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bteezxyewriter12 · 2 years

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Save Me/ 9

Pairing- Yoongi x Named Reader

Word count- 2k

Includes- Fluff, shower sex, public sex, wall sex, multiple orgasms, fluff

Tag list- @mingtina

DO NOT READ IF ANY OF THIS MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE!!!!

Series Masterlist

J POV

A few months pass since the attack and Han-jae still hasn't been caught

The last we were told was that Han-jae had left Korea and is in London now

That was a month ago

I'm going to start working again soon

I can't wait

I miss all the guys and I miss being around Yoongi all the time

I just miss my job, the guys and their antics

I've relaxed more and am starting to feel like myself again

I still get jumpy at times but not as much as I used to

Yoongi has also relaxed a little with his constant worrying

Yoongi is an amazing man and boyfriend

He makes me so happy and he spoils me so much even though I tell him to stop

He's always so gentle with me, so loving, caring and affectionate

From the way he acts as BTS' Suga, you would never really know how much of a softie he is and how much he loves to be loved

He's always holding my hand, has his arm around me, hugging me, kissing me, holding me

And he loves when I do the same to him

He loves when I sit with him while he's in his studio

I read, listen to music or use my tablet while he's working and he loves that I'm just there with him

And what amazes me is that I make him happy

He tells me that all the time and it makes me happy that he's happy

I love him so much

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

"Hey Jo, you ready to go?", Yoongi asks as he comes into the living room

"Waaaa, no, I don't wanna!", I pout

He laughs as he says, "C'mon jagi, I hate working out too but you need to do it"

"But I hate sweating"

"I know"

"And I'm all healed"

"Uh- huh"

"And I'm already stronger since we started"

"Yeah"

"And... And..", I pause not being able to think of anything else

"And I don't wanna!"

Yoongi looks at me with his arms crossed and one eyebrow up

I sigh, "Fine", and get up already dressed for the gym

"Seriously you're already dressed? What was that whole whining thing for then?"

"I thought I'd at least try and see if you'd go for it"

He shakes his head but is smiling

"Hey. Aren't you gonna sweat the dye out of your hair? Like when Tae was sweating green?", I ask

Maybe he won't wanna go if that'll happen

He had his hair dyed mint green again.

When he asked me what color he should do it, I told him to bring that back.

His hair was already blond so it was easy to do it that color.

I wanted a change too and dyed my hair a grey to light purple ombre

Yoongi picked the colors and I'm surprise that the colors worked so well together

"It's a light green not dark like his was. And even so, I don't care. So stop whining and let's go"

I pout at him again

He sighs, "The sooner we go the quicker we can come back and take a nap"

Mmmm a nap

Yoongi loves to sleep

And lucky for him, I do too

Naps with him is the best

Who am I kidding, sleeping with him at anytime is the best

"Ok, lets go", I turn and walk to the door, hearing him mutter to himself

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"Are you trying to kill me?", I glare at Hyuk, the personal trainer

"No. Just make you stronger", he rolls his eyes

"Hey! Don't roll your eyes at me!"

"Careful, she bites", Yoongi tells him

"Haha, so funny", I stick my tongue out at him

Yoongi just smiles

I'm so tired and so sweaty

Hyuk already had me use the Lat pull down machine for my back, the bench press machine, crunches, sit ups and a leg press machine

Now he's making me use a cable bar for my arms

Yoongi is sitting at the bench press machine just watching me

"Hey shouldn't he be doing something too?"

"I'm resting", he smirks

"Not fair"

"Hey I worked out too! I need a second"

"Whatever", I mumble

"You picked a great girl Yoongi", Hyuk rolls his eyes

"I know. She's the best", he smiles at me

"Oh god, ok, you can stop Joanne. You did enough. I need to leave before you two make me puke"

I laugh as Hyuk walks away

I go over to Yoongi and kiss him

"Eww you're all sweaty", I make a face

"Uh so are you", he points out

"Yeah gross. Shower time", I say and turn walking to the showers, with Yoongi following me

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I turn on a shower, get in and wait

A few seconds later Yoongi gets in too

I knew he was coming

Two people are not supposed to shower together because well, the gym is a public place

Not that it ever stops us

Yoongi pulls me close and holds me to him

We stand under the water, my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat

He kisses the top of my head and I look up at him

He leans down and catches me in a kiss

I can't get enough of him

The kiss turns heated and he pushes me against the wall

He starts kissing my jaw and my neck and I moan quietly

"Shh, jagi, don't make noise"

I nod as he reaches down and runs his fingers on me

"Fuck Jo", he groans, " Wet already?"

"Always for you naekkeo", I whisper

He picks up one of my legs and wraps it around him

He pushes his cock in slowly and I gasp at how good he feels sliding in, stretching me around his big cock

"Fuck jagi, you always feel amazing", he moans

He starts to move, in and out slowly, then gradually pick up speed

We're both trying so hard not to make any sounds, but some slip out

I can't help it

He's hitting me right in my spot and my entire body is alight with pleasure

"Yoongi baby", I whimper

"Yeah baby?"

"Go harder naekkeo", I whine

He growls and immediately starts pounding harder

My whole body is in bliss and I feel the pleasure mounting, getting ready to explode

"I wanna feel you jagi. Cum for me", he whispers

His words push me over the edge and I whimper his name over and over as my orgasm runs through me

He picks me up, both of my legs wrapped around his waist as he keeps going and says, "Again jagi. I love watching you. You're so fucking beautiful"

He moves harder and faster, splitting me open and it's fucking incredible

His hand moves between us, his thumb rubbing my clit hard, his lips all over my neck, leaving fire in their wake

I tighten around his length and I feel myself getting ready again

"Yeah baby, I feel you getting ready. Oh fuck, you feel good, I love being in you", he whines, "Cum on my cock jagi"

The pleasure becomes too much and I go over the edge again, releasing all over him

"Fuck, yeah, god", he moans as he sheaths himself inside me, coming too, moaning my name in my neck

When we finish he puts me down, kissing me, "So good baby"

I blush but smile at him, "Your so good naekkeo. Always"

We shower quickly and Yoongi leaves first

I wait a few minutes, turn off the shower and get dressed to go home

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When Yoongi and I get home, we immediately go to bed

As I'm falling asleep I hear him start to sing to me

I love when he does that, when he thinks I'm completely asleep

I wish he would sing to me when I'm awake too

I love his voice, it's so beautiful but I know he thinks he can't sing

But he can

I fall asleep listening to his beautiful voice.

🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻

Yoongi POV

"Here it is", the man at the counter says

He places an open box on the counter

"It's been sized for her?", I ask

"Yes it has. The design is what you wanted, yes?"

"Yeah"

It's exactly what I sent them

I hope she loves it

I spent hours designing the ring

Our one year anniversary is coming up in a month

She's coming on tour with us again, like she used to now that she's back at work

And I'm going to ask her to marry me

I've been wanting to for awhile but I figure that I'd do it at a special time for us

I love her so much

I never want to be without her

I'm going to ask her when we're in Paris for the concert

So many people do it in front of the Effie Tower but I want it to be different

I'm going to do it at a place called "The Wall of Love"

It has "I love you" written on it in 250 languages

It's perfect for the perfect girl

I close the box and put it in my pocket

"Thanks"

"My pleasure", the man says

I turn and walk out of the store

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

"Did you get it?", Namjoon asks

"Yeah"

I'm waiting for her to finish Hobi's makeup so she can do mine

We're doing a photo shoot today

I watch her as she laughs at something Hobi says

Her laugh is amazing, her smile so beautiful

I'm so happy she's so much more relaxed

"Where is it?", Namjoon asks

The guys know I'm going to ask her to marry me soon

They're excited and happy for us

"I hid it in the dorm. Hobi has it", I answer

"He does?"

"Yeah. He was with me when I picked it up. He drove me and was waiting in the car"

"Oh"

"Yeah. I can't hide it in the apartment. She goes in every room. With my luck she'd stumble upon it. I don't want to take that risk. And even if she comes to the dorm to hang out she won't go in Hobi's room without him"

"Makes sense", he nods

"Naekkeo! Your turn!", she calls, waving me over

I go over to her and sit

When she turns to me, I pull her down for a kiss

She giggles and says, "You're gonna be good right? Not opening your eyes or scrunching your face to mess everything up?"

I smile, "No jagi. I'll be good this time"

She smiles and starts

She's so gentle when she puts the make up on

And she gives me kisses in between changing the make up she's using

The best makeup session ever

"Ok baby you're done."

I open my eyes and grin at her

"Aww Yoongi you're so pretty", she teases

"Yeah yeah", I roll my eyes

"Come on Joonie!", she calls him

I have to change my clothes for the shoot, so I go put them on

She is almost done with Namjoon when I get back, so I sit in the chair behind her

When she's done with Namjoon, she turns to me and smiles

"Hi Yoongi"

"Hi Jo."

She laughs, "You ok? Did you mess up your make up already?"

She leans down and inspects my face

"No jagi. I just wanna sit with you until I get called for the shoot.", I say, pulling her closer to me, my arms around her waist

"Ok naekkeo. I'm done with the makeup for today. I'm just gonna hang out here in case anyone needs a touch up"

"Um are you going to come and watch me during the shoot?"

"Of course baby. I always do. I love seeing you be sexy and adorable."

"Thanks jagi", I grin at her

It doesn't take long before I'm called

I get up and take her hand, then walk to the photographers

She stands behind the photographer, watching and smiling as I take the pictures

I can see how people can get nervous when someone watches them, but it's different for me

I like her watching, it relaxes me and makes me feel better that she's here with me

It makes it easier to act sexy and cute when I'm looking at her

When we're all done with the shoot, the guys ask us to come over to the dorm for dinner and to watch a movie and we agree, going to the dorm to hang out with our friends for the night

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theirbbygirl · 3 years

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Second Lead Syndrome

Word Count: ~8.7k words

liked this? there’s more on my masterlist!

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Comedy, Female reader insert

Description: Y/n and Minho have been friends for more than 2 years now, but suddenly she begins to see herself as the mere second lead in Minho’s story. Will she be the rare second lead who gets her own happy ending?

Warnings: some crying, themes of unrequited love (if there’s anything that I missed don’t hesitated to let me know!)

I’d only ever encountered Second Lead Syndrome in the dramas I’d watched. Wanting the girl to end up with the second lead who was so obviously the better and healthier choice, but like every avid watcher of kdramas, it's more than likely for the main leads to end up with each other, that was just how it worked. What I never thought I’d encounter was seeing it happen before my own eyes and experience it firsthand.

Life was never supposed to be a kdrama. Life was supposed to be simple, a straight line, going from point A to B with no complications. But life never really went my way did it? It just had to throw in one variable, one man that had too much influence on my life.

I couldn’t remember the first time I met Minho. It was probably sometime in the first grade when his family first moved in next to mine. But alas, we were both too young to remember exactly what sparked our friendship. One day we were strangers and the next we had given our parents a near heart attack when we both went after a stray cat on the way back home (my mom’s words, not ours). From then my memories were filled with him, just us besties hanging out like anyone would with their best friend. First party, first mental breakdown, first drink, all with him. Soon enough we were in our final year of University, and ultimately, adults.

The Minho I knew was laid back, not too extroverted but not too introverted either. While I completely contrasted him, always anxious about something, wanting perfection to the T, and completely and utterly introverted. Our friendship, moving into University, sparked a lot of questions. You wouldn’t typically find the introverted straight-A student with the borderline badboy tsundere walking and laughing in the halls together, spending practically every waking moment together. But Minho didn’t care, and neither did I, so we moved through life pretty easily.

One of the few things we had in common was our love for cats, and when we both foudn out there was a cat cafe just a few minutes walk from our campus, you best bet we spent too much of our time and money there. Studying, hanging out, anything you could imagine. If we weren’t in one of our dorms, we were more than likely to be in the cat cafe.

Every day after class we’d go there and we’d complain about our least favorite professors and how lectures would seemingly last for longer than they should. Additionally, Minho had almost become akin to my own dormmate with how much time he spent in my dorm. He’d come in whenever he wished, stealing my frozen pizzas and sodas, using my Netflix account on my TV to watch weird National Geographic shows and make random comments like “that snake looks just like Kim Seungmin,” or “look its Hannie” whenever a squirrel came on screen. Minho was always there when I needed a drinking partner after bombing a test or assignment, pouring me shots of soju until I passed out and bringing me to my bed and tucking me in whiel he would sleep on the couch to make sure I wouldn’t do anything stupid in the middle of the night.

Although, more people knew Minho’s name than mine, but that didn’t bother any of us. We continued on being friends as usual, and it felt like nothing would change that. Life was moving in a straight line like it should’ve always been.

At least, that’s what it felt like until February, just a few months before we graduated.

I make my way to our usual spot in the courtyard after buying an iced coffee and a snickers bar from the vending machine next to my classroom, I walk up behind Minho sitting on a bench when I find him staring out in front of him instead of looking at cat videos on his phone like he usually does. Slowing my walk, I trail my eyes to the vague direction he’s facing and see that he’s looking at Kim Seungmin and a girl chatting outside the classroom. I ignore the thought, opting to think that Minho must’ve spaced out thinking about how he would irritate Seungmin next class. I plop down next to him when he still doesn’t take note of my arrival, so I get right next to his ear and blow cold air into it, snickering when he jolts in surprise.

“What was that for?” He whines, fake annoyed.

“You got lost up in your thoughts for a certain Kim Seungmin there.” I snicker some more, opening my snickers (hehe) bar.

Just as I’m about to take the first bite of the sugary goodness, the chocolate bar gets snatched out of my hands and a certain Lee Minho takes an obnoxious bite out of it, not even giving it back but eating it like it was his. I pout, watching him devour my snack, knowing that I couldn’t do anything to get it back.

“For your information, I was not thinking about Kim Seungmin.” He says pointedly, slightly muffled by the chocolate in his mouth.

I sigh, knowing I wasn’t going to get that chocolate bar back any time soon, and open my iced coffee. “So what were you thinking about then?” I ask before taking a sip.

“Don’t know, spaced out.” Is all the answer I get and I highly doubt him, but I brush it off anyways and don’t pry.

Minho and I slide into our usual conversation about assignments, plans for the week, and everything under the sun. We talk about how he’s planning to visit home the next day and stay for a weekend and how excited he is to see his cats after a long time, I unknowingly smile at his ramble about how talkative Dori is, and just sit back and listen. I never took into account how healing it was to just watch and listen to him talk, the sultry of his voice and his little exclamations of frustration or excitement that came once in a while. I had to catch myself from staring when he turned to look at me, having asked me a question I didn’t catch.

“Sorry what was that?” I ask.

“Am I that beautiful for you to have lost your hearing to my handsome face?” I couldn’t just tell him that that was basically what had happened, it would inflate his ego by too much and reveal everything I’d hidden thus far.

“The heck? No, I was thinking about how great it would be to get some peace and quiet while you’re not around this weekend.” I lie, having Minho around is the only thing that brings me entertainment that isn’t endless sappy kdramas on my laptop, but he can never know that.

Minho scoffs, says something under his breath that I don’t quite catch, then turns back to me. “You love me.” He says with a pout.

“Unfortunately I do.”

That was the first of many inconspicuous confessions.

It was nearing 3 or 4 am and I was about halfway done with another kdrama when several knocks resound through the small living space. Knowing exactly who it is, I only shout back “you know the code!” and moments later the door opens.

I don’t bother to get up and greet Minho, this exact scene has happened too many times for either of us to care at this point, and it doesn’t surprise me that the moment he enters he shouts, “Honey I’m home!” like we’re in some cheesy romcom.

“Mhmm, welcome home, leech.” I enunciate the last word purposely, but I know he won’t bat an eye at the term. I continue to chew my popcorn while he wanders through my cabinets, looking for snacks. “There’s chips in the cabinet next to the fridge and sprite in there too. If you want more food order Chinese takeout.”

“I don’t have my wallet.” I can practically hear his pout from where I sat, eyes unmoving from the TV screen.

“You know where mine is, but you have to pay me back.” A few seconds pass with no response until suddenly he’s next to me and kissing my cheek.

“I loveeee you!” He says too sweetly, retreating back to the mini-kitchen to order takeout.

“Mhmm, I love you too.” I say, not loud enough for him to hear the confidence missing from my tone.

Continuing to watch the episode of in front of me, I remain in my comfortable position, only moving to lift my legs when Minho comes back to sit on the couch under my legs and the blanket.

“Oh you’re watching this one?” He asks, reaching into the bowl of popcorn I offer him.

“Yeah, didn’t have anything else to watch so I put it on since everyone seems to like it so much.”

“Mm,” he hums while also indulging himself into the scenes playing in front of him. “You’re probably team potato guy, right?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course I am!” I scoff.

“I don’t know, I still think she should end up with Jae-eon.”

“Are you crazy? He literally leads her on like every playboy and is ruining her mentality by not defining their relationship.”

“Yeah, but they’re so cute together, and you can totally tell he feels something for her.” He argues.

“Just cause they’re cute together doesn’t mean they’re good for each other, the entire guy is a walking red flag, I don’t understand why she doesn’t just walk away when she’s had experience with a shit boyfriend.” I sigh.

“You, have major second lead syndrome.” He points an accusing finger at me.

“So what? It’s for good reason, the main lead is toxic as fuck and you can’t change my mind.” I upturn my nose, turning back to the TV and continuing to watch the episode.

The mentioning of the second lead sends a flurry of thoughts into my brain for a reason I can’t comprehend. Sometimes the main leads aren’t that bad but still we want the main character to end up with the second lead, maybe out of our own natural selfishness because we prefer the second lead more. I shake the thoughts away, trying to convince myself that kdramas were only works of fiction and too cheesy to be real, yet for whatever reason I always felt a connection with the second leads, like our emotions directed to our crushes were the same, because I knew that I would always be the second lead in Minho’s story.

Minho’s name was always called out more times than mine was growing up, which I didn’t really mind until our hangout time would be seriously cut down because he had to hang out with other friends. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that he had friends, but there was a little bit of selfishness in me that wanted him to myself.

A new drama and a few episodes later, plus Chinese takeout, lead to our eventual demise. We both fall asleep on the couch in less than comfortable positions and wake up with stiff-neck, us groaning at the pain.

We continue on with our usual morning routines, taking turns freshening up in the bathroom before heading out for breakfast at Paws and Pastries since we were both too lazy to make food ourselves. Besides, hot coffee in the morning plus good sandwiches AND cats? What more could you ask for?

When we enter the cat cafe I notice a familiar face behind the cashier, it was the same girl Seungmin was talking to on Friday, and the same girl I caught Minho staring at. We walk up to the cashier, I order my food first, a simple breakfast sandwich with a coffee to go with it and wait next to Minho to finish ordering.

I made the mistake up glancing up at his face as he was telling his order to her, Ahra, her name tag read. There was something in his eyes that glinted that I had never seen before, not when he talked to Han and not when he talked to me. I couldn’t help but feel a pang of emotion in the middle of my chest before forcing myself to look back down, inserting my card and paying for everything. I sent the girl a thank you and a kind smile after she told us our food would be right over, and both me and Minho went over to our usual table in the back corner next to the cat’s jungle gym and right up next to the window. I get lost in my thoughts while we begin playing with the cats we were so accustomed to.

Like most second leads, I knew exactly what my feelings were. I was practically an adult, how could I miss the fast beating of my heart or my clammy hands whenever I was around him? But again, like most second leads, I knew I’d never get a chance with him, not when everything we did together was purely platonic. It was painfully obvious that I’d be stuck with an unrequited love for who knows how long, and I couldn’t just detach myself from him all of a sudden to get over my feelings because a) he’d notice and force me to tell him what was wrong, ultimately leading me to tell him that I had feelings for him, and b) the moment I would come back or see him for even just a second I know I would develop those feelings all over again. Neither of which were choices I was willing to take so I suck it up and see him every day, ignoring everything my heart was telling me.

I look up from the cat that I’m petting in my lap and look at Minho again, only to find him staring at Ahra who was taking people’s orders with a perfect pearly smile. It was in that moment that I knew, I had just found the female lead of Minho’s story.

3 weeks go by in a similar manner. Minho and I see Ahra around campus a few times and with some twisted fate, she’s on the clock every time we go to Paws and Pastries. Minho, being his smooth self, easily gets himself acquainted with her. They laugh and giggle so naturally and can slip into conversation so easily I’m almost envious of Minho and his non-introverted self.

Not being one to try and stop fate, I watch it all happen. Telling Minho to ask her out already and teasing him about how lovesick he gets when he sees her nearby or at the cafe. I know Minho likes her when he blushes or gets defensive whenever I mention her in our conversations even though he’s never explicitly told me himself. I put on a face in front of him whenever these conversations come up, not wanting to get in the way of his happiness.

One day some of our friends want to meet up outside of campus, we make plans to meet up at a bowling alley, ready to have fun until the late evening hours. Seungmin brought Ahra along with him, asking if it was okay to invite her since they were friends. Everyone agrees and we all meet up as planned. When everyone gets there, including Seungmin and Ahra, we introduce ourselves, Minho not having to introduce himself and easily speaking with her like they always did whenever running into each other. All the the boys have raised brows and mischievous smiles as they watch the interaction between the two, but only one looks at me in concern.

A majority of the night passes by with laughter and teasing, how Chan was terrible at bowling this night and Minho easily beating him despite never doing too well on our previous adventures to the bowling alley. I spend the night with the rest of the boys, while Minho and Ahra spend time getting to know each other even more. There’s a point in the evening where I see Minho hold out his phone to Ahra to exchange numbers, I can hear her giggle when they take a selfie together, probably for her profile picture. I have to turn my head away quickly to ignore the cracking of my own heart when Minho puts his arm on the couch behind Ahra, he does it so naturally, yet he’s never done it with me. I will my thoughts to focus on the game and not on Minho, not noticing the same pair of concerned eyes until they speak up.

“Are you alright?” Hyunjin asks.

“Hm? Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?” My voice cracks halfway through and I try to hide my sad eyes, even though I was fully aware that Hyunjin had probably noticed that something was up.

“‘Cause you seem pretty affected by that scene over there.” He motions to Minho and Ahra with a nod of his head.

“It’s nothing, Hyun, just nice seeing Minho talking to more people.”

“Y/n, you know he talks to people all the time, and you’re not nearly as affected then as you are now.”

“Hyunjin, really, it’s fine.” I try to convince him but he says something that lets me know that he knows.

“You like Minho.”

“What? No that’s absurd I-“ He looks at me pointedly, and I sigh in defeat. “Yeah, okay, you got me.”

“Why don’t you say anything? Clearly it hurts you to see him like that.” He refers to Minho getting cozy with her.

“Hyunjin, it’s clear that everything we have is platonic, he even called me his sister several times. And who am I to get in the way of him getting into a relationship? That’s not my place to say anything, especially when his last girlfriend was 2 years ago.”

“I get that, but shouldn’t he at least deserve to know? He says that he knows everything about you, but there’s one thing that he doesn't. You know practically everything about him, isn’t it a little unfair?”

“We have choices as to what we share with each other and what we don’t, it’s his choice to tell me what he wants to and my choice to tell him what I want to tell him. Besides, he hasn’t even told me that he has a crush on Ahra yet.”

“So maybe he doesn’t then.”

“Hyunjin, just look at him, he’s a puppy in love.” I glance back over to Minho and Ahra sitting parallel to us. Minho is smiling brightly, more brightly than I had seen in a while and I can’t help but let my lips upturn at the corners just slightly in another sad smile.

Hyunjin sighs next to me, and I look back to him. “I’m sorry y/n, I really wish he would end up with you instead of her, it doesn’t seem fair to you.”

“Hey, don’t say that, Ahra seems like a nice girl, she and Minho will get along great. And nothing in life is fair Hyunjin, that’s just something you come to accept.” I say, getting up. “I’m gonna get some drinks, does anyone want anything?” I ask everyone.

“Cola!” “Me too!” “Me three!” “A lemonade please.” A few of the boys shout back.

“Anything for you guys?” I turn to Minho and Ahra. They both shake their heads. “Okay then, I’ll be back in a minute guys.” I smile at the group before going to get the drinks.

While walking away from the group I let a teardrop fall from my eye, wiping it away just before I order.

Life’s unfair, that’s just something I have to accept.

A week goes by and Minho’s talking about how he and Ahra message often, how he thinks they get along well and he’s gonna ask her out.

Another week goes by and they’ve gone on their first date, he takes her to the beach and they have a picnic.

Two weeks after that they’ve gone on several dates and are officially boyfriend and girlfriend, I don’t even find out separately at this point, I find out with the rest of the group over dinner.

A few days after that Minho calls off one of our late night binge watching sessions, texting me an apology and that Ahra needs him. I tell him it’s okay and to send my regards to her.

It’s a week and half after and Minho regularly calls off our meetups at the cafe after school or at one another’s dorms to tend to Ahra. I tell him it’s fine each time and to not feel bad. He did the same today, and I sit alone at our usual table, mindlessly petting a cat in my lap while zoning out into in my mug of coffee.

All while this happens, I watch, and I let it happen. I don’t fight for him because it didn’t feel right, sometimes second leads let their love fall for someone else, and that’s all it felt like I could do.

Fighting for Minho felt selfish, especially when I knew I had no chance and he’d already fallen for Ahra. I couldn’t suddenly come out of the blue and tell him “hey, I have feelings for you,” when he’s already dating Ahra, I’d look like a major asshole if I did. All I could do was watch and see how we begun to drift farther and farther apart.

With Minho being absent more often, I don’t get to tell him much. Like the internship offer I got to continue pursuing graphic design in Itaewon. I got the email almost a week ago, and I had two more weeks to decide if I was going to take the offer. With nobody to consult about it with I continue to push it to the back of my mind, not wanting to deal with more stress just yet.

Just as I’m taking another sip of my coffee a familiar head of long blonde hair enters the cafe. My head tilts to the side in confusion as he scans the room for someone when he meets eyes with me, he makes his way over and sits in the seat in front of me and doesn’t say anything.

“You’re rarely on this side of town, why are you here?” I ask Hyunjin first.

“I heard something from Ms. Kim in our art class and needed to know if it was true.” He says seriously.

“What…” I feel like I know what he’s going to say, but I ask anyways. “What did you hear?”

“That you were offered an internship in Itaewon.”

“Hyunjin I-“

“Is it really true? She said you had two more weeks to decide, how come you haven’t told anybody? Does Minho know? Are you gonna leave? What about-” He begins to spurt out question after question and it’s almost too much for me to handle.

“Hyunjin!” I raise my voice just slightly to get him to stop but I have to turn it down again when the volume of my voice makes a few of the other customers’ heads turn. “Calm down, yes it’s true, yes I have two more weeks to decide if I’m going or not, I didn’t know how I would tell any of you, no, Minho doesn’t know and I don’t plan on telling him.”

“Are you… Are you gonna take the offer?” He asks slowly.

I prop my elbows onto the table as the cat leaves my lap and my head drops into my hands as I sigh in exasperation. “I don’t know.” Tears are gathering in my eyes as I think about it.

“Y/n, have you thought about the offer at all?”

“Yes and no.” I don’t need to lift my head to sense Hyunjin’s confusion. “It’s hard to think about it when you’re watching your crush of 2 years date someone else while you’re also trying to finish up your senior year. But it’s also all I can think about when I’m alone, which I find myself a lot, thinking about having to find a place to live in Itaewon and transfer and mentally prepare to leave you all here, but if I don’t take it then it’ll be even harder to find an offer like this. It’s all I can think about and also something that I can’t bring myself to think about, Hyunjin.” I lift my head and my teary eyes meet his own.

“Y/n…” His voice breaks saying my name.

“I think I’m going to take it.” I pause. “Once I finish all of my final assignments the only thing I have left to really worry about is graduating and finding a job, and I don’t think I can take watching Minho and Ahra anymore Hyun, I don’t think I can stomach it. I’m happy for them, I truly am, but it’s also affecting me and I don’t think I should ignore that anymore. If I’m in Itaewon I have a job and I won’t have to worry about feelings anymore, two birds with one stone.”

I see the hesitancy in Hyunjin’s facial expressions before he speaks. “If that’s what you think you should do, then I’ll support you all the way. But shouldn’t you tell Minho about this?”

“I’m not, because if I do, Minho is gonna find some way to get me to stay and I’ll crumble and stay because he affects me the most.” Hyunjin merely nods in response. “Hyunjin, you are the only one that can know about this, okay? I can’t have everyone else know this, especially Minho, okay?”

Hesitation again, and then, “Okay.”

Hyunjin keeps his promise, he keeps the secret of me leaving from everyone. Even as graduation inches closer and our group begins to talk more about job searching, what comes next, and similar topics, the two of us keep it a secret. Whenever they asked me what I was thinking of doing next I always just told them “oh probably looking for internships nearby,” and no more questions are asked.

Minho and Ahra were still very much in love, even more than before, if the growing absence of Minho’s presence was anything to go by. I barely saw Minho anymore, maybe catching him at the end of the hall every once in awhile, but he was always walking with Ahra so all I could say was “hello” and “goodbye.”

Each goodbye begun to hold more and more weight as the days passed. Even the short ones I would tell Minho after passing him in the halls. I couldn’t even conjure how I would tell everyone, maybe send a letter to each of their places? A text message? Tell them after the graduation ceremony just before I left for the train station? I thought about how I would say goodbye as I begun to pack up my dorm. Graduation was nearing, I had already turned in all of my final assignments, and all there was left was to pack. I would leave after the ceremony ended, sometime in the afternoon. I wouldn’t even get the chance to properly celebrate being graduates with my friends because I was leaving in the afternoon. I’d get situated in my new apartment in Itaewon and get accustomed to new life outside of Gimpo.

The thought of leaving panged my heart harshly, I had never left Gimpo permanently before. Sure, I had gone on trips to the US and Singapore and Seoul before, but I had never moved from Gimpo. I was born and raised in Gimpo, met Minho and all of our friends here, so the thought of moving for the first time did something to my heart. I attended all of our group hangouts with a nostalgic mindset, remembering the first time we all met, when we all got wasted one time on a Friday night after some big exam week. I look around our table of friends and think about how much I’ll miss all of this when I leave for Itaewon.

Another thing that panged my heart, Minho and I distancing. I knew it was coming, Minho and I didn’t text or talk about hanging out anymore. He walked Ahra to her classes now, and had dates with her after class instead of meeting me at our cafe. Eventually I stopped getting apology messages, and stopped expecting him at the cafe anymore. I couldn’t blame him, Ahra was his girlfriend and I accepted that long ago. Instead I just played the supportive friend on the sidelines, and I’d continue to play that role for as long as I had to.

It came to be the night before we graduated, and all of us minus Minho and Ahra were sat around a table in one of the restaurants we frequented, it wasn’t too late in the evening, and we all just sat in silence after finishing our food with bottles and glasses of soju now sitting in front of us. A majority of our meal was full of reminiscing, talking about memories that crack everyone up and left smiles on our faces.

“So, we really graduate tomorrow, huh?” Changbin says when the table quiets down.

“Yeah, I guess we do.” Chan says quietly.

My eyes tear up and I begin to sniff without control, the weight of my department tomorrow weighing heavily on my shoulders. Hyunjin puts an arm around my shoulders and gives me a tissue, whispering “it’s okay, it’s okay” to me while I try to calm down.

Everyone looks at me in confusion before Chan speaks first. “Y/n are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I just…” I trail off, not sure what to say.

“Do you want to tell them?” Hyunjin asks softly.

“Tell us what?” Seungmin says this time.

Hyunjin looks to me first before nodding, and I begin to spill my secret. “I got an internship offer.”

The table erupts in cheers and I get congratulations thrown back at me before I can even continue.

“But…” Immediately everyone silences and looks to me in expectation. “It’s in Itaewon.”

There’s a tense air that falls around us. “What?” Felix says in disbelief.

“You’re not leaving us, right Noona?” Jeongin asks from another part of the table.

I look to Jeongin with sad eyes, smiling sadly. “I leave tomorrow, after our graduation ceremony.” There’s some gasps around the table.

“What?! Y/n, why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Changbin blows up and Chan has to place a hand on his shoulder to restrain him.

“I didn��t want every time we met leading up to graduation to feel like a goodbye, Bin, I couldn’t handle that. So I kept it from you all so there wasn’t this tension every time we met.” I explained.

“Does Minho know?” Seungmin asks this time, and I shake my head.

“Y/n…” Han says worriedly.

“Guys, I know I’m not the only one that’s noticed that me and Minho aren’t that close anymore, so I haven’t really gotten the chance to tell him. But I told Hyunjin this a long time ago, that I wouldn’t tell Minho specifically, because there’s some things that I need to figure out and if I told him he’d find some way to keep me from going, or even worse, follow me. At least with Ahra by his side he won’t follow me to Itaewon.” There’s nods all around the table, understanding where I’m coming from.

“We’re gonna miss you a lot.” Felix sniffs and I coo, getting up from my seat to wrap my arms around him from behind.

“I’m gonna miss you all too.” I sniff with him, a few tears escaping my eyes.

Chan comes to join our hug, then Han, then Jeongin, and soon enough everyone has joined the group hug with me in the middle. All of us are crying, and I had never felt more loved than that moment.

Eventually we break away from the hug and return to our seats, everyone dabbing at their eyes with tissues and sniffing.

“Let’s all stop crying, tonight is a night to celebrate, all of us graduate tomorrow, and our dear Y/n got an internship offer in a big city!” Han holds up a drink and we all do the same, cheering and clinking our glasses together and celebrating the night away.

The next morning I get ready for graduation early, putting on my makeup and doing my hair, and sending a message.

to: [cat dad who’s a leech :D]

hey, can you meet me at p&p in thirty?

My heart picks up the pace as I send the message, I didn’t expect him to answer so quickly yet his message pings my phone within 2 minutes.

from: [cat dad who’s a leech :D]

sure, i can be there

to: [cat dad who’s a leech :D]

sweet, i’ll see you there

I turn my phone off and take a deep breath, we still had a few hours before we had to be at the school for our graduation ceremony, I’d have to leave just a few minutes after the ceremony ended which wouldn’t give me enough time to tell Minho, so, I made the painful decision the night before to tell him in the morning. I’d do it in our favorite spot in the corner of our favorite cat cafe, tell him the news slowly and hope that he takes it well.

I leave my house and 15 minutes later I’m in our usual booth, my coffee order sitting in front of me and the cats all wandering around as there weren’t too many people since it was relatively early in the morning. I already bought Minho his typical Iced Americano and it sat in front of me, awaiting it’s owner.

10 minutes later Minho arrives and makes his way to the table, sitting in front of me, smiling, unknowing of what’s about to happen.

“Hey.” I smile at him.

“Hey you.” He smiles back brightly. “Sorry I couldn’t see you guys last night, I took Ahra out for dinner last night on a date.”

“It’s completely alright, how are you guys?”

“Pretty good, things are going okay right now.” He answers.

“That’s good.” Nervously I take a sip of my macchiato in front of me, my leg bouncing in anxiety.

“Y/n? Is everything alright? Your leg’s bouncing pretty fast right now.” Curse Minho and the fact that he knows so much about me, he reaches out for my wrist and checks my pulse, quickly noticing how fast it’s beating as his brows furrow in confusion.

“Minho, there’s something I need to tell you.” I say, retracting my wrist from his grip. He doesn’t answer me but instead tilts his head like a cat does when it looks at its owner questionably. “I’m leaving.”

“What?” He asks.

How could one look so endearing, head tilted and eyes full of emotion as I break the news to him? I ask myself. “I got an internship offer for a company in Itaewon, I accepted it and I’m leaving for Itaewon, today.”

“You’re leaving today?” He says in disbelief, sounding out of breath.

I nod and continue. “After the graduation today I have to catch my bus. I didn’t have any other time to tell you so I had to tell you now.”

“You’re… You’re just telling me now? Do the others know about this?”

“I only told them last night.”

“You couldn’t have thought of telling me sooner?” He starts to get angry.

“Minho I-“

“What happened to telling me everything, huh? What happened to when we used to know everything about each other?”

“Minho, those days are long behind us, you have bigger priorities now, like putting your focus on your girlfriend, Minho. I couldn’t tell you because I knew you’d do something rash, and I didn’t even tell the others until last night because I knew every time we’d see each other it would be like preparing for the day I leave. You and Ahra have something so great going on for the two of you right now and telling you that I was leaving would take you away from that, and I can’t do that to you or her. Ahra is an amazing girl, and you have her now.”

“Will you at least visit?” His eyes are full of tears, some of the first I’ve seen in years and I hate that I’m the cause of it.

“I don’t know yet, there’s some things I need to figure out myself first, before I can visit. But at some point maybe I will, when I’ve figured things out I’ll try visiting from time to time.” I offer him a sad smile.

After a few moments of silence I get up from my seat.

“We still have a graduation left, Min, I’ll still see you then.” I ruffle his hair and walk out of the cafe, no more secrets but one weighing down on my chest.

The Graduation ceremony passes by in a blur. One moment we were listening to the speeches of each of the professors and the next we were tossing our caps into the air, cheering as we became alumni of our university.

Our friend group met up in the front of the school, taking pictures with our parents and congratulating each other. Eventually, the time comes and I have to go.

Our group stands in a circle, unmoving, as we all look at each other.

“I’m gonna miss all of you so much.” I say in tears as my voice breaks.

“We’re gonna miss you too, Y/n.” Hyunjin says. At his words everyone gathers into a group hug full of tears and the weight of a goodbye on our shoulders.

“You better promise to visit us, okay?” Felix holds me by the shoulders and makes a point to look me in the eye. Not trusting my voice, I nod and he brings me into one more hug.

I hug each of them individually, saying a few words, before I reach the last person.

I hug Minho and look into his eyes for the last time for a while.

“I’ll miss you.” He whispers.

“Me too.” And that’s all I can say.

I leave the campus for the last time, hopping in my car to head to the station and start anew.

Second leads always leave in the end, they leave and let the two main leads have a happy ending. That’s what it felt like I was doing, and I couldn’t tell if I was content with my choice or not.

Two and a half months in Itaewon passes quickly.

The move into my new apartment was smooth, and it was odd to be in a bigger space than a small dorm room. It felt like I had more space than I knew what to do with.

My internship was moving along smoothly as well, everyone I had met so far were really kind and taught me a lot. I was worried about feeling out of place but I had met a few other girls not much older than me who helped me feel at home.

Being alone in a big city was unnerving, but what made it so much more comfortable was the addition of a cat that my parents had bought me as my graduation gift. She was a chartreux cat who I named Luna because I had always dreamed of naming my first cat that. My parents covered most of the costs of basic things like cat toys, a scratch post, her bed, and similar things. I thanked my parents endlessly when they came over to my apartment a week after I had moved in and gave me Luna. I wasn’t gone for too long during the day and always left food for her, she was great company when I came home and worked on projects late into the evening, curling up into my lap like the cats at the old cafe used to. She was my best friend in a city I was still getting accustomed to.

I hadn’t talked to the guys much, I’d talked with them a few times in the group chat about how their job searches were going and trips they were planning to take soon. It was nice talking with them every so often but all of us were still pretty busy moving onto the next chapter of our lives.

I hadn’t talked to Minho since I left, I’d assumed that he and Ahra were doing well, but that’s all that was, assumption. None of the boys talked about him and I couldn’t understand why, but I never asked since I was supposed to be moving on from my feelings in the first place. I thought I had been doing pretty well until something would come up that reminded me of him, like his favorite song would play in the cafe I bought my morning coffee in and spent my breaks at, or snapchat would send me “Today, 1 year ago” memories of him and me fooling around at Paws and Pastries. Whenever that would happen I’d be sent back to square one, and it felt like I’d never move on from Minho.

I was on my way out to grab a coffee and spend my off day walking around, maybe looking into a few shops when I got a call from Hyunjin.

“Y/n! My favorite girl, how are you?”

“Hyunjin? What’s with the call?”

“What? Can I not call my friends from time to time?”

“Not when you’re notorious for calling your ‘friends’ after you’ve done something wrong.” I sigh.

“That was one time! Besides, it wasn’t that bad.”

“You dragged Jeongin to a party! And got him wasted!”

“One. Time. Y/n. It was one time.”

“One time is enough for you to be in trouble for life, Hyun.”

“Okay, whatever, but I was meaning to ask you, what’re your plans for today?”

“Me? I was just planning to go out, today’s my day off so I was gonna visit this one cafe and see some shops, why?”

“No reason, what time do you think you’ll be home?”

“Maybe five?”

“Great, okay, I have to go now, Han’s calling me, bye!” Hyunjin hangs up before I can ask him what’s with the weird questions.

“Hyunjin- Oh great he hung up.” I put my phone in my pocket before looking down at Luna who’s stretching near my legs. “Your uncle Hyunjin is quite the odd one, isn’t he Luna, hm?” I ask her and she meows back in response. “Weird indeed, but that’s just how he is. Mommy’s gonna spend her day out and then she’ll come home and we can watch the TV together, okay? I’ll be home soon.” I pick up Luna and set her on her little bed before ensuring everything is safe and make my way out the door.

I spend the day eating at a large cat cafe that actually had an assortment of books with little reading areas while the cats roamed around everywhere. It was much bigger than the cafe in Gimpo, but I would always correlate that one with home.

After I spent a bit of time reading there I went out and explored the shops for a few hours, bought some new jeans and a few blouses plus some makeup things. I got Subway for lunch and explored just a little bit more before heading home. Instead of going straight home, I decided to take the long way, going through the streets not minding the extra weight the few shopping bags I was holding in my hands gave me. The sun was just barely beginning to set as I walked into my apartment complex, getting into the elevator and pressing the button for my floor.

I walk down the hallway to my door and am surprised when a familiar figure greets me there.

“Minho?” I say as I walk closer.

“Y/n!” He says happily, bringing me into a hug.

“What are you doing here? Actually- Wait- Don’t answer that, do you wanna come inside?” I ask him.

“Sure.” He responds.

I unlock the door and bring my bags in, setting them by the door. “Luna! Mommy’s home!” I call out automatically.

Luna meows and comes out of the bedroom, walking her way up to me before I pick her up.

“You got a cat?” Minho asks.

“Yeah, parents brought her to me about a week after I moved in.” I put Luna back down and she moves to sit on the arm of the couch, her favorite spot to sit when the sun goes down.

“And you named her Luna,” He smiles fondly. “You always wanted to name your cat Luna.”

“I’m surprised you remember that.” I chuckle. “Do you want some coffee?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll get that brewing, just give me a few minutes, you can take a seat on the couch and make yourself at home!” I tell him as I quickly retreat to the kitchen.

I have to take a few breaths when I’m far away enough from Minho, my heart beating just as fast as it would when I was around him back then. It was clear I hadn’t moved on at all.

I brew the coffee as promised and wait next to the coffee machine with two mugs ready. A voice chimes in behind me.

“Your place is much bigger than the dorms.” He chuckles.

“Tell me about it, it was so weird buying more furniture than I was used to.” I laugh with him.

The machine finishes brewing the coffee and I pour it into the two mugs, putting it on a tray with creamer and sugar before bringing it all to the coffee table in front of the couch.

Minho and I take seats on the couch, separated by a bit of space between us while we sip on our respective mugs.

“So,” I start the conversation. “How’s home?”

“Not too bad, same old same old, the guys being annoying as usual, you know?” He says.

“Sounds fun.” I chuckle. “And work, have you found anything yet?”

“Not yet, I’ve got a few applications out, but I’m still waiting on some answers.”

“I’m sure you’ll get them soon.” I respond.

An uncomfortable silence sets over the both of us, and I run my free hand through Luna’s fur who’s situated herself in my lap this time. I take a long sip of my coffee before asking another question.

“How’s… How are you and Ahra?”

“Oh…” He trails off. “We broke up a few weeks ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that…” I had no idea that he and Ahra had broken up, in fact that was the completely opposite of what I thought had happened since they seemed to work together so well.

“Yeah, it was a mutual thing. We didn’t really feel that kind of connection anymore, you know? So we just, broke it off.”

“Are you okay?” I ask Minho.

“Me? Yeah, I’m actually not as affected as I thought I’d be, I don’t know if that makes me a cruel person or not but I was only sad for the first week or two. Nothing too bad.”

“I see.” Another silence settles between us. This one is longer, more tense, there was something Minho wanted to ask but he wasn’t sure, and I couldn’t depict what question he was going to ask.

“Actually, I came her for a reason.” He says.

“And what reason is that?” I ask hesitantly.

“For answers.” My brows furrow, answers for what? “There’s something Hyunjin told me recently and it got me thinking, and I wanted to hear it from you if it was true.”

I finish my coffee and place it down delicately on the coffee table, trying not to show how nervous I was with how badly my hands were shaking. “I’ll see if I have answers for you then.”

“When you told me you were leaving, you said you had some, things, to figure out on your own. What was it that you had to figure out?”

I take a moment to decide exactly how I was going to answer his question. Did I want to expose my feelings to him just yet? “Just, feelings.” I say vaguely.

“For?”

“Just feelings for somebody.”

“Is it Hyunjin?”

“No.”

“Chan?”

“Nope.”

“Changbin?”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Me?”

I pause for just a half second, and apparently that was all Minho needed. “I guess Hyunjin’s big mouth was right after all.”

“Wait- What? What are you talking about?”

Minho takes a long sip of his coffee before finishing letting out a sigh after swallowing, he slowly sets the mug on the table before making direct eye contact with me and silently killing me with the suspense. “Minho please just say something you’re killing me here.”

He only chuckles in response. “Hyunjin told me not too long ago that you took up the offer to work here because you were going to sort out your feelings, for me.” He says sweetly as I suck in a breath at his last words.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Minho-“

“Now now, Y/n, we shouldn’t hide things from each other anymore, should we?” His sweet, sultry voice was affecting me greatly as he leaned closer to me on the couch. I gulp and silently curse when Luna, the only thing keeping me sane, leaves the comfort of my lap for her scratch-post.

“Minho…” I let out quietly.

“Tell me, Kitten, is it true?” He asks once again.

“I-“ My voice catches in my throat when Minho leans in ever nearer, still making direct eye-contact with me. “Yes, it is.” I sigh out and Minho backs away.

“He was right.” Minho whispers while my gaze drops to my hands that I fiddle with in my lap at the secret that’s let out. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m sorry.” I whisper.

“Why are you sorry darling?” He asks softly and uses his thumb and forefinger to tilt my head up by my chin.

“I couldn’t tell you because I knew you didn’t feel the same, and then when you got together with Ahra we drifted apart because it hurt me to see you with her. Then I left and told you about me leaving so last minute. I made you cry, Minho, and I hate that I did. But I couldn’t see any other way out of it. I hurt you because I was cowardly and didn’t want to be selfish by telling you and having your attention move off of Ahra, when I was really being selfish by not telling you and hurting you in the end.” More tears escape my eyes as we look at each other.

“Princess, no…” He cups my face with his hands and uses his thumbs to wipe away my tears. “I’ll admit, it did hurt when you told me that you were leaving the day of, but I understood where you were coming from. Because you were right, I would have done something crazy to keep you by my side. Do you know why?” He asks, and I shake my head, still crying. “Because I need you by my side, kitten, even when I was dating Ahra I felt off but just didn’t pay any mind to it because I had her. But now I know it’s because you and I were drifting apart, I found out when after you left and me and Ahra broke up because I felt empty. I couldn’t text you to just come over anymore because you’re farther away from me now. I lied earlier, I said that I sent out some applications for jobs but didn’t get any answers yet, right?” I nod. “I got offered a job as a software engineer, here, in Itaewon, and I said yes.”

“Why?” I whisper.

“Because I want to be near you, I need to be by your side Y/n, because I love you.” I let out a sob at his confession and he coos, bringing me to rest my head on his chest and rubbing his hands on my back and running them through my hair.

“I love you too.” I say after a few minutes.

Minho brings me out of his hold, and cups my face again. For the first time, he kisses me. His lips brush over mine before deepening the kiss, taking full charge of it yet somehow still being soft with me. His kisses were nothing short of addicting, and I knew I’d be in love with him for a long time.

In that moment, kissing the man of my dreams, I remember that it may be rare that a second lead gets their own happy ending, but it’s not unheard of. Sometimes the main lead and second lead do end up with their own happily ever after.

Notes from the author: I have FINALLY posted something y’all 😂 took a few months but she’s here, and she’s dishing out something at least. I don’t know how often I’ll be posting again, esp with school and whatnot, but I do know I need to drain out my drafts because phew, it’s getting a little full in there.

But anyways, I hope you enjoyed this fic! I’m pretty sure it’s one of the longest I’ve written if not the longest. Hopefully it wasn’t too bad, I’m probably a little rusty but we can fix that (i think)

if you want more I still have my old stuff up on my masterlist on my account! hope to see you around :))

-nyx

#skz ff #skz fluff #skz fanfic #skz fanfiction #stray kids fanfiction #minho fluff #skz minho fluff #skz angst #yOU KNOW I KNOW LEE KNOW #skz lee know #lee know #lee know x y/n #tags are annoying sigh #lee minho fanfiction #stray kids scenarios #stray kids fic #stray kids fluff #stray kids angst

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wh6res · 3 years

Text

127 SQUAD AND ROMANTIC BF TINGS

tw a lil bit of suggestive on jae's but nothing explicit

✰ — TAEIL would sing lullabies over the phone or video call. you and him would just be doing your own thing, not talking but enjoying being each other's presence. he'll probably pull out his guitar and start singing random songs until he eventually notices you fell asleep on him. will not end the call and when you wake up in the morning, his snores and his cute sleeping face is the first thing you see. "love? you still there? ... taeil?" then laugh out loud when you hear his snores instead. "okay yeah lets sleep more" the call will only end probably because his phone died. he kinda strikes me as a guy who's phone is always < 50% battery lmao

✰ — JOHNNY is your everything. literally. as long as he has the power of youtube, google, and instruction manuals on his side, he can fix anything and everything for you. we've all seen him do crafty things on jcc lmao so it'll probably apply to relationships as well. will 100% say you now owe him cuddles for fixing something for you. you kinda dont like the fact that he's doing all these things for you so you try doing them on your own without him knowing only to fail big time. "what did we learn today?" "never touch the pipes under the sink" "and?" "and always ask johnny for help" "nuh-uh thats not how i said it" you sigh exasperatedly "always let my smokin hot amazing handsome boyfriend johnny suh get the job done"

✰ — TAEYONG doesn't care whether you take the time shopping or not. in fact, he loves seeing you all excited and giddy for pampering yourself as you should. totally the type to hold the paper bags even if you complain and say you can manage on your own. is a complete angel and will wait patiently outside changing rooms and will give you genuine insight he has of the clothes you picked. "that looks nice. you should get that. the length is just right and the sleeves help accentuate your waist" "really yongie?" "yes love. i mean you look pretty in everything anyway" miss ma'am my heart just fucking melted ?¿?

✰ — YUTA doesn't look like it but will exert real effort into things. would be the type to have a note or a google doc about your favorite orders from restaurants because he just loves how your eyes light up appreciatively and you look so smitten by him. its like a cheat sheet. eventually he memorizes the list with how much time he spends with you and he wont even need it. the type to always bring you food before meeting you (if its just hanging out inside the house). "no way! i was just craving for these!" he smiles before kissing your forehead, volunteering to put the food out its container for you. "i figured. you'd been working since this afternoon. lets eat first then you can tell me about what you've been working on so i can help you, okay?"

✰ — DOYOUNG loves cooking for you. i highkey feel like its his love language? like cooking for you and seeing your eyes light up as it darts back to him after you take your first bite from whatever he cooked just gives him so much happiness. its disgustingly sappy and he doesn't like talking about it. now he understood fully what it meant to see your loved ones eating and being full yourself or some shit. idk how the actual quote goes okay dont come 4 me but u probably get it. anyway the type to always pack you lunch and will get hella mad if you skip meals. "what do you mean you havent eaten yet?" "yeah but i will after i--" "you mean you're going to eat Now?" "what? no maybe later--" "thats it im coming over"

✰ — JAEHYUN would be the type to make you playlists. its really random sometimes he'll send them to you in the early morning for the heck of it bc he cant sleep. most of the time its him being horny lmao the frat boy in him awakening and sending you a playlist called imma blow your back out or something extremely cringey and thirsty pls dont block his sorry ass maybe he'd spell out the words using song titles too! idk jae just rlly strikes me as a guy who's love language is music. "hey babe did you check the playlist i sent you?" "wtf its 4am???" "oh so you havent listened to it yet?" "fuck off" but at the end of the day he'll come over and will use the playlist to,,, you know,,, do the sexy thing ;)

✰ — JUNGWOO always makes sure you walk on the inside of the road. you know when you're walking in the street and he softly nudges your waist? yes. will probably even scold you playfully because with how long its been since you both are together, "babe you always walk on the inside of the road how many times do i have to tell you?" is also the type to remind you to wear your seatbelt immediately after hopping onto his car. would ask you Again while in the middle of the car ride because he forgot that he already asked you earlier. please don't mind him he's just looking out for you bb. "seatbelt?" "yes, babe. already done" "are you sure? i dont think i heard it click--" "babe eyes on the road please" "oh right sorry"

✰ — MARK sends you tiktoks, vines, or memes. this is his love language fite me im calling it. he just wants to see you laugh too okay? thats why he does it. i mean it made him laugh, so maybe it will you laugh too. also because he hopes to make inside jokes with u cuz he believes thats how people really get close and stuff. would definitely love it if you do the same thing with him. you'd be chilling in the sofa while khalid plays on the bluetooth speaker and he'll suddenly go "babe babe babe check this out!" then you both proceed to laugh at a vine for the next thirty minutes <3 #living.the.yn.life

✰ — HAECHAN will do your skincare for you when you're drunk or super tired that you just passed out cold on the bed. would probably come into the room to see you snoring and tutting bc now he has to do it for you again but meh deep down he loves it because he enjoys admiring your sleeping face. its sorta like a healing thing for him? yeah it just washes away all the stress he's feeling and bb is just excited about the idea that this becomes "your thing" with him if u get what im saying? altho the next day he'll probably use it as a leverage to get out of chores :) "no way im not folding our clothes" "and why is that?" "i took your make up off yesterday u know how hard that is? im still tired" "but its literally the next day--" "awww thank you for doing my chores, baby! u the best!" ._.

#nct #nct 127 #jaehyun #taeyong #taeil #johnny #yuta #jungwoo #haechan #mark #doyoung #nct 127 headcanons #nct 127 hcs #nct headcanons #nct 127 imagines #nct 127 scenarios #nct 127 x reader #nct 127 x y/n #nct 127 x you

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mindfulwrathwrites · 3 years

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Starless

Words: 4,248 Warnings: Death, existential dread

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...

There are stretches of the cosmic ocean so dark and cold that the only way to detect something is to run into it. This is not ideal when the thing in question is a planet.

Our gravity sensors caught it about ten thousand kilometers out and kicked us out of warp so hard that they overloaded the inertial dampers. By the time we’d gotten our concussions to the med bay and our systems back online, the Itinerant had already fallen into orbit. If you pressed your forehead to the windows and made a viewfinder with your hands, you could just make out the surface when we were at periapse. Most of the time, the planet was nothing more than a hole in the sky.

Ilya got a few of us together to make a plan of action. First, they asked me whether there would be any point in sending a message to our destination at Xuange.

“Not unless the warp core’s busted,” I said. “If it’s not, we’ll get there long before the signal does. If it is, it’d be at least five years before anybody even heard us.”

“And is the warp core busted?” Ilya asked Valerie.

He shook his head. “But the inertial dampers....” He made a face that said: don’t ask me about the inertial dampers.

Ilya didn’t ask him about the inertial dampers. Instead, they asked Regina about our heading.

“The nav systems can get us back on course,” Regina said, “once they’ve figured out our relative motion against the background stars.”

“How long will that take?” Ilya asked.

“A few hours.”

“I have a feeling the science team might want to stick around a little longer than that.”

They raised an eyebrow at Mozzie, who was vibrating in his chair.

“I cannot even begin to describe to you the incredibility of this opportunity,” he said.

“Yeah, guess it’s pretty rare for a planet to be wandering around with no star,” Yuko said.

“No no, entirely the opposite,” said Mozzie, revving up for an info-dump. “It’s common for a planet to be ejected from a system. The trouble is finding them once they’ve gone. Only a few hundred have ever been detected, and none have been directly observed, it’s all by gravitational microlensing. And when you think of trying to get to one to study it—!”

“It’s an opportunity we shouldn’t take lightly,” Ilya said. “But we also have injured crew aboard, and their needs might take priority. Yuko?”

“Bumps on the head and broken wrists, mainly,” said Yuko. “We’ll be short-handed while they heal up, but unless shit gets dire, I don’t think it’ll kill anybody.”

“How long could we hold out before a resupply?”

Yuko wrinkled her nose and swiveled her chair. “On my end? Lemme see, couple weeks, probably. We stocked up pretty good on assorted hormones back at Seginus—your T, your E, your insulin, your thyroid—but we’re a little thin in the heart-disease department. Yeah, call it two weeks of sitting, plus the last week to Xuange, unless shit gets dire.”

“We have about six weeks’ worth of food, and we just got the water recycler repaired,” Jae chipped in. Ze glanced at Valerie and scrunched hir nose. “I don’t know about power, though. Could we sit in the dark for two extra weeks?”

“Oh, yes,” Valerie said. His smile elaborated: the generator on this ship will outlive all of you.

Regina was shaking her head. “If we follow this thing for two weeks, it’s going to take us two months to get to Xuange.”

“Say what?” Yuko cried, whipping her feet off the table.

“It’s hauling significant ass. In two weeks, we’ll be in the middle of that giant molecular cloud we specifically plotted around. Unless we want to turn the whole ship into a fine mesh, we cannot jump to warp until we’re out of it. Two weeks: two months.”

“That,” Ilya said, with a sharpness around their teeth, “is not ideal. How long could we spare, then?”

“However long it takes to fix the inertial dampers, if we want to be safe about it,” said Regina. “A week, if we’re feeling spicy.”

“Valerie, how long will it take to repair the dampers?”

He wrinkled half of one lip. “Two, three days.”

“Wellp,” Yuko said. “Mozzie, y’all better measure as fast as y’all’s little hands can.”

“I’ve had some deadlines in my time,” Mozzie said, brittle, “but this really takes all.”

“I’ll set the radar to science,” I offered.

Ilya set their palms on the table. “Our best course of action is for everybody to get as much done as they can, as quickly as they can. Let’s get to work.”

Which was, of course, when we received the first transmission from the planet.

It was sent at such high power that it came straight through our communicators. Everyone in the room jumped. Ilya was the first to figure out what was happening.

“Get to comms,” they said to me, “and run that signal through every damn translator we have.”

I sprinted all the way to comms. By the time I got there, three more stations had started transmitting. Over the following hours, we were bombarded by transmissions. We pinpointed stations by infrared as the high-power signals heated the frozen surface. We threw all the computing power we could spare behind our translators.

After two and a half hours, they pieced the messages together. There were hundreds of transmissions in dozens of languages, all variations on a single theme:

Help us. We may be the last survivors. We have retreated deep underground to protect us from the cold. Our means of survival are not sustainable. Help us. Help us. Help us.

After three hours, one by one, every signal went quiet.

Ilya asked Mozzie how long the planet had been drifting.

“There’s no way of knowing that,” he said. He gestured to the window, to the circular hole in the grid of stars. “The surface is nitrogen ice. It used to be an atmosphere, I don’t know how thick, but it all froze out. That could take—it depends on the thickness of the atmosphere, how hot the planet started out. Decades? Centuries? I don’t know.”

“How far is the nearest planetary system?” I asked Regina. “Can we back out how long it’s been traveling by how fast it’s going?”

“We could,” she said, “if we knew where the nearest system was. There could be a brown dwarf a few billion klicks from here, and we’d never know. We don’t have the telescope power.”

“They could be auto signals,” Valerie said. He looked at me, seeking confirmation.

“They could,” I said. “Whatever they were transmitting with, it was ludicrously high-powered. And if they went underground—it would make sense to have a system set up to detect a ship in orbit and only fire off a signal if you get a blip. Saves power, but makes sure the message gets heard when it counts. It could be automated.”

Valerie made a face and turned out a hand, approximating: a dead man can scream once if there is air left in his lungs.

“But it could be not automated, too,” I said.

“Is it,” Ilya said, “in anyone’s professional opinion, remotely possible that there is a single living creature left on that planet?”

We all looked at each other. Regina chewed her lip. Valerie shrugged eloquently.

“Possible,” Mozzie said, mostly to himself. “Even without tidal heating, the interior would stay hot for... possible. Possible.”

“Possible it is,” Ilya sighed.

The Itinerant had three shuttles: a main, a backup, and a lifeboat. The crew decided that we'd take all three down. I was on one, and Jae was with me.

Our headlights found a mountainous terrain of blinding white snowdrifts. Sublimating nitrogen buffeted our shuttle. When we found solid ground, it was at the bottom of a crater in the snow.

“Holy moly,” Jae said, as our lights caught a radio antenna the size of the Itinerant. Rime ice bristled on the edges of the dish.

“They weren’t messing around,” I said. I went to land the shuttle. Jae grabbed my wrist.

“Are we going to be able to get back out?” ze asked.

“I don’t see why not,” I said. “Even if it freezes overhead, we’ll just make a new hole on the way out.”

“Are you sure?” Jae pressed.

I chewed on it. I opened the comms.

“Mozzie, what are the odds of us getting frozen in?”

The comm link hissed, filled with static discharges from the nitrogen snow.

“Very very low,” Mozzie answered. “Your shuttle is warm, the snow is very cold, it will all sublimate whenever you get near it. But—Valerie says if the shuttle gets too cold for too long, it will seize. I wouldn’t recommend to let that happen.”

The station was smaller than the dish above it, but still built to double our scale. Jae and I suited up and stepped out together. Our suits spilled enough heat that the nitrogen snow gave us a wide berth. The doorway to the station was so cold that the metal latch shattered with a single blow from a rock sampling hammer.

Inside, the floor was covered in black dust that crunched like gravel under our boots—frozen hydrocarbons, Mozzie told us. Bulbous shapes loomed in the spilled light of our headlamps, terminals or statues or frozen corpses. Jae and I stuck close to each other, seeking the heat of active machinery, lights or sounds, the entrance to whatever subterranean refuge the inhabitants had fled to. We called out, banged our fists on the cavernous walls, swept the dust with our feet and our lights. The cold pushed needles through the fabric of our suits.

Our voices dimmed down the farther we went. Every fine detail was cryogenically preserved, leaving a facility that looked like it had been occupied only days ago. Artifacts of convenience dotted the space: brightly-colored signage, organized storage, a waste bin. We didn’t dare to touch any of it. We searched for twenty minutes before finding the portal downward.

It was sealed over, edge-to-edge, with an opaque layer of grimy ice.

“Mozzie, what is this?” Jae asked. “More hydrocarbons?”

It took an agonizing ten seconds for a reply to come.

“Sorry, I’m here, I am here,” Mozzie said, breathless. “What was the question?”

“More ice,” I said. “It’s blocking the way down.”

“Use your spectrometer, please?”

Jae pointed hir infrared spectrometer at it. Mozzie tsked at hir to hold still, until he stopped doing that and took a slow breath through his teeth.

“What?” Jae said.

“Water ice,” Mozzie said. “A little dust, but mostly water.”

“Mozzie, don’t say it like it’s the end of the world.”

“So we’re good to smash through it?” I asked.

“You’ll never get through it,” Mozzie said. “The temperature is so low—no, you’ll never get through it. Come back, we’ll send you to the next one.”

“Hell with that,” I said. I reeled back and struck the ice with my hammer.

It was like striking a mountain. The hammer, brittled by the incredible cold, shattered. A piece of it chipped my visor. The impact jarred all the bones in my arm. I would have fallen over if Jae hadn’t caught me.

“Oh,” I said eloquently, while Mozzie demanded to know if I was okay, while Jae propped me back up on my feet. The cold sank a little farther through our suits. Our headlamps flickered. There was a small white spot on the ice where the dust had been disturbed.

“We’re fine, Mozzie, everyone’s okay,” Jae was saying. “Go ahead and send the coords to our shuttle, we’ll head back now.”

“No,” I said. My lips were numb.

“Okay, I sent them,” said Mozzie. “Also, Valerie’s saying that your suits will seize before the shuttle, and the electrical components will probably start to go first, so if you’re seeing any flickering in the lights, that’s a good sign that you need to—”

“No,” I said, more firmly. “We just—we just need to be methodical about this. We can’t just give up.”

“We don’t have any other options,” said Jae.

“There could be people in there,” I insisted. “They could still be alive. We could get to them if we just take the time to figure out how.”

Jae’s face was washed out in the light of our headlamps. Both flickered again. For a moment, the tremendous darkness of the universe closed around us. I heard my life support stutter. My feet were cold.

“Ellis,” Jae said, “we don’t have time.”

“But—”

But there were no buts. There was no way we’d get through the ice before our suits or our shuttle succumbed to the cold. We could move on to another station, one that might be more accessible, or we could die trying to save this one.

“Okay,” I said.

For four and a half days, we searched. Valerie and the engineering team had the inertial dampers ready to go by the end of Day Two, and were immediately conscripted to work out how to get through the ice sealing every single entrance to the subterranean refuges. The science team were of two minds: some concluded that this had been an ocean world, and the frozen hatches were the tip of an iceberg that ran miles deep; others speculated that humid air leaking from sealed airlocks could have built up a thick, insulating layer of ice as the planet hurtled away from the warmth of its star.

In four and a half days, we got through thirty-six of the one hundred and seventy-nine stations. I barely slept. I was lucky that when I fainted, I was on the ship for a resupply run. Juniper Lee, one of our engineers, wasn’t lucky. While Yuko was tidying up the cut where my head had pinged off a doorframe, Juniper Lee passed out on the surface and smashed the visor of her helmet when she fell.

Later, we would all reassure each other that it had been, at the very least, a fast way to die.

In the immediate aftermath, Ilya came with Regina to the med bay. Valerie was in shock, being cared for by people who hadn’t been devastatingly close to Juniper Lee. Yuko and I were no longer arguing about whether I should sleep before going back planet-side.

Regina informed us that we were passing into the diffuse outer edges of the giant molecular cloud. Two shuttles were still searching the transmission stations. The engineering team had scrambled together a heated drill that could push through a few inches of ice every minute.

“How long can we hold out?” I asked Regina.

“Not long. The deeper we go into the cloud, the more we risk losing nav altogether.”

“Has anyone heard anything, or seen anything, or...?”

“Zilch. The science team thinks they might be too far underground to pick up our hails.”

I turned to Ilya. “Not if we use the interstellar antenna.”

“Out of the question,” they said quietly.

“We get one message. If they don’t answer—”

“Then we have wasted our one call for help.”

“And if we don’t, we leave everyone down there to die!”

Yuko grabbed my shoulder. “Stay down, dumbass!”

I didn’t stay down. I lurched onto my feet and dragged her with me. “We don’t have time to check every station and drill through to every door. If nobody down there is going to hear us unless we scream at the top of our goddamn lungs—”

A wash of static filled my vision, a roar in my ears. Next I knew, I was back on the bed with Yuko cussing at me gently.

“We don’t have the time,” Regina was saying. “Whatever we do next, it has to be the last thing we do.”

Ilya rubbed their forehead. They sat down on one of the other beds, rested their elbows on their knees and their forehead on their knuckles. They let out a long breath.

“What is the absolute latest we can leave here that will still get us to Xuange before the medicine runs out?”

“One day,” said Regina.

“I might could stretch the meds a little longer,” Yuko offered. “Buy us another day or two. It shouldn’t hurt nobody, so long as Mozzie lays off the caffeine.”

“One day,” Regina insisted, “or I can’t guarantee we’ll be able to find our way out.”

“One day,” Ilya sighed. “So: we’ll ping them with the interstellar antenna, and wait twelve hours for an answer. If they answer, we have twelve-plus hours to effect a rescue operation. If we get no answer, we will conclude there is no one left to rescue. Does that sound fair to everyone?”

We all admitted it was the most fair thing we could do.

“Regina, thank you for all your hard work to ensure we make it to Xuange,” Ilya said.

“Thank you for listening to me,” said Regina.

Ilya turned to me. “Ellis, would you like to do the honors?”

Word spread quickly that we would be firing the interstellar antenna. All thirty of the crew gathered to witness it, idling in nearby rooms or hovering in the corridor. Even Valerie came, the crowd parting to let him into comms. He watched with heavy eyes as I positioned the system.

In the slump of his shoulders, the clench of his jaw, there was the quiet question: why not sooner?

“Can we spare the power?” I asked him.

He nodded. I checked everything one last time, and hit go.

The lights flickered and dimmed. My stomach rose as the gravity field weakened. The ventilation sighed out and forgot to inhale. Without it, you could hear the particles of the giant molecular cloud striking the hull, a sound like snowfall. In the corridor, the rest of the crew shuffled and muttered.

The message was as simple as we could make it. With dozens of languages to choose from, we’d opted for no words at all. We sent blasts of white noise grouped into the Fibonacci sequence: one, one, three, five. We could only hope it would be understood.

We heard you. We’re here. Help us find you.

We transmitted until the antenna burned out. When it died, the ship breathed in again. The lights came back on, gravity settled, the air stirred. The comms screen danced with reflections from the planet, then softer return signals from the cloud, then nothing. The mutter in the corridor rose to a gabble. I got to my feet. Ilya helped me stay upright.

“I need a nap,” I said.

“We’ll wake you up as soon as we hear anything,” Ilya promised.

By the time my alarm went off, ninety minutes later, you could hear the molecular cloud from anywhere in the ship. I went straight back to comms and found Regina with her head in her hands, Mozzie pacing and singing under his breath, Ilya staring out the window.

“How bad is it?” I asked.

“We can hold out for two more hours,” Regina said, sickened. “That’s all. That’s all I can give you. And we’ll still be flying blind, but....”

“Not far enough to get lost,” Ilya said.

“We hope, we hope,” Mozzie said. “Should have looked at the density gradient. I’m sorry, we were so busy looking at the planet, we should have thought to check the density gradient of the cloud. If we’d turned our head even for a second—!”

“It’s not your fault,” Regina said.

I looked to Ilya.

“No answer,” they said.

“I guess that’s good.”

“I’m sorry, Ellis,” they said anyway.

I shrugged, helpless. “It’d be a pretty grim irony to get them off the planet just to die on the ship.”

Jae came into the room then, with Yuko behind hir. The two of them reported that the shuttles were docking, our cargo tied down, the concussed crew secured in the med bay in case of incident as we de-orbited.

“Has anyone seen Valerie?” Ilya asked.

“Down by the shuttle bay,” Jae said.

Ilya thanked hir and excused themself from the room. We stood around looking at each other, our hands empty.

“We got through one of the ice walls while you were asleep,” Jae mentioned to me. “There was some kind of airlock behind it. We... decided not to open it. I mean, we opened the first door, when we were pretty sure there was another door behind it, and we banged on the inner door and yelled and sent signals from there, but—you know, even if nobody was alive on the other side, the chance of explosive decompression....”

“Yeah,” I said.

It’s amazing how much silence you can fit in one little room.

A few minutes later, Ilya came over the shipwide, informing us that we were beginning our de-orbiting maneuver. Soon, a low rumble filled the Itinerant. I watched out the window as the light of our thrusters cast a perishingly dim glow on the surface of the planet. I watched it disappear into the starless darkness of the giant molecular cloud.

Valerie came into the comms room at some point during the maneuver. His self-deprecating shrug said: I got kicked out of my own engine room. Jae offered him hir chair, and he took it.

We traveled in darkness, only the rumble of the engines and the hiss of the giant molecular cloud around us. Though none of us stayed put, we all continually drifted back to comms like silt returning to a lakebed. Four hours after we de-orbited, the stars became visible again. Regina monitored the nav computers from her portable workstation—they had our coordinates locked within seconds. We made a minor course correction.

An hour after that, Ilya came on the shipwide again: T-minus one minute to warp. I kept staring out the window, even though there was nothing to see but the great dark cloud behind us.

“We left a beacon on the surface,” Jae said. I tore myself away from the window. Ze smiled at me. “The highest-powered one we had. As soon as we get to Xuange, they can dispatch a real rescue vessel.”

“Won’t it be froze up by now?” Yuko said, glancing between hir and Valerie. “Every damn thing we sent down there was struggling inside of a couple hours, how’s the beacon gonna keep kicking long enough for anybody to find it?”

Valerie’s face was stone.

“The snow could act as an insulator,” Mozzie offered lamely.

“And we know its position and heading,” Regina said. “Even if the beacon dies, we might still be able to find it.”

Jae nodded, relieved. Mozzie rocked gently from side to side. Valerie lifted his head like he’d heard a familiar voice in an unfamiliar place.

Ilya came over the shipwide one last time: T-minus ten seconds to warp.

Mozzie dropped into a chair and braced himself. Regina shut her work station and her eyes. Valerie and Jae steadied themselves on the walls. Yuko took her feet off the table.

Every communicator in the room screeched at once. The rumble of the thrusters was overtaken by the upswinging whine of the warp drive. I grabbed my communicator and lunged for the window. I couldn’t tell you why.

The Itinerant hit five times the speed of light before my foot hit the ground.

Our communicators cut out. The universe drifted past the window, glowing blue towards the front of the ship, utterly dark behind. The whine of the warp core reached a pitch that not even Valerie could hear. I braced myself on the window. It was warm.

Mozzie was the first to move. He said something about sample curation and headed for the door. He hesitated on the threshold.

“It was probably a reflection,” he said. “The transmissions were all so powerful. We caught one coming back the other way after it bounced off of something.”

“Right,” I said.

“That’s all it was,” said Mozzie, and he left.

Regina got up next. She put her hands flat on the table and spoke to them.

“We gave it as long as we could,” she said. “We were hailing them from orbit for five days and heard nothing. It’s been seven hours since we fired the interstellar antenna. Whatever that was—” she gestured to space at large— “it wasn’t an answer. It was too late to be an answer.”

She settled herself with that, then walked out, too.

“Yeah, it’s like Valerie said at the beginning,” Jae said. “All the transmissions were probably automated. Maybe that one just had a longer-range detector, or... something.”

“That was probably it,” I said.

“Well,” said Jae. Ze fidgeted. “I’m—I’m just going to go and check on the... the greenhouse. Make sure nothing got tumbled on the way out of orbit. I’ll... see you around.”

Yuko was next, stopping chuck me on the shoulder and say: “Hey, don’t beat yourself up. It was already a million years too late when we got there.”

“I know.”

“Try and get some sleep,” she said. She followed Jae out.

In the silence that remained, Valerie came to stand by me. His face was waxen, his eyes heavy and bloodshot and staring into the immense emptiness outside. He said nothing.

But he put a hand on my arm, just for a moment, just gently, and it said everything.

#12 Feb 2022 #sci-fi #horror #original writing #original fiction

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katierosefun · 2 years

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you know, april was an insane month for me, between my thesis and making my final senior plans (oh my god, the fact that i now only have maybe a few more weeks of being an undergrad is still so bonkers to me), but! here’s some things that i somehow watched/read/consumed over the past month!

also, a note: i actually rewatched a lot of things this month, but i didn’t include them on this list just because then this post would be outrageously long. here’s my film diary on letterboxd though, if you want to get a look at what i was actually watching. also how badly i was managing my time/how much i was stress-rewatching things in general, oops.

kdrama:

my absolute boyfriend

okay, so this drama was actually a bit of a surprise to me, mostly in that i did not expect to like this show at all, if only because the whole premise (young woman named da da (minah) is sent a robot boyfriend) isn’t exactly my style, but yeo jin goo plays the main love interest, so you know i have to watch it. and needless to say, i was pleasantly surprised? it’s definitely very silly, but sometimes you need a silly show! and what’s nice is that this show doesn’t take itself seriously either! it fully embraces how comedic the whole thing is, and while i think there’s still some stuff that could improve, i ultimately really enjoyed this show. the entire cast was lovely, and actually, outside of jin goo, i realized that i also wanted to see more of bang min ah’s dramas, just because i found her acting a lot stronger than i thought it would be? and also, i guess on another note, it was kinda cool to see what her life as a special effects makeup artist was. she seemed to really know what she was worth, which is always such an admirable trait in a rom-com like this one.

the relationship between da da and yeong goo (the robot) was also so . . . admittedly, the beginning was a bit rough, but i think that like the way yeong goo grows on min ah and eventually becomes someone truly worth loving, their relationship also genuinely made me smile quite a lot. that said though, the last few episodes made me cry so much. like, so much. i was inconsolable. i didn’t expect to feel so many fuckign things over this show but i somehow did like what the fuck--

lost

there are certain shows that i just think came for me at the right time, and lost is one of them. i actually started this show a while ago, but then i stopped because i was distracted by life things, but i got around to finishing this show, and it made me feel a lot of things. basically, this show is about a 40 year old woman named lee bu jeong (jeon do yeon) and a 27 year old man named lee kang jae (ryoo joon yeol). they’ve both suffered through lots of hardships in their lives, and somehow, they wind up connecting with each other. it’s genuinely very touching, and i suppose it says a lot that the literal translation of this show i think is called disqualified souls, which in itself is fitting: bu jeong is a woman who feels like she’s accomplished nothing in her life, and kang jae feels the same.

as such, you can imagine that this show is pretty heavy--and it is. lots of trigger warnings for discussions of suicide especially, just because that’s a pretty big theme throughout the show. that said, i think this show really examined depression and suicide in a way that was honest. sad, but not necessarily for the sake of being truthful and also for the sake of demonstrating that you can eventually heal from the pains of your own life.

circle

so immediately after finishing my absolute boyfriend, i decided to watch this show. i started the first episode way back in september or so, but then i got distracted by other dramas, and then i wound up watching this whole thing in a few days. it’s relatively short, only 12 episodes, so it’s something you can easily watch over a week and a half, and it’s so concisely, smartly written that honestly, i kind of wish i spent longer to digest it all.

but anyways: this is a sci-fi kdrama following a set of twins--kim woo jin (yeo jin goo) and kim beom gyun (ahn woo yeon), who thinks they encountered an alien ten years ago. the kdrama also follows the story of kim joon hyuk (kim kang woo), a detective 20 years in the future in a dystopian society. i won’t go much more into the plot because this is one of those shows that i think you really need to watch this show with little information going in. in any case, this show was so . . . it was so good. lots of twists and turns, but not twisty and turny for the sake of being twisty and turny--like, there’s genuinely smart writing in this show, and it’s so concisely written and i think it really got at the core of the beauty of the sci-fi genre. 10/10 recommend, esp if you feel like you haven’t seen anything good in the sci-fi genre lately.

romance is a bonus book

sigh. i really, really, really wanted to like this kdrama, but tbh, it was such a struggle for me. i’m not willing to say that it’s because this kdrama is bad--i think it’s more like i couldn’t really connect with all the themes in this show, and the characters just felt very far away from me. (like, there wasn’t anyone i could relate to at all. i think this was one of the first kdramas where i was very conscious that this was, in fact, a kdrama in their own bubble of a world. and i say this as someone who watched a sci-fi kdrama this month. the sci-fi kdrama made me feel more grounded in the characters than this one.)

but who knows! maybe one of you guys will like it. basically, it’s about this recently divorced woman named kang dan i (lee na young), who’s trying to get back into the workforce after being a housewife/mom for so long. she manages to secure a job at her friend cha eun ho (lee jong suk)’s publishing house, and the show kinda mostly revolves around the goings-on of this publishing house, as well as their growing relationship.

i mean . . . i dunno. i think i really appreciated each of the leads for who they were, but i couldn’t really get myself invested in the relationship, and i really wanted to! maybe it’s just a me problem, but i couldn’t really feel anything between the two of them outside maybe a solid friendship. that said though, their characters--as well as the side characters!--were all cute and very funny, so i suppose that’s a plus. if anything, i think this show would have worked better as a genuine slice-of-life instead of anything else (kind of like hello, my twenties! or be melodramatic, which i haven’t actually watched, but that’s the only other show i know that’s kind of about struggling with the obstacles that come with being a certain age). kind of a shame that this show was as a disappointment as it was for me--maybe i’ll appreciate this show better when i’m older, but for now, it was kinda . . . eh.

law school

so, i started this school back in like . . . september or october, but as i was applying to law schools at the time, i couldn’t bring myself to watch this show because i just felt all-around wistful and pretty crappy about myself. thankfully, now that i’m officially going to law school, i decided my heart was okay enough to resume this show! and i’m glad i did!

basically, this show is about a group of law school students trying to put together the pieces of the death of a professor. if you’re at all familiar with the show how to get away with murder, there are somewhat similar vibes, but i think law school kinda becomes pretty different outside of the similarity with the “murdered professor” vibe. the characters are very much root-worthy, particularly kang sol a (ryoo hye young) and the quiet han joon hwi (kim beom). i also really enjoyed the aspect about what it means to practice and respect the law, and it def. tickled my brain in a very satisfactory way. however, i will say that the plot can get just a little bit convoluted sometimes, and there were a few parts where things just seemed to get so tangled in each other that i wasn’t sure what was actually going on (so many plots, so many things happening), but ultimately, i enjoyed it!

movies:

shoot me in the heart

so i started this movie back in december, but i didn’t get around to really watching much more until this month, and i’m glad that i did. this movie is based off the korean novel of the same name, following the story of two young men stuck in a mental institution: soo myung (yeo jin goo) and seung min (lee min ki). the mental institution is absolutely brutal, and that’s my warning for the film--it really shows how terribly screwed up mental institutions are, and i am very much so hoping that hopefully, korean mental institutions--and mental institutions around the world in general--are much better now (although i’m still unsure of that).

basically, over the course of this movie, soo myung and seung min grow closer. seung min tries time and time again to break out of the mental institution, and soo myung, who is very much so a model patient, gets caught in his gravity. i won’t spoil the rest of the movie, but it left my heart aching--but i think more in a good way than in a bad way. it made me think a lot about what it means to live, and what it means to live the life that you want instead of living for others, and it was just a lot to process, but in a good way. that said though, if you’re mentally in a vulnerable place right now, i would hold off on watching this movie, just because the first hour or so is pretty brutal, even if there’s happier moments spread out in between.

the long way home

so, i’m not the biggest fan of war movies, in part because of the violence and in part because sometimes they just seem to drag on for a while. but i wanted to watch most of yeo jin goo’s filmography this month, and so i wound up watching the long way home on the same day i finished shoot me in the heart, and boy oh boy oh boy--

basically, the long way home is a part comedy, part typical action/drama war film about the korean war. nam bok (sol kyung gu) is a solider on the south korean side, who needs to deliver this top secret document. one thing leads to another, and he runs into young gwang (yeo jin goo), a student-turned-soldier who winds up getting ahold of this document. now, they’re stuck together in a tank and the movie kind of takes off from there.

oh man. i wasn’t sure how i was going to feel about this movie, just because i personally can’t get into comedies about wartime, but this movie somehow really delivered? and i think particularly the last act of the movie (last 30 minutes) really dug into the whole thesis of the film, which is basically that war is unpleasant for everyone, and specifically in the case of the korean war, when families and loved ones were all split because of this tragedy, it’s . . . a lot. and so i liked this film a lot more than i thought i would.

room no. 7

after watching this movie, i joked that there should be a category of movies called “it’s not very good, but shin ha kyun really acted with his whole heart as always, and therefore it deserves one more star than it’s actually worth”, and that’s kinda how i felt with room no. 7. it’s a dark comedy about doo sik (shin ha kyun), the owner of a dvd room (ie. couples come in, choose a dvd to select, and then go to one of the back rooms to netflix and chill). he’s desperate to sell this place, and his part timer tae jung (doh kyung soo, yes, that doh kyung soo of exo) is desperate to pay off his debt. basically, just two guys who very much so need money. and then things get complicated when uh . . . well, now there’s a dead body.

like, to be honest, i actually really liked the first and middle portions of this movie--but the ending kinda ? ? ? idk, i feel like it could have gone a lot better by the ending. it’s relatively lighthearted, and the humor’s a bit crass, but y’know, i did enjoy it for shin ha kyun.

on your wedding day

i actually started this movie back in january i think, but i got around to finishing it this month, and i’m glad i did. basically, it’s about hwang woo yeon (kim young kwang), who falls in love with seung hee (park bo young) in high school. they wind up getting closer before seung hee moves away--and then, because he misses her so much, woo yeon winds up studying hard enough to go to the same college as her. and basically, this movie sort of follows their relationship and all the highs and lows that comes with first love.

let me just say that i used to be really, really cynical of the whole concept of someone getting so much energy because of a first love--until i myself was in a similar position. watching this movie was a bit bittersweet for me in that way, in seeing woo yeon go through his life with very little focuses outside of seung hee--but this isn’t to say that seung hee is, like, an object in the way that a lot of movies have objects/manic pixie dream girls. seung hee is very much so real, someone who has a lot of struggles and burdens and is very down-to-earth, and the way she responds to woo yeon’s feelings is incredibly realistic, i think, in that woo yeon is seung hee’s first love as well.

but you know, some people are lucky enough for their first love to be their only love.

hot young bloods

okay, so . . . this movie was fun. like, middling sort of fun. lots of people being beat up (good grief so many people getting beat up). basically, this movie is about a bunch of high schoolers during the 80s, lots of gang activity, etc. things get kind of awry when this new girl from seoul so hee (lee se young) moves to the little town. local flirt joong gil (lee jong suk) makes it his mission to charm so hee, while the local bad girl-slash-ex-childhood-bestie young sook (park bo young) tries to prevent this from happening. that’s a pretty simple summary of the movie--when in reality, this movie was an oddly compelling look at messy relationships in high school, backstabbing, betrayal, friendships, etc.

okay so ngl, it was kinda a forgettable movie for me. interesting because i don’t think i’ve seen lee jong suk play more comedic rules in a hot second, and i was actually impressed how he could pull slightly more comedic faces . . . and park bo young, of course, was impressive as always. it always surprises me how she can play someone equal parts badass and soft, depending on the character she’s acting.

anyways, did i think it was fun? yeah. maybe not my fave, but it was nice, and i did like the ending, so!

sympathy for lady vengeance

this movie has been on my to watch list forever, ever since i watched sympathy for mr. vengeance back a few months ago. directed by the famous park chan wook, this film is about a woman named lee geum ja (lee young ae), who, 13 years ago, was accused of kidnapping and murdering a little boy. now out of prison, she’s out to get revenge for the real person who committed this crime.

i won’t let myself summarize this movie any more than that--i think this is one of those movies that you kind of have to watch without knowing much more than this is a film about revenge, and it’s so . . . good. like, everything, from the writing to the acting (lee young ae, iconic queen as always, it’s no surprise this is one of her biggest roles ever) to the camerawork (god . . . not to sound pretentious, but i think this might be one of my favorite films solely for the coloring and god god god you have to watch it to understand what’s going on it’s so good)

i think what i adored most about this movie though was that besides the fantastic acting and writing, i was also really surprised by how the violence wasn’t . . . quite as explicit and in your face as it was in sympathy for mr. vengeance (which is a fantastic film as well, and there were actually a few callbacks to that movie here). there’s def. still some blood, but it’s def. a different vibe, and tbh, it’s just .. . . so good. i can fully say that this is now one of my favorite films, and that’s saying quite a lot.

dunkirk

i’m really not the biggest fan of war movies, but while i was at home for break, my brother wanted to watch this, so i did. . . and i was pleasantly surprised? dunkirk is about the evacuation of the allied forces on the beach of dunkirk in france. unlike a lot of world war ii movies i’ve seen, dunkirk is very . . . quiet. and tense. so tense. i was so stressed every single second of the film, which i think was the greatest strength here. i mean, i might even rewatch this movie on my own, if only because i really want to digest exactly how . . . nervewracking every single scene is.

stoker

dude this movie is so good. so good. and so creepy. and so good. brilliant.

i’ve been making a point to watch all of park chan wook’s films, and so i decided to give stoker a go. and god, i loved it. i don’t want to spoil it because i basically knew nothing of the film when i was going in, but i’m familiar with park chan wook’s other films, so i knew it was going to be fucked up. but in an excellent way.

stoker is basically about a young girl named india (mia wasikowska), whose father tragically died in a car accident. following the wake of her father’s death, her uncle charlie (matthew goode) comes to stay with india and her mother (nicole kidman). india’s totally caught off-guard . . . because she never even knew she had an uncle.

this film is just . . . it’s insane. it’s good. it’s insane. it’s so good. so good. i can’t talk much more about this film because i really don’t want to spoil it--but oh god, it was excellent. 1000/10.

books:

yolk by mary hk choi

i bought this book on an absolute whim, mostly because the cover was so pretty and also because i apparently follow mary hk choi on instagram (although i don’t remember when). but in any case, a book about korean-american sisters and their on- and off-relationship? the protagonist being kind of a disaster? (because yes. please do give me more korean-american characters who didn’t go to ivy league schools to become doctors or lawyers or business people, but instead wound up being art students who live in a ratty apartment and have poor taste in men and also have a slew of issues but just don’t know how to deal with them because see: grew up in a korean-american family.)

bro. i cried so much. i cried so much reading this book in ways that i didn’t think were possible. i still don’t really know how to put my feelings into words, but this book is about jayne baek, whose world becomes much more complicated when her estranged older sister june confesses she’s been diagnosed with cancer. over the course of roughly 400 pages, you get so much about their relationship, that bizarre “i love you, i hate you” kind of relationship that comes with siblings, as well as just how messy both of them are . . . but specifically jayne. god, it’s been a while since i’ve met a character who’s so insanely messy but still understandable, and that’s jayne. do be wary because there’s a lot of references to jayne’s battle with bulimia (that’s just one of her many issues).

god. i dunno. this book was weirdly personal to me in so many ways (the korean-american experience, but also the specific kind of korean-american experience jayne goes through . . . with all the mental illness and the ups and downs of her relationship with her sister . . .) god. it’s just all lovely. i cried. i think this might be the first book i’ve ever read that genuinely made me cry as much as i did. highly recommend, 100/10.

rewatched:

hwayi

no mercy for the rude

barbie in the nutcracker

the haunting of bly manor

little forest

the handmaiden

coraline

doctor sleep

anastasia

matilda

paperman

sympathy for mr. vengeance

#caroline recs #i actually watched more things than this #i actually rewatched hwayi #i also rewatched no mercy for the rude #and also the haunting of bly manor #and also the handmaiden #and also barbie and the nutcracker #and little forest #oh god i really did rewatch a lot of things huh

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sagemusesoutloud · 3 years

Text

Anti-Romantic, Part 2

(credit to the original owner of the image)

Character | Jaehyun x reader

Genre | nonidol!au, Mutual Pining, Slowburn, Fluff

WordCount | 2 K (bitesized for your convenience lol)

Author'sNote | I know this is kinda short, but I've decided not to rush the ending. I'm for sure not drag it out too much, but the slowburn reaaaally got to me and I ended up liking more than I orginially thought, so! I'll be back to post Part 3 tomorrow!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

I know that you love me, It makes me deeply drunk

You’re like champagne, I shouldn’t do this

You’re at the base of the stairs to your apartment complex when he pulls up. The window on the passenger side rolls down.

“Hurry! I think they’re about to wash the machines at the ice cream shop!” he reaches over and opens your door while you grab your two bags and your pillow. You loved him, you really did, but he had the flattest, most uncomfortable pillows in the world in his guestroom.

“What? Why didn’t you stop there before picking me up? It’s not like you don’t know what I like.” You’re trying to move all your stuff to the backseat as he pulls away.

He sighs, “Thank you Jae, you’re so nice to pick me up,” he mutters. You’d be a bit apologetic if it wasn’t for the grin he was trying to hide. “I’ve already spent most of my ‘special’ day alone, thanks to someone who had to bail on me. I wanna spend the rest with you.”

“I knew it, it bothered you didn’t it?” You accused while fastening your seatbelt. “Next time, just tell me, I know it seems as if I know everything but I actually can’t read minds.” You knew he was just messing with you but for some reason his words cut at the guilty feeling you were trying to push away. “I actually got you something this time around, it’s why I wanted to see you before the day ended.”

Jae parks the car outside the shop before turning to you, “wait, did you really get me something?” You sigh, offended, “well, if you don’t want it or don’t like the idea of it, then I can still return it.”

“I just thought of you when I saw it…” crap, it’s too soon for you to go anywhere near that subject.

“That’s not what I meant,” he shakes his head, “It’s just been a while since we shared birthday gifts.” You look away from him. If he kept this up, you’ll start to regret calling him. Your hands were slightly shaking with the effort of not reaching over and pouring all your feelings into him. Unlike what you’re used to, he was dressed down with a simple t-shirt and grey sweats. He looked so soft, and domestic. You hated how much you loved it. At least for work, you had both always been professionally dressed, which was a nice barrier for your thoughts. If you dressed professional, you felt professional. This helped control your thoughts. But now that you were here with him, it was definitely harder to keep track of your thoughts.

Today was a day for him, not for you. You took in a deep breath as you turn to look at the shop. It looked like they were getting ready to start closing duties. Even if you weren’t looking at him, you could feel your heart race with acute awareness to his proximity in the small car. He was waiting for a response.

You open your door, “yeah well…if we don’t hurry, we won’t get those diabetes-inducing bombs you’re so fond of. And this all would have been for naught.” You needed to get a grip, fast.

I can clearly see the end, Worse than a hangover

It will be hard, Now, Just end it somewhere here

“I can’t believe you told them it was my birthday,” he groaned, pushing off his shoes at the door. You followed suit.

“Of course I did, it meant free goodies!” You raise the plastic bag with macarons. “It just sucks that they’re all valentine’s themed.” You make your way to the kitchen to put away the snacks you brought, dumping your overnight bag at the door of the guestroom. Maybe if you kept the heart-shaped gift out of sight, it won’t make you as nervous with him.

“I brought your fave by the way, chocolate covered almonds and gummy bears,” you call out. He appears in the kitchen, hair out of his way with a headband. Be still my heart, you thought. You decide to hyper-focus on placing some snacks on a plate to bring to the living room.

“So, what’s the plan?” He reaches over you to grab a water bottle from the fridge, brushing your hip with his front. No no no no no no no!

Was he teasing you? You knew that your face would give you away, you could feel how warm your ears and cheeks were. You hated how honest your face was, and it didn’t help that Jae knew you like the back of his hand. Maybe this is how he is nowadays? Flirty and confident? You’d be lying if you didn’t find it attractive, but not when his attention was only directed at you. You felt like you were slowly suffocating but even that wouldn’t stop the warm light that seemed to burst from your chest.

It seemed so easy to pretend you were closer to him, to pretend this happened all the time. That you were close enough to reciprocate his flirty actions.

“uh, em,” you clear your throat, “actually, I remembered you wanting to see that movie last time we hung out. I have it ready in my apple tv account.” You back away with the tray, “can you also grab me a water?” your throat was suddenly parched.

You settle in the couch, grabbing the throw blanket behind you. Any physical barrier you could place between you, you’d take it gratefully. “You remembered? That was almost three months ago, when the trailer came out.” He handed you your water and grabbed at the corner of the blanket nearest to him, covering himself with it and moving closer to you so that you both could fit under it.

“Jae, there’s another blanket on your side of the couch,” you wanted to feel embarrassed but you just felt an unexpected giddy feeling at him wanting to be near you. “Yeah but it’s my birthday and this blanket is my favorite,” he says as he pulls you closer and wraps his arm behind you on the couch.

“here, put in your credentials so we can start the movie,” he hands you the remote.

You suddenly thank your lucky stars that the movie was an action packed one and not a romantic one. You couldn’t help but sink further into his side, wanting to be comfortable. As the movie starts, he takes the remote from your hand and wraps your arm around him. “I’m cold, keep me warm,” he mutters. Oh sweet Jesus.

Back in the day, this wouldn’t have been something new. Your friends knew you were very heavy with the affectionate touches. A hug, sharing seats, even holding hands. You never shied away from it because it was part of how you showed your friends that you loved them. Some of your friends were also this way, so it was never weird. But now that you’re older, and now that it’s been a long long time since you’ve been close to someone else, the once innocent touches Jae was giving you felt like hot brands across your shoulders and under your arm. If you focused enough, you could feel his hard work at the gym in the way your softness gave way to the hard contours of his leg that pressed against yours and how your shoulder leaned against his chest.

This was going to be a long movie.

You prayed that Jae wouldn’t ask you what the movie was about, you only had enough sanity to pay attention to the first fifteen minutes. It was all a blur after Jae pulled you half over on his lap, “you’re hogging the blanket, move over,” was the only excuse he gave.

Now, your legs were tangled with his and you sat almost on his lap, his arms encircling you from behind. He felt so soft and every little movement made your skin break out in goosebumps. You felt like a live wire about to explode.

“D-did you like it?” you started shifting to the side so you could face him but he held you tighter in place, resting his chin on your shoulder. “yeah, it was pretty good, we have to wait for the end credits though. I heard that they’re starting to give hints about The Eternals.”

“Did you like it?” he squeezes your middle.

Did you? You’re not sure, but you sure as hell loved the attention you were getting for the past two and half hours. “Yeah, all Marvel movies are great,” you finally concede.

“Wanna watch another one? You can pick this time,” his hand started tracing through your arm as you waited for the stupid end scene that was taking too long to start. Is it getting hot in here?

“Sure, whatever you want,” you mutter. He could have asked you for the most ridiculous thing and you would have still agreed to it.

Jae wakes with a start, the room was dark, the only light came from the still on TV. A show was playing softly, the clock under the tv read 3:45 am. He felt pretty hot, was the A/C not working?

He begins to shift when he realizes the position you both are in. Your legs were still tangled together, as if unconsciously refusing to let go of the proximity. You gripped his shoulder, your breath hitting his neck as you slept soundly on top of him. God, if this is a dream, let me never wake up, he thinks.

He usually hates being too close to someone, any sort of intimacy was bad news to Jaehyun. Either emotionally or physically, he kept everyone at a distance because he had seen it too often. How people settled for something they weren’t sure of and hurting those involved. He was aware he was too logical sometimes, but it’s what he knew to protect himself. Moments like these, they only lead to expectations and empty feelings, leaving behind only pain that even time couldn’t heal sometimes.

But why was he finding it so hard to untangle himself from your embrace? He should go to his bed and sleep comfortably, but at the same time, having you in his arms felt just right. Like two pieces of a puzzle finally coming together.

He could smell the light scent that was you and it almost made him squeeze you closer, as if it was possible. You smelled of spring, a light floral scent that reminded him of better days.

He was glad he woke up, he was going to enjoy every second of peace this brought him. He would store it in a little box and hold on tightly when the cold reality came back. As he fought with his drowsiness, he felt you nestle closer. He kissed the crown of your head as he finally gave in to sleep. I hope I dream of you… If this was love, he finally understood why sometimes the pain was worth a shot.

So stupid, sweet love song, extravagant rom-com

As much as I was happy, on the receipt there’s a red line

EndNote | I know this chapter was pretty short. In all honesty, I had written something else before deleting it entirely and starting again, but I really like the direction the story is going now. Hopefully I can update Part 3 tomorrow, but I'm really excited about it!

Previous: Part 1 | Next: Part 3

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najatheangel · 4 years

Text

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲

pairing: yoon-oh jaehyun x reader

genre: slightly spicy + angst

author’s note: I’ve meant to say this earlier, but we’ve reached another milestone on Dive in. Happy 111 notes that’s the most notes I’ve ever got!! I’m forever thankful, here’s another one for ya lovelies. 🥺💖💖

“If you walk out that door one more time, we’re through. Enough is enough!”

Your boyfriend Miles chases walks behind you pissing you off even more. You were just so fed up with the screaming, abuse and drunken arguments every night looking for a chance to escape. You start grabbing your purse trying to head your way out the door hollering back at Miles saying...

“Well then I guess we’re through then. Not like you give a shit about me anyways. Go on and crawl back to that Luna girl.”

Miles tries to block the door one last time grabbing you by the arm with his dark intense eyes. He then proceeds to grab you by the hair and say...

“Where do you think your going? Are you going to cry back to Jaehyun? You know he doesn’t love you like I do.”

You pushed him away from you boiling in anger and slammed the door behind you stomping your way to your car. Before you drive off you throw your middle finger up to Miles mouthing “Peace out” and head your way to find Jaehyun.

Your relationship with Jaehyun was very complicated to say the least. He was always there for you helping you forget about your toxic relationship with Miles. At first you were meeting at the club daily for friendly outings with each other’s friend groups, but then tonight changed everything...

You’ve pulled up at the club where you usually like to meet up with Jaehyun the bartender ready to rant about your problems with him once again. Tonight seemed a little more packed then usual so you pushed your way through the drunk crowd.

“Jaehyun! You already know one Bahama Mama in the house.” You slam your butt down on the chair leaving the biggest sigh of relief.

His eyes flash when he sees you and he pulls the cutest smirk you’ve seen on his face for awhile. “Coming right up. What happened this time?”

While he’s making your drink you start to break down and whimper while telling him about your months of dealing with your abusive relationship with Miles.

“Guess what happened tonight Jae? He had the nerve to bring another girl over a few hours ago when I came back home from work. I heard them moaning so loud so you know what I did... I slammed the door open, told the girl to get out, packed my shit and I told him we’re done. He even tried to say that I was cheating on him with you like can you believe that guy Uggh the nerve.”

Jaehyun shakes his head getting more frustrated for you on how the situation became worse. He hated Miles ever since you started dating him. He knew he was aggressive, manipulator and abusive to all the women he has dated.

“You know if you want, I’ll beat him up for you.” He slides the drink down to you cracking his knuckles.

“Jaehyun no need I’ve already chewed him up before I left. I even burned his clothes, slit his tires and tore up his shoes which was why he was trying to chase after me.” You chuckle wiping the tears of your face.

Jaehyun loved how brave and outrageous you can be on your own dealing with scumbags like Miles which is why he found you even more attractive. What he didn’t like about you was how you keep dating people that you know is not good for you. He wanted to be the man to change your toxic cycle and move you to the right direction.

Tonight was the night to prove himself of how worthy he can be to become your next and only lover. He sparked this idea in his head and knew how he was going to cheer you up.

“Hey y/n...let’s not talk about that anymore. How about we spent the whole night dancing and forget that any of that shit ever happened? I can show you a good time...”

“Jae where is all this coming from? Of course I will!”

The liquor has already kicked in, but Jaehyun still didn’t hesitate to grasp your hand and take you on the dance floor.

Jaehyun kind of took you by surprise with him dancing along to Kick it. The whole crowd was screaming in cheers, but of course you screamed the loudest. Jaehyun even pulled of the iconic dance break.

Slowly you started to see Jaehyun in a different light. Of course you’ve always thought he was attractive and was very talented. You kept telling him he was much better than making drinks at a nightclub, but he would always brush it off and continue his partying days at the nightclub.

The lights turn pink all of a sudden in the nightclub and the atmosphere turns very hot and heavy real fast. What made it much dirtier was a summer walker song plays very faint in the background.

Jaehyun notices you becoming very bold and starts dancing up on him. You unleash your inner stripper and start grinding on him. He’s already having a hard time concentrating by your two piece skirt out fit. He starts getting closer against your figure and sway with your body to the music.

Jaehyun glances at your body movements from head to toe looking impressed.

“I didn’t know you can get down like that. You feel so fucking good.”

He turns your body around so you can face him.

You start flirting back at him making him sweat a little.

“If I knew you wanted this along time ago all you had to do was ask.”

“Of course how could anyone not want you I mean look at you baby.”

He kisses the side of your neck.

You stood there frozen for a second not sure how to react to Jaehyun’s bold response. Normally when you drink your more confident, but he really got you locked around his finger.

He all of a sudden grabs your waist swaying with you along with music and starts teasing you by moving his face super close, but not kissing you. He teases you more by saying

“It would be pretty bad if I kissed you huh? After all you just got out of a nasty break up.”

“I don’t care anymore, your the one I’ve always truly wanted. I wish I can just follow my heart sometimes.”

“It’s still not too late we have the night to ourselves. Let me help you change all of that tonight. If you decide not to be with me, you can just toss me to the side and forget all this happened, okay?”

You give him the nod to assure him this is what you wanted and you finally started kissing him. Boy was he an amazing kisser he knew exactly when to bite and slide his tongue in at the perfect time. While you were laughing nervously, you tugged onto his jacket giving him the signal.

“I think we should go somewhere more private, people seem to be staring a little bit.”

He made you even more hot and bothered by kissing the side of your neck. They don’t call him the lover boy for no reason. You drag him out the dance floor to finish your business privately.

In the midst of the make out session you start hearing him scream your name and confess his love for you. The DJ announces the club closes in about 15 minutes and you both start panicking.

“Ahh maybe we should do this on the way back home, there’s no way we’ll be able to-”

He cuts you of with another peck on the lips and say...

“Shh you must’ve forgot that I work here. Until everyone leaves we have this place all to ourselves and we can make all the noises we want. Remember just follow your heart.”

He tends to have his way with almost any women and to think that now he’s having you falling for him. Whether this was pure lust or the beginning of a new love sparking you didn’t want to screw this up with Jaehyun.

He’s been there for you not only with your ex boyfriend problems, but even with your family issues. He might’ve just been the one to heal all your wounds and cater to your needs. You smile to yourself highlighting your memories with Jaehyun and finally give in not afraid of declaring your feelings to him.

“Fine your lucky I like you so much. I’ll follow my heart from now on.”

So you slam the door behind you locking it and proceed to sit on his lap to finish what you both started.

Hope you enjoyed this story and let me know what you think. The tag list is also open for those who want to join.

#nct reactions #nct smut #nct angst #nct drabbles #nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct 127 imagines #nct 127 scenarios #nct 127 angst #nct 127 smut #jaehyun #jaehyun drabbles #nct 127 drabbles #jaehyun smut #jaehyun angst

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gamerwoo · 4 years

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[Tales from the Pack] Hansol: Fire and Ice (Part Eight)

Characters: Hansol x female reader

Genre/warnings: werewolf au, fantasy, angst but it’s actually not too angsty, i wouldn’t really call any of this fluff necessarily but it’s definitely not super angsty, mentions of not eating bc depression, mentions of death and suicide

Word count: 2,701

Summary: You’ve always been one to let your emotions get the best of you – your power reflects that – and you’ve never been good at expressing them. That’s why you always thought you’d be awful with a mate, but you never thought things would be this awful.

a/n: things in bold are in english. also since people have been asking, at the bottom of the tftp info list, there’s a list for jiung’s pack. i didn’t think remembering their names and such were really important for the story but people wanted to know who they were and requested i add it anyway. if there’s any other info you’d like me to add, please let me know!!

Previous | Next | Fire and Ice Masterlist

As expected, you were gone when Hansol woke up on the couch. He checked his room and saw a note on the nightstand, along with Chanseong’s ring. The necklace, however, wasn’t there.

Please give this to the pack. They deserve something of theirs as much as I do.

-_____

Hansol put the ring in his pocket before grabbing a jacket and some shoes to go out for the day. He figured he could make it to their house and be back in time for lunch, so he started off as soon as he was ready to go.

As he got to the door, Soonyoung stopped him, “Suvi and I went and spoke to that doctor the other day -- the one Hanbin’s pack mentioned to us. She said she can take a look at you…if you want.”

Hansol nodded, “I’m still thinking about it.”

“When will you decide?” Soonyoung sighed. “We all know it’s hurting you.”

Hansol couldn’t deny that even having on a very thin t-shirt still irritated the silver in him, but he wasn’t going to fix it until he was sure there was a good reason to.

“I’ll decide when _____ decides,” he stated before leaving the house and going toward Hanbin’s.

As expected, it only took a few hours in his human form. The ring was safely in his pocket, and he checked every so often to make sure it was still there. He didn’t want to touch it too much but he wanted to make sure it wasn’t suddenly lost or something.

Besides giving the pack the ring, he wanted to get a few things for you. Maybe some of your clothes or belongings you didn’t take, probably a few more shirts of Jiung’s just so you’d have other things that smelled like him. Maybe he’d even get one of his blankets or something just so it wouldn’t lose his scent as quickly. He just wanted things that would make you feel more at home with his pack, even if you only decided to stay with them for a short amount of time.

The fact that you were pushing him away hurt, but what hurt more was that you were unhappy. Hansol didn’t blame you, not at all. He knew you were pushing people away to cope, and people coped it different ways. Like you, some people preferred being alone rather than surrounded by others. Your brother had died, then his mate confessed to only you that he was going to kill himself, you were expected to step up and be an alpha, and everyone had been yelling at you to make decisions since the moment you woke up. He didn’t blame you for acting the way you did, even if you were pushing him away, too. He wanted to give you space to heal, hoping you’d come to him when you were ready.

But even if he wasn’t really the one who killed your brother, he understood your anger and frustration. From what your old pack had told him, you were known for bottling up your emotions until they burst, and you acted without thinking of consequences. You didn’t know how to make sense of what you felt, and you needed something or someone to blame and take your anger out on. Everyone who came near seemed to be a target, but he at least understood why you felt so angry. As long as he understood you, he didn’t think anyone else needed to.

He strolled up to the deck and knocked on the door. He smiled politely down at the mate who answered. He vaguely recalled her name was Seongmi.

“Oh, you’re from that other pack,” the girl smiled politely when she recognized him. “How can we help you?”

“Actually, I have something for your pack,” he began, as Hanbin and Jaesang made their way over. “And…I was wondering if maybe there was anything I could bring back for _____?”

“_____ ran away to your pack?” Hanbin asked, a relieved smile on his face.

Despite what Hanbin probably assumed, Hansol’s expression dropped, shaking his head, “No, not directly. She… One of our mates – the banshee – found her trying to do harm to herself. We got lucky.”

“_____…” Jaesang sighed, shaking his head as he ran his hands over his face.

Hanbin waved the younger wolf inside, “Please come in, Hansol.”

So he followed the two wolves into the living room. Most of the mates didn’t seem to be home, save for Rika who was sewing up Hyojun’s shirt that was completely torn down the back. The wolf just looked up at you and grinned while Rika kept her eyes on the needle between her delicate fingers.

The rest of the pack was inside and seemed to just be resting, mostly. Baekhan was lounging on the couch with a mug in his hands, and Jinyoung was sipping from a bottle of whiskey as he spoke about something else entirely to the two wolves in the room. The only one who seemed to be missing was Rin.

“Hey, Hansol!” Jinyoung nodded as he lifted his bottle to the young wolf. “What brings you back here? Wait, _____ didn’t–”

“_____ is safe,” Hanbin stated.

Jinyoung nodded again, trying to settle his heart that had picked up as he took another sip of whiskey, “Good, good. So then why’d you decide to stop by?”

“I went back to the house the other night,” he began as he fished around in his pocket. “I was hoping to find…well, anything related to Jiung or Chanseong, and I found Jiung’s necklace and gave it to _____. But she left and note and said you guys might want this.”

He opened his palm to show the ring. Hanbin took it, a smile growing on his face as he realized what it was. Even Rika had stopped what she was doing to see what it was.

“Is that…?” her question trailed off, her voice soft.

“It’s the ring,” Hanbin chuckled, shaking his head. “I’ll be damned. We figured there wasn’t going to be anything left.”

“That’s probably not made out of any normal gold,” Hyojun nodded. “Actually...what temperature does gold melt at?”

Hanbin looked up from the ring, his golden eyes sparkling, “Thank you, seriously. Bringing this back means the world to us.”

Hansol nodded in reply.

“You wanted some of the kid’s stuff, right?” Jaesang asked as Hanbin handed the ring off to Rika for her to look at.

Rika rolled her eyes before examining the ring, “She’s still older than you, Jae.”

“And maybe some of Jiung’s, if that’s okay. I noticed she likes to wear his things, and I figured the sweater she’s been wearing is losing his scent. Maybe there’s something that’ll keep the scent for longer that’s less prone to getting dirty,” Hansol chuckled, carding a hand through his hair.

“Of course,” Hanbin nodded. “Follow me.”

The alpha led him upstairs, going to your room first. Hansol quickly went through and grabbed anything he thought you might need, stuffing it into a backpack that was hung on the back of your door. He made sure to grab the picture of you, Jiung, and what he assumed was the rest of your family, off of your nightstand as well, and one of you and a very large group of people – he assumed was the pack before so many died – before he left the room.

Down the hall, Hanbin stopped and opened a door. As soon as it was opened, Hansol knew it was Jiung’s because it still smelled strongly of the late alpha. He looked around a bit, noticing the place was less minimalistic than yours. It had a lot more pictures on desks and dressers, and even hanging on the walls. Clearly, family and pack were something Jiung treasured dearly. There were pictures of other people around Jiung’s age, as well as pictures of people who seemed to be from other countries just like the one he’d grabbed from your room. With Hanbin’s help, Hansol was able to pack pictures that seemed most important, such as ones with your family and old pack members you were close with.

The second thing he did was go through Jiung’s clothes, grabbing as many sweaters as he could since you seemed to like warm things – he assumed it was because of your firebending power – but also a few t-shirts. Hanbin also took the knitted throw blanket from Jiung’s bed and handed it over to the younger wolf.

“His mother knitted this for him and sent it with him as a birthday gift one year,” the alpha explained. “I think _____ will like this, and she’ll probably keep it someplace where it won’t lose the scent. But if she ever misses him and needs something else to feel close to him, you know where to find us.”

Hansol gave the older wolf a grateful smile, “Thank you, Hanbin.”

“You take good care of _____, okay?” Hanbin told him, clapping a hand on Hansol’s shoulder. “If you can do anything about it, don’t let her leave you. I know she’s not really mad at you, but she’s too overwhelmed to face her real emotions. Just…help her though them if you can.”

“I’ll try,” Hansol nodded with a sure look, “I promise.”

As he expected, Hansol made it back just in time for lunch. He went and brought everything upstairs, planning to unpack it all afterwards. You weren’t up there, so he assumed you weren’t home – at least he hoped that you weren’t home yet but you would be. So he left the backpack on the bed and went downstairs to wash up for lunch.

As he bounded down the steps, he could hear the pack talking with each other. They seemed to be adjusting nicely to the new house which made everybody happy. Suvi was so far unrecognizable – then again, word about her might not have traveled this far yet – Eunjin hadn’t been screaming as often – though she did one night but she said it was because she couldn’t “hear them” and nobody was going to ask what that meant – and even the wolves seemed to enjoy the larger space. The only person having a more difficult time was Jia just because she was still trying to memorize the layout.

“Hansol!” Yeji grinned as she walked over to him. Dirt was covering every part of her skin that was exposed, and her tail was swishing lazily behind her with some patches of fur matted down. “Do you know if _____ is coming?”

He just shrugged, trying not to let his face turn into a frown, “I’m not sure, to be honest.”

Yeji just scrunched up her nose, one of her ears twitching slightly, “Oh… Uh, well, try not to get too upset over it, y’know? She’s still…recovering.”

“Im Yeji!” Jihoon barked, frowning at the state his mate was in. “Go clean up, you’re not eating like that!”

“Relax,” she scoffed, turning to face her mate, “I’ve eaten off the forest floor before.”

“No,” he stated, grabbing her hand and bringing her to the bathroom. “You’re not eating while you’re covered in dirt. That’s disgusting.”

Hansol just chuckled at the couple and made his way to the kitchen where most of the pack was, and where the great smell of food was coming from. He hoped that maybe someday you and him could be like Yeji and Jihoon. He thought they were cute.

The pack started taking seats as they waited for food to be done. They typically took food from the stove and then went to wherever to eat it, but they only sat at the table to wait for it to be done. And sure enough, at noon, Soomin, Jun, and Mingyu stepped away from the stove to let the mates get their food.

And only a few seconds later did Hansol’s heartbeat pick up, and then a moment after that, the front door opened. The werewolves heard it as well, but the entire pack didn’t look until the door closed.

You appeared in the doorway, seeing lots of eyes on you which made your cheeks heat up involuntarily.

“…Hi,” was all you could think to say.

“Hi, _____!” Danbi chirped, and you thanked whatever higher being that she was there to make things less weird. “Glad to have you for lunch!”

“Yeah, come sit,” Mingyu smiled, waving you in.

As you entered the kitchen, you locked eyes with Hansol for a brief moment. He was looking at you almost in awe, like God had appeared right in front of him for afternoon tea, and you felt your face heating up even more. You cast your gaze downward as you went to take the seat between Mingyu and Eunjin.

“_____, you’re welcome to get food with the girls,” Soomin told you.

You just shook your head, replying instinctively, “Mates eat first.”

That was always the rule with your previous pack: mates, then both male and female wolves. You may not have eaten as much as a male wolf could, but you definitely ate more than any human.

So after all the mates got their food, Mingyu gestured for you to help yourself. However, you didn’t want to eat. You still had that pit in your stomach that just made you want to gag at the mere idea of food. You really just wanted to go crawl back into bed and hide, but you couldn’t do that here -- you did go back to Baekhyun just to let him know you were still alive because he panicked a lot when he woke up to you missing, and you considered just staying there again. There were too many people here to hide, and you were sure to get annoyed by the noise.

“I’m not hungry,” you mumbled, waving their concerned looks away with your hand.

“_____, you should really eat something,” Soonyoung spoke up. “When was the last time you ate?”

“When I was out,” you lied. All you actually did when you were out was hide to escape the noise and people to be alone. “I’m fine, seriously.”

So the males got up to get their food, taking basically whatever was left. You listened to the pack chat with each other while you silently watched them eat. Hansol sat on the opposite side of the table between Seokmin and Joshua, and you could feel his eyes on you the entire time. However, he didn’t try making conversation with you at all.

“So, _____,” Joshua began, speaking in English as he gathered food with his utensils, “mind if I ask what you’ve been up to lately?”

You just shrugged, “It’s been a while since I’ve seen the town. I went to visit some old friends, went to see what’s changed, stuff like that.”

“And how are you…feeling today?” he asked, his tone suddenly more serious as he was referring to what happened the night before.

You just shook your head and didn’t say anything. He got the hint, though. You didn’t want to talk about it, and that was a feeling he understood. Although, you still couldn’t help but wonder how Eunjin got to you when she did. Did Jiung really manage to lead her there before anything happened? Was she sure it was him?

“Does Eunjin know who she’s speaking to?” you asked Josh, looking down at your plate. You would’ve asked her yourself, but you didn’t want to let the rest of the pack in on your conversation topic. “Like, is she aware of who they were before?”

“I think so, yeah,” Josh nodded. “Why, are you thinking about last night?”

Slowly, you nodded, looking up to meet Joshua’s curious golden eyes, “My parents believed in spirits and stuff. They also said that if you woke up from a dream with a headache, that a spirit was getting inside your head to talk to you.”

The older wolf just shrugged, “I dunno, _____. At this point, I kind of just believe any of that could be possible. I guess it’s up to you to decide if you believe, though.”

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lycheesqueeze · 4 years

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4 K-Dramas that make me go ✨w o m a n✨

Today I present to you the Crème de la Crème. Beautiful, pretty, smart and unstoppable: These K-Dramas make me want to marry the female characters. I promise after watching these four series you will question yourself again what sexuality you are.

Strong roles for female characters are actually rare in K-Drama. Too often they depend on the help and validation of men, are portrayed stereotypical or in unrealistic ways. These following K-Dramas are breaking the standard roles of those female characters and make them the heroine of the story:

- Hotel del Luna [호텔 델루나] // 2019 by Oh Choong-Hwan, Hong Jeong-Eun // 16 Episodes

Hotel del Luna is a story about Man-Wol, who is forced to care for a supernatural hotel due to a sin she committed in the past. It is a guest house for the souls/ghosts of deceased humans who have unfinished business on earth before going to the afterlife. Besides Man-Wol there are also other staff at the hotel such as the receptionist Hyun-Joong and the human hotel manager Chan-Sung. The story evolves around Man-Wol’s past life, her relationship with Chan-Sung and the development of her character.

Man-Wol seems to be a closed in and out of touch character. She loves to spend money on pretty things, acts invulnerable and classy. Her character is strong and independent and as the story develops, we realise, that even in her past live she always relied on herself. The second lead character, the human hotel manager Chan-Sung, helps her to overcome the grief of her past and move on to the future, so she can finally enter the afterlife.

It is an interesting, sometimes sad, mostly entertaining drama with a heartwarming story. If you look closely you can spot other known faces such as Sulli, Lee Do-Hyun, Kang Mi-Na and Soo-Hyun.

Main Actresses and Actors: Lee Ji-Eun (IU) as Jang Man-Wol & Yeo Jin-Goo as Koo Chan-Sung

- Run On [런 온] // 2020 by Lee Jae-Hun, Park Si-Hyeon // 16 Episodes

Run On is a simple romance drama without a big plot line. It tells the story about the average translator Oh Mi-Joo who lives a pretty normal live. Through her job she meets the sprinter Ki Seon-Gyeom who retires shortly after and starts working as an agent for his friend Kim Woo-Sik. They start dating and throughout their relationship they have to face different kind of problems and how to overcome them. The second plot revolves around the unemphatic CEO Seo Dan-A who meets the young art student Lee Yeong-Hwa who starts working on an art pice for her. They too start dating.

Oh Mi-Joo and Seo Dan-A are really strong characters who have their own live and principles. Although having different backgrounds they both display an independent woman who cares for herself first. All relationships in this drama are pretty healthy and something we can actually learn from. Another fact I really like is that we finally see more than only straight characters. Dan-A for example could be seen as a non stereotypical Bi-Character and Yeong-Hwa’s best friend is a gay character with the difficulty of coming out to him.

As I mentioned before there isn’t much of an exciting plot line but the development of the characters and their relationship is fun to watch and makes it a relaxing drama.

Main Actresses and Actors: Yim Si-Wan as Ki Seon-Gyeom, Shin Se-Kyung as Oh Mi-Joo & Choi Soo-Young as Seo Dan-Ah, Kang Tae-Oh as Lee Young-Hwa

- It’s Okay to Not Be Okay [사이코지만 괜찮아] // 2020 by Park Shin-Woo, Jo Yong // 16 Episodes

A story about a sassy child book author who moves back to her old house and starts working at a mental hospital to give lectures about literature. She meets Moon Gang-Tae and his little brother and starts to befriend them. Gang-Tae also works at the mental institution and lives at his old friends house. Together the three start to overcome their past traumas and problems.

Moon-Young the child book author is a mysterious woman who seems to be sadistic and a little bit crazy. She doesn’t fit into society norms and doesn’t give a s*** about other opinions. Moon-Young also has a fantastic taste in fashion and carelessly of her surroundings wears what she loves (extravagant clothing that looks like she hoped out of a fairy tale). As the story develops, we learn that she has a lot of suppressed trauma because of her mother who wants to kill her. The male lead Gang-Tae has to deal with the difficult relationship with his autistic brother. Moon Sang-Tae, Gang-Tae’s brother on the other hand has untreated trauma from his past, that leads to him being mentally unstable. The plot line focuses on the trio who heal each other through their friendship and trust in each other.

I really enjoyed watching this drama. All characters are interesting and have their own motives and stories. Seo Yea-Ji is a great actor and fits the role of Ga-Young perfectly plus she is super pretty. I recommend this drama for everyone who wants to watch something out of the ordinary.

Main Actresses and Actors: Seo Yea-Ji as Koo Moon-Young & Kim Soo-Hyun as Moon Gang-Tae

- The Uncanny Counter [경이로운 소문] // 2020 by Yoo Sun-Dong // 16 Episodes

This Drama is about a high schooler named So Mun who is lives with his grand parents and is a pretty soft boy. He becomes a “Counter” and joins a group of other “Counter” to catch evil spririts. Together they start digging up the wrong doings of mayor Shin Myeong-whi and his partners while catching an unstoppable evil spirit named Ji Cheong-Sin who commits a lot of murders around their town.

The reason I included this Drama is the strong role of Do Ha-Na who is part of the counter group and becomes good friends with So Mun. She is the definition of a strong woman who is independent and relies on herself. Nonetheless she needs help from time to time to overcome hardships. Other female roles such as Counter Mae-Ok and Mun’s friend Ju-Yeon are also non stereotypical female roles with interesting and special traits.

The Uncanny Counter is not a romance Drama but more so an action or fantasy one. It is full of inspirational scenes, characters and interesting plot twists.

Main Actresses and Actors: Jo Byeong-Kyu as So Mun & Kim Se-Jeong as Do Ha-Na

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himitsu-luna · 3 years

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Nct 127 - Creature series

File #6 - Jaehyun, the vampire

Genre: angst, supernatural, romance

Warnings: death of characters, mentions of killing methods, mentions of blood, pain, description of vampire bites and perfuration

Pairing: Jaehyun x reader

Featuring: Jeno

Word count: 2.7 k

Nct 127 creature series masterlist

The story

Jaehyun was born in 1797, as a normal human.

At that time, mankind and the vampire breed had a tense relationship. But, very strangely, everything seemed under control

When he was 24, because of a series of unfortunate events, involving conspirations and betrayals, a war broke out between the two races

Jaehyun, as a young soldier and leader of a troop, were sent to the battlefield.

Sad and bitter events happened, and he was turned into a vampire.

Since then, he lives for centuries and centuries, going from place to place, playing hundreds of roles, experiencing hundreds of lives, looking for one thing that keeps him going through his imortal existence

The powers

You either are born as a vampire or you become one.

You only become a vampire if you get bitten by one

However, when you get bitten by a vampire, it doesn't necessarily mean you will become one.

The cruel part of turning into a vampire is that it's not for free. In reality, it's an exchange of a life for another life.

The vampire transformation takes 2 hours to be completed, and it will only fully consolidate if the bitten person drinks a considerably large amount of human or vampire blood before the two hours end. Otherwise, when the time comes to an end, the person dies.

The person or vampire bitten by the incomplete transformed vampire inevitably succumbs.

In other words, the vampire transformation is always tragic, because someone always perishes in the end.

Vampires drink blood to survive, but it doesn't need to be human blood. They can survive with other animal's blood, but human blood is a completely different treat.

Jaehyun has an abnormal strenght, and over developed senses

He has basic telepathic and telekinetic abilities, which gives him great manipulation skills

He has the ability of quickly healing physical wounds

A few things are able to end his life though: fire, drowning, decapitation

– Report: Incident number 1

°°°

[year: 1821]

– "Jaehyun, do you really have to go?", you ask your husband for the 100th time at the doorstep of your house, firmly holding his hands, barely able to see him with your eyes blurred by tears.

– "Y/N, I do. I'm their leader. I need to fight. I need to protect everyone. And most importantly, I need to protect you. Don't worry, my love, I'll be back. I promise..." , Jaehyun responds you with a suplicant tone, his voice sounding deeper than usual, as he tries to hide the shakiness on it.

After a last passionate kiss, a last squeeze of hands, and a last long glance holding the desire of the two of you to freeze time, Jaehyun goes through the door without looking back. He has to admit he is afraid he may not live up to his promise. Vampires are scary beings. Powerful, almost untouchable. It's incredible how humans stand in this war against these creatures so far. Fortunately, some powerful vampires still side mankind, hoping the unlikely coexistence.

Taking a deep breath, Jaehyun jumps into the colourless truck that is going to take him and dozens of other soulless men to the battlefield.

...

[6 months later]

– "CHEERS TO JAEHYUN!!!!!!!"

– "CHEERS!!!!!!!"

– "Guys, guys!! Calm down!!! Hahahaha"

Jaehyun is being carried by dozens of euforic men, acclaimimg their leader for his bravery and determination to get every single one of his mates back to their families. The war is over. The last vampires retreated and, finally, peaceful days can be seen in the horizon. Tears are being shared, parties are being planned, but in the middle of all the deafening happiness, Jaehyun's only desire is to sink into your warm hugs again.

...

Turning around the last corner to reach his home, his heart racing madly, Jaehyun meets your comforting figure, that waited for him every single day at the door since he left, and that now is running to him with arms open. The vision of you completely blinds Jaehyun. He missed you so much. He can't wait to feel you again. But it blinds him so badly that he can't see the bloodthirst creature hidden in a dark alley, ready to jump on him. Still with his eyes glued on you, he watches your smiley face abruptly squirming into pure horror. He was given not even half of a second to process that scene, as he suddenly feels a piercing pain in his jugular, followed by his entire body landing on the ground, then a light breeze brushing his now even paler skin, as the treacherous vampire vanishes from the scene, releasing, with his gutural voice, an almost incomprehensible yet still powerful word: "Revenge".

Jaehyun’s senses are all messed up and his body convulses violently. But even imersed in chaos, his brain tries hard to not lose itself completely, as it percieves you getting closer and closer.

– "DON'T COME!!!" - he desperately yells, in his last effort to maintain his sanity.

But it's too late.

His concious falls apart completely. Everything gets red. Everything is too much, everything is overwhelming. He can clearly hear a rythmic heartbeat, that is not his own, resonating inside of his skull. He can clearly see the tempting purple path under a layer of skin, shining in high saturation in a waving hypnotizing motion. He can clearly feel his teeth landing on a soft surface and sinking deep into it. He can clearly taste the metalic flavor of blood spreading through his tongue. And after all of that, he can clearly smell your floral perfume, he can clearly feel hot heavy tears running down his cheeks, as he realizes what he has done.

Slowly getting his mind back as the sharp fangs retracts to the normal sized canines he is used to, Jaehyun is left in agony, all his face muscles contracted into profound sadness, looking at your fragile figure in his arms.

–"No no no no NOOO!!!! PLEASE NO!! Y/N, TALK TO ME!! Talk to me...please.....", he implores you, swinging his body back and forth, trying to keep you awake.

–"Jae.... It's ok.... It's o..k.... You... Are back... I'm so happy..." - you murmur, lifting your hand to wipe the cheeks of your beloved one.

You know how this works. You know that Jaehyun has become a vampire, and you know he won't die. You know he is safe. With that thought in mind, you smile relieved. You let your eyelids fall along with your hand, and, spending all of your remaining energy, you force your lips to move one last time : – "I love you...".

....

Standing in front of your grave, depositing your favorite flowers on the shining black marble, Jaehyun mentalizes his sorrowfull wishes over and over again, hoping they reach you:

– "I promise, Y/N, I promise you... I'll find you in whenever life you live, I promise I'll go back to you. I promise."

...

[Year: 2021]

–"OmG, I'll be late!! No no noo!!!! Stupid alarm!!" - you yell at the air, tripping on your cozy blankets, from your bed to your way to the ground.

A job like that would never fall on your lap again, for sure. You were a just graduated college student, visibly lost in the adult world, looking for a job so you can survive. You still can't believe that such a big company sent you this unexpected invite, willing to hire you. "I'm not mad, though.", you cheerfully think, while quickly spraying some perfum on the birthmark you have on your neck.

Shoving a piece of dry toast into your mouth while putting on your shoes, you rush to your first day at your new job.

....

You made it in time. Waiting for having a word with your new boss, you briefly look at yourself on the hand mirror you always take with you, fixing your messy hair and straightening your black blazer. Distracted in your own little world, you jump in surprise when an elegant man silently steps in the room, stands by your side without you noticing, and announces, with a resonant voice right into your ear:

– "Boss is ready to see you"

Having a look at the name tag hanging over the man's chest, you thank him:

–"Ohh, thank you.. hmm.. mr. Jeno! And I'm pleased to meet you!"

Jeno gives you a discreet smile, guiding you to a enormous poor iluminated room, in which a gorgeous and imponent figure stands behind an impressive desk. Your pupils take a few seconds to adjust to the weak lighting, but as soon as you exchange stares with that mysterious man, a weird wave of excitement runs throughout your whole body, like your blood is bubbling inside of your veins. You've never felt like this before, and it intensifies when you finally hear a deep, smooth, and weirdly familiar voice coming out of his mouth:

– Report: Incident number two

–"Hello, Y/N. Nice to meet you. You can call me Jaehyun".

–––

It has been five years you're working at Jaehyun's company. And it has been three years you stand beside him not only as his employee, but also as his lover.

Jaehyun is a fascinating man. But there's something very odd about him. You don't know if it's the way he seems to be able to go deep into your mind. If its the way he has the knowledge of an ancient person. If it's the way everything he does feels nostalgic. If it's the way he looks at you and you can see, along with a sincere love, deep sadness and sorrowfullness emanating from his eyes. If it's the way you are sure you knew him already even before your first encounter. If it's the way you feel like you've been waiting for him your whole life. –" Oh well, maybe there's something very odd about me as well." , you think in a dreamy state while watching Jaehyun sleeping peacefully beside you.

...

You are at Jaehyun's house, distractedly walking around and running your fingers through the fancy furniture, waiting for him so you can have the homemade dinner he's been promising you for weeks now. He finally found an empty spot in his busy schedule, and it has been good thirty minutes since Jeno let you know he and your boyfriend were at the supermarket, picking some ingredients. "Jaehyun must be so lost right now", you chuckle to yourself, wondering what weird things he would buy. But with the chuckle, you feel a light discomfort in your chest. You have a weak heart condititon since birth, so you're used to this sensation. "Ahh, not today! Today I have to be 100% good!" , you scold yourself, hoping the annoying feeling ceases soon.

But it's not. The light discomfort turns into a light pain. The light pain turns into a fierce pain. The fierce pain turns into and unbearable pain. Imersed in your suffering, you automatically massage your heart area and sustain your body stood by grabbing the nearest thing you can reach. And, before you lose your senses entirely, you can feel this thing moving, holding you tightly and carefully, and calling your name with that deep voice you loved so much : – " Y/N!!!!!!!!"

....

Staring at your motionless body on his arms, the dejavu Jeahyun is having is breaking him apart. After dozens of peaceful lives with you, he was not expecting losing you like this once more. Gradually and certainly, he is following your heartbeat on its crescent silence. He doesn't want to feel this pain again. If it's selfish, if it's benevolent, it's tricky – and even unfair – to judge the only thought that goes through Jaehyun's mind right now. With a decided and firm tone, he instructs Jeno:

– "Jeno, look after her, please. That's my last order to you."

With an almost imperceptible widening of eyes, seeing how his master determination even made his quivering less severe, Jeno answers him, trying to transmit in his voice the confidence and reliability he knows Jaehyun needs to feel.

– "Yes master, I understand. I will."

This phrase brings a peaceful expression to Jaehyun's face. Focusing completely on you, Jaehyun's fangs sharpen and he plants them into the flesh of your neck. You imediatelly wake up, as a wave of electricity runs through your body and excites every cell of it. You don't know what is happening, everything is so confusing with your blurred red vision. But you know you're thirsty. Your throat feels dry, and it claims something that is not water. You sense someone's body pressing itself on yours and, instinctively, you deep your teeth into the warmness, finding yourself satiating your needs with some unknown viscous liquid.

And a movie starts to play before your eyes. A movie staring you and Jaehyun. A movie showing all of your lives together. A wedding at a beach you've never been before. Jaehyun holding an unfamiliar happy dog you didn't know you missed so badly. You and him wearing antique clothes you've never owned, discussing about what to cook for dinner while watching the sunset. His crying face painted with red blots, his body swinging back and forth holding you in his arms, trying to keep you awake.

Drowning in an ocean of memories, you frantically attempt to resurface back to your present reality. Slowly pulling your teeth out of Jaehyun's neck, you gently wrap your arms around his cold body and sink your forehead onto his shoulders.

– "Jae... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry...."

– "It's.... ok, Y/N, it's ok.... I'm the one who is sorry"

– "No! It must have been so difficult for you... All these years, all this waiting... I'm so sorry... And... thank you so much."

– "I know... You... Would do the same... For me."

At this point, you are not trying to hold your tears anymore. At this point, Jaehyun's life is already hanging by a thin thread. Showing his dimples to you, his last words come faint, but still carry heavily the pure meaning of them:

– "I love you."

[Year: 2058]

– "Master, the apartment was rented successfully.", the serious and steady man says coming out of nowhere, getting by surprise your anxious and wondering mind.

– "OMG, Jeno! Are you a vampire or a ghost, please!! But ok, thank you a lot. Let's prepare everything then." , you respond, barely hiding your excitement.

Packing your things in an untidy chaotic way, you suddenly stop your actions. Hesitantly and avoiding eye contact, you ask Jeno something that has been bothering you for years now:

–" ....Hmm...Jeno.... Do you.... Do you think he will still like me?"

Even though he was caught off guard by your question, Jeno promptly replies:

– "I have no doubt about it, master. Thousand of years could pass, his love for you would remain the very same. I've witnessed it, trust me."

You bite your bottom lip, trying to conceal the wide smile forming on your red crying face.

....

*Knock Knock*

Lying on the couch of his living room, Jaehyun lazily raises only his head, wondering who could be knocking on his door. He definetely is not willing to stop watching his drama to answer the unknown visitor.

*Knock knock*

Finally accepting that staring at the door would not make something magically happen, he decides to get up and open it. However, he was not expecting that such a trivial thing would be so life changing.

– " Hi, I'm your new neighbor! My name is Y/N, nice to meet you!", you nervously say, extending your already sweat hand to the admired boy in front of you.

Jaehyun is astonished. He thought he had his whole life figured out. But, all of sudden, only now he can say that everything makes sense, that everything is where they should be. Only now he truly feels alive. Like a breath of fresh air, like he is living in a completely new world, he grabs your hand firmly, afraid you could vanish, and asks you in disbelief:

–" Do I know you from somewhere?"

–" Maybe...", you answer, with a mischievous yet tender expression painted on your face.

Jaehyun smiles at you softly, feeling the comfort and the sense of familiarity that only centuries of linked lives could bring him.

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cosmiclatte28 · 4 years

Text

One More Night (Jaehyun x you ft Doie)

a/n : I am not forcing anyone to read this, this has sort of a sad angst theme. Jae was abusive here and I don’t mean anything to him.. it’s pure fanfic :”) sorry this is in my head and I had to let this out

warning : jaehyun is abusive but he is depressed and sad, doyoung is your manager. Sorry for curses and mentions of alcohol, cigarette, and self harm. angst

don’t force yourself to read this

You don’t understand yourself. Why aren’t you leaving him? After all he had done to you, his words hurt, his actions pained you, you always go home with bruises, but can you leave him? You can, but your heart doesn’t want to.

Like today, your boyfriend called you again to come to his house. Being the good caring lover, you follow his order. As expected, he called you because he had a rough day.

“I'm tired, i'm so tired (y/n).” Jaehyun slammed his third glass of beer on the counter as he sobs harder next to you.

You extend your arm, to grab his shoulder and rub soothing circles there, seeing Jaehyun broke down like this is more painful than letting him lash out his emotion to you.

“You're strong Jae,” you try to calm him down. He was ranting about his life, how his work life in the leading media corporation is stressful and he got a lot of complains from his director when he submitted this month's proposal.

“I am so done with that company. I'll probably get my white envelope soon.” He scoffs when he finishes his fourth glass. You swore you're confused when did he buy his alcoholic supply. Jaehyun never completes his grocery shopping by himself, it's always you but you never buy alcohols… so who?

“Tell me where did you get these Jae?” you point at the bottles and he chuckles deeply “You question unnecessary things peaches, don’t you wonder why you're here tonight instead?” he pulls you up with one swift swing and brings you to the room.

His breath reeks alcohol, his consciousness was below 50%, you were on your right mind until his soft lips enclosed yours and his hooded sad eyes pierce into your soul.

“You love me don’t you?” the same goddamn question. He traces a finger on your jaw and you choose to close your eyes. Staring into his eyes will only make you fall deeper.

“Answer me,” his palm reaches your cheek and you feel it sting. Here it is, his true self is always out when alcohol and stress consume him.

“I love you Jaehyun,” you whisper tears already flowing out of your eyes. This was not the man you know three years ago. You remember him as the sweetheart of the world, not the scariest man who only come to you for pleasure and ignoring you the next second.

“Then be my good reliever,” he slaps you one more time and the rest of the night you only wish no one heard your sinful noise.

“You're going home?” he asks the second he was tired of rocking you. His half naked torso is laying on the bed. A bud of cigarette was tucked nicely between his lips.

You nod your head as you take your time to redress.

“Stay here, you're my lover.” He pats the empty bed side. Oh you wish you can stay, but with the amount of alcohols he consumed and how your body is already bruising, you knew better to go home.

“I have a schedule tomorrow.” You admit.

Jaehyun sighs “Then sleep here, I'll drive you there tomorrow. I miss you,” he sounds like he had sober up.

You shake your head and lean over to kiss him “You hate my agency Jae, don’t force yourself to come with me.” You run a hand over his hair. He leans into your touch, suddenly the angelic heart throb is here again not the demon of the dark side. He closes his eyes after yawning and slowly drift to sleep.

You take his cigarette bud, turn it off in the ash tray and leave the apartment you once love. Your relationship is toxic but you cannot let him go. Not in this state.

“Wow you do know how late this is?” Your roommate peeks over his room door when he heard you enter the house.

You sigh and take off your jacket “Ah Doyoung, yes it’s very late. Sorry for waking you up. Go to bed you still have time.”

Doyoung shakes his sleep away and walks to you. He knows your relationship with Jaehyun. He was there from the beginning until the time it went wrong. He told you to leave him already, but you cannot.

The man grabs his spectacles and calmly takes your arms and wrists then he twists your body to check your condition.

“He wasn’t that rough tonight?” Doyoung still raises from his seat to take the soothing cream he has prepared for you.

You sigh “You don’t have to do this Doie, I can take care of myself.”

He scoffs “You've been saying that for the last seven months but you never for once take care of yourself if I don’t do this.”

He begins with the bruises on your wrists, the red cheeks, the wild hickeys on your neck and when he ensures none is skipped, he orders you to lift your shirt up.

He always complains on how your waist can survive the dead grip Jaehyun has, they always leave bruises on your body and Doyoung hates how you always struggle in the morning to cover up your bruises.

“You should really leave him. This is not good for your body and mental.” He presses some alcohol on the open wound and you for once thank Heaven you knew Doyoung who can take care of you.

“I cannot Doie, he needs me. He said I am the reason he is holding on.” You lean to the sofa and moan at the delight of relaxing your body.

“gosh your silly job and crazy company.” He hisses

You bite your lips as you stare into the ceiling. This is your job, taking cover pictures for special magazines. No it’s not filled with lewd pictures nor nudes, just regular pictures that were found to be able to comfort men and women who are breaking down and sad. The company did get a lot of money and you have many fans. All of them have been meeting you virtually and telling you how thankful they are to see you. They said seeing you helps them overcome one more day.

You were not fond of your job at first, until you met Jaehyun a photographer for one of your biggest project. It’s for the anti depression campaign and since then both of you got to know each other. Jae was a lovely man who also tells you he is one of those subscribers who wants to thank your cute pictures for helping them survive and stop overthinking.

That comment and all comments and love mails from your fans made you unable to crawl out of this hole. Doyoung is not one of them, he is assigned to look after you but he detests everything related to this. It’s just his job and the wage is pretty much high and he couldn’t find another job with higher wage yet.

Jaehyun was good until six months ago he lost his one and only family member, then he regret all of the things he couldn’t do for them. He turned into a mess, your pictures, your comfort words, your presence itself cannot bring him back. He turned into a monster when he's sad and mad. What happened to him scared you, but your heart cannot leave him.

“It's not silly as long as I can live under this apartment Doie. Look around this pretty apartment is good enough for a payback.” You breathe out. Feeling also emotional after thinking about Jaehyun and holding back the pain you're now feeling.

“You have a schedule tomorrow.” He scrolls his phone and notes the time. He is your personal manager.

“I know-“ before you can finish your sentence a knock was heard on the door.

Both of you look at the door and gulp “Who could it be?” your grip on Doyoung’s hand and your phone rang.

“Shit, it’s Jae.” You push Doyoung out of the sofa and push him to his room direction “Pretend you’re asleep.” You send him a pleading eye, you don’t need a jealous Jaehyun at this moment.

Doyoung just follows your words and hide in his room. You calm yourself down and open the door to find Jaehyun not so sobber, but he is here and you’re surprised he could take a cab here.

“I took the cab, don’t worry. I cannot sleep without you.” He nuzzles into your neck and slumps over your smaller body. With much struggle both of you made it to the sofa and Jaehyun is super messy.

His eyes are wet and he was slurring words while closing his eyes and holding on to you tight “Don’t leave me. Come stay with me again. Why did you leave me?”

He sounds pathetic and you actually want to slap him and yell at him “See yourself and think why I live by myself now or at least not with you….” But you know that will only hurt him more and break him.

“Shh calm down Jae” you card his hair and he relaxes into your touch “I am not leaving you,” at least now your heart whispers. Your eyes fall to his wrist that has been healing slowly from nasty cuts and you plant a quick kiss on his wrist “I am proud of you being strong, stay with me too Jaehyun.”

“If getting hurt is what makes you stay a night more, I’ll bear it with you. Please don’t leave me.” Your tear fell and you kiss his cheek. He did not hear your last sentence for his chest has risen slowly and he fell asleep.

You glance to the half open door, of course Doyoung had to be eavesdropping. He tosses you a free blanket and you’re thankful for his quick wit. You cover Jaehyun up and leave to sleep in your own room. What tomorrow brings, you never know. But tonight, you’re glad at least you help Jaehyun overcome one of his dark nights again.

end

i hope no one has to go through this scenario irl..

reach out for help okay, whenever you feel lonely don’t let the loneliness win over you. you should fight back, or find someone to accompany you

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diddlesanddoodles · 4 years

Text

DUMPLING ch 60

The trees were shapeless shadows against the night as she ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Blood pumped hard in her ears, and even with her gasping breaths, she could still hear them coming for her. Beneath her feet, she could feel their heavy footfalls as they crashed into the earth, and it was as though the very ground vibrated. Seven of her steps to one of their own, and even at a slower pace, their wider strides more than made up for the difference.

Her saving grace was the narrow gaps between the ancient trees. Additionally, her pursuers were just as hindered by the dark as she was. If she used her fire, she would reveal herself and her advantage would be lost. As it stood, she was not in a good position to face off against a large group of bloodthirsty giants.

She was lucky before, she doubted any chance at a repeat performance. The others had not expected their fellow to fall as easily as he did.

As Thrist fled with Jae, Nenani had turned to face the marauding group that attacked them and left Andy dead. The giant with the dagger had rushed her. His enormous frame had been cast in deep shadows against the stark white of her flames. He barreled towards her, dagger raised and shining. The blade was nearly as long as she was tall, glittering with the white and blue of her fire.

Nenani ran to one of the closer trees, whipping a vine back and upward towards the giant as he drew closer. Instinct rather than real calculation drove her. But it had been a lucky strike, with the end of her vine catching the edge of the giant’s jaw just as he passed. It curled around the back of his neck, and the thorns snagged into his flesh and began to slice as the vine pulled taught. The whites of his eyes grew large as he fell forward, dropping his dagger to reach for his neck as he fell. Nenani made it to the shelter of the tree just as he slammed into the earth, and the shock of it nearly threw her off her feet.

But Nenani did not bother to look back to gauge how devastating her hit had been. Instead, she ran onward, using his fellows’ momentary confusion and shock to her advantage. She had the barest head start before they began to follow after her. The height of their hubris was diminished, but not altogether extinguished.

And now they were angry.

“I thought you said you knew how to fight fire mages!” demanded one of them.

“I do!” snapped someone else. “Killed three during the war, but I never saw one do anything like that!”

“Then what fucking good are you?”

“Just shut up! New magic or not, it’s a damn child!”

“Go tell that to Baeu!”

“Sooner rather than later the little bitch is gonna lose steam,” snarled another giant. “And when we do catch her, I’m gonna pull each of her fucking limbs off one by one. And then peel her skin off.”

……………….

She was growing tired and slow, with her legs becoming clunky and dumb with fatigue. She found herself tripping over small twigs and mud holes until at last, she had to stop. Her lungs were on fire, and no amount of air seemed enough to satisfy them. Nenani huddled miserably under the heavy brush of a bush at the base of a small cluster of yearling trees. Their leaves were still thick and green, but their points were hard and thorn-like, gripping at her hair and dress and stabbing her hands and legs as she scrambled into them to hide.

The giants were moving as one group rather than splitting up, and their enraged prattling had not ceased. Nenani waited quietly under the prickly bush until she could breathe evenly again to move to another hiding spot.

Several times she dove for the cover of a bush and waited for them to move on before running back the direction she had come, just to try and throw them off her trail. Then the giants’ voices began to draw closer again.

In the dark, Nenani moved slowly in the other direction but continued to eye the brush and trees behind her. She was sure that any moment they would come into view and spot her and the chase would begin anew. But if she could keep her steps slow, perhaps they would not hear her at all and she could put more distance between them without having to kill anyone else.

The fleeting moment of power she had felt earlier in the day now tasted putrid and bitter.

A hand slipped through the dark to rest upon her shoulder. Nenani started, nearly leaping clear out of her skin as she whirled around, arms erupting into orange flames. There stood a human boy with short cut hair and grayish-green garb regarding her and her flames with a dour expression. It took her only a moment to recognize him as the boy in the tree who they had come across earlier.

The one who said she smelled like fire.

“Oh,” Nenani said, her flames dying away. “It’s you...”

“Come with me,” he whispered. The hand resting on her shoulder gripped hard, and he bodily steered her forward. She went without a fight, more out of bewilderment than anything, and by the time she came back to her senses enough to ask him anything, they were a good distance away.

“Where did you—” she began.

“Say nothing,” he warned in a harsh whisper. “Just keep moving. The tree with the hollow there. Go to it. Inside. Hide there.”

“I can’t see very well. And there are giants...”

“They won’t find you,” he said shortly and pushed her along at a quicker pace. She could see the dim outline of a large ironwood tree, the base of it wide and dark. When they got closer, Nenani could see better that the dark area was actually the hollow itself. She felt a hard push between her shoulders and fell forward. Gracelessly, she tumbled into the patch of wet leaves and muck, grimacing as her hands fell upon the slimy debris. Turning back to the boy, she opened her mouth to berate him, but he silenced her with a hand. With his other, he traced along the edges of the hallow, and a thin iridescent sheen fell across the opening. Through it, she could see the world beyond in better light. “No one will see you if I do not wish for them to. So long as you stay inside there, the charm will shade you from prying eyes.”

Nenani took a moment to watch the swirling colors, reminded of how light and colors danced across the surface of a soap bubble. She turned her eyes to the boy.

“Are you helping me?” she asked. “Why?”

“You are a walking wildfire,” he told her.

She blinked at him and frowned. “I’m sorry?”

“Left alone, you will burn my forest to the ground. I would fail in my duties to not stop that from happening,” he explained bitterly. He studied her for several moments and the severity of his expression softened. “But I also see a little of the Green Mother in you. It is very small, but it is there. Like that little boy who ate the ironwood sap. But your fire is far more a part of you than the green. Strange oddity, you are. You must have uncommon parentage.”

Though Nenani knew she should feel offended by the way he said ‘uncommon parentage’, she decided to ignore his tone.

“Our father,” Nenani answered. “He was Thorn.”

The boy gave a small nod in understanding, regarding her again with an enigmatic expression.

“I have knowledge of them. Lost cousins, we call them. So that makes us distant cousins as well I suppose,” he said at last, a spark of amusement in his eyes. He knelt down to her level. “I have never seen fire and earth merged into one being. Your magic was a wonder to behold, cousin. But there is a great imbalance in you.”

“Imbalance?” she asked. “What do you mean?”

“One side is pulling you to fire. Anger and fear and destruction. Revenge and blood. The other pulls you towards the Green Mother. Kindness and love and healing. Protection and trust.”

Nenani bit hard into her lip, his words ringing truth loudly in her head.

“Do not feed the fire so willingly,” he warned. “Fire is power, yes. But it is also unwieldy and short-lived if not tended and nurtured properly. Fire is a forever hungry beast, and no matter how much you feed it, it will never be satiated. It will take all of you until you have nothing left to give. You are on a path of destruction. Your fire will consume you if you allow it.”

Nenani looked down at her hands, just barely visible in the dark. “I need to be strong. I have to save my friends. My family. I can’t just do nothing. The...the giant who rules this place...the lord here. He is an evil man. The people you put in your gardens. That is his doing. They escaped his prisons. And there are others. Many.”

The boy regarded her for a long moment. “It is not my place to interfere with the affairs of outsiders. My priority is the safety of my people and the preservation of my forest. But this false lord concerns me greatly. There are giants all over my forest tonight. Fighting one another. Killing one another. I cannot breathe without smelling their blood, and I very much wish for them all to be gone.”

Nenani got to her knees and crawled closer to the barrier.

“Lord Colem came to help us,” Nenani explained. “He wants to bring Lord Brennan to justice. If we can do that, your forest will be yours again and we can rescue the people he has prisoner. My friends are already trying to free them. Could you help? You can do magic too. You’re a mage like me. Could you help us?”

“I cannot promise you anything,” the boy said, rising back to his feet and stepping back. “But we will make sure this forest is protected. When the spell drops away, it means you are safe to leave the hallow. Until then, stay inside. Regain your strength.”

“I can’t just sit here,” she replied. She pushed a hand towards the shimmering veil, but as he fingers brushed against it, her hand stopped as though pressing against glass. “What?”

“You should practice patience,” he suggested. “When the danger has been dealt with, the spell will fade.”

“No!” she snapped and began to bang her hands against the barrier. “Let me out!”

The boy tapped it with a finger. “You are a child who has wandered too far from her minders. You want to fight a foe as tall as the ironwoods who would snap you into bloody little splinters.”

“I’ve already killed two of them,” she shot back. “I’m not weak. I just need rest.”

“And I am giving it to you.”

“Not like this!”

“Do not mistake brutality for strength,” he quipped. “Stay here. Rest.”

“Fine!” she said. “But please! My friends are at the big house trying to save the humans there. If you can help them, please do it.”

“I will do what I must,” the boy said after a pause. “But I make no promises.”

As he turned to leave, Nenani called out. “Wait! One more thing. What’s your name?”

The boy tilted his head around just enough that she could see one green eye. “Ezra. And you, cousin?”

“I’m Nenani,” she replied.

“Like the river,” he said, the ghost of a smile creeping along his jawline. “I will leave you to rest, cousin Nenani. And heed my words about the fire.”

With great reluctance, she looked around her and at last nodded, giving into her fatigue. “Thank you, Ezra.”

With a nod, Ezra ran to a tree and scaled up the trunk as fast and as agile as a squirrel before disappearing into the branches above. She did as Ezra had instructed her to do and waited. For what seemed like hours, she waited, and as a deeper night fell upon the forest, Nenani found the pull of sleep pulling at her more and more.

It was not until she awoke to find the first whispers of dawn brightening the sky that she realized she had fallen asleep. For the briefest of moments, she did not know where she was and thought she was back in Vhasshal. But her chilled skin pulled her back to reality with a sickening crash.

The barrier was gone and the early morning quiet. Set just outside was a bright orange leaf, and set atop it was a pile of shriveled dark things. Picking one up to examine it, Nenani realized they were dried berries. She ate them quickly and with abject relish. Only after the fact did she realize it was probably not a very wise thing for her to eat random berries.

But if Ezra wanted to kill her, he was going about it in a very roundabout way. After she had finished her meager breakfast, she crawled out from the hollow and began to walk. She let her instincts guide her but still kept her eyes and ears open for any signs or sounds of giants. After a half hour, she came upon the first of them.

The vines had no thorns, but they were as thick as ropes and of such a deep green they almost appeared black. They snaked up from the ground in great numbers, wrapping around one foot and up the leg, squeezing hard against the body. They wound across the chest and under the arms, around each bicep, down to the wrists. Wrapped tightly around the neck, Nenani did not have to wonder what it was that had ultimately done the giant in. His lips were blue and his tongue swelled out from his mouth.

The giant was entangled with the vines against a large ironwood much in the same way the humans they had found had been. But instead of being preserved in a peaceful forever sleep, the giant’s remains were more akin to a warning than anything else. She did not linger.

After a few minutes' walk, Nenani came across another much in the same state and two more close by. As she studied the last one’s face, she marveled how someone who looked so human could behave like such a monster. Lost in her own musings, she did not hear the approaching footsteps. It was not till she heard the soft squish of damp leaves that Nenani turned to face the sound. Above her she saw the mouth of a large bag descending upon her, and then all at once, everything went dark. The walls pressed in as large hands gathered her and the bag up and into the air. She flailed and kicked at the fingers that held her and cried out.

“Easy there, little thing,” said a voice. “It’s dangerous out here all alone – OW!”

The rough spun fabric was dry and brittle and caught flames in mere seconds. The owner of the giant hands at the very least had the presence of mind to not immediately drop the flaming bag and instead quickly sat the whole bundle down very quickly.

The vertigo sent Nenani’s head spinning and she was tangled up in the charred remnants as she desperately swatted and pushed her way free. Arms still aflame, she scrambled to her feet and looked up to see an unfamiliar giant. Balls of fire materialized in her palms, but the giant was already putting a good bit of distance between her and himself.

“Gods above!” he squawked, nursing his singed fingertips and staring in open shock and fear at Nenani. “Why did you do that? I was just trying to help you! I didn’t mean no harm!”

Nenani glared. “Liar. You’re trying to capture me!”

The giant’s shock was rotating towards incredulity. “You could have said you were a fire mage!”

Nenani returned his incredulous look. “Who are you?”

“I’m the fella you just burned!” he snapped.

“Do better than that,” she snapped back. “Or I’ll do worse. So who are you? What do you want?”

The giant made a face and took several large steps back. “Captain told me to do a sweep for any stragglers and that’s what I’m doing. Cripes and crackers, I think you burned my finger prints off!”

Nenani paused. “Wait. Stragglers? What sort of stragglers?”

“Human stragglers!” he replied. He wasn’t even looking at Nenani anymore, seeming far too preoccupied with assessing the damage to his fingers. He stuck one in his mouth, wincing. “A few got lost in all the chaos of last night and we’re looking for them. I thought you were one, but clearly you’re…wait.”

The giant’s eyes widened and he turned them back to Nenani, seeing her in a new light. He pulled his hurt finger from his mouth. “You...you’re a fire mage.”

Nenani raised an eyebrow and looked pointed at the still flaming balls in her palms.

“I mean,” he continued. “That means…uh, well. You aren’t...the Princess by any chance, are you?”

Nenani eyed him more seriously. “Are you with Lord Colem’s men?”

The giant nodded. “I am.”

Nenani slowly lowered her hands. “Uh, then yes. I am. The princess I mean. Nenani. My name is Nenani.”

“But...I thought the rangers took you and the prince to safety already?” he asked. “What happened?”

“We were attacked. One of the rangers, Andy, he was killed,” she explained. “I told Thrist to get Jae to safety.”

The giant regarded her as though he thought very little of her actions. “Why didn’t you just go with him?”

“I could fend the attackers off better than Thrist could,” she answered.

The giant looked down at his fingers and back at her before his eyes drifted over to one of the dead giants still strung up in Ezra’s vines. “You...you did that then?”

“No,” she replied. “That was someone else.”

The giant shook his head in disbelief and ran a hand down his face. “Well, all that doesn't matter much right now. I need to get you back to camp and be quick about it. Our scouts reported earlier last night that the line we pushed back was a distraction and two more are sweeping in on our weaker side. Probably gonna try and take manor back. Colem won’t give it up easily.”

Nenani perked up. If they had taken the manor then surely Farris and Keral’s mission would have been successful. “Do you know if they were able to get the humans out? The ones down in the kitchens?”

“Most of them were moved last night,” the giant explained. “A lot of them aren’t too keen on us though, and a few ran off the moment they were free. I was to do a sweep to try and find them before Brennan’s men come through.”

Relief swept over her and she broke into a smile. “I’m glad,” she said quietly. “They did it then...”

He regarded Nenani cautiously and held his hands up. “Now, if you promise not to burst into flames, I can escort you back to the camp. As I was saying, those bastards are supposed to be coming through this way soon. I’d imagine these fellows all strung up were a scouting party.”

Nenani opened her mouth to answer when a rustling of foliage overhead drew both their gazes upwards. Pressed between the branches, Nenani spotted green gray garb and the now-familiar face of Ezra. He looked ragged and tired, and there were several rips along his sleeves.

“They are coming,” he said. “Many. We tried to slow their march, but we do not have the numbers. My people have moved away for their safety.”

“What the...” said the giant, squinting up at the human. “Who are…?”

“How close are they?” Nenani asked with renewed anxiety. “Ezra?”

The boy looked down at her with a defeated expression. “They will be upon you soon. You must flee from here, cousin. I am sorry. I did all we could.”

Before she could ask anything else, her ears pricked up as they caught a strange sound on the wind. Like a strong gale pushing trees. Her feet could feel the faint vibrations of many moving feet. An army on the march.

Ezra looked off behind them and sneered before turning back to Nenani. “Leave now!”

BONUS ART

#Dumpling #G/T #giant tiny #fantasy giant #magic #Nenani #Ezra #tw death #tw blood

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