . . Not tired . . . "

"Ehe! My my, you are one stubborn cookie." Shadow Milk strokes your cheek. Your breath hitches. "Shhhhh. Calm yourself. Look into my eyes and let yourself relax. Feel yourself grow more and more sleepy the longer you stare."

As you sat there, you could feel it wash over you. A sense of vertigo that slowly crept within you. Eyelids becoming heavy as tension left your body. You could feel yourself getting tired, just like he said.

Shadow Milk's coat tails twist around his legs as they extend into a tail, growing scales and circling around you in the air. You don't react as your too focused on staring.

Blue, white, black, blue, white, black, blue, white . . . black . . . blue . . .

Your thoughts slowed. Blurring in your mind. You wanted to say something, but your words were becoming harder and harder to collect themselves. No. No, you couldn't . . . you couldn't give in yet. You had to . . . had to . . . blue, white, black, blue, white, black.

The colors were consuming your mind the more you stared. You couldn't look away. Your shoulders slumped as your arms dangled from the sides. Coils wrap around you, slithering slowly up your body as you watched. They felt so smooth against your dough. Their grip on you was tender, holding you up.

"Drop deep into my eyes. Let my voice carry your thoughts away and fill your mind. Relax, little one."

You tried to speak. Nothing came out. Whatever it is you wanted to say, you couldn't remember. It faded with the rest of your thoughts. The beast's voice sounded so clear and in focus. As though it was coming from your head. His tail now had reached your shoulders, snug and tight around you like a blanket. Your eyelids were getting heavier and heavier.

So tired . . . you just wanted to . . . sleep . . . for a moment. Your head leans foward to drop. But the tip of the tail pushes your head back up to those hypnotic eyes.

"Ah ah ah! I didn't tell you to sleep just yet. Such a silly cookie~."

" . . . I . . . wasn't . . . sleeping . . . " The coils were slithering around your neck. Finishing the job as they held you in place.

"Comfortable?"

" . . . yes . . . " Your voice was faint. But he could hear you well.

He leans closer. The colors in his eyes moving a little faster now. "Good. Such an obedient little puppet, aren't you?"

His praise makes you shiver a little. The title 'puppet' bounces around in your head as you think about it. Is that what you were?

Shadow Milk smiles as he responds to your thoughts. "Indeed you are. A puppet that listens to your master. Obedient and loyal."

" . . . mas . . . ter . . . "

"Why that would be me of course!"

" . . . master . . . " Blue, white, black, blue, white, black.

You felt your body go limp in his coils. Your jaw is slack. All around you, the world faded into white noise as your focus on Shadow Milk heightened. For all you cared, he was the world. Your world.

"Sink deeper," he commanded.

" . . . sink . . . " you reply.

"Sink deeper then ever before."

" . . . deeeeeepeeeerrrrrr . . . "

"Rest and surrender your will."

You blink slowly. Colors start to glow in your eyes. " . . . . okay . . . . "

Shadow Milk chuckled, pulling you closer to him.

"From now on, you are MINE!"

Once he says those words, you feel something tug from within. It settles within you as a small smile creeps on your face. Your fighting spirit nothing more than a shattered remnant of your old self. Trapped in a spell that only the Beast of Deceit could wrap you in. And you were content.

You couldn't tell what had happened next, but you remembering hearing Shadow Milk's voice whispering sweet lies into your ear as you stare off into space. They were beautiful lies. Wonderful lies that you fully accepted with no resistance. After all. You were his puppet. Obedient and loyal to the end.

Suddenly, the coils unravel from around you as the large snake's own coils rests your body on it like a hammock. Your limbs dangled helplessly as you laid there empty mindedly.

Master Shadow Milk, now back to his original form, floated up to you and petted your head gently. "Such a good puppet you are."

You smiled. "Thank . . . you . . . "

"Now then, I have quite the busy schedule. So for now, it's time to sleep."

A yawn escapes you as the coils sway gently. You feel your eyelids closing as you drift into a blissful slumber. Resting ever so deeply.

You breath in. You breath out. Finally, you feel peace and calm.

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

Heyo! This took me a while to make. Both for busy reasons and writers block reasons. Hope you enjoy this, i know i did! Feel free to let me know how you feel about this one. Also, one of my old one shots got themselves into a reblogging I was not comfortable with recently. So if you wanna say something about this piece, please put it in the comments. If you wanna make your own sequel to this, please make this a separate post and tag me in it.

[thatguywrites]

Anything for you

Max Verstappen x Male!Migranes!Reader

When Y/N cant manage to get out of bed because of his head, Max is there to wait on him hand and foot

The moment you woke up, all you could think about was your pain. The pulsing pain of your head not letting you open your eyes, or form a single coherent thought. Rolling over in bed, and reaching towards where Max usually lay this early in the morning, all that was left were warm sheets.

"Hey, sleepy head, time to wake up," Max's loud voice came from the hallway, followed by quick steps coming towards the bedroom, and loud knocks at the door.

"I've made pancakes, wake up and eat while their still hot. I didn't even burn them this time!" As Max entered the room, he soon quieted down, looking at your miserable figure in the sheets. Creeping closer, and finally whispering, he asks, "Hey, baby, what's wrong? Is it your head?"

As you nodded, he cooed softly, climbed into bed to hug you, and massaged your sore joints. "Here, I'll bring you the delicious pancakes I made, again, very much not burnt, and your pain meds, and come coffee, and we can spend the entire day in bed, yeah?" And before you could process what he had said, he had hurried out to get you your breakfast.

The two of you spent the entire morning lazing about in bed, exchanging kisses, and cuddles, and only once abandoning the warmth of the bed, for some more snacks and a couple bathroom runs; and eventually, you fell back to the warm comfort of sleep.

At about 13:00, you suddenly awoke to the blaring sound of Max's alarm. He rushed to turn it off, but when he looked at the screen, his face fell. "Shit"

"What's wrong?"

"I promised the redline boys that I would hop on stream this afternoon, I can cancel and stay in bed with you though, don't worry"

"No no, you should go, I'll be fine"

"But what if you need something! I'll be all distracted and won't be able to help. I can't do that to you" The pout on his face was too adorable, that you couldn't help but kiss it off of him, only stopping to offer your own solution.

"Well how about I set up camp on the couch? I can be off camera and you can keep an eye on me."

"But-"

"I don't care if you're loud, baby. I'll probably fall asleep instantly anyway."

"Fine, but I'm doing all the work."

Within ten minutes, an entire blanket fort had been constructed on the couch, and Max came back to take you to his creation. Only once he had made sure you had enough food, meds, water, and entertainment did he finally go to his sim set up to stream.

While watching him interact with his friends, notably quieter than normal, the warmth of the at least 20 blankets surrounding you drew you to sleep, with his voice as a beautiful, occasionally angry, lullaby.

[doubleslashkarma]

ill be honest i really dont think "watch xyz pov before you ever form an opinion on xyz" is the solution to any of these problems. like who has time in the day for all that. i can barely schedule around the 7hr lukeytv streams girl i have a life to lead.

the answer here is simply to chill the fuck out. just take a walk yknow what i mean. when a character does something you dont like instead of going to Be Upset On The Internet maybe consider that they probably ARE justified from their pov, perhaps muse on that thought for a moment, and then go wow! what a beautiful story that's been created here. i love roleplay where things are not real and people who are actually friends pretend to hate each other for entertainment. and then go make a bagel because bagels make everything better

[lov3rachan]

SKZAnniversary

Summary: When everything seemed to catch up with them, a moment of peace arrives too.

Pairing: OT8 (Individual) x reader (not very heavy on a relationship)

Genre: fluff, comfort, gender neutral (you/your)

Warning: insecurity, beauty standard, society

Word count: 1408 words

Comment: Happy 7th Anniversary once more Stray Kids! This started off as soft moments (Chan) and turned into insecurity comfort rip. As always I’m late lol

Requested by: no one

Written: 24.03.2025-26.03.2025

Taglist: @skzdreamer13, @blueohs

Network: @supernovanetwork

Chandsome

« You can rest ».

The moonlight softly caressed his relaxed features, as his light snores fill the otherwise silent room.

It’s like a rhythm, matching his breathing.

Chan’s lips are slightly open, soft lips still.

Beautiful and at peace, calm.

His body melts in your arms, as he is cradled in sleep’s embrace.

The day’s fatigue and pains, after hours of practice and performances, is slowly washed away, like footprints on the sand.

Chan is finally relieved of toil and weight of his hard work, even if just for a few hours.

He’s no longer leader Bang Chan, Channie-hyung or producer CB97.

In the silence of the room, his worries and responsibilities slip from his mind and he is just Chan.

Minpossible

« I’m here »

Being an idol wasn’t easy, especially not when you liked your privacy.

Lee Know… he was like a cat, unpredictable and mysterious, which wasn’t always appreciated in the industry or by his so-called fans.

He’d come up with weird random post ideas or fun messages and he enjoyed messing with STAY… a lot.

However, not everybody liked his teasing manner and they weren’t afraid to say it, at least online.

Sometimes, he’d just grumble and complain, to no one in particular, really.

All his bottled up feelings finally released in a stream of anger and frustration.

From way too exposing outfits, to the fans’ wild theories: every single thing that irked him, no matter how insignificant, was laid out.

Minho didn’t need someone to give him a solution, or explain how the industry worked.

He just wanted to vent, let it all out.

No words were needed, as you held him in your arms.

As the anger dissipated, his face slightly red from his rambling, he listens to your heart beat to calm down.

Then, with a lighter heart, he is ready to face the world once more.

Charmbin

« You’re beautiful »

Changbin was oh-so beautiful.

As you stared at him lovingly, your gaze fixated on him and only him… he felt like a jewel amongst rocks.

He was surrounded by men who fit the beauty standards, who were praised for their good looks and, in an industry like the entertainment one, let alone that of K-Pop, it was easy for him to forget his own beauty.

Sometimes he’d forget about the muscles he built up with dedication, day after day.

He’d ignore his gorgeous face and curly hair.

More importantly, he’d easily forget how talented he was.

He was one of the greatest producers of K-Pop’s fourth generation, a rapper with powerful vocals and perfect enunciation that could also sing just as well, with a touching voice.

He was one of the funny guys of his group but he was so much more: he was reliable, trusted, respected.

Amongst so many stars he’d forget all about his own light.

However, in your eyes he could see its reflection, shining in your eyes as you loved him without a word, as you wanted him for all he was.

And he felt the most beautiful man of all.

Hyunique

« You’re talented »

Hyunjin really didn’t mean to come off as ungrateful but even he grew tired of compliments.

More precisely, of compliments about his looks.

Gorgeous, sexy, handsome… what about who he was inside?

What about all he had achieved?

His powerful dance moves weren’t just because of his beautiful appearance.

He had poured blood, tears and sweat into it, his whole life had been polishing his skills just to get complimented for his looks.

How many people would have really looked at his art if he didn’t look that way?

Who would have ever spared him a glance if he wasn’t handsome?

People would have probably called him an unreliable good for nothing or an idealistic dreamer, if he hadn’t had his looks, wouldn’t they?

He didn’t know but, the more he thought about it the more his blood boiled, as frustration and helplessness gnawed at him.

Then one hug, as he cried his heart out.

One session together through posts and videos complimenting his art, his dancing and his vocals…

It didn’t take away his insecurity, not completely.

But it helped him ignore the ‘what if’s and focus on the present and on his future, that shined as bright as a diamond.

Hanbelievable

« You’re strong »

Small and cute quokka.

Frail, weak, defenceless.

That’s how he felt whenever he saw fans treat him as if he were made of glass.

Not just them, his band mates and staff as well acted as if he was a ball of anxiety ready to crack and crumble at the smallest sign of pressure.

He was an idol, he had been working his ass off and managing his own mental health for ages.

Sure, he appreciated the concern but sometimes it felt suffocating, as he felt babysat by the others.

He wasn’t his anxiety nor his panic attacks.

However, just because he could be lively, fun and happy, it didn’t mean that he was faking it all.

The perception of others, at times, felt more pressuring than his anxiety himself, as they fuelled it.

Han wanted to be supported but he didn’t want anyone on his case 24/7.

It was just a few words as you were cuddling in bed, a whisper that slipped out as you admired his tired form, as Jisung was starting to doze off.

“You’re so strong”.

Just one sentence woke him up, as he smiled, comforted by your unassuming words.

Yeah, he really was.

Lixtroardinary

« You can cry »

The sky isn’t always sunny, sometimes it rains.

Just like that, even Felix couldn’t help but get mad or sad.

He was already known for crying on stage but, with the exception of the survival show, they were always tears of happiness.

The dancer was Stray Kids’ happiness, the one to bring a smile on STAY’s face.

However, sometimes the fatigue and pain was too much;

Sometimes the hate got to him;

Sometimes his day went wrong.

Hidden in a safe embrace, he’d allow himself to cry, let out all the sadness he felt.

There was nothing beautiful about it, it was an ugly cry, raw.

Felix was going to have a headache the hours after but at least his heart felt lighter and the world seemed brighter.

Sure, his problems hadn’t been whisked away but his mind was clearer than ever: everything was going to be okay.

He was going to be okay.

Perhaps he wasn’t always going to be Happy Felix, but he was going to relish all the happiness he could get.

Seungsational

« You’re special »

‘Eight members, eight all rounders’.

Seungmin didn’t feel like he belonged.

He was the vocalist of the group yet he didn’t have the same unique voice as Felix.

He wasn’t an all-rounder genius like Han nor was he a rapper and producer like Changbin or Chan.

He wasn’t a talented dancer like Lee Know nor didn’t have striking, unique looks like Hyunjin.

And he definitely wasn’t as adorable and fashionable as I.N.

He was… ordinary.

Then, whenever you asked, he picked up his guitar and started to play a bit, singing along the melody.

As he saw your heart melt with every note, and your loving gaze on him, he understood.

It didn’t matter how special others thought he was, nor did he need to compare himself to others.

As long as those who mattered believed in him, Seungmin himself included, he was going to keep doing what he loved.

I.ncredible

« You’re enough »

I.N had grown used to being treated like a baby by others but he couldn’t deny his annoyance, at times.

He was a grown man, capable of his own choices and perfectly fine on his own yet his own fans seemed to treat him as a kid.

Sure, being pampered wasn’t that bad but, when his every move is watched and his independence is undermined… he hated it.

However, what could he do about it?

It’s not like he could change his date of birth.

Age is just a number but it always seemed like his role as a maknae overshadowed his vocals and… it stung. I truly did.

So he appreciated whenever he got asked for a favour.

It was a small thing but it showed the intrinsic trust you had in him, that he could handle it.

That even though he was the youngest of his group, he was good enough, he was capable enough.

[generalpierrotdameron]

[...] Nowadays, when people recommend shows to their friends or co-workers, they might say, "The first season is kind of slow, but it gets really good in Season 2." People often say that about The Office, an accomplished sitcom. Even Succession, one of the greatest modern dramas, is a slow-burn in its first season. These shows benefited from their networks having faith in the writers. The first seasons weren't perfect, but they had enough spice to make an even better second season. Aren't all first seasons just an experiment to see what works and what doesn't, so that showrunners can improve in the next season? Streaming services don't allow the same grace period. Pilot seasons are a make-it-or-break-it situation for streaming. Shows get churned out like they're made in a factory, and one false mechanism gets it thrown in the trash. There's no time dedicated to fixing the faulty wiring or drafting up a solution. TV shows are so expensive that big streaming services aren't willing to take the risk. They'd rather renew shows that have been ongoing for several seasons already, or are plain safe options for audiences. It's fair to say The Acolyte wasn't for everybody. The series slowly shifted into an enemies-to-lovers plot mixed with a religious conspiracy by the end that some people naturally won't be attracted to. Story-wise, it wasn't going to be for everyone, but it was definitely for a lot of people. The amount of positive reviews by critics and Manny Jacinto acquiring new fans proved as such. But as more shows led by women, LGBTQ+ creatives and POC get canceled, it sends a signal to other networks or services that people aren't interested in their stories. It limits the amount of diversity allowed in the entertainment industry. It also permits the obscene animosity that's fragmented the Star Wars fandom. If Star Wars wants to continue to be a dominating franchise in this industry, it has to learn to take chances and stick with them. Otherwise, the world will move on while it's stuck in the past.

👉 Renew the Acolyte - Sign the petition!

[rat-rosemary]

tbh I think meeting irl now would not really fix their relationship, it'd be very uncomfortable like you said, but maybe would push tommy to re-think some stuff. Maybe seeing him right there could maybe make him consider talk to thim (something he might have considered before based on how he unblocked dream to qrt him and also let him anwser) but also think that it might make him spiral bc of the same reasons bc like you said he seesm insecure about his stance on their failling out and his position as a creator so seeing dream might make him spiral harder. Sadly dont think there's gonna be a fix to their relationship any time soon. I believe it could happen, but when both are on a better place, dream's getting there but tommy no really rn. I think tommy's mental healthy might improve if he took a break from social media, and talked even just casual short conversations with real people outside the streaming world but idk if he will

Thats the thing, my personal parasocial theory is that Tommy is already rethinking some stuff, and thats why he's going for aí for reassurance that he could easily get from his friends. Thats why the aí, which has no morality of its own and will just yes man everything you feed it because it has no idea what its saying, its giving him neutal/opposite responses.

I 100% think what he really needs is to take a long break from social media and from any entertainment plans he might have going and to step away from his friend group, because they genuinely are stuck in a feedback loop. Tubbo and Aimsey (who are the ones I know the most about) for example also show obvious signs of being influenced by this friend group (and their audiences) for the worst

(But this isn't a unique evil to them. There's a trend in the younger generation towards more conservative, puritan and aggressive ideals as an attempt to protect themselves in a quickly changing world. The idea is that if everyone just falls in line then they'll be safe, so it must be the fault of the Other for putting them in danger)

(It's not hard to see how they got there and it's an extremely hard ideology to break free from, since it usually comes from trauma and promises you an easy solution, and these people are young and scared. I'm not much older btw. Being young and scared can drive you absolutely crazy, and humans will do anything when terrified and looking for community)

I do think they could fix their relationship, or well, build a new one, Tommy just needs a more stable ground and to learn to respect others a little more

[petrenocka]

Secret of the Mimic is such a good game.

Does it feel like new guys in charge of FNAF giving up on the labyrinthine lore the franchise has amassed over the years and just inventing their own, more stream lined guys to focus on instead? Yes, it does.

Good though. Murray household is the first time this franchise has made me care about its characters as characters, not as solutions to mystery math puzzles, if that makes sense. And I may not have been posting at 11 yo, but I was tacitly lurking in the fandom since 2015, I know my animatronics.

For a fucking Fife Nights At Freddie's game, in 2025, to have my cynical 21 yo ass sit here in the dead of night at 3 am, glued to the screen, watching a playthrough on YouTube, genuinely immersed in the narrative like I was 10 years ago watching fnaf 3 theories.

That's actually kind of magical man, ngl

I love the way this game balances slapstick with genuine horror and manages to carve itself a unique personality in the intersection of the two, neighboring Courage the cowardly dog. And this corporate horror of business ruining lives and families, a workshop as a haunting spector of the past, both victim and victimizer, mounting crippling debt presented the same way a lesser horror would talks about some black site science experiment. It's such a perfectly seamless fit for THE mascot horror franchise!

As for how it fits into FNAF canon. I like the reaffirmation that Emily and Afton were a generational tag team in the entertainment world. The way William haunts the narrative from such distance and yet is so deeply involved in it. At this point in the timeline it is years until he starts killing children I'm pretty sure, but he already is very much The Devil of this universe. Makes you think about how his other victims' stories were as likely tragic and personal as The Mimic.

And Mimic itself. Dude. FNAF Mimic might be my favorite Horror villain now. Duking it out with Minotaur of the House of Leaves in my internal rankings, fr. It's actually shocking how good this game is.

If I have to find something to complain about it would be that SoTM is a fairly conventional waker horror, although made incredibly well (other then it's optimization), and I wonder if Steelwool could do something interesting with FNAF's legacy of minimalistic, "analog" gameplay. But that's just me being pretentious. Game's good.

[ask-rain-world-characters]

Okay, this is for everyone who wants to answer.

You are given a choice. You will have immortality, and millions of dollars (or something else you may want,) but there's a catch. There is a snail that knows where you are at all times, and its only goal is to make its way to you. Once it touches you, you die. Do you take the offer? If so, what will you do?

Survivor's Answer:

Hunter's Answer:

Watcher's Answer:

Gourmand's Answer:

Rivulet's Answer:

Enot's Answer:

Five Pebbles' Answer:

No Significant Harassment's Answer:

Sliver of Straw's Answer:

Nightcat plush image - @areon103 Transcripts:

Survivor: "See answering this question is redundant because no matter what scheme I cook up, the decoy snail can never be beaten, apparently. Trust me. I've tried."

Hunter: “Immortality is an iffy choice, and I don’t really need all that money… but I’d gladly trade it in for something else! So yes! I’ll take whatever challenge you give me, amigo! For I am the great and mighty-“ *ding dong! “huh? Hold that thought i have a guest! Who is it?” ”… oh no.”

Watcher: "No, I don't think I will take offer no matter what... but I heard this one before, and I think you forgot to make snail immortal as well... also what is a dollar?"

Gourmand: "I don't think we'd need anything more than what we currently have. Honestly, things have been going quite well for us! And with the immortality, well... some are already suspecting that there's some finicky force, that prevents one from dying. And I'm starting to think they might be right - so I don't think I'd need that either. But if someone else accepted this, I think I could take a shot at making that Snail for you. .......you want it?"

Rivulet: "Alright listen, sure the snail could theoretically kill me in one blow because of weird technicalities surrounding this arbitrary challenge, BUT, you have to consider the fact on how slow this snail is, I could do multiple laps on the snail, and he won't have any chance of grazing me a single time. So, yes! I would take the million dollars, it's, the easiest million dollars I've gotten in my li-" *Faint stream of noise is heard from afar* Wait, what is that sound...? *A jet squid comes by at a alarmingly high speed, with the snail being on top* "AAAAAHH-" *splatter* *Rain World death SFX plays*

Enot: "...'anything I want'? ...does that happen to include a date? ...maybe 8? ...sign. me. uuuuuuuup! Besides I can just kill it with one of my good ol' eggs, a snail cant be that resilient!"

Five Pebbles: "…What a ludicrous question. There are so many specifics to be questioned regarding this - does touching ‘me’ count as my facility? My can? Or My puppet? Far too many complications. Though I suppose I could simply wish for ascension, and the ordeal would be over with immediately, would it not? I highly doubt there is any way for this snail to reach ascension as well, so I’m assuming that would be the end of it."

No Significant Harassment: "Well, I think I already have the immortality part covered, and I don't have much use for money, but that is an interesting conundrum. I suppose if there were a way I could trap the snail so it couldn't reach me, it would be the perfect solution."

Sliver of Straw: What an interesting thought experiment. I am already immortal, to some degree. Nor do I have any record of what "dollars" are in my database, although it seems to be a kind of currency. I believe this question was posed for my creators, rather than my own kind. I'm afraid they aren't around anymore. Regardless! It can be fun to entertain these kinds of meaningless hypothetical experiments. After all, that's what we do; experiment! Over, and over, and over again. I've heard of snails before, but they aren't native to my area. They're wetland animals. It would certainly have to travel a considerable distance to reach me! And once it does, what specifically counts as "me"? My can would be the most obvious answer, but even then it can be difficult to define where one thing ends and another begins. The many pipes, bores, reserves, and disposal units that make up my facility grounds are as much a part of me as they are vital to my function, but they have no consciousness. Do I die if it touches one of my overseers? Once it touches me, how exactly do I die? There are far too many variables here to consider the full picture in complete objective fact, which is rather an important thing to do when my hypothetical life is on the line. Then again, very few theories we study are based in much fact anymore. We only have blissful hope left. Well, and old scriptures. Oh, I got distracted! ....Anyway, I don't take the offer, I have no use for items of monetary value. Is sending the snail to the Void Sea out of the question?