#It's going to be my late graduation trip and we're going over there then up the East Coast hitting as many as possible before going to NYC

[the-halfling-prince]

Are you normal or did the movie Song of the Sea make you autistic about lighthouses

[roosterforme]

Right Girl, Wrong Time Part 10 | Bradley Bradshaw x Reader

Summary: You missed out on a lot of things when you lived in Chicago, because you didn't want to do them without Bradley. On a very important trip, you and he both visit the city together.

Warnings: Fluff, smut and swears

Length: 1500 words

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Female Reader (former fuckboy college student Bradley)

This is a sequel to accompany my story Old Habits Die Hard (you'll want to read that one first)!

Check my profile for my masterlist

Five Months Later...

"I can't believe we're willingly flying to Chicago in January," you complained with a bright smile on your face. 

"This was your idea, Sugar," Bradley reminded you, holding up both boarding passes for the airline gate agent to scan. "It's not too late to stay in Vegas or fly to Fiji like I originally wanted."

"No, no. We're going to Chicago together," you told him, taking his hand as you boarded your flight from Las Vegas to O'Hare. Bradley spun your rings around on your finger as you located your seats and settled in. 

"Chicago in January. Two days before a blizzard is due to arrive. Are we about to go on the shittiest honeymoon ever?" he asked, kissing your lips. 

You laughed and wrapped your arms around his neck. "Listen, we just had Elvis marry us yesterday on the Vegas strip. We had a quickie wedding after being engaged for five weeks, and I'm not even pregnant. Now we're about to get snowed in together in Chicago. You'll be stuck in a room with me for a week. I don't think a conventional honeymoon is what we needed, Beer Boy."

Bradley tipped his head back and laughed. "Actually, now that you mention it, being snowed in with you sounds like a dream, Sugar. What am I even complaining about?"

"I don't know," you whispered against his scars. "You get me and Chicago deep dish pizza around the clock if you want it."

"I want it," he confirmed. "You can feed me pizza naked in bed after we have sex. And then I'll get hard again, we can have sex again, and you can feed me more pizza. It sounds like the perfect week. Chicago in January is everything I ever wanted."

You were shaking with silent laughter as the flight attendant went over the safety instructions, and soon you were in the air. And then you fell asleep on your husband's shoulder. Bradley jostled you awake in time to see the city all lit up against a snowy backdrop as the plane descended into Chicago. 

"Are you ready for this?" you asked, standing next to him with your bags, about to walk outside to get a taxi. "It's three degrees out there."

"Yeah, I'm ready," Bradley mumbled, but he looked scared. "No problem."

Once you and he were outside, he was practically crying as you took care of hailing a ride to the hotel. "You have thin Californian blood now," you told him as he snuggled up next to you in the back seat. You kissed his icy cold nose and forehead as you headed through the city where you lived for four years during grad school. "It's embarrassing, Bradley. I married a Californian."

He shivered in your arms and said, "We're both Virginians, Sugar. I just hate being cold."

You were playing with his hair and kissing along his ear as he melted into you. Every time you thought about the crazy juxtaposition that your life had become, you felt tears in your eyes. You had missed Bradley terribly when you were living in Chicago and still even after you graduated with your PhD. So it just felt right that he was here with you now.

"That's where I got my second tattoo," you whispered as the taxi drove slowly down a side street. 

Bradley looked out the window and smiled. "Should be a historic landmark."

Your laughter filled the small space as he kissed you. Then he paid the cab fare, and you had never seen him move as fast as he did when he hauled all of the luggage inside to the warm hotel lobby. 

"Let's go get a good night's sleep," you told him as he carried everything to the elevator and then into the hotel room. 

"We're not sleeping," he said, shaking his head. "You're going to snuggle with me until I'm warm again, which could take hours, and then I'm fucking you for the rest of the night."

He wasn't lying. You pulled him into bed with you, and held his body close, softly kissing him and telling him how happy you were. 

"I love you, Sugar. I loved you ten years ago, and I love you today, and I'll still be loving you ten years from now."

Slowly and meticulously, he undressed you beneath the blankets, touching and kissing each new bit of skin as it was exposed. He took extra time and gave extra attention to your tattoos, just like he always did. 

"I've been in love with you since the first time you wore my bathrobe," he told you before pressing his lips to the valley between your breasts as you giggled. "No, before that. Since the first time I watched you put a bottle of beer to your perfect lips." He kissed his way up to your mouth, lingering there until you were sighing against him. 

"You've been in love with me since you met me then? Is that what you're trying to say, Beer Boy?"

He groaned as he slid his length inside you. "God, I fucking love it when you call me that. Every single time. And yes, Sugar, ever since I met you."

You made love to your husband all night, your hands and eyes roving over his body as you told him how happy you were that you both ended up at your class reunion in Virginia. That he was at the same bar as you that night last summer. 

When you both finally fell asleep, it was a long time before you woke up. Room service had already switched from breakfast to lunch, but Bradley got them to agree to send up a pot of coffee along with your lunch order. You and he ate all bundled up in bed together with the curtains open, the first flurries of snow falling outside as the storm moved in. 

"We need to head out soon so we can get back before it gets dark," you told him as he sipped his coffee. 

His expression looked unimpressed, but he nodded anyway. "Yeah. Let's go, Sugar."

The taxi dropped you both off at the edge of the park as the sidewalks were getting slick from the snow. There were only a few people out and about, and even in the middle of the day, the sunlight was struggling to break through the heavy, gray clouds. Bradley had his arm wrapped around your shoulders as you approached The Bean together. You stood side by side, examining if for a moment in silence. 

"It's just a big, metallic bean," you said, leaning into Bradley as the wind picked up.

"I knew it would be dumb as hell, Sugar," he replied, gesturing at it with his hand like there was no good explanation for what they were seeing.

You wrapped your arms around his middle and looked up at him as you started cracking up. "I'm glad I didn't see it without you. It was worth the wait."

"You were worth the wait. The Bean, maybe less so," he replied, kissing you as you took your phone out. 

After you took a bunch of selfies and texted some to Nat, you looked at Bradley and hummed. His cheeks were bright pink from the cold, and the tip of his nose was getting red. He was perfect, and he was all yours. 

"Have you given much thought to a little Bradshaw bean?" you asked as snowflakes stuck on his mustache. 

"Bradshaw bean?" he asked. His brow was creased before it started to smooth out. "Are you saying what I think you're saying, Sugar?"

You nodded and kissed his pink cheek. "Yeah, Beer Boy. A little baby Bradshaw bean. Just something to think about."

Both of you thought about it and talked about it as you stood in front of the giant bean in the middle of a blizzard. But you didn't need to make all of your decisions right now. You weren't planning on being without Bradley ever again. 

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

THANK YOU for reading along on this adventure with me! Beer Boy/Man and Sugar belong together, and I'm happy she gets to take him to Chicago, even if it's during a blizzard! I hope you had as much fun as I did! Thanks to @mak-32 and @beyondthesefourwalls

Please visit the one-shot The Grateful Dad for some more Beer Boy and Sugar!

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[rustys-lodge]

Hiii could u possibly write something about a little sister reader with sam and Dean? Maybe reader graduated highschool and the brothers are just so proud. When they called the readers name they screamed the loudest

Warnings : none, except if you're scared of pure fluff. And being lifted in the air by a loving father figure.

A/N : We're going to call this character Lily, alright ? We can't be your naming her all the time. Also can we talk about this perfect gif ?

----

"Come on, it's our turn."

With trembling feet, you stood up from your seat and followed your friend over to the stand, along with your other classmates, where stood 5 of your teachers as well as the director of your school.

You glanced over at the crowd, taking in the smiles and the claps of your best friends. And the sudden frantic claps of your idiot brothers. You would gasp, but you were standing in front of hundreds of people. And even though you could not control the sudden white wash that flooded your face, you tried your best to keep looking normal and collected.

"Lily Winchester."

Once it was your turn, your name erupted through the speakers. And sudden shouts of happiness filled the space.

"GO LILLYYY"

"WOO"

Oh my god....You knew this was going to happen...Of course they wouldn't listen to you.

As your face reddenned a deeper color, you quickened your pace walking down the stand, pursing your lips as to not spit out the most forbidden words at your joyfull looking brothers.

"You..idiots had to embar-"

Your scolding was interrupted by a sudden embrace, and you found yourself watching people fly by as you were swinging in the air.

"You did it, you annoying little monkey."

A set of lips jabbed your cheek before you're fully let go. And you couldn't stop yourself from smiling. But you still rolled your eyes at him.

"Whatever."

With a deep breath in, you turned around to take in the scene, watching as applause filled the room once again. Good energy roamed around. Specifically around y-

A tap on your shoulder snapped you back to life. You turned around to find yourself, yet again embraced tightly.

"I'm so proud of you, sweetheart. You did it." Sam whispered in your ear. And you kissed his neck in response, wrapping your arms around his back.

As flashbacks of the past few months rushed back, your fingers reflexively gripped Sam's back tighter. It's been hard. Really hard, on all of you, having to stay in the same place while being enemies with a lot of people around.

Sam and Dean having to leave you multiple times to go on weekly trips.

And most importantly, being a hunter/apprentice who had to wake up at 7am to get ready for school, and go home as late as 3am after a hunt.

Yeah. It's been hard.

You pulled away from Sam, flashing him a reassuring smile as you noticed a change in his own mood.

"Alright. Let's go home now."

"Uh..." You spun around, your eyes pivoting from Sam to Dean and then once again to Sam.

You were supposed to go out with your friends. How-why would he suddenly change his mind ?You pleadingly frowned your eyebrows, causing a chuckle to escape Sam's lips.

"He's just playing with you, sweetheart." Your shoulders slouched. Go."

Your shoulders slouched forward in annoyance.

He always gets you.

"Alright, i'll see you later, Sammy."

The latter chuckled lightly. "Have fuun."

As you turned on your heels, you glanced back over your shoulder, flashing Dean an eye-squinting dramatic glare.

"Home by 11, kid."

-----

Is there a remedy agaisnt one's own cringy endings ? Not sure. Anyways, hope yall enjoy reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it. Xoxo ❤️❤️❤️⚘️⚘️⚘️

[sungbeam]

nonidol!kevin moon x f!reader

another summer break, another annual trip to the lake! except, it seems like when you and kev get there, you'll have to make some tweaks to the original rescue protocol.

▷ genre, warnings. childhood friends 2 lovers, fluff, hurt/comfort, humor, swearing, motherly meddling and matchmaking, shirtless kevin..., kissing, talks of academic expectations/pressure/insecurity/and lack of fulfillment, kim seokjin is my favorite plot device, this could technically be slow burn, pining-ish?, im sorry joshua + serena, little to no interactions with the other boyz 😔

▷ word count. 29.0k (...hah)

this is the sixth installment of the love in unity series! reading the prev fics is not required, but i do encourage it :] all prev yns will be referred to as _!yn

a/n: return to summer with me 😌 or for those of u on the other side of the world, we can give summer an early welcome :') treat her w kindness pls </3 hope u enjoy!!

EPISODE ONE (PILOT): DON’T YOU LOVE FORESHADOWING?

"IT still feels weird, man." Kevin Moon brushed his hand over the surface of his newly cropped hair, freshly cut specifically for this summer break, just earlier this week. He probably should have gotten it done before he took all those pictures with his graduating friends, but life had been busy as of late.

Jacob Bae, best friend, roommate, and one of the recent graduates, chuckled from the other side of the video chat. "I'm sure it does. But hey, it looks good, so it's not like you have anything to worry about."

Kevin glanced over at the car where his dad was gassing up. His mom was in the back seat, waving her arm out the window to beckon him back to the vehicle. "Thanks," he grinned. "Looks like my mom is telling me to come back. This is probably the last time I'll have signal for a few weeks."

Just behind Kevin was the little gas station he and his parents stopped at for snacks and the last leg of their drive. It was tradition that every summer his family made the trek to their lakeside cabin a few hours out of Vancouver. Except last summer, Kevin couldn't make it; in contrast, this summer, Kevin and his parents were going without Kevin's younger sister. Usually, there were a couple other families that were there at the same time, too, who Kevin had grown up with. It was usually a grand time.

Kevin adjusted the bag of snacks he'd purchased from the store that hung on his arm as he made his way back to the car.

"Make sure to take pics! And say hi to your mom for me," said Jacob.

"Why don't you say hi to her yourself, Jacob-ah?" Kevin's mom chided teasingly as Kevin took his place in the passenger seat next to his dad. Ever since Kevin and Jacob had met at that one, fateful out-of-country student mixer at university, neither of them shut up about each other to their own families. It was like finding a needle in a haystack, locating a fellow Korean-Canadian.

Kevin passed his phone back to his mom, and he heard Jacob's immediate, "Hi imo! How are you?"

"I've been doing well. Wah, you look so glowy," his mom marveled, and Kevin felt her nudge him in the shoulder. "Hyungseo-ah, maybe you should get a girlfriend, too, if this is how radiant Jacob looks after so long."

Jacob's warm chuckle contrasted Kevin's groan. The latter rubbed his hand down his face with an embarrassed wince. "Eomma," he said weakly, sliding down in his seat. Not this again.

The car began to roll out of the gas station and he lowered his window to catch the breeze as they went. He already recognized the pattern of trees in this area, and his heart fluttered at the thought of being so close to childhood again. The lake was always a favorite place of his.

"—Kevin mentioned something about other families being there?"

"Oh, yes. We're always there with the Ln family, and more recently, Kevin's cousin—you know Yuna, right? She and her husband Seokjin meet us there with their kids now."

Kevin rested his elbow along the edge of the window. "Uncle Seokjin is an interesting character, Cobie," he mused. "I think you'd get along."

"Seokjin gets along with everyone," his dad chimed in.

"You know who you should get along with, Kevin?—" Kevin already knew where his mom was going with this, "—Yn Ln! You're not gonna be shy after spending so long away from her, are you?"

Jacob's voice echoed in the car. "Who's Yn Ln?"

Kevin squirmed in his seat. "Just—a family friend. Mom, can we please not make this a big deal?" And why in the world would he be shy around his childhood best friend? Three years couldn’t have changed a person that much, could it? You were cute—but in a dorky way—that was how he had always seen you.

She sent him an innocent look. "What? I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know what I'm talking about," he said, twisting around in his seat to send her a pleading look. "I don't wanna make her uncomfortable, especially since… y'know… we're not kids anymore?"

His mom made a sound of disapproval, but relented. "Aish, fine. I won't say anything; I promise."

A beat of silence. Then from the phone, "I still have no clue what's going on."

The twins were being a pain again. Most of the time, since you were away at college, you actually missed the twin hellspawn, but you should have known that bliss would shatter the moment you had to endure another five hour car ride with them.

"—MAMA, CONNOR IS BEING A JERK—"

"WELL, ALICE WOULDN'T SHARE THE GOLDFISH!"

The noise-canceling headphones weren't working. Usually, they worked substantially well when trying to block out the frat party noises at school, but they weren't holding up well against adolescent discourse. You would have thought that once they had grown out of toddler-hood, they would calm down a little, but sibling rivalry prevailed.

You shucked your useless headphones off and twisted around in your seat to peer into the backseat. "Here, have mine," you said, dropping your bag of goldfish into your little brother's lap.

Connor's eyes lit up in delight. "Thanks, Yn!"

Your ears rang as you turned back to the front.

The drive up to the lake house was something you and your family did every summer, except, you hadn't gone two summers ago for a summer internship. It was a tradition completed with other families—namely the Moons, who were longtime family friends out of Vancouver. You hadn't seen Kevin, their only son who was your age, in two years because of your conflicting schedules. It would have happened again this year, but your misfortune had you internship-less. Then again, a trip to the lake was never a bad thing.

You leaned your head back against your seat rest to enjoy the rare moment of silence in the car. Already, you could begin to point out the familiar scenery out of your window.

“I heard we’re gonna be getting new neighbors this year,” you heard your mother say from the front row, breaking the brief quiet.

You blinked out of your daze, shifting in your seat and to give momentary relief to your aching behind. “Oh, really? Do we know who they are?”

“Aw, so Uncle Jin and Auntie Yuna aren’t coming to the lake with us?” Alice pouted from the backseat.

“No, Uncle and Auntie are both still coming up with us,” you dad piped up from the driver’s seat. He caught your eyes through the rear view mirror. “Their little ones are coming, too. We’re just gonna have even more people this year.”

“Should be fun,” you murmured. You leaned down to rummage through the backpack at your feet for your backup bag of snacks (because some part of your brain just knew that the twins would forget how to share).

“I can’t wait to see Kevin!” This was Connor; you could feel the car shake as he bounced up and down in his seat. “I’ve been wanting to show him my new helicopter—”

Your eyebrows furrowed. “Con, you brought the helicopter?”

“Yeah, and what about it?”

Before further argument could erupt between you and your brother, your mom stepped in. “Speaking of Kevin…”

You could feel the coming conversation like there were dark gray storm clouds forming in the distance—impending doom, you liked to think. You fumbled with the opening of your chip bag. “Mama, could you possibly, by any chance, not try and set me and Kevin up anymore?” There, you’d said it. It was out in the open.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” your mother sniffed. “I only think that you and Kevin would be very nice together! It’s already so convenient that our families are long-time friends, and—”

“Mama,” you emphasized. “I don’t wanna get into a relationship for convenience's sake.” Your skin was already beginning to heat. Having known the Moons for so long, as well as having kids the same age, your mom and his mom had harped on the opportunity to bring your families together through more than one way.

“She just doesn’t want to get into a relationship at all!” Your little brother cackled.

You sent him a dull look over your shoulder. “And after I gave you my goldfish?” The situation concerning relationships wasn’t as Connor so bluntly put it; rather, you simply had yet to find the right person, as it was for many people. A relationship would have been nice, but when it came, then it would come. Plus, you were pretty sure that Kevin wasn’t the most comfortable with being matchmade with you by the Mother Matchmakers either. That was what the pact was for, anyway.

“I’m just saying that Kevin is a smart, good-looking young man,” your mother teased.

You hadn’t seen him in almost three years, but how much could three years change a guy? Maybe you would admit that he was cute. If you hadn’t known him since he wore Cars diapers, maybe you would have had a crush on him. “No matchmaking,” you repeated.

Your mother sighed melodramatically. “Fine. No matchmaking with Kevin.”

“Thank you,” you said, settling into your seat. Something stirred in the back of your mind, though. For some reason, you had a feeling that this wasn’t the end of this conversation. But as you turned your attention back to the scenery whizzing past you, you let all dealings with matchmaking, boys, and relationships sink to the very back of your mind.

EPISODE TWO: IT’S CALLED AN AMBUSH

THANKS to the convenience of no signal, you could safely attempt to forget about the internship you hadn’t landed this year. The entire debacle had been a headache and a half, but the residual sadness still lingered. There was something about the lakehouse, though, that gave you hope that you could get over it. While you wouldn’t spend this summer doing something “productive” toward your career, you would at least be presented with a pleasant alternative.

Your dad pulled the family SUV into the gravel driveway of your family lakehouse, and childhood flooded back to you. All of the dark oak walls and browned window sills and wildflowers blooming in the front walkway among the grass… You could remember crashing your bike into that one bush to the side of the house where the rain gutter now stood hugging the building.

The twins had fallen asleep sometime between the matchmaking conversation and here, which left the car in a sort of serenity that matched the surroundings. Your house in particular was one of the few houses that was perched a little higher than the lakeshore. There were a couple around the lake that sat directly on the water with docks built into their lower levels though.

You notched your car door open, shouldered your backpack, then quietly lowered your car’s seat. Connor, who was sitting directly behind you, had his head tilted to the side, mouth wide open to catch flies as he slept. With a cheeky smile, you snapped a picture of him. Once tucking your phone away, you climbed into the back to shake him and Alice awake.

“Hey, we’re here,” you murmured. Your parents were already beginning to unload the car of your supplies for the next couple of weeks.

Your brother’s eyes fluttered open, and his arms stretched over his head as he began to compute his surroundings. “Mmm… I’m hungry,” he babbled and smacked his lips together.

Yep, this one was awake.

You patted his face in your version of sisterly affection as you leaned over him to get to his twin. “You gotta wait, dude. You’re gonna ruin your dinner.”

He rubbed his hand over his face. “You always sound like Mom when you say that.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” you huffed. You nudged your sister. “Hey, Alice. Up, hm?”

She shifted in her seat, eyes still closed. “Are we here yet?”

“Yeah, hon. We’re here.” With your task completed, you backed out of the car to make space for the twins to climb out after you. You took a step backwards, your foot catching against something and making you tumble into the person directly behind you. “Ah! Shi—”

“Language!” Your mom called from the other side of the car. “Hi Kevin! Wow, did you get a haircut?”

Kevin…?

You recognized the warm chuckle behind you, and the arms helping to steady you patted your shoulders in greeting. “I did!”

When you whirled around, your mouth stretched in a grin, but you didn’t expect to come face to face with the confident stature of the man behind you. He was in a tank top and shorts, which were definitely proper attire for the humid temperature, and yet, your brain was thinking about the amount of arm muscle there was. Oh, and of course, the cropped black hair. You could have sworn his jaw got sharper, too… This was not the timid-faced Kevin Moon—rising freshman in college—you last recalled.

“Kevin!” Connor’s body rocketed past you and crashed into Kevin’s legs.

Kevin bent down slightly to ruffle your little brother’s hair. “Hey, little man! What’s good?”

“I wanna show you my helicopter—!”

“Connor,” Alice said as she hopped out of the car, “Mama wants you to help bring in your stuff, and then you can show Kevin your helicopter.”

Connor’s mouth gaped open like a fish’s. “Wha—what about Yn?”

“Well, that’s just what Mama said, so,” your little sister said matter-of-factly. She raised a hand in a wave to Kevin. “Hi!”

Kevin returned the gesture with a sweet smile. “Hi, Alice.”

You and Kevin watched as your twin siblings raced into the lakehouse with their backpacks strapped onto their bodies. You could hear their hollering from out here as they fought over who would get the top bunk this year.

“They’ve gotten taller,” Kevin commented, drawing your attention back to him.

You brushed your hair from your face. “Yeah, you should’ve seen my reaction when I came back home and they were like, not small enough where I could trip over them anymore.”

The two of you shared a small laugh, and you held one arm with your other. You hadn’t realized how a few years could reset things between the two of you, but you supposed it was also attributed to the fact that three years away at college could lead to a lot of difference and a lot of growth.

“So what’s new with you?” You asked him and nudged his arm with your elbow. “Have you been working out?” You blurted, but ran with it.

Kevin smiled, reaching back to cup the nape of his neck with that sheepishness you recognized as something distinctly Kevin. Maybe things weren’t so different. “Hah, yeah actually. Is it that noticeable?”

You looked him up and down with what you hoped he saw as teasing and not you actually checking him out. “Yeah, dude. You look good though.”

“Really? Thanks, Yn. I appreciate it.” He stuck his hands in the pockets of his shorts. "You look good, too—and oh my god, I have so much to catch you up on—"

"Hyungseo! Stop hogging Yn and come in to help with dinner." Just a little ways down the path, Kevin’s mom peered out from the front porch of the Moons’ house. The houses in this neighborhood were a little more spread out than the average suburban street, but their house had always been the closest to yours.

You could have sworn you saw a dusting of pink on your friend’s cheekbones. “I’m not hogging her,” he groaned. He turned back to you, throwing a thumb in the direction of his house. “I’ll see you guys over at ours in a few then?”

You gave a nod. “For sure. My mom and I marinated a couple things for tonight this morning, so we’ll be bringing those over.”

“Sweet,” he grinned, already backpedaling toward his house. “See ya, Yn!”

“Bye, Kevin,” you chuckled and bounded up toward your house.

Once everyone in your household had settled in for the most part, your dad corralled your siblings over to the Moon house, while you and your mom brought over your family’s offerings of tonight’s dinner. Instead of entering through their front door, you simply bypassed the invisible property line between your houses and found Kevin and his dad firing up the barbeque on the back lawn.

Kevin looked up from the box of aluminum foil in his hands and dropped it onto the table. "Oh, auntie! Let me get that for you," he said, meeting you in the middle and taking the tray out of your mom's hands.

"Thank you," she said to him. "How has school been, Kevin? Remind me again—you're a…?"

"Photography major," he replied. The three of you swept past Kevin's dad on your way up to the Moons' house.

"Ah, how's that going for you?"

"It's going well—" Your mom slid the screen door open and you all deposited your shoes to the side before entering the kitchen. "—I should be able to graduate two quarters early, which is nice."

Your mom nodded her head. "That's good, that's good. Katherine, it's nice to see you again!"

As your mom shuffled over to the sink where Kevin's mom was washing a colander of cabbage, you and Kevin set the trays down on the kitchen island.

You heard Kevin's gasp of delight when he lifted the foil off his. "No way. I love your mom's short ribs so much," he said, tipping his head back with his eyes closed.

You laughed at his reaction. "Me, too dude. It's never the same when I try to recreate it at school."

"Oh, for sure," he agreed. He cocked his head to the side, a frown coming into his face. "These should probably go back out to the grill then, huh."

You considered the two trays of meat before you. "You're right."

You both covered the trays back over and began to make your way back out to the lawn.

"Has Connor showed you his helicopter yet?" You asked Kevin while you slid your shoes back on.

The screen door slid shut behind him with his other arm carrying his tray. "He did." Kevin brightened, "It's cool. That kid should go into aviation or engineering."

"That's what I'm thinking," you said. "Though, he's not the greatest at math, but I guess he still has a long way to go before he even needs to consider all that."

He nodded, sighing. "That's true. The twins have a long way to go. Crazy how far we've gotten, y'know?"

You both dropped the marinated meat trays over by Kevin's dad, only to greet your dad on the way down to help out. You were sure that you and Kevin were needed up at the house anyway; your dad had mentioned something about having Connor and Alice start on the batch of kimchi. You hoped he had set up some newspaper this time to avoid a mess.

"My sister says your porch swing broke last year," Kevin said as he followed you back into the kitchen.

"Oh yeah!" You snorted. "Pro tip: don't try to fit two families on that thing. Not a good idea."

The moms directed you both over to the fruits and vegetables on the counter that still needed to be prepped, and you picked up a knife, and Kevin a peeler.

Kevin's brows knitted together as he tossed and caught an asian pear with one hand. "You guys tried to fit both families on that thing? It could barely handle two people the last time I remember."

"Hey, in our defense," you started, already giggling at the memory, "we wanted a cool picture, but then we ended up almost putting a hole through our porch. Lesson learned."

"Lesson learned, indeed." He shook his head as he shucked the pretty ring of golden peel he'd gotten from the pear into the paper bag beside him. "Is it fixed now?"

"Should be," you said. You used the blade of your knife to help coax the peel of the red onion off, then diligently began to take the rest off. "We need a maximum occupancy sign to go with it."

He laughed. "Something like 'less than four people' or something?"

"I think it can handle four people!"

His eyebrows arched high. "You wanna test that theory?"

You glanced up from your diced onions for just a second to meet his gaze. "Uhm no. But you are definitely welcome to."

"Oh, no, no! I'm not getting looped into this solo again like you did with the tire swing that one year."

"Okay, that time wasn't my fault! You said that you bet we could ride it together without breaking the tree branch, and I said—"

Your thought train cut off when the doorbell rang. Both yours and Kevin's heads perked up at the sound and darted in the direction like a pair of meerkats. Even from this room, you could hear the front door being opened and the commotion firing up. There was only one family left to join the party, and you knew exactly who had come to make his presence known.

In minimal time, a lanky man with dark brown bangs and a magazine-cover-worthy face barged into the kitchen with his hands raised, full of grocery bags, and a child riding in a carrier on his chest. "Hello, everyone! Your favorite, most handsome uncle has arrived."

"Hi, Uncle Jin," both you and Kevin chorused, as Kevin's mom took the grocery bags from him with thanks. Your mom must have been the one who opened the door since she had gone into the other room to monitor the twins and their kimchi.

"Hello, children—wow," Kim Seokjin said as he made eyes at Kevin's arms, giving them a little squish. "Close the gyms, everyone. What have they been feeding you at college?"

Kevin's face reddened. "It's nothing, really."

"Nothing?" Seokjin made eye contact with you. "You're seeing this, too, right?"

You swallowed your laugh, but you couldn't suppress your smile. "I'm seeing it, too," you confirmed. You set your knife down and gently ran your finger over baby Leena's head; you wondered how she was still asleep with how loud her father's voice was. "Awh, she's adorable."

Your uncle by association put his hands on his hips. "Fatherhood is great, but let me tell you," he said with flair, "after two kids, I don't want anymore. I think I've seen enough dirty diapers for you both combined."

Kevin laughed. "I'm sure Yuna-noona's on the same page."

"Yes, your cousin and I are definitely on the same page," Jin confirmed while clasping a hand on Kevin's shoulder. His eyes widened, and he gave the muscle beneath his fingers a squeeze. "Jesus—"

"Jin! Do you know where the bag with the formula is?" That was Yuna, Kevin's cousin, calling from the next room over. Soon, her head poked in through the doorway, and her mouth curved into a delighted smile at the sight of familiar faces. "Oh, hi everyone!"

"I think it's in the red colored bag, babe," Jin said as he turned away from you and Kevin and waddled over to where his wife was.

"That's what I thought, too, but I can't find it."

With the young couple now off in search of their bag of baby formula, you and Kevin were again left to yourselves with the fruits and vegetables.

You scooped the diced onions up with one hand and the blade of your knife into an empty bowl for later. "Well, that was…"

"Quite an entrance?" Kevin finished. You could still see the rosiness in his cheeks. "Yup."

"You can always count on Uncle Jin to liven up a place."

"Oh, definitely." Kevin picked up another pear to peel; they would probably either be sliced up for the kids to eat or maybe used to make a dessert later. Something of the sort, at least. "Now where were we?"

You raised your brows as you picked up a carrot. "I think we were talking about how you broke the tire swing in seventh grade."

The evening progressed swiftly with everyone's combined efforts in throwing dinner together. By the time the sun was about to make its descent into the horizon, all three families were moved out onto the back lawn with chairs set up and meats cooking on the grill. There was something beautiful about the lake at this hour—then again, there was always something beautiful about the lake. You couldn’t put your finger on it, but even the way the mosquitoes danced in the waning sunlight made your chest feel warm and fuzzy.

If you strained your vision a little, you could even make out the shapes of people on the opposite shoreline beginning to light campfires of their own. Most of the people who lived around the perimeter of the lake sublet their properties during the non-vacation seasons like your family, the Moons, and the Kims. Then, when the time came, they would return to their lakehouse hideaways for much needed rejuvenation.

As golden hour painted the landscape glorious shades of auburn and butter, you caught your mother making her way toward you out of the corner of your eye.

“Yn-ah,” she said to you with a plate of the fruit that you and Kevin had cut earlier in her hands. She gestured for you to take it from her, then nodded up over to the house on the other side of the Moons’ place. “Take the twins and go welcome our new guests.”

You furrowed your brows. “New guests?” When you followed her gaze, you saw that the house next door had acquired a new car in its driveway. You definitely didn’t recognize it, but you managed to spot what looked like someone disappearing in the front door of the house.

“They’re one of the new families, I think,” she told you. She then gave you a little nudge, urging, “Go. We’re still working on dinner anyways.”

You glanced between the plate of fruit in your possession, then searched the back lawn for the hellspawn. When you located their whereabouts (skipping through a pair of hula hoops over by the big oak tree), you marched over to them to repeat your mother’s instructions.

“Oi!” You called out.

Alice looked over at you as she stopped her skipping. “I don’t want fruit,” she said when she saw what you were holding.

You stopped just short of Connor’s hula hoop circumference. “It’s not for you. Mama wants us to go say hi to the new neighbors. Come on.”

“Do we have to?”

“If I do, then yes. And Mama said so.” Plus, you were not planning to go alone upon any circumstance. Your social anxiety could not take showing up at a stranger’s doorstep alone and with fruit.

The twins dropped their hula hoops and begrudgingly trudged after you. No child could trump the “Mom said so” card. At least, not in this household.

With your siblings following after you like two ducklings to a Mother Goose, Kevin saw the line of you walking past from where he was stationed beside his dad. His eyes zipped from you, the kids, and the plate of fruit, then cocked his head to the side in bemused inquiry.

You inclined your head toward the house you aimed for in the distance and lifted the plate of fruit as if that was enough explanation.

He gave a grave nod for your sake, teasing of course, then held up his free hand in a thumb’s up for encouragement.

Nonetheless, you and your siblings carried on.

The lakehouse on the Moons’ other side was similar to all the others around the lake: dark wood walls, doors encased in a protective screen door, grass and flowers growing out of the cracks where the house met the earth. You could feel your siblings converge on you, nearly hiding behind you, as you all approached the front door. It wasn’t that the house looked scary in any way—it was just the prospect of new people that was the scary part. You were sure this family was just as friendly as everyone else, but it didn’t hurt to be a little nervous.

When the three of you reached the front door, you raised your hand to ring the doorbell.

You could hear the echo of the bell inside the house, followed swiftly by a man’s voice, “I’ll get it!”

Footsteps drawing closer… then the locks came undone, and finally, the main door inside the screen swung open.

“Hi,” greeted the young man on the other side.

You paused when his face became clearer after opening the screen door. He was, to put it bluntly, awfully pretty. Dark hair swept back out of his face and behind his ear, a prince’s facial features, and a smile that was as beautiful as the golden hour greeted you and your siblings. Even his voice was soft.

Alice held onto the side of your shorts pocket. “You're pretty.”

The man made an expression of humble surprise, and heat rose to your neck. “Sorry,” you stammered. “We’re from a couple doors down and we wanted to welcome you to the lake. These are for you and your family.” You managed to pass the plate over to him without being any more embarrassing.

He accepted the offering graciously. “Oh, wow. Thank you so much! That’s so thoughtful.”

You placed your hands on either of your siblings’ backs to push them forward slightly. “I’m Yn, and these are my little siblings, Alice and Connor.”

Your siblings chimed in their hellos to the pretty man.

His eyes narrowed in upturned crescent moons, smile widening. “Well it’s really nice to meet you guys. I’m Joshua, but my friends call me Josh or Shua.”

EPISODE THREE: MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN…

IT turned out that your mother had an ulterior motive for sending you and your siblings to greet the newcomers. She had popped up behind you soon after Joshua had introduced himself to invite him and his family to have dinner with you. You could sniff out the conspiracy from a mile away, but you still wanted to give your mom the benefit of the doubt.

When the first night passed without anything happening, though, you slowly let your guard down. (Rookie mistake.)

Everyone crashed into bed after cleaning up dinner. The move up to the lake was a tiring one, and the promise of an early start the next morning proved to be more than enough encouragement to hit the hay.

You were on the living room couch with Alice sitting on the floor between your legs the next day. It was late morning by this time, and you and your siblings had just woken up less than an hour ago. Your dad was still asleep, and your mom? Well, you weren’t really sure where he was.

“Ow, can you stop tugging?” Alice whined under her breath, her hand rocketing up to the back of her head to stop your hands.

You paused your movement for the third time in the past fifteen minutes. “It wouldn’t hurt this bad if you would just let me run a comb through it.”

“The brush works fine if you use it correctly!”

You exhaled sharply and pressed your lips together. There was never any rest between your two little siblings, whether it was amongst themselves or against you. You supposed you could just suck it up for the time being; it wasn’t often that you got to braid your little sister’s hair. She usually just liked to leave it down.

You heard the backdoor open and shut behind you, and the both of you turned your heads to see who it was. Your mom entered the house with perspiration gleaming on her face as she took off her sun hat and tossed it onto one of the dining room chairs.

“Hi Mama,” the two of you said, one after the other.

Your mom settled onto the couch cushion next to you. “Hi girls. Is your brother and dad up yet?”

“Connor’s with Uncle Jin and Aunt Yuna,” said Alice. “Daddy’s still asleep though.”

“Mm,” she hummed. She combed her fingers through her sweat-soaked hair. “It’s a warm morning out,” she murmured, then quickly added, “hey you.” She knocked her hand against your arm.

“Hm?” You asked as you finished up Alice’s braid and tied it off with the blue Cinnamoroll hair tie she’d chosen. You patted her back with your hand. “You’re done.”

Your little sister hopped to her feet. “Thanks!” She dashed away and out of the room—to where, you had no clue. You figured she knew where the food was if she was hungry.

You angled your body to squish your side against the couch cushions and face your mother. “What were you saying?”

“Ah, I was going to talk to you about the Joshua Hong boy.”

Joshua Hong. You didn’t realize you could hear a man’s name so often within twelve hours.

You made a gesture with your hand. “What about the Joshua Hong boy, Mom?”

“Well, isn’t he a handsome one?” She asked you enthusiastically, straightening in her seat. It was alarming how bright her expression became. “I spoke to his mom while Kevin and I were walking just now, and he’s only a few years older than you, you know.”

You heard a metaphorical record scratch. What? There was so much in that one sentence that you needed to unpack. You raised your hands to signal her to pause. “Wait, since when do you and Kevin take walks together?” What could they have been talking about? You knew Kevin was an exceptional conversationalist, but never in your time at the lake had you known of this interaction.

Your mother blinked. “Oh, we started the tradition when you didn’t come up with us that one year.”

“Tradition?” So this happened more than once? You didn’t know why you were so scandalized by this information—it was just Kevin after all. You knew your parents and even your siblings were all fond of him—of course they were. You were arguably even more fond of him, but that wasn’t the point. You hoped she hadn't said anything about you and him as an item at any point of time… you trusted that Kevin could handle that though; that was what the pact was for, after all.

“Why are you making such a big deal out of this?” She arched a brow. “But anyway, yes, so we bumped into Josh’s mom on the last leg around the lake, and she mentioned that he’s majoring in chemistry and planning to go into medicine. You guys might have something in common.”

You pursed your lips. Perhaps the two of you might have something to talk about, but your track was pre-veterinary rather than pre-med. There was probably a middle ground though... Maybe you were just being stubborn.

“Just make friends or something,” she said to you while standing up from the couch. “You need more of those.”

Your eyes shot wide open. “Hello? Mom?” Now that was simply uncalled for.

She chuckled impishly as she walked away and disappeared down the hall, leaving you to yourself. You were lucky neither of the twins were here to hear that burn.

It wasn’t much longer than a couple hours later that you found yourself on the backyard lawn space setting up the badminton net between two oak trees with Kevin’s assistance. Everyone was outside and awake, and the kids were all seated up on your house’s back porch munching on the watermelon that Yuna cut for them.

You tightened the string on one side of the net. “So he didn't kiss her?” You queried.

Kevin sputtered a laugh, yanking his side to test its integrity. “Yeah,” he said. “Isn’t it so funny? According to multiple sources, Sunwoo and Chanhee barged in at the perfect moment, and frankly—” Kevin raised his arms up in the air and let them fall for effect, “—ruined the moment.”

"Pfft.” You considered that for a moment. An almost kiss ruined by a comedically timed interruption from a guy drunk off liquor and love, and the friend tasked with dumping his ass at home. That was bad luck if you ever heard it. “And what about that other dude? The Hyunjae guy? Did he finally fix his eyesight?”

Your friend leaned back against his oak tree, ankles crossed over the other and arms braided over his chest. A pair of shades rested backwards on his head to complete his summer-worthy ensemble of shorts and T-shirt. “His literal eyesight is still shit, but yeah, he and HJ!Yn are together now. Took for-fucking-ever, but—”

“Language!” Jin yelled like a referee on the sideline of a soccer match. “We have children in the vicinity.”

Kevin brushed a hand through his hair. “Whoopsies, sorry!” He turned back to you. “Anyways, yes, they are finally together. Man, having someone watch my cursing makes it seem like Jacob is here with me.”

You noticed the fond twinkle in his eyes as he stared out at the still waters of the lake just down the way from you both. “You talk about this Jacob guy a lot,” you said to him. “I think I need to meet the person who’s threatening to knock me off the best friend pedestal.”

“He already has,” he jested.

You let out an indignant squawk. “Hurtful!”

Connor, watermelon juice smeared all around his mouth, added rather unnecessarily, “So you don’t want a partner and you don’t have friends. What do you have, Yn?”

You leveled a scowl at him. “An annoying little brother.”

“Hey!”

In a tone dryer than the Sahara Desert, Alice chimed in, “Guess that makes me the favorite twin.”

“I should tell you about Sangyeon. I need to yell about Sangyeon,” Kevin huffed indignantly, snapping his fingers as if the thought just hit him. You whipped your head back over. “Oh my god, dude, you know what happened at the graduation ceremony? It was like, straight out of a scene from a movie—!”

You never got to find out what was just like it was out of a movie, because your mom appeared in the distance with the Hongs. They all came wielding badminton racquets—how convenient. You didn’t mind the extra company, of course, and despite your stubbornness, you knew Joshua and his family were very nice people.

You caught the tail end of your mother’s conversation with Josh and his mom: “...Yn used to play badminton on the high school team. She could’ve gone to the Olympics if she really wanted to—”

Well, that was only partly true. Your team had gone to Nationals, but the Olympics was one step above Worlds. You liked to think you were pretty good at the sport, but you hoped your mom wasn’t talking up you and your abilities too much.

“Oh, wow. I’m a soccer person myself,” said Joshua good-naturedly. “I don’t really know much about badminton, but it seems like a really fun sport.”

"Yn's a great teacher. She taught the twins how to play." Ah, there it was.

When they were within a comfortable distance, you raised your hand in a wave. "Hi hello!"

"Hello Yn," Joshua's mom said back. "Hi Kevin."

Kevin dipped his head with a smile. "Hi Auntie."

"Yn-ah," said your mom as she took you by the arm, dragging you over toward Joshua, "I was just talking to Josh about how good you are at badminton."

Your eyes widened slightly, and you noted the way Joshua's did the same. You made eye contact with Kevin as this happened. He seemed caught at a crossroads, unable to help or say anything. "I guess I'm okay at it."

"Liar," Kevin suddenly jumped in.

You sent him a look. Wait really?

He shrugged sheepishly. "I don't wanna downplay your abilities, dude. You're really good."

Oh. "Thanks, Kev," you said, blinking. Your heart warmed at the finger guns he sent your way. It was nice to know he had your back.

"Good! See? You and Josh should play doubles together." Your mother somehow got a racquet into your hand. She clapped her hands and ushered her two other children off their butts. "Come on, you two, you can be on Kevin's team."

"But that's not what doubles means, Mama—"

Joshua sidled up beside you with an apology in his smile. "Sorry, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I don't want you to be forced to teach me or anything."

Guilt wormed itself into your stomach. "No, no! It's totally okay," you amended swiftly. "This all just happened really quickly, but I'd be so down to teach you badminton, if you'd like."

He bobbed his head up and down, patting the netting of his racquet. "Okay, yeah. That'd be really cool actually."

You nodded, returning his expression. "Cool."

You and Joshua had somehow taken over the makeshift badminton court. The twins had gotten tired of the "big kids" playing too hard, and Kevin… actually, you didn't know why Kevin put down his racquet. But at some point, you noticed that he was just hanging out in a chair, sipping some kind of fruit juice as he observed you and Joshua. (That was what you assumed he was doing. There was a book propped open in his lap, but you hadn't seen him turn a page in a while. And he had put his sunglasses on, so you couldn't exactly see what his eyes were doing.)

You tracked the birdie as it flew over the net to your side. "Nice!" You praised, taking a few steps in the diagonal to hit the birdie back over with an easy backhand flick.

Joshua stumbled forward, but hit it back over. "Shoot," he said, barely catching himself before he crashed into the netting.

You chuckled, "Careful." You backed up and gave the birdie a gentle bump.

It sailed over the net, but it landed too close to it for Joshua to get a clean shot back over. He sighed as he bent down to pick the projectile up from the grass. "Dang. Nice hit, Yn."

Content with your shot as well, you walked over to the net to meet him. "Thanks, man."

"Hyungseo-ah!"

You watched as Kevin stood up from his chair at his mom's call. "Yeah, what's up?"

As she strolled over to him, she was reapplying sunscreen onto her arms and face. "We have more new neighbors. Since you're not doing anything, you should come and welcome them with me. There’s someone I think you should meet."

You and Kevin locked gazes for a second before he turned back to his mom. You didn't know why you kept looking at each other—this all felt like déjà vu, but maybe it was the fact that it seemed like your moms were separating you both instead of bringing you together that was throwing you off.

"Uhm, sure, Mom." He dropped his book into his seat and followed after his mom.

Your gaze trailed after him for a moment before you snapped back to reality. You swiped the sweat off your forehead with the back of your hand. "Sorry, where were we?"

Just then, Seokjin made his way down the lakeshore with baby Leena strapped to his chest again. He threw up an arm in greeting. "Hey, kids. You guys still at it?"

"Yup," you said back. "He's getting good at it!"

Joshua laughed lightly. "Ah, you flatter me. It's just 'cause Yn's a good teacher."

Seokjin's eyes flickered between the two of you. "Huh. I'm sure she is."

"Anyways," you coughed. "Did you just come from the new neighbor's house or something?" He hadn't arrived from the direction of his own house, which was on the other side of yours.

Your uncle by association gave his affirmative, one hand pressed gently on the back of his baby in his holster. "Of course! You know I'm too nosy to not have gone to introduce myself and see what's up. The couple has a girl around your age, Yn-ie. Their son is off in Paris for his job or something though."

The two men could probably see the gears in your brain turning. Another person who was around yours and Kevin's age? You really didn't want to read too much into it, but—you pushed the thought to the side. It probably wasn't what you were thinking, right?

"Uh, you good, Yn?" Joshua asked.

Your eyes shuttered. "Yeah. I was just thinking about something." You gestured with your racquet in a flourish. "How about another round?"

EPISODE FOUR: THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS DEAL™

THE crickets were particularly melodious tonight. Their chirrups became lovely background music as you perched on the stairs of your back porch beneath the warm glow of the outside light. Moths swarmed the bulb, casting little shadow puppets along the wooden deck.

You were hunched over one of the few books you brought along with you for the trip. Your siblings liked to tease you for bringing “school work” on a summer trip, but these had been purchased out of your own interest. It was an anthology of experiences related to animal behavior. The certain piece that had originally caught your eye had been about the Alaskan husky’s primal nature to run, and their participation in dog sled racing. You’d come across it originally in a magazine on an airplane, finding yourself enthralled in a story of the stamina, determination, and hard work that these dogs faced in the brutal Alaskan winters.

When your plane landed, you had gone online and found more stories like them. Thus, the book in your lap and money down the drain. (Though, you would argue that it was money well-spent.)

“Warm night out.”

You startled, heart galloping in your chest, as Kevin appeared in your periphery and stepped into the light.

To his credit, he took on a sheepish sort of grin. “Oops, sorry. Probably should have given a warning or something.”

You pressed a hand to your palpitating heart and scooted over to give him room to sit on the step next to you. “No, it’s all good. I don’t think there was really any way that you could have warned me.” You were probably way too deep into your book to have even noticed if he was any quieter.

He took a seat beside you, posture mimicking yours with his forearms pressed onto his knees. “You’re right,” he murmured. “Whatcha reading?” He asked while inclining his chin toward the pages in your lap.

“Oh.” You kept a couple fingers wedged between the pages you were on as you flipped to the cover to show him. “It’s just this, uhm, collection of stories on animal behavior. Real fascinating stuff, actually, and a lot of it is kind of inspirational.” You tucked a strand of hair behind your ear, unsure of why you were always shy about telling people about something you were passionate about. You shouldn’t have thought so little of Kevin Moon, though. He never gave you any worries about being judged.

“Oh, that sounds neat,” he said, scooting closer. “Is it for your major? You’re still doing wildlife biology, right—or is it ecology?”

“Wildlife biology,” you confirmed. “It’s not for my major or anything, no. Just something I was interested in.”

A thought suddenly occurred to you and you were rewinding all of the things that had happened in the past couple of days. Before Kevin could comment further on the topic of majors, you piped up, “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

His eyes widened a smidge, his posture straightening. “Oh? What about?”

You felt around the porch deck for the receipt you had been using as a makeshift bookmark, hand flopping around before you snatched it up and slipped it into the pages of your book. You set the book aside. “Is it just me, or are our moms… you know…”

“Doing the Thing again?” He finished. He sighed with a little grimace, “Yeah, I think I’m seeing it.”

The “Thing” that both you and Kevin were referring to was none other than the very act of matronly matchmaking taking place between you and the new kids on the block. At least you could confirm that you weren’t overthinking it.

You recalled the events of earlier today when Kevin and his mom had come back to where everyone else was with the new family that had just arrived. The Xus were another party of just three—their oldest son was in Paris, as Seokjin reported, but their youngest, Serena, was yours and Kevin's age. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who Kevin's mom wanted to introduce her son to.

“You know what’s crazy?” You said to him then, “On the car ride up here, I asked my mom—like, point-blank, you know?—to not try to matchmake us anymore.”

Kevin perked up. “Dude. That’s crazy, because that’s what I asked my mom on the car ride up here.”

You sputtered, “You’re kidding.”

“Great minds think alike,” he said, lip curling upward into a smile and his arms coming up in a halfhearted shrug. “But I should have known it wouldn't be that easy.”

Now that you were thinking back to your own conversation, you should have known something fishy was going on when your mom mentioned Kevin specifically… You only thought that she was being thorough in her understanding of what you were asking her to do, but turned out, it was only a loophole. “You’re so right,” you groaned and tilted your head backward. “Literally what are we gonna do?”

The two of you stewed in silence on this fine night.

There was one night, similar to this one, where you had sought each other out. You couldn’t remember what year it was—something close to sixth grade when both of you had the mind to realize the game your moms were trying to play. From that night came a pact of sorts, one that would hopefully try to steer each other away from a fate that neither of you were sure that you wanted yet. After all, eleven years old was a little premature to be talking about who you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, right?

Kevin leaned back onto his palms. “We need to make a new pact, I think.”

Your head swiveled over to him. “Amendments to the pact?”

“Either amend it or come up with a new one to fit our current situation,” he said. “A rescue protocol.”

A rescue protocol… you could see it begin to take shape in your head. The previous pact was different—an agreement between you and Kevin that you were both simply friends, no matter how many times your moms made you do chores together, or tie each other’s shoelaces, or swap numbers and emails and social media. And it had worked, for the most part; you were both still friends after all these years.

But this time would have to be different. Your moms weren’t driving you toward each other anymore.

“The Rescue Protocol—is that what we’re calling it?” You mused in an attempt to bring mirth to the conversation.

Kevin made a sound like a laugh. “Better than ‘the pact,’ I like to think.”

“How about the ‘Damsel in Distress Deal?’”

He let out an actual laugh this time. You got to watch his eyes turn up into crescent moons, the corners crinkling with pretty smile lines. His smile was always contagious, even after all this time. “The ‘Damsel in Distress Deal?’” He parroted. When he allowed the phrase to soak into his brain for a second, tongue massaging his bottom lip, he relented. “Okay, that’s actually not bad.”

You giggled. “So we either call it the Rescue Protocol or the Damsel in Distress Deal, trademark.”

“Trademark?” His reaction sent you into a flurry of snickers, hand clamped over your mouth so the sounds wouldn’t wake up your family. “What? Are we gonna advertise this idea to people?” He chuckled.

“It’s a good idea!”

“We don’t even know what the parameters are yet,” he sputtered. Kevin lightly punched your upper arm. “Silly goose.”

“Geese are not silly,” you found yourself replying. They could be mean creatures. “But I think they’re cute.”

“Jacob thinks they’re scary.”

You gave a playful roll of your eyes. “This Jacob guy again?” After a moment, you sighed, toeing the dirt on the bottom step with the tip of your shoe. “Hey, can I ask you a question?”

Kevin sobered a little, but the remnants of his merriment remained in the shine of his irises. “Shoot.”

“Are you…” You struggled to string the words together. There was a question you’d come up with already, but you didn’t know if it was too forward or not. “Are you ready for a relationship?”

The question caught him off guard. His gaze flickered from you, to the grass, to his lap, to the moon-soaked surface of the lake further down the hill. “I… I’m not sure, really,” he muttered, then added, “I think I would know the right person when I meet them.”

“Yeah,” you agreed.

“Or maybe not,” he shrugged. “Maybe I’ve already met the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, but the relationship just hasn’t gotten there yet.”

You pondered on that for a moment, then realized you agreed with that, too. If you already met the person you were meant to be with, the thought of a relationship was a little less daunting. You already knew this person. “So we’re in agreement then? This new pact is something we both want?”

“As usual, we are in agreement,” he nodded. “What’s our plan then? Fight fire with fire?”

You snorted. “Pretty much, right? We just have to, you know, swoop in whenever we can to counteract their movements. Help each other out, y’know?” You laughed at how ridiculous this all sounded. “I guess it’s really just doing what they’ve wanted us to do this whole time.”

Kevin grinned to himself. “Spend time together?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m down for that. You?”

“Yeah, man.” You shifted to angle your body toward him and stuck your hand out. “You still remember it, right?”

Kevin sent you an incredulous look, as if offended that you could think so lowly of him. He reflected your angled body, hand primed and ready. “Uh, yeah. Do you remember it?”

You clicked your tongue. “Of course, I do! It's the seal."

You knocked the back of your hand against his to signal the beginning of the handshake.

Like second nature, the two of you made your way through the unnecessarily (but also completely necessary) convoluted masterpiece that was your sixth grade handshake. It was what you used the first time you sealed the deal on the pact, and whenever you made any other agreements of significance (e.g. the Juice Pouch Accord of Eighth Grade). Now, it would seal the Rescue Protocol/Damsel in Distress Deal, too.

When the handshake combination finished (marked by twin flicks to the forehead—"Ow! You always flick so hard.”; “Yikes, hope that doesn’t leave a mark…”—and a… proper handshake), the only thing left to do was put it into motion.

Teasing, you sent him a look of approval. “You did remember.”

“Funny how you say that as if you have the better memory out of the two of us,” he quipped back with an unimpressed look.

You hummed your own amusement back to him, taking the book that you’d set aside earlier back into your lap but leaving it unopened. There wasn’t any signal in this area, so devices were practically useless, so books and board games and sports became the go-to for entertainment. It was what your parents originally liked so much about the place, and eventually you and your siblings. It allowed for moments between the moments like this… whatever this was.

Kevin leaned back onto his palms again, and the shadows and moonlight cut across his jawline like glass. “I didn’t think you’d be up so late.”

“Yeah,” you drawled and picked at a strand of grass sticking out between the boards of a stair step. “I couldn’t sleep for some reason and decided to read, but then I opened my window and realized it was a nice night out, so here I am.” You nodded to him, “You?”

He gave a soft sort of chuckle. “You know I never sleep.”

Your chest felt heavy all of a sudden. “Still have the sleeping issue?” You asked softly. It had been a big thing when he was a kid. It had started off as being a very light sleeper, but over time, you discovered that sometimes Kevin just did not get sleep.

“Yeah…” he said, "I'm usually able to sleep when I'm here though, y'know? The peace, the quiet, the familiarity—it all helps. It was just tonight that was out of the ordinary." When he glanced over at you, the side of his lip quirked upward. "Don't worry too much."

You'd always thought about the lake as your home away from home, your safe space. A part of you had always thought it was the same way for him.

“How could I not worry?" You asked, poorly masking your concern as you leaned over your knees and looked at him. “How did you ever get used to your place at uni?” There must have been some reason that he was able to survive over there.

The corners of his mouth curled upward into a smile. “I was lucky,” he admitted. “I met people who have become some of my best friends and family. I guess it’s just weird being so far away from them and it's catching up to me.”

As much teasing as you did about this Jacob character, you were glad Kevin had found him and his other friends. Being away from home like that could not have been easy. At least you could rest assured that he was taken care of over there.

He had grown so comfortable over there that even his subconscious missed them.

You shifted a little closer to him and gently leaned your head onto his shoulder. He seemed surprised at first, but relaxed and let you keep your head there. “That’s good,” you whispered. “I’m happy for you.”

A beat passed, and the crazy thought occurred to you that maybe you should have asked to do this first. “Is this okay?”

His hand warmed the top of your head. “More than okay.”

The two of you sat there like that for however long—you couldn’t really tell. Time passed by differently here, it seemed. Friends definitely comforted each other like this though, right? Right.

EPISODE FIVE: [SHENANIGANS ENSUE.]

"KEVIN, would you mind giving this snack pack to Serena?"

"Oh, I got it, Auntie!" You snatched the Ziploc bag of trail mix from off the counter where Kevin's mom had set it out. "I haven't properly introduced myself to her yet," you said as some kind of explanation.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Kevin look away to conceal his laugh at your inconspicuousness.

Today, the five families planned to go on a long nature hike as a large group. There was a specific path that your family, the Moons, and the Kims always took at least once every year that led out to a waterfall. It was a beautiful slice of nature, but then again, you thought this entire area was beautiful.

You swung out of the Moons' kitchen and out onto the back lawn where everyone was slowly gathering to take off. Eyes scanning the immediate area, you located Serena Xu standing off to the side plaiting her hair into a simple braid over her shoulder.

As you made your way over to her, your Uncle Jin suddenly appeared beside you. “You look like a woman on a mission, Yn-ie. What’s the sitch?”

Your brain took a second to register the reference. “Has Sana been watching Kim Possible or have you, Uncle?”

“And if I said it was both of us?” He sniffed. Sana was his eldest daughter, only three years old, but Jin and Yuna were very updated in the essential kids shows they wanted their daughters to watch.

“As you should,” you said with an indulgent nod. You turned your gaze over to your intended target.

Serena’s eyes wandered up from her hair and met your eyes, then glanced over at Jin. You hoped she didn’t think the two of you were ganging up on her or anything. Two new people at once could be intimidating.

“Hi, Serena, right?” You asked as you and Jin approached her.

She gave a small nod, pulling her braid’s end over her shoulder as she fidgeted with it. “Uh, yeah. And you’re Yn?”

“We already met yesterday,” Jin said chipperly.

Serena nodded again.

Your fingers danced along the edge of the Ziploc baggie in your hands, squeezing along the edge to make sure that it was closed properly. Your teeth ran over your bottom lip before you were passing her the bag in your hands. “Kevin’s mom made all of us snack bags, and I just wanted to say a proper hello.”

She accepted the bag, eyes wide as she inspected its contents through the clear plastic. “Oh, wow. Thank you; that’s really thoughtful.”

“Oh!” Seokjin illuminated like a lightbulb, clapping his hands loud enough to make both you and Serena wince. (You and she met each other’s eyes with awkward laughs.) “Didn’t you mention yesterday that you were pre-law?”

Your eyebrows flew upward. “Pre-law?” Your head bobbed up and down with a low whistle. “That’s cool.”

“Yeah, uh, I guess so,” she said. “It’s a little intimidating right now, if I’m being honest.”

“Yn!” Ripped out of the conversation, you excused yourself and found the source of your name. Your mom was perched on one of the picnic benches outside of the Moons’ place, slathering sunscreen on your brother’s face. Connor’s face was wrinkled in extreme displeasure as she patted the white cream into his skin with a slapping sound.

Always amusing.

Perched upon the picnic table next to them was none other than Joshua Hong. He sent you a friendly greeting wave.

“What’s up?” You asked, leaving Uncle Jin with Serena so you could make your way over to your chagrined little brother, your mom, and Joshua. “Where’s Dad and Alice? Hey Josh.”

He replied pleasantly, “Hey Yn.”

“Your dad’s grabbing something from the car with her,” she dismissed. “Would you mind showing Joshua where we put our bandages? We have so many of the little ones—”

“It’s just a little cut; I swear I’m fine!” Joshua chuckled good-naturedly. He showed you the slice in the side of his finger that was only a couple of centimeters long, but you could tell that he’d just recently cleaned it up and was holding it with a small piece of napkin.

Your mom made a noise of disagreement. “It’s going to get infected on the hike.”

You shuffled on your feet, offering him a small smile. “Sorry, man. I have to agree with her.”

“Thank you. You remember where the bandages are, right? You and Josh just go run up really quick together.”

You didn’t even realize when Kevin got here. “Oh, why don’t I just get one from my place for you?” Kevin waltzed into the conversation with an innocent expression, hands tucked into the pockets of his shorts, as he appeared at your side. “Since we’re just right here.”

Joshua gestured toward him with his hand-clutching-hand situation and hopped off from the picnic table top. “If you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, dude, it’s no problem.” Kevin’s hand met the place between your shoulders with a warm pat, and he led Joshua up to his family’s cabin for the bandages.

Your amusement followed after them as you watched them leave. Your mom sent you a curious look, eyes narrowed in question, and you could only shrug helplessly.

The hike commenced shortly after the boys got back from raiding the Moon’s medicine cabinet. Your dad and Alice returned sometime before they did, and Alice had once again requested you put her hair up in, as she said, “Something nice.” As if the wilderness would care about her nice hair-do, but you gave her a plait that matched Serena’s.

Your brother and sister kept near to you as you led the group through the beginning of the trail. Though you didn’t consider yourself as someone who exercised religiously, you never turned down a good foraging session. Your freshman environmental science course had presented you with plenty of opportunity to dive into the dense forest areas near the building. Even in the early reaches of the morning (8:30 morning labs were sometimes difficult to be disciplined about, but you were determined), when the fog clung to the forest floor and dew slipped down velvety oak leaves, you found yourself at peace.

At some point in time, Connor picked up a large fallen stick and used it as a hiking staff. “You shall not pass!” He declared after running a little ways ahead of you and mimicked the deepness of Gandolf’s voice.

You snorted as you passed by him and ruffled his hair. “Name the series that’s from and then we can talk, dude.”

“You’re never any fun!” Connor garbled, jogging after you.

You scoffed, pressing a hand against your chest in feigned offense. “I’m way more fun than you are,” you retorted.

“Okay, prove it! Make this more fun.”

“So you’re saying this hike isn’t fun?” You gasped.

Connor stabbed at the dirt path warn into the ground that weaved through the trees ahead for miles. It was by no means a challenging hike, just a lengthy one that required a bit of enthusiasm and endurance. “Well last time, you brought that thing—”

“Sugar water,” you supplied.

“—yeah, that one—and we caught butterflies!” Painted Lady butterflies were a common species of butterfly that was widespread among North America. Luckily, it hadn't been too difficult to find them.

“Woah, you guys caught butterflies last year? Without me?” Man, this guy was just everywhere today, you thought jokingly, as Kevin appeared on your other side with a boyish grin on his face. “That’s cool.”

“We didn’t catch them,” you corrected. It was more so a lure with the sugar water (a substitute for nectar), letting the kids see the insect up close, and then setting it free. You were no lepidopterologist—butterflies were cool, but no special interest of yours. “They just landed in my hand for a little. You should’ve been there to take pictures.”

Kevin hit the palm of hand against his forehead. “That’s what I forgot! I forgot to bring my camera on the hike.”

“Tsk tsk, what would your sister say now?” You chided playfully.

He pressed his lips together in a grimace. “Don’t bring her up—I can hear the echo of her voice as we speak.” To prove his point, he pressed his fingers to his temples, eyes fluttering closed, as if he really could hear his sister’s teasing from wherever she was.

You humored him with a laugh—

“Yn! I’m gonna climb that boulder!”

Okay, fun time was over. You tracked the sound of your brother’s voice, and with barely enough time to catch up to him, you set off the beaten path to follow. “Hey, you better be careful or Mom’s gonna put you on bedrest for the rest of the trip,” you chuckled as Kevin fell in step beside you. You said to him offhandedly, “Would you possibly mind…”

“Yeah, I got it.” He did a small jog over to the cluster of boulders your brother had begun to scale. Going bouldering wasn’t a new activity for you and your siblings, but you remembered that these ones were a little larger than your mom was usually comfortable with. You were grateful Kevin understood immediately.

He was already standing below where Connor was, playing along with whatever roleplay your brother had made up, all the while hovering in case he fell.

The rest of the party caught up to you at this point, and Alice, Uncle Jin, Sana, and even Josh converged upon the rock formation in a flurry of giggles and mirthful playtime. You observed the action with ill-concealed fondness for everyone there as they came together and helped one another climb to the topmost boulder as if it were the peak of Mount Everest. Something warmed within you at the sight.

On your left, Yuna, who was on Leena duty this morning, came to stand beside you. Some of the parents were pulling out cell phones to record all the chaos going on. “Why don’t you go up with them?” She asked, inclining her head to the rock formation.

Josh was just beckoning Kevin up with him, and you saw Kevin’s head turned back over his shoulder. When his eyes found yours, Kevin waved you over, too.

“I should,” you murmured in agreement.

Yuna hummed as she adjusted the little bonnet on Leena’s head. “You know, Kevin…” she began. You waited for her to finish, but she smiled instead, shaking her head. “Nevermind. Go have fun, you bean.”

You giggled at the nickname, then wasted little time going to join everyone else. You could probably ask her what she was going to say later.

The evening found the group of you gathered on the shady back lawn between yours and the Moons’ cabin for dinner once again. The Xus and Hongs had all retired to their own respective houses for downtime, so it would just be the three original families. You perched a little ways away on the back stairs of your house’s porch, a bowl of peelable tangerines in your lap. At your feet, you had rolled the edges of a brown paper bag you’d found beneath the sink to use as a disposal. All of the compostable waste you and everyone else produced while here would become great fertilizer and mulch. It was something you usually had your siblings help with, especially before you left the lake.

Kevin had his cap turned backwards as he made his way over to you in flip flops. “That seat taken?” He asked with a nod toward the board next to you.

Your eyebrows rose. “All yours.”

“Thanks,” he beamed, doing a silly waddle, then sitting down next to you. He reached into the bowl on your lap for an orange, and you moved the compost bag between your bodies. “Your mom was talking about Josh again,” he said as he dug his thumb into the skin of the tangerine. Its juices sprayed into the air and released its sweet fragrance.

“Why am I not surprised?” You sighed with a shake of his head. “You know, he’s really good with my siblings though.”

“Oh, is he?”

You shrugged, shoveling a tangerine half into your mouth. “Mm—yeah,” you said once you’d swallowed. “But you’re also good with my siblings. I dunno, it was just an observation.” Based on what you saw on the hike, you could confidently conclude that your siblings agreed with both Kevin and Josh. They were both friendly beyond means, easy on the eyes, kind on the soul.

Kevin didn’t say anything for a beat, and still didn’t say anything until he’d finished the orange in his hands and picked up a new one. “I hear he’s going into medicine. I have a friend who’s going into medicine.”

“Which one?” You asked, then joked, “Don’t tell me it’s Jacob now…”

When Kevin gave you a sheepish expression, you shook your head, “Okay, now I think you’re obsessed with this guy.” All the teasing was in good fun, of course.

“He’s just my soulmate,” he lamented with a hand draped over his forehead for added effect. “No biggie.”

“Damn,” you laughed. You popped a wedge of tangerine into your mouth, eyes going to the sky for a moment as you pondered on something. “So you say that when Jacob met his current girlfriend, it was because of you.”

“Yup.”

“So you set them up? You matchmade them?”

He nodded. “I’m very proud of myself, actually. I take credit for all of their milestones and anniversaries. I better be the Best Man at their wedding, and—”

“But you matchmade them; doesn’t that make you a hypocrite?”

Kevin’s speech came to an abrupt halt. You watched, in blatant amusement, as his face contorted and arranged itself in the five stages of grief. “Oh my god… I am a hypocrite.”

For a moment, you felt bad for laughing at his blanched expression. “It doesn’t make you a bad person,” you assured him.

“It makes me a hypocrite.” He hung his head, but shot back up just as quickly. “Okay, but wait! It’s different.”

“Do tell.”

“It’s different because Jacob never told me he didn’t want to be matchmade.” The calculations taking place in his head were as stark to you, the observer, as if he was working it out on a white board. His eyebrows knitted together. “Yeah. That’s the difference. Plus, that match was fully successful, and he ended up putting in a lot of the work himself by the end anyway.”

You bobbed your head in agreement. “Fair enough.”

Kevin settled his chin on his hand, eyes slicing back over to you. “Aren’t you a hypocrite, too, then?”

You blinked. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

His face said it all. “Jenna from fifth grade.”

Oh. It all came rushing back to you…

But before anything else could be commented on the matter (read: before you could go through your own miniature existential crisis like Kevin had), a presence appeared, squatting down between the two of you. “What—” Jin covered Leena’s ears as he sat down, “—is the mother-effing tea?”

You and Kevin immediately scooted over to make room for the uncle coming in hot. You moved the compost bag back to the other side of your leg.

Kevin chuckled. “You said ‘mother-effing.’”

“Aish,” he exhaled, wrinkling his nose up. “Yuna’s on relax mode right now and has two beers in her. I get a pass, okay? Now catch me up on all of the exciting stuff.”

You and Kevin traded glances. “What exciting stuff?”

Jin’s expression flattened into a deadpan. “Don’t be like that. You two have been so secretive lately; I wanna be let in on the secret stuff.”

“I don’t know if it’s necessarily a secret…” You drawled.

Kevin scratched the back of his head. “Uh, yeah. Well, we’ve kind of figured out that our moms are trying to set us up with Josh and Serena instead of each other now.”

You didn't know what you were expecting Uncle Jin to reply, but he gave a nod. "Ah, I can see that." He sucked in a breath through his teeth, "Why did they suddenly go 360 on the two of you? It seems kind of out of left field."

"Well, we kind of asked them to stop trying to get us two together."

Jin hummed. "Yah, that makes sense. It all makes sense now." He made an old-man noise out of his throat as he shifted his position and the way that Leena rested on his chest. You and Kevin buckled down and hung off his words. "They probably only mean well, you know that, right? Right. But I can see that you both are still uneasy about that, and I get that, too. So—I'll tell you what.

"I'll help you guys out," he said. "I think they already know I'm nosy enough to butt in everywhere, so it shouldn't be a problem for me to… tch tch, y'know—" He gestured very indulgently with his hands, "—do my thing—am I making any sense? It's been a long day."

Another look passed between you and Kevin, then you both shared a laugh, relief making your postures relax and your grins widen. "No, we understand completely."

It seemed like you just gained an ally.

EPISODE SIX: CAN I BE A ROCK IN MY NEXT LIFE? THANKS.

THERE was a collection of jet skis that someone around the lake owned, and Kevin's parents would rent them out once every summer for everyone to use. Of course, it was mainly for the older kids and adults; thus, your siblings and the little Kims were banned from partaking in the festivities, much to your siblings' chagrin. It was for safety reasons that they were forced to find some other method of entertainment for the day.

You trudged your way down the path from the Kims' house to yours. In your hand, you wielded the light blue stick of baby sunscreen Seokjin asked you to fetch for his girls, but based on the fact that Leena, Sana, nor Yuna were even out here, it was safe to assume it was really for him.

Those who were participating in riding jet skis, and some who just wanted to watch and soak up the summer sun, were gathered somewhere between your house and the Moon house again. The two properties shared a single dock made of wood faded out from the sun and washed by the lake water. You could recall summer after summer running down the pier and cannonballing into the water.

"Hey! I got your sunscreen!" You hollered as you neared the group down by the water, raising the sunscreen stick up in the air.

The five or so heads turned toward you at the sound of your voice. You didn't miss Kevin's presence specifically, his arms sticking out from the life vest strapped to his chest. You did not deign to look further.

Jin raised his hand. "My Savior! Thanks, Yn-ie!"

You tossed the sunscreen down to him and he caught it between both of his hands before beginning to slather the cream all over his face.

You noted the last life vest sitting on the edge of the dock closest to land and made a beeline for it.

Just as you descended the hill, your mom appeared in your view with an empty plate in her hands, the bottom ringed in a translucent red liquid. "Yn, honey. Can you do me a huge favor and chop up the last watermelon? I didn't realize we would need more. Your dad and Kevin's dad are driving into town right now for some extra provisions and an extra large watermelon."

"Oh, sure." Your eyes skittered to the vest on the dock, but you realized slicing the watermelon wouldn't take too long.

You took the plate from your mom without further comment and began making your way up the hill to your house.

As you slid the door open, the sound of chatter carried from the living room floor. Eyes peered up from where they were seated, surrounding the coffee table on the floor. A colorful array of beads and string was strewn over the surface, and you came to a distinct conclusion as to where all the non-jet-skiers had gone.

"Hello everyone," you mused, closing the screen door behind you.

Josh was the first to say hello back. "Wanna join us? We're making friendship bracelets." He lifted the craft in his hands as if the beads and materials displayed weren't proof enough.

You leaned over the back of the couch. "Looks like fun! Maybe I will."

Outside by the lake, Kevin monitored the back door of your cabin for when you would make your way back out. He had been wanting to race you on a jet ski ever since the owners brought them over for everyone to use.

There were a grand total of five people surrounding the opening to the dock: Kevin and his mom, your mom, Jin, and Serena. Everyone except for the moms were strapped in lifejackets in preparation to board one of the two jet skis sitting in port.

"Huh," Jin said as he craned his head up in the direction Kevin's was in. "Wonder what's taking her so long."

"I'm sure she's just taking her time or something." Kevin pushed off of the post he was leaning against. "I'll go check up on her—"

“Oh, no-no-no! It’s okay,” your mom protested, her body already turn-tailed to head up to the house. Even Kevin’s mom made a gesture for him to stay put. “We’ll go check up on Yn.”

Kevin’s mom then gestured with her arm toward Serena, who had wandered off further down the dock to inspect one of the vehicles waiting in the water. “Why don’t you go help her with the jet ski?”

“And me!” Seokjin boisterously slung an arm around his cousin-in-law’s shoulders and swung him toward the entrance of the pier.

Kevin’s eyes went wide when he almost tumbled face-first into the hardwood. “Shit,” he sputtered. “Uh, Uncle Jin?”

“Yep?”

“That sounded fishy to you, too, right?”

Jin let out a laugh and patted Kevin’s shoulder in consolation. “Yep.”

“I feel like I haven’t seen you all afternoon.” The words left your mouth as you blocked the unforgiving golden hour sun with a hand to your forehead. The light at this time of day gleamed across the surface of the lake and gave the illusion of a molten pot of gold. You imagined swimming in it, dipping your toes into its warm innards from the end of the dock.

Kevin stood at the edge of the lake’s shoreline with his hair dried from a day of jet skiing, a fresh T-shirt over his chest and the lifejacket from earlier nowhere to be seen. That, along with the jet skis. Those had been returned a little over an hour ago. “We were off doing our separate things, I guess,” he said, his arms folded across his chest. “Speaking of, where’ve you been? You went to cut watermelon and never came back.” He added a small laugh to his words, hoping you wouldn’t think he was bothered by the fact that the two of you didn’t get to hang out on jet skis together.

“Oh, heh.” The sheepishness in your voice made him glance over at you. You didn’t know why you were suddenly getting so shy about it, but from the pocket of your shorts, you withdrew a small piece of beaded string, tied at the end in one of those fancy loops that were adjustable. You didn’t know how it was done; Joshua had done something with the end like magic. “Yuna, Josh, and the kids were all inside making friendship bracelets and they kind of roped me into it.”

“Ah.”

“This one’s for you,” you said, holding it out to him. It was a quirky piece with white block letter beads strung together next to acrylic star and pony beads. You’d scavenged a crescent moon somewhere amongst all the pandemonium, and it sat next to the letter N on the chain.

Kevin peered at you and his irises gleamed with the brilliance of golden hour. He frowned in joy, delicately accepting the chain from you with his bottom lip jutted out in a combination frown-pout. “You’re incredible,” he gushed as he inspected the little gift. “Dude, I’m honestly so touched. This is so cute.”

You broke out into a grin, your heart bursting with pride in your chest. “Glad it’s not cringy.”

“I’m offended for you,” he scoffed, aghast. “How could you think this is cringy?” It was probably a genuine question, but you kept silent as you watched him loop the end of the bracelet around his wrist and struggled to figure out how to tie off the end with one hand.

You stepped forward, and he stuck his hand out to you. “Shua showed me how this works,” you murmured, wracking your brain for the quick how-to Joshua showed with his own wrist. (You had been too confused to ask him to see it done again, and only nodded and smiled.)

“Shua?”

“Mm, yeah, apparently he makes a lot of friendship bracelets, especially for friends at school.” Your tongue stuck out of the corner of your mouth as you tried something and… “Ta-da!”

With the bracelet secured onto his wrist, Kevin beamed like a kid on Christmas, and held it up to show it to the setting sun. “It’s great—it’s perfect. Thank you, Yn.”

It was some sort of cosmic magic that corralled everyone back down to the shoreline again, but this time, with all of the kids and non-jet-skiers, as well. Another tradition that your party liked to share every year at the lake was rock-skipping. Perhaps it was more of just an activity than a tradition, but it was something that none of you failed to remember to do whenever you were up here. Since you were a kid, you had been practicing to hone your technique.

Your siblings and the Kims, especially, all ran up to the shoreline beside you and Kevin, and the search for the perfect throwing rock began. In the chaos of merriment and childlike glee, the lot of you trudged into the cooling water of the lake’s shallow shore.

“I know you just gave me the coolest friendship bracelet ever,” said Kevin from beside you as he sifted through the rocks beneath his flip flops, “but I hope you know that I’m gonna crush you this year.”

You snorted. “Okay, Kevin.”

“No, I’m serious!” You guffawed at the sight of his expression; he’d even stood up straight in the water, a pair of flat stones in either hand. “My friend YH!Yn—she’s an engineer, right—”

“Oh, so you’re gonna win by cheating?”

“Nuh-uh,” he rolled his eyes, unimpressed by your posturing. “She showed me this video online. You know Mark Rober? She’s a huge fan, but that’s besides the point. The point is that the video taught me the perfect technique to rock-skip.”

Something in you liked to think that was still cheating, but then again, neither of you had ever really established any ground rules to this, and certainly none about doing research. Your eyes narrowed. “Explain yourself.”

Kevin decided between one of the two rocks in his hands with a brief peek at both of them, before discarding the one in his left hand back into the water with an anticlimactic sploosh. “You’re supposed to launch the rock so it hits the surface of the water at a twenty-degree angle.”

Joshua trudged into the water near both you and Kevin with the sleeves of his plaid over-shirt rolled past his elbows. “I don’t even know what kind of rock to look for, and you guys are bringing trig into this?”

“Oh my god, don’t even get them started,” Jin grumbled from a handful of meters away from the three of you. He kicked through the shallow water with his eyes pinned to the ground in his own search for a rock to skip. “Yn almost gave me a black eye one year.”

“That was an accident and I was ten!”

“Yeah, well rocks hurt!”

Joshua bent down slightly and scooped up a rock from the water. He considered it for a minute, taking in its size, its weight, and how pretty it was. “I guess this can work. So do you guys have, like, a training boot camp for beginners or something?” He chuckled.

“I can show you,” you offered once you’d decided on your own rock for the first round.

“Tch,” Kevin huffed, “if you wanna show him the wrong way to do it.”

Your jaw unhinged. “If you keep this up, I will take back that friendship bracelet, Moon Hyungseo.”

Jin covered his mouth with one of his hands and sidled up next to Joshua. “Ooh, she used the government name.” That coaxed another laugh out of the Los Angeles boy.

Kevin held his decorated wrist to his chest. “You can pry it from my cold, dead hands.”

Suffice to say that when it came down to it, Kevin did have the better technique. There were really four main things to consider when rock-skipping, one of them being that the rock ideally should hit the water at twenty-degrees, as Kevin had mentioned before. Though, you did have to give yourself some credit for managing to work your way up to thirteen skips in a row without the help of an engineer friend.

EPISODE SEVEN: ALWAYS TREAT YOUR PLANTS WITH CARE

VACATION granted you the express permission to be the laziest bum in the world. After three years of college work, sometimes it was nice to have even a single day to yourself to do what you always wanted to: relax. In a world that moved as fast as this one, it was nearly impossible to take breaks without feeling the aching guilt of a day without productivity.

But there was something about the lake… you didn't know. Maybe it was just because years of coming here and associating it with the ease and carefree air of childhood that made it easier to sleep in and feel the sun on your toes.

The house and the neighboring ones were quiet this late morning. At ten or so, the Kims had swept up your siblings and their children and towed them off to town for ice cream and provisions. (You hoped they remembered to grab you some bird seed. You still had yet to replenish the bird feeders around the lake.) You weren't sure where your parents were off to, but you recalled them briefly mentioning a visit to the hidden swing at Lookout's Peak about a three mile hike from here. That meant that you had the whole house to yourself.

And what else did that mean? That you would not be in the house.

When it hit noon, you ate a quick lunch at the kitchen counter before gathering up your supplies to head outside. There was always a spare picnic blanket stashed in the hallway closet, and you grabbed a book, your neglected sketchbook, and a pencil to come along with you.

The weather was perfect, you liked to think—temperate, and not popsicle-melting, with a hint of a breeze wafting through the boughs of the oak trees. You trudged your way over to the largest oak tree with the most amount of shade, gunning to get some full relaxing done when you realized that you were not as alone as you thought you were.

You and Kevin locked eyes from where he sat against the trunk of the tree, his iPad left at his side and his camera being fiddled with between his fingers. The friendship bracelet you gave him the other day still hung around his wrist.

"Hi," he grinned. "I thought you went into town with the twins."

"Ah, nah" you sighed pleasantly as you shifted the things in your arms, "I decided to sleep in. You?"

"Same here." He amended, "Well, as much as someone like me can sleep in." He gestured to the picnic blanket bundled over your arm. "How about I help you with that?"

With teamwork (because that made the dream work), the two of you laid out the picnic blanket on the shady grass beneath the oak tree, overlooking the view of the lake. You settled yourself atop it while Kevin moved his things beside you; shoes were discarded at the edge, so you both sat comfortably on the blanket, half-facing the other.

You reached for your sketchbook, inclining your chin toward the DSLR now sitting abandoned as he picked up his iPad. "What were you up to before I got here?"

"Oh, uh, just looking through some photos I took this morning to maybe use as a reference," he said, twirling his Apple pencil between his fingers. "I keep forgetting to take pictures on this trip."

"Maybe it's a good thing," you offered. You tucked a lock of hair behind your ear and flipped to a blank page. "Let's you live in the moment, y'know?"

"Yeah. I guess so." He tapped the end of his pencil against his cheek. You were never the type for fancy technology and equipment, mainly because you were a little stubborn, but nothing could beat a good pencil and paper. "I'm gonna draw you," he suddenly declared.

A giggle bubbled out of your chest. "What? Me?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Well then, I'm gonna draw you."

His eyebrows shot up, an amused smile worming onto his face. "You do you, honey."

The two of you, coincidentally, came to share quite the handful of interests. One of them was sketching, and you liked to give credit to your ecology and biology classes at school that gave you the time to practice your drawing skills, even if super accurate drawings weren't always required. It just gave you an excuse to combine two things you loved.

You never did pick up how to use a DSLR though. At least, not like Kevin knew how to.

You sat there for a moment with your cheek to your fist and your eyes glued to the man across from you. Drawing people was difficult—it was always the subtle details that threw you overboard, the movement of the hands and fingers, the crevices in the wrinkle of one's eyes, the… the look. The thing that made them look like a human being.

Kevin had always been a beautiful subject matter. His bone structure was near perfect in your eyes; his smile was awful to draw just because it was so pretty, and you couldn't do it justice. You could never achieve the right curl of his lips, or infuse it with his humility. And even now, you watched the way his eyelashes fell so gently over his eyes and the dusting of pink falling across his cheekbones…

"You're staring."

You blinked, breaking out of your daze. "I'm studying my subject," you clarified pointedly and began to sketch out a rough outline of his head. A portrait would do just fine for the day.

Kevin mimicked your position from earlier where he leaned in slightly and rested his cheek against his fist. "There was this internship I turned down this summer."

His words made you glance up from your paper for a moment.

He continued on, straightening, then absentmindedly sketching out an outline for your face. "It was supposed to be in New York, at this studio, but…" He blew air out between his lips, "I don't know; I couldn't do it. It was a great opportunity and it didn't call to me, but I feel so guilty about not even trying."

You waited a beat in case he wanted to continue. You could see the conflict warring across this face, the subtle flex in his jaw at his frustration—with the portrait or himself, you weren't sure.

"Sorry, I don't know why I suddenly just thought of that," he said to you. "I was just thinking about this place and not being here last year, and I think my brain just went to that."

You looked over at him in earnest. "I feel you, I mean… some things just aren't meant to be, and you shouldn't force it. That's how you get burnt out, y'know?"

"Yeah," he murmured in agreement.

"I was looking at an internship, too," you piped up with a shape exhale. "I—I didn't get it, clearly, but uhm…" It still hurt.

Kevin frowned. "Oh, man. I'm sorry, Yn. I feel like I'm just complaining now that—"

"No, oh my gosh, no!" You hurried to interrupt him. "Don't be silly," you said gently, "you shouldn't invalidate your feelings like that. Some things just really aren't meant to be." It didn't mean it hurt any less that they weren't, but maybe this was the path you were meant to take instead. "It's something I'm coming to terms with, too, but don't compare your troubles against mine. Please."

He worried his bottom lip between his teeth, and it took him a little to finally try for a half smile. "You're gonna get the next one."

You smiled back at him. "Thanks. And you'll find one that suits you."

"I hope so."

"Do you ever worry about," you began as you played around with the slightest curve of his nose on your paper, "not being who people want you to be?"

He hummed. "What do you mean?"

"Like, successful. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this." You didn't know where this had sprouted from in the first place, but one insecurity in particular had nested in the inner cavities of your chest and made itself a home. As someone who wanted to be at wildlife encampments, not catering to fancy rich dogs in a clinic, your path wasn't conventional. You were becoming a veterinarian, but your parents always thought you would end up someplace nice with a pay that was equally nice. Something practical, something they didn't have to worry over. Your calling was… elsewhere though. Somewhere a little more difficult to reach without the prying eyes and mouths of those around you.

Kevin marinated on it. "I think… the two of us are kind of similar in that way. We're both not taking on things that people have expected of us."

Out of everyone you knew, you had a feeling he would be one of the few who could empathize. "There's—there's this thing I want to do," you said. You couldn't figure out the words to string your thoughts into coherent speech; you felt like it would never come out right. But Kevin was patient. "I've always wanted to go on safari expeditions, and observe wildlife in the wild, and do research, and work with conservatories. It feels so unattainable sometimes, when I think about the people looking at me and expecting something good. Does that make sense?"

He gave a thoughtful nod, his Apple pencil tucked behind his ear for the time being. "Yeah, that makes sense. I remember you talked about it before."

That rang a bell. "When I made you watch the David Attenborough Our Planet doc series," you mused. In association, your brain sparked images of late nights, blue-light screens, and flashlights beneath blanket forts. You had been fully convinced Kevin would say the documentary series would be boring like everyone else, but to your pleasant surprise, he had been just as enthralled as you'd been.

"You didn't make me," he smiled. "I liked it."

Your chest warmed. "I still have it downloaded on my phone if you wanna watch."

He screwed his face up in amusement, shaking his head. "You're one of the biggest dorks I know. And I know so many dorks now."

"I'm still your favorite dork though, right?" You smiled down at your paper when you were satisfied with how his eyes turned out.

"Always."

A beat passed, and from your periphery, you saw him tap the blanket in front of you to get your attention.

"Hey, you're gonna be okay," he said. "One day, you will go hide in a bunker in the Siberian winter to wait for tigers like a crazy person—"

"Okay, wait, out of all the examples you watched in the doc, you chose—"

"Anyways!" He grinned at the look you sent him, unfazed. "We're both gonna be okay, alright? We're chasing dreams, and sometimes the chase is hard, but the reward is sweet."

You knew he was right; of course he was right. Talking things out was always a good idea, especially with a trusted person, and who better to trust than Kevin Moon? You had friends who understood, but not really understood.

You reached for his pencil with the end of yours and you bumped ends like ET. The corners of your lips curled upward as you met his gaze, and you were struck by the softness in his rich, chocolate irises. No sketch, painting, portrait could do those beautiful eyes justice. "Don't call me a nerd for this."

"No promises."

You fixed him with a look. "There's this thing that plants do called phototropism. Because plants need light to synthesize into food and energy, they often turn and grow towards the nearest light source. So even in, let's say, a dark hole in the ground—if there's a crack in the roof that brings light in, the plant will grow in that direction, and probably grow its way out." You cleared your throat. "Thanks for showing me the light."

Kevin's eyes shone big and wide, doe-like you liked to say, almost in awe of the explanation of a basic function plants performed to survive. But twisted in a certain way, and one could apply it to everyday non-plant life, as well.

"Now how can I possibly call you a nerd after that?" His voice went raspy and he had to clear it, too. "I think I'm getting misty-eyed," he said, fanning his eyes.

You chuckled at his antics. "Oh, hush. I guess it's my way of saying thanks for reminding me I'm not gonna be a failure." It was scary how often you thought about it, especially at college.

Kevin reached over and warmed one of your hands with his. "You're not gonna be a failure, Yn. I promise you that."

All of the kids were asleep in the back of the Kims' minivan, and it took two trips back and forth between the car and the living room to transfer all four sleeping munchkins. By the time Jin and Yuna were done, the former was certain he was going to need a cane much earlier in his life than previously anticipated.

He held his back as they made their way out onto the back porch. "I think I'm aging faster," he said to his partner.

Yuna sputtered out a laugh. "Aye, so dramatic, and for what? You're gonna survive."

"No sympathy," he sighed melodramatically as he hung off her frame. "I wonder where everyone else is."

His voice trailed off as they stood on the porch and overlooked the valley below. Just further out, they could easily see the occupants of the big oak tree between yours and the Moons' houses. You and Kevin sat slightly angled toward one another, not quite sitting next to each other, but not quite facing each other either.

The laughter was apparent on your faces as Kevin showed you something on his iPad. You grabbed the screen with ill-concealed delight, your eyes lighting up like a pair of fireflies. "No, oh my god, the little sprout on top of my head! You didn't!"

Yuna murmured softly to her lover with a chuckle, "Should we go say hello?"

Seokjin adjusted his position so now his arm rested around her shoulders. A smile etched onto his face at the view; he was so fond of the very thing neither you nor Kevin could see just yet. "Well, how could you possibly want to break that up?"

EPISODE EIGHT: NOD AND SMILE… YUP.

YOU weren't really sure why it took so long before you all deigned to take a proper dip in the lake, but as they said, better late than never.

The sun beat down on the little lake population, even at ten in the morning, which made it perfect weather to go swimming. Your house was a-bustle with life, thunderous footsteps, and motherly yelling to her children of “You better all have sunscreen on!” You were just finishing up the task yourself, rubbing in the last handprint of sunblock onto your calf before you were grabbing your towel at the end of your bed and heading out.

You caught Alice coming down the stairs with her floral one-piece on and a set of blue goggles strapped to her head. This morning, her hair was in two braids. “Do you have sunscreen on?” You asked her as you opened the back screen door.

“Yes,” she groaned as if this was the hundredth time she’d been asked that question today. Knowing your family, it probably was the hundredth time. “Do we still have the flamingo floatie?”

“We can probably pop down to the shed and see,” you suggested. You blinked in surprise at the person you found leaning against the railing of your back porch. “Why hello there.”

Joshua glanced up from the piece of string in his hands that he had tied at the ends to form one, large ring. “Hi guys! Either of you ladies know how to play Cat’s Cradle?” His hands slipped in between the string so that the ring rested on the backs of his fingers. In a movement that sent a wave of nostalgia down your spine, he maneuvered his hands through the string to form the zigzag pattern correspondent with the beloved childhood game.

“Ooh! Me, me!” Alice bounced around on the balls of her feet and rushed over to where Josh was to pick out the next pattern.

The screen door behind you opened up again as soon as you stepped foot onto the deck. Your dad appeared with your little brother, both of whom were dressed in rash guards and swim trunks. Your dad hustled his son along. “Yn-ah, we’re going down to the shed to get swimming things. Wanna come?”

“Wait, Daddy, can we get the flamingo floatie?” Alice asked your dad. Joshua finished up the next pattern, and your sister was quick to grab the next.

“Sure. We have to go now, though.”

With little else left to say or do, your dad ferried your little siblings off and around the house to where the shed was. It was tucked out of the way somewhere between your house and the Kims’ place.

You sidled up beside Joshua and slung your towel over your shoulder, noting his tank top and shorts. “You going for a swim with us?”

He gestured to his attire, nodding. “Seems like it. My parents wanted to run into town to do some shopping, see the sights. Your mom mentioned last night that you all were planning to go swimming today, so I thought I’d tag along, if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, man—it’s totally cool.”

You gazed far out toward the lake down the lawn. There were already a few people there, including Kevin and the Kims. Sana and Leena were already frolicking around in the water with their dad, while Yuna and Kevin stood off to the side on the dock. It seemed that Yuna had brought down a pair of foldable chairs to set up there, perhaps to soak up a little sun.

The two of them exchanged a couple more words before Yuna left him there so she could go pick up Leena from falling face-first in the water. Leena was still an infant, after all.

You decided that this would be a good time to run and join him, but your thoughts slowed to a halt when Kevin picked up the bottom hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head. You even heard Joshua beside you lose his breath. The sunlight had to be a paid actor or something, because the way it glowed across your friend’s shoulders, enunciating the firm muscles in his back, had to be illegal in nature.

Joshua’s low whistle of appreciation met your ears. “Wow… he’s ripped.”

You nodded absentmindedly. “Yeah.” Whoops, did you say that out loud?

The man simply chuckled and bounded down the porch. “C’mon, Yn. Let’s go join them before he catches you staring.”

If there was anything else that you and Kevin took seriously besides rock-skipping, it was the game Marco Polo. The rules were simple: an elected tagger would play with their eyes closed, yelling out “Marco” in order to locate other players in the water. The tagger had three or five opportunities to open their eyes (this was enforced for safety reasons) in order to tag everyone. Those who were not the tagger were required to reply with “Polo” in response to the tagger’s call.

Boundaries of the game ranged from your house to Kevin’s house, and no hiding beneath the dock. (Only the tagger could pass beneath that zone.)

By the time it was Kevin’s turn to tag, nearly an hour and a half had gone by, and you could feel the sun’s rays seeping into you. The heat was getting to you, and by the looks on everyone else’s faces, it was getting to them, too. But… one last round never hurt anybody.

"Are you guys ready?" Kevin's mom stood on the dock with her hands on her son's shoulders. Kevin's eyes were screwed shut where he sat on the edge of the dock, his feet swinging where they dangled over the water. Everyone stood scattered in the water, biding their time before Kevin's mom let him hop in.

She surveyed the surrounding water for nods of confirmation. You lingered just at the outer edge of the boundary, face half in the water with your eyes peeking out to hide your smile. You would swim back in should he come this way, but the buoy behind you kept you from cheating.

When she was satisfied with what she saw, she patted him on the shoulders. "Okay, Kevin."

He lowered himself into the water. "Marco!"

"Polo," came the wary response, a voice from every corner and reach of the boundary, it seemed.

He honed in on a voice—not yours, it seemed, but Uncle Jin's—and slowly treaded over toward that direction. You saw your uncle's eyes widen in fear, and he ducked under the water for a swift second to attempt at a silent getaway.

"I can hear you," Kevin chuckled as he swung his arm over his head to adopt a freestyle stroke. The tone of his voice sounded awfully menacing.

"YAH! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Jin screeched, no longer trying to stay quiet.

One by one, Kevin picked people off. Yuna had a little disadvantage since she had Sana clinging to her back the whole time, so she was given a merciful second life. But when she was caught once more, it was onto dry land for her and her daughter.

Kevin treaded water on the other side of the boundary. In the water, it was just you two.

"Fighting, Yn-ie!" Jin cheered from the shore. A towel was draped over his shoulders with Sana sucking on a watermelon by his leg.

You saw your siblings and Josh raise up their fists in encouragement. "Get him, Yn!"

"Wow, thanks guys," Kevin replied dryly, shaking the water out of his hair. His eyes were miraculously still closed; you had no idea how and when he got so good at this. He still had one more opportunity to open his eyes.

You grinned. "Are you sure you're not cheating by the way?" You drawled with a feigned look of consideration, as if he could see what you looked like.

He gasped. "Me? Cheating? My abilities are far greater than the need to cheat."

"Okay, prove it."

Why did the universe curse you with such a big fucking mouth?

A swear left you as he launched himself across the safe zone. It was like he knew exactly where you had been hovering in order to reach his ridiculously long arms over his head to try and tag you. You gunned out of the way, narrowly missing the dock as you backstroked back from where he came to avoid him.

"Marco!"

"Screw you—polo!"

His white teeth glistened as he grinned, eyes closed completely shut still. Damn. "I can smell fear."

"Sometimes you can be so dramatic," you taunted.

"Now that's just hurtful." And he took it personally.

Around and around you both went, lakewater thrashing as your arms and legs kicked and pumped as hard as you could. You felt so agile and free at times, a dolphin in your own right.

There was a lull in the game for a minute when you managed to evade Kevin's grasp yet another time. He was patrolling the other side of the dock while you loitered just around the corner, by a post. You could hear on land that everyone had turned their attention away from yours and Kevin's competitiveness in favor of the bag tossing boards Kevin's dad brought out.

"Oh, Yn," he smiled, brushing a hand through his hair absentmindedly. "I'm gonna get ya."

If you weren't worried about being so close to him, you would have thrown a retort right back.

But there was another poor, poor hinge to your plan, and that was the very core of the game you were playing.

He whispered, "Marco."

You screamed internally. "Polo," you whispered, barely audibly.

His head whipped in your direction, and before you could even blink, he used his shortcut beneath the dock to yank your wrist back toward him. "Gotcha!"

"Goddamn it," you groaned as you rested up against the post behind you. The water in this area was just shallow enough that your feet could reach the bottom.

Kevin chuckled as he finally opened his eyes. He blinked feverishly to adjust to the sunlight, then ran a hand through his slicked-back hair. He was so close that you could see the water droplets on his head dribble down the sharp slope of his nose. He took in his surroundings, a sly kind of smirk curling up onto his face. "No hiding beneath the dock, Yn."

"I technically wasn't beneath the dock," you shot back.

"Mhm," he pressed his lips together, brows furrowing. He moved closer and braced one arm against the post above your head. "Say I believe you."

You brushed the sudden butterflies in your stomach away as the heat melted your brain (and not Kevin). "That sounds like you don't believe me."

"Well, either way…" He brought a finger close to your face and tapped your nose. You could have sworn you saw his eyes dart downwards for a second, away from your eyes, toward your mouth. "I win."

EPISODE NINE: KINDLING FOR ALL KINDS OF FIRES

A campfire was always in order.

There were quite a few things that needed to be done before it could happen, however. One of the few things on the list just happened to be going out to find firewood, as well as filling up the bird feeders you left hanging out in the forest beyond. You could kill two birds with one stone. (Definitely not literally though. You hoped you never needed to kill two birds with one stone unless it was for pure survival purposes.)

The bird seed you'd requested to be brought back was… somewhere around here. You couldn't remember where exactly Auntie Yuna said they put the bag, but you would go hunting for it.

You meandered through the first floor of your lake cabin, gradually approaching the kitchen area where you heard voices. As far as you were aware, your parents were holed up in the kitchen with Kevin’s parents, as well as Kevin himself. Your siblings were probably either upstairs or at the Kims’ place. Probably.

“—know Judy’s daughter, right?” You recognized your mom’s voice among the fray. By this time, you stood in the middle of the living room with your hands on your hips. Where in the world was that sneaky bag of bird seed?

Kevin’s mom replied next, “Ah, she’s doing that drawing major or something, right? I forgot what it’s called—”

“Animation,” supplied her husband.

“Yes, that’s the one.” A clinking of metal on china; they were most likely digging into the trifle cake that was assembled earlier in the day.

“I hear there’s something going on and it’s getting more difficult to find work for them.”

A disgruntled sound. “Yah. That's the risk that comes with those art majors. If she had gone into bioengineering like Judy wanted her to, then she wouldn’t be worrying so much.”

You paused from your position in the living room. From your vantage point, you got a clear view into only part of the kitchen, but it was where Kevin lingered with his back to one of the cabinets. He had a bowl of dessert in one hand, the other using the tines of his fork to prod at a bite of cream and cake. His head was tilted down though, and you caught his periodic glances toward the part of the kitchen you couldn’t see where the adults probably were, prattling on and on as if he weren’t standing right there.

Your heart sunk to the pit of your stomach.

Why was he subjecting himself to this? Why didn’t he just pick himself up and leave—? The thought came to you that maybe he thought he deserved to hear this.

Having surveyed the living room enough to know that the bird seed wasn’t here, you did happen to note the presence of his camera sitting on the coffee table. You snatched the device up and headed for the kitchen.

“I think it’s good to cultivate creativity, but there’s a difference between a career and hobbies—”

“Psst.” You grappled onto the side of the doorway, quietly catching Kevin’s attention.

His head perked up at the sound and his eyebrows shot up in question. He offered the bowl in his hands to you. Want some? He mouthed.

You shook your head, then used your free hand to wave him over. Bird seed?

He seemed to understand. With one, massive bite, he finished the rest of his bowl, deposited it in the kitchen sink, then quietly slipped out of the room with you.

When the two of you were in the clear and you were following him over to the closet beneath the stairs (damn, had you really forgotten that this closet existed?), you handed him his camera. “I’m invoking rescue protocol,” you told him.

Kevin accepted his camera with a furrowed brow, watching as you opened up the closet door and found a canvas sack of birdseed sitting there. Huzzah! “Wait, but…” He considered you for a moment, and a slow smile slid onto his face. He ducked his head and threw his camera strap around his neck. “I appreciate you. Have I told you that?”

“And I—” You grunted as you picked the bag up into your arms and used your foot to kick the door closed. “—appreciate you. How’d you know this was where the bird seed was?”

“I just remembered what Uncle Jin said,” he told you with a shrug.

The two of you meandered out of the backdoor and onto the porch in a silent agreement to go fill some bird feeders together. The forest at this time of day was streaked in golden sunlight, emerald green leaves painted over in an amber wash of glitter. It felt warm and comfortable like autumn, but with the color palette of summer. The air was fresh, not crisp, and there was still a dollop of pollen floating around in the air from the tailend of spring.

You and Kevin entered the forest proper, and you shifted the bag into your right hand when you finally got the bag’s handles up and at ‘em. “I know the protocol wasn’t meant for those kinds of situations,” you started.

Kevin let his camera rest in his hands at midriff once he had fiddled with the settings enough to his liking. “I know.”

“They’re wrong, you know?” You turned to look at him as you stopped at the first feeder and let the sack of seed and grain fall to your feet with a thump against the earth. Before you opened up the bag, however, you peered up into the wooden house hanging from the branch, slobbered in messy paints and melting smiley faces. There wasn’t a speck of grain or seed left in this one. Satisfied, you bent down to rip the bag open and take out a scoop with your hands.

The shutter of a camera lens fired. He sighed, lowering the camera so he could inspect the test shot he took. “I’ve come to terms with that—all of their opinions, I mean.” He lifted the viewfinder back up to his eye and took another shot as you shoveled the bird seed into the hole. A small stream of it missed and tumbled to the forest floor. “Sometimes I do think like that, though. Whether or not I should have stuck with psychology and become a teacher instead of photography.”

You folded the edge of the bag over itself after dusting your hands off, and the two of you continued onward. “Are you happy with photography though? Do you like the things you’re learning, the work you’re doing?” That was one of the few metrics that kept you clinging onto your dreams—your hands were getting scraped and sweaty holding onto the side of the cliff face, but even though your shoe slipped against the ledge and threatened a long drop, you held on. Some days, you thought it was a sad, desperate effort; others, you found extra strength to dig your soles in.

He didn’t have to think much before answering. “Yeah, I do. It’s… it’s fulfilling.” He shot you a glance. “I guess it’s something I enjoy so much that most days it doesn’t even feel like work. All of the logistic, ‘real world,’ adult stuff is kind of a headache, but…” Even though his sentence trailed off, you could still follow.

You plopped the sack of seed down on the ground beneath the next bird feeder. “I know that it’s hard to think about what-ifs, and I’m kind of a hypocrite about it, too—but I think—” you scooped up a handful of bird seed and poured it into the opening. This house had a little sunshine painted on the roof. “—Kevin, I think you made the right choice. Obviously, it shouldn’t matter what I think; that’s just what I’ve observed so far.”

“It matters what you think,” he replied quietly. “To me, at least.”

The two of you shared a smile as you dusted your hands off again. The chase is hard, but the reward is sweet—those had been his words to you the other day.

“Do you want me to carry that for you?” He mused, in view of your struggle to pick the damn thing off the ground.

You suddenly gained a spurt of strength and energy. “I’m—great.”

His low chuckle followed you as you went. You could hear his shutter go off again.

“Thank you for assuring me that I took the right risk.” Kevin fell into step beside you once more with his camera cradled in his hands. There was a softness to his eyes again, a kind of tenderness you recognized only when it was just the two of you.

You went for a smile. “I feel you, you know? Maybe not on the same level, but you’re not in crisis alone, okay?”

His shoulder bumped against yours. “Get on my level,” he jested.

Your smile haplessly curled up further. “Yeah, yeah, you five year old.” You leaned over his arm to peer at his camera screen. Your heart hammered, blood spiking, when you saw what the subject of all his shots had been thus far. “Oh my god, have you been taking pictures of me?”

He giggled at your reaction. "What? What else am I supposed to be taking pictures of?"

"Uhm?" You gestured with your arm in a wide arc. "There is literally a whole world around us. Nature is much more photogenic than I am." A nervous laugh bubbled out of your chest as you adjusted a lock of hair that had gotten in your face.

"You are totally photogenic," he scoffed. "Literally look."

The two of you stopped in the middle of the path so he could show you the pictures he had taken thus far. Like most people when they saw a picture of themselves, you wanted to grimace, but you tried to search for what Kevin was seeing.

They were all incredible candid shots. The color was so vivid and bright, the edges crisp and focused. He had captured you at the moment when you were smiling, peeking into the bird feeder. It was that split second before the smile bloomed into something bigger when it only teased at the corner of your mouth.

You leaned back and coughed. "I only look good because you made me look good."

"Now that's bullshit."

You both resumed your walk to the next bird feeder. He said to you, "You can't possibly appreciate nature's beauty without appreciating your own, Yn."

You tilted your head and sent him a sidelong glance. "Why did that sound actually profound?"

"What do you mean actually profound?" His face arranged into an expression of offense. "Am I not regularly profound?"

You smiled to yourself. "I mean… if you had to ask—" Click! "Hey, now wait a minute!"

He beamed something boyish at you from over his camera lens. "Whoops?"

The bird seed bag thumped onto the forest floor again and you moved to check the inside of the next bird feeder. To your utter delight, you were greeted by the sight of sticks and mud and leaves slotted together in a messy riffraff, otherwise known as a bird's nest. You could hear the bright chirping coming out from the feeder's hole, and dark gray feathers poked out.

"We won't disturb these ones," you whispered, backing away to collect your bird seed. But before you left, you took a little of the grain to sprinkle on the outer landing ledge.

You didn't even realize you had been smiling out of pure giddiness until you reached the next feeder on the path. You had always secretly hoped that a bird would take over one of the houses as their own. Lo and behold, that hope manifested into reality.

Kevin helped you out with the next one since this tree was hung with a duplex. It was similar to a human duplex; the house was split down the middle to hold double the feed. The two of you carefully transferred seed and grain into its proper place.

"If you really are uncomfortable with me taking pictures of you," he said as the two of you picked up where you left off, "then I can totally delete them." He made a gesture with his hand. "No harm, no foul."

Heat rose to your cheeks. "It doesn't bother me that much," you admitted sheepishly. "They were good pictures."

"See!" Elated, he slung an arm around your shoulders and tugged you against his side with an affectionate shake. "You see the vision? Do you see it now?"

You couldn't possibly say no to him when his expression was brighter than the sun at high noon. At this moment—this perfect moment—when the sunlight streaming through the trees painted his face in a filter of buttery gold… you could definitely see the vision, but perhaps not the exact one he saw.

EPISODE TEN: YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE YOUR EYES…

"OH, thank god, you guys went and got firewood!" Jin pressed his hands together in prayer as he jogged over to you and helped transfer the lumber in your arms over to his. On your way back from replenishing the bird feed, you let Kevin hold the remainder of what was left in the bag while you picked up any spare tinder for the fire. There were quite a few loose sticks around that would work nicely for the campfire tonight.

He walked off with your gatherings from the trip, and you and Kevin continued up to your lake house to drop off the bag of bird seed.

"So you were saying about the animal representation thing?" You piped up, recalling where the two of you last ended before your return to home base.

"Oh!" Kevin grinned. "It's so funny because some of my friends—you can totally see the resemblance of an animal, right? But then others don't really get an animal. Like Younghoon: he's just kind of bread."

You nearly tripped over a patch of dirt. "Bread?" You stammered incredulously. "Come again?"

"Bread," he nodded. He murmured in thanks to you when you slid open the screen door for him so he could shuck off his shoes and step inside the house. "But Changmin's a squirrel. Or a giraffe. That's what JC!Yn calls him, anyway; it's because of his long neck."

"Huh," you pondered. Interesting friend group they had going on there. You wondered what you would be…

As you passed by your bedroom on the first floor, you could hear your phone sounding off in aggressive vibrations even through the wooden walls and the closed door. You swore under your breath and pushed into your room to turn it off, then paused when you realized why it had gone off in the first place.

Fireflies.

"Everything okay?" Kevin's voice came back around the bend, his head poking into the space and the bird seed bag nowhere to be seen. He must have put it away just now.

You glanced up at him as you silenced the alarm and tucked your phone into your pocket. You hadn't needed it all that much this entire trip, but you would definitely hold onto it tight tonight. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Ready to head out?"

He didn't question your behavior and nodded. "Ready when you are."

Sometimes campfire smoke burned Kevin's eyes, but that was mostly when he was younger and didn't know any better. The embers of the fire were always so warm and inviting, always luring him toward it and inviting him to stare into its core. He could still feel the sting of the ash in his pupils as he looked at it from afar now.

The summer sun had sunken down into the horizon and gave way to a comfortable nightfall. Above your heads hung curtains of leaves from oaks, and above them was the blanket of night sky bedazzled in stars. Nature, as you had said earlier today, was quite photogenic.

He sat perched slightly away from everyone in the group, settling at the picnic table with his back to the table surface so he could still face into the fire. When everyone regrouped, Joshua had brought along an acoustic guitar and played it for everyone now.

"Sunday morning, rain is falling."

Someone lit up in a small hoot of approval. Kevin observed the group before him, the several families that had come together. He was especially pleased that the Hongs and the Xus were still hanging out with the lot of them, the latter being around a little less, but still coming out to join the fun, nonetheless.

He hadn't even realized when the last time his mom tried blatantly pushing him towards Serena. At some point, she stopped and it slipped his mind.

"Clouds are shrouding us in moments, unforgettable. You twist to fit the mold that I am in."

Kevin scratched his jaw as he turned his eyes down to the iPad settled in his lap. After he had finished up dinner, he ran inside to swap out his camera for his device to get some sketching done. There wasn't a particular project he was working on; he just wanted to practice a little.

When he lifted his gaze back up to pick a subject, he found himself looking in your direction. Your dad and Connor brought out the goodies to make s'mores. Long, slim skewers were passed around the circle, and the kids were the first to receive marshmallows to spear.

You and your sister sat beside one another and you helped her grab two of the mallows to impale. The light from the fire flickered across your face in differing levels of shadow, a play on contrast. Your expression seemed softer here—he wasn't really sure what it was. Maybe it was the tenderness at the corner of your eyes as you laughed at Connor's marshmallow falling burnt into the pit; maybe it was the triumph you shared with Alice when you helped her sandwich her marshmallows between a slab of chocolate and twin graham crackers.

He liked to believe his hand started before he consciously knew what he was doing.

"That may be all I need… In darkness, she is all I see."

"Are you sure you don't want me to make you one?" You asked your brother as he grabbed his redemption marshmallow from the bag.

Connor huffed, puffing out his chest. "I got this."

Your eyebrows flew upward. "Okay, big guy. Have at it." You chuckled and grabbed a marshmallow for yourself, sticking it onto your skewer to let it broil over the heat.

Kevin traced the lines of your face with his eyes, his hand transferring that memorization onto his screen. Sometimes human expressions were a little difficult to portray accurately, and there was a thorn pricking the back of his mind, urging him to do you justice. He didn't know if he could.

Your head slowly swayed to the sound of Joshua's pretty melody, the corners of your mouth tilting upward. Kevin shifted his position on the bench and drew the little tick mark at the edge of your mouth for that slight smile.

He always knew you were beautiful—for fuck's sake, he'd practically said it today in the forest. It had been among the crush of other important conversations, but he meant it. He still had the image of you engraved in his brain, the moment when you discovered the family of birds in the feeder house. You'd lit up like a goddamn star.

You stood up from your spot once your marshmallow became the perfect golden tone over the edges. You stepped over to the chair that held all the ingredients and smooshed the marshmallow between chocolate and cracker. Then, you turned and marched over to him.

Surprise alerted in his features, and he subtly tilted the screen of his iPad up against his chest. "Hey," he greeted softly while you approached.

You returned the expression and held out the s'more to him. "Here. It's for you."

The organ in his chest did a somersault. "What?" He laughed, "For me?"

"Yeah, silly. I don't know why you're so far away, but I know you like 'em." You settled on the bench next to him with one arm braced behind you on the table and your legs crossed, one over the other.

"Thank you," he said, using one of his hands to bite into it with childlike giddiness. The mixture of flavors exploded in his mouth—the crunch of the graham cracker, the soft, gooeyness of the chocolate and marshmallow. A perfect, sweet treat, and done exactly right. "Mmmh, this is so good," he mumbled behind his hand to catch any crumbs on his lips.

You chuckled. "Nice, glad it has your stamp of approval." Your eyes wandered down to his iPad, and you could see the white screen lit up against his shirt. "What have you been up to?"

His eyes widened a smidge, and there came a bashfulness to his face. (Cute.) "Oh, uhm," he swallowed down the remainder of the s'more and tilted the screen away from you. Huh, strange. "It's nothing really. Just sketching."

You hummed in understanding, though it was a little out of character for him to hide it from you. "Ah, I see."

The two of you descended into silence, and you leaned your back against the table to get comfortable. Kevin passed you sidelong glances from the corner of his eye, unsure of how you knew he wanted you to stay. (Because he definitely did want you to stay.)

Perhaps this was a sign. Thoughts had been brewing in his head as of late, and he wasn't quite sure what to do with them. They all just… sort of piled up in his hands and he didn't know how to free them up to reach out to you.

He opened his mouth to say something—anything—maybe even about the pact—to retract the pact?—it didn't matter.

But when he turned to look at you this time, your gaze was elsewhere. That soft, tenderness remained, but you had turned your attention to Joshua.

Ah. He shouldn't have jumped so soon. A hopeless kind of ache twisted in his stomach that made him uncomfortable. He briefly glanced down at his screen of what he'd sketched of you so far and decided it might be better to finish it later.

Fireflies. You nearly forgot that you planned to sneak out and see fireflies tonight.

By the time the campfire was cleaned up and everyone was tucked away into their beds, it was probably nearing midnight. You quietly rustled around your room in the dark and used only your phone's flashlight to gather things into a little knapsack—just the essentials, of course. There was no need to get fancy with it.

You wished you had signal so you could text Kevin and warn him ahead of time that you were about to go appear at his window, but you figured it would be fine anyhow. Even if he wasn't awake, the excitement buzzing inside of you could hardly wait.

Shouldering your bag, you headed out the door and crossed the divide between your house and the Moons'.

You located Kevin's window on the second floor, quietly rejoining when you realized it was cracked open. This had to be fate; what other reason would his window be open? (Clearly not for the cool, evening breeze or anything…)

You cupped your hands around your mouth. "Kevin!" You stage-whispered. "Kevin!"

A moment later, a head popped out the open frame. His hair stuck up a little bit and his eyes squinted down into the darkness at you. "Yn?"

"Yes," you said with a grin that he probably thought was idiotically too large. You waved him down. "I'm gonna go see fireflies!"

It took him a second to compute. "What time is it?"

"Like, midnight."

"Okay."

Seven minutes later, Kevin emerged from the back door with a T-shirt and sweatpants on, a yawn splitting his face. He shook his head out as if he was shaking out the remaining remnants of sleep from his system. You met him on the back stairs.

"So what's this about fireflies?" He asked you as the two of you ventured off into the wilderness.

Last year when you were up here at the lake, there was one night when sleep refused to take you. Your solution had been to go on a walk, and as completely dangerous as that sounded (because it was), you'd stumbled upon the meadow you now took Kevin toward. You hadn't the faintest why you never knew about this place after years of coming up to the lake town, but it was where the fireflies took flight.

The meadow was not too long a walk from where you both lived, and by the time you arrived, Kevin was wide awake.

"It's just over this crest," you told him, the jubilation in your voice nearly spilling over.

Kevin smiled at the sound of your excitement and eagerly followed you up the hill.

As soon as you made it over, you lost all your breath in awe. The meadow sprawled at your feet for miles was completely a-glow. Little beads of yellow-green light dotted the field in every corner like light bulbs strung together by invisible string. You had only ever seen this once in person, the rest via the internet and popular culture (movies, TV shows, and the like), and yet, it never compared to the real life experience.

You and Kevin stood there for a moment to soak in the sight. What a wonder of nature this was.

When you finally gained the sense to, you dug around in your bag for wherever you'd stashed your phone. Your tongue stuck out of the corner of your mouth as you fidgeted with the settings on your phone camera. You just wanted one little picture to show one of your professors at school, but it seemed your camera-working skills left much to be desired.

"Here, let me," Kevin murmured and gently took the phone from you. He showed you the screen as he fixed the settings—et voilà! Like magic, the field before you became visible on your camera screen in the crispiest, sexiest quality you had ever seen. "And… there you go."

He clicked the photo for you and handed you back your phone.

Mouth agape, you zoomed in on your completed photo. "Thanks, Kevin!" You gushed as you admired his handiwork.

He clasped a hand against the back of his neck. "No worries. Just a few tricks I learned."

You still warmed at the gesture. With your phone now tucked away, the two of you could sink back into the glory of the field of fireflies.

You heard Kevin's voice, soft, "How do they light up like that?"

"Bioluminescence," you replied in a whisper back. "It's a biochemical reaction that basically lets them convert energy into that light you see." There were plenty of other examples of bioluminescence in nature, as well. One particular instance you'd read about once, was a wave of bioluminescent algae appearing on the shores of a Southern Californian beach during the summer. It was neat stuff.

"Wild," he marveled.

A wave of calm fell over your form. You'd never felt so at peace in your life—just you, the outdoors, and one of the few people who made you actually feel this comfortable. You swallowed at the thought.

You were suddenly hyperaware of how close you were standing to him, the backs of your hands grazing against each other. You could feel his skin, his knuckles against yours—and maybe your brain was making it up, but the touch felt intentional.

For a second, you indulged yourself in what it might be like to close the distance and take his hand into yours. Of course, it wouldn't have to be in the romantic way; friends could hold hands… right? They could hold hands and your heart could skip several beats and he could look at your lips, and you would still be friends. Right?

You cleared your throat, and the sound seemed to thunder in the silence. "We should—we should probably head back," you said, sparing a glance at him.

He caught your eyes and held them. His lips turned upward, and the shine in his eyes was fond. "Okay."

With renewed energy, you made the trek back into the neighborhood. Your bucket list items for the summer had nearly all been checked off—not like you had a physical list written out. These were simply traditions you hoped to fulfill every summer while you were here in your happy place.

The crickets chirped a lovely serenade as you and Kevin strolled back onto the street where your houses stood. At the point where you both needed to split off, you nudged him with your elbow. "Thanks for coming out with me tonight."

"Thank you for inviting me," he countered with an amused hum.

"Good night, Kev."

You both lingered for a second. "Good night, Yn," he said back, pausing for a moment. Then he leaned over toward you and pressed his lips to the crown of your head. Your eyes fluttered shut. "Hope the lovebugs bite."

EPISODE ELEVEN: ROCKING THE BOAT

IF there was one thing that Kevin Moon was good at (besides the myriad of things he was actually good at), it was waking up his cousin to exercise with him in the morning.

"I think I deserve a nice, fat stack of pancakes after this," Yuna grumbled after nearly tripping over a raised tree root and kissing the forest floor. She grappled onto her cousin's shoulder to steady herself, the cousin in question giving a light chuckle at her antics. "When your mom said we should exercise together, I thought she meant the next time I was in Vancouver, not right now."

"Well, it's only because Yn's mom planned to go out with my mom this morning," Kevin mused. "Usually I have a designated walking partner."

"Woe is me. Alas, I have become your Plan B," Yuna sighed melodramatically with a hand draped over her forehead.

This morning, at a lovely 9:46am, the lake and its surrounding forest was just as alive and awake as Kevin was. The sun had taken up its perch in the clear, blue sky and the birds had long since begun their morning songs. They were awfully loud at this part of the lake, the exact three-quarter mark around the perimeter. Kevin thanked his parents for choosing houses away from this area—he would have never slept ever if they bunkered up here. (Not that he slept anyway, but that was beside the point.)

The walk began a little later than he usually did with your mom, but he granted Yuna a bit of leeway since she hadn't exactly been given a head's up. (He argued the opposite, but he let this once slide.)

"You're so dramatic," he chided playfully. "Watch out for that rock."

Yuna's mouth morphed into a deep frown, eyes wide open, as she narrowly missed being nature's fool another time. "Oh, speaking of Yn… Yn's mom? Whatever, I just mean Yn."

Kevin perked up at the topic change. His brain was fresh from last night's midnight endeavor with you and the fireflies. His lips still tingled from when he ventured to kiss you on the head… he wasn't sure where that courage had come from, but the memory of it kick-started his heart into a gallop. "What about Yn?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. You tell me." A smile crawled onto her face, and Kevin could smell her slyness a mile away. "The two of you have been hanging out a ton recently."

"We usually stick together," he sniffed, fidgeting absentmindedly with the beads on the bracelet you'd made him.

"Aish," she pressed her features into an unimpressed look that reminded Kevin of a typical Chanhee deadpan. "You're so unhelpful. You know what I'm talking about!" She smacked the side of his arm, and Kevin erupted into a fit of laughter.

His smile grew shy. "I don't really know what to say! I'm sorry—that's the truth." Because how could he even begin when it came to you? Where did it end, where did it begin?

"I see the way you look at her, Kev."

Kevin shoved his hands into his shorts. Suddenly the bird nest he spotted in a nearby tree became all too interesting. The bird nest reminded him of the birds who had made a home out of one of your feeders, and that reminded him of the adorable elation on your face when you discovered it and that reminded him of—he came to a stop. Oh, god, he was so far gone. "How do I look at her?"

Yuna peered at him curiously, then stopped to face him. "You look at her like I look at Jin. At least, that's how I think I look at him." She offered him a supportive smile. "But right now, you look like you're going through your midlife crisis."

"I might as well be."

She barked out a laugh. "Save that for when you buy a house, my friend."

He rubbed his temples with a wince. "Houses, domesticity, money, partners. Why is adulting so hard?"

"Hey, you'll get through it," she told him and nudged his shoulder. "What's going on, dude? What's on your mind?"

Kevin swallowed. He still hadn't the faintest idea where to begin, but everything had to start somewhere. Yuna had always been kind to him (a menace at times, but that feeling was mutual), and he trusted her with his vulnerabilities. He toed the ground. "Okay, last night, I kissed her—"

"YOU WHAT?"

He sputtered, red rushing to his face, as he grabbed her shoulders. Her eyes were practically falling out of her head. "Nonononono! Let me finish, you—I kissed her on the forehead, okay?"

Her gaping mouth closed only slightly. "Oh…" She thought about it some more. "Oh."

Kevin nodded gravely. "Yup."

Yuna straightened with a furrowed brow. "Well, that's not that big of a deal, is it?"

"What do you mean that's not a big deal?" His hands shot to the top of his baseball cap. "How is that not a big deal!"

"That's because the two of you refuse to acknowledge or entertain the obvious!"

Kevin hissed when she reached over to give his forehead a very hard flick. He rubbed the spot that began to smart; getting flicked in the forehead twice in one lake trip was twice too many. "The obvious?"

"That you guys can have the mushy gushy feelies without it being a product of the placebo effect from your moms' collective matchmaking efforts."

He made a face. "That was a lot of words…"

She deadpanned. "Kevin, listen to me: just because the two of you made a stupid pact when you were ten—"

"Eleven."

"Whatever. Eleven—doesn't mean that you can't leave room to, you know, amend that. You have to give yourself the opportunity to explore it, especially when I can clearly see that your feelings are changing about this girl." Yuna grasped her cousin by his shoulders this time in an attempt to telepathically insert these words into his brain. Or at least, just make him listen.

The words seeped into his head. The two of you had already made amendments earlier this trip, but you had never commented on the "only friends part." He even entertained the idea of bringing it up to you last night at the bonfire.

He didn't realize Yuna already began tugging him along the path to circle around the remainder of the lake to get back to the house. Everything was so muddled… but a part of him recognized that Yuna was right. He just wished he could get an idea of where your thoughts laid.

There were moments when you thought life could be like a movie, but then why was doing this pedal boat thing so much less glamorous than it seemed? Then again, maybe you shouldn't have thought doing this at high noon was the greatest idea.

You should have been like your Uncle Seokjin, who sat to your left, swallowed up in a blue lifejacket, a pair of big sunglasses, and a crocheted bonnet with a duck face to keep his face out of the sun. Yeah, maybe glasses would have been a good idea.

Sweat dribbled down the side of your face and down the slope of your nose, and you wiped it off with the back of your hand. "It's so hot, Uncle. We couldn't have waited until later today when it cooled down?"

He leaned back, his cheeks and skin reddened and damp from the heat and the fire in his calves from pedaling. "Okay, okay. Let's stop here."

"Right in the middle of the lake?" You asked incredulously, but immediately brought your feet off the pedals to give your legs a deserved break.

"What better place to do so?"

The two of you lounged in your seat beneath the molten afternoon sun, limbs screaming, water draining from your bodies through your pores. This would have been nice if you brought a sun umbrella… or maybe some water… man, did you make so many poor choices today.

"So what's going on with you and Kevin?"

The question snapped you out of your heat-fazed daze. You nearly thought you hallucinated him saying that. You stammered, "What about me and Kevin?"

You could see his overexaggerated facial expression even from behind his sunglasses. "Yah, don't give me that. You know what I'm talking about—I saw you two last night."

You lurched out of your seat and caused the violent rocking of the boat. You and your copilot let out twin swears as the boat evened out on the waves, and luckily, did not capsize. "Sorry—the fuck? You did?"

"Actually, I didn't," he snickered. "But now I know something did happen. So what's the tea, girl? Hit me with it. It's hot outside but I always take my beverages scorching." He shifted in his seat, carefully, in order to give you his full attention.

You couldn't believe he dragged you out to the middle of the lake just for this conversation. Total Uncle Seokjin move. You walked (or pedaled) right into his checkmate.

Moments of last night flooded into your brain—the campfire, the fireflies, the kiss, the… the him. Kevin. You gulped. Where did you even think to begin? "I took him to see fireflies last night."

Jin scrunched his eyebrows together. "Fireflies? Since when did we have fireflies? You didn't take me to see the fir—oh, you know, what? It was your little romantic moment; I got it."

"It wasn't a romantic moment!" You sputtered helplessly, uselessly. "It was—it was a moment of serenity and scientific marvel."

"You are such a nerd. What did he do, huh? Did you guys hold hands or something?"

Almost. "No," you said. "He… he did kiss my forehead once we got back though."

"Aha!" You both careened as the boat trembled violently from Seokjin's sudden Einstein epiphany. "I knew that something happened," he said once the boat slowed to a stop again. "I just had a feeling in my gut."

"Are you sure it wasn't the yogurt you had this morning?"

"How dare you," he huffed. "I brought my lactose pills. And hey! Stop changing the subject."

You laughed aloud, but inwardly, your gut was churning. Maybe you could blame the heat, but you knew the real reason why you were suddenly feeling as unstable as the pedal boat you sat upon. The idea that the entirety of your friendship could be so easily uprooted… well, perhaps not easily. Picking apart your friendship would be like flushing weeds out of a garden—you would have to get at the roots, and right now, the roots were so deep that you would fall into the ground before finding the bottom.

Not that you wanted to uproot your friendship, or relationship, with Kevin. Of course not.

What did that forehead kiss even mean? What did all of the moments you shared between him this summer, as a whole, even mean? Why, all of a sudden, did you want the way he looked at you to mean something different besides platonic affection? Why did you want more when you had never really thought about more before?

You voiced all of this aloud to your uncle, who sat staring out onto the calm surface of the lake. When you were finished with your ramble, he said, "You need to get your shit together, girl."

You coughed. "Thanks, that was so helpful."

"I'm told that a lot," he beamed. "But really, those are all very good questions, Yn. And they're super important, too."

You frowned, lifting the rim of your baseball cap to wipe away the perspiration collecting at your hairline like a cult. "Do you think that these mixed feelings are a result of all the matchmaking going on? Like, somehow, we've let it affect how we view each other?"

"Honestly?" He sighed, his shoulders lifting and dropping in a half-hearted shrug. "Could be. But, Yn honey, is it really such a bad thing? And let's think about it this way—how do you feel about Joshua?"

You didn't need to think too hard about it. "He's a catch, but not my type of butterfly."

"Exactly, and oh my go—"

"Don't," you chuckled menacingly, "call me a nerd."

He gestured vaguely with his hand. "I wasn't; I was gonna call you a dork."

You snorted. With another swipe at your dripping neck, you said, "But Kevin and Serena—"

"'Kevin and Serena' don't exist," he told you with a smack of his lips. Jin peered at you from over the rim of his glasses, which in kind, made the duck's beady eyes stare straight into your soul, too. "That girl bats for the other team, and Kevin has shown zero interest in her other than helping her not fall off a jet ski."

Huh. You leaned your elbow onto the knee of one leg, propped up to your chest. "Well when you put it that way…"

"When I put it that way," he finished for you, "it makes it a little clearer, hm?" You were quiet for a moment, and Jin gave your shoulder a pat. "Some things are just meant to be."

The words, so familiar to you, rang true as a bell. Some things are just meant to be. You couldn't help the smile that started to work its way onto your face, and it was all thanks to Seokjin helping you sweep away some of the webs confusing your brain. You weren't completely confident, but you could feel yourself being nudged in a certain direction, and this time, you weren't pushing back.

The tide could take you where it may.

Your uncle by association added quietly, "Haven't you thought just once that, after all this sneaking around, there's been another reason for it other than a pact?"

EPISODE TWELVE: FISH IN THE SEA, ANTS IN THE GROUND

BY the time you and Jin returned to solid ground, you discovered that Kevin was away with his dad helping the Xus pack and clean up. Today they would be departing the small lake town, as they hadn't planned on spending as much time up here as the rest of you did. You and most of the others already said your goodbyes at the campfire, so you had little else to do but twiddle your thumbs until you could confront Kevin with your thoughts.

A shower always produced productive results, especially after melting Wicked Witch of the West style in the middle of the lake.

There was time, you realized, to bring things together. Of course, there was a part of you that shied away from wanting to even address this epiphany. What if bringing this up opened up a whole new can of worms? In other words, what if talking about the elephant in the room only led to regret? You didn't want to lose Kevin, and because your families were always so close, you didn't want to lose this. This connection, this tradition, this place.

Too many memories made their home here at the lake. It was your happy place… his happy place. It was everything.

Everything could change, and wasn't that terrifying? But it could also be great, and who best to share the scariest, greatest moments of life with other than your Kevin Moon?

As rubber tire wheels ate gravel, Kevin nodded to his dad and set off back across the lawn toward your cabin. The afternoon had him busy with helping the Xus head home, which he didn't mind doing, of course; the lot of them had fun with his party, and his party with the lot of them. He and Serena left on friendly terms, undeterred by his mother's half-hearted attempt to get them sort of talking. Serena said she understood.

Kevin needed to talk to you though. After the morning was spent with Yuna getting him to see the big ass elephant in the room—trunk in his face and trumpet in his ear—there was no other course of action left but to tell you the truth.

The truth. God, the truth. The truth was that he didn't want the old pact in place anymore. That was it, plain and simple. It was crazy to think about how long the two of you had let it restrain your relationship—wait, did you want it to though?

"Hey Kevin!"

Kevin slowed to a stop, attention perking up at his name when he saw Joshua making his way over to him. He worried his bottom lip. You didn't… like Josh, did you? He just had to be sure because, well, that would throw a rock into things. "Oh, hey, man."

Joshua offered him a bright smile. "Hey. Did Serena and her parents just take off?"

Kevin cupped the back of his head. "Uh, yeah! Just now, actually."

"Cool, cool." Joshua nodded his head. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

His heart threw itself over the side of a cliff. Oh no. He let out a laugh, hoping to push the nerves out of his voice, but he was sure it wasn't too convincing anyhow. "Really? What—what about?"

"It's about Yn—" Oh, double no. "—I kind of," he winced, "noticed that her mom was trying to… nudge us together?"

"Oh god, let me be the first to apologize—"

Joshua broke the tension with a chuckle. "Hey, it's no worries! I just didn't know if you were aware or not because you and she kind of seemed like a couple to me, but I didn't know if her mom knew."

Kevin blinked, heart quickening for a different reason. "What?" He stammered. "Sorry, can we rewind?"

"Hm? That you and Yn are a thing? Are—are you not?" He gasped, eyes going wide. "Shit, that was stupid of me to just assume. Sorry if that was totally awkward!"

Oh, but quite the opposite. Kevin could feel the blood rush to his cheeks, clear as day. There was a warm feeling in his chest knowing that more people thought that you and him looked like a couple. It was ridiculous how the thought got him giddy now. Kevin shook his head though. "No, no, you're good, dude. But we aren't a couple." Yet. Hopefully.

Joshua cocked his head to the side curiously. "Oh? I guess… it's still a little strange of me to assume, so I apologize. You're…?"

"Interested?" A nod. "Yeah." (Wow, that was a verbal admittance. One step closer to the real thing.)

Kevin cleared his throat and grabbed his shoulder with his opposite hand. "You're not—you're not interested in her, are you? I mean," he rushed to add, "it's totally fine. I understand—"

Joshua shook his head. "Oh shit, no, I'm not interested. Not that Yn's a bad person or anything, but I'm taken."

Pause.

…that made sense.

Joshua laughed, ducking his head to hide the smile that blossomed on his face. "Yeah, I'm already spoken for. My parents don't really know yet, but… yeah. I didn't wanna get in the way of whatever you and Yn have, and hopefully I'm not saying this too late."

On the contrary, a weight lifted from Kevin's chest and he sucked in a lungful of summer breeze. "Nah, man. Thanks for saying it in the first place; I appreciate it."

"Yeah," Joshua said pleasantly. He nodded at him, lips pursed with one eye squinted. "She digs you, too, you know? I've seen it all throughout this trip."

Hope filled his heart like the air ballooning his lungs. He didn't know what to do with all of these. They just kept coming up onto the stack of things in his hands that he wanted to take into consideration and tell you to your face, once and for all. Your face just kept flickering in his mind's eye, and the nerves were slowly melting into excitement. He wanted to share this with you, as the two of you had done for years.

"I hope so."

Joshua clasped a hand on Kevin's shoulder. "I would say 'go get 'em, tiger,' but I have a friend at school who is scarily obsessed with tigers, so I'll just say—" A squeeze of his shoulder, "you got this."

Kevin didn't know what to do with that extra factoid, but he gave Joshua a grateful grin. "Thanks, man."

The pair split off from there, one heading back toward his own cabin, and the other, marching toward the future. Whatever laid ahead, he could take on.

His step gained a skip, and soon, he was jogging across the green until he appeared at your back porch. He hadn't really prepared anything—no romantic gestures, no flowers or candles, no chocolates. All he had were the words on his tongue and his newly realized love for you. Love, a strange phenomenon. He had his love for you stashed away in his breast pocket and it blossomed every summertime.

He let himself into the house and went poking around for you. "Yn? Yn, you back yet?"

No answer.

He ducked his head into the kitchen, the living room, before he came upon your bedroom door left slightly ajar. Through the sliver, he saw the bottoms of your feet on the bed, and he gently knocked on the door before pushing through.

"Yn…? Ah," His voice quieted to a whisper.

You were curled up over the bedsheets, asleep. Kevin slowly tiptoed his way over to you where your body was angled toward your phone screen, lying discarded on the pillow and actively running an episode of Our Planet.

A smile, fond and tender, pressed itself into his mouth. He reached over to carefully turn the downloaded episode off to descend the room in complete silence.

His head swiveled toward the foot of the bed where your patchwork quilt hung off the railing. He carefully draped it over your sleeping form, then made his exit.

You deserved the rest. And though he couldn't confess to you now, this gave him the time to ensure he got this exactly right.

EPISODE THIRTEEN: THE DAMSELS IN DEVOTION DEAL™

TIME passed by differently here.

One moment, you were biding your time and indulging in an episode of Our Planet; the next, the bedroom was dark and the house was quiet. You roused from sleep confused and delirious. You stretched your limbs up over your head, taking note of the quilt draped over your body.

Huh, you wondered how that got there.

Your eyes fluttered and squinted when you stood up and saw a flicker of amber light from outside your window. The view looked over only part of the backside to the house, so all you could see were the shadows that the campfire created. They danced by way of the breeze, their puppetmaster.

The time on your phone read a (slightly alarming) ten o'clock. You hadn't realized you slept that long. Maybe you were more tired than you originally thought.

Wait, then why was the campfire still blazing?—

"Yn! Psst!"

You pressed your face against the open slit in the window to track the sound of your name. Déjà vu swept over you as you discovered Kevin making his way over toward you from the outside. "Kevin? Is everyone still up?"

He shook his head. "No, no. I've just been waiting," he admitted sheepishly. "Come on out. Have you eaten yet?"

"Oh, no. I just woke up."

"Ah… right." He clasped the back of his neck. "Well, come out anyway. We can sit together."

Together. You liked the sound of that.

Without wasting more time, you promised him two minutes and scurried out of your room to round to the back door. The campfire crackled on your side of the lawn, rather than the middle of the properties this time, and Kevin tended to it on one of the two foldable chairs present.

You took a seat in the open seat. "S'mores?" You chuckled, noting the basket of ingredients at his feet.

He ducked his head. "Yeah," he loosened a laugh, "I thought I'd make you a s'more this time."

It was just a s'more, and yet, here was the organ in your chest palpitating in your chest. You didn't reject the s'more, of course, and watched him skewer a marshmallow and hold it over the blazing embers. As he did so, you caught the way his other hand fidgeted with your bracelet on his wrist, how his tongue darted out to wet his bottom lip. Was he as nervous as you were?

The thing, Yn.

"There's something I—" You both stopped short at your simultaneous words. They were the same, too, and had the pair of you fumbling.

"You first," you said, gesturing to him.

He hummed and tried for a smile. "Do you remember that night in sixth grade when we made the pact?"

You nodded.

"It was kind of like this actually," he mused. The marshmallow had browned into a beautiful gold, and you reached into the basket to help him assemble the chocolate and graham cracker pieces. Your fingers grazed his as he squished the outer crackers together to hand it to you. "A late night, s'mores, the campfire."

You took a chunk out of the s'more and swallowed before adding, "Seems like so long ago."

"Right?" He slipped the metal skewers back into the basket and leaned his arms onto his knees, body angled toward you. "The pact, I…" He considered his words as they melted on his tongue like the chocolate and marshmallow on yours. "I wanted to ask if you would think about another amendment."

You met his eyes now. The burning fire reflected in his dark irises, warm and bright. "An—an amendment," you parroted. Was this what you thought it was? You finished off your s'more, hoping not to choke when he told you whatever he wanted to tell you. You suddenly wondered if the s'more was just to soften the blow.

Kevin nodded. "Yeah, another amendment. We didn't really discuss the biggest part of the original pact when we made the rescue protocol."

"The 'just friends' clause," you finished, breathlessly.

"Yn, I don't wanna be just friends anymore."

It didn't hit you at first. You swore the ash from the fire was making you hear things, but it hit you, milliseconds later. "Oh."

He pursed his lips for a moment. "It's taken me a stupidly long time to come to this conclusion, and I was thinking about what we were talking about the other night—about if we were ready for relationships. And I said that maybe the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with was someone I already met.

"Yn, I think I'm in love with you," he said. "Not just in a way that friends love each other, but something… something more. And I wanted to let you know because—if I'm being completely honest—I want to share everything with you."

You could feel the way your lips curled upward and your heart soared. "I wanna share everything with you, too. And I don't know how long I've sat on this, but what I do know is that I feel so much for you." Every admittance that was released into the night air like sparks flying was another card laid out between you two, face up. "This place, the lake, has been my place, Kevin. But I want you to be my person."

He smiled at you, sweet and boyish, the type of smile that made you feel on the edge of seventeen. He helped you out of dark places with that smile; he was always showing you the light. "Your person," he murmured, letting that sink into his tongue and be familiarized with it. "I would love to be your person, Yn."

Your hand found his across the gap between your chairs. His thumb caressed over the side of yours, and he tucked his other hand over top until you were enveloped in his clasp—safe and sound.

When the fire was reduced to nothing more than ash and memory, you and Kevin raced each other down to the water's edge. The lake was stilled beneath the moonlight, a pool of silvery mercury. You reached for his hand again and intertwined your fingers firmly, a comforting weight and hold.

It felt right.

"So since we made an amendment to the protocol again," you started as he swung your laced hands between your bodies, "we need to seal the deal."

A grin bloomed on his face, and he bit his lip. "Hear me out," he drawled. "Maybe we should update the seal, too."

You narrowed your eyes in jest. "You just don't want me to flick your forehead."

"Sue me, you flick hard," he laughed.

"But shoot."

He licked his lips and turned to face you. "Can I show you?"

Your heart gave one big lurch as he leaned over to you. You closed the rest of the distance and sighed something happy at the feel of his lips against yours. It was gentle and brief, his mouth parting from yours to give you enough room to back away.

You could feel your twin smiles. "I kind of like it."

"Yeah?" He hummed. "Well, that can be our practice round."

You shook your head and threw your arms around his neck to pull him back over to you. His arms curled around your middle, hands pressed to your sides and holding you close.

When you broke apart this time, his warm chuckle ran a delicious bolt of electricity down your spine. "I know things are gonna be different now… But we got this."

It was the way he looked at you—the one that assured you he was the same Kevin he was three years ago and beyond; the kid who broke the swing set when you challenged him to a bet; the kid who sketched butterflies in meadows, and now sketched you in the firelight; the kid who would never judge you or ridicule you for your feelings, but validate them, always. You didn't know how you were so blind to it before.

It wasn't so scary anymore, not when you knew he would be there with you.

"Yeah," you said softly, running your thumb down the back of his neck, "I'm not really worried."

He let out a breathy laugh, and it coaxed one out of you, too. Kevin pressed his forehead to yours, pressed a kiss to the tip of your nose, pressed his heart to yours.

Some things really were just meant to be.

a/n: now the question is how are they gonna tell their moms... 🤡 if you enjoyed, pls remember to reblog, or comment, or send in an ask!! thanks for reading :] see you in at your convenience!

permanent taglist: @flwoie @vatterie @seomisaho @hqrana @ja4hyvn @tinkerbell460 @kaaimins @hyunjaespresent-deobi @otterly-fey @zzoguri @floatingpluto @winterchimez @ethereal-engene @gyulfriend @polarisjisung @jaehunnyy @shakalakaboomboo @loveliestfelix @bless-311 @zhaixiaowen @leaz-kpop-life @amourdsr @pxppxrminty @kqyutie @sseastar-main @kxthleen14 @fluorescentloves @mosviqu @justalildumpling @jaerisdiction @super-btstrash-posts @jundundun @http-gyu @mvvnsseul @outrologist @vernonburger @maessseongs @ericlvr @kflixnet

[vanwritesfan-fiction]

Boom Chicka Boom

Jack has to step in as chaperone for Brooklyn's Girl Scout camping trip

Warnings: mentions of illness and potential injury, and a surprise at the end 🤭

A/N: For the purposes of this story, Urban's wife's name is Jasmine, and their daughter's name is Nora

Requested by the wonderful @harlowcomehome

"Ok, lets look over your packing list again, B." You surveyed Brooklyn's room, all of her camping gear spread across the floor, eying the piece of paper in your hands. The two of you were finishing up packing for Brooklyn's annual Girl Scout camping trip. She would be spending the weekend at a local campsite earning her camping badge and learning all there is to know about self-sufficient camping. Previous years she had been to young to participate, but finally graduated to Brownies and was able to go on the trip. You were going to join her as a chaperone, watching over a total of four girls for the night.

"Sleeping bag?" Brooklyn pointed to her pink and purple sleeping bag still perfectly wrapped up in the original packaging. "Check!" She grinned, showing off her missing front tooth. The tooth fairy had made quite a few trips to the Harlow house over the last few weeks, and Jack's wallet was feeling a lot lighter lately. You checked the box next to "sleeping bag" on the list. You moved through the room, making sure you had everything you would need.

"Alright, last thing is hiking boots." Brooklyn was quick to her feet and ran over to her closet, jumping up and down as she held a pair of brand new pink and purple New Balance hiking boots in her hands. You giggled as you checked them off the list. "I didn't know New Balance made hiking boots."

"They don't. Had the NB team specially make them for Brookie." You heard your husband's voice behind you as Jack walked into the bedroom with Aaliyah thrown over his shoulder, the little girl's giggles filling the space. "Daddy, put me down!"

"I have one more thing for your bag, B. You can't forget this little girl." Jack playfully pretended to pack Aaliyah in Brooklyn's duffle bag, piling Brooklyn's clothes on top of her, both of the girls' faces red from laughing so hard. "Daddy, no sisters allowed on the camping trip." Brooklyn jumped on her bed, trying to help her sister.

"Well then i guess Aaliyah and I will just have to spend all weekend watching movies together and eating ice cream." Jack shrugged, giving you a wink. You knew he was just joking, but you also knew he was a sucker for whatever his daughters asked for, including enough ice cream to give a child a serious stomachache. "Do you have everything you need for your camping trip, B?" He placed his hands low on his hips, slightly out of breath from lugging around a toddler.

"Yep!" Brooklyn responded with glee, trying on her new designer jacket in the mirror. "I think she has more than she needs babe. You know we're only going for one overnight, right?" You looked at all of the new camping gear and clothing that Jack had splurged on for you and Brooklyn. "I know, but I can't be there, so I wanted to make sure my girls had everything they needed." Jack countered, as he laid down on Brooklyn's bed, his long legs hanging off the edge as Aaliyah climbed on top of him, resting her head on his chest.

"Sure, 'can't'." You sarcastically threw up air quotes, rolling your eyes at Jack. Jack didn't like camping. His exact words were "I'd rather shave my head before going camping, baby", when Aaliyah excitedly brought the permission slip home. He was a self-proclaimed 'city boy' and the most camping he'd ever done in his life was sleeping out in Urban's backyard as kids. You had a lot more experience out in nature, and you had been a Girl Scout when you were younger, so you agreed to chaperone while he stayed home with Aaliyah.

"Ok, I think that's everything we-", you stopped as you felt a wave of nausea hit you, your face contorting at the pain in your lower stomach. Jack noticed immediately, quickly getting up, tossing Aaliyah onto his hip. "Ya alright, babe?" He cupped your cheek, feeling the thin layer of sweat on your skin. You were flushed at the cheeks but pale, like you'd been hit with the flu. He held the back of his hand on your forehead to check for a fever.

You nodded weakly. "Yeah, that was weird. I felt sick for a second. Must have been something I ate."

"Why don't you go lay down. I'll get the girls ready for bed." Jack suggested. You were too nauseous to object, so you went to lay down while Jack helped Brooklyn finish packing and got the girls ready and settled in bed.

****

You closed your eyes for what felt like only a couple of seconds before Jack was waking you up to see how you were feeling. You checked your phone to see that two hours had passed since you'd gone to lay down.

"How're you feeling?" Jack sat at the edge of your side of the bed, gently stroking your arm. He placed a cup of tea he had made for you on your nightstand. "Better. I really think its nothing, just something that I ate tonight." You adjusted in bed to lay on your back.

"That's what we get for letting the girls "cook" dinner. That pizza tasted a little funny to me too." You grimaced when you tried to smile at his joke, feeling the bile start to rise in your throat. "Ok, I've gotcha", Jack quickly guided you to the bathroom when he realized you were going to be sick, and you just made it as you emptied the contents of your stomach. He rubbed your back as your head hung in the toilet, tears brimming in your lashes.

When you were sure that you had nothing left to throw up, Jack helped you clean your self off and took you back to the bed, tucking you in. "Babe, you're sick. There's no way you can go camping tomorrow." You sighed as Jack cooed over you, knowing he was right. "Brooklyn is gonna be heartbroken, Jack. She's been waiting to go camping for a whole year." You were crying again, emotional that your illness had come at the worst possible time.

Jack wiped his thumb underneath your eye, collecting your tears. "Its fine, baby. She'll be alright. We'll cushion the blow with a Squishmallow."

"You could always go in my place, Jack." You saw his face drop at your suggestion, but you grabbed at his hand, not letting him get away. "Its just one night, and then maybe you can get over your fear of camping."

Jack scoffed. "I'm not afraid to go camping. I just don't like it. I'm from the city. We don't camp." He clutched at his chest dramatically, earning a quiet laugh from you.

"So you've said, so many times." You patted his thigh. "But maybe, you can make an exception this one time?" You took a sip from the tea cup, hoping it would make you feel a bit better. "Show Brooklyn there's nothing to be afraid of. She is your twin babe, she needs to see you face your fears to get over her own."

"Alright, 10 Squishmallows. You drive a hard bargin, babe." Jack negotiated. He was pacing the room at this point, chewing on his thumbnail. "Jack", you grabbed his attention, stopping him in his tracks.

"There are just so many unknowns on there. There could be bears. You know they said bears are starting to come into residential areas because of global warming." He nodded his head frantically, barely looking at you. "You know I can't run. Because of my bad gait." Jack pulled at his sweatpants.

"Baby. One, this camping trip is going to be at a regulated camping site, not even 20 minutes outside of the city, not in the Appalachian Mountains. Two, there will be rangers there that you can go to if you run into any problems." Jack nodded, realizing he was not going to get out of this, a sour look on his face. "Three. Everyone knows that you don't run away from a bear anyway. They're large but they're fast. They can run like 40mph, there's no way you'd be able to outrun a bear in the woods." You doubled over in laughter when you saw the color drain from his face.

"20 Squishmallows. Final offer." Jack would have given you cold, hard cash on the spot to get out of this trip.

****

The next morning, Brooklyn and Jack said their goodbyes and loaded up the family Jeep before heading over to pick up Urban and Nora. Once Jack agreed to chaperone the trip, he immediately called Urban last night and told him to pack his things. Jasmine was going to join you on the trip as Nora was in the same troop and your daughters were attached at the hip, but took the opportunity to send Urban in her place. She was from Brooklyn, and had never been camping in her life, and once Jack shared his bear facts with her, there was no way she was going.

"Are you planning on going off the grid, man?" Urban joked as he threw his and Nora's duffle bags into the trunk, noticing all of the pristine camping gear that hadn't even been used. He helped his daughter get buckled up next to Brooklyn before hopping in the front with Jack. "You laugh now, but in the off chance we need to radio for help or have to build a shelter, you'll be thanking me." Jack puffed out his chest in defense as he drove out of Urban's neighborhood.

"Radio for help? What year is it?" Urban pulled out his phone, chuckling to himself as he scrolled through the internet. "I checked online, they have five places you can charge your phone at the camping sight, and we brought a tent." He laid a hand on Jack's shoulder. "Relax man, this is supposed to be fun. Save all this for when you're inevitably on an episode of Bear Grylls when your career goes south." Jack shrugged his hand off, rolling his shoulders back. "Don't forget. Where I go, you go. You'll be right there drinking your own urine next to me."

"Ew, Daddy, don't drink your pee!" Nora held her nose, making Brooklyn giggle. "That's nasty, Uncle Urby!" Brooklyn chimed in.

****

The ride to the campsite was indeed short, after less than 20 minutes on the highway they spotted the sign for 'Louisville North Campground' and Jack was surprised to see how packed it was. There were plenty of RVs parked on the gravel lot, families occupying the picnic tables as they enjoyed the beautiful weather by the expansive lake; he even recognized a couple of other girl scout troops by their bright blue vests. With the help of the the ranger posted at the entrance they were given a map of the campsite, a parking ticket to put in the windshield of their car indicating they were staying overnight, and a key to the bathrooms and showers that the campers were permitted to use.

As soon as Jack put the vehicle in park, Brooklyn and Nora jumped out of the car and ran to their two friends waiting with an adult at the beginning of the trail, duffle bags planted at their feet. They were beyond excited to spend the weekend together. He thought he recognized the girls from playdates at the house, but he couldn't be sure of their names.

"Hi, I'm Jack, Brooklyn's dad." Jack extended out his hand to the lone parent, introducing himself. He missed a lot of school events because of his career, and never really got a chance to meet any of the other parents. "Hi, I'm Amelia." She met his greeting. "I'm Talia's mom." She placed her hand on the head of the girl with bright auburn hair, her fair skin covered in freckles. "And this is Liberty", a shy girl with purple beads at the end of her braids gave Jack a small wave.

"I'm really thankful that you both were able to step in this weekend", Amelia continued, "When Y/N texted me that she was sick, the girls were really upset. They've been talking nonstop about this camping trip, planning everything for weeks."

"Well, we're gonna have a lot of fun, and I've got your phone number in case we need to contact you." Jack held up the thick binder of instructions and parent contact information you had given him. It contained a list of all the activities the girls need to complete to earn their camping badge, as well as emergency procedures. Jack was a nervous mess looking through all of the things that could possibly go wrong without you there, but you assured him that you trusted him completely and that he hand nothing to worry about. He believed you, at least for now.

****

Jack and Urban ended up carrying all of the bags to the campsite, the girls running ahead and chanting:

I'm a girl scout, I'm a girl scout

Who are you?, who are you?

Can't you tell by looking?, Can't you tell by looking?

I'm one too, I'm one too

Jack and Urban set up the tents and the girls laid out their sleeping bags. You had packed all of the food and utensils everyone would need, so Jack put that on the picnic table, just out of a bear's reach. The girls were having fun practicing tying knots that Urban showed them how to do. He didn't tell the girls he learned how to tie most of those knots when he had to create a makeshift rope out of bed sheets to sneak out of his second story bedroom window after curfew in high school, but that was a story for when they were older.

After a couple of hours, the sun was high in the sky, and everything was positioned in the campsite. Jack had to pat himself on the back as he looked at their setup. So far everything was going pretty smoothly, and half of the day was already over. He just had to make it through dinner and the night, and he'd be back at home watching the football game on the couch by tomorrow.

"Ok, so your mama's book says the first activity is to use a compass and a map to locate a source of water." Jack shuffled through a few pages, "and then we'll identify some animals that are unique to the forest." He pulled a few compasses from his backpack and laid out the map on the picnic table. With their help, the girls pointed out a stream not far from their location. He let them lead the way, Nora, Talia, and Liberty with compasses in their hand, Brooklyn taking the map.

"Dude, do you know how to use a compass?" Urban whispered, stopping Jack with a hand to his chest. "Man, hell no. I pulled up the location on my phone, just in case we get lost." Jack replied, turning the brim of his ball cap to the back before catching up with the group.

Brooklyn was a great leader; she easily navigated the map, leading them to the stream. Jack was beaming with pride as he watched his usually shy daughter come out of her shell and have some fun. She also had a in-depth knowledge of different insects and amphibians because of her love of animals, so when they reached the stream, she was the first to spot a frog.

"Daddy, look! Its a pickerel frog!" She pointed to a brown, spotted frog sunning on a rock in the middle of the water. She grabbed his hand and led him to the bank, both of them squatting down to get a better look at the frog. "I see a crane!" Talia called out from a couple feet away, pointing to a crane across the way, its long beak dipping into the water. "I found a frog too!" Nora exclaim, her sneakers soaked from standing in the water.

With his focus still on Brooklyn to make sure she didn't fall in the stream, Jack shook off his hand as he felt something slick and wet on his palm. When he noticed the feeling didn't go away, he looked down to his left, a yelp leaving his mouth when he realized a frog had jumped into his hand. "Get off! Get off!"

"Daddy! Get it away!" Brooklyn screamed, not wanting the frog to touch her either. She loved animals, specifically dogs and cats, but all other animals only from afar, and in the books she had in her room, not in real life. She ran off to Urban, latching onto his leg. "Daddy, get out of the water!" She called to Jack. Even though touching the frog was the last thing Jack wanted to do, he realized he had an opportunity to help Brooklyn get over a fear, and he knew he had to take it now. He reached down in the water where the frog had landed, and gently scooped it into his palm.

"Look B, its fine. The frog is nice." Jack smiled, holding out his hands. She shook her head, still holding onto Urban. "Look, he's not dangerous, he just looks kind of funny." Jack scrunched his nose as he looked at the amphibian, rows of dark brown spots down its back. Slowly Brooklyn inched towards her dad, peeking over. When she realized that the frog wasn't a threat, and Jack was there to protect her, she even touched the frog. "He feels funny." She grinned. The other girls gathered around, while Jack tried to hide his shaking hands, each taking a turn to touch the animal.

****

Everyone was exhausted when they got back to the campsite. Jack was ready to call it a night, but your book listed the next requirement was to build a fire and have the girls cook their own food. Urban got the girls started on cutting the fruits and vegetables for their foil packet dinners while Jack tackled the fire pit.

The steps seemed pretty simple: gather twigs and leaves for tinder, larger sticks that would act as the kindling, light that, and place the larger logs on top. "Simple enough", Jack whispered to himself. He gathered all of the necessary materials, and began to stack them. He searched the supply bag for matches, huffing when he realized that they had accidentally been left behind. For a plan B, he secretly pulled out his phone to research how to light a fire without matches. The Youtube video he found said that he needed a sharp rock to strike against the wood, and that should start a flame. Once he found his fire starter, he exhausted himself trying to get the wood to light.

"Hey, Jack, the girls are getting hungry. How's the fire coming?" Urban walked over to the pit and sat across from a frustrated Jack, watching him try to light the fire to no avail. "Here, back up a second." Jack wiped the sweat off his brow as he watched Urban reach into his pocket and pull out his lighter. "The book says were supposed to use our resources, Urb. No cheating."

Urban chuckled as he flicked the lighter on, holding it to the kindling. "This is using my resources, Jack. I always carry this lighter with me." Jack laughed as he watched the fire start, growing higher and higher with each passing second. "Alright, let's cook this food, I'm starving!" Jack clapped his hands together.

****

"Daddy, can you tell us a story?" Brooklyn asked as the group sat around the campfire. The sun had set and they had eaten the dinner they prepared and devoured the cookies you had baked for them. Jack wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Ok, um let me think."

"What about a truck stop story?" Urban edged Jack on to tell one of the stories of the many truck stops they ended up at when Jack was first going on tour. "Urban, no. That's not appropriate." He elbowed his friend for even bringing it up. Jack wasn't exactly proud of the things he had to do to get by when he had no money and was a struggling rapper.

"What's a truck stop?" Liberty asked, her face inquisitive. A shadow of the flames danced across her face.

"Well, its a place where truckers can take a shower and rest when they're traveling." Jack answered, wringing his hands.

"Are you a trucker?" Talia asked. "No he's a rapper, and my dad takes his pictures." Nora chimed in, explaining their careers the best way an 8 year old could. "That's right, baby." Urban confirmed, a smile on his face as he looked at Jack. "I take your pictures." Jack silently mocked him, earning a hearty laugh from his best friend.

"You're a rapper? Do you know Beyonce?" Liberty questioned. "I've met her a couple of times." Jack responded.

"That's so cool! You're so cool, Mr. Harlow!" Jack blushed as the girls' faces lit up. They asked a million questions about Jack's career, and Brooklyn chimed in when she knew the answer, very excited to talk about her dad. "Can you sing us one of your songs?", Talia asked. Urban busted out laughing at the question, water coming out of his nose from the bottle he was drinking from.

"My music is for adults, Talia, but, we can sing one of your guys' songs." Jack flipped through the binder, hoping the girls would quickly forget about his music career. "What about 'Boom Chicka Boom?'. Jack didn't recognize the lyrics; admittedly, he hadn't been to any of Brooklyn's troop meetings due to his busy schedule. "Oh, I know this song. My sister was a girl scout." Urban leaned over, mumbling the lyrics quietly to himself to jog his memory.

"And you didn't think that was important to mention this morning?" Jack questioned with a scoff.

Urban started off the song. "I said a BOOM CHICKA BOOM!" he called out into the night.

"I SAID A BOOM CHICKA BOOM!" the girls echoed, Jack laughing at their enthusiasm.

"I SAID A BOOM CHICKA BOOM!"

"I SAID A BOOM CHICKA BOOM!"

"I SAID A BOOM CHICKA ROCKA CHICKA ROCKA CHICKA BOOM!"

"I SAID A BOOM CHICKA ROCKA CHICKA ROCKA CHICKA BOOM!"

"UH HUH!"

"UH HUH!"

"OH YEAH!"

"OH YEAH!"

****

Jack could admit that he was starting to enjoy camping as he helped the girls get ready for bed and made sure they were carefully tucked into their sleeping bags and safe in their tent. He and Urban cleaned up the campsite and made sure the fire had died out before they headed to sleep themselves.

The next morning, besides a sore back and a little sunburn on his face, Jack had made it through the night relatively unscathed. By the time everyone finished their breakfast, parents had started arriving and Jack and Urban said goodbye to the camp grounds in their rear view window with their daughters in the back seat.

****

"Daddy!" Aaliyah was the first to greet Jack and Brooklyn when they walked through the front door, dropping their bags by the hall closet. "Hi baby. Did you have a good weekend taking care of Mama?" Aaliyah nodded as Jack took her in his arms, peppering her face with kisses. You were right behind your daughter, still a little worse for wear after spending most of yesterday in bed.

"Did you have a good time, Brookie?" You asked your eldest, wrapping her in a hug. "I did! Daddy held a frog, and I'm not scared to touch them anymore."

“That’s amazing baby. I’m so proud of you.” You kissed the top of her head before looking at your husband. You chuckled, taking in Jack’s face and messy curls sticking out under his hat. "A frog, really, babe?"

Jack grinned as he pulled you into a hug. "You should have seen your husband out there, babe. I was fearless." He kissed you before you could even retort, following up with a few quick pecks before you broke apart. "Oh babe, you smell, like, the outside." You grimaced, feeling nauseous again. You stepped back from Jack realizing that your family came back a little dirty and tired, but they looked like they had a good time.

"This is the smell of a fearless man." Jack smirked, flexing his muscles. "Ok, my fearless man. Why don't you go take a shower? I'll get the girls settled." You patted his chest before ushering him away, two fingers holding your nose closed.

While Jack took his first hot shower in two days, you helped Brooklyn get changed and set up the girls with some lunch and their favorite TV show in the living room. You were sitting on the bed when Jack came out of the shower, his wet curls hanging around his face.

"Well, Mountain man, did you have a good time?", you called out to him as he walked into the closet. "Actually, yeah. I definitely didn't expect it to be as fun as it was." He walked out, slipping a clean t-shirt over his head. "And babe, you should have seen Brookie. She was so confident, she had so much fun." You sat silent, a genuine smile on her face as you watched Jack get dressed, one hand on your stomach.

"What's wrong, baby? Are you still sick?" Jack furrowed his brow as he looked at your face.

"Um, yeah, I am, but its not food poisoning like I originally thought." You clasped your hands together tightly, looking at your feet.

"Babe, you're scaring me." Jack grasped at the towel in his hands, white knuckling the terry cloth material.

"Its good, I promise you." Tears were welling in your eyes. "I'm pregnant, Jack." You took in a sharp breath as soon as you finished your sentence.

You could see the wheels turning in his mind as he processed what you had just told him. "Oh my god." He finally spoke, and you felt like you could breathe again. He stroked at his jawline, sitting down next to you. "I know that this wasn't exactly planned", you started, "but I'm really excited. I love the idea of having another baby in the house."

"Oh my god." Jack repeated. When he finally looked at you, he looked so incredibly happy, the same face you had seen when told him you were pregnant with Brooklyn and Aaliyah. "We're having another baby."

"Yes, we are, Jack." You spoke through tears as you hugged him, Jack pulling you in tightly to his body. You could feel the wetness of his tears against your shoulder as you stroked the curls on the back of his neck. "Promise me something." He mumbled against your shirt. You pulled away lifting his head up to face you. "Anything, Jack."

"No matter what happens, if we have a girl or boy, let's not ever take our family camping again." Jack smiled at you before pressing his forehead to yours. You giggled, wiping a stray tear from your face.

"I promise. No camping."

Tag-List:

@jacks-daycare

@livsters

@katiaw2

@xangelonmyshoulderx

@thatonegirlthatlikesthings

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@comehomeimissyou

[sorcerous-caress]

Witnessing you play pathologic 2 is such a fucking trip bc like?? I own both 1 and 2, but I’ve only actually played pathologic 1 and like?? How in the blue fuck do you have 15 shmowders????? I think I got like- 6 in my entire playthrough- I was not doing well with my quests tho so that probably contributed but??? 15??????

16 now just baught some from my buddy ol'pal dead items shop man on day 7

But if you want an actual answer

Shmowder kid

Find a building with shmowder kid in it, exist and enter until they have the shmoder in their inventory for trade. 10% spawn chance.

Rare cache farming

I save before 7:30 when cache reset. Then I go and check all the assigned "rare" caches with a chance of spawning shmoders, usually 3-6 each day. They're scripted so they never change locations. I reload until I'm sure at least two of them have shmoders then bag it quickly. 20% spawn chance per rare cache.

Rob people

You don't find shmoders, but you aquire nut funds for your shmoder supplier kid. Basically get the cape and all the protective gear, waltz into infected houses with at least 8 immunity boosters then go haywire and grab all nuts you can find.

Quests?

Only two give a guarantee Shmoders so uhh...maybe if you feel like it? I did them either way.

Here is my progress so far

I could squeeze 3/4 more shmoders out of my plug girlie, but I'm running low on food, so I rather trade them for eggs instead. Plus, I'll get 2 more when it hits 7:30 from caches.

I'm saving up for the shotgun! Maybe a revolver too idk.

I found out brewing antibiotics is annoying so I rather trade for them instead, but + immune boosters are a must.

The town so far is good, I gotta start repairing water sources.

I think Peter's infection is scripted because he had like 75% chance to NOT get infected, lost twice in a row when I reloaded.

Eh, he's not one of my bounds so Imma wait for Daniil to come begging on his knees for a shmoder.

Side note, Artemy is so fucking stunted when talking to women he is attracted to. It's almost hilarious.

Meanwhile, compare it with his flirting with men, and he becomes as smooth as silk.

Artemy is so down bad for Rubin it's sad and funny at the same time.

It's like a love triangle i can't. Artemy wants childhood sweethearts romance with Rubin, but Rubin keeps rejecting him for big city dandy educated Bachelor of medicine, but Daniil is tripping over his own feet trying to subtly (failing) to get closer and more intimate with hunky bottom surgeon Artemy.

Making us "indebted" to him.

Trying to get us to be his "Aide"

By day 6, we're drinking buddies. He even ADMITS how his arrogance hurts him and is a bad trait. IN LESS THAN A WEEK OF MEETING US.

DANIIL ADMITING A MISTAKE, A FAULT, BY HIMSELF AND NOT UNDER THE THREAT OF A RIFILE.

I'm still not over how he invites us to EVA'S house, doesn't tell her and doesn't inform the hunching brooding gaint Artemy that a soft hearted woman lives where he's squatting at for free and instead let her panic at seeing Artemy bust in unannounced.

"The milkman" I FUCKING CANNOT. Daniil is the roomate who's late on rent, keeps flirting with you to make you forget that he is late on rent, then his grinder date shows up unannounced.

Daniil is so much nicer than people made him seem? Idk, maybe I'm too autistic to pick up on his normie passive-aggressive condescension-which feels very in character for Artemy-but also, he just seems like a decent swell guy!

Kinda useless, but he's trying his best without time turning protagonist active player powers!

If anything, he's too friendly. He asks US to be his aide? Even when it's clear that Artemy didn't attend a single day in school all of his life.

Because let's be real.

"Where did you graduate??"

"Medical...school"

ARTEMY YOU DUMB BITCH I LOVE YOU BUT IT'S TIME TO BEG FOR SPARE BRAINCELLS ON THE STREET.

Daniil's "you don't have to watch your tongue with me" omfggggf

The sabotaged water sources must be getting to Daniil's head for him to act this thirsty in a makeshift hospital IN PUBLIC.

Artemy is clearly someone that Daniil would absolutely look down on MORE than he would to the average person, and yet how does he treat us?

Like what the fuck were those youtubers about???? Daniil is so nice oh my god. I had completely the wrong idea. He is so helpful and friendly, not once did I feel antagonised by him.

Also, I didn't insult him, ever. So he never replied with any insulting comment. You treat him with respect, and he does the same. It's endearing!

He entrusts us and confides in us! He clearly values our input and help. He vents to us and listens to our theories!

Side note, people's reaction to Artemy's height and gaint size is gold.

Also, I think they have a kink for his hands because of the whole surgeon thing, like come on, it gets mentioned TWICE?

there is also this time where Artemy had a nightmare that he was sleeping through class, and for some reason, Daniil was just ???? In the corner ??? For misbehaving?

He barely met the guy and he already figured out how 90% of his time in the education system must have went.

also Artemy REALLY likes cats and dogs.

First he calls himself like a Kitten, then he says Murky is like a cat and finally:

Artmey is just phenomenal in this.

I bought the first Pathologic HD Classic today, too! It was on sale for so cheap my god it felt like highway robbery.

See this loser wet cat kiddo right here?

I will behead every man, woman, child and elderly in this entire town with a rusty Axe if even one of them touches a single hair on his head.

[whorekneecentral]

ooooh for sugar daddy! jenson how about to celebrate your graduation (college student) daddy jense books an all-included trip to monaco (or any fancy place you’d like), probs in a secluded area for privacy 😏 and showers you non-stop with gifts and goes feral on you which leads to some juicy sexy time <33

let’s do paris just for the heck of it. 

The cold breeze woke him from his nap. You two had gone out for some shopping, Jenson couldn't take you to Paris and not take you shopping. You had come back to get dressed and take a shower before dinner and he must have dozed off while you were in there. 

He pulls himself from the bed, stretching as he steps out onto the balcony. You two were in a villa not too far off from the city, just the two of and all the privacy in the world. Jenson smiles to himself when he sees you sitting out there with a glass of wine in your robe, taking in the view. 

“I can feel you staring,” you call, not looking back. Jenson comes over, hugging you from behind. “Did you decide what you’re going to wear to dinner?” He asked, kissing your cheek. 

“The red dress,” you tell him, getting up and turning to face him. 

Jenson had gone a little overboard with the shopping but you graduated, you deserved to be spoiled. He bought you this ridiculously expensive dress that caught your eye before you could even protest. 

The man kisses you, grabbing your hand and leading you back inside. “Go get dressed, I'll change.” He tells you, sending you off to put on your dress and do your hair and what not. 

You were in your lingerie when he steps into the bathroom, a jewelry box in his hand. You look at him in the mirror, brows furrowed as you watch him open it. A stunning tennis necklace sitting in the box. 

“Jenson,” you breathe, he sets the box down and takes the necklace out. He puts it around you and hooks it. 

“Do you like it?” He asks, watching as your hand lifts and your fingers touch it gently. “It's beautiful, but it’s too much.” 

“No, it's your graduation gift.” He waves you off, kissing the back of your shoulder. “I thought the trip was my gift?” 

“Okay, so I splurged a little, whatever.” He smiles, hands on your hip when you turn to face him. “It's beautiful, thank you.” You smile, kissing him. His hands roam over your body, fingers trailing over the intricate lace clinging to your figure. 

The man lifts you onto the counter and moves to stand between your legs as he kisses you. His hands reach down, pulling your panties to the side before undoing his pants. 

“We're going to be late.” You remind him, Jenson shakes his head. “We won’t. Told you earlier so you’d be done in time.” 

You laugh, an arm hooked over his shoulder as you felt him push into you. You scoot a little lower, giving him some shade as he lift your legs to hook around him. 

Jenson had you where he wanted you, you were putty in his hands. The diamonds hung around your neck, the red strap of your bra pushed off your shoulder and your hair curled and pushed behind you, bounced with each thrust. He was careful when he kissed you; not wanting to smudge your makeup. 

“You’re perfect,” he mumbles into your neck, kissing down to your chest. “My perfect girl.” 

[matchayogitea]

Suspicious Minds - part 2

Part 1

"Are we lost?"

Silence.

"Maybe we should turn around."

More silence.

"Steve..." 

He let out a soft sigh, finally acknowledging what you had been suspecting for half an hour now. "I guess we are lost."

You lowered the map you were looking at and gave him a smile, as he pulled over to the side of the road. "It's ok, Steve. It's not like we had reservations or anything."

"I know, but... I really wanted to get to California before evening."

"It's only four, we might still make it," you sensibly pointed out. "What's all the rush anyway? I thought you were enjoying this trip."

Steve turned to look at you and leaned closer, placing a hand on your cheek, stroking it tenderly. "I am enjoying the trip, very much. But..." his eyes lowered to your lips for a second, before looking up at you again. "I wanted to get there early, be well rested for tomorrow... and finally do it."

You blinked, feeling yourself flush. "You mean... getting married?"

He nodded, getting closer, kissing you gently. "Yeah, I thought you'd actually cave when we were in Vegas and saw that hot Elvis impersonator and ask him to marry us-"

"Oh my God, I never said he was hot-"

"-but I know no matter how much you love his music, you really want to get married on a beach."

"I do..." you conceded, folding the map slowly, looking down. You felt a bit embarrassed and you weren't sure why. "But... are you sure that's what you want, too? We both need to like the place, you know."

Steve grinned and tried to kiss you again, but you stopped him. "Answer the question first."

"Yes, ma'am!" he joked, with an adorable grin on his face. "Of course that's I want. I would have married you even in a parking lot in Hawkins, that's how much I want to do it. Obviously it's good we are waiting so we can find a nicer place, though," he hastened to add, grabbing the map from your hands.

You and Steve had left Hawkins a week after your high school graduation. You both had some money saved, and you had packed everything in his car before saying goodbye to your families and friends. Of course your parents tried to make you change your mind, but you wouldn't listen - you didn't have a good relationship with them, and you couldn't wait to get out of that place. Both your home and Hawkins. And the same went for Steve.

You were taking a year off so you could work and save money for college, while you and Steve settled down somewhere. There was no way around it, really, and you kept repeating yourself that you would absolutely start college the following year, that this was only temporary (your mother's words still echoed in your mind, You are never going to college if you don't start in the fall, you won't have the will to do it next year if you put it off). You were absolutely going to prove her wrong.

You loved beaches and mild climates, so it was kind of obvious that your destination would be California. You knew it was so far from Indiana, but that was all for the better. You and Steve had made a few stops on the way, including Las Vegas the previous night, where you both had to restrain yourselves from gambling and playing. You definitely couldn't afford to lose money. But you had still had a nice time and after a couple of hours wandering around you both had decided that Vegas wasn't that interesting, anyway.

You had woken up late in the morning and had started the drive to California where you hopefully would finally find a nice town to settle in for the time being.

And to get married.

"Ok, maybe we should turn around and ask someone in that town we saw on the way..." Steve muttered, as he studied the impossibly confusing map, running a hand through his flawless hair. How it looked flawless all the time, you didn't know. 

You didn't say anything. You got lost in thought as you stared at him pensively, and he noticed. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"I was just thinking... I can't believe we're really doing this," you admitted with a small smile, taking his hand and squeezing it. 

Steve didn't reply, choosing on a kiss instead.

"This place is so beautiful!"

Steve laughed at your enthusiasm. You'd been repeating the same thing ever since you'd finally made it to a small town in Southern California and had dropped your baggage in the first motel you could find, so you could finally walk around and stretch your legs after all the driving. 

It was a little past seven and it was still bright outside, allowing you to take in all the sights and views so different from Hawkins. 

The people in this town seemed friendly, smiling at you as you walked around, although maybe it had to do with the fact that you looked so excited to be there, like a child in a toy shop. "Let's walk around the beach! Please?" you asked Steve, tugging on his hand. 

"As you wish, my love," he replied, looking at you with adoration. That made you blush. Even if you'd been with Steve for almost two years, he still had that effect on you. And that made you happy. 

You took off your shoes and headed toward the shore. The water felt cool and refreshing on your feet, the sun was just starting to set, painting the sky with beautiful hues of orange and purple, and as you closed your eyes and inhaled the salty ocean fragrance you smiled. 

This was it. 

This was the perfect place to get married.

You opened your eyes again. Steve was taking it all in, a bright smile on his face, the wind messing his hair just enough to make him look even more attractive. 

You got closer to him, placing a tender kiss on his collarbone, then his neck. Then his lips. "So, what do you think of this place?"

"It's perfect." He kissed you, gently at first, then passionately. When you parted, he pressed his forehead against yours and whispered: "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," you agreed, knowing time would go by excruciatingly slow until the moment came.

Part 3 coming soon!

[wonderlandleighleigh]

Do Rory and Jess ever get to take their road trip after senior year?

1

Quite the argument breaks out over Rory spending an entire weekend alone with her boyfriend in a "strange city," with her mother reluctantly taking her side while her grandparents try to forbid her from going.

"Rory is an adult now," Lorelai says. "If she wants to go away for a weekend with her boyfriend, she...can."

"I cannot believe you're allowing this," Emily marvels.

"I'm...allowing Rory to make her own choices. It's her life, and I trust her to be responsible."

"Of course Rory will be responsible," Richard adds. "It's that boyfriend who is untrustworthy."

"Jess doesn't make me do anything I don't want to do," Rory argues. "He's had a really hard year. A really hard year. He barely scraped by in school, Luke's been on him about his grades for months, there was the Dean incident, and then his dad showed up out of nowhere and then disappeared again. He needs a break, and frankly, after getting punched by my ex-boyfriend, so do I. So we're going, and I'll be back in time for one more Friday night dinner before Mom and I leave for Europe. And that's it."

The rest of dinner is awkward, to say the least.

*****

Lenny had probably been a little to generous with the graduation money, but that works for Rory. It means that they can split the cost of a nice hotel room for the night, and take the bus down to save money.

The hotel room itself is airy and there's one bed, and Rory has no illusions about what's going to happen this weekend. She sets her bag down on a chair and unzips it, digging in and finding what she's looking for.

"So - I brought -" She holds out a box of condoms awkwardly. "I didn't know what kind to get, but these seemed - fine."

Jess blinks rapidly before shaking out his head. "Rory-"

"I just wanted to be prepared."

"You bought an entire box. how many times do you think you're gonna get lucky this weekend?" he asks teasingly. "Are we gonna leave the room at all?"

"Jess."

He steps closer to her, kissing her softly. "I brought a few. But I appreciate that we seem to be on the same page about what might happen this weekend."

"Might?"

Jess shrugs. "It's not a requirement, Rory."

"I know. I just- want to. I want to."

He kisses her again. "Okay. Well, for now, let's go get a hot dog."

She smiles gratefully, before stowing the box back in her bag and following him out.

*****

They spend the day wandering the Village. They go back to the record shop from her first time visiting him in New York. They do get hot dogs, and hang out in the park, before the sun starts to go down, and they duck into the Gaslight to watch a the acts.

They stay late, and wind up at a late-night Chinese place, eating mushu pork and cold sesame noodles, and when they get back to the hotel, they can't stop laughing.

"Do you think the gargling Genghis Kan noticed that someone threw a coffee stirrer in his beard?" Rory asks.

"I think he did, actually," Jess tells her. "Did you catch the way the vein in his forehead was pulsing?"

"No! Uh, I'm sad I missed that!"

"Oh yeah. He knew."

Rory laughs, but it dies down as she looks around the dim hotel room and looks at the bed.

Jess takes a breath. "We just ate a bunch of garlicky Chinese food," he points out. "I don't know about you but...I'm ready to just get some sleep."

She nods quickly. "Yeah. That sounds- that sounds good. I'm gonna go brush my teeth."

He nods and starts getting ready for bed, and Rory watches for a moment, letting herself take in his bare back as he turns away from her to grab something to sleep in from his bag.

She bites her lip and grabs her pajamas and toothbrush before heading into the bathroom.

*****

She wakes up early the next morning, finding herself curled in against Jess with her head pillowed against the soft t-shirt he's wearing.

When she pulls him closer, he stirs and blinks down at her sleepily, giving her his crooked grin. "Hi."

She responds by kissing him.

Things get slow and hazy after that, and it feels...

Right.

To be here with him like this. Alone in their quiet little hotel room with the drapes pulled shut against the rising sun. It feels right.

After, she finds herself in his arms, breathing hard, clinging to him tightly, lightheaded from her orgasm, her eyes closed. His lips brush over hers softly and slowly, and she holds him tighter as she kisses him back.

*****

They shower after that, and she's never shared a shower with someone outside of gym class, but here she is, messing around with Jess's hair under the spray, giving him a stupid mohawk that makes them both laugh.

They get dressed and pack of their things, knowing they'll have to head for the bus station late in the day.

"So?" Jess asks quietly as they head out for more exploration. "Do you feel okay?"

Rory nods. "I do. I mean - I thought I would feel - I don't know. Different. More different than I do. But I just feel kind of sore."

Jess tries not to smirk and it gets him nudged.

"Shut up," she tells him.

"Yep. Okay. You wanna take a cab into Harlem? Be fancy?"

"Why, yes, I would love to be fancy."

*****

The bus ride home is uneventful. Rory naps against Jess's shoulder as he reads, and once they get to Hartford, they take his car back to Stars Hollow, and they sing badly to an old cassette tape they found in Harlem.

When he pulls up to her house, Rory leans over and kisses him, one arm wrapped around him and one cupping his jaw. "Goodnight, Jess."

He brushes his nose against hers. "Night, Rory. I'll call you tomorrow."

"You had better."

She grabs her things - her overnight bag and the bag of vinyl albums she bought - including the re-found copy of that signed Go-Go's album for her mother - and slips out of the car, heading into the house.

[james-is-here]

Wooo! 🥳

This is a writing where my character, Hwa Kai, is mostly seen as the cold, kinda reserved member of Stray Kids. Almost always having a straight face and looking like he's always in a mood but really he's a sweetheart.

My first story written on my Chromebook of the new school year. Yay! I finished this with 13% battery left because my charger isn't plugged in near my bed and I didn't want to get up yet 😅.

I can also use 'keep reading' now which I'm happy about!

(Yeah, I have now graduated and don’t have the Chromebook anymore 😅 and its finished but obviously haven’t posted it yet.)

"Isn't it a little early to be asleep?" Chan hears the amusement laced in the dancer's tone before turning his head to find Hyunjin’s gaze directed to Hwa Kai’s slumbering figure curled up on the couch.

"Let him be. We've all been busy and we had a long flight a couple days ago." Chan scolds lightly, humming when he brushes Kai’s hair from his face and then adjusts his blanket so he doesn’t get too cold.

Hyunjin notes their attire and furrows his brows together in curiosity. "You're leaving?" He questions and Felix nods his head. "We're just going on a walk to relax. It's not everyday we get to go out of the country." He responds casually when he adjusts the hat on his head before slipping his shoes on.

The ferret pouts a little at that and plops on the floor to lean back on the couch in front of Kai. "I wanna go out too but I feel so lazy today." He groans, earning a laugh from Changbin when he stands back up and grabs his hat. Chan has to silence him just so his voice doesn't wake you. "If Kai wakes up, have him come with you."

"But Hyung is tired." He reasons, hesitant to ask him since he knew how Kai could be whenever he was running low on energy. He didn't want to possibly ruin his mood more.

Chan is already dismissing the thought with a wave of his hand. "Just ask and if he doesn't want to, you can always ask the others when they come back." He suggests when they head for the door. "We'll see you later."

"Take care." Hyunjin calls after them, staring at the door once it's shut and he lets out a breath, a pout resting on his features as he looks back at the male next to him. He honestly has no idea why he decided to leave his bed to sleep on the couch, but he can't really do anything to make him go back since he would feel bad about having to ruin his sleep.

The boys know how little he's been getting lately so he does his best to keep quiet just so Kai can rest.

Judging by his tired expression, he knows that he would be needing it for the rest of the tour.

---

It's been well over two hours since Hyunjin had been alone with Kai. Han entered the room at some point and left some food on the table, but as soon as he did, Minho was coming to collect the rapper so they could both go sightseeing, explaining that IN was already waiting in the hall.

And while they did ask Hyunjin if he wanted to come with them, a quick glance at Kai had him shaking his head and stating that he would be fine at the hotel.

They merely smiled at him before saying to call if he needed anything.

He wished that he went with them, because not even ten minutes after they left, Hyunjin was bored out of his mind, having given up on his phone and finished scrolling through random apps.

When he peeked over at Kai again, he assumed that he was finally awake, but he only stirred a little and moved to his side before sleep once more took over. He had to hold his breath the whole time before sighing heavily.

At first he found it funny how much he was sleeping today, but after a while and some noise from him clumsily tripping over a chair and the dual hair male had yet to react, he was a little more worried than anything.

Kai wasn't exactly a heavy sleeper, but it was clear that he was more tired than he let on.

By the third hour, Hyunjin finds his back against the couch, his phone playing a little bit of music while he randomly draws on the sketchpad he had packed with him for this trip. Some of his thoughts would be strewn about, nothing specific, a doodle of pie and his SKZOO in another page before he finally ended with a blank.

Pouting at the lack of inspiration, Hyunjin turns his head, Kai’s arm on clear display with his tattoo in his sights. The idea came before he could even think it over and one of his markers was soon on his skin, filling some portions of his tattoo with color as the raven haired boy hummed along to the song.

He remembers Kai first getting this one. It was the very first of many and he smiles a little to himself when he remembers how much Kai stressed about getting it. Since it was something he would forever have on his skin, it took months into considering the design before finally deciding to get it, much to his fans and members' delight.

He was happy to see the contentment on his face when he showed it off the first time. He didn't understand the sentiment at first, but after countless probing from not only the boys, he ended up explaining the tattoo in one of his Lives.

As quiet as Kai was, the boys knew how far his imagination could reach. But the meaning behind the tattoo would probably be one of his favorites of Kai’s stories when he told them how it symbolizes the people in his life.

Like a puzzle piece, he told them, every one of them fit into his life and made Kai whole. Each piece is designed to portray each member in black ink-work. He's embarrassed to admit that he teared up when he told them, but he had only given them all a smile afterwards.

The simplicity of the design held something deeper and that was enough for him.

It's only when Hyunjin reaches for the third color does he pause though and take a proper look at his handiwork. When he followed the length of Kai’s arm and saw his face, his own was drained of color and he promptly dropped his marker. Dread filled his entire body when he finally realized what he'd done and he scrambled to gather his things and flee from the scene before Kai could wake up.

"Yah! What are you doing?"

Changbin’s sudden entry, along with his panicked state, causes his head to collide with the coffee table right after picking his marker up, and the rest of his things scatter to the floor, the noise being enough to finally wake Kai up.

He was so screwed.

Hyunjin whines while rubbing his head, pouting as he sits on the carpeted floor before the sound of Kai’s deep groggy voice reaches his ears. "Hyunjin-ie?" He swears he wants the ground to swallow him whole at that given moment when he slowly turns his head, a nervous smile on his face when he looks up at the male whilst the rest of the members enter the room.

Felix looked a little surprised when he saw Kai’s now colored tattoo, but before he could say anything, Hyunjin was already scrambling to his feet and distanced himself in the event Kai grew upset.

"Hyung! You're finally awake." He tries not to get him to notice when he stretches and then rubs his eyes. "What time is it?" Kai asks while reaching for his phone and everyone watches as everything goes in slow motion for Hyunjin.

By the time he held the device in his hand, Kai’s eyes caught the now colorful puzzle piece on his arm, forcing himself to sit up to properly assess himself whilst Felix shot the panicking ferret a worried glance.

Kai had to do a double take since his mind was still a bit hazy, but once he saw that it was indeed colored in, he took a quick look at his members, the confusion plastered over Kai’s face before he's turning his gaze to the scared boy who was already bowing with apologies spilling from his lips.

"You colored my tattoo?" None of them can quite read his expression as he stared at the design again, so Jeongin moves to join him on the couch just so he could hopefully soothe him in the event it was needed. With his head on Kai’s shoulder, he takes a look at the tattoo with him and smiles a little to himself.

“Hey, that doesn't look so bad." He offers and Hyunjin wants to stop the vocalist from saying anything that could possibly get him to his grave faster, only to pause when he sees the ghost of a smile playing at Kai’s lips when he nods his head. "It is."

"It... is?"

He wasn't sure if it was his fear tricking him into thinking that he weren't upset, but seeing the surprise on everyone's face promised him that it wasn't just him as he hesitantly came back to the couch where Nam gladly welcomed him.

"You did a really nice job, Hyunjin." He praised and he took a look at the tattoo again before his face lit up. "Hey, what else were you adding to this?" Everyone was caught off guard by the question and Hyunjin struggled to find his voice, looking up and meeting Changbin's equally lost gaze for a moment before the rapper shrugged his shoulders, gesturing to the markers right after.

Carefully, he turned back to him before answering. "I was just coloring it." He mumbles and Kai hum before extending his arm in his direction, puzzling the younger for a moment while he just grinned softly at the younger boy. "Mind showing me the whole thing?"

Hyunjin looked to and from before he faced the two eldest members, seeing that they're both just as dumbfounded by the turn of events. Frankly, they were prepared for the worst as soon as Changbin caught Hyunjin filling his tattoo, but seeing how Kai attentively watched the Ravenette fill it with new ink, adding a few comments here and there to tell him that he liked the design, they all relaxed before finally proceeding further into the room.

Chan even giggled when he finally let the whole thing sink in. This would surely be another story that Stays would find amusing in the future. But as Chan took a peek later on to see how Kai and Hyunjin were doing, the leader smiled when he saw that Kai and Jeongin had now been accompanied by Han and Seungmin, talking about the tattoo and its new design.

This was probably one of the rare times they've seen him so relaxed, giggling along with the rest of the maknae line as all five of them, since Felix complained about being left out, happily chatted about the plans for the following days.

---

"I had lunch with my family yesterday." Changbin shared, seeing that people were asking for a TMI. "I was joking about them treating me, but they really didn't let me pay anything. I tired to but they really wouldn't let me." He said with wide eyes, a faux amazed look on his face as he threw a thumbs up and Hyunjin Chuckled. "Seriously, they're amazing."

"You're boasting about your family again?" Kai chuckled when he entered the room, joining the pair, but they happily welcomed him, waving the black and blue haired male over and gesturing for him to sit down. "They were asking for TMI." The rapper explains and he nods his head in understanding, looking at the screen to see various people commenting his name so he can do a TMI.

Kai smile a little and wave before Hyunjin nudges him. "What about you?" He inquires and he has to think for a minute, racking his brain for anything interesting to tell everyone before he snaps his fingers. "Oh! I went back to the shop a couple days ago." he tells him, and Hyunjin looked a little confused before Namji rolled up his sleeve to reveal his now colored tattoo.

"It's pretty, right?" Hyunjin's face exploded in a million shades of red when he recognized the design, covering his suddenly burning face, while Changbin marveled at the sight, peering at the inked skin in wonder. Overwhelmed, Hyunjin lightly smacked Kai arm when his face cooled down, forcing it down and away from view. "Yah! I didn't know you were going to color it!" He screamed and he can only give him a confused look while rolling his sleeve back down.

"I told you that I liked it." It was his simple answer before he looked back at the camera as though it wasn't a big deal. "Hyunjin colored it when I was sleeping one day-"

"I was so scared."

He waves the comment away with a playful shrug and then continues whilst Changbin giggles in the background. "You should have seen Hyunjin's face that day." He claims. "He colored my tattoo because he got bored, but the outcome was really nice." Namji went on when Changbin took his arm again to inspect the design. "I haven't told the members about it yet, so this is the first reveal to everyone." He tells them and Hyunjin went quiet for a few good minutes, flustered that he had actually enjoyed his design so much to have it added into Kai’s already meaningful piece.

He was hit with a strong feeling of happiness and he couldn't help but cling to him for the entirety of the live. He had gotten a little shy while Kai and Changbin interacted with the fans, though the latter did send him teasing little grins every now and then.

"Hyung's tattoos all look so pretty that l'm considering getting one." he pouted, feeling a little envious of the designs Kai had on his body. "But it's so hard choosing a design." He adds before Kai lightly pats his head. "You can try sketching out some designs of your own or you can search for stuff online."

The conversation is lost in Hyunjin's head until they all decide to head back to the dorm. Even when he sees Kai conversing with the rest of the members, Hyunjin can't fight off the feeling of pride swelling in his chest whenever he catches sight of his new design.

"It added more meaning to what I already had. Not only am I complete, but it's like there's more life with how much color there is in my life."

[rollercoasterwords]

15

ok i have saved this one until i could sit down and type lmao

15. a story of a teenage wild night?

gonna put this under a cut bc i have a feeling it's gonna get long! i am giving you a story of not just a wild teenage night but a wild teenage weekend so. buckle up if u decide to read. it is the story of How I Got Stranded in Michigan.

ok so. context first: the thing about me in high school is that i was very much a goody-two-shoes nerd UNTIL the summer before my senior year when some of my friends befriended a group of stoner video-game boys and then our friend groups sort of merged and that was like. the social scene for that year. some things to know:

these boys were all patently awful, but my friends and i were young and stupid and finding our ways in the world, and we were all mentally unhealthy and insecure enough that we essentially just let them walk all over us in different ways. it's weird to look back on sometimes (we hate all of them now)

this story involves four people: me; a girl who i had been best friends with for ten years who we will call A; the leader of the stoner boys who was incredibly charming and also incredibly manipulative and just all-around a shitty person hiding beneath a thin veneer of friendliness and fake-woke rhetoric who we will call B; and B's childhood friend who was sort of on the fringes of the group who we will call C. got it? Me, A, B, C.

at the time this story takes place, i had been dating B for about a year (genuinely the biggest mistake of my life, but we won't get into all that right now, although this story does scrape the surface of how awful he could be).

okay, now that we have all the context - picture this. it is 2017, the summer before i move out of state to begin my first year of college. i've just graduated high school and have mostly been spending the summer fucking around with friends when i'm not working to save up money. now, B's mother is an artist, and she needs to get some paintings to a gallery in Michigan. she can't take them herself; i don't remember why. she offers B some money if he can deliver them for her.

pause. something you need to know - B cannot drive. he does not have a license. he has a medical condition that prevents him from driving. "but rae, why would his mother ask him to deliver her paintings to michigan if she knew her son couldn't drive?" i don't know. i genuinely do not fucking know.

regardless, B approaches our friend group and asks if anyone would be willing to take a road trip to Michigan to deliver these paintings. his friend C agrees and says we can use his car. we decide to make an adventure of it; i will go along with B and C, drive six hours to michigan, deliver the paintings, and drive back home. it'll be a fun little road trip! my friend A wants to come along, so we'll have three drivers--should be fine, right? 12 hours isn't so bad if it's split between 3 people.

so we make the trip. getting to michigan goes smoothly; C drives the entire six hours. i offer, repeatedly, to take a shift, as does A. C says no, he wants to drive the entire way there so that we can drive back, because that way he can get high and just chill out in the back seat for six hours (B has brought weed along). i say fair, cool, makes sense. A and i can split the drive back, three hours each. no biggie.

we get to michigan. we deliver the paintings. time to turn around and go home! it's late afternoon now, but we should be able to get back before midnight. we pause first so that B and C can smoke. they ask me and A if we want any. i refuse, because i'm not really into weed as much as the rest of the group and i don't want to be high while driving. A decides to smoke a little. i'm nervous about it, but she assures me she'll be fine, and i let it go.

we get in the car. A wants to take her shift first, so that she can spend the last part of the trip chilling out. i'm fine with that. i get in the backseat with B. we start off. uh-oh! we're low on gas. better fill up before we get onto the freeway and there aren't any gas stations for miles. we stop at the first station we come across. A gets out to fill up the tank. B and i are in the backseat, not paying attention. C mumbles something.

"what?" i ask.

C is looking out the window. he squints. "is she putting diesel in my car?"

i glance out the window, but i can't see what A is doing from where i am. i shrug. "i dunno." i think to myself that it's probably fine; i'm sure A knows what she's doing. she's been driving cars since we were all fifteen; she knows how to fill up a tank of gas.

A gets back into the car. we start driving. within minutes, the engine is making horrible, horrible noises. we need to pull over, so we do. into a road that borders a cul-de-sac housing development and a cornfield and nothing else. we stop. the engine is clearly fucked. C is starting to freak out. A is apologizing profusely. B is high and annoyed with A. i'm trying to figure out what the fuck we're supposed to do, because i'm the only sober person between the four of us. we are in literally the middle of nowhere in michigan.

C has to call his parents. then he has to call a tow truck. we wait. the sun is setting. the tow truck comes and takes the car away. the driver tells us he's taking it to honda (i think? i honestly don't remember the brand of the car. i'm sticking with honda, whatever) dealership and gives us the address. we have to call an uber. i pay. it's expensive. we get to the honda dealership. it is now past closing time. the tow truck is gone. the car is in the lot, undriveable. we are in the middle of nowhere in michigan. the sun is nearly gone. we have literally nowhere to go. we're here until the dealership opens in the morning.

at this point, all of us are contacting our parents, trying not to freak out, trying to figure out what to do. A is continuing to profusely apologize. B and C are both mad at her. i'm the peacekeeper, trying to keep everyone calm and happy--which just makes all 3 of them get mad at me. B yells at me to shut up. fun!

in the end, i call my parents and explain what's happening. they say hang on sweetie, we're going to try and find you a hotel. A, B, C and i walk to a gas station to buy food, because we haven't eaten since lunch. it is a seventeen minute walk from the dealership. shortly after we get there, my mom calls me back and says ok--she had to call a bunch of different hotels, apparently everything is all booked up because there's some sort of conference that just so happens to be taking place right in the middle of nowhere michigan this precise fucking weekend. but she managed to find ONE hotel with ONE open room where we can stay. there are only two beds, but they have a cot we can use too. my parents paid for the room; they tell me that we can all pay them back later. i order another expensive uber to get us to the hotel.

we stay overnight in this hotel. none of us have anything but the clothes on our backs. i am super tired and irritated at this point, but now everyone else is having fun again. they want to smoke more weed. they do. i don't. i go to sleep.

we get up and check out the next morning. there is a sign in the lobby, welcoming everyone to the National Plumbers and Gas Fitters Convention. i could not make this shit up if i tried. the national plumbers and gas fitters convention--that's the reason that it was so fucking difficult to find a hotel the previous night. i literally still have the picture i took, just because it was so surreal:

(sidenote, idk why it says boston. i promise we were in michigan lmao)

we go to the dealership. they tell us that they honestly don't know why the tow truck brought C's car here; we need to take it to a mechanic. we call tow truck number 2. we go to a mechanic. the mechanic tells us that it will take a few hours and a few hundred dollars to fix. we are still in the clothes that we slept in. the nearest food option is a strip mall. it is a 36 minute walk.

we go to the strip mall. we get food. we go back to the mechanic. we wander around the suburban neighborhood that we are in. A, B, and C smoke more weed in an empty elementary school playground while i hover nervously. B and i go for a walk through a cemetery, where he tells me he's upset that i didn't want to cuddle the previous night. then he tells me that he's changed his mind about doing long distance when i go to college out of state, and he thinks we should maybe break up. mind you, we still have a six hour drive back home at the end of this.

i freak out internally because this news blindsides me, but i sit with B in this cemetery in the middle of nowhere in michigan and talk through why he's feeling that way and tell him that i would still like to try long distance, and is there any way we can try to make it work? he has an emotional breakdown. i play therapist. this is normal for us, although i have not yet realized why it's unhealthy. things will get much, much worse before i do! in the end, he decides that he does love me and wants to try long distance. great! we return to the mechanic. we wait for the car.

by the time the car is finally fixed, it's late afternoon. we have been stranded in michigan for a full twenty-four hours. i take the keys and drive the entire six hours home, since everyone else is high. the next day, my parents sit me down and say that they have spoken with C's parents, and they think that all four of us should split the cost of repairs. i'm upset about it, but i grudgingly agree to help foot the bill instead of making A pay for the entire thing. B, on the other hand, refuses to help pay when i text him about it, insisting that it's all A's fault and she should pay. in the end, C texts and says he's covering it. both A and i offer to help, but he refuses, saying it's his car and his responsibility. both A and C pay my parents back for their portion of the hotel room. B never does.

the end!

this ask game

[eliosdump]

“I’m not gay!” Steve Harrington x Male!Reader

Author’s Note: This is my first smut fanfic in awhile, and on tumblr. But I used to write on Wattpad before it went to shit. That being said I’m still pretty rusty, so take this with a grain of salt and Happy late Pride Month!

⏤͟͟͞͞ | Stranger Things

⏤͟͟͞͞ | Genre: NSFW Smut

⏤͟͟͞͞ | Word Count: 1,646

⏤͟͟͞͞ | Warnings: Mature Language, A slight bit of homophobia6, General Sexual Behavior, Bottom!MaleReader, Top!SteveHarrington, Unprotected Sex, Internalized Homophobia

⏤͟͟͞͞ | Summery: You end up on a night shift with Mr. Popular, Steve Harrington. After a couple of hours, you end up doing some small talk with the popular fruity fella.

---

Steve was the one most popular guys in school. Everyone adored him, he was almost like Jesus. You saw him in the hallways while he waved at everyone, even sometimes making eye contact with you. Of course you never spoke, either never having nothing to speak about, or simply just because of your “social status” at Hawkins High. You didn't really care much of it though, but constantly being called fag in the hallways was quite bothersome. The only reason a rumor of you being gay spread around though the school was because, people said that you were peeking at guys in the locker room. Which was obviously false, and disgusting. You just tripped in the shower room at the wrong time and everyone assumed you were a perv.

You never really even put on a label on it, or even corrected people when they called you gay. It got to point whether either you stopped caring or maybe it was true. Of course gay was wrong, but sometimes you'd find yourself staring at Steve and other guys wondering, how it'd feel to have their soft lips on yours instead of their preppy girlfriends. Or catching yourself staring at the male underwear models on magazines that your mother had.

But, that was over now. You finally graduated Hawkins High, with a big smile on your face. Now looking for a quick job for your gap year, you find yourself applying for a job at the Star Court Mall, called Scoops Ahooy. Finally getting accepted you go in, for your day of basic training. And to your surprise, Steve Harrington was working there too, and he was going to be your trainer.

---

“Alright, y/n.. *y/n* is that how you pronounce it?” Steve says cheerly, looking up at you as he grabs the scooper.

“Yes..” You manage to whisper out, looking at the floor, you fiddle with your fingers as all the silly thoughts of kissing him in high school flooded back into your mind.

“So First!” Steve paused putting the scooper down, and looking at you. He came closer and tilted your head so you made eye contact with him. “We're gonna have to work on that eye contact… if it was me I wouldn't care, but the supervisor is kinda a pain in the ass, and he said he pay me a couple more bucks if I’d train you.” Steve rambled, as you slowly felt your face turning a bit red, as no one has ever gotten that close to you before.

“Next, I'm gonna need you to speak a bit louder. They also require us to say this stupid greeting but we'll learn about that later..”

Before you knew it, it was closing time and the mall was completely empty. It was just you and Steve.

“Alright, so cleaning is quite easy. I'm just gonna have you wash the dishes, and I'll mop as it does get quite sticky around here. All the gross kids. Uck.” He complained as he grabbed the materials from the back. You headed to the back as well, beginning your task.

After finishing, you find yourself walking to the front part of the tiny ice cream parlor, looking for Steve.

“Steve?” You say, looking around. Unbeknownst to you, Steve had just mopped that area. And he was planning to scare you, as soon as you turned the corner to the next door. As you got closer and closer, Steve jumped out yelling boo.

You immediately slipped and falling on top of Steve. Your face bright red, but to afraid to move or make any action as you were on top of the Steve Harrington.

Steve began to laugh as he slowly pushed you off of him. “You should've seen your face man, that was hilarious!” He laughed as you rolled your eyes, both still on the ground. You cover your flustered face, embarrassed to even look back up at Steve.

He gets back up, offering his hand to you. “Why so red, y/n? You know I'm not gay.” He chuckled as you stand up looking at the ground, flustered as you wish that maybe something more had happened there.

“But…” Steve Harrington whispered, as he pushed you to the counter were he put his arm to your side and harshly grabbed your chin. “You are pretty cute, I'll give you that.” He smirked and walked to the back, taking some of the remaining supplies with him to put to storage. You felt like you were melting, never experiencing this much contact with a dude, or with a girl for that matter. You didn’t know what to think, as you felt you’re stomach starting to tingle and your heart skipping a beat.

As he was walking, you followed behind him not quite sure what to help him with next. Forgetting how wet the floor was, you slip and manage to scrape your arm on the corner of the counter. You wince as you land on the floor with a big thud.

“y/n?” You hear Steve yell out. “What the hell was that?” He rushes over to where you are only to find you on the floor with your arm cut.

“Jesus Christ, you are so clumsy.”

You let out a chuckle as you stand back up, Steve motions you to follow him to the back.

You two sit on some chairs that were in the back and he begins to fix you up with a dingy first aid kit that was found in the storage.

“This looks almost as old as the supervisor..” He jokes, cleaning your wound up.

You look up at him, as he looks so concentrated on your arm. You feel your stomach begin to catch butterflies and your cheeks heat up again. You stare in awe as you begin to realize that how Steve’s been so kind to you this whole day. Even with all the rumors about you in high school, he still treated you like a human being and showed you respect and kindness. If we ignore the gay jokes.

He finally notices you ogling at him, and he clears his throat making you instantly look down.

“You know, y/n? If you have a crush on me you can just say that..” Steve teases. You instantly shake your head no, and he laughs at your quick response.

“I’m not gay, personally...” Steve states again, with a smirk on his face. You sense him getting closer, accidentally bumping knees with you. He puts his hand on your thigh, softly teasing you. You almost touch noses, as he says, “… But for you, I’d make an exception..”

Whether it was the adrenaline in your veins, or the uncomfortable tightening in your pants, you pushed yourself forward meeting lips with the one and only Steve Harrington.

Not really knowing how to kiss you press your lips against his. Expecting him to push you away, he caresses your face deepening the kiss. The butterflies in your stomach beginning to flutter even more. You feel yourself getting hotter and hotter, just stepping back from the kiss for a couple second as you begin to finally breathe.

“So you *do* have a crush on me.” Steve joked, his breath getting heavy as well. You notice the bulge in his blue shorts. You push the chair back and get on your knees, not quite sure were you were gonna go with this. You got closer to his crotch and unzipped his pants where his cock poked a bit out of his boxers. Your heart was racing, you looked back up at Steve as He was looking at you with desperate eyes, biting his lip as he did so.

“Suck, y/n.” He pulled his shorts further down, along with his boxers, revealing his erect member. He pushed himself a bit forward so the tip would be at your lips. Not quite sure what to do, you put your mouth and begin to suck on the the tip of his throbbing cock.

“God dammit…” You hear Steve groan out, “Just like that.”

You licked the sides of his cock, loving the feeling of seeing Steve in such pleasure. You took your other hand and began thrusting his tip onto his mouth. The tightness in your shorts becoming unbearable, zip down your pants and letting your tip slip out a bit.

“Up. On my lap.”

You went up on Steves lap, your cocks slightly touching. You began slipping off your shorts and boxers finally having your cocks touch. Steve licked his hand and began jerking your sensitive cock up and down, you rolled your eyes back in pleasure, your knees feeling weak as he continued to get jerk faster.

“Steve,” You moaned out, “I think I’m gonna cum, Steve.” You breathed out, collapsing in his chest as he continued to go up and down and even stopped just to rub your pre-cum around your tip. He stopped abruptly, as he saw your breath getting heavier.

“Not yet.” He smiled, as he took in his hand both of the members and starting to frot the two sticky cocks together. You gripped his shirt, as you let out whimpers and moans. You manage to find the courage to whisper out, “This is pretty gay, Harrington.”

He instantly begins to jerk faster, finally feeling your climax coming.

“Cum.” You hear in between his moans. You instantly release, white strands touching your chin and shirt. Steve looks at your flushed face, slightly chuckling, as he begins his trotting comes to stop, only for him to come to an end. His white strands of cum, meeting your chin and lips as well.

“Let's clean up, and I'll be seeing you tomorrow.” Harrington says, with a flushed face as well. He winks and one last time, he makes sure you understand; “But just to be clear sweetheart, I’m not gay.”

[imnosuperman12]

Words that cut.

I don't think I could ever say this out loud to them. And truthfully, maybe I am too sensitive. But as much as I love my siblings, they have said things in the last few months that have rubbed me the wrong way. So here I am to vent.

My brother has historically had a pattern of taking my accomplishments and minimizing them. And I don't know if he has the self awareness to realize that he does this. But it's almost like a knee jerk reaction at this point, and I just have unfortunately learned to expect it. It started out with pretty innocuous things. Like when I started out with Crossfit, I would share my new PRs for certain lifts, and time after time he would reply back with what his PR for that same lift was (surprise, they were almost always more). On some level, I think he did this to relate to me, but how it came off and was delivered felt pretty much like he was trying to one up me, at every opportunity. Discrediting the time and effort put in to even getting that far. A simple 'congrats', would have sufficed.

Other examples have been various graduation and white coat ceremonies. Most of the time, he would be referencing someone else, pretty much saying that he didn't really understand the point of graduations. It's like 'doing the bare minimum. Like they should do ceremonies for board exam results instead'. Or for white coats: 'they give white coats out for everything now huh? Like it's just a lab coat that's just over glorified'.

Most recently, when I moved into my new apartment, I was on a FaceTime call with him and Anvy, and I was going on and on about how excited I was that I had my own place. The context being that last year, I had to split rent with someone in Seattle because I just couldn't afford it. And LITERALLY the first comments out of his mouth were how small my place, particularly my TV, were. 'Simple Dan', he said, somehow saying he admired my 'humility' and how I could live so simply and how he could never do that. Truthfully, it was condescending and not appreciated.

Any time I go on a trip abroad, though, it's always a slew of unnecessary comments that "I should be saving money".

Like which is it. Am I too stingy? Am I spending too much? It's always a lose lose, and it can be tiring at times to hear that not just from my parents, but from him too? Yeah no, you don't get to have that power over me anymore.

And as far as my sister goes, I always kind of just assumed we were on the same page. We get along pretty well when we're together. We both lived in El Paso and went to the same school. We know a lot of the same people. We have very similar careers. I always just thought she got me.

But come to find we were at my cousin's wedding last November, and me and my cousins were just hanging at the dinner table late one night talking about all kinds of things. Ariel brought up that she always admired the Millar siblings, that we always seemed so close. That it seemed like we would be friends, even if we weren't siblings (in complete contrast to her relationship with her brothers growing up). And I was the first to respond, oh yeah totally! I could totally see that.

My sister: absolute. radio. silence. Just a side eye, with no comments had. And then when pried about it? She had the audacity to say no in front of everybody. It was the first time I like rethought about our relationship, and was like, were we actually not that close this whole time? Like am I completely delusional? And isn't that like, really rude? At least LIE for my sake. So embarrassing.

I don't really question whether or not they love me or have love for me. That goes without saying. Family is family. Of course I love them. But with both of them, I always bragged to other people that I felt like I was lucky growing up and that we actually liked either other.

Maybe I'm just the one that looks at everything through rose-colored glasses. Admittedly, that might be giving me too much credit too. Not sure if this is me gaslighting myself, overthinking things, or being too sensitive. But here we are.

[aspenmissing]

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚂𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝙽𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝙱𝚎 (𝙿𝚝 𝟸)

The group enters the Winchester house and the woman, minus Y/N, laugh.

"So, Y/N, what was uh...what was all that back at the restaurant?" Sam asks.

"Yeah, you’re making us worried," Dean says.

"Ah...I-I thought I saw something. I'm sure it's nothing."

"Well, I had a lovely birthday. Thank you. Good night."

"Good night," Jessica, Carmen, and Eddie say in unison.

“Good night," Y/N says, Bonnie in her arms now asleep, her head resting against Y/N’s shoulder.

"Night. Mom," Sam turns to the others, "Yeah, well I'm beat." Sam turns to Jess, "Ready to turn in?"

"Sure."

"All right. Good night, guys."

"Yeah, we better too," Dean says to Carmen.

“Yeah, we better get Bonnie home too,” Eddie says, nodding to them.

"Wait a second. Wait a second. Come on, it's not even nine o'clock yet. Let's uh...Let's have a drink or something. Eddie, you can take Bonnie home and I’ll be back later?"

"Yeah, maybe another time," Dean says.

"Come on, guys. Look at us. Huh? We all have wives and a husband on our arms, I have a daughter. You're engaged. Let's go celebrate." There's an awkward silence. Sam turns to Jess, Carmen, and Eddie.

"Guys, can you excuse us? We just want to talk to our sister for a sec," Sam asks, smiling to them.

"Sure."

"Thanks."

“I’ll get her,” Eddie says, holding his arms out to Y/N to take Bonnie. Y/N gently passes Bonnie over to Eddie, and the girl instantly lays her head on her dad’s shoulder.

"Come on, Carmen, Eddie." The three leave the room and Sam and Dean turn to Y/N.

"Come here," Sam says and walks to the other side of the living room, Dean following.

"What?" Y/N says, following.

"Okay. What's gotten into you?" Dean asks.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean this whole warm, fuzzy ecstasy-trip thing."

"I'm just happy for you, Sammy, De."

"Yeah, right. That's another thing. Since when do you call us Sammy and De? Y/N, come on. We don't talk outside of holidays.”

"We don't? Well, we should. I mean, you’re my brothers."

"You're our sister?" Y/N laughs.

"Yeah."

"You know, that's what you said when you snaked my ATM card, or when you bailed on my graduation, or when you hooked up with Michael Monroe."

"Who?" Y/N asks.

"Uh, my best friend. On prom night, having also ditched your prom date the same night."

"What about when we had that fight. We gave each other bruises," Dean says.

"Yeah, that does kinda sound like me. Well, hey guys, I'm sorry about all that." Y/N walks towards Sam and Dean who back away. “Look, I’m different from then. I have a daughter now, I-I’m better.”

"No that, look, that's all-right Y/N, I-I just...You know we're not asking you to change. W-we just, uh, we don't know, I... guess we just don't really have anything in common. You know?" Y/N blinks and the brothers start to walk away.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yes, we do. Yes, we do," Y/N laughs.

"What?" The two ask in unison.

"Hunting."

"Hunting? We've never been hunting in our life, Y/N."

"Yeah, well, then we should go sometimes. I... I think you'd be great at it." Sam and Dean start to walk away.

"Get some rest," Dean says, turning around. They walk away and leave Y/N in the living room.

==

Y/N is sitting on the sofa in her house, thinking, furrowed brow. Eddie walks into the room, holding two beer bottles, handing one out to Y/N.

"My favorite. I guess you know me pretty well."

"'Fraid so. You all right?"

"Sammy, De and I... We don't get along."

"Well, you don't really spend a lot of time together. I mean, I just think you don't know each other all that well. I think they only ever come down to see Bonnie."

"Hm."

"For the record. They don't know what they're missing."

"I can fix things with them. I can make it up to them. To everyone."

"Okay. What's gotten into you lately?"

"This isn't gonna make a lick of sense to you. But I kind of feel like I've been given a second chance. And I don't wanna waste it."

"You're right, that doesn't make any sense—" Y/N leans in and kisses Eddie.

"You know, I get it."

"Get what?" Eddie asks.

"Why you're the one."

"Well?" She kissed him again. "Whatever's gotten into you...I like it." They begin to kiss. "Ohhh...come on! Don't do this to me now. I've gotta get ready for work." He gets off the couch, leaving Y/N sitting with her hands as if he was still between them. "You got to work now?"

"I told you. I've got the night shifts on Thursday." Y/N gets up.

"You work nights at the, uh..." Later, Eddie is standing by the closet, taking out scrubs. Y/N stands in the doorway.

"...Hospital. I'm dating a nurse. That is so...respectable," Y/N says to herself. Eddie smiles at her words. Y/N looks at her...well butt probably, and takes a sip of beer. Later, Y/N is sat on the couch, putting her feet on the table, drinking beer and watching TV.

"The olive oil must have a purpose here."

"Yeah."

"Yeah?" The woman says.

"I'll take the olive oil and we'll just put just a touch of olive oil, okay? That's all."

"Oh."

"Can't make any mistakes with this machine. Now, for liquid, I could use water but I'm gonna use a little spinach—" Y/N changed the channel to the stock market, cartoon, and then the news. On the TV is a land plane and a reporter.

"And today marks the anniversary of the crash of United Britannia Flight 424." This gets Y/N's attention and she leans forward as she continues to watch. "Indianapolis residents held a candlelight vigil in memory of the hundred and eight people who lost their lives..."

"No, no. I stopped that crash." Later, Y/N is in front of her laptop reading headlines that relate cases she had solved.

Indianapolis Sun, December 5TH, 2005 - FLIGHT 424 CRASHES, 108 DEAD; Tragedy shocks the nation, as emergency crews continue to search rubble

Nine Children Comatose; ... Mystery illness baffles doctors at Dane County Hospital

Parents mutilated in bed.; ...Brutal double homicide in quiet residential area causes shock

GIRL DROWNS IN HOTEL POOL; Mother devastated after discovering daughter drowned

Y/N catches a glimpse of a passing figure, a woman in white; She gets up to see what it is. Later, she opens her bedroom closet door and sees several male corpses, hanging. She hears a sound and turns around to see another male, with a wound in his head, flickering in front of her. She pants, looking shocked, and turns back around to the closet—to see nothing out of the ordinary.

==

Y/N is standing by John's grave.

"All of them. Everyone that you saved, everyone Sammy, Dean and I saved. They're all dead. And there's this woman, that's haunting me. I don't know why. I don't know what the connection is, not yet anyway. It's like my old life is, is coming after me or something. Like it like it doesn't want me to be happy. Course I know what you'd say. Well, not the you that played softball but... 'So go hunt the Djinn. He put you here, it can put you back. Your happiness for all those people's lives, no contest. Right?' But why? Why is it my job to save these people? Why do I have to be some kind of hero?" Y/N begins to cry while talking, her voice cracking. "What about us, huh? What, Mom's not supposed to live her life, Sammy's and De’s not supposed to get married? I’m not supposed to be married and have a daughter? Why do we have to sacrifice everything, Dad?" There's a small pause. "It's..." Y/N's lips tremble. Silence. Tears begin to fall on Y/N's cheek. "Yeah." Y/N wipes the tears on her cheeks. She turns around and walks away.

==

Sam wakes up to a noise. He stands up and goes to Dean’s room, but before he knocks it opens and Dean comes out. He shushes Sam and they go down the stairs, quietly, Dean with a bat in his hand. The two stop in the doorway, leaning, looking into the living room. He sees the window open and under it, someone is in one of the cabinets. Dean shushes Sam and points to the cabinet. Dean goes in, swinging. The person gets up and counterattacks, throwing him on the floor.

"That was so easy, I'm embarrassed for you," Y/N says as she breathes.

"Y/N? What the hell are you doing here?" Sam asks. Y/N gets up, letting Dean get up off the floor. They stand in front of the window.

"I was looking for beer," Y/N says.

"In the China cabinet?" Dean asks. Sam goes to turn on the light and the box with their parents' silverware is on the floor, open.

"That's Mom's silver," Sam says.

"Guys—"

"What, you...you broke into the house...to steal Mom's silver?"

"It's not what it looks like. Ok, I don't have a choice."

"Oh really? Why? What's so damn important you gotta steal from your own mother?" Dean says.

"You want the truth?"

"Yeah, yeah we do," Y/N shrugs.

"I owe somebody money."

"Who?"

"A bookie. I lost big on a game, I gotta bring him the cash tonight."

"I can't believe we're even related," Sam says. Y/N looks down. “I can’t believe you’d do something so stupid, that could get your daughter involved too.”

"Guys, I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Dean says quietly.

"I'm sorry that we don't get along. And I wish to hell I could stay and fix it. But I gotta do this. People's lives depend on it." She turns around and takes a knife from the box.

"What are you talking about, Y/N?" Sam says.

"Nothing. Forget it. Just uh...hey, tell Mom I love her." Sam and Dean frown, seeing that something is up. Dean goes for the door.

"Y/N," Dean says, and Y/N turns around,

"I'll see you, Sammy, De." She walks out the door, taking one last look at the house and the boys. Sam and Dean stand in the living room where Y/N left them, confused.

==

Y/N is sitting in the car, engine going, thinking. Suddenly the passenger and back door open and Sam and Dean get into the car.

"Get out of the car."

"We're going with you," Dean says from the passenger seat.

"You're just gonna slow me down."

"Tough," Sam says.

"This is dangerous and you two could get hurt."

"Yeah, and so could you, Y/N."

"Guys—"

"Look, whatever stupid thing you're about to do, you're not doing it alone. And that's that."

"I don't understand. Why are you doing this?" Y/N asks. The boys sigh.

"Because you're still our sister."

"Assholes."

"W-hat are you calling us assholes for?"

"You two are supposed to say jerk and bitch."

"What?" Dean asks.

"Never mind." She puts the Impala in gear and they drive off. A few hours pass and Dean looks down at a bag on the seat between him and Y/N.

"What's in the bag?" Dean sighs.

"Nothin'," she says. Sam leans forward, looking at the bag.

"Nothin'?" Sam says.

"Yeah, nothin'."

"Fine," Dean grabs the bag and begins to open it, "You don't wanna do that."

"Oh really?" Dean takes out what was in the bag, showing it's a container of blood.

"What the hell is this?" Sam asks, looking at the container.

"Blood." Sam seems upset.

"Yeah, I can see that it's blood, Y/N! What the hell is it doing here?"

"You don't really wanna know," Y/N says.

"No, we-we do really wanna know, we really, really, do," Dean says.

"Yeah, well you're gonna find out sooner or later. I needed a silver knife dipped in lamb's blood."

"You needed a silver knife dipped in lamb's blood, why?"

"Because there's this creature. A Djinn. And I have to hunt it."

"Okay, um...stop the car," Dean says.

"I know how it sounds."

"Great. Just...stop the car."

"It's the truth, Guys. All right, there are things out there in the dark. There - there - there are bad things. There are nightmare things. And people have to be saved and if we don't save them, then nobody will."

"Look, we wanna help you, all right. I-I really, really do, but you're having some kind of psychotic breakdown, so, I... just—"

"I wish." Sam picks up his phone and starts dialing a number. Y/N rolls down her window, grabs Sam's phone and throws it out, doing the same with Dean's phone, then she rolls the window up.

"What the hell was that, Y/N? That was our phones!"

"I'm not going to a rubber room, Guys. And we have work to do."

"What? We were just trying to help you out, Y/N. We don't, we don't want you to get yourself hurt."

"What? You two protect me?"

"Yeah!" They say in unison. Y/N laughs.

"Oh, that's hilarious. Why don't you two just sit tight and try not to get us both killed." Y/N starts the radio and music blares out.

==

Y/N looks over at Sam and Dean, who are asleep. She picks up her flashlight and shines it on their faces, waking them up with a startle.

"Where are we?" Dean asks.

"Well, we're not in Kansas anymore," Y/N chuckles at the two. When there's no reaction, the smile dies. "Illinois."

"And you think something's in there?" Sam says.

"I know it is." Later, Sam, Dean, and Y/N are walking in, flashlight in Y/N's hand.

"See? There's nothing here, Y/N." She starts walking down the hallway. Sam and Dean closely follow behind.

"Look, Eddie's gotta be worried sick about you, Y/N. Come on, let- let's just go." There's a sudden sound.

"Shh!" she speaks. There's more sounds and the boys start to take it seriously.

"What the hell is that?" Dean asks.

"Stay behind me and keep your mouths shut." The three approach a big room full of bodies hanging from the ceiling. There are drained blood bags hanging next to one of the bodies.

"What the hell?" Sam says. Y/N looks further to the right and sees the woman she's been seeing. They approach her and there's another blood bag next to her, filled with blood. Her eyes are open, but she looks close to dead.

"It's her." Dean looks at the bag and her wrists that are tied, just like the others. She begins to moan and whimper.

"Y/N, what's going on?"

"Shh!" she says and grabs the two. The Djinn comes out and when it comes out from behind a wall and walks up behind the woman, the three are gone. The woman is sobbing.

"Where's my dad?" she cries. "I won't tell," she says looking at the Djinn. "Don't." She moves her feet away from the Djinn while Dean, Sam, and Y/N are hidden. She continues to cry. "Where's my dad?" The Djinn touches her face.

"Sleep," he says as he strokes her cheek, some blue flares going over it. The Djinn's eyes glow bright blue. "Sleep... sleep." Her head falls forward, eyes still open and her feet relax, falling forward again. The Djinn rests his face against her arms, touching her right arm and breathing heavily, eyes closed. He then goes for the blood bag, pulls out one straw and puts it to his mouth, drinking her blood. Sam sees this and gags in disgust. The Djinn hears and turns around right away; its eyes flash blue and he begins to move towards their hiding place. When he gets there, the three are gone.

[hwajin]

Preettyyy sure you're thinking of the right person🐈

Anyways I'm gonna give you more of lifestory dump now because things have changed and idk it's time to update you👀

First of all, I passed last year. Not with the best grades, but I passed. Meaning I'm in eleventh grade finally and I MUCH prefer it over whatever that was the last few years.

Getting to choose what subjects you wanns focus on and what subjects yoy just wanna dump in the trash (bye bye latin) is a great concept

My focus is on English, German and chemistry :)

I'm a lot more open and, not like the last few years, I don't try to not be seen or not exist anymore. In fact, I try to give myself a presence and just exist in other people's minds. I often casually talk with people I've never spoken to before and it's not weird or forced. I also made some new... friends? Probably wouldn't go that far yet but we're getting there for sure.

Yesterday, I met in the library with some friends so they can study for their biology exam tomorrow and I can get some books on one of the topics for my gfs

Btw, I got the best topics for my gfs's

In psychology I got schizophrenia and did, two things I've been interested in for years

I history I got something with Japan lol

And in English I got hamilton and I get to compare the musical to the real world history

My teachers are great for the most part and I haven't skipped class once yet and am not planning to do so either

I'm among the people with the most additional classes and on Wednesday, I'll get to go to the best university for psychology nearby and even get to attend one psychology and one jura lesson

My grades have gotten better. They're not the best yet, but I don't have to fear about passing anymore

Last Monday, we started a new topic in German class and our teacher made us play out a theatre script. We got to film each other. I decided to get revenge and wrote a script myself, following the same topic to ask him to play it for us. He did :)

He even said it was a prime example of that kind of text and that it was quite fitting for the topic pf that specific lesson. We were allowed to film him and he decided to make the text I wrote public to everyone in class

He actually puts effort into teaching and always gives us some great feedback for our homework and texts. I asked him if I could send him a poem I've written last year, simply because I want to know what I can do better. It's not about our current topic at all, but he still told me to go for it and even said on Friday that I will get feedback soon

And I'll go to London with the seminar course in February and might even get to see the Hamilton musical with some people :)

I still have depression and getting up everyday is an impossible seeming task... But I do it anyway and greet my peers. I don't expect them to say good morning back, but when they do, I do, in fact, have a good morning

when i tell you this made me tear up a bit i'm so proud of you bb!! legit thank you sm for like updating me this much, we barely talk lately which is mad sad jfjeifne but the fact you thought of me enough to tell MAKES ME SUPER HAPPY!!! i'm so glad you found some ppl that are somewhat close to you, even if you're not yet friends with em! also- having chemistry as your focus is CRAZY you smart smart. but english and german sounds mad fun!! i remember those two subjects being super fun as well, also defo update me about the london trip!! i didn't get to do a trip before graduation due to covid SO TELL ME HOW YOURS WENT 😤😤. again bub i'm mad proud of you for coming so far, i'm so so happy omg <333

[a-spell-a-rebel-yell]

September

yet another late post LMAO the joke is i actually managed to remember i have to post something during the passing of September but i kinda procrastinated. also for real this time i had things to do and quite lots of stuffs going on (maybe, i'll pass on the judgement to you guys)

so, as usual: hello how are you? hoping everything's well, everyone's doing good and healthy, and living life most importantly! here's a September recap, finally served at October 6th lol

not long after i posted my August log, my dad made an impulsive decision (he's just like me fr (or am i like him?)) to bring the fam to Bali! the timing was perfect, he had a work call and seminars for a week, and it was held during his birthday week. why not go for a staycation when the office's paying for accommodation (god bless Central Bank of Indonesia) and flight tickets weren't that pricey?

can you really believe my dad made that decision only a day before his supposed flight? you can imagine the chaos especially having to pack out suitcases and then me and my sister had to use our annual leave days since we're both working adults now (how time flies) but thankfully we made it to Bali safe and sound.

it wasn't our first time visiting Bali, so we didn't go tourist mode and just kinda went to restaurants we haven't tried. we celebrated my dad's birthday by going to family favorite seafood restaurant at Jimbaran beach, trying some of the finest cuisines. we (actually more me lol) didn't waste any food the hotel sent us, i love to try everything that is on the menu, i call myself something like a hotel and wedding menu connoisseur hehehe. all we did was eat to be honest, our family is so heavily leaning on the culinary side of the trip, all of us gained weight even just after spending a week there, ha!

the highlight of the journey is actually me meeting my internet friends!!! two Balinese dentists i became friends with through EXO-L stan twitter and they were our tour guide for a day. i'm all about mountains and beaches and nature so they directed us to Kintamani, Badung, Panglipuran which is where the highlands are at the island. we had lunch, went to a cultural village, talked for hours as we drove around the island (Kuta is in the southern part, while the places we visited are literally strewn all over the other side of the island lol) my mum bought us three sterling silver rings with frangipani ornament, it's like a Hippocratic graduation gift and also friendship rings for us... it's a day like no other. we were so happy!

the whole week during sunset i just watched the shoreline and the faraway horizon... the sound of the waves was so relaxing and peaceful i kinda got reminded that's the reason (and the only reason, as a thalassophobic person) i love the sea. we stayed at Sheraton Kuta, which is located at the sunset road, directly on the outskirts of Kuta beach, so all these ethereal views i get to witness just by looking out of our room. i almost didn't want to go back.

OH AND the superstar of the journey is all of us went to Lovina beach to see the dolphins! not gonna lie i genuinely think this tourist activity is actually animaI abuse since it's literally speed motorboats, loads of them, circling the natural habitat of these dolphins... all those noise pollutions and breaking into their environment... just to see a few dolphins swam up to the surface for thirty seconds. i just hope this doesn't harm them to the point of irreparable damage 😭 but overall, driving from Kuta to Buleleng at 2 AM was worth it, we got to see breathtaking sunrise from the middle of the sea with mountains at the background. that's more my scene than the beach clubs that Bali is always so popular for.

then after a blissful week at Bali, i had to go back to work [sighs] seeing patients, prepared legal documents, supervise another house renovation, housekeeping, blah blah blah. same old, yet still giving me the anxiety downer every single time. to no one's surprise the weight gain i had from the Bali trip was gone in a flash lol not to mention i'm doing clean eating now, as per my dermatovenerologist advised me to do. that means bye bye Indomie, french fries dipped in McFlurry, takeouts... but well, for my wellbeing, gotta do what i gotta do, right? [insert me rattling the chains of my cage]

it's October already and wow. how time flies x2. i can't believe x2. it's like if you take a second to really see things, day to day life is so minuscule compared to the years we've lived, we've passed. a second is a second but there are moments where it can either be stretched out so long or just burst up in flames as it rolled. no matter how much i've planned or projected one or five years forward, i really don't know what's going to happen. kinda scary, uncertainty is always like that, but is it weird i start to enjoy it a little bit?

it's giving me the chance to truly live in the moment, carpe diem and seize the day thingies starting to make sense to me. it's charging on to whatever the day brings us with whatever we have on hand. this helps soothe my worrying habit, as i keep the only worry what we have to worry for the day mantra. it made me less scared yet more precise in decision making. i'm able to identify my impulsive and intrusive thoughts apart, and how to handle them. next month i'll be a quarter a century old, but i'm not sure how many days i can say i've truly lived in. hoping i can get enough to tell stories to my kids (and grandkids) later (ha.)

and that's it for September! did i have lots going on? maybe not much... but again, i'm all for boring days, remember? that's my comfort zone. fingers crossed for immersing ourselves in every second we live, with no regret and overflowing with what we need! see you guys soon :)