#I'll be over this in abt a month but <//333

[cdbabymp3]

𐙚editor!reader hc's ― hamzahthefantastic

notes/warnings: sfw and nsfw portions !! reader is hamzah's roomie :3

**for this dynamic i also made reader and hamzah both virgins, which comes up in these hc's and will come up more in the future if that's smth y'all want me to elaborate on!**

chat i think im back .......

(sfw)

-getting constantly shouted out in vlogs

"shout out, y/n, our editor. she's on the front lines going through all this footage for you, slushies, yall better be grateful."

-eventually face revealing by being on an episode of the pod. it's titled smth like 'and they were roomates' or 'editor reveal (real)' idk

-the whole pod episode hamzah keeps looking at you every time you speak and 'accidentally' touches your thigh

-there's so many fan accs on tiktok that clip it and air tf out of him 😭😭😭😭

-hazmah tries to explain the dynamic of living with his editor on the pod, but even he doesn't know exactly what it is (and neither do you)

-as unprofessional as it may seem, somehow it works

-hamzah never lets you do all the work. he always offers to help you out when you're starting to get tired or in a slump

"hamzah, it's my job. lemme just finish this-"

"nah, you're clocking out for the night. you've been dismissed." he shoos you away from your shared work desk that you've been sitting at for hours

-as unprofessional as it is, you can't deny how massive of a fucking crush you have on him....especially when he pulls that domestic shit on you

-when you're exhausted from editing, he'll make you food or take you on a late night drive for ice cream in your pj's

-grocery shopping omg he loves that shit so bad !! on sundays you guys go to the store and hit up the farmer's markets downtown. hamzah gets excited every time, he'll wake up hella early each time he's so cute :,)

-if you're not from toronto or canada, he'll show you around his favorite places. in general, he's just happy to have someone to share stuff with (i'll cry)

-CASUAL DOMINANCE !!!! him being your boss and giving you deadlines for vids makes you blush so hard. he's never ever bossy/rude, but he's firm and technical about how he envisions certain vids and you want to deliver for him

-no matter how many times you run through the final edit with him, you still get nervous

-you're hanging onto his every word and facial expression, praying that he likes the way the vid turned out (he always likes it)

-you loves when he laughs at your editing choices, it's lowkey your goal to make him smile/laugh...equal parts job validation and crush validation 🙇‍♀️

-being roommates has led to many, manyyyyy late night mukbangs

-i can just imagine y'all at 2am eating a whole spread of food on the floor in the living room and talking about deep stuff

-speaking of deep stuff, it took you guys a couple months to open up to each other, but one night you were both editing super late and somehow the topic of sex came up....

-you guys bonded over being late bloomers, agreeing to keep each other's secret, which in turn made you closer

-being the slushy editor (and videographer sometimes) means getting to go on trips with them for vids !!!

-getting to go to curaçao and having the room next to hamzah's in the hotel.... (i'll make a separate thing abt this dw)

-i feel like the fans would love you and honestly prefer you and mandy over the boys lmfao

-mandy is so big sister <333 she's so happy to have another girl to be around at long last

-when hamzah and martin are arguing over smth in a vid, they'll drag you in for a third party opinion bc mandy has given up

-if you fall asleep on the couch watching a movie, hamzah will carry you to your bed or at least put a blanket over you. it kinda depends if he's feeling brave or not.

(intimate stuff, some nsfw)

-the sexual tension in the apartment is through the mf roof

-the funny part is neither of you do anything to initiate it, it's just so natural AND YOU BOTH FEEL IT BUT ARE TOO SCARED TO SAY ANYTHING !!!!

-sometimes hamzah will come home from the gym while you're editing...he'll have a thin, fitted shirt on, all sweaty and tired looking

-you pretend not to notice him, fiddling away on your computer with your headphones on (no volume playing ofc), but you have to clench your thighs together sometimes bc the sight is nearly too much to handle

-shower time gives you a heart attack each night

-a couple months into living together, hamzah gave up on getting dressed in the bathroom after his showers, so he'll walk out with just a towel around his waist and grab a drink from the fridge

-when you guys have movie night and there's a graphic sex scene he gets so awkward omfg...he'll go get smth from the kitchen or make a stupid joke so he doesn't get #bricked pretending it's you and him doing those things

-you're almost certain you've heard him jerk off a couple times, but obviously you're too scared too investigate further

-little do you know, he's jerking off to you 🎀

-you wonder if he's ever heard you masturbate, especially bc you're walls are so thin.🗿.......you try to do it when's out, but sometimes him being a wall away from you turns you on too much

-yes, he's knocked on your door in the middle of you doing it 😭

"y/n!! the landlord is here, she has a couple questions and i don't know the answers, please come help me...she scares me."

"i-uh..shit, ok, hamzah, just give me a sec !!!" you're scrambling, trying to put yourself together so it's not obvious you were literally just thinking about him fucking you

-even though you know it's fucked up, him being your boss makes you horny 🤕

-especially when he's peering over your shoulder, pointing out things he thinks you should add to the video. the smell of his cologne, the gentle cadence of his voice, how his hand takes the mouse from your hand and he mumbles a little apology under his breath....lawd....

໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ꒱ྀིა taglist ; @42angelgirl + let me know if u wanna be added !!!!!

[taraxacum-vulpes]

this close to crying real tears chat. i can't believe this

[alebrijediscordico]

THE NEW AVATAR TRAILER LOOKS SOOO GOOD!!

[mingkismain]

Wrong Ingredient - wooyoung x reader

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an; hi guys! i think i started writing this months ago and i finally had the inspiration to finish it! this was supposed to be a halloween fic if that tells you anything abt how long my creative drought was D: but xoxo hope you freaks enjoy <333

wooyoung x fem!reader

genre; smut

word count; 3,380

warnings/tags; pwp, piv, unprotected sex [don't do that], switch!wooyoung and switch!reader [muahaha], slight overstim for reader [and woo tbh], hair pulling, little bit of aftercare

MDNI

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Becoming a potion brewer wasn't your end goal once you had left school, but it helped put a roof over your head and pay for your other hobbies. Plus, your abilities had only improved with time which helped your clientele spread out past the town you lived in. Which was how you met Wooyoung, a wizard a little older than you from a few towns over. He was one of your only clients that would make a house visit to pick up an order, you usually just delivered right to the other towns a few times during the week.

Today, Wooyoung had decided to stop in and order instead of writing to you beforehand, which led to him hanging around your place while you worked on his order. He was no different from a house cat, walking around and exploring, getting too close to what you were working on and nearly ruining it.

"Woo for the love of gods please stay to that side of my cauldron! I don't want you knocking any of my ingredients off the shelves! I don't refund if you fuck up your own order!" You huffed, readjusting your hair and getting back to your brewing.

"Alright! Sorry, just nosey, you know I have no idea how any of this works! That's like, the main reason I come see you," he wandered back over to the other side of your brewing room, reading the spines of all your potion creating books.

"It's fine to be curious but too much curiosity and you can end up with a horrible result," you stopped stirring and looked up to face him, "this has to sit and simmer for a little longer. I'm going to run outside and check my request letters. Do not touch what's brewing or you'll be so sorry." He nodded his head repeatedly.

"Yes ma'am, I'll stay over here and read your books." He gave you a half salute as you walked up your stairs.

Oh, but of course, he was lying to you.

As soon as he saw you were out of eyesight, he crept over to your cauldron, peering in to see what you had made him. He inhaled and immediately went into a coughing fit.

"Gods this reeks! I can't have this shit sitting in my house, it'll drive all my company away!" He fanned his hand in front of his nose to rid the smell as he scanned your shelves for some aromatic he could sneak in. "Yeah, this'll do," he reached for a bottle you had labeled 'red ginseng' and carefully plucked it from your shelf. He had no idea how much to add, but surely a handful of this stuff would rid his potion of that awful smell. Wooyoung poured a handful [and whatever spilled out of his hand] into the mixture and watched it to make sure he didn't blow your house up.

Thankfully he didn't, but he changed the color of the potion by mistake, what was once a bright blue, now made a dull brownish hue. Wooyoung frantically scanned your shelves for something to fix his stupid mistake, surely you had something that could reverse something as simple as a color change??

There was something that caught his eye, on your bottom shelf, tucked away in the back was a bottle with the label peeling off, but from what he could read, it seemed promising.

"Hmm.. 'use in only your most dire of situations' or, something like that." He shrugged, surely that's what the barely there label said. He didn't have much time to think about it as he heard your front door close. He ran back to the cauldron, dumping the rest of the contents of the bottle into it and quickly stirring with the spoon you'd left out. He tucked the bottle into his inner pocket and ran back to your bookshelf just as your footsteps were heard on the stairs.

You squinted at him as you reached the bottom of the staircase, "I really didn't think you'd listen, I thought for sure you would blow my house up."

He chuckled weakly as he flipped randomly through one of your books, "yeah of course I would listen to you! Wouldn't want my order to get messed up like you said," he kept his eyes down at the book as you walked over to your cauldron.

"This should be done now, I'm gonna give it a quick taste test," you took your cauldron off the heat, grabbing your spoon and bringing some of the finished product to your lips, slowly sipping as it was still so hot. Right away something seemed off to you, "strange," Wooyoung moved his eyes to watch you, "Woo, you ordered just a food enhancing potion right?" He nodded. "Can you come taste this? It tastes different from the other batches I've made for you."

He cautiously got up, coming right next to you as you lifted your spoon to his mouth. Taking as much as you did, he spoke after a moment, "yeah it's sort of off, I guess."

You squinted your eyes for a second before realizing and whacking him on the arm with your spoon, "you idiot! I knew you did something to this! What did you add?!"

He backed up, attempting to run from your swings, "nothing bad! Just something to make it smell better! Ow!"

"Woo!" *thwack!* "That's what I was going to do after it was done simmering!" *thwack!* "Show me exactly what you put in here!" *thwack!*

He walked around you as you stood with your spoon still in hand and pointed to the jar of red ginseng.

"And how much did you put in?"

He shrugged, "about a handful? Give or take."

You walked over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him a little, "dude, when I say to not fuck with my stuff I mean it! Red ginseng is an aphrodisiac! Now we have to wait for this shit to run its course!" As you continued to shake him, something fell out of his robe and rolled onto the floor. You stopped and bent down to pick it up, you eyes nearly falling out of your head when you saw what it was.

You took a few deep breaths, "Wooyoung, I swear on all my mothers, did this come from my shelf too?"

He tried to take a few steps away but you grabbed his arm, tightly. "It might have....."

If you knew any of the spells to instantly kill someone surely your first victim would be Wooyoung.

You took another deep breath in, "Woo, did it ever occur to you that maybe this bottle was in the way back of my shelf for a reason? That maybe it's a little stronger than most of my ingredients?"

He shook his head no.

"Woo. Maybe if you had taken the time to try and read the barely there label, you would've seen that it says 'use in only your most desirable situations'. This is a very strong aphrodisiac! So not only did you add one aphrodisiac, you added another, ridiculously strong aphrodisiac to that! So now we are actually going to have to suffer while waiting for this to wear off!"

He went over to the chaise lounge chair you had by your bookcase and sprawled out on it, "alright look, we just have to wait it out. How bad could that be?"

----

Turns out it was really, really bad.

You began to count the stones on the floor to distract yourself from the worsening symptoms. Nothing was working. Every time you got to five or six your brain would reroute to all of the nasty things Wooyoung could do to you. You had to keep shaking your head to reset your thoughts but things kept getting worse and worse. As time went on and you tried to wait it out, you kept moving your eyes from the floor to Wooyoung’s hands, to the seam where his pants met, mind drifting to wondering how big his cock might be, if he knew how to use it, what he sounds like. You could feel your skin growing hotter, face starting to flush, more dirty thoughts were starting to crowd your brain. Your vision was about to go when Wooyoung called your name,

"How long can this go on?"

You met his eyes, "I'm really not sure, I've never had this happen before."

He began to crawl forward on the lounge, "well, what if we did something to help get rid of the symptoms?"

Your head was already starting to get foggy, without thinking you started to crawl towards him, "and what should we do?"

You met him at the edge of the lounge chair, nose to nose, lips just barely touching. He turned his head so he could whisper in your ear, “I think we should fuck each others' brains out, on this chair, until the symptoms wear off. And maybe even after they wear off I'll continue to make you feel good, yeah?"

Your breathing hitched and you swore he could hear your heartbeat, he turned back to meet your eyes and you leaned in to grab him in a deep kiss, crawling up to lean back on the chair with him under you.

"Aw, pretty girl wants me to make her feel good? That what you want?"

You whimpered and nodded your head quickly. The aphrodisiacs were putting your body into overdrive, rendering you unable to think about anything other than getting this man inside of you. You were grabbing at anything you could reach, shrugging his robe off his shoulders, followed by yours hitting the ground; soon it was a frenzy of fabrics flying around the room until you were both naked. In the mess of taking clothes off, you two had switched positions on the couch, you were now lying under Wooyoung, which gave him perfect access to your entire body. His lips began kissing and sucking and biting all over your neck, leaving small hickies that would surely darken as he continued. His hands wandered all over, unable to find a spot to rest. From groping your ass, to moving up and grabbing your tits, flicking and tweaking your nipples as he moved. His lower half wouldn’t stay still either, his cock constantly grinding against your bare pussy, making you leak onto the lounge and only aiding in making you feel like your skin was on fire. His lips continued biting and licking at your neck, moving up to your ear and lightly biting it, letting go to whisper, “what do you need babe? tell me what you want.”

You sighed and moaned, trying to hold on to the last bit of sanity you had, “fuck me Woo please, please I need you so badly right now I’ll do whatever you want just please get inside of me.”

He moved his head so he could see your face, dropping one of his hands down low so he could line up with your entrance, watching your face change as he guided the tip of his cock up and down your slit, hitting your clit each time, making you moan and groan as frustration started to build up. He grinned, “what’s the matter baby? can’t wait? that desperate to have me?”

You sighed as he bumped your clit again, “yes I don’t know how you aren’t! Please just get inside of me—” he finally pushed into you, cutting off your train of thought as he bottomed out inside of you. You hadn’t gotten the chanced to really look at how big he was, but from the stretch you could tell he was decently big, enough to make you drop your jaw and let your legs fall to either side of him. He locked eyes with you and flashed a wicked grin as he continued to push into you. You turned your head to the side, unable to hold the very intimate eye contact with him. Just as you felt him fully sheathe himself inside of you, he groaned and whispered into your ear, “if I had known you felt this good, I would have fucked with my order much sooner."

You had no idea how his brain wasn't as foggy as yours right now, the aphrodisiacs rendering you nothing more than a mumbling, moaning mess underneath him. Your hands against his back, dragging your nails down the expanse of it was your last ditch effort to try and stay on Earth.

He started to pound into you, strong arms caging you in on either side of your head. Eventually, one of his hands found its way down your body and to your clit, lightly rubbing it in time with his thrusts.

You moaned loudly at the added stimulation, not too far away from climax, Wooyoung picked up on that and kept the same pace, but leaned down towards your ear to continue whispering absolute filth to you.

"Come on pretty girl, I know it's right there just come for me."

"You're taking me so well, such a good girl."

Your orgasm hit you so quickly you didn't have time to register it even happening at first, hitting you so hard your back arched off the lounge, Wooyoung sealing your lips in a kiss as he continued to fuck you through it. After you came down, he pulled out,

"I'm not done with you, think you have the energy to get on top?"

You shook your head yes, and he flipped you two over, you now sitting right above his achingly hard cock, lining it up with your entrance and sinking down with a hiss. Wooyoung moaned loudly at the new position. You began to bounce your hips up and down, the lounge slightly creaking under you two. You sat up a bit so you could look at the man under you, an idea popping into your head immediately. You snaked your hand up to the column of his throat and gave a light squeeze at the sides, earning a gasp and another moan from Wooyoung.

You flashed a wicked grin at him now, "aw does that feel good? I had a feeling you would like that." You added a little more pressure to his neck and bounced with more vigor on his cock.

He looked up at you and whimpered, "yes, yes I fucking love it please don't stop." He gripped your hips tightly, likely bruising them in the process, encouraging you to keep at the pace you had set.

All that could be heard throughout your house were the sounds of creaking from the lounge you two were on, and combined moans from the both of you. You could tell that he was getting close from the way his whimpers got higher.

You released your hand from his neck, opting to pull at his hair lightly as you bent down to whisper in his ear, "come on pretty boy, I want you to come for me, give it to me."

He started to buck his hips up into you, rapidly chasing his high. Your second orgasm wasn't too far behind, you took your hand out of his hair and reached back down to rub your clit, trying to finish nearly at the same time as him. His moans grew so rapid and desperate, you knew he wasn't going to last much longer.

Your second climax came with a blurring vision and ringing in your ears, moaning so loudly as you came around him for the second time. Shivering and shaking as he pulled out of you and finished on your chest and stomach, moaning and groaning as he rode out his high.

You both sat there for a moment catching your breath, trying to register if the aphrodisiacs had finally worn off yet. You still had this buzzing feeling on your skin, groaning with frustration.

Wooyoung sat up on his elbows and looked up at you, "do you still feel it too?"

You huffed, "yes. I thought that would have fixed it."

He laughed as he flipped you two back over, "let me see if this will help."

He lifted your legs onto his shoulders as he got down onto his knees, face right in line with your still throbbing clit. He licked a long, painfully slow stripe up your slit, causing you to loll your head back and let out a low groan, already feeling close again.

Your hands found purchase in his hair, lightly tugging at it to encourage him to continue. He groaned at the sensation, sending vibrations through your body, giving you chills down your spine.

He continued to lick and suck at your clit, adding his fingers, curling them into you. You gripped tighter onto his hair, feeling like you could tip over the edge at any second.

Before you could get there, he stopped and sat up, earning a whine from you.

He took your legs off his shoulders, "get on your hands and knees, I want to be inside of you again."

You happily complied and flipped over, wiggling your ass a little at him, earning a slap on your cheeks. You let you another loud moan as he lined up and entered you with ease, beginning to fuck you into the lounge again.

The sound of skin slapping on skin could be heard throughout your house as he pounded into you, his hands gripping onto your hips to keep you from sliding down. Your orgasm from before already creeping up on you, Wooyoung decided to snake one of his hands up your back and into your hair, pulling you so your back was flush with his chest.

From this angle you could feel every inch of him, hitting that spot inside of you that was about to send you over the edge, he brought you closer by your hair and started to kiss and bite your neck, making you moan loudly. He chuckled as he let up on you, admiring his work of purples, blues, and a little bit of red that now adorned your neck. He moved up a little more to bite your ear, and that, combined with his thrusts and his grip on your hair, was enough to send you toppling over the edge again, making you nearly scream at the sensation. He left kisses along your cheek, jawline, and neck as you continued to ride your high.

"Think you can hang in there a little more? I'm so close baby." He loosened his grip on your hair, letting you fall forward onto your elbows.

"Yeah give it to me, come for me again, Woo." He moaned and picked his pace back up again, focusing on his orgasm as you laid there and took it.

He gave you a couple more hard thrusts before he was pulling out again, finishing on your back this time. You let your hips fall as he stood up, both of you taking in deep breaths.

You weakly stood up, now very aware of how sticky you felt. You huffed, "I think that finally did the fucking trick, I'm exhausted but I absolutely need a shower before I lay in my bed."

He laughed at the state of you, "yeah. Definitely. Sorry about that, let me help you." He guided you up your stairs and to your bathroom, keeping a hand on your waist as he turned your shower on, making sure the temperature was alright. He pulled back the shower curtain and allowed you to step in, following in behind you.

Once you both were cleaned off he turned the faucet off and guided you to your bedroom, helping you get dressed as you offered him something to wear.

You looked up at him as you crawled into bed, "you coming?"

He stared at you, "are you sure?"

You laughed, "of course I am! I'm not just going to let you go home after all of that!" He smiled as he crawled into bed, snuggling up behind you.

"Of course, I also want to make sure that the effects really, truly wore off, you know?''

You heard him chuckle behind you, "Oh yeah, of course."

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an; hehehe hope you guys like this one :D lmk what else you wanna see from me! also this was cross-posted onto my AO3 account

[fenesst]

Sorta just a silly little art dump I'll keep updating abt the canvas though <3 **

Currently giving my room a make over I'll post more stuff next month I promise <333

[melloneah]

mello and/or megumi for the character ask :)

HOLY SHIT THIS HAS BEEN STEWING IN MY DRAFTS FOR MONTHS LMAO SORRY BESTIE (i didnt have enough megumi insight to comfortably answer back then but ive been STUDYING FOR MONTHS >:3) THANK U FOR THE ASK LETS GET INTO IT

MELLO

favourite thing about them

i have to say his cunty-ass fashion style bc that alone dragged me into loving him in the first place<333

least favorite thing about them

he just needs to chill fr

favorite line

"i'll be waiting" <33333

brOTP

MATTTTTT obvi

ОТР

i HAVE to say meronia since it's my main ship, but i love M2 too. honestly id say theyre equal in my eyes

nОТР

uhmmmmmm takada probably? besides that, im happy to ship anything tbh jfhsdjhf i aint one to have a nOTP WHATEVER MAKES BRO HAPPY

random headcanon

the answer i had in my drafts was extreme lmfaoooo ill stick to saying: cokehead

unpopular opinion

i personally think he wasnt a bully at wammy's. i dont mean that he was nice lmao but he just didnt waste his time on picking on others

song i associate with them

surfacing by slipknot

favorite picture of them

his wide ass eyes of course always and forever

MEGUMI

favourite thing about them

his entire philosophy - i feel like in anime we often see this black and white perspective on saving people and purpose, but jjk took a far more human route imo with characters such as megumi and geto, and i loooooove it so much. megumi's entire 'picking who he wants to save' attitude is so unique to him in his environment and i feel like it truly shows how strong his personality and values are :3 i love that little guy i could yap for hours

least favorite thing about them

them shoes. WHAT R U THINKING MEGUMI GET THEM UGLY THINGS OFF OF U

favorite line

"I've had enough" IM SORRY BUT IT MAKES ME FEEL SO INTENSELY. I HAD TO PICK IT AS A FAVOURITE. i love to suffer :3

brOTP

i wanna say yuuta bc he's probably the only person in that school that megumi truly respects lmaooo

ОТР

ITAFUSHIITAHDIUDIFHWIOUYDHIWUEDFH YUUJI AND MEGUMI IN LOVE ITAFUSHITUIATHSIFO

nОТР

in canon? anyone who is over the age 18 bro

random headcanon

very random hc not even just megumi related but. yuuji jumps out of the shower soaking wet and immediately gets dressed while megumi has to be bone dry to have any fabric on him. idk how why or when i came up with that one but like. idk. make sense in my little head. they would b like that. to me.

unpopular opinion

he deserves a villain arc n im kinda sad we now know for a fact he wont get one </33

song i associate with them

HGHHGHGH i wrote a whole song inspired by him but it's not coming out for a While </333 so im gonna link another song that had me SHOCKED at how megumi it was (and it broke my heart)

down in a hole by alice in chains

favorite picture of them

hehehehe 😀

sorry uhm. anyway

ask me abt whatever

[thedissociatives]

Heeeyyyy, I'm so so intrigued by your hockey posting. I'd love to know more about Fedorov, like what's the lore, what makes him special? Have a nice day/ night <333

good morning/afternoon/evening anon! since you asked so nicely i'll try my best but i do tend to forget everything i know when i have to actually explain it. there is a lot of lore tho so i'm not gonna go over all of it (mainly the bits that interest me the most + some other stuff). i guess what really makes him special (at least to me) is the fact that we don't get players like this anymore. and i'm not talking playing style here (the impact of euro hockey players of the 90s on the nhl today is still so obviously there). a lot of his early career was directly impacted by cold war politics, and since those circumstances haven't existed for a while now, we don't get this insane type of backstories and lore anymore. i should also make it clear that i'm a massive nerd who sat in classrooms for years learning abt soviet stuff which i think definitely has an impact on who My Guys are

seriously there is a lot under the cut so be warned because i did get carried away with myself A Lot (i literally wrote over 1k words on this. sorry in advance)

ok so. sergei started playing "pro" hockey in the soviet union in the mid 80s (i don't think this is the place to explain whether these players were pro or amateur so will leave it like that), first in minsk (only for a year) before being picked up by cska moscow- the central army team. these guys made up most of the national team, which can probably be explained by the fact that their head coach also coached the national team (god that's a bit of a mouthful, but incredibly relevant). he wasn't the only rookie on the team that season; another kid (i think they were both like 16 at the time ?) called alex mogilny had also just arrived in moscow. they would become good friends. sergei would play three seasons for cska before being called up for the national team- he was going to the 1989 world championship. alex would be there, too, having already played on the team before. naturally, the ussr won gold (as they did almost every year). but that doesn't mean everything was good with the players. not long too after the tournament, some of the older players would finally get permission to play in the nhl, but for the younger guys it was looking like they had no way of getting out any time soon. in the days between the end of the championship and the soviet team's flight home, mogilny apparently approached fedorov and asked him to go to america with him- sergei said no, worried about what would happen to his family. alex would go anyway, disappearing for a few days before popping up in buffalo ready to join the sabres. (this might seem irrelevant right now but it's actually really not- i'm getting there now)

that same summer, sergei would be drafted in the fourth round by detroit. this choice may or may not have been influenced by steve yzerman telling them sergei was better than him. after a bit of back and forth, they got him to defect after cska played a series of games in north america. it literally sounds like the type of shit they write in spy films it was fucking mental. this made him only the second soviet to defect in order to play in the nhl i'm pretty sure (defo the second in like 18 months- funnily enough it was his bestie who was the first one. what a coincidence), but they weren't the first two from the other side of the iron curtain to do that. might be wrong but i think that honour goes to the stastny brothers. anyway. when sergei got to detroit he wore 91 because he wanted to "be like stevie" or some insane shit like that. which i literally think about all the time. like seriously what was that about sergei.

okok can't not talk about the russian five so doing that now. since idk how much you know about hockey i'll do a better job on this bit. after sergei arrived in detroit, management must've figured they could get more russians. over the next couple of years they got vladimir konstantinov (who was drafted the same year as sergei) and slava kozlov to make the jump to the states. since i'm mainly talking about sergei i won't go into how they got those two but it's just as unbelievable as you'd expect. after the 1994-95 lockout, the wings traded for another russian- slava fetisov. if you ever want to learn about soviet hockey you'll hear a lot about this guy, and for good reason too. he won two olympic gold medals and seven world championships with the soviet union, and captained most of those teams. obviously adding a guy with that much experience winning was a smart choice imo, even if he hadn't won anything in the nhl yet. by now the wings had four russian players- why not add a fifth ? in 1994 the wings were embarrassed in the playoffs, losing to san jose. it just happened that sj happened to have two of the older soviets who had fought for the right to play in north america. one of them was igor larionov- probably the smartest guy to ever play hockey. it was his tactics (and refusal to change his style of play) that led to his team's success in the first round. and i guess detroit didn't ever want to deal with that again because they ended up trading for the guy in the first part of the 1995-96 season. the russian five first played together in calgary, where they played that style of soviet hockey that nhlers could never really wrap their heads around at the time. they walked all over the flames in their own building, and would continue to do the same to the rest of the league. the five would be a key part of the 1997 stanley cup-winning team, which was the first wings team to lift the cup in over forty years.

sergei stayed to win a few more cups, and then left the city. he signed w the ducks in anaheim, bleached his hair and moved out to california (i think we can all resonate with wanting to change our appearance and move thousands of miles away from where we've spent over a decade building out lives amiright). from what i can tell, this move was Not Liked by detroit's owners (honestly i can't see any other reason his number hasn't been retired there). he'd bounce around a couple more nhl teams before going back to russia to play on the same team as his brother, eventually retiring in 2012.

jumping to 2015, that year's hockey hall of fame inductees included sergei (and nick lidstrom, one of his detroit teammates and one of the best defencemen to every play the game). it was basically a 90s wings reunion. in sergei's induction speech, he did like everyone else and thanked a bunch of people who helped him out throughout his career. and, you know, it was all the expected stuff (hockey guys can be so predictable sometimes), but "to my captain, steve yzerman" still fucking gets me. it had been twelve years since he'd worn a wings jersey. my captain. i think you get my point but i'm gonna have to stop there because i can't carry on and be remotely normal about it.

oh and in 2021, after spending a few years bouncing around random jobs for the team, cska announced that fedorov would be taking over as head coach. he went back to the team where all this started. now i don't know how exactly he is with his team but i sure hope he learned enough from his days there as a player under tikhonov on exactly how not to treat your players. cska won back to back gagarin cups (the trophy awarded to the khl team who wins the playoffs) in sergei'd first two seasons behind the bench, and they're probably looking to make it a threepeat with the playoffs starting today (?)

[bugfayce]

Managed to dig up some old concept designs for Amelia all the way from late January to February, putting them all under the cut because there is a lot

(Note: the dude with the goggles and nails in his head is my ol1 oc Francis who I haven't posted here yet)

She's been through a LOT of different changes and iterations, started off as a loose concept on January 22nd when me and my friends found out there were multiple pushers and it's been a downhill spiral ever since then. She is my specialest girl in the world ever 🫶🫶🫶 I hate her so much.

Initially her mask was gonna be more inspired by the gp-7 and gp-5 (ShM-62 if ur a NERD abt gasmasks) but I changed that after seeing one of the cover artworks for STALKER:SoC and finding out abt the gp-4 lmao.

Might revisit the idea of her using an oxygen mask instead of a regular hose one day, but I do also really like what she has rn.

She was also almost a dude at one point but it just didn't feel right 💔💔💔 need my evil women or I will die.

I really REALLY liked the super clunky radio speaker, I based off of a picture of a Hungarian soldier with a giant speaker on his chest that connected to his gasmask. Unfortunately she wound up just looking like an outfit for the reagents lol. I'll see if I can maybe incorporate it back into her design somehow.

There isn't rlly too much to say abt her story since I didn't think abt it that much until I had a 3-4 month long artblock. Initially she was going to be a massive kleptomaniac and her gimmick would be spraying you with gas AND taking an item or two from your inventory but that was slowly scrapped over the course of a few months.

At one very brief moment she was going to be this super washed up kid of a millionaire who stole items cause she was super greedy or smth (which is why she's wearing a suit in one of the pages) but that was also scrapped.

All in all, I'm very happy with where she is rn, one of my favourite ocs ever 🫶🫶🫶

Yap sesh over now ok bye!!!! Feel free 2 ask questions if u have any :333

[svnflowermoon]

☕talk about ur best friend! what're they like? what do u love about them? <3

OMG YAY OK i could talk about my best friends for HOURSSSS (i have a few best friends so i'll talk abt all of them <333)

ok so first there's 🐀 (emoji is an inside joke i made her a felted stripper rat for her birthday) i don't think she knows she's my best friend but idk?? genuinely one of my fav people ever she's literally the funniest person on earth and i love her so much, we've known each other for like 6 years now which is insane to me. on all of our school holidays we have sleepovers where we watch the cringiest movies we can find and make cursed cakes (if you want more context send me an ask lmao 😭) and honestly it's so fun. we wore matching fairy costumes last year on halloween (i was blue, she was green) bc of the whole ✨she was a fairy✨ audio it was so funny and we're gonna do a transition from those outfits into our formal dresses at the end of the year in the same colours hehe (which i helped her pick literally two days ago). also been accused of being madly in love with her which is how you know the friendship is real lmaooo

then there's 🐟(she would HATE me for this emoji LMAOOOO) and she's literally one of my favourite people in the world and ive known her for a year????? like there is a massive part of my heart that is molded perfectly for her and we only met last year??? it's insane to me honestly she's irreplaceable idk what I'd do without her i adore her with my whole heart. literally one of my favourite memories from last year is with her from the eras tour movie like it was a core memory that will live in my heart forever we sung and danced together and at that point we'd known each other for like 6 months??? crazy to me that she's so important to me after so little time like it feels like I've known her my whole life and those kinds of connections are so important to me. but anyway she's so funny and the sweetest person ever and she got me a birthday present 2 months ago??? my birthday's in june 😭😭😭 i love her endlesslyyyy and we have plans to run away to italy together to escape maths. it's so funny as well bc we've been friends for just a year and literally everyone associates us together like "oh you're ___'s lucy!!" and im like hell yeah we've known each other forever- and then it's one year

okayyy and then there's 💐 and ugh she's so sweet we've known each other for like 2 years and we bonded over music and she's literally an angel on earth im so lucky to know her. she's the sweetest, kindest person i know i genuinely cannot express how much she means to me. we go thrifting together and gossip a bunch and we have plans to go to concerts together and ugh she's my pinterest spotify soulmate she's sooo sweet you have no idea <333 cannot express how much she means to me

[murdrdocs]

nahh it's okay you had to get requests done CONGRATS ON 5K BTW??? ATE IT UP BUT YEAHH I'M HOPING FOR ROMANTIC BUT HEY I'LL SETTLE WITH HEAVY PLATONIC TOO ASKGDSKG but the knee thing just happens a lot so I'm sure it's just overworking it I'm working on icing/heating it WHICH HE GOT WORRIED ABOUT TOO HE TOLD ME TO ICE IT A BUNCH AND AJSHGJSD but yeah the first time you hear it it's HILARIOUS but hearing it 15 times in one hour is just it makes me just squirm idk why BUT PLEEEEEEASE YOU'LL GET SO MUCH MORE I don't have a life for the next month literally the only day I have off is 4/20 LMAOOO

TYSM !!! i srsly have yall to thank <333

A WIN IS A WIN. but i'm glad it's not something to worry abt but as soon as this all is over you better get the rest you need or else 😠 . THERE'S SOMETHING ABT PPL CHECKING UP ON U LIKE !!!

no no i get it i haven't done a musical in yrs but even from like plays the jokes get old very quick but it's always worth it when the audience sees it for the first time.

plus i'm excited to see how this all plays out

[throwaway-yandere]

When wishing in Genshin I like to pretend that the characters are self aware and THEY decide whether or not they come home or not ... On Kazuha rerun I had 5 wishes, no pity and no guarantee and said what the hell, what do I have to lose.

He came home AGAIN at freaking 5 pity. I've NEVER gotten a character THAT early before... In my dumb, lovesick brain that was pretty much him going "Aw boo 🥺 Ily so much, let's get married 🥺🥺💕💕 I'll build you a nice house in Inazuma and everything!)

I'm sorry but I WILL NEVER BE OVER THAT.... 5 fucking pity and I NEVER win my 50/50's...

I like to pretend the same too... And I am convinced celestia hates me because all the archons avoided me (recently got C2 Diluc in my Nahida pulls, decided I'll just save for ayato–)

I just KNOW that if I get isekaid in Genshin I'd be Dain's/Enjou's Khaenri'ahn (ex-)bestie. Maybe I'll join the abyss order or something. This is my villain arc–

[shsjka i probably tell this story a lot but I'm still pretty fricking happy abt it. I was saving to pull for Itto since Childe's banner but then I heard Ayato's voice in his teaser. I like his voice. I had a huge hunch on who the Eng VA was so I saved for months until march to get him. I do not have faith in my luck. I'm broke so even my friend gave me welkin too because they pity me lol

I was around 36K primos and I was only expecting C0 Ayato and his R1. I GOT C3 R1 AYATO AND I AM SORRY BUT HE DEFINITELY KNOWS AN OBEDIENT DOG WHEN HE SEES ONE THIS IS MY REWARD aWOOO <333– NO WAY THEY'RE NOT AWARE I KNOW IT'S ILLOGICAL BUT I REFUSE TO BELIEVE OTHERWISE– AYATO KNOWS I'M A SIMP. THE ARCHONS KNOW I AM A DAINSLEIF FAN. HOYO KNOWS–]

[doodlebloo]

"Omg Dream put on a suit!" Yeah so did Tubbo. Look out for his new music video for his debut hit single "Life By The Sea", coming soon to all streaming platforms

[jakesimfromstatefarm]

notoriously yours | jay park

✰ summary: jay park is a rich kid. it’s safe to say he has everything every broke college student on his campus could dream of and more. but the one thing he doesn’t have, which money definitely can’t buy, is a girlfriend. and his friends won’t see of it. literally.

so what happens when his friends bet him to date someone for more than three months? what happens when jay decides that fake-dating someone would be easier than actual dating (because god forbid Jay–the campus’ notoriously known fuckboy–decides to commit to something once in his life)?

and what happens when that someone is you, his childhood best friend he hasn’t spoken to in years..who has absolutely no interest in being in his life anymore?

✰ pairing: jay park x y/n [ft. members of enha]

✰ genre: fluff, comedy, angst | fakedating!au, college!au, childhoodbestfriends!au, (kinda) e2l!au

✰ warnings: cursing, nothing suggestive but jay's a fuckboy so slightly suggestive themes, mentions of parental neglect/leaving, it's hella long (and i thought my last fic was long)

✰ wc: 14.7k (how did i get it this long oh lord)

✰ author's note: picture creds go to original owners/editors! peep that edit of jay that lowkey inspired this entire fic 👀also this took me so, so long bc i lost motivation half way thru and bc college is a thing,,,so i honestly don't know how to feel abt it so pls bare with me :')))) ALSO the dividers are weird bc idk how to add more than 10 pics for the dividers so pls excuse those ٩(× ×)۶i hope u guys enjoy!! <333

⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺

Jay Park is a rich kid.

Jay Park has enough to buy every textbook he needs for his courses without having to look up the free versions online. Jay Park has enough to bribe his professors to let him pass every class with a perfect 4.0 GPA (but because the boy has morals, he doesn't). Jay Park has enough to afford a car to drive to his furthest class from his dorm building instead of walk or bike like every other college student, meaning he also has enough to afford a parking spot on campus (those things aren't cheap!).

Jay Park walks around your school's campus like he owns the place (and considering the amount of money his family has donated to the school, he practically does), looking like he just walked out of your local coffee shop's newest fashion magazine. His blonde hair is never seen untouched, his attire usually consisting of an undoubtedly high-end all-black fit, accessorized with multiple earrings and rings that probably cost more than all the overpriced textbooks you had to rent out this semester. It's safe to say that everyone knows Jay Park.

Bottom line is, Jay Park has everything.

Well, his friends beg to differ.

In their eyes, Jay Park has everything but a simple factor in the equation of love (or whatever love is to the minds of a couple of 19 year olds): commitment.

So yes, it's safe to say that everyone knows Jay Park. Because everyone knows he's the campus' rich fuckboy. (What's a college fanfic campus without one anyways?)

Jay doesn't go unreminded of this by his friends, to the boy's annoyance.

Jay is aware of this on a Sunday afternoon, in his dorm building's first floor lounge, where he and his said friends are having a study session.

They're doing anything but studying.

In fact, no one has any books out or anything. Not a single laptop in site.

"You don't think it's the slightly bit concerning?" Jake's words are muffled as he continues munching on the fried chicken that he spent majority of this study session debating if he should have it delivered through UberEats or not.

"I really don't, no," Jay shrugs as he continues mindlessly scrolling through his Instagram feed. They're having the same argument conversation that they've revisited multiple times over the course of their friendship, one that Jay has been lectured on too many times for his own good. He thinks his friends could become his new parents if they really tried.

"Look at it this way, okay. You're about to graduate college in a couple of years, into the big world. Like the actual, adult world. And that means you'll have to settle down. Which you can't do when you. have. no. commitment!" Jake punctuates each word with a single clap of his hands, desperate to get his point across.

Jay simply rolls his eyes. He looks over to Sunghoon, who's minding his own business, not bothered by the same topic he's heard over and over again. His eyes tell Jay you're on your own, in response to his blonde-haired friend's look of despair.

Jay thinks that maybe he should get new friends. Yes, that's the only solution here.

"My love life," Jay reaches across the table for a drumstick from the greasy tub seated in Jake's lap until Jake swats his hand away, "is none of your business. Also, ouch."

"Uh, it kinda is. Because of you and your reputation around campus, it kinda affects us, your best friends. How do you think we look, hanging out with the guy who's known to ghost every girl in existence after one night with them? No offense to you," Jake deadpans to him. Jay mentally reconsiders the term best friends.

Tough love. Jay tells himself it's tough love.

"Yes, because every girl totally hates Jake Sim, the teacher assistant of a physics class who volunteers at the pet shelter every Sunday and brings their pet golden retriever to campus every two weeks," Jay rolls his eyes at his Australian friend.

Jake sighs. "Okay, then I'm coming from a place of worry for you."

Jay groans. "Again, none of your business!" This doesn't stop Jake. He comes from good intentions, really, but Jay wants nothing more than to stuff the kid's mouth with some of that chicken to shut him up.

"What are you gonna do if one day you meet someone you like, genuinely like, and you screw yourself over because you've never been in an actual relationship before? A real, committed one. Like one that lasts at least three months."

"You don't think I can last three months in a relationship?" Jay questions the boy currently taunting him.

"Honestly? No. What's the longest relationship you've been in?" Jake cocks an eyebrow at his friend across from him.

One month and two weeks. But Jay's smart enough to not say that out loud.

"I can so last over three months," Jay mutters more to himself than Jake.

Jake laughs at that, pausing to take another bite of the drumstick in his hand. "Jay, I am willing to actually bet you. Bet that you wouldn't be able to." He leans back on the couch, the ball now in Jay's court.

Jay freezes, looking up from his phone, narrowing his eyes at Jake.

"Forget it, Jake. He's not gonna agree even if you offered him money," Sunghoon finally perches from beside him. Well he's not wrong. It's not like Jay is exactly in need of more money, per say.

"What kind of bet are we talking here?"

Sunghoon's right. Jay doesn't need the money, but he does hate being wrong. Even if it's over something as stupid as this matter.

Caught off guard by the blonde's answer, Jake blinks blankly at him and takes a second to think.

"Hmm..what about...what about if you can date someone for at least three months, and I mean an actual, committed relationship, then I'll do all of your physics homework next semester."

Jay's eyes sparkle at that. If there's anything he despises more than commitment, it's physics.

"And if I win, you have to buy all of my textbooks," Jake sits back from the edge of his seat with a smirk lying on his face.

Jay pauses to think about it. I mean, what does he have to lose? A couple hundred dollars over college textbooks? No. Because he just simply won't lose.

And maybe he'll learn what it'll be like to actually be in a committed relationship for once. Maybe he'll finally learn what it's like to actually devote yourself to someone, open up to them. He shivers at the thought. Never mind. He'll warm up to it. Baby steps.

Nonetheless, what could go wrong? Even if he does lose, at least his money would be going somewhere productive––towards his friend's education. Jay was probably gonna use that money on something useless like a blanket that resembles a tortilla (a burrito blanket, he calls it)––something he doesn't necessarily need, but must have, he would argue.

"Fine. Whatever, okay. Deal," he grabs Jake's extended hand in front of him and shakes on it.

Jake's impressively smiling at the boy as Sunghoon lets out a sigh, in disbelief with the two guys he calls his best friends.

Jay concludes that this will be easier than his Introduction to Photography 101 course he took his freshman year. How hard is it to find someone to date the Jay Park? Surely, everyone will be lining up once Jay switches his FaceBook relationship status from "it's complicated" to "single".

Turns out, it's not as easy as his class where all Jay had to do was take pictures of a pretty sunset, slap a VSCO filter on, and call it a day.

He comes to this realization on a Wednesday evening, as he's seated at one of the many study tables lined in the middle of the campus' library, staring down at his phone's dry iMessage app, with his laptop and blank sheets of scratch paper scrambled across the entire table, as an attempt to look half as studious as the other students studying in the facility.

Turns out, being known as the campus' fuckboy who ghosts every girl on campus isn't a good thing when it comes to wanting to find a real relationship.

He comes to this realization after failing to receive a single text back to the many ones he sent out throughout the first half of his day. The ghoster gets ghosted. Oh how the turn tables.

Jay groans dramatically as he tosses his phone on the hard surface of the table, earning himself a harsh shush from the librarian filing books in the aisle beside him.

He sheepishly smiles back as an apology, directing his attention back to his open laptop screen, where his untouched calculus homework stares back at him––his mind preoccupied with the looming threat of Jake's bet. Not that it was threatening in any way, per say, but Jay just hates losing. And from the looks of things, it's safe to say that Jay won't be celebrating any victories anytime soon.

Jay thinks he should just change his identity and just transfer to some boarding school in Switzerland. Yes, that's a much better solution than admitting defeat to Jake.

Jay sighs as he lies his head on the table, figuring he might as well just write the check for Jake's textbooks now. He wonders how he got here in the first place. Not how he got into the bet, and definitely not how he's sitting in the middle of the library, having yet to start his calculus homework due at 11:59PM tonight (he should really start that).

But no, he wonders how he gained the reputation as the campus' playboy. To be fair, his friends (mainly Jake), are constantly reminding him of his notorious habits. But how did they come a habit in the first place?

The idea of being in a relationship is nice, sure, but the commitment that comes with it? The idea of being dependent on someone? It's scary, vulnerable, and one that Jay can't picture for himself.

Maybe some people just aren't meant to be paired. Maybe some people, like Jay, like being independent and are meant to stay that way.

But Jay also likes affection. He likes the fleeting, warm feeling he gets every time he finds himself under someone's sheets. He likes the short-lived comfort he receives from someone else's touch, even though he knows it's going to cease to exist the second he steps out of those bedroom's doors. He just likes affection, simple as that.

That and he's a 19 year old teenage boy with needs, what did you expect?

And so what if he likes the idea of affection minus commitment? Is that so bad? Apparently it is, to people like his friends and the entirety of his school's campus, at least.

At this rate, he might as well pay someone to date him.

Wait. Jay lifts his head off the table's surface in realization.

He might as well pay someone to date him.

There's no harm in that, is there?

He wouldn't have to endure through an endless amount of dates to find someone he clicks with, then continue going on dates with said clicked person, all while trying to develop an actual, serious relationship.

He'll win the bet, get his physics homework done for an entire semester, and some lucky girl out there will be making profit for the small price of hanging out with Jay Park for three months.

And lucky for him, Jay knows the perfect candidate for this scheme.

Simple as that.

Just as long as said perfect candidate says yes.

And as long as Jake and Sunghoon don't find out. Or else Jay might really have to move to Switzerland after all.

You love your friends, you do.

Hana and Heeseung have been there for you when others haven't––they were by your side when you knew no one entering high school, and they were still by your side when you were all graduating said high school. Needless to say, you're eternally grateful for friends like them.

But right now, in this moment––with you seated in the middle of the campus' library, trying to write your essay, as your two friends blabber on and on about the most recent gossip across from you––your two friends could be your villain origin story.

But again, you love your friends, you do. So you don't have the heart to tell them to leave. You've managed to naturally tune out most of the conversation, anyways, for this––your friends coming to hang out while you're trying to study––is no rare occurrence by any means.

"Oh yeah, Jay Park texted me last night."

You hate how your brain's filter suddenly turns off at Hana's words.

You hate how your ears catch the sudden mention of Jay Park's name.

You hate how the thought of Jay Park gets to even occupy a single brain cell of yours.

You hate how you even know who Jay Park is. Well, knew.

Past tense. Because up until eighth grade––when Jay decided to just suddenly pretend you didn't exist––he was attached to you like a koala to a eucalyptus tree.

And if you had asked past Y/N, ideally, Jay would've never left your side. Ideally, he would've never left you to fend for yourself when entering high school. Ideally, he would've stayed your best friend through out all four years of high school and ideally, you would've eventually told him how you really felt about him after growing up with him all your life. And maybe it would've lead to a completely different story. But for the sake of this fic, we don't live in an ideal world.

So yes, if it wasn't for his attendance at the very same university as you, you would've forgotten about the boy who brought you the painful memories of your childhood.

And since the universe clearly doesn't work in your favor, avoiding Jay Park's existence like he's the plague would have to suffice. And it works.

For the most part.

Until some people, bring him up uninvited into your conversation. Like now, for example.

"When was the last time you guys talked anyways?" Heeseung mindlessly asks as he reaches across the table to grab one of the many snacks you usually bring to your study sessions.

"Uh..like a few weeks ago. Give or take. Whenever you threw your house party. Can't say there was much talking involved however," she teasingly says with a giggle and wiggle of her brows.

Heeseung's rolling his eyes as you scoff and chuck a nearby crumpled piece of paper that was once one of your many essay drafts at her.

She bats it away right as it's about to hit her face as she laughs. "Doesn't matter anyways. He ghosted me the next morning, as he does with everyone else. Telling you this now," she extends a finger right at you, "stay away from Jay Park. That kid's just bad news."

You nod in response, mentally telling her she has nothing to worry about.

Been there, done that.

College. Ah yes, the very concept of spending four years of your life imprisoned on a campus where you'll be tearing your hair out from stress and spending all your life's savings just for a laminated sheet of paper with a golden stamp at the end of it all. We live in a society.

Because of said college, and all the weight that comes along with it, you had adapted a strict daily schedule in order to not completely lose your mind. It's a simple schedule really, one of a typical college student who's just trying to get by everyday with as little mental breakdowns as possible.

Wake up, get ready, go to class, go to the library to do your homework, walk all the way across campus to get back to your dorm, shower, then sleep. Oh and eat, of course. And maybe if time permits, be an actual social being and socialize.

It's gotten you this far into the college life without dropping out so, you conclude, you must be doing something right.

Sometimes, if you're feeling nice to yourself, you'll tweak the schedule a bit to fit in some exceptions. Maybe squeeze in a little trip to the bubble tea shop that's on the other side of campus, or maybe get dinner at that one dining hall that you don't usually go to because of the unncessarily long lines (but because they serve ice cream, you go anyways). It doesn't matter what the exception is, you still plan it out to fit into your schedule somehow. Everything is planned out.

Sometimes, however, the universe disagrees with your schedule, to your demise. Such as today, for example.

Because what you didn't expect for today was for a particular blonde-haired boy who you haven't spoken to in almost six years (but who's counting?) to approach your table in the library––a table you were sure no one could find you at, as it was quietly tucked away in the back corner, right next to the Astrophysics shelves. Because who browses the Astrophysics aisle for fun? Actually, maybe Jake Sim would. Anyways.

You definitely didn't anticipate a visit from the boy you've been actively avoiding, so you definitely didn't expect the first words coming out of his mouth when he sees you for the first time in six years to be:

"Fake date me."

You blink up at him.

Yeah, definitely not expected.

But you only let it phase you for a split second, until you feel a slight annoyance beginning to bubble up deep inside of you.

"Wow, hello to you too Jay! It's been what––half a decade? Yeah I've been pretty good, thanks for asking!" The sarcasm is practically dripping off your tongue.

You don't know what runs through Jay's mind, but apparently it isn't common sense––or the ability to read the room. Because next thing you know, he's sliding the chair across from you out from underneath the table and making himself at home.

And he's smiling right at you.

Curse him and his smile.

But no, you're not giving into it.

Not yet, at least.

"What do you want?" You deadpan at him when he makes no sign of making the next move.

"A girlfriend," he deadpans right back at you, as if he was casually telling you what he wanted for dinner. As if you two were close-knit friends that could approach one another without any proper greeting. As if you two had kept your friendship all these years. As if you two even had a role in each other's lives.

"Can't help you there," you scoff, deciding to not even question his lack of manners on top of his uninvited presence.

"Aren't you gonna ask me why?"

"Well gee, seeing that the first few words you decided to say to my face for the first time in forever were a demand, a demand to date you no less, then....no," your monotone voice says as you keep your eyes focused on your laptop screen, not daring to look at the boy across from you.

In the Introduction to Sociology course you took your freshmen year, you had learned of one important term: interactional vandalism. Textbook definition being: "ignoring signals of disinterest in a conversation, leading it to an offense."

Your definition being: "are you oblivious or just plan dumb, read the room!"

This was interactional vandalism, alright. Whether Jay's truly oblivious or just trying to annoy you until your head explodes (it's really the former, but you're convinced it's the latter), he takes your signals of disinterest and tosses it right out of his head to continue the conversation.

"I'm stuck in this stupid bet with Jake--do you remember him? He bet me that I couldn't date someone for more than three months and I figured having someone fake date me would be easier than actually dating someone, right? That's where you come into the equation," he proposes as he leans back in his chair, as if he had just finished a sales pitch to a prospective customer looking to buy a car.

You couldn't believe this. You're 98% sure this has got to be a prank. You're mentally preparing for a camera crew to jump out from in-between the library's aisles any moment now and scream into your ears that you've just been punk'd!

The remaining 2% of you, however, wouldn't put it past the two boys to get themselves in such a situation. The last memory you had of Jay and his friends were pretty much their childish selves back in middle school. And by looking at the current scene unfolding in front of you...it's needless to say they haven't changed much.

"Again, can't help you there. Ask one of the many girlfriends I thought you had." Ouch.

"But Y/N, you've known me all your life--"

"Up until you dropped me a few years ago but sure, let's call it that."

"--and convincing other people is gonna make me look--"

"--desperate? Yeah."

"C'mon, Y/N. What do you have to lose anyways?"

"Uh..my dignity? Pride? Self-respect? Sorry Jay, not happening," you turn your attention back to your unwritten essay in front of you, mentally checking out of this conversation. This would be a good time for that camera crew to jump out now.

"Look, no one else is gonna do it, Y/N." Jay has always been stubborn, you suppose. But so are you.

"Yeah, because you've managed to push every being of the opposite gender away from you. You gave yourself this reputation in the first place," you give it to him straight. It's not like you had a relationship with him to uphold anyways––Jay himself broke that friendship years ago.

Jay hates that you're right.

You're always right. He remembers how he used to always go to you for advice and clarity on the world's biggest problems. Granted, the world's biggest problems to him at the time equated to what he should dress up as for the fifth grade Halloween party, but still. A tough decision, for the mind of a ten-year-old.

You abruptly stop typing and begin putting your laptop and textbooks away as you huff in frustration. There's no point in trying to get your work done now. The longer you stay arguing with Jay, the bigger your headache gets. The longer he continues to occupy any part of your brain, the bigger your headache gets.

Getting up from your seat, packed and ready to slam your head into your pillow, you turn to the blonde one last time.

"Look Jay. We went on our separate ways years ago. If you weren't so notoriously known around campus and my friends would stop talking about you, I would've long forgotten you. I'm sorry you're in this situation, really. If I were you, I'd just tell Jake I can't do it. Or don't, I can't tell you what to do. Just don't get some innocent girl involved in whatever stunt of yours this is."

Jay stares at you, mouth agape, as you find your way out of the library and through the main doors. By the time he comes back to his senses, he realizes how he looks plain stupid––standing in the middle of the library, the look on his face screaming befuddlement, to say the least. Jay quickly makes his way out of the building, in hopes of convincing you one last time.

Jay catches sight of your figure already half-way down the walkway that connects the library to the main quad of your school's campus. Geez, you walk fast.

Not fast enough to outrun Jay's legs, however. If Jay running after you through the middle of campus in order to convince you to fake date him doesn't show how desperate he is to win this bet, I don't know what will.

"Wait, Y/N!"

You groan to yourself before turning to face the boy who can't seem to take a hint and leave you alone. You stare at his out-of-breath state as he heaves up and down from the slight jog he had to endure to get to where you are. If you're humored by him chasing after you, you do a good job of hiding it.

He meets your unimpressed state before stating his final proposition: "I'll pay you. Five hundred dollars."

You nearly stop breathing.

Now this catches your attention––after all, you're but a broke college student who's just trying to survive. And preferably not by feeding yourself instant ramen cups every night.

And so, naturally, you begin rethinking about the opportunity presented in front of you. You narrow your eyes at the boy as you weigh your options.

The first problem being, it's Jay Park––the bane of your very existence. You spent the last few years of your life pretending he didn't exist...for good reason. Not only did he do you dirty when you were merely a couple of 13-year-olds, but you just didn't want to be involved with someone like him. Someone known for his nature, someone who left your own current best friend ghosted. And not that Hana herself would care, for she has called herself the "female Jay Park", but you're sure this would be breaking some rule in the girl code handbook. Plus, if you agree to this, you'd be betraying 13-year-old Y/N, the one who decided to never speak to nor think of Jay Park again––which by now you've failed, but you get the gist.

Second problem being, three months is a long time. Three months is practically the rest of this semester, and did you really want to spend the rest of the semester tied down to the label of being Jay Park's girlfriend? There would have to be some negative connotations that came along with that title, right? No offense to Jay, but being his first girlfriend since, what, high school could make you come off as..naive, for lack of a better term. As if the only person you could settle for was Jay Park. As if you barely had any standards for yourself. Again, no offense to Jay.

Needless to say, if your school's debate club had to argue on why you shouldn't be doing this, you're sure the negating side could win with these two reasons alone.

But before you're rejecting the boy currently standing in front of you one last time, you find yourself mentally listing rebuttals.

First of all, you'd be getting paid. And again, you're merely but a college student living the stereotypical broke college student life––burdened by the costs of tuition, textbooks, and midnight McDonalds runs for when you're out of aforementioned instant ramen cups. Five hundred dollars could provide you with more than enough chicken McNuggets to last you the semester, and maybe some more to treat yourself to an online shopping spree.

Second of all, it's not like you were going to do anything better with your next three months anyways. It's safe to say you were too busy being a diligent student to actually look for anyone to date, per say. And if anything, having a fake boyfriend might actually be helpful in your case. Your mom would be off your ass about how you're still single, for one. And two, your friends (though it's really just Heeseung) would stop trying to hook you up on blind dates with guys that you would choose Jay Park over any day (and that really says something).

Third of all, it's Jay Park. As much as you despise the kid, you still know him. He's not a complete stranger to you, no matter how much you try to deny it. It could be worse, it could be a complete rando asking you to date him. At least you two have some sort of history, which would take care of the typical small talk and getting to know each other bit of this equation. And truth be told, you'd be lying to yourself if you said you weren't a tad bit satisfied by the fact that Jay chose you, of all people, to pull off this stunt with him. You don't know if it's the nostalgia of your childhood memories rushing back to you, but it reminds you of the endless schemes you two used to plan behind your parents' backs all the time. Granted, your childhood schemes––such as the both of you faking sickness so you could skip school together––don't even fall close to being in a fake relationship with one another, but still. It's the thought that counts.

All of those reasons plus, Jay isn't the worst to look at. He may have a spoiled reputation, but at least he has his looks going for him, you'll give him that (you're still secretly wondering when and how did he get his glow up, but don't tell him that).

And so by the guidelines of a college student's logic that states the pros outweigh the cons, you come to the overarching conclusion that maybe, this won't be so awful after all.

"Five hundred?" You ask, just for clarification. Jay's immediately nodding at your words. You continue to ponder on your thoughts as he stares at you hopefully.

The silent atmosphere of your campus heightens the tension so much, you swear you're in one of those overdramatic pausing scenes that occur too many times in k-dramas.

You sigh, then nod.

"Okay," you're internally praying that you won't regret this decision. "I'm in."

The next time you see Jay is at 12:17PM on a Friday afternoon, as you're exiting the doors of the lecture building that's home to your awfully long Capitalism in the Western World class.

You're going down the steps of the building, mentally deciding where and what you're going to treat yourself to for lunch––as the three hour lecture you had just attended drained all the life and energy out of you––when you hear the slight call of your name.

Turning to the source, you're met with a waving Jay, leaning against the passenger's side of his car, parked in front of the lecture hall building you were currently leaving.

Great.

You walk over to where he's casually waiting––he's unaware of all the stares he's attracted from fellow students leaving the same lecture as you. Can you blame them? It's not everyday you see a sleek, black BMW that probably cost more than your tuition pull up in front of your Friday afternoon lecture. It's not everyday you see Jay Park waiting for anyone outside of his said sleek, black BMW that probably cost more than your tuition.

"Hi," you simply let out as you plant yourself in front of him, not sure whether or not to question him why are you here? Surely, he wasn't waiting for you?

"Hi," he smiles down at you. There's a beat of silence. "I was waiting for you."

Bingo.

"Oh. What are you, my chauffeur?" You raise an eyebrow, unimpressed.

"Maybe. I am your boyfriend, after all," he says into the air, loud and clear, as if he wanted people to hear. Well that is the point, you suppose.

But still, all you want to do is smack the smirk right off his face.

Before you have time to put your next question into words, he answers it for you.

"I'm taking you out for lunch," he declares as if you have nothing else planned for the day. Well, to be fair, you didn't have anything else planned for the day. Except for your usual library run. But you figure the library could wait.

"Oh, like on a date?" You raise your eyebrows teasingly at him as you get into the car, Jay holding the door wide open for you. "Is Jay Park treating me to lunch as a date?"

Jay fights the scowl (or is that a smile?) growing on his face as he bends down to meet your eye level from inside the car. "Don't flatter yourself, princess. We've got fake lives to live."

"Call me princess one more time and you won't have a real life to live," you flash him a sarcastic smile and slam the door in his face.

Jay meets his own shocked reflection on the passenger's side window.

Cute.

"When you said you were taking me out to lunch, I expected like...I don't know...the diner on campus. Not whatever this is," you mutter to Jay as the two of you are brought to your table by a waitress at an upscale sushi restaurant, one that is undoubtedly out of your usual budget, but for sure an upgrade from your dining hall's pizza you were planning to have. You should've figured as much, the drive here was a little more than out of the way from campus, and who are you kidding, it's Jay Park you're eating with.

You stare down at your current outfit, which consisted of a hoodie you've owned since your junior year of high school and leggings that you threw on without second thought this morning––because you didn't exactly wake up and decide I'm going to go to a fancy sushi bar for lunch today!

"Why are we here anyways?" You ask him when you're both settled in your seats and the waitress walks away after listing the chef's specials for the day.

"Oh, they have killer dragon rolls here, you have to try it," Jay tells you nonchalantly as his eyes rake the menu in front of him, blocking your view of him.

How dense can one be? Your hand snatches his menu as you stare into his unamused eyes.

"No, Jay. I mean, why are we here? It's not like anyone's around to see us put on a show anyways."

"Oh. I figured," Jay's quick to grab the menu back from out of your hands as he continues, "that we should sit down and establish how exactly we're going to deliver this performance. After all, you're stuck with me for the next three months."

Again, smacking the smirk currently resting on his face would satisfy you beyond relief. Just once.

"If I drop out halfway through, do I still get $250?" You tease, leaning back.

"Ha ha. Funny. No," he narrows his eyes at you from across the table. "It's all or nothing."

You dramatically huff to make a show just for his annoyance.

"Worth a try. But sure, let's solidify this. What's the game plan?" You sit up in your seat, leaning over the table as if the two of you were hosting a secret meeting.

"It's simple really," Jay mirrors your actions, face leaning in close to where yours is hovering over the table. "Just pretend to be deeply in love with me for three months, and try not to actually be charmed by my cunning looks."

If someone gave you five dollars for every time you've already rolled your eyes at him today, you wouldn't even need to be in this deal for the five hundred dollars.

"Wow, smooth. Can I just remind you you're the one paying a girl to be in a fake relationship with you because you're just not competent enough to find an actual girlfriend?" You lean back, arms crossing over your figure.

Jay, unfazed, laughs, tongue briefly hitting the inside of his cheek. "Touché."

Your eyes go back to the menu in front of you as a silence falls over the table. Because you're not a loaded trust fund baby who comes to fancy five-star sushi restaurants for lunch on a daily, you don't recognize half of the entree names on the menu. You spot the dragon roll Jay suggested, but seeing that a basic California roll is less expensive, your natural broke-college-student-instincts figure the California roll shall do.

"Okay, in all seriousness," Jay begins as he puts his menu down. "It's simple really. We'll just go on weekly dates and post cute pictures of each other once in a while and a little after three months, I'll just say it didn't work out. I'll give you the five hundo and boom, we move on with our lives."

It's clear Jay's put some thought into this. Safe to say he's put more effort planning this out than the amount of work he's been putting into his classes. Someone's got their priorities straight.

You're impressed to say the least––you figured Jay would just be the kind to go with the flow and wait for the situation to unfold on its own and maybe blow up into flames. But seeing as he was just as serious about winning this bet as you were with making five hundred dollars, your doubts about this entire situation were slowly withering away.

Don't get it wrong, though, you still despise him. To an extent, at least.

"And don't worry about the dates. I'll pay on your behalf, as the loving, doting boyfriend I am," Jay finishes with a wide, cheesy smile you can't help but return a growing smile back at.

"Well then, as the loving, doting girlfriend I am, I shall gift you coffee, breakfast, all that fun couple stuff, whenever you please. Or maybe unannounced, if I'm feeling nice," you figure you should pitch in as much if he's paying for all your dates. And deep down, you find the idea kinda cute. But don't tell anyone that.

"Wow, look at us. We should become Dispatch's couple of the year already!" Jay exclaims, earning himself a small giggle from you, which pleases him to say the least. He thinks that maybe when this is all over, he'll hopefully make a good friend (well, for the second time) out of it.

And you're thinking that maybe the next three months won't be as bad as you initially had thought.

As the two of you delve deep into a debate about who would be the better significant other to each other, the waitress comes over to take your orders.

And because you're laughing and Jay's brightly smiling at you from across the table, you order the dragon roll.

The second time Jay takes you out––this time he gives you a heads up to get ready––it's at a, once again, high-class steakhouse.

The third time, you insist on the on-campus diner that's popular amongst the student population. Partially because you feel bad for the amount of money he's spent on you (even though he couldn't care less), but mostly because if you have to put on another fancy dress to just eat an overpriced meal that doesn't even fully satisfy your hunger, you might lose your mind.

And by this third time, Jake is aware of this newly blossomed relationship.

"Three dates! I didn't know you had it in you, going on three dates with the same girl!" Jake excitedly exclaims as he jumps into the empty spot on Jay's dorm bed and shoves his phone's screen into Jay's face.

The smaller screen displays Jay's most recent Instagram post: an image of you sitting behind your too-small-to-be-this-expensive-steak and smiling right into Jay's camera––a memory that brings a smile to his face:

~ ~ ~

"C'mon! We said Instagram posts would be a part of the deal! How else can we convince people we're dating?" A pout rests on Jay's face as he stares at you from across the table in the middle of the extravagantly decorated restaurant he picked out for your second date. You remember your eyes bulging out of their own sockets when you saw the "$$$$$" rating Yelp gave the place when you searched it up earlier.

"Okay, okay! One picture," you give in, already slightly annoyed that you were here instead of the comfort of your own bed, where you could be rewatching your favorite Netflix show for the third time. But because you made a deal and because you're desperate for money, you had to follow through––so here you were.

You flash an unconvincing smile to Jay's camera, which doesn't satisfy him, to say the least. "At least pretend you're somewhat enjoying this date," he frowns at you.

You sigh, until a thought crosses your mind and a smile grows on your face. "Only if you get me boba afterwards."

He narrows his eyes at you, but then meets your smile. "Sure, whatever you want. But only because I've been craving some mango milk tea lately."

"You're a fruit milk tea kind of guy? Sorry, but I might have to fake break-up with you," you tease as you take a sip of your overpriced drink to go with your overpriced meal.

Jay scoffs, feigning hurt by placing his hand over his heart. "Ouch. But before you break up with me, let me get this Instagram post in."

"Wow. Your priorities are so straight," you roll your eyes at him, eliciting a cheeky smile from him as he watches you through his held up phone screen.

"3,2,1."

"Hey, I wasn't ready! That was like mid-laugh!" You reach over the table to grab the phone, but not quick enough for him to put his phone back into his pants' pocket.

"Nope, nuh uh," he laughs as you quickly sit back down into your seat, not wanting to cause a scene in an establishment as proper as this one.

"It's fine. It's a good picture, you look cute," he casually lets out, unaware of the blush rising to the surface of your cheeks, thanks to the fact that you were suddenly interested in playing with the left-over food on your plate.

"Jay! Delete it, I'll let you take another one," you whine from your seat, imagining just how bad a candid picture of you could be.

"Ugh, fine. Ever so picky." He playfully rolls his eyes at you as he takes his phone out and opens the camera app as you prepare yourself.

"Okay, how's this?" Jay turns the phone screen to you after he takes a few snaps on his phone.

"I approve," you grin at him as he goes through the pictures himself, unaware of the smile growing on his face.

"Okay now delete the first one," you point your finger at him, narrowing your eyes at him.

"Okay, okay! Bossy," he laughs as he raises in hands in surrender.

When Jay gets home that night, he recovers the image from his Recently Deleted folder, telling himself it's for the sake of the memory.

Obviously.

~ ~ ~

"It's not that big of a deal," Jay mutters from his spot as his eyes go from the Instagram post to his Exile and Belonging in Modern Literature reading that's due tomorrow, bright yellow highlighter in hand. Typically, you'd find the reading buried deep at the bottom of his school backpack. But because Jay ran into you this morning and because he complained to you about the amount of work he's fallen behind on and because you had threatened him to do his work or else you're not going on another date––a fake date that is––with him, he figured he should at least get one reading done and annotated, despite his strong dislike for highlighters (they hurt his eyes, okay?)

What he doesn't know, however, is how your threat was completely full of bluff––but don't tell him that.

"It is so a big deal, for you at least!" Jake hops off the bed and lands on the wooden floors of Jay's dorm room so hard, Jay winces and sends a mental apology to the poor person who lives below him.

Jake suddenly gasps. "I have to meet her, Jay! As your best friend, it's practically mandatory that I meet her."

Jay opens his mouth to protest, but not before Jake interrupts him once again. "Oh! We can bring Sunghoon too, it'll be so fun! The best friends meet the girlfriend."

Jay can't think of anything worst. Jay imagines that bringing you to meet his best friends would just intimidate you out of dating him––fake dating him, that is. Obviously.

He stares at his friend in agony then back at the reading in front of him––the one Jake said he'd come over to help annotate, but the intention completely left Jake's head the second he heard about Jay's recent dating life.

"You don't have to meet her," Jay says pointedly. "Plus, you already know her."

Jake frowns at his friend's excuse. "Yeah, but that was in middle school! This is different."

Jay's hands shuffle through the reading's pages in front of him as he realizes there's no way the two of them are going to finish the assignment at this point. He supposes he'll have to save death by blindness from highlighters for another day and hope you still agree to go out with him.

Jake suddenly gasps in realization.

"Oh my gosh! Childhood best friends turned college sweethearts," Jake says so dreamily, he might as well plaster heart eyes on. Hopeless romantic, this one.

Before Jay can argue, the piercing sound of three loud knocks echo through the small room, followed with a:

"Jay, are you in? It's me!"

Jay stills at the sound of your sweet voice. He whips his head to Jake, who is also frozen in place.

But the widened-eye boy is quick to come to his senses––unfortunately quicker than Jay himself––because the next thing Jay knows, Jake's eyes are lighting up and he's running to the door, ignoring Jay's screaming whispers through this seething teeth that were somewhere along the lines of Jake––stop, I swear to god if you open that door I'm gonna fucking--

"Y/N!" Jake swings the door wide open, revealing an overly excited him and a frozen Jay half-way to the door, as if he was about to grab the very boy welcoming you in. It's as if we're living in a Sims game and the player clicked pause on this very moment.

Jake's eyes are wildly going back and forth between you and your supposed boyfriend, as if he was waiting for Jay to run over and smother you in hugs and kisses...or something couple-y like that. Jay wouldn't know.

"Uh––hi," you're awkwardly standing inside the room now, a relatively large paper brown bag resting in your palms as you look around for a surface to place it on. Jay makes his way to you without a second thought, quickly taking the bag out of your hold.

"You seemed stressed out earlier, so I figured I could bring you some food as a little pick me up. I didn't know what you liked, so I kinda just got a little of everything from the dining hall. Nothing fancy," you're rambling, but smiling so excitedly at him, Jay doesn't know what to say.

Instead, his mouth slightly drops open as he stares at you in awe, mostly because he's not used to being on the receiving end of such spontaneously generous actions––all while Jake's still excitedly looking back and forth between the two of you, as if he was expecting a marriage proposal to come next.

"Oh wow. Thank you. Really," Jay, still touched by your simple act of kindness, softly says as he places the bag on the limited amount of empty space on his desk surface––the rest of it is covered with his untouched textbooks and unfinished assignments. He wonders if you did this out of playing your role or just because you wanted to. He internally hopes it's the latter. "Seriously, you didn't have to do."

"Nah, don't worry. I wanted to," you shrug with such a genuine smile that Jay realizes he actually missed your smile.

Despite having seen you during your brief run-in this morning when you were fetching your morning coffee, Jay realizes he missed you. The two of you haven't been seeing each other recently because of your busy schedule and if Jay didn't realize it before, he's now sure he missed your company and presence around.

Weird.

"Well, you two have fun! Sunghoon needs me for something," Jake suddenly chirps from his place near the front door, halfway through with putting his shoes on already, breaking the comforting silence that fell between the two of you.

Jay frowns. "But you said you were free all da––"

"SUNGHOON IS CALLING BYE!" And before Jay can even register what's happening, Jake's out the door without another word.

"Er..sorry about him, he's...weird," Jay scratches the back of his neck as he returns to his spot on his bed, mentally setting a reminder to yell at Jake later for leaving the two of you alone. Jay doesn't know exactly why, but he's nervous at the fact that you're here in his room. It's not like you two are complete strangers––or whatever you guys were before––anymore. "Good job on your part, though. How'd you know Jake was here?"

"Oh uh, I didn't"," you let out an awkward laugh. "I just felt like doing it."

Heat rushes to Jay's cheeks and he's not sure 1) what this newfound feeling is and 2) how to respond, yet again.

Having expecting you to leave after dropping the food off, Jay's taken by surprise when you take your shoes off and come over to his bed to look at the pile of work he's spread out.

"Is this everything you have to do?" You question the stressed-out boy as you flip through the various assignments, readings, and essays he put off in the past week.

"More or less," he groans. This is no rare occurrence by any means––Jay being behind in his work––but this time, Jay realizes he may actually be in deep shit, considering he has no idea where to begin.

Right as Jay's expecting a scolding from you, he looks up to meet a look of sympathy on your face. "Well, I mean, I'm pretty much done with my day. I can try to help, I recognize some of these readings from last semester."

Jay thinks to himself that the universe has sent him an angel through the form of you.

"Really? Wow, you were't kidding when you said you'd be a good girlfriend," he sends you a surprised look.

"I'm just being nice, Jay. A concept I'm sure you're not familiar with," you remark back at him, causing his forming smile to grow into a laugh.

"I can too be nice! Need I remind you of who's paying you $500, covering all of our dates AND giving you rides to class everyday?" He remarks pointedly at you, a teasing look resting in his eyes as you're reminded of the first of many times he's come to pick you up before class:

~ ~ ~

You're late.

This never happens.

But then again, your life's been a series of unexpected occurrences lately. Such as the fact that you're currently known as Jay Park's girlfriend, for one.

You're scrambling out of bed once you take one look at your phone and realize shit, you're already late for class. Throwing on whatever articles of clothing your eyes land on first, you're already mentally groaning at the fact that you'll have to skip breakfast and run across your campus to get to said class.

Curse your professor for hosting her lecture at the furthest possible building away from your dorm. Curse the architect who decided to make your campus so large.

You're running down the steps outside of your dorm building's doors when you're abruptly stopped by a familiar sounding cough. You look up from trying to gather all your belongings together at once to meet the gaze of the source of the sound––Jay.

"Wow, you're a mess," he smirks as he gets up from the spot on his car he was leaning against to make his way over to you.

"Gee, thanks! Good morning to you too," you flash him a sarcastic smile before your default frown quickly makes it way back onto your face.

"Aren't you gonna ask me why I'm here?" He grins as he grabs hold of your backpack to sling it across his own back as the two of you walk towards his car.

"Why are you here, Jay?" you sigh, your sarcastic tone hard to miss.

"To give you a ride to class, of course!" He's beaming at you, as if he's a pre-pubescent teen who just won their first girlfriend a prize from the arcade's claw machine.

Oh. That explains the car, you figure. Deep down inside, you're relieved that you'll no longer be bursting through the lecture hall's doors as a sweaty mess––a result of having to run across campus to get to class.

Determined to not let your satisfaction completely show, you resort with a little smile directed towards Jay as he opens the passenger door for you.

The second your enter Jay's car, the strong scent of coffee hits you, and your attention is targeted at the two small cups of coffee sitting in the cupholders of the car.

"Breakfast?" Jay asks as he enters through the driver's side and reaches into the backseat to whip out a small pastry bag. A small, deliciously smelling, pastry bag.

Okay, well. You suppose you could drop the annoyed act now.

Your eyes widen with joy as you grab the bag from him and open it to reveal your favorite breakfast sandwich. He's been taking notes, you'll give him that point.

"Okay, you win. Thank you," you grace him with a soft smile before taking a bite into the glorious gift in your hands.

"Of course, I was just feeling nice," he grins at you as he starts his car. "But don't get used to it." His tone is serious, but his smile directed towards you says differently.

And the fact that he still showed up to drive you to class the next morning.

And the next.

~ ~ ~

"And need I remind you who has to date your dumb ass for the $500 in question?" Your eyes narrow at the boy who can't seem to get that damn smile off his face.

Jay sticks his tongue out at you, ending the conversation. Really Jay? What are you, five? Well, mentally––probably.

You're looking around his minuscule dorm room for a place to sit down, and Jay can't help but feel embarrassed now that you're here, in his messy single studio room that pretty much reflects how Jay treats every other responsibility of his oh so hard life: neglected.

"Uh...here, you can sit on my bed," Jay immediately offers as he moves to the side to make room for your presence––and it isn't much, considering the university only provided him a twin XL bed which is definitely not built for two grown college-aged kids.

If you told yourself a few weeks ago that you'd be shoulder to shoulder on a bed belonging to the guy you cringed at the very thought of, you wouldn't have believed yourself. You wouldn't have believed yourself if you said you were actually glad Jay let you stay instead of kicking you out after delivering the food. Huh.

Weird.

"You know, this kinda reminds me of when we were kids. I always carried us through those horrible multiplication tests in the fifth grade," you wink at him as you settle in the spot next to him, hands grabbing hold of the papers in his lap.

Jay let out a laugh, nudging your shoulder with his. "Hey! The twelve times table is hard, okay?"

You roll your eyes at him––a habit of yours he's noticed whenever the two of you are together, but more recently, he thinks it's been more out of fun than annoyance.

He wonders why.

When Jay had first brought up the idea of bringing you as his date to his father's company dinner, you had expected a fairly fancy five-star restaurant with a formal dress code––for you've become accustomed to Jay's lifestyle. Turns out, your expectations can continue to be exceeded. Because what you had expected to be a simple dinner with a few other business men and women turned out to be an entire party, hosted in a hotel whose interior resembled something close to a castle (Or what you assume a castle looks like, as you've never personally been into a castle yourself, but this hotel is close enough).

Your eyes sparkle at the extravagant columns and diamond chandeliers hanging high above you, and Jay smiles at the expression on your face; like a little girl being brought to the amusement park for the first time ever.

"Wow, this is...wow," you mutter as you drink in the scene in front of you: people dressed in formal attire likewise to yours and Jay's, mingling and drinking what you imagine to be beverages that cost more than your entire life's worth.

Jay laughs from behind you, "Yeah the company goes a little...extra when it comes to these company dinners."

You scoff as you look up at him. "Oh really, you don't say?" You look around and you're suddenly aware of the many people surrounding the two of you and the attention you've acquired ever since entering the building.

"Jay, people are staring." You shuffle closer to him, your voice lowering down to a whisper.

"Well, it's not everyday the son of the company's CEO brings his girlfriend with him, so...looks like we'll be the talk of the party tonight. Smiles on," he winks at you, and you just know he's loving the attention the two of you are receiving right now.

"Jay Park? Is that you?" You hear a warm voice call out from behind the two of you.

The two of you turn around to meet the owner of the voice, a middle-aged woman dressed in an evening gown that matches the pattern of high-end brands you've been recognizing ever since arriving.

"Mrs. Lee! It's so nice seeing you again," Jay cheerily addresses the woman as the two of you bow in greeting.

You internally giggle at the thought of your Jay being so picture-perfect in the eyes of his father's co-workers.

"This is Y/N," he continues, his hand finding its way to your back, protectively resting it there as you go to introduce yourself. "My girlfriend."

You swear you feel goosebumps rise from where he's lightly touching you, and more so when he introduces you as his girlfriend.

You tell yourself it's just your nerves. Yes, that's it, you're just nervous. I mean, you're in a room filled with people who could easily pay off all your college loans with just a snap of their fingers, who wouldn't be nervous? Right? Right.

"Y/N! It's a pleasure to finally meet you, I've heard so much about you!" Mrs. Lee excitedly exclaims as you turn to Jay with a slightly confused look plastered on your face. He mirrors your expression as he shrugs, moving to stand behind you completely, bringing his hands to rest lowly at your hips.

His hands feel like feathers on the thin fabric of your evening gown, so light, so delicate, as if he's unsure if he's crossing a line. It leaves you wanting more, wanting to naturally lean against him and his warmth. You quick to shake the thought of your head as Mrs. Lee chirps up again.

"Jay's father is always talking about how you've been keeping Jay pleasantly busy nowadays! Good thing too, about time this poor boy settle down for someone as beautiful as you," the woman rambles on as you feel a blush creep up on your cheeks at the thought of Jay talking about you to his dad. If only they knew.

"We should probably go find our seats, I think the dinner is beginning soon," Jay says from behind you, saving the two of you from having to listen to Mrs. Lee's story of how she's known Jay ever since he was five years old and seeing him grow into this mature, loving, young man is so amazing. Oh look! I have baby pictures.

Yeah, he was more so saving himself from embarrassment.

The two of you bid your goodbyes before Jay gently uses the hand on your back to maneuver you through the crowd of socializing business moguls.

"She's not wrong, you know," you feel Jay dip his head so he's speaking near your ear, his warm breath tickling your earlobe, as the two of you make your way through the large foyer room.

"Hm?" You hum in question, turning your head up just enough to be able to make eye contact with him as he responds to your look of confusion.

"You look beautiful tonight," he says, eye contact not breaking once. You freeze in your steps.

You stare back at him in silence. Oh.

Your mind is panicking as it flips through your mental book of responses, unsure of what to say back. But because your mind is cloudy from staring at a put-together Jay in a dark navy suit to match your dress (mixed with the nervous butterflies in your stomach––have they always been there?), the only sound that's able to leave your lips is the small stutter of a:

"Huh?"

Wow Y/N, you had one job. A simple "thank you" could've sufficed! And you went with "Huh"?

You felt like a fifth grader who just learned from a friend of a friend of a friend that their crush likes them back.

"U-um. Mrs. Lee. What she said about you. You look good, really," somehow your nervousness made its way over to Jay now––his eyes flickering from yours to anywhere, anything, else in the room––the awkward tension growing tenfold each second.

Goddamnit Y/N, this is just Jay you're talking to, get a grip.

You're knocked back into reality when he slightly nudges your back to continue making your way to the main ball room, where the dinner is being held.

"Is that a compliment from the Jay Park?" Your smirk can't be seen by Jay, since he's still trailing behind you, but he can definitely hear it through your tone.

"Don't make me take it back," he chuckles, his words felt against your neck, leaving behind a tingly sensation you're not sure why you're feeling. You're glad he's behind you, so he isn't able to see the blush creeping onto your face for the second time tonight.

Jay gives a small nod to the people behind the check-in desk stationed at the entrance as the two of you waltz right into a large ball room lined with countless circular dining tables. So much for a small business dinner.

As the two of you approach one of the tables placed at the front of the room, you notice a familiar figure seated next to the seats reserved for you and Jay.

"Y/N!" Jake exclaims as he gets up from his seat to greet the both of you. "I'm so glad you made it, Jay was so excited to bring you tonight. Deadass would not stop talking about it."

Jay lets out a noise that falls somewhere between a cough and a goose being strangled, his widened eyes warning his talkative friend to just shut up. He's silently cursing the company for always seating his and Jake's family at the same table for these events.

"Aw, is that so? He's lucky he's cute or else I wouldn't have agreed," you grin, winking at your assumed boyfriend sitting next to you.

"Hey, YOU were the one excited to come! I recall a certain someone's face lighting up when I suggested we go shopping for tonight," Jay immediately retorts.

"Only because you were buying," you giggle, causing Jake to laugh as well.

"Damn, Jay. Tough," Jake jokingly adds as you laugh alongside him. The scowl sitting on Jay's face expresses the opposite of what he's feeling right now: warmth filling him up from the sound of your laughter and the image of you getting along so well with his best friend.

"I'm gonna get us some drinks, you two have fun making fun of me," Jay narrows his eyes at the two of you as he gets up from his seat. You bid him off with a smile before turning back to Jake.

"No but really though, this boy would not stop talking about you coming tonight. Then again, he doesn't really ever stop talking about you," Jake nonchalantly says, not knowing how much he was exposing his friend to you right now.

You raise an eyebrow up in response, "Oh really?"

"Seriously! I don't know what you did to him, Y/N, but this Jay I've been seeing recently is new. He complains a lot less about life nowadays, especially on the days he sees you," he leans back in his chair as his comment brings a smile to your face. Little does he know.

You stretch your neck up to find the boy in question and spot him right as he's returning to your shared table, two drinks in hand. You lock eyes with him from across the room and without a second thought, you're giving him a genuine smile that he's immediately returning.

Your heart beats faster at the view.

You wonder why.

It's 3:07AM when you hear the first ding.

You're not 100% sure as of why you're awake at this hour on a Tuesday night––perhaps a combination of your restless thoughts and feelings not letting you sleep plus the typical stress that comes hand-in-hand with the life of a college student.

It's 3:09AM when you hear the second ding, and you brush it off, assuming it was just Heeseung spamming you with memes again––something he does often when he also can't sleep (you found this out the hard way).

It's still 3:09AM when you hear the third ding, and at 3:10AM , you finally reach over and decide to acknowledge the being who's bothering you at this godforsaken hour.

Jay [3:07AM]: Y/N

Jay [3:09AM]: hi

Jay [3:09AM]: r u awake rn

Y/N [3:10AM]: unfortunately so

Y/N [3:11AM]: why are you up

Jay [3:11AM]: come outside

Y/N [3:13AM: jay it's 3am

Jay [3:13AM]: ye and? don't tell me ur a college student with a curfew

Jay [3:14AM]: plus im alrdy waiting for u outside so u have no choice

Jay [3:15AM]: :)

You groan at your bright phone screen currently illuminating your dark dorm room.

You ponder the consequences you may have to suffer tomorrow if you stay up any later than you already have. But considering the fact that you're probably just going to stay awake lying in bed for god knows how long anyways, why not?

(And you would like to point out that this decision has nothing to do with the fact that you haven't seen Jay in a few days and that maybe a tiny, tiny, tiny, part of you may have missed his presence. Nothing.)

And since that logic is obviously valid (you really gotta work on justifying your life choices), you're suddenly grabbing a hoodie from your closet and hoping it'll be enough to keep you, who's merely in an old band t-shirt from high-school and pajama shorts, warm.

The breeze hits your skin the second you open the doors to your dorm's building, and you're met with the view of Jay's sleek, black BMW that probably costs more than your tuition. He waves at you from the driver's seat, motioning for you to get in.

"To what do I owe you the pleasure at this hour," you deadpan at him with a stone-cold voice as you enter through the passenger's side door, hoping your tone was enough to hide the fact that you're giddy at the fact he invited you out at 3AM in the morning. Like a high-school girl sneaking out of her house to meet up with her bad-boy boyfriend that her parents dislike.

The second you enter his car, you're instantly comforted by the warm air blasting through his vents and his playlist softly playing in the background. Jay's pajama pants and messy hair give you more than enough information to know that he probably just rolled out of his own bed as well. You don't know why, but your view: Jay in his oversized hoodie with his unkept hair in front of your dorm building at 3AM on a Tuesday night, gives you comfort in weird ways you can't explain even if you tried.

But it's obviously just your cloudy, 3AM mind not thinking straight. Obviously.

"When I can't sleep, I go on drives around campus. It helps clear my mind," he says, looking over at you to give you a quick smile before starting his car. "Plus, SnapMap said you were still awake, so...figured you'd wanna join."

"Oh so what, you're my stalker now? You're not driving to the woods to kill me now, are you?" You tease, an eyebrow brought up. Jay lets out a laugh from beside you as he begins to drive further into your campus.

"Guess you'll just have to wait and see," he throws you a wink before reverting his gaze back to the road, mindlessly driving to wherever the road decides to take him.

A comfortable silence falls in between the two of you as Jay continues to drive endless routes around your campus. You look over to the boy driving next to you and take in his features––you don't know what changed, but you no longer feel the same anger or annoyance bubbling within you when you're around him. You're not sure when this changed, but you figure it's just the effect of desensitization. After all, you've been spending so much time with him, you're bound to get used to it. Right?

"Why were you up?" Jay finally asks after a few minutes of just the two of you silently basking in each other's presences.

"Ah, you know. The usual. Endless thoughts running through my mind, stress from school, nothing new," you sign, giving him a soft smile followed with a shrug.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

You answer him with silence as you search your head for the answer.

"I don't know. This is kinda weird, isn't it?" You don't know why you get a sudden surge of confidence, but before you can stop yourself, you find yourself rambling on. "If you had told me a month ago that I'd be here driving around with you when it's nearly 4AM, I would've laughed in your face."

Jay doesn't know whether to laugh or scoff. "Is the idea of hanging out with me that unappealing to you?"

You give him a serious look back. "I mean, up until a month ago when you needed me for whatever this game is, you literally pretended I didn't exist."

Oh. Awkward.

You freeze at your own words, mentally screaming at yourself for letting the words leave your mouth. Why, why, why.

"Y/N..." Jay says after clearing his throat after a few seconds of silence.

"No it's fine, it was a joke," you awkwardly cough and direct your attention to anything else around you right now. The view of your campus' buildings zooming by. The clicking of Jay's blinker when he switches lanes. The quiet roaring of his car's engine. The nervous tapping of his fingers against the steering wheel.

The rest of the ride is excruciatingly silent as he exits the main road and into an empty parking lot of some administration building made out of glass that has too many floors for you to count.

You don't know why you feel your heart beating in your throat as Jay puts the car into park––why you feel uneasy. You slightly turn towards him in your seat, hoping to pick up any sign of well...anything from him.

You don't know why you feel a twinge of guilt––it's not like what you said was necessarily wrong. If you were being honest, you were slightly bothered by how the two of you seemed to silently agree not to mention your past all this time. You were always one to seek answers, to seek closure. You couldn't help but bring it up––Jay was your best friend during those years. For him to just wake up one day and pretend you were nothing to him hurt you, and you couldn't help but still wonder what in the world you did to initiate his actions.

"I'm sor–" You're interrupted with his timid voice, as if he was almost afraid to speak.

"I'm not good with people." He's nibbling on his bottom lip, fingers nervously picking at a spot on the steering wheel.

You're opening and closing your mouth, unsure how to respond. You're 100% positive you look like a fish right now. Good for you.

"I don't know why. Jake calls it commitment issues but in order to have commitment, people have to stay in my life. And people just...don't. They're all bound to leave at some point. So what's the point of putting in effort into relationships if they're just going to leave you at the end?"

You're stunned by his sudden confession, not having been prepared for such a heavy topic to arise between the two of you. Up until tonight, your interactions had always been light-hearted and easy––you guys got along well. You didn't know this is how he felt all along.

But you knew where he was coming from.

You knew what Jay had gone through as a child––his mother having left him and his dad when he was young. You remember when your parents had told you the news at the young age of 13, and you remember the pain and sorrow you felt for your then friend. All you wanted to do was go to him and comfort him, but he had already cut you out from his life by then.

"Or maybe I'm the problem. My dad barely acknowledges my existence because he thinks giving me an allowance is all the parenting I need, my friends probably only stick around because they feel bad for me, you wouldn't even be here if it weren't for the bet, and, fuck, I'm literally known as the campus' fuckboy," Jay continues, falling deeper and deeper into the hole he dug himself.

He hates this, he hates opening up and feeling vulnerable, so he doesn't know why he's doing it now. He doesn't know why he feels comfortable voicing out his fears and worries when he's around you. But he does know it's a new feeling––one he doesn't know how to deal with.

"Jay," you lace your voice with as much comfort as you can provide. None of this is his fault, you want to tell him. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry? You didn't do anything," he says with a hint of bitterness and you can't tell if it's directed towards you or the topic at hand.

You're completely turned in your seat now to face him––despite the fact that he refuses to meet your gaze, afraid that looking at you is gonna bring out the most vulnerable in him. "You can talk to me. Talking about it makes it a lot easier. I'll always be here for you, as a friend."

Jay doesn't know what it is or why, but something in him snaps at the sound of a certain word falling out of your lips. Friend. Friend.

Friends don't make his heart beat nervously whenever he's around them. Friends don't keep him up at 3AM in the morning, pondering about his feelings for them. Friends don't provide him with this new, warm comfort he's become accustomed to whenever he's around you.

Deep down, Jay knows you didn't mean to add fuel to the fire. But because he's strong-headed, stubborn, and hates how vulnerable he feels next to you, he unleashes his emotions without thinking about the destruction coming along.

"It's none of your business, Y/N. Forget I said anything. You're just a toy for this stupid game and when it's all over we can go back to our own lives and forget this ever happened."

His sudden words cut deep, but they hurt him more than you. The second the words tumble out of his mouth, he's hit with the feeling of instant regret washing over him, and the lump forming in his throat restricts him from finding the right words to take them back.

The silence that falls between the two of you this time is different. It's a cold silence. A loud silence.

Jay feels his walls coming back up around him––the ones you managed to get through––and all he wants to do is apologize but he's terrified. Terrified of seeing your reaction, terrified of losing you again. For the second time.

You tell yourself he doesn't mean it. You tell yourself that he's just enduring more pain that one should ever receive.

But you also tell yourself that this wouldn't be the first time Jay leaves you in the dust.

You tell yourself that you're foolish for ever believing a friendship, or more, could come out of this act at the end. That you're so naive for feeling those stupid, stupid butterflies you've started to notice in your stomach whenever you see, or even think of, him.

"Okay," you begin with a firm tone. You're hurt, but you refuse to show it. You won't let him hurt you for a second time. Not again.

"Just...find me when you need me. As your fake girlfriend or just...me. I'm still here for you," is the last thing you say before un-clicking your seatbelt and leaving his car, beginning your walk back to your dorm hall.

Jay is unsure about many things in life. He's unsure about what he wants to do in the future, he's unsure of where he's going to settle in life, heck, he's unsure about what to have for lunch tomorrow. But he's sure about one thing.

That he's wearing his heart on his sleeve right now, and it's all because of you.

That you've become this new lifeline and he has to choose between holding onto you or drowning.

When Jay wakes up the next morning, his first gut instinct is to get ready to pick you up for class. But today's different. Jay doesn't know where the two of you stand now, especially after last night.

Jay doesn't know how to deal with this combination of unknown emotions he's been feeling lately. They didn't come out of no where, by any means, he realizes. They've been slowly growing over the past month of seeing you so often––like a plant he's been watering overtime, not expecting it to bloom into a flower so suddenly––but he figured it was nothing more than just enjoying the company of a friend.

Until he realizes that the term friend just doesn't suite you anymore––not to him, at least. And that scares him. It scares him that you've made him genuinely smile more in this past month than he ever has in his 19 years of living. It scares him that when he's around you he can't comprehend his own thoughts, his feelings. It scares him that you make him vulnerable, that you've changed him. That you've managed to make the walls that he's spent so long building and polishing to crumble with a simple tap of your finger.

In a perfect world, Jay would have already told you all this––he would be unafraid of how you would react, unafraid of your rejection, unafraid of losing this growing relationship with you. But alas, we don't live in a perfect world. And so when Jay drives to class that day, he drives right past your dorm building.

"Where's Y/N?" is the first thing Jake questions when he enters Jay's car that morning, confused by your absence, having been used to you being in the front seat every morning when Jay goes to give Jake rides to class as well.

"I don't know," Jay mutters, unemotional eyes focused on the road in front of him, not interested in continuing a conversation that involves thinking about you.

Jake hesitates as curiosity gets the best of him. "Did you guys get into a fight or something?"

Jay's hands tighten around the steering wheel of his car. "Or something. Let's just leave it at that."

There are a few beats of silence before Jake speaks up again.

"Well, I guess this works out because I wanted to talk to you about something."

Jay continues to stare straight ahead of him, focusing on just trying to get by without mentally beating himself up at the simple thought of you.

The simple thought of you and your smile. Your witty remarks. Your stupid eye rolls. Your laughter. Your kindness. So much for not thinking about you.

"I'm calling it off," Jake's words catch Jay off guard.

"Huh? Calling what off?"

"The bet. I'm calling it off. I don't care about the textbook fees I'll have to pay next semester. Look, fight or not, you and Y/N are good for each other, everyone can see it. And I really don't want this to end up being one of those messed up teen TV shows where the girlfriend finds out the entire relationship was based off of a stupid game and then they break up and the boyfriend falls into eternal sadness and regret. And I don't wanna see you sad, dude. So yeah! Congrats," although he's admitting defeat, Jake's beaming widely, just content with the fact that his best friend has finally found happiness through the form of you. "You win."

But Jay feels like the opposite of a winner. Because even though his only intention coming into this was simply winning the bet, his life isn't as simple as it was a month ago. Because he discovered something much more valuable than some stupid textbook fees or five hundred dollars or getting his physics homework done for an entire semester.

Something he's scared he's already lost.

You.

⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺

The next time you see Jay is at the same time and place as when he first ever appeared to pick you up––at 12:17PM on a Friday afternoon, as you're exiting the doors of the lecture building home to your awfully long Capitalism in World History class. This time, however it's different.

Because this time, it's one month later, and Jay Park is no longer a forgotten side character in the story of your life. This time, you're frustrated because it's been three days since you've last heard from Jay. And because it's been three days since you've last heard from him, you can't focus on anything else, and because you can't focus on anything else, you're falling behind on every other aspect in your life. Jay's somehow managed to become the center of your life without even having to be present.

Well, up until now. Up until you go down the steps of your lecture hall's entrance and look up to be met with a figure leaning on a car you're far too familiar with. You freeze in your steps as you make eye contact with the boy you've been thinking about non-stop for the past month three days.

Your mind tells you to walk away, to just follow your flight instinct instead of fight, to just go back to your normal life. But here's the thing. Ever since Jay's made his way back to your life, it's been far from normal.

And if you're being honest, you had no interest in going back to your normal life. Normal's overrated anyways. You find your legs bringing yourself over to him, your heart leading the way.

"Hi," you simply say, planting yourself right in front of him.

"Hi."

"What are you doing here?" You already know the answer, but you want to hear him say it.

"Waiting for you," Jay doesn't hesitate in answering you. This time will be different, he tells himself.

"I can walk myself home, thanks," you state, but your actions tell differently, as you make no sign of moving from your spot in front of him.

Jay's mind contemplates telling you everything. About how he regrets that friendship-breaking decision he made that one fateful day in the eighth grade, about his true feelings, about how he first suspected these feelings when he was 11 years old and saw you in your fancy get-up for the sixth grade dance but put it off as a little crush, and about how the same feelings grew into something so, so much more in the present. But seeing that putting all these thoughts into words would involve more than one functioning brain cell (which is all he's convinced he has in the moment, for the view of you staring up at him, looking like that, has his brain short-circuiting), he settles with:

"He called it off. It's over. The bet."

"Oh."

Silence.

Okay, Jay. This is your chance. Say it.

"Is that it?" You lift an eyebrow, awaiting for more explanation. When it doesn't come, you slightly nod and start backing away. "I'll see you around then."

Is that it? Do the two of you just go back to your respective lives now? How can Jay do that, when he doesn't even recall what his life was like before you entered it––and especially when he has absolutely no interest in going back to that life?

Fuck it.

"Y/N!" He stands up straight, a newfound confidence taking over. This time will be different, he tells himself. Because now, he knows what he wants. For sure.

You turn towards him, to see him already making his way towards you, stopping in his steps when he finds himself close enough to you that he can't concentrate anymore.

"I'm sorry for ditching you in the eighth grade. I'm sorry for ignoring you since then. I'm sorry for dragging you into this stupid mess and for pushing you away and I'm sorry for calling you a toy. Because it's far from truth. I like you. A lot. And––and I'm scared. I'm scared of what this means for us, because I just keep messing things up and all I know is that I don't wanna wake up tomorrow and realize you're not in my life anymore and––"

"Woah, woah, Jay. Slow down," you look up at him, the corners of your lips threatening to curve up into a smile. "You're an idiot, you know."

Jay's never really confessed his feelings to anyone before, per say, so he doesn't really know what to expect. But he's watched enough Netflix rom-coms in this lifetime (which is still not that many) to know that hearing the words "you're an idiot" isn't what you're supposed to hear after pouring your heart and soul out. Surely not, right?

"I––I'm not sure how to respond to that," he quietly says, searching your eyes for a sign, for anything. You giggle at his sudden shyness as you grab both his arms and look at him right in the eyes.

"It's okay. I get it, if anything, I'm also scared. But you somehow got me wrapped around your stupid finger, and I hate it," you smirk at him, your hands slowly making their way up his arms to circle around his neck.

Jay's hands naturally fall at your waist as he lets out a breathe he didn't even know he was holding as he returns your smirk. "Well, I could say the same about you. And I also hate it, for your information."

"Hmm, is that so? I guess it cancels out then, right?" You smile at him as he's pulling you in so close, your head turns cloudy.

Jay grins at you, his eyes holding so much joy and endearment as they quickly flicker down to your lips before returning to your own eyes. "I guess this only means one thing then."

"Mm, and what's that?"

And before Jay can answer––and because your life's been anything but normal lately––you make the first move this time, moving your head up to close the small gap between the two of you.

His arms instinctively tighten around you as you capture his lips with your very own, and Jay swears he's about to lift off into space right now. He's on cloud nine, and he makes no plans to touch the ground ever again.

The kiss quickly becomes fervent, all the pent-up tension that the two of you had for one another finally finding its way out, all the words that were previously left unsaid finally expressing themselves. You don't even care if you're being judged by the conservative faculty members of your school right now, or by the looks of fellow students walking past the two of you.

You try your best to keep yourself from smiling as he continues to press his lips against yours, his hand moving to hold your chin, guiding your mouth with his.

Before you find yourself getting carried away, you step back to take a breath, resting your forehead against his chest as his hands rest against your back. He smiles at the sound of you giggling against him.

Jay takes a step back to take one look at you and realizes, in this moment, that change can be good. And he's willing to undergo this change. As long as it's with you.

⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺ ⸺

The next morning, you bounce down the steps of your dorm building's entrance to meet the wide, bright smile of your ex-childhood-bestfriend-turned-fake-boyfriend-turned-real-boyfriend waiting for you in front of his car, small pastry bag in hand. You smile back at him.

Jay drives you to class that day.

And everyday after that.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ :

✰ let me know what you think! if u made it til the end, mwah :') <3

[solasan]

mollie i am knocking down your door and asking about matty, jill & chris 👀

omg leah!!!!!! i am always happy to talk abt my babies thank u sm for askin abt them <333

(under a cut bc this got long, i don't know how to do anything concisely i'm so sorry shdsjk)

so jill & matty meet during the raccoon city incident; matty's a nurse working at the spencer memorial hospital under dr. bard at the time (and also lowkey working for umbrella against her will) and carlos finds her when he brings jill to the hospital. she's literally hiding in a closet lmao carlos almost shoots her when he finds her, but she's so panicked and wide-eyed that he's like ok. i am going to leave my friend with u. please don't let her die. i'll be super mad.

matty looks after jill while carlos goes underground, mostly just keeping an eye on her vitals etc to be sure she's not either a) going to keel over and die or b) mutate into anything deeply terrifying that will scar matty for life lmao. when jill wakes up it's to matty literally checking her pulse, and when she moves matty jumps so hard that jill immediately decides she's going to protect this poor doe-eyed nurse with her life lmao

after the events of raccoon city, they get together. it's pretty hesitant and nervous on both sides at first bc 1) it's 1998 and they are two women and 2) they're both pretty traumatised lmao. matty especially has a lot of nightmares n has to go to therapy to work thru the things she saw at raccoon city. but they're very happy!!! very domestic!!!! they have a Gentle kind of love that builds very slowly and makes me 🥺

jill introduces matty to chris pretty quickly, because he's her best bud. i think even by this point chris is in love with jill but hasn't. quite realised it yet? but he and matty get along very well!!! she's a very soft sort of woman and pretty easy to get along with, especially since she's turned on umbrella now; she hasn't yet joined the the fight against them bc she's. still very anxious about being in any kind of combat situation again, but she works as a nurse in a local hospital n her n chris become pretty good buds thru their shared love of jill

so things between her and jill get pretty serious!!! they talk abt exchanging rings and are pretty open about their plans to spend the rest of their lives together. it's very sweet. and then the spencer estate raid happens, and jill disappears and is assumed dead.

and matty is a mess.

she grieves for a rly long time lmao. and doesn't rly do it very healthily. this is when she gets involved with the bsaa (as a medic) because she's just. so lost and furious about jill's death. she's lost her whole future, yknow?

anyway during this time her and chris kind of get a bit codependent bc they're both mourning this wonderful woman they loved so much, and they dont feel anyone else understands? chris feels like it's his fault she's gone and his fault matty's lost her, n matty's like lmao it's jill she never did anything she didn't want to do!!! it isn't ur fault!!!!

they kind of fall in love by accident? and their love is massively shaped both by jill's presence in their lives AND by her absence; they fall in love with the way the other loved jill first, and then with each other as people not long after lmao. they both feel super guilty abt having these feelings too!!! chris is like i killed her and now i'm trying to steal the woman she used to call her wife and matty's like she's dead and now i'm moving on with her best friend, i'm evil. it's all very dramatic

they do work things out tho. and they get married like. literally 2 months before re5. it's a beautiful ceremony n they both rly wish jill was there for it lmao but yeah. they're happy!!! they're in love!!!! they're talking abt having kids together, which for matty is a big deal, because she was a teen mom and gave up her kid for adoption (something previously she'd only talked about with jill)

AND THEN RE5 HAPPENS AND JILL TURNS OUT TO BE ALIVE AND THINGS GET MUCH MORE COMPLICATED!!!!

really. so much more complicated. once she’s herself again, jill starts talking abt going home to matty, and chris is so like. oh my god what do i do. oh my god i’m married to her girlfriend she’s going to hate me. oh my god i’m so glad she’s alive but we are so screwed

lmao she comes home and it’s been three years and matty doesn’t live in the apartment they shared anymore and she’s a married woman now and the next few months are just. very awkward and confusing for everybody involved? jill still loves matty and matty still loves jill but she also loves chris, who loves them both, and none of them know how to act lmao. chris talks once abt stepping back to let them be together and matty nearly brains him on the nearest hard surface she’s so mad.

matty, turning up at @denerims cassie’s house: WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO WHAT EVEN ARE MY OPTIONS HERE DO I HAVE TO CHANGE MY NAME AND LEAVE THE COUNTRY

anyway. eventually they do work it out. matty kind of preliminarily remains married to chris while also dating jill (consensually, everyone involved knows) and then uhhh jill eventually realises she loves chris too lmao and they all get drunk and hook up once and from then on it’s sorted. they are a package deal. they also eventually have a private lil ceremony where they all exchange rings w each other lmao they’re so in love it’s disgusting

and yeah. i still haven’t played village so idk whats going on w them by that point except they probably have a kid or two??? the end SHKDKD im so soz this is so long

[magicaldreamfox1]

Reveal Your Watch & Rewatch Drama List

i was tagged by @onstoryladders thank u <333 i love doing these games so feel free to tag me whenever <333

Currently Watching

Enchanté

i'm keeping up with enchanté! i'm really enjoying it altho the drama that's coming up is kinda annoying and predictable in my opinion. and also my beloved side characters natee and phupha (especially phupha) got really bad endings to their stories imo. i have a way better version in my head. but! jimmy!!!!! finally made his appearance so it makes me want to forgive them

Cutie Pie

i've been really liking this show so far but i gotta say kuea makes me want to commit murder. i understand that everything he does is in character and that's just how he is but i just think he's so so so stupid and he's annoying me sm 🤧🤧🤧 i LOVE yidiao tho and altho nuer is being a little BITCH atm i Am curious as to how his story with syn will unfold

Honourable Mention: Bridgerton Season 2

i decided to include this as well even tho it's not a drama but why not u know. i am one of the many people who watch this show yes 😔😔😔✊ is it objectively a good show? no. is the dialogue extremely corny and sometimes downright cringeworthy? yes absolutely. is it enjoyable and entertaining tho? absolutely

Starting Soon(er Or Later)

i used to have a whole watchlist in my notes app on my phone but then my phone broke and i lost all my data so i'm currently working with what i have and remember. which isn't a lot. i'm also suffering from a severe case of brainrot atm so my motivation to watch new things is. lower but here are some shows i would consider watching soon!

The Merciless

i'm currently working myself thru the merciless evil devil from hell watchlist so this is def smthg i'm gonna watch some time. since it's a movie i think it will be easier to watch for me since it'll be faster

Strangers From Hell

another merciless evil devil from hell thing altho i think this is gonna take me some time before i watch it. i'm not over the last show yet so this is still months away i feel like

KinnPorsche

ofc like everyone and their mum i've been waiting for this for ages!!!! and i hope it'll drop soon! i'll def be watching it live!

GAP The Series

so excited for this!!!! absolutely will be watching it as soon as it comes out

To My Star

J told me abt this and said i might like it so i might watch it??? not sure yet tho

i'm still on the fence about star in my mind (in your mind? or whatever it's called girlies idk 😭😭😭) so idk yet if i'll be watching that

Rewatching

Beyond Evil

u really shouldn't have asked me abt this bc i cannot shut up abt this show @disaster-j knows that better than anyone else. literally this show made me go absolutely entirely insane so obviously i went on a rewatch immediately. and it's still so good. i still haven't recovered like man....these gays......ugh......

(also look at this fucking cinematic masterpiece of a poster. oh my gOD)

Color Rush

i'm not rewatching that yet but i've been meaning to. so i hope i'll get to that soon!

Tagging

@disaster-j & @toddblacksoulmates (hope u guys haven't done it yet???? no pressure to do this tho <333) and anyone else who wants to do it!!!

[baekhvuns]

😭😭the meme

yess school is well so far, i just hope ill be able to study and shit yk after 3 months of doing absolutely nothing BUT still stressing over it..lmao😭😭😭 and im holding okay SO FAR had my moments since i got annoyed by mr Audi and his chickness but we move on we find better men 🥰

NO BUT IT WOULD'VE BEEN OKAY LISTEN it would've been okay to be shy - I'm shy too but when we were texting he was bold and when we started meeting up he was so shy i thought he'd be running the other way when he was with me 😭😭 like-be shy over text too then?? why are u playing like this with me.. and yes he smokes and unfortunately I did not experience anything like that unless u count a carnival he took me at but again he was so shy he didn't even hold my hand and i got lost in the crowd 😐😐😐 and yes i do like bold men SO WHO THE HELL WAS THAT OMG?? IS THIS A NEW DRAMA OMG I'M SO INVESTED but why does it say he's second lead CMON.. if he doesn't get the girl i swear😐

omg u were traveling?? i hope u had lots of fun and saw new places and had good experience!! 🥺 AND YES I'll forget abt every1 and everything cuz im on a mission here and i need to make it so I can rub it into everyone's faces who said I wouldn't be able to make it😁

anyway what r u writing anything new am i getting that yeosang fic my b-day is in 1 month 🤔🌃

hgsahjga was so surprised to see u in the box and u start with "iM ALIVE" 😭😭😭

yess school is well so far, i just hope ill be able to study and shit yk after 3 months of doing absolutely nothing BUT still stressing over it..lmao😭😭😭 and im holding okay SO FAR had my moments since i got annoyed by mr Audi and his chickness but we move on we find better men 🥰

im sure u will do great!!! im on the same boat 😭😭😭 we'll make it thru ✊🏻✊🏻 DHFJKSG KEEP ON HOLDING PATIENCE IS KEY W THAT MAN 😭😭😭

NO BUT IT WOULD'VE BEEN OKAY LISTEN it would've been okay to be shy - I'm shy too but when we were texting he was bold and when we started meeting up he was so shy i thought he'd be running the other way when he was with me 😭😭 like-be shy over text too then?? why are u playing like this with me.. and yes he smokes and unfortunately I did not experience anything like that unless u count a carnival he took me at but again he was so shy he didn't even hold my hand and i got lost in the crowd 😐😐😐 and yes i do like bold men SO WHO THE HELL WAS THAT OMG?? IS THIS A NEW DRAMA OMG I'M SO INVESTED but why does it say he's second lead CMON.. if he doesn't get the girl i swear😐

LMFAOOOOOO SFNJBDJSHFJDH HE LEFT U IN THE CROWD????? YELLING GKJSGJHSGJSLJGJ BFF WHAT IS GOING ON IM SORRY THATS HILARIOUS 😭😭😭😭 + smoking??? 😭😭 ... bolder men? may i say bbhwa is ur perfect match <3 YES THAT BOLD MAN IS LEE JAE YOUNG INA NEW KDRAMA CALLED LOVE IN CONTRACT ON SEPT 21 HE IS THE !!!! MAN !!!! U !!! FORGET AUDIS !!!

omg u were traveling?? i hope u had lots of fun and saw new places and had good experience!! 🥺 AND YES I'll forget abt every1 and everything cuz im on a mission here and i need to make it so I can rub it into everyone's faces who said I wouldn't be able to make it😁

i was a little! it was super fun seeing green everywhere <333 YES EXACTLY THAT, THATS IT THATS THE MISSON

anyway what r u writing anything new am i getting that yeosang fic my b-day is in 1 month 🤔🌃

......fake dating au w y-yunho,,, childhood frenemies to lovers,,, yunho's got a fat wallet, chaebol au....