#and menu cards prepared by students all over

[iftitah]

my mom's college is sooo nostalgic 😭

[restlessmaknae]

sun, star, moon // sung hanbin

When you start university, everything is new and scary, until you find your safe haven in a cosy corner café and a cute barista working there.

➳ Characters: barista/uni student!Hanbin x uni student female!reader/you

➳ Genre: the fluffiest of fluff, uni au, barista au, slice of life

➳ Words: 2.9k

➳ Warning: mention of food, stress

➳ A/N: This story was very much inspired by Hanbin's tattoos (the title might have hinted at that...), and even though there's some info out there about what they mean to him, this story is purely fictional, so the explanation in the story is also just part of the storyline.

Also, thank you @dat-town for bearing with me while I was gradually falling for this boy 💕

➳ Taglist: @dat-town, @s00buwu

It was spring when you first met Hanbin.

You had your first semester at university, all nerves and excitement, looking around the unfamiliar city and being in awe at how different it was compared to your hometown. Apart from visiting your grandparents in different cities, you had never travelled much, let alone spent time away from your parents. It was exciting and terrifying all at the time, and you didn’t really know how to be an independent and responsible adult (the one that you should have been), but you tried your best to find your footing.

After orientation week, your very first class was at 8am which meant having to grab coffee to keep you awake after tossing and turning in bed for hours the previous night, not knowing what to expect on your very first day. You stayed at a student accommodation a bit further from the city centre, and there was a cosy little café on the corner, so you hopped in to get your daily dose of caffeine before getting on the bus.

As you stepped inside, the little bell above the door signalled your arrival cheerily, and the sweet fragrance of freshly baked goodies wafted through the café. You stepped up to the corner, and while the boy in front of you was making his order, you examined the hand-written menu on the chalkboard behind the counter, pondering over what to get.

You were next in line in no time, and as the boy stepped aside, you found yourself face-to-face with the barista who smiled at you gently. There were no dark circles around his eyes despite the early hour, and his cheeks lifted slightly when he was smiling. He ruffled his jet-black hair when a few stray locks fell into his eyes and blinked at you patiently.

“Good morning! What can I get for you?” He inquired politely as he stepped aside, so that you could see the chalkboard behind him better. You smiled at him, grateful, already making up your mind about your order.

“Good morning! I’d like a medium almond latte and a…” Your voice trailed off as you looked at the pastry display counter, wondering if you should get something to munch on between your morning classes. There were a few baked goods that you had never tried before and they looked heavenly, but you wanted to stick to something familiar for the sake of your stomach on the first day of the semester. “An almond croissant to go, please,” you added, and looked back up at him, only to find his smile widening upon your order.

“So a medium almond latte with an almond croissant,” he noted, but there was a playful edge to his words which made you realise that it must have sounded pretty funny. You weren’t crazy about almonds, but you liked almond latte the most, and that croissant seemed really good.

“Yeah, that’s it,” you bobbed your head, your heart warming at the sight of his smile, before telling him that you would pay by card. While he was preparing your order, you tried not to stare too much, but it was difficult when he had such kind and gentle features. Anyone who looked at him could tell that he was a good-willed person, plus, add his broad shoulders, toothy smile and delicate features to the mixture, and boom… it was impossible not to look at him while he was busy concentrating on doing your latte, his dedication written on his face.

When he caught your gaze, his lips curled upwards timidly, and you couldn’t tell whether he was more shy or you were. You were sure that your face flushed, but you hoped that he deemed that it was because of the slightly warmer temperature in the café, not because of him.

“Here you go,” he said as he put the cup of coffee and a paper bag with the croissant on the counter in front of you. “Have a lovely day!” He wished with a tender smile when you reached for the goodies, and you reciprocated it, wishing him the same.

Little did you know, that was just the first of your many morning encounters with him.

It was summer when you realised that you had fallen for Hanbin.

Throughout the semester, the little café had become your favourite spot around your student accommodation. It was where you got your morning latte, and it was where you worked on your assignments when you needed to get out of your small room to not get crazy there. Hanbin didn’t work every single time you were there, but the other baristas were just as kind and friendly. You also got to know that the woman who sometimes worked behind the counter was Hanbin’s mother, and she was also the one who owned the café. When you talked with her, you realised where the boy had gotten his kindness and consideration from.

On the other hand, when Hanbin was there, you always felt a bit more safe, a bit more comfortable. You couldn’t really pinpoint what it was about him - maybe his gentle smile or the way he gently patted your back to wake you up when you fell asleep on your laptop or the way his voice was like a lullaby, something that could envelope you in its warmth -, but you couldn’t go against what you were feeling. You just didn’t know whether he felt the same way about you because he seemed to be equally kind to all the customers.

Hanbin was a university student too, yet he helped out at the café whenever his schedule allowed him to do so, so it wasn’t rare to see him going to class or to come from class when you were already there. Since you usually saw him in a neutral coloured shirt with an apron in front, you never really paid much attention to how he dressed, but when he was off-work, he wore cotton shirts, light cardigans, casual jeans and such. He looked good in everything though.

However, on the very last day before you would go home for the summer break, Hanbin offered to walk you back to your accommodation. You hadn’t planned on staying past opening hours, but you had managed to doze off while scrolling on your phone, and the boy had to wake you up, explaining that it was time to close the shop altogether. Since it was late, he suggested walking you back, and despite your initial protests (that it was a well-lit street, that it wasn’t that far…), you gave in.

As you walked side by side, you stole a few glances here and there, and that’s when you noticed it… he wore a V-neck shirt this time, something that exposed the front of his chest a bit, and you couldn’t help yourself from noticing the tattoos on his skin. When he caught you staring, he also looked down and let out an audible ‘oh’ sound.

You immediately jumped in to apologise.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare. I just thought you had something stuck on you, I have never noticed that you have a tattoo…” You justified hastily, your voice trailing off at the end when you saw the boy’s laid-back expression. He didn’t look frustrated or amused, he looked how he usually looked, and that put your mind at ease. His following words even more so.

“It’s okay. I had it made there on purpose, it doesn’t bother me.”

Truth to be told, you had never been curious about others’ tattoos, but the sun, star and moon symbols on him made you wonder why he got those specific symbols. You didn’t know whether you had the right to ask about them, but since Hanbin was still looking at you, as if he was expecting you to say something more, you decided to go for it.

“What do they represent to you? If you don’t mind me asking, of course,” you clarified immediately in case it was a personal topic to him, but he didn’t seem offended. If anything, he seemed glad, and as you were walking under the dim lights of the nearby street lamps, the silence occasionally overthrown by the noises of traffic around, he let you know about the answer. How he believed that there’s light, darkness and beauty in everything, and how the universe was always there, watching, and he believed in it, that certain things happened for a reason as part of the universe’s calling.

You were in awe, not knowing how to profoundly phrase what you wanted to say to him, and he must have misinterpreted your silence because he added a few seconds later:

“I know it may sound silly…”

“No, no, that’s like… so beautiful that you think that way,” you voiced out, and you weren’t sure that you got your message across, hence you continued. “I also believe that what’s meant to be will happen, and that the universe has its own ways to make things happen.”

Hanbin smiled gently, somewhat relieved, and you reciprocated it, thinking that maybe this too… maybe him too… they were all part of the universe’s plan.

It was autumn when you started getting closer with Hanbin.

The leaves might have turned, but your feelings for Hanbin had not changed, if only they had grown more. The truth is, the only thing you had forgotten about when you had bid your goodbye prior to summer break had been to exchange contacts. Since you had seen each other multiple times a week at the café, there had been no reason for you to stay in touch to keep the other updated about your days. On top of that, even though you had tried to look up his name on SNS, there had been quite a few Sung Hanbins, and some accounts were private while others didn’t have a profile photo.

So you had left it at that, clutching onto your memories with the boy, catching yourself daydreaming more and more often during the summer. Those months had never seemed so long before, and you had wondered whether you had crossed his mind as much as he had crossed yours. Your heart had fluttered whenever his wide smile, gentle voice or considerate actions had come to your mind, and it had been funny how he hadn’t even been there, yet, you had felt as shy as if he had been there in front of you.

With the autumn semester finally starting, your feelings came back in full force, heightening when you met at the café again. It was heartwarming how - despite the months without seeing each other - the place still felt like your little safe haven and how his smile still triggered the same reaction from you.

Afterwards, you cherished each and every meeting, each and every smile, each and every giggle and each and every slight touch. The boy also picked up the habit - or rather continued - of walking you back to your accommodation if he had the chance to do so, and you wished that walk could have been longer for it always felt like such a short span of time that you could spend together. Until he suggested going to a dance festival with him, and there was no turning back from there: you started hanging out outside of the café too, visiting the riverside on weekends, visiting exhibitions, attending concerts, going to the cinema and checking out other cafés and restaurants. Anything and everything that came to your mind, and that you thought the other would enjoy.

All because by that point, you knew each other well enough to suggest such things.

It was winter when you became official with Hanbin.

Even though the weather had become colder, your heart had never been warmer. Being with Hanbin was like constantly being bundled up in a warm blanket, being taken care of and feeling all fuzzy. He was the epitome of a comfort person: whenever you felt down, he was there to listen to your concerns, he was there to cheer you up when you were questioning your choice of major, he was there to wake you up when you fell asleep on your notes at the café, and he was there to keep you safe from careless cyclists passing by on the walk to your accommodation.

Since both of you were university students - albeit went to different universities -, you could bond over group project members that annoyingly slacked off, professors that seemed to get stuck in the past century with their presentation style, exam questions that seemed to ask the most unnecessary details from the hundredth slide and so on. It felt like sharing the same experience, and even if you studied different subjects and went to different institutions, that was just one more reason you enjoyed talking to him. He could talk so enthusiastically about topics that interested him (when it seemed like there were stars dancing in his big, bright eyes), and you loved his optimistic mind-set and hard-working personality.

However, both of you needed to let off some steam from time to time, so this particular week, you decided to walk to the top of the Namsan Tower, to take in the view of the vibrant city and its shining lights (including the Christmas decorations the city was dressed in since the beginning of December).

“Ah, I feel so out of shape,” you breathed out with a semi-nervous giggle as you were making your way up to the top. You did have weekly aerobics classes at uni, and you did walk a lot, but it seemed tiring to reach the top on foot, maybe because of your big coats and the slippery ground.

“We’re almost there. Hang in there!” Hanbin cheered you on with his hands balled into fists and a bright smile that reached his eyes. You smiled back at him, and maybe it was because of the dazzled state you were in or the uneven ground beneath you, but you felt your feet slip, and if it hadn’t been for Hanbin reaching for you, you might have fallen onto your back.

“Are you okay?” The boy asked, worry painting his features solemn, and you hated to see that tight line of his lips, so you bobbed your head right away and reassured him that you were fine. He seemed to believe you, but still didn’t let go of your arms. Instead, he slipped his fingers into yours, and pulled you with him as he took the next step towards the top.

You were thankful that you were dressed up warmly, your fluffy scarf covering half of your face, because you were sure that you were flushed like crazy. Even though you had been progressively more intimate with each other - you squeezing his hand when he was talking about something vulnerable because you noticed that it helped him to feel better, him wiping your tears when you broke down in front of him when you were questioning your choice of major, him placing his hand on your back to keep you from falling when a stranger pushed past beside you on the escalator, you helping him with his necklaces when they stuck on his shirt and slightly grazing his skin -, you had never hold hands like this before.

You made your way to the top while holding hands and staying close to each other, and it was definitely worth it. The view was stunning, and as you were taking photos of the scenery, tiny little white flakes fell from the sky.

“Hanbin, look! It’s snowing,” you shrieked excitedly like an overzealous kid, and grabbed one of the snowflakes that melted in your hand in no time. You really didn’t expect this, especially with such perfect timing.

“It’s the first snow,” he noted with a childlike smile that mirrored yours. For a few minutes, you just stood there, watching in awe how the objects and the scenery around you got a thin layer of white - like frosting on a cake.

Then, when your eyes met his, you couldn’t stop smiling. It was truly beautiful, and that warm, fuzzy feeling was there yet again, sending tiny little fireworks through your body. These feelings exploded even more when the boy stepped up to you, and helped to tuck your hair into your beanie and under your scarf, so that your locks wouldn’t get attacked by the sudden snow.

Your heart was hammering away rapidly, and you felt like you could burst any moment as he still just stood there, not stepping back. When he just kept looking at you like that, eyes warm, smile warm, hands warm, you didn’t have it in you to back away either. Instead, your lips pulled into a smile when his fingers slipped down to your hands, and he intertwined your fingers.

“I like you, y/n,” he confessed in that kind, caring voice of his, and there was no use doubting his words. His eyes spoke for themselves.

“I like you, too, Hanbin,” you answered within a heartbeat, and in that moment, you knew.

The universe was really watching.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this story of mine! Let me know what you think!

If you want to read more stories of mine, let it be for ZB1 or for other artists, consider signing up for my taglist here.

Hope you have a lovely day/night! Take care! ❤️

[harrysdaydream-tpwk]

part 1 - how you meet

summary: part one, harry and y/n meet for the first time. it isn’t smooth sailing, but shes intrigued.

warnings: none

pairing: harry styles x fem!reader

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

“Fuck, shit!”, you swore, hitting the espresso maker, once and then again, when the only thing it did was to spew more steam at you, fogging up your glasses.

“You alright?”, one of your coworkers asked and you nodded, though defeated.

“You think you can take over preparing the drinks for me, while I’ll handle the register? If I have to fight this machine one more time, something will be broken and it will either be my hand or the coffeemaker.” You looked at him desperately, your hands folded together in a silent plea.

“Alright, alright”, he laughed, “Don’t want to call an ambulance because you couldn’t control your anger. At least I won’t have to deal with asshole customers anymore.” He passed you and you blew him a bunch of exaggerated kisses before sliding right behind the cash register, slightly more motivated to finish the rest of your shift than before.

It was unusually quiet for Friday afternoon, normally all of the tables would’ve been taken- from desperate college students trying to finish their essays to single mothers, hoping to rekindle their failed love life. Although the job was a pain in your ass and barely covered all the bills and loans you had to pay off, it always had something to offer for your personal entertainment.

But now, as you waited for something to happen, other than the few fifteen years olds throwing straws at each other in the corner booth, you felt terribly bored. Your elbows quickly found their way to the counter and you put your chin in your waiting hands, blowing a strand of hair out of your face.

The nameless indie music idling out of the speakers above your head lulled you in a state of trance as you stared at the passer-by’s outside of the store, the big glass front not sparing you any detail. Even your coworker, who was the only employee inside the store besides you, had sat down on a few cases of soda stacked together, blasting TikTok and its annoying sounds throughout the whole store, but in this moment you couldn’t care less.

Then, suddenly, you were ripped out of your daydreaming by the bell ringing above the door and you stood up fast, startling not only the newcomers, but yourself as well.

“Hey, welcome in. Is there anything I can get started for you?”, you asked, peering at the three men, who just stared for a moment, as if assessing the situation. Weird.

The place you worked at was in a small side street, away from the bigger crowds, with quirky names for almost all of the things you had on your menu, so you gave your new customers a second to understand and choose something from your assortment.

Before you could turn away and pretend to be busy, one of them spoke up, though quietly, you could barely hear him.

“Hi. Sorry, we didn’t expect such an enthusiastic greeting. Is there anything you would recommend?” His voice was deep and gentle and you couldn’t help but admit that he looked exactly like the kind of man you would usually go for.

“I don’t know”, you reply, your voice now back to its usual octave and enthusiasm- or rather the lack thereof, “I usually just get the Iced Caramel Macchiato.”

To this day, you still refused to read any of the actual names of the drinks out loud.

“I’ll take that one then”, the man said, smiling at you. You nod as you type his order into your register.

“Anything else?”, you asked, smiling your “customer service smile” as your friends jokingly called it and the other two men nodded, replying with their orders.

“Alright, will that be to-go or are you staying in?” You waited for a second while they looked at each other and thought to yourself “That question couldn’t have been that hard”.

Finally, the guy with the long, brown hair mumbled “To go, please.”

“Okay then, swipe your card whenever you’re ready. And I need a name to call when your coffee is done.”

“Harry”, the guy who spoke to you first replied and stepped forward, pressing his card on the card reader. You nodded satisfied.

You turned around briefly, to check if you coworker, Charlie, got the order. Pleased that he was already on it, you directed your gaze back to the front of the store. Startled, you reeled back. Harry, who was the only one still standing in front of the counter, was starting at you intently. The other two had fallen back, standing near the door, as if they were waiting- no rather watching out for something- or someone.

“Is there anything else I can get for you?”, you inquired, observing how his shoulders rode up defensively. He was wearing a long, blue jacket, a hat and sunglasses and if you were honest, his outfit looked absolutely ridiculous. Paired with the black nike shorts, he looked a bit mismatched, like he was unsure whether it was warm out or not. You could’ve easily answered that question, seeing as you had been sweating profusely since you left your studio apartment this morning.

You were sure you looked disgusting, your uniform clinging uncomfortably to the body parts you most certainly didn’t want them to stick to, mascara probably smudged from the humidity from the steam that had been blowing in your face earlier.

How he managed to still look fresh, even with the thick jacket on was an absolute mystery to you.

“No, no, sorry. I like your button”, he answered, referring to the grumpy cat pin your mother had gifted you a while ago. It was ridiculous and cheesy, but it reminded you of home, so you wore it anytime you felt even slightly homesick. You debated telling him as much, but you weren’t up for much of a conversation, so you settled on a polite “Thank you.”

He smiled and nodded.

“Order for Harry?”, Charlie called and the man looked around, rather paranoid, as if he was scared someone was going to jump up from behind the counter any second.

“That’s me”, he said, still shyly smiling at you before turning towards the pick-up station.

“Have a nice day”, you called out sarcastically behind him and he waved, walking out the door, his company joining soon after.

You exhaled deeply and turned towards Charlie again, who suddenly squealed loudly. “Oh my God, what?”, you said, clutching your hand over your chest.

“Do you know who that was?”, he asked, excitedly, “Harry fucking Styles. And I think he liked you with all that staring he did.”

“No, it wasn’t. Was it?”, you asked disbelievingly. He nodded, “Oh, yeah. It was him. I’d recognize him anywhere. I think he’s actually having a show in town tonight.”

“But why would he come in here out of all places? I mean, we’re far away from anything slightly entertaining or fun.” You looked at Charlie quizzically.

“I don’t know.” He shrugged, “Maybe that’s exactly the point. What are the odds of getting recognized by hoards of fans in a small shop like this?”

“I guess so.”

You grabbed a wet cloth from the sink, starting to wipe down the counter, not able to shake the fact that superstar Harry Styles just walked into your workplace, however annoyed you might’ve been at that moment, it had felt oddly right and somehow meaningful. You touched the pin on your apron carefully, smiling at the chipped feeling of the plastic fading at the edges.

-

Two days later, the incident- which was how Charlie kept calling it, was nothing but a fun story you could tell your friends and something to be teased about by your coworkers. Yes, you had been kind of rude to him, maybe you could’ve been a bit nicer. Treat People with Kindness or whatever he always preached. But it was in the past now. It wasn’t like you would ever see him again.

At least that’s what you told the part of yourself that kept insisting that maybe he would return- the nagging voice that believed Charlie, who kept shooting you meaningful glances whenever one of Harry’s songs played on the radio.

You were in a middle of a lunch rush, the small room of the shop packed with people, when your wishful thinking suddenly became reality. Right in the middle, as if the crowd had split in two, he appeared. Or maybe he had just entered through the door like everyone else did and patiently waited in line. You couldn’t be sure.

“Harry, hi”, you greeted sincerely, when he approached the counter, “What brings you back?” You smiled ruefully, thinking about your last interaction.

“Hi. Slightly better mood today, huh?” So he had picked up on it last time. Your eyes travelled down his body quickly- you couldn’t help it, sue you. He was wearing a white button down this time, messily tucked in a light washed pair of denim shorts- although he managed to make it look stylish- and no sunglasses. His hair was hidden by a yellow crochet bucket hat. Cute.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know who you were and I wasn’t having a good day. What can I do for you today?”, you apologized.

“I think everyone deserves kindness, even if they weren’t popular. But it’s alright, can’t always be nice, especially in customer service. I get it, worked in a bakery for some time back at home.” He took his own shtick quite seriously you noted, but smiled politely.

“I would love to talk to you some more, but the place is packed right now. Is there anything I can get for you?”, you tried again.

“Yeah, yeah”, he chuckled, “I’ll get the Iced Caramel Macchiato again, it was really good the last time and also-“, he paused for a second, looking at your display of pastries, “One of the vegan carrot cakes, please.”

“Sure, anything else?”

“No, that’s all, thank you.”

You finish the transaction and say goodbye before tending to the next customer, a middle aged woman raising her eyebrows impatiently at you.

The rest of your shift goes by smoothly, with only a few minor incidents disrupting your flow. It all felt to good to be true, your interaction with Harry still in the back of your mind. The conversation had left you unsatisfied, craving more.

You didn’t know much about him, besides that he was Harry Styles and apparently currently on tour. He shared something with you and you couldn’t help but wonder if there would’ve been more if you had just let him talk. That’s what you reprimanded yourself for as you took of your apron and the shirt you wore for work in the locker rooms, pulling on a black hoodie with a nonsensical print on the front.

“I’ll see you tomorrow”, you yelled in the general direction of the store as you leave through the back door, a cigarette already waiting to be lit in your right hand. It was a bad habit and you were desperate to stop smoking- but on days like this it was the only thing keeping you sane.

“Hey”, a voice suddenly called and you shot up surprised, the cig almost falling out of your mouth. You took a quick drag before lowering it. Turning around, you spotted Harry of all people leaning against the wall of the back of your shop.

“Jesus Christ, what are you doing here?”, you asked disbelievingly, clutching your chest dramatically.

“Sorry, one of your coworkers told me what time you get off. They also told me your name”, he explained, peering at you with his green eyes. Fuck, why did he have to be so handsome?

“Stalker-much?”, you couldn’t help but ask, only half joking. You brought your cigarette up to your lips again, inhaling deeply, before blowing out the smoke through your nose- welcoming the rush the nicotine gave you.

“I just wanted the chance to have a conversation with you, Y/N”, he said, rolling his eyes, but smiling at the same time. It was weird hearing your name out of his mouth.

“Why?” He shrugged helplessly, observing you smoke for a second before answering.

“Fuck if I know. Couldn’t stop thinking about you, even on stage, and my friends kept teasing me. I’m in town until tomorrow, then I’m off to Cardiff.”

“Yeah, I get it. My coworker Charlie kept wagging his eyebrows at me everytime he saw someone wearing your merch. He was the one preparing the drinks for you.” You hoisted up your tote bag, which kept slipping of your shoulder.

Harry chuckled. “He did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. The Macchiato was really good. Cashier had some perks too though.”

“He’ll pass out if I tell him what you just said. But tell me more about this cashier. Were they cute?”, you flirted back, a smirk on your face.

“Oh, very. I was hoping it’d get her number by chance”, he tried as you threw the butt of your cigarette on the pavement, stomping it out with your checkered Vans.

“Well, you’re in luck. It’s not everyday an international pop-star asks me for my cell. Can’t resist your charm”, you said quietly. His shoulders dropped slightly, as if remembering his position in the world, but he caught himself.

Harry hands you his phone and says, “Just type it in yourself. It’s always easier this way.”

You nodded, taking his phone with clammy hands. What a weird, surreal world you were suddenly thrown into. The fact that he trusted you enough to just pass you his phone. The fact that he was standing opposite you, watching you, being interested in you. You wondered if this was all a dream you’d suddenly be woken up from.

But no one did. This was reality, you realized as you pressed the cellphone back into his waiting hand, brushing it with the movement. You looked at each other for a moment.

“The cute girl from the coffee place? Really?”, he asked and you giggled. Honest to God giggled. What has your life become?

Harry pocketed his phone, letting his hands hang loosely at his sides. “Well”, he cleared his throat, “I have to go. Rehearsals and all that. I’m already too late. I’ll text you?” He looked at you hopefully.

“Sure”, you answered, smiling softly, “I’ll be waiting.” You step closer, standing on your tiptoes and pressed a light kiss to his cheek- a barely there brush of lips, but he still blushed.

“I’ll see you around, H.”

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

well, this marks the first part of my first ever series on this account. i’m actually so excited to see what people think. don’t forget to leave a like& follow for more<3 stay tuned!

[doctorghoti]

Tokyo Debunker: A Review

I just finished Episode 3's storyline, which I think is pretty far in to give a proper review of this game. If you want a TL;DR version, I like the story but find the other mechanics overwhelming and not always implemented well to the point I can't exactly recommend the game in this stage. And I definitely wouldn't spend real money on it. For more specifics, keep on reading.

Story

The story is simple enough: you play as a girl who gets swept into magic shenanigans. After getting cursed by an anomaly, you are made to go to a magic high school with seven dorms. Because of another event that happened right after you got into school, you also have the ability to enhance some students' powers, so now you gotta hang out with all these boys with supernatural abilities. What is a girl to do around all these ikemen?

I've made the Twisted Wonderland comparison in joke posts already, but I will say this story seems to have more focus on the rivalry and tensions between not just the dorms but those with power and those without (this school has regular human students as well). While I love (nay, obsess) over TWST, I have to give props to Debunkers for feeling a little more fleshed out in terms of school interactions. Feel like TWST's dorm rivalry happened in Book 2 and Book 4 before being kinda brushed off. This game also goes a little more into horror territory, but not to the extent you may have seen in YouTube ads. It also isn't afraid to get graphic, but whether that makes it edgier or "edgier" is up to player discretion.

The characters are also pretty unique once you get to know them past their initial profiles when starting the game. Many of them still have secrets at this stage, and I keep coming back to this game specifically because I want to know more about them. The story, however, is where many of the positives end.

Fighting

In order to continue the story, at some points you’ll need to do cases, otherwise known as "beat up some monsters." The higher levels you reach, the more of the story you can read. That’s fair enough, and it’s a mechanic in many gacha games. However, there’s hiccups that make it harder than it should be.

There are three elements, with each character having one. Simple enough. Both your characters and the enemies have an element, and using elemental weaknesses to your advantage makes fighting easier. You know what doesn’t make that component easier? Having to memorize all your cards’ elements.

Unlike Twisted Wonderland or Magia Record, you cannot tell what element your enemy is going to be until you’re in the fight. Also unlike those games, you can’t even see the elements your cards have unless you’re in the leveling screen, meaning there’s no way to prepare your team without going back and forth between the teams menu (which doesn’t show elements), the leveling menu, and the case itself if you don’t remember your enemy’s element.

The nice thing, however, is that you can press the skip button on fights and get your outcome instantly. So while there is a grind, you don't have to watch your screen. The fights are all automatic as well, so you don't have to do anything, really. In terms of strategizing, however, the latter may not be the most beneficial, especially since, again, elements are a component in fighting. If it weren't for the fact I have to do cases to read the story, I wouldn't do cases at all. Not just for the reasons above, but also the reason below.

Leveling

Too. Fucking. Much. There are the basic components, like level and equipment, but there is so much friggin’ equipment. There's the ward card, which is a type of boost you get through summoning or getting to certain parts of the story/getting to a certain level and which can be leveled up; there's earrings, perfume, rings, necklaces, and brooches, which are equipment you get through the AFK system (more on that later) or, as I literally just learned today, through crafting; and there are guardian spirits, which you get from the spirit shop, and which can be leveled up as well. There's also gems, which you can equip to ward cards and the jewelry/perfume you craft but not the ones you earn.

A lot, right? But none of that even touches on potential (which levels specific stats of your character card but I still don't quite get), the special attributes of the ward cards, the potency grade vs level of ward cards, link bonuses for characters and ward cards, the grading system for wards, equipment, spirits-- I think these long paragraphs make my point for me. The amount of areas to keep track of is overwhelming. And save for the jewelry from AFK mode, pretty much all other items have to be summoned with some in-game currency, and in-game currency is also hard to keep track of with how many types there are.

Now, in good news, AFK mode allows you to collect a lot of the main items you need for basic leveling and a lot of the currency. Along with the more basic jewelry, you get apples (needed for leveling) and a few other items needed for leveling. But with all the other aspects to consider, it's not the most helpful thing in the world.

Gacha

Now, I've made little mention of the gacha mechanic in this gacha game. Simply put, it's atrocious. It's hard to earn gems, but that's nothing new for this game type. However, the pull rates make the grind worse. One only achieves pity at 500 pulls. Unless you buy gems with real life money, no way are you going to hit 500 on any limited run. I have 14 characters right now, enough to make two full squads with two guys to spare, but only 2 of them are SR. Like Magia Record, you don't just draw for characters, you draw for ward cards as well, which makes getting characters harder. I have more SR ward cards than characters. Maybe I'm spoiled by TWST, but I miss character pulls focusing on characters. But even with games like FGO in mind, I got better characters each pull in that game even with their criticized draw rates.

Overall

If you want a story with interesting characters, magic, and demons, I say go for it. If you don't like resource gathering games and easily get turned off mobile games by the grind, skip this one.

There's other aspects in this review I didn't go over, like the guild cats, arena, team boss battles, etc., but if all the above is too much, I'm not going to add on to the reading even further.

[noonaishere]

Online/Offline [C.S] - fourteen | commit to the bit

You pointed at how neat you had cleaned the counter. You pointed at the espresso machine, which you had just finished cleaning. You did a little spin and pointed at how you had tidied the cups and utensils, posing like a Venice Beach bodybuilder who was just asked where the beach was. It was in the direction you were pointing, and it was the very clean drink preparation area.

What a weird beach.

Seonghwa laughed softly. “You don’t need to keep showing me that you’ve cleaned everything.”

“But you like it when things are clean, so I want to show you how clean I made it for you.”

“Are you trying to impress me?”

“No, I'm showing you that I was a worthy investment.”

Seonghwa smiled and went back to what he was doing at the register. You stood next to him and sighed as you looked out the glass doors.

“Is it always so dead now?”

“Usually. The morning rush ends and it’s dead until the university students start showing up between classes, and then it’s dead again until the high schoolers show up in between school and cram school.”

You nodded. You stared out the doors for a few minutes. “I wasn’t just making it clean for you, you know.”

“Oh?” Seonghwa asked without looking up.

“Nope. I also like it when things are nice and neat.”

“I recall you saying something like that during your interview.”

“Mhm. You should see the cables for my streaming rig. Super neat, everything’s all bundled up nicely…”

Seonghwa looked up at you. “Are you bored?”

“So bored, oh my god.”

He chuckled and went back to what he was doing.

You looked over his shoulder at the screen. “We got new food?”

“Wooyoung changes the menu every so often. Seasonal stuff, stuff he wants to try for fun, that kind of thing.”

You nodded. “Raspberry tart… Pain au Chocolat--”

“It’s rude to read over people’s shoulders.”

“I’m bored.”

He looked at you again, shook his head, and went back to updating the register.

Wooyoung came out of the kitchen with a tray. “Did someone say Pain au Chocolat? Because they just came out of the oven.”

You looked at them as he put the tray into the case. “Ooooooh.”

“Don’t they look good?”

“Mhm. Now I want one.”

He laughed. “So buy one.”

The two of you looked at each other. 

You went to the cubby area and took off your apron and hung it next to your jacket. You put your jacket on and felt for your wallet, finding it in one of the pockets. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Seonghwa looking at you, confused, as you walked to the door, opened it, and left the café.

You came back in with a smile. “Hi there--” you beelined over to the fresh Pain au Chocolat, “Oh, did those just come out?”

Wooyoung threw his head back and cackled.

You waited, looking at him as if he wasn’t currently scream-laughing.

“Ahh,” he wiped a tear from his eye. “I just made them.”

“Wow, it’s a good thing I walked in just now.” You smiled. “What are the odds?”

He held back another laugh.

“Can I buy one?”

He nodded, still trying to hold in his laughter, and packaged it up for you. He brought it over to the register. Seonghwa had been leaning with one arm across the register screen, looking at the both of you skeptically. Wooyoung shooed him, and Seonghwa moved so he could ring you up.

“That’ll be 3000 won.”

You took out your card and tapped it against the reader.

Wooyoung held the bag out with both hands. “Have a lovely day.”

You took it and smiled. “You are so nice. I will! You have a lovely day too.”

He nodded, shoulders shaking as Seonghwa continued to watch the two of you with a bemused expression.

You walked towards the door, stopping at one of the fake plants to sniff it, pretending it smelled nice. You heard Wooyoung at the counter, cackling like a witch on Halloween as you walked out the door., leaving the café.

Wooyoung and Seonghwa stood in silence for a few minutes, expecting you to walk back in. When a few more minutes had gone by and you still hadn’t come back, they looked at each other.

“Wow,” you said as you walked in from the kitchen, eating the Pain au Chocolate, “I just bought this at a café nearby, you guys gotta try it.”

“Y/n, what the fuck?” Wooyoung yelled before howling with laughter. “Did you come in the back door?”

“No eating outside the break area.” Seonghwa said sternly.

“Hup!” You spun around and walked back through the kitchen.

Wooyoung hit Seonghwa on the arm as he laughed. Seonghwa smiled.

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[themoonlovemuses]

The Long Walk Home (Professor Layton X Reader)

Summary:  After a long day of work, you and the professor decide to walk home together and discuss life and the upcoming charity gala at the university

☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆

“Whew! Another fine day of work done! Huh, Professor?” You exclaimed, entering the messy office of your dear friend.

“Oh yes! I’m just finishing up grading some tests. If you give me five more minutes, I shall be done and we can be off home.” He smiled, swivelling around in his chair briefly to acknowledge you before returning to his prior work.

Making a noise of agreement, you settle down on the comfortable orange sofa you had been accustomed to sitting on when the professor was finishing up work, whether that be a paper a student has written, or his own dissertation on what he has discovered during the adventures he has had with his young assistant. Having been working at the university for a little while now, you had slowly and surely become good friends with the Professor, with him joining you in the library during his lunch breaks if and when he gets a minute away from his classroom, and you joining him in his office in the evenings to walk home together. So you’re used to waiting in his messy office, strewn with open books used for references and papers on any conceivable surface. Except today, it isn’t quite as messy as it usually is, with books back in their proper place on the bookshelves and archaeology brushes put back into their pot.

“Rosa’s been to tidy up early, hasn’t she Professor? I thought she would’ve done it in the morning like she usually does?” You enquired, looking at a puzzle box that has been left on the coffee table while you waited. ‘Must be his newest puzzle’ I chuckled to myself as I picked up the box, fiddling with some of the interlocking pieces, not really trying to solve it, just something to stop my hands from being restless.

“Well yes, she said she wanted to do it now, as she’ll be busy next week helping with the preparations for next week’s charity gala”

“Oh yes! I completely forgot! That’s the one to raise money for the disaster relief fund right?” I asked, putting the puzzle box down and focusing my gaze instead on the back of the professor’s head. His iconic top hat perched just right on the top of his head. As I stared into space, I only then remembered an envelope in the Dean’s handwriting being left on your desk over a month ago, all black card and gold scripture. Definitely on a budget, but the fanciest invitation I had received yet.

Dear (Y/N)

I would to formally invite you to our annual charity gala, which will be held at our very own university on the 7th of March.

This year’s charity gala will be an extra special one, as we will be raising money for the Typhoon Disaster Relief Fund. All ticket revenues and revenue generated from the events held at this gala will go towards this fund in solidarity with the people of Haiti.

The events of the night will be held as below:

7:30pm - 8:00pm - Guests arrive and mingle in the receiving area

8:00pm - 9:00pm - Sit down dinner with a set menu

9:00pm - 9:45pm - Charity Auction with Art from local artists and Artefacts 

9:45pm - 10:00pm - Speeches

10:00pm - 12:00am - Dancing and socialising

The back of this invite holds the set menu for this event. If you require any changes due to any dietary requirements, please let us know in advance so we can accommodate this for you.

Yours faithfully,

Dean Delmona - Dean of Gressenheller University

“Yes, that is the one, being held in the events room usually used for the student’s activities and events. Will you be attending?” He asks setting his papers aside and closing the binder in front of him. A clear sign he is done for the day.

“I had replied back to the Dean that I was going to go, even if just to support the charity aspect of the evening. I just don’t know how I will deal with the mingling section if I don’t know anyone there. I was honestly just going to go around with Rosa, but I suppose it’d be good for me to make new friends. Will you be going?” I asked, readying my bag and standing up as the professor grabs his coat from the back of his office chair and swings it onto himself.

“Oh yes, as well as raising money for a good cause, it’s also a great chance to catch up with the professors at the other universities in the district, to compare findings and notes on expeditions taken throughout the year. Shall we?” He asks, opening the door for me to walk through like he does every time we walk home together.

“A true gentleman as always. And thank goodness for that! I now know at least one person at this event” I tease, walking through as he chuckles, locking up the office behind him as we make our way back towards the front of the school.

“Well, of course, a gentleman must always put the needs of a lady first. That includes going through doors. And yes, it is always comforting to know you’ll see at least one familiar face in the crowd, isn’t it? And you won’t only know one person… you’ll know two people since the dean will be there as well.”

“Well you say that, but the dean will probably be so busy with the board of directors, the deans of the other district universities and beneficiaries, I doubt he’ll have time to seek me out specifically Layton.”

“You’d be surprised. He always makes time for his staff at these events. Especially since he likes to make sure everyone’s having a good time. You’ll see.” He finished, giving a knowing look as we turned out of the university, past the bus stop I used on my first day and down the street towards home. It only felt like yesterday was my first day here. How time flies by when you’re having fun.

“Anyway, it’ll be great to meet up outside of work for once. I know you’ve had a lot on your plate recently, and even gentlemen deserve a break now and again surely? Where was it you had just come back from again?”

“Misthallery. And yes, I suppose I have been quite busy assisting with the official police report on that incident and corresponding with Luke’s father. Perhaps this charity gala is just what I need to unwind a little.”

“Then I’ll try my best to make it a night to remember! How is Luke settling in by the way? It must be awfully strange to be so far away from his parents. And at such a young age as well.”

“He’s doing quite alright, thank you for asking. I can tell he is feeling a little homesick, but you know how the boy is; always putting on a brave face and powering through one step at a time. Besides, he has made some quite fond friends during his stay, what with yourself and Emmy having been there for him during the settling-in period.”

“Well glad I could help! Just let him know that he’s always welcome at the library, just in case you go into one of your late-night thinking sessions and he wants to talk to someone while he waits.”

“Well, I’ll certainly pass on the message. I’m sure he’ll appreciate that.” He chuckles as we made our way down the embankment. The light danced on the lapping waves of the Thames as boats of tourists and cargo used the waterways to go about their business. ‘How many lives coasted across its waves a day?’ I thought to myself as we made our way. How many people had we passed on our way home that we hadn’t noticed? Where were they going?

“But enough about me, how has your work been faring? I know the student’s work has been increasing by the day. Which must mean more work for you?”

“Oh yes! The library has been having quite an increase of students coming in. It has been a little bit hectic keeping up with the returns and books being taken, But it’s been nice to be up on my feet and helping the students with whatever it is they need. It’s almost like being an assistant to the great minds of the future. Even if that does mean I have to keep going up and down the stairs, but look at the positives! It technically classes as a good workout on the job!.”

“Perhaps you too are in need of a break then.” He said, offering me a look that said he knows well about ignoring the feeling of granting yourself a break.

“Hah, perhaps I do Professor. My feet could do with the break, that’s for sure. I hope there are seats at the event past the meal portion of the night.”

“Then allow me to be on hand to make the event a well-needed break from the day-to-day.” He offered, almost in the same vein as I had done earlier on our walk home. 

“Then it’s agreed, we will both try our best to make sure one another has a grand old time and keep each other in check about worrying about day-to-day life.”

“Agreed. Speaking of, I was wondering…” He trailed off. 

“Yes?” I asked, prompting the man next to me to continue with his thought. It was unlike him to suddenly go quiet like that. And was that apprehension etched in his brow? And something else, something deeper. Something I couldn’t quite decipher.

“Ahem. I was wondering, since we both live in the same direction, I was wondering if you would like to go together? As you said, it’s comforting to see a familiar face in a big crowd like this event is going to draw. It might be nice to start the night in that same vein before mingling?”

 “Wait really?” I asked, not really expecting that. I don’t know why I hadn’t, since we had become fast friends. But still…

“Ah, my apologies, I fear I may have been a bit presumptuous in my suggestion. I didn’t mean to put any pressure on you to come with me if you have made other plans.” He replied, a bashful laugh leaving his mouth.

“Oh, no no no! Not at all! I was only thinking I wouldn’t want to delay you getting to the event was all! But yes, if that’s alright with you and Luke, I’d love to drop around yours first before we go to the gala! It’ll be nice to see Luke and Emmy before we go anyway and…oh! We're here already?”

And before either of us were really ready to say goodnight, the two of us were already in front of the Professor’s townhouse. The green lacquer door and yellow bricks shone like gold in the sunset’s light, glinting beautifully from the windows. Our usual parting point, come too soon.

“I was sure we had another five minutes until we got here. Oh well, what conversations can do I suppose.” I chuckle, more out of embarrassment of not being aware of my surroundings rather than anything being particularly funny. Thanks fully the Professor joined in as well.

“You’re quite right. Time does fly by when in good company I suppose. Now, are you sure I can’t walk you back to your house?”

“Professor, you ask me this every time we walk home together. And I really do appreciate the sentiment, but I only live a block away from here! I’m sure I can walk myself there without any issues occurring. No need to go out of your way just for me.” I reply, walking a few paces backwards to make the point clear.

“Well, you are quite the capable person I know. In that case, I wish you a good night (Y/N)” He finishes, tipping his hat just so.

“Good night Professor. I’ll see you tomorrow then. We can talk more about our plans for the gala in the morning.” I smile, before turning on my heel and walking into the night, a slight spring in my step at the anticipation of events to come.

☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆☾☆

As they walked off into the night like they usually did, I felt a certain… lightness envelope me. Like a weight I had unknowingly been carrying had been lifted from my shoulders. Which was strange considering I had nothing particularly grating occurring in my life currently. Apart from that… but it’s best not to dwell on the past.

“What a conversation can do…” I said quietly to myself as they finally turned the corner, leaving my line of sight. Only once they were out of sight did I turn towards home and open the doors, closing it just behind me just as a pair of feet started to pad towards me.

“Oh, Professor! Welcome back! How did your lectures go?” A familiar voice called as he made his way to the hallway, where I unburdened myself of my coat and hat.

“Quite the success my boy. I believe you were right in relating this class’s topic to our excursion would do just the trick to make the material much more uplifting and engaging. I even had some of the students ask about you from the stories I told.”

“Oh wow! Glad I could help Professor! Was that (Y/N) I saw you speaking with outside? Did she

“Sadly they couldn’t come in tonight, as they have other things to take care of this evening. But, if it’s alright with you, they would like to come round for a little while next week. For that charity event I told you about.”

“Really! Oh, I’d love to have them around! I can show them all the things I learnt at the new school and all the puzzles I’ve helped solve…Oh! And I’ve even managed to finally solve that sliding block puzzle box you left me with! Come look Professer!” He exclaimed, before rushing off back to where he came from.

Chuckling to myself, I place my shoes away in the hall and follow Luke into the living room, only half focusing on my young apprentice and his newest achievement. The other half of me wondering about the gala and the evening ahead of us.

[dream-meister-translations]

CHAOS COOKING CUIT CHARACTER CARD #1

━

In Dilettanto, it was the wettest season of the year. Tonight, the rain was falling hard. Spattering loudly across the windows. CUIT : Today is the day. Cuit circled a date on his calendar with the words, "Cooking Class!", scribbled across it. EMMA : The time is finally here! CUIT : It's so weird, I feel nervous and excited at the same time.

Cuit had been assigned by Oscar to hold a cooking class for the people of Dilettanto. Cuit and Itsuki had finished their rehearsal, now it was time for full-fledged preparation. EMMA : How many students do you plan on accepting? CUIT : Hm…It's only the first class, so let's just dip our toes in and start with ten people. I'm not sure how long prep is going to take. EMMA : Didn't Oscar already prepare everything? CUIT : Yes…The facilities and the space should be plenty big enough to fit everyone… And we have plenty of ingredients… I guess I'm just feeling a lot of pressure. EMMA : Really? EMMA : (Oscar is expecting a lot out of him, so it makes sense…) CUIT : So, I've been going over menu options to teach the students, but I can't quite figure out what I want to do. What kind of menu do you think would be good? EMMA : Well, we don't know who will be judging the food, so maybe we should keep it simple? Something everyone can enjoy? You should also pick ingredients and seasons that are easily prepared. That way the students can reproduce it from their homes. CUIT : Hm, then maybe we should do some home cooked meals that people typically eat on special occasions? EMMA : That sounds like a great idea! Like food that people serve at house parties! Ooh! We should have side dishes too! CUIT : ……….. EMMA : Cuit, what's wrong? CUIT : I was just thinking about how much you've been helping me out. You really don't have to waste your time with this. I know you're busy. EMMA : I'm the one who offered to help you, Cuit. Besides, I'm looking forward to the class. CUIT : What? Why? EMMA : Because I'm a huge fan of your cooking! I want to taste it all, and I also want to learn from you personally. CUIT : Thank you. It means so much to me that you are a fan of my cooking. The look he gave me was so full of passion and gratitude, it left me breathless. I attempted to refocus... EMMA : Um…About what we were talking about… CUIT : Right. We need to think of a menu. A dish that is easy to make, but still has a special feel to it. Hmm… How about Paella? EMMA : Isn't Paella quite difficult to make? CUIT : Actually, it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. EMMA : Huh, really? Then sure! Add it to the menu. CUIT : Alright. Now I just need to arrange the ingredients and work out the details, then I can get permission from Oscar. EMMA : Sounds good. Report back to me once you have his approval. CUIT : Will do. EMMA : Okay, I'll leave you to it. CUIT : Ah, Emma! EMMA : Yes? CUIT : Thank you so much for helping me. EMMA : Any time. As I heard the sound of rain pattering across the window in the distance, my cheeks flooded with heat and as Cuit flashed me a big, bright smile.

[bxldrsdraumar]

Does This Font Bring Out My Eyes?

The Ethereal Ball is nigh! The planning committee is hard at work preparing for the second biggest event of the year and asks for volunteers to help make it happen! There’s plenty that needs to be done, from picking out the menu to securing the supplies you need for the dance cards.

(starter for @viridescent-lance)

With the many myriad duties he found himself fulfilling at the monastery, from combat to general upkeep to message running, Sigurd found himself in the comfortable position he had been in before taking over House Chalphy, well acquainted with the things a lesser noble or heir did in their day-to-day. Part of these duties he wished he had paid rather more attention to was planning for balls, or dinners or galas as the case may have been.

If he were honest with himself, Sigurd had left that sort of work to the stewards, finding that he had rather more a head for imbibing in festivities than he did for planning them.

Thankfully, he was not wholly in charge. There were other members of the planning committee, students and monks and knights alike, volunteers from all around the monastery to help, providing oversight for one another to ensure the best possible event.

Sigurd was delighted to find a familiar face among them, his wife's dear friend, the young knight Sir Forsyth, and upon seeing him Sigurd clasped his hand in greeting immediately.

"Perhaps together we can prevent any catastrophes," Sigurd joked, hefting a box of possible dance cards and possible invitations onto the table before him, flicking through them briefly with a grimace, and then a laugh. "I fear I have no eye for this sort of detail, Sir Forsyth."

[troisfleur]

11. A memory that may or may not have happened

(cw: talk of rotting food / accidentally eating rotten food and maliciously tricking someone into eating something against their will.)

“—PEOPLE FORGET WHEN YOU MAKE IT LOOK SO EASY.”

Trey’s missed all of Cater’s words except the last fragment. It barely registers as the platitudes or even a proper sentence, just background noise, static that only became untangled from the ambient dormitory noises because of the words spoken.

Cater means well. Out of the corner of his eye, he’s perched, chin in hand, elbow on counter, blurry but smiling. Trey thinks, at least. He can imagine the uneasy corners because Cater folds when conflict’s on the wind.

Trey doesn’t look at his roommate. Knife work requires careful precision. Trey is brandishing a knife and the last thing the day needs is losing a finger. The static is ringing in his ears. The strawberries underneath his hands are an off-ripe red, enough to conjure angry faces and an endless stretch of time. The knife goes cleanly through.

Housewarden Rosmas is a character, impeccably-dressed and not nearly as deft a liar as he thinks himself to be. His right hand is ineffective at leadership but his left hand is usually brandishing his magic pen, crafted by leadership into a scepter befitting a queen, around with a reckless abandon for someone who owns every single second of the dorm’s time. It’s his to wield and waste as he pleases, meant to impose upon his will only to cut students short where his own reputation might be tarnished. The Queen’s Rules mean little; his rules supersede all. Trey doesn’t consider himself a stickler—even nearing the end of his freshman year, he can only recall 80, wracking his brain—

Now 81, burned into his mind with the clattering of a table nearly overturned by a tidal wave. Housewarden Rosmas’s face scarlet, teeth flashing with every enunciated word and then bared into a malicious grin at the soaked freshmen caught in his wake: run to the sea, little oysters, and maybe you’ll dry off sometime this evening, in time to clean the mess you’ve made!

All over a menu choice he didn’t like, a simple change from their usual fare to match the coming of spring and fresh buddies flowers. Candied by Trey’s own hand, a handful of his peers eager to learn under his instruction to prepare a veritable feast for the coming of spring.

Something new—something unapproved, a deviation from the Housewarden’s rule. Trey bowed his head and taken the brunt of the blame, but their entire group felt the sting of an unbirthday party ruined, every liquid wielded against them in a brewed tidal wave of malice, stained and soaked through and lectured with the bellow of their Housewarden blotting out the merrymaking.

Rose duty for the rest of the year is a shockingly light sentence, but his fun had already been had.

The knife keeps coming back red as roses, dripping in the sweet juice. Trey imagines for a moment it’s his magic pen, the instructions to change from white to red now drilled into his mind like all good little card soldiers. It’s a deceptively difficult spell to master, a fine amount of control necessary to coat the flower evenly. What was once insurmountable is now second nature, like wielding the knife, like slicing through strawberries, like blotting out the noise and seeing red seeping into his vision.

He wonders, for a moment, what would happen if red roses were black; if red strawberries were rotten. A perfect strawberry tart, glazed and shining, presented before Housewarden Rosmas on a silver platter next month. Watching his eyes take in every single perfect berry in front of everyone seated, watching his fork cut into it with expected anticipation.

It would only take a flick of the wrist underneath the table to turn it rotten. Fine control needed to only strike his plate, to watch the berries blacken and rot on his fork, the moment it touches his tongue. Just when everyone else has begun to dig into their tea and pastries, looking away until their housewarden starts to gag.

The rest of the tart unharmed, so that when he sputters and spits and accuses something of being wrong, everyone stares in confusion, watching his face grow redder with anger and no culprit to be found—

—He can watch in horror as it rots before him—or would it be better to stretch the time, to keep the glistening red for hours but have every bite just taste as though the strawberries have molded the second his rotten personality so stained them—

Knife hits the wooden cutting board with enough force to make a sound. The kitchen is empty; Cater’s long since made himself scarce. Trey is alone.

He really shouldn’t be so careless in the kitchen.

[pheraefire]

✶ — › 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐒 ‹ — ✶  

  Here we have one prime Black Eagles student, ready to take on the new prompts of the month with vigor. Please keep in mind that some prompts on this list will REQUIRE a Golden Deer student. Take a look and feel free to IM me here on Tumblr or message me on my Discord: rez#0206.

REQUIRES GOLDEN DEER STUDENTS ! [Grants Riding/Flying +1] - With your newfound size come newfound troubles with logistics, in particular: how does one get around when you’re as tall as a thumb? The world itself is as grand as it’s ever been. There are, however, those among you who will no doubt see your fresh perspective as an opportunity. After all, how often is it you get a chance to ride a bird, a rabbit, or a squirrel? [Grants Lance +1] - Without warning, the earth begins to violently shake and a fissure cracks open wide beneath your feet, swallowing you up before you have the chance to even think about running. When you awaken, you find yourself behind a wall of glass, alongside a dozen statues, rings, miniature objects, and other oddities. The ground before you ripples as if alive, but when a dark cloud full of thunder and lightning rushes toward you, the earth rises up to meet it. They’re elementals from Morfis, you realize at once, and as the one made of earth opens up the glass case to retrieve two of the statues next to you, you understand that this is some sort of shop. Now might be your only chance to plan an escape, because who knows what will happen if you’re bought by one of them. Use what’s lying around you to devise a way to bust out… but don’t get caught.  NON MISSION BOARD TASKS BELOW ! The Ethereal Ball is nigh! The planning committee is hard at work preparing for the second biggest event of the year and asks for volunteers to help make it happen! There’s plenty that needs to be done, from picking out the menu to securing the supplies you need for the dance cards. [Grants Sword +1] - Swordsmasters of Elyos and Hoshido have long inspired people with their signature finishing move: the ability to cut through an opponent with dazzling speed, so fast that one can’t even perceive the blade leaving its sheath. The Battle of the Eagle and Lion reignites interest in learning these techniques. Determined students have made some progress but haven’t quite mastered the move. Think you can help them?  TAKEN BY IGRENE As the Ethereal Ball is only a little ways away, students and staff are doing their best to prepare via dancing lessons, outfit shopping, and event planning. This year a vendor arrives in town with a wagon full of flowers from all over the world in full bloom. They’re quite the romantic though, so luckily for you, they’re even offering corsage and boutonniere lessons. gift your crush, significant other, sworn enemy, or whoever it may be a lovely floral arrangement that you hand-picked and handmade! They won’t judge if it looks ugly, but.. maybe the person next to you is better at arranging. TAKEN BY LILINA A baron claiming to hail from the southern lands has arrived at the monastery to offer “Spectacular Sparkly Spirits” to anyone willing to endure a round of his new magicks: festive eruptions of glittering smoke, a perfect fit for festive seasons like this one. Sounds easy, but those who once took the offer before you warn against doing so—they’ve suddenly found their trinkets missing and their newly hunted game gone. Are you willing to risk loss to see a few entrancing eruptions of colored smoke in the shape of boars and rabbits? They’re sure to make you the talk of the ball this year if you can get your hands on them. [Grants Reason +1] - Your hoard of crest stones collected from the Sealed Forest beasts grows steadily the more you work, in number and in power. The stones sing a siren song that appeals to some instinctual, animalistic part of yourself. A growing desire to take them, hold them, make them yours. It’s hypothesized that this is the very influence that attracted the animals to the stones in the first place. After a rash of attempted robberies and disappearances, you and another are tasked with guarding the Crest stones through the night. The strange curse upon the stones tempt you, but you must stay strong… TAKEN BY ROY

[jennamaertz]

GRAD SHOW PREPARATION - REFLECTION

In January, I volunteered to be a part of the Web Design/Animation group as well as a floater for the Implementation team. There originally was nothing really to do for the Implementation team at the start, so I really focused on the Web Design team. Originally we started to use a program called Bubble and we weren’t very familiar with it and were struggling to do anything with it.

Some notes and plans we had from the start:

January 19th, 2023

Animate the Logo

Linkedin Website

Include Graphic Design posters on the website 

Communicate with Advancement for sign outside college

Upload pictures of wireframes, moodboard, pictures of playing cards

Thursday Feb 23 website/ host purchase (reading break)

Thursday March 23 website is up and communicating

Fridays at 5:00pm meeting with the web/interactive crew

360 degree camera 

Projection of the logo

  January 20th 2023

Profiles open in the same tab, social media profiles open into a new tab

Clicking logo goes to home page

Email set up a google doc so everyone about the social media profiles they want to include on their profiles

360 degree video 

Countdown button 

Mail buttons working

Hover over photos - adds animation smooth transition

Time and date for the grad show

Each student’s artist statement included on the profile

Images on the students profiles of their work, and progress photos of them working

Animations for the documentary 

  January 24th, 2023

Created wireframes for: 

Variety Pack Homescreen - “Choose your Grad”, maybe a stack of cards, maybe they shuffle when you click on choose your grad

Profiles Cards Page - 6 x 6 cards aligned horizontally. - When hovering over a card: card gets bigger and drop shadow illuminates. - When clicking on a card: card flips and zooms in

Single Profile Page - Photo, menu bar on the left, social media icons links 

RSVP page - Reply by, include logo, Yes, No, Interested, Share event, Add event to calendar, What to expect - food, details, how many people responded, How many people are your bringing, Confirmation email/phone/text

Clea calling Julian about countdown

For next class: Look over exposed proposal, and create ours

Vote for song

Create document for everyone’s social media links

  January 26th 2023  

Created social media links shared document

Created single proposal with all our tasks we have to do

Created digital wireframes in Adobe XD (in wireframes documents)

This weekend: get used to bubble.io

  After planning this all out, we decided to change course and go with a program we were more familiar with which was Cargo. We ended up moving really fast and understood it very well. We did our part for the proposal and paid for the one-year subscription for Cargo. We struggled to create a timer countdown for the website, but it got figured out. Any problem we came across took a little bit to understand, but we usually could figure it out. We did struggle to find a way to get orders and payments together onto the website because we had to buy into a third party. We ended up scrapping the idea because it cost too much to have installed and it was too complicated to figure out. After this, we spent a lot of time waiting on the Graphic Design team as well as the Photography/Social Media Team to get images and the overall design. We had to wait to see what design we were able to use to relate to the theme we had for Variety Pack. After we got all the images and style guides, we were rolling to get everything done. We had lots of setbacks where they were little issues but were difficult to fix at times. It was mostly just trying to fix up any profiles that had spelling errors or any of the images that would not scale correctly. We ended up fixing everything and were able to listen to anyone that noticed any errors. As this was all going on, we were creating animations based on every letter in Variety Pack using After Effects, Photoshop, and Procreate on my iPad. We were able to finish them all and were happy with how they turned out, but struggled to combine them. April ended up finding a way to fix them all up on After Effects and whipped up two different versions of the logo being animated. By the end, we plugged in the Documentary that the Social Media Team created as well as the Virtual Grad Show Tour. I was very happy with this group and enjoyed everything we did. We all worked together well and I found that we had no issues. We communicated when we disagreed with something, but overall, it went really well. I’m very proud of our Web cite and loved how it turned out.

For the implementation team, I helped when Matt asked, I only really helped out with putting up posters and handing out invitations. We only got posters the day before the Easter Break so it was hard to find places that were open. It was a bit frustrating to be running around town, yet finding nowhere to put up posters. We ended up finding a few places to put up posters and to hand out invitations, but I wish we could have had more places to advertise. 

[acadamycelebrancy65]

Register As A Marriage Officer Necessities

To say that the event is a paean to Afrikaner kitsch overlooks the reality that it's also a reactionary celebration of “whiteness”. Visit for pleased hour between 6pm and 7pm to take pleasure in half worth on all drinks. Enjoy joyful hour between 7pm and 8pm and pay half worth on drinks each Tuesday and Thursday. Purchase selected pizzas and pastas on the menu and only pay between R55 and R65, legitimate every Sunday and Monday from 5pm. Enjoy a sushi buffet boasting over 30 sushi varieties for only R185 per particular person.

This nice special is available all day on Mondays. Add to the enjoyable whereas permitting for additional ornamental touches – offer a DIY taco table as savoury fare or one for adorning one’s personal cupcake or donut for dessert. For a more subtle contact, a cocktail mixing table provides an exquisite interactive party expertise. Using envelopes of various colors or sizes pinned to an adorned board, containing thriller prize information for friends to pick, can look good and solely intensify everybody’s get together pleasure.

Take advantage of the great buy one get one free pizza special, out there all day. Students head on over to Salushi's for a great 50% low cost on selected sushi when presenting a valid pupil card. On Mondays purchase any two giant pizzas with three toppings each for only R119 or order two delicious burgers plus chips for just R152 or better yet one pizza plus one burger for less than R159. Enjoy a Benedict and Bottomless L'Ormarins Bubbles for less than R279.

In this Act, a wedding is outlined as one that is solely for opposite-sex couples. Couples who choose to form civil partnerships are responding to a societal trend towards extra equality, versus those that consider marriage to be oppressive because of inflexible gender roles and expectations. Through his years as an ambulance pilot / paramedic, Gray has learned lessons in compassion and sensitivity. The request for Baptism for a child is seen by the Church as an indication that the parents celebrants recognise the importance of God in their lives and earnestly seek to share this relationship with their child. The time of preparation for Baptism is a chance to strengthen that religion or to revisit that religion – in the case of those who have lapsed from the practise of their faith. The parish priest and the parish group provide whatever help and assist is required by new parents who wish to both renew or revisit their religion.

It is, however, your accountability and that of your family to participate in all elements of the church’s life especially by embracing Jesus’ call to discipleship. Here we should pause to make clear who qualifies as a Catholic godparent. A Catholic who doesn't apply the faith by regularly attending Mass or who's in an invalid marriage disqualifies himself from being a godparent. The Baptism of a kid is a time for celebration and joy. We hope that our parish shall be ready that will assist you to plan and prepare for the celebration of this Sacrament in the best possible way.

If the bridal couple insists on sporting gloves please keep in mind that these will have to be removed for the exchange of vows and the change of rings. The Lord might seal and strengthen your love within the presence of the Church's minister and this community. He has already consecrated you in Baptism and now he enriches and strengthens you by a particular Sacrament so that you celebrant training may assume the duties of Christian marriage in mutual and lasting constancy. The celebrant will assist you with a choice of a suitable psalm which can be printed in your wedding booklet. Alternatively you could choose a hymn primarily based on a psalm or a passage of scripture.

Confirm in case you have a choice of supplier for each area of your marriage ceremony or does the planner solely work with one caterer, one photographer, and so forth. Any asset excluded from the accrual system under the ANC, in addition to another asset that the partner acquired by virtue of his/her possession or former possession of such asset. The time period celebrant course ‘accrual’ is used to denote the net enhance in value of a spouse’s estate since the date of marriage. In different words, what was yours before the marriage remains yours, and what you have earned in the course of the marriage belongs to both of you.

Which are two of the smallest municipalities in the country. It is like coffee, like chocolatebecause it's primarily raw sewage. The point I’m making an attempt to make is folks write no matter they want to … I love Berold; I love Charles] Bukowski. I wouldn't have something in frequent with them so far as their socialisation or whatever is anxious, however about what they do with the word. I wouldn't say that poetry ought to serve this or that function. I wouldn’t jump up and say individuals [ ought to write about poverty, about human suffering, about whatever.

In 22 nations around the globe and in several nations of Mexico, a same-sex couple may be legally certain in a registered partnership, civil partnership or registered partnership. Couples resulting from such unions or partnerships are granted rights and obligations related, however not equivalent, to these of a married couple. Engagement ceremonies could seem like legally binding marriages, however at no time does the couple go out to signal paperwork and make the wedding authorized according to state standards.

[frogecstacy]

Hi! I really love your writing! My favorite is the one where the brothers don’t notice MC’s lipstick. Could I request you continue it with the newdateables (minus Luke) or just do Barb if that’s too much

OOf course lovely!!!

I’m so happy you liked it!

I’d be happy to do the new dateables (except Luke of course because I consider him my son)

For anyone who sees this first here are the brothers

https://frogecstacy.tumblr.com/post/645300851675709440/maam-may-i-please-request-mc-getting-a-new

Part 2 of the new dateables not noticing they are wearing MC’s new lipstick (except Luke)

Reader is gender neutral 

Hope you like it

Diavolo

Your relationship with Diavolo had to be very appropriate and mature when addressing the public and attending meetings

Never really getting to fool around (if you know what I mean)

However while still dating a royal Diavolo always made sure he had time for you and that your relationship was fun

He had read somewhere in a human world magazine that keeping you partner happy and living life to the fullest was how a relationship lasted

He vowed to live by that. I kid you not if not for Barbatos this man would have pledged his life to make sure your every need was acquired 

Diavolo had been very busy recently and you thought maybe this new lipstick you had bought would spark his attention

OH BOY WAS THIS MAN SMITTEN

He wanted you to paint a picture on his face

Your lips and the brush and the lipstick as the paint

Sadly you two were in a meeting regarding a new lunch menu, but the only thing this man had on his mine was eating your lips

His brain going BRRRRRR

You quickly picked up that his attention for this conversation was dropping quickly and was trying to end the conversation

As soon as the chef that runs the cafeteria left, Diavolo gave you no chance to say goodbye

His lips were on your quickly grabbing your cheeks so you could face him

“Now darling I must say this new lipstick of yours is quite tempting” Diavolo was smirking giving you a teasing tone

“Is it a crime to want my boyfriend’s attention” you loved giving him those innocent puppy dog eyes

“Why yes it is my dear, I’m afraid your punishment will be giving me more kisses” 

How you loved Diavolo’s “punishments”

This led to a quick make out session but it was cut short as Barbatos called reminding Diavolo he had a meeting with elderly demons regarding some RAD students getting out of hand

“We’ll continue this later my love, I hope you’ll be reapplying the lipstick. It tastes amazing.”

As you looked over at Diavolo you saw the lipstick marks on his face and was going to tell him but he was already gone

You were a bit worried but thought that Barbatos would remind before he entered the meeting

You were wrong Diavolo had quickly ran into the meeting and was met with wide eyes

“I’m sorry I am late I had... ugh, some important matter to attend to” he had thought maybe they were mad that he was late but Barbatos had quickly pulled him aside for a private chat

“My Lord I believe you have MC’s lipstick all over your face” Barbatos was smirking

He could have stopped this but I mean who doesn’t love a bit of excitement 

Diavolo looked at himself through his camera phone and turned bright red

He just walked in to a meeting with a bunch of elders lipstick smudged all over his face

I mean the man jinxed himself, he wanted you to paint a picture

He quickly than realised something, why be embarrassed, these geezers should know he’s in an active relationship and he doesn’t care for their opinion

He wiped off most of the marks but left one on his neck for them to know he enjoyed himself, reminding them they took him from his enjoying moment

He walked right back into that board room with his signature smile and laugh and continued with pure confidence

You later found out and was so embarrassed but that thought was quickly swept away and Diavolo said he wanted to wear your love all the time

Damn sorry I got carried away with Diavolo’s

Barbatos

They should seriously make a UR+ card of this man ASAP

Okay Barbatos is 24/7 butler so you don’t always get time with him

BUT... you had a plan to get his attention today

You had bought a new lipstick that you knew would be to Barbatos’s liking

You had went to the castle for tea but you just wanted to get Barbatos (Sorry Diavolo we kinda used you as pawn today)

You had come to the castle in a new outfit that made you look stunning 

You already are stunning lovely this outfit just made you God’s competition. Simeon have to step up his game

Okay so you enter the castle giving a small kiss to your boyfriend and saying Hi to Diavolo

Barbatos quickly saw your new lipstick and outfit and man had to hide the small blush on his cheeks

I mean he could’ve known you were going to do this but he still would be blushing 

Your chit chat with the two was small as you could Barbatos was watching the way your lips moved or the way you sipped on your cup of tea

He was not subtle in any way today

Wanting to feel your lips on his he reminded Diavolo of some work he had to complete

Barbatos insisted in guiding you to the door and for Diavolo to return to his studies

As Barbatos was leading you out he put his hand on your lower back and said “I see what you’re trying to do my dear. You want me to give you some attention” 

Now at the door and facing him you said shyly “Is it working?”

“Mhm” as Barbatos hummed his answer he leaned into you and kissed your lips

But one kiss wouldn’t suffice, he need more

Now pining you against the wall he was holding you

Your kisses started to get more desperate and Barbatos was addicted to to your lips

You were kissing all over his face

His neck, his lips, his forehead, his cheeks, he was lost in the feeling

Being so lost in your loving lips he didn’t hear Diavolo walking down the hallway to ask a question 

You both froze when Diavolo stopped talking and was staring at you two

Barbatos quickly pushed you outside and closed door

Was calm and neutral Barbatos embarrassed

He didn’t hear the end of it from Diavolo

However the prince was now reminded he assistant was in a loving relationship and need to give him more time off

Barbatos was trying to explain himself but Diavolo cut him off laughing and saying “Barbatos you should wash your face first before you explain yourself”

He left to wash his face confused but knew why when he saw himself in the mirror

He was tempted to walk out and enter a new timeline

But how could he leave you, he loved you more than any teasing Diavolo could give

Simeon

I could not find a good gif for him so I’ll have to get one of my own for future posts

Okay I know everyone thinks this man is Holy as hell but I think NOT!!!

I mean look at him, look at his angel outfit you can not tell this man isn’t a tease 

If he asked I would give him all the kisses he wanted

Okay so you and Simeon were going to go on a nice date in the DevilDom and you decided to wear a new lipstick

I think sometimes this man just throws out all levels of holiness when it comes to your hotness 

I mean who would be able to resist your beauty. No one bam!

You and Simeon were going to Ristorante Six for a well deserved date

You two had agreed to meet there, but Simeon had the wind knocked out of him when he saw you

He seriously had to have conversation with Micheal asking why you weren’t an angel

I mean your his angel though soooo

Okay so not only is your outfit jaw dropping he can’t get his eyes of your lips

While you two are eating dinner you remind him that his eyes should be up here, looking at your eyes

While dinner was nice all Simeon wanted to do was kiss you lushes lips

He watched you reapply the lipstick before leaving

He burned the brand name into his head and made sure he would but it again

When finally reaching the house of Lamentation he couldn’t leave without a kiss

So when he received a kiss from you he couldn't get enough

Your small kisses quickly became long and needy

Simeon had you pushed up against the door and was kissing you like there was no tomorrow

You both making sure no spot on your faces were unkissed, the moment had to come to an end as you could someone approaching the door

One last kiss and whisper of a goodbye before Simeon left to go back to Purgatory Hall 

When he got home Luke screamed

Poor baby probably doesn’t even know how to make out with anyone

Soloman was smirking and suggested that Simeon go look in the mirror

When he saw himself and he blushed 

He had to admit though he looked good wearing your lipstick

Solomon 

Okay so this man loves getting handsy and intimate at random moments

Like you could be walking together at RAD and then he’ll just start kissing you and go into an empty classroom

He loves keeping the name of the sneaky and mysterious sorcerer 

But behind his little act he just loves kissing you

So when he sees you wearing a new lipstick at RAD he pulls another one of his stunts

However maybe it kinda backfired on him

So you two are talking about a new spell you were working on

I mean the two most powerful sorcerer’s dating makes the most powerful power couple

While you’re talking about one ingredient you can’t seem to prepare right you find yourself suddenly pinned against a classroom door

His hands are at your hips and his lips are mere inches away

He’s looking at your lips and asks “Is this a new lipstick”

“Ugh, yeah it is. Do you like it?” 

Solomon wasn’t usually this bold or so revealing in the halls 

He responds with the gears in this already wanting to kiss you “I love it”

He already has his lips on you and he’s hoisted your legs around his waist

Opening the classroom door and closing it behind him, he places you on the desk turning your light kisses into a hard make out session

Your lips trailing everywhere from his lips to his neck to his forehead

After almost trying to see who could go without air for the longest you two heard the bell rings and quickly separated going to your different classes 

Solomon had ran into Asmo and he got a handful of questions from him

Solomon was confused but than it him, he must be wearing MC’s lipstick all over his face

“Ahh, you and MC getting real bold at school Solomon” Asmo loved the tea on your relationship 

Solomon’s pride didn’t falter and just said “We did an experiment and that was it”

He walked away smirking

What a sneaky bastard

[terrytellyetales]

The Best Teacher Ever(?)

Just a bunch of short Genshin imagines. Imagine having [character name] as your teacher or supervisor.

Warnings: None. Just a bit of fluff and (mostly) humor.

Characters: Albedo, Amber, Bennett, Diona, Eula, Fischl, Jean, Kaeya, Lisa, Razor, Sucrose, Klee (some mentions of Aether/Lumine and Paimon)

Click this for the masterlist

==================================

Albedo

I think he'd be a pretty chill supervisor. Along with alchemy, you'd get a bit of art lessons on the side to. Your lab is chill too (literally). You must be quite fit being able to climb up and down Dragonspine almost every single day. Regardless how much you frequent that mountain, you still get lost every now and then. To address this issue, Albedo asks Sucrose to make some kind of glowing plant that would act like guiding lights for you.

Amber

Teaches you how to glide for scouting purposes from the cathedral. If you're a little scared about taking your first flight, don't worry! She'll be with you every step of the way. She'll cover all the basics like how to steer and make those sharp turns, how go faster, how to land without falling flat on your face, etc. Everything's going great until your attention was called by one of the other knights. Since it’s illegal to glide within the city, you BOTH get your gliding license confiscated.

Bennett

It’s your first day as an official adventurer and you’re a new member of Benny’s Adventure Team! Get ready to be chased by Hilichurls, ganged up on by slimes of different elements at the same time, get pooped on by pigeons, struck by lighting, lose one of your boots in the mud, and all kinds of other disasters! Please don’t blame the poor boy. At least you learn to prepare for whatever unfortunate events you might encounter, right?

Diona

Let’s say you’re a bartender in training at The Cat’s Tail. Margaret assigns Diona to teach you how to mix everything on the menu. You ask her to teach you some of her signature drinks. You follow her recipe to a tee, no matter how questionable it seemed. As one would expect, it tasted horrible! Around five or six drinks, the outcome was still the same. At this point, you were discouraged and wondering what you did wrong. On the other hand, Diona was just stunned. Wanting to learn your ways of making horrible drinks with her recipes, the teacher has now become  the student.

Eula

You want to learn Favonius Bladework? Oh boy, you can be sure she’ll teach you AFTER you pass her dance lessons. You'd think it's just some kind of warm up exercises, but seeing how it's literally been the only thing you've done for a week now, you think she's just messing with you. You tell her how completely useless this all is and she just lets you voice out your complaints. When you're done, she calls you over, making you perform specific moves and attempts to attack you each time. You're surprised how you just keep successfully blocking and dodging. "You dare think my training regimen was nothing more than a simple dance lesson? Mark my words, vengeance will be mine!"

Fischl

You’re the new recruit of the Adventurer’s Guild intelligence team. You were placed under the Prinzessin der Verurteilung's care. It was exciting! One of the best of the best supervising you? What an honor! The moment she introduces herself, you couldn’t understand a single thing! Was she talking in riddles? Is this some secret code among adventurers? Is this part of training?? Thank the Archons for Oz!

Jean

You feel really honored to be personally trained by the Acting Grand Master. The way she decides to start off with a little sparring to gague your skills, how she's patient and attentive when correcting your form, the way she praises you when you successfully counter her attacks. The best part, you might actually have the power to make this workaholic rest. Use the "good student card" and take her out to "celebrate" your growth.

Kaeya

Similar to Eula, he'd take an unconventional way of teaching you, or so you thought. The Cavalry Captain has a whole list of tasks for you to do, disguising it as “drills” or “learning through experience” but really, you're just doing his work for him. But hey, being his little errand boy/girl has taught you a thing or two about working smarter and not harder (maybe).

Lisa and Razor

Despite how good at “conserving energy” Lisa is, she’s a very dedicated (and strict) teacher. She’s really smart and makes it a point to explain everything in a less complicated and easier to digest way. Her words of endearment make you feel warm and fuzzy whenever she teaches you and Razor about the elements. Having said that though, fooling around during her lectures will make you feel fuzzy in a different way (misbehave at your own risk). 

Speaking of Razor, you guys are study buddies!! He’s better at combat while you’re good at the technical stuff. You make it a point to help him understand some difficult words as well as human behavior. In return, he teaches you to hunt and would gladly be your sparring partner whenever you need to exert a little more effort applying what Lisa taught you both when it comes to using your vision.

Sucrose

It’s always the quiet ones, eh? Have you heard of the Hilichurl she keeps in her lab? Yeah... you’re in for an... interesting surprise when you step foot into her lab. All kinds of samples both alive AND from (maybe) live specimens. Don’t worry though, she’s not gonna experiment on you, after all... you’re here to learn the ropes without knowing exactly what kind of alchemy she studies... gulp.

❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋

Bonus:

Klee

What brings you to solitary confinement? You froze the lake with your cryo vision so you could go ice skating. To pass the time, Klee teaches you how to make bombs! You even give her the idea to try making one that can freeze anything to the core without the need for hydro application! While tinkering with the bombs, one of them ends up rolling towards the door. At that moment, the traveler swung the door open and detonate the bomb. (He/she was just there to pay Klee a visit.) Good thing it didn’t make a big explosion, but of course, Jean immediately runs out of her office to assess the situation. She sees one Honorary Knight and Paimon lying on the floor, a broken door, and two children hiding behind the curtains. This calls for some drastic measures. She prepares a corner in her office for you two to sit in and think about what you’ve done. This way, she can keep an eye on both of you while she finishes her paperwork. Oh. Don’t worry about Paimon and Aether/Lumine. They were escorted to the cathedral to get healed.

===================================

This was actually fun to make. Maybe I’ll do more characters or make an actual narrative. Probably will make more since Mondstadt characters aren’t even complete here (if I can come up with something). I made more! Hehe. Here’s the rest of the Mondstadt characters! The Best Teacher Ever(?) II

Don’t be shy to leave a like and a comment if you have any suggestions or just wanna say something. Reblogs are also appreciated. It helps get this story out there for others to enjoy (and for my encouragement, ehe).

For those reading I Just Wanted to See You, don’t worry. I’m still working on that. Will definitely end it properly and not midway just because Childe’s story quest exists.

[soramei]

Intentional - Part 2

Pairing: Bang Chan x Reader (she/her)

Summary: Landing your first real job at JYPE was something short of a miracle. You were prepared to face the new struggles of this elusive career whilst moving to a new country, however, nothing could have prepared you for him. Will stolen glances, secret touches, and hushed nights spent in the recording room ever be enough for the both of you?

Genre: idol!bang chan au, forbidden relationship, coworkers to eventual lovers, slow burn

Warnings: none right now, eventual smut,

Word Count: 5.2k

Masterlist

A/N: o my god i did not expect so many people to have read the first part… even if only one person reads im still happy :D anyways heres the second part (i swear bang chan wont just be a side character later on hhahaha)

The insistent beeping of the alarm on your phone was what first woke you up from your dazed sleep. Your head still pounded from the night before, and frankly, you were ready to get fired for an extra five minutes of sleep. Tapping the ‘cancel’ button on your phone, you flipped over head down on your pillow to find the beautiful dreamland you were in. However, after just five more minutes, the triggering beeping of your backup alarm took you out of your slumber again, this time really waking you up. 

You trudge towards your bathroom, still dreading the day, on your way to take a shower. Thankfully, the steam from the warm shower combined with the fragrant smell of your conditioner slightly woke you up and dampened the aching in your head. 

Being drastically more awake than before, you made your way over to your kitchen to prepare breakfast. You opened the fridge, mind blank, just staring at the empty shelves. I seriously need to do some grocery shopping, you thought before grabbing an egg. 

You struggled to turn on the stove, not knowing which knob correlated to which burner. Turning a random one, you flinched when an excessive amount of fire appeared. However, after an embarrassingly long amount of time, you finally figured out the stove. Why are there still gas range stoves when electrical stoves exist? You wondered. 

You looked at the sad cooked egg in front of you. 

Was this really how you were going to live from now on? You cursed your whole family for spoiling you so much back home. Sure you were grateful for being able to live with your family for twenty three years, but the consequences of your mother making a fuss when you tried to cook for yourself was really showing now. 

You were about to dig into your lonely meal when your phone buzzed all of a sudden. Taking a quick peek at it, you saw Na-eun’s name flash up. You beamed with joy. Although you already worked up the nerve to be the first one to contact her, you were thankful she did first to break the tension. However, there was a small — microscopic even — part of you that wondered: what if that were Bang Chan?

You unlocked your phone. 

Na-eun: Hey! I know it’s kinda last minute, but do you wanna meet for breakfast?

Na-eun: There’s a café five minutes away from the building. 

Na-eun: ^-^

Smiling to yourself, you quickly typed a reply.

Y/n: Sure! My breakfast looks too sad to eat… 

Y/n: ^-^

In a flash, you stuffed your egg into a plastic tupperware container and put it in the empty fridge before booking it out your door, making sure to carefully enter the passcode to lock it before running to the staircase. You almost tripped over the stairs going down as you tried to sprint and text Na-eun at the same time. Checking the maps app on your phone, you told her how long it would take for you to arrive at the café. 

Na-eun: Do you mind if I bring my roommate? She keeps complaining about how boring it is at home haha.... 

Na-eun: She’s really nice though! ^^;

You happily agreed since you weren’t in the position to turn down another potential friend. Already two potential friends? You were so excited. 

There was a bounce in your steps as you made your way down to the subway. Scanning your card, you made your way to the big group of people on the platform and waited for your train. Taking the subway was so new, yet refreshing. There was something exciting about seeing a brand new set of people board the cart every stop, it was almost like refreshing your Instagram feed over and over again. 

After just a couple minutes more of waiting, your subway came. You naturally found your way in by shuffling along with the flock of people and found a good place to stand. 

You surveyed your cart. Some high school students, a few elderly, and many many businesspeople dressed in attire very similar to you. They all seemed to be busy on their cellular devices, so you quickly pulled yours out as well, eager to blend in. Your little Tamagotchi friend was happy to see you. 

The sound of the automated woman’s voice was what drew you out of your concentration, as she announced that the subway would be stopping at your destination next. When the subway stopped, the sea of people rushed out in a big tidal wave and you just went along with the flow. 

The map posted on a big pillar in the station was difficult to read at first, but after embarrassingly asking a station officer, you were confident you knew where you were going. The station was big with many interwoven hallways, each connecting to a different location. It had a couple shops and convenience stores located along the sides where students running late could buy some bread or tired businesspeople could inject their early morning dose of caffeine. 

You weaved your way through the long halls, confident that you could remember how you got out the right exit yesterday. Finally, after passing by many familiar stores and signs, you eventually made it above ground at the right exit. It was a cloudy September morning, the wind flew past you at just the right speed to elicit a slight shiver. You curse yourself for not bringing a jacket in your rush to the café. The streets were busy with cars zooming by, but it was nowhere near as congested as the subway traffic.

You started following your phone’s GPS to the marked location, and after a couple minutes, you spot the café. You immediately recognized it as a chain café as you’ve seen a few more of these scattered around the city as you got around. This one, however, appeared to be larger than the others (presumably because it was near so many big name companies) as it had three floors in total. 

You texted Na-eun, telling her you’ve arrived. She let you know that they were both in one of the booths on the second floor, so you decided to order before heading up. Walking over to the cashier, you scanned their massive menu, trying to find what you were looking for.

“One mango juice, please.” You politely ordered. “And also a slice of the red velvet cake.”  

After you had paid, you waited patiently, hands folded in front of you for your food. Because it wasn’t busy in the morning, it wasn’t that long until one of the baristas handed your food to you on a tiny plastic tray and you started making your way up. You reached the top floor and scanned your eyes around the room to find a familiar face. 

“Y/n!” Na-eun waved.

You waved back and made your way over. She was in the booth, and there was another girl sitting beside her. 

“Y/n, this is my roommate Yoojin.” She smiled at you and made a gesture towards the smaller girl sitting beside her. She was a fluffy haired girl. Her appearance was puppy-like, with her wide eyes and a large smile that was almost too big for her face. 

“Hi Yoojin.” You said as you sat down. 

“Hi Y/n! Na-eun told me about you yesterday. It seems like you have similar jobs.” She looked back at you with wide eyes. “But I think you got luckier because you actually get to interact with the idols.” 

“I think both of us are lucky to even be working there,” you chuckled, “plus, I don’t actually get to be working directly with the artists. I could only wish.” You joked. 

“Still extremely lucky, Na-eun told me she saw Bang Chan and Felix from Stray Kids at your building’s cafeteria yesterday.” Her hair bounced. “Finally, now I can say I’ve indirectly met famous people.” 

You and Na-eun both laughed. Although Yoojin looked the same age as you, there was something about the way she acted that just seemed so precious and innocent — like a little sister. How old was she anyway?

“Yoojin’s younger than me by a few years,” Na-eun said as if she read your thoughts, “She graduated university a year early. Top of her programming class. She knows everything about technology; one time, I stupidly forgot the passcode to my P.O. box and she cracked it for me in less than fifteen minutes.”

“Stop it.” Yoojin whined, looking down and playfully hitting Na-eun on the shoulder. “I told you before that I don’t like it when you talk about me. Let’s talk about Y/n instead. Na-eun told me you’re not from here, what do you do at JYPE then?” 

“I’m an assistant to help market some of the artists in China.” You leaned in a bit. “Actually, to be honest, I’m working on a secret project and Bang Chan from Stray Kids is technically part of the team.” 

Both Yoojin and Na-eun’s eyes widened. “No way, you’re so lucky.” Yoojin said. “Why can’t you have a job like that?” She poked at Na-eun.

“Get your own job first,” Na-eun smirked, “then we can talk about mine.”  

“Hey! I do have a job.” Yoojin clenched her jaw, looking at her plate and avoiding eye contact.

“I’m not sure if talking to people online all day counts as a job.” 

“Whatever.” Yoojin swirled her fork on her plate, stabbing at a piece of her cake. The scraping of metal on ceramic made all of you wince. 

“Anyways,” you started, trying to change the atmosphere, “did anybody watch the first episode of that new drama?” 

The two girls seemed to have a mood switch, looking relieved to start a new conversation. They gladly added their input and opinions on the new drama, talking about both the plot and the actors. Time passed by twice as fast as the three of you sat at the booth talking about the most random things. However, it was soon time to go to work for both you and Na-eun. 

“Hey, before you leave, could I get your number?” Yoojin asked. “We should hang out again sometime.”  

You gladly typed your contact into her phone, excited to hang out with Yoojin again. She was so full of energy, it reminded you of your university days. Not to mention that fluffy curly hair. It was so cute. 

You and Na-eun both made it out of the café and walked side-by-side over to your building before parting ways at the elevator corridor. It was a miracle that you managed to arrive at your cubicle in time, without getting lost. There was a pile of papers on your desk; they were the files you worked on yesterday. You remember that yesterday Manager Chen marked some improvements that could be made to the papers, but you checked your email just to be sure. 

Hello Y/n,

I put the documents from yesterday on your desk for some final edits. I’ve also added a few more. Could you finish them all by the end of the day?

Best, 

Manager Chen

You flipped through the stack of documents, and sure enough, there were about five more letters that needed to be worked on. Feeling determined, you gritted your teeth, got out your pen, and started to do your job. 

There were more corrections to make than what you expected, plus, you wanted to make sure your work was perfect this time. You skipped a trip to the cafeteria for lunch and ate something from the vending machine at your desk instead. You tried your best to work diligently, but because of your inexperience, it was taking longer than expected. You lost track of time as the hours passed by. 

“Your team is working hard today, Manager Chen.” A voice came from across the room. You looked up from your stack of documents to see Manager Kim walking over towards Manager Chen, who was standing casually outside her office doors. 

“What can I say, I keep them busy.” She replied. “Are you heading home now?” 

“Yes, and so should you.” Manaker Kim stopped at your cubicle, putting a hand on the wall. It was cat-like the way he looked at you. “Y/n, you’re working hard. Are you going home now? I’ll give you a ride.” 

You couldn’t head home now, not with the amount of work you still had with the new letters Manager Chen added to the pile. “Thank you for the offer, Manager Kim, but I’ll stay later today. I need to finish this work by today.” 

“Let her be, Manager Kim, you know how new employees are.” Manager Chen nagged and crossed her arms. “Come, I’ll walk you to the parking lot.” 

You bowed at both your managers and stretched your back before getting back to your work. The black lines of both languages started to blur into one as you strained your eyes to hold a tighter focus on the documents. It wasn’t until two more gruesome hours later when you finished your work. You did a long deserved stretch of the arms and checked the clock for the time, praying that it wasn’t too late. Thankfully, with the time being only eight, it wasn’t that dark out. You took a quick peek at your phone to check your notifications before leaving the office. 

There were only two texts sent fifteen minutes ago. Both from Bang Chan. 

Your chest tightened when you unlocked your phone. 

Bang Chan: Hey, I know it’s a bit late, but I have some ideas for the project and I was thinking we could meet up to discuss them

Bang Chan: Only if you want that is…

Your brain was in jumbles as you thought of what to text back. There were a couple staff that wrote you emails about their ideas for the project, but none of them asked to meet in person. And now, the first person who asked you to have a meeting in person was Bang Chan. Whom you rode back to your apartment drunk with. On your first day at work. And now you missed his work-related text by fifteen minutes. However, even though it was late, you still felt like you needed to take his ideas in. After all, like Manager Chen said, you know how new employees are. 

Y/n: Hi, sorry my reply is late… Are you still free? 

You anxiously stared at the blue-lit screen of your phone, jumping in and out of the text app waiting for a reply. After less than a minute, you saw the little dots at the bottom which indicated that he was typing. It disappeared for a moment, only to come back less than a second later. Your thumbs started unconsciously fiddling with one another in front of your phone screen as you waited for what felt like eternity. 

Bang Chan: It’s alright haha 

Bang Chan: There’s a cafe about 5 minutes from our building, wanna meet there? 

You immediately knew which café he was talking about as you conveniently hung out with Na-eun there this morning. You texted Bang Chan back, letting him know that you would be there as soon as possible. You grabbed your bag, along with your trusty pen and notebook,  before leaving your desk for the elevators. The elevator ride was unusually fast as it was already well past working hours for most people.  

Once you were out of the building, you made your way down the familiar sidewalk, passing by the familiar street shops as you felt the bite of the wind against your face. The sky was becoming dim as the sun made its descent, but the illumination coming from the streetlamps helped guide you there. After five minutes of a brisk walk, you saw the familiar sign of the café. You also saw a familiar person standing outside the door, dressed in all black, with his head down looking at his phone. 

You tried to make your footsteps slightly louder the closer you got to him in order to make your presence known. It seemed to have worked, as Bang Chan heard you and turned his head up. He immediately gave you a boyish grin, putting his phone in the pocket of his hoodie and pulling his face mask down to his chin. 

“Hey,” You waved awkwardly, “did I make you wait long?”

“Not at all.” Bang Chan said as he held open the door, “Let’s go in, it’s pretty chilly today.” 

You thanked him and walked inside. You both made your way to the cashier and looked up at the menu, deciding on what to buy. 

“I think I’ll get an iced americano.” Bang Chan said. “Are you getting anything?”

“Hmm. I might get the mango juice.” You decided and lined up behind Bang Chan, waiting for him to order first. 

Bang Chan walked up to the waiting barista. “Hello, I’ll get an iced americano please.” A second passed. “Also a mango juice.” 

Your eyes widened as you silently tried to stop him from buying your drink, feeling embarrassed that Bang Chan — who was essentially your coworker — was buying your drink. He didn’t seem to notice your quiet protests, as he pulled his card out of his wallet and quickly tapped it on the pin pad. After he was done paying, he turned around and tucked his card back in his wallet, giving you a smug grin. 

“I’ll pay you back later.” You insisted, embarrassed once again that he was doing something for you. 

“Of course, of course.” He casually replied and stood beside you with his hands in the pocket of his hoodie. “I’ll wait for our drinks. You can go find a table.” 

You nodded and left to find a table on the first floor. Surprisingly, there were more people there at night than when you were there in the morning. Some people had their textbooks out to study, some were quietly enjoying a book. Some were on dates. 

Finally, after weaving through many fully filled tables, you found an empty one near the table. You sat down, taking out your pen and notebook to prepare for Bang Chan’s ideas. Not long after, you saw Bang Chan walking around, turning his head left and right to look for you. You caught his eye as you waved at him to come over. He strolled over and put the tray of drinks down on the table, placing yours beside your notebook. 

“So,” You took a sip of your delicious mango juice, “do you wanna get started now?” 

“Sure.” His usually friendly face turned serious. It seemed like he took his work seriously. “So I was thinking, we need to film some content to start promoting our debut right? How about we film content for the Mid-Autumn Festival? It falls on the same day as Chuseok, so we can use this as a small promotion for our debut.” 

You nodded in agreement. Although this idea would be a little last minute to carry out, it was a great opportunity to promote their group in order to gain more popularity before their debut in China. “This is a great idea Bang Chan,” You hurriedly jotted down everything he said, “did you have more to add on?”  

“We could make several episodes of this content. I was thinking we could camp in the mountains and maybe cook some food, make mooncakes.” 

“All of this is really good, we have three weeks until the actual Mid-Autumn Festival. If I rush this idea to Manager Chen, we could have one week to plan it, and two weeks to film and produce it.” You beamed, glad that you could be involved in a potential big production. 

You and Bang Chan kept discussing his idea for content, and as time passed, your conversation turned more casual as it eventually evolved into topics unrelated to work.

“So, why are you having coffee this late anyway?” You tipped your chin towards his glass. 

“There’s this part of a song I’m working on that I just can’t get perfect,” Bang Chan noticeably clenched his jaw, “I wanna figure it out before I leave.” 

“Do you usually stay up late to work?” You asked. 

“I can’t sleep anyways, so I might as well work.” 

“Insomnia?” You questioned. He shrugged his shoulders and took a sip of his coffee. A few seconds of silence passed. “You know, my mom made me pack some of her special tea before leaving. She said it was for jet lag, which is weird because there’s only a time difference of an hour here.” You rambled. 

“Oh?” Bang Chan tipped his head. 

“I could give you some tomorrow.” You said. Your eyes wandered everywhere except to him. “If you want.” 

“Really, you’d do that?” His eyes widened as he stirred his coffee with his straw. 

It may have been your subconscious need to make friends, or just the fact that you mom gave you so much tea for your non-existent jet lag, but you gladly offered your mom’s solve-all remedy. “Of course, anything for a friend.” 

He blinked a couple times. He stopped stirring his coffee. “Thanks.” He looked at you with a slight grin. 

“Plus, this way I can pay you back.” You teased. 

“Okay, fair enough.” He chuckled. A dimple appeared on his cheek as his smile widened. “But seriously, you don’t need to worry about paying me back for anything next time.” 

Next time? You wondered. Of course he would have more ideas for his own group. You wanted to roll your eyes at yourself. It seemed like, despite his easy-going personality, that he cared a lot about not only his job, but the boys he worked with. His work ethic inspired you and made you want to work just as hard as he did. Except you definitely couldn’t stay up as late as he did. 

The two of you kept up the back and forth that was established, talking about whatever came to mind, with a few sprinklings of work-related conversations throughout. You talked about your first day impressions and how well you were adjusting to life in a new country, and he retaliated by sharing his own experiences of moving across the world. You were so enraptured by your riveting conversations that you easily lost track of time. It wasn’t until you had already spent minutes playing around with your straw in the empty glass that you finally remembered how late it was.

“It’s kinda late, I think I should get going now.” You said as you checked your phone for the time. 

“Are you taking the subway?” He asked as he started gathering the empty glasses. “It’s pretty dark now — I could walk you there.”

“It’s alright. I don’t wanna take time from your work” You said, gathering your notebook and pen. 

“It’s no problem, really, it’s just a five minute walk.” He stood up with the tray of empty glasses in one hand and pulled up his face mask with the other.

The two of you left the café and walked the short distance to the subway stairs.  There, you parted ways and you started your trek home. Taking the subway at night was vastly different from morning; the morning rush was filled with rows and rows of busy people, whereas the night train had a completely different feeling to it. There were actually available seats, to begin with. You found an empty seat and took out your phone to kill time. You checked your missed notifications.

Yoojin: Hi Y/n!! ^-~ Today was so fun, we should go again sometime! 

You smiled at the little text from Yoojin, visioning her wide smile stretch across her face. Texting a quick reply back, you were about to put your phone back down when another notification popped up. 

Unknown: Stay away from him. This is a warning.  

A flash of panic rushed through your body making your chest tighten. Your heart was coming out of your chest, the beating was so hard you could hear it even in the running subway. Completely fixated on the bright white of your phone, your eyes strained from the light. Adrenaline filled your blood, and in the spur of the moment, you quickly blocked the number and deleted the text chain. It had to just be a prank text, after all, you have gotten pranked through text multiple times before in your past. 

You put your phone down slowly, turning your head to survey your subway cart for any suspicious acting people. There was only a grandma with her cane and a few middle school girls comparing their new lip tints. Your thumbs naturally started fiddling with each other. Your eyebrows knit together as you clutched your bag tight to your body for the rest of the subway ride. 

The walk back to your apartment was done carefully. You chose the side of the sidewalk with more light as you kept your senses open, trying to remember the face of every person that walked past you. Although it was more likely than not that the text was just a prank, you were still somebody living alone with very few connections in a new country. Your legs quickened at the thought and you hurried your way back.

Arriving at your apartment door, you carefully entered your lock combination and slammed your door shut, double checking that it was locked. Your home was dark, with only the moon casting long shadows on your furniture. You quickly switched your light on. You tried to put this text to the back of your mind as you got ready to sleep, but it loomed, feeling like a shadow cast by the moon. The shadow in your mind stayed as you closed your eyes, waiting for your sleep to chase it away. 

The next morning, you woke up to the obnoxious beeping of your alarm. You sleepily sat up, getting ready to perform your familiar morning routine. Everything felt like routine, so monotonous that the text from last night was completely forgotten. You opened the fridge and ate your suspicious egg from yesterday morning. 

Before leaving, you suddenly remembered to bring your mom’s magical tea. You rummaged through the cupboards until you found the ridiculous packaging your mom insisted on using. 

The route to work was already starting to feel familiar as you mindlessly made your way from your quaint apartment all the way to the opulent blue building. You entered the office and sat at your desk, checking for new emails. After nothing of immediate importance came up, you got out your notebook and started to type up your notes from yesterday. 

You were in a trance. The repetitive task of reading and typing completely hypnotised you as hours passed by without you even noticing. What broke you out of your trance, however, was the voice of your boss. 

“Bang Chan.” Manager Chen called out. You looked up from your monitor and peeked up from your cubicle to see the familiar hair of a certain man you knew. Assuming he was here for a meeting with Manager Chen, you went back to your hypnotising work. The walls of your cubicle were too high for him to see you anyways — something about eliminating distractions to maximise work efficiency. 

You hit ‘enter’ on your keyboard to start a new paragraph when all of a sudden, you spotted an object appear on your desk from the corner of your eye. 

A bottle of mango juice. 

Quickly turning your head around, you were met with Bang Chan’s back. He was already making strides towards Manager Chen, but something about the sway of his broad shoulders and the way his right hand stretched open told you that it was him who gave you this little bottle of happiness. You unscrewed the lid and took a sip before getting back to work.  

Thankfully, the gift you received was enough sugar content to keep you working efficiently for the rest of the day. You had finished all your work and could hopefully pitch Manager Chen the idea by tomorrow. You found your mom’s tea in your bag while gathering your stuff, remembering your promise to Bang Chan. 

Y/n: Hey, I have my mom’s tea — I could give it to you right now?

There was a reply almost immediately. 

Bang Chan: Sure ^^ I’m in a practice room on floor X right now, I’ll wait by the elevators. 

You made your way over to the elevators and tapped your nails on the package of tea whilst silently waiting for an elevator to arrive. The silence, however, was promptly cut off as your phone started to ring. It was from Yoojin. She probably wants to hang out soon, you thought as you happily answered right away. 

“Y/n!” Yoojin yelled into the phone, she sounded worried. 

“Yoojin, is there something wrong?” You frowned, concerned for the girl. 

“I-I was in the parking lot near your building, a-and I fell down the stairs.” She sniffed. “I think I sprained my ankle or something — I can’t stand up. It hurts so much.” 

“Oh god, Yoojin, do you want me to come help?” You were in the elevator by now, already pressing the button for the main floor. 

“If you’re not far, I don’t want to trouble you.” You heard sounds of her wincing. 

“It’s no trouble Yoojin,” You exclaimed, “your ankle is much more important now. I’ll be right there.” 

“Thank you Y/n.” You heard her sniff again through the phone. 

You bolted out of the elevator as soon as it reached the main floor, stuffing your forgotten package in your bag. Ignoring the looks of confusion of the people you sprinted past, you located the parking lot building as soon as you left the main doors of the JYPE building. Your chest burned and your breaths were heavy. 

You were worried for Yoojin. She seemed like such a sweet girl that it pained you to even imagine her hurt in any sort of way. With her fluffy hair and wide eyes, it made you feel like you were helping an injured puppy. 

Your legs felt like concrete after a while of running, but you finally made it to the parking lot building. Entering the parking lot, you looked for any sign of a staircase where Yoojin said she fell on. There were none. 

“Excuse me, where are the stairs to this parking lot?” You asked the parking lot attendant, assuming it was just hidden somewhere. 

“There are no stairs here,” He said, “if you want to get to the second floor, there is an elevator over there.” He pointed to the other side of the lot. 

You thanked the man and ran to the elevator, hoping Yoojin wasn’t too hurt by now. You’ve experienced injuries like these before whilst playing sports back home, they hurt like hell. Your breathing was staggered by the time you reached the elevator, however, you didn’t give up and kept looking around trying to find the girl. There was nobody. You were about to call Yoojin again just to make sure you were in the correct place, but a voice interrupted you. 

“Y/n.” 

It was Manager Kim.

[kerie-prince]

We're Worlds Apart (4)

Draco Malfoy x American No-Maj!reader

series m.list | general m.list | previous chp

warnings: a curse word if you squint, sassy Draco

summary: Draco Malfoy is a pureblood wizard. Magic runs through his veins and has been since his birth. You're a Wiccan No-Maj; a non-magical being with ordinary blood through your veins, but practices what you call magick. And this very practice upsets your neighbor.

a/n: a day late bc i got distracted watching game of thrones lmao i have adhd so i honestly should've known better than to have something so attention demanding in front of me :P

(gif cred)

Three more days.

Three more days until your brother and his girlfriend come to your Buffalo suburban home to spend Thanksgiving. You came home from work on a better day than the ones from the week before, only to walk inside and was almost convinced you entered the wrong house.

Your mother took the liberty of decorating your house while you were gone. The place looked like an IKEA catalogue. Green and cream colored throw pillows were on your black leather couch, your small dining table had a fall-themed centerpiece and a blood orange table cloth. New dining chairs, all of them matched, unlike the mismatched ones you had before. And that god-forsaken ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ wooden sign hung in your kitchen. That damn thing is leaving first thing in the morning.

“Ma, what the hell did you do to my house?” The more you looked, you groaned at what you saw. Your grandmother’s tapestry was no longer hanging at its original place, now hung hidden behind the tv. “Oh, don’t give me any grief about it. Y/B/N is coming and I don’t want the place looking like the Spirit store.”

You knew you couldn't really fight her on this. It would be more frustrating to have to argue and still not be able to put everything back to how it was until she left. Taking a deep breath, you walked yourself to your room to get changed into comfortable clothes and light some sage for your nerves.

Three more days.

—

One more week.

In a week's time, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott were to come to New York to spend the month of December with Draco and to say he was excited was an understatement.

He was excited, nervous, and many other feelings that he was too stressed to name. The guest room was prepared for the two of them to share, all he had to do was figure out what to do with them while they were here. He had taken a week off and had no idea what to do. He still hadn’t gone around the city he lived in. He could always ask his friends at Saint Marie but for some reason, he was too shy to.

He could always ask Mrs. Charles for recommendations on what to do. She was a sweet muggle neighbor that he came to like as well as her husband. He could also ask you, but it’s been over a week since he spoke to you in your yards. From glimpses into your window, you seemed so exhausted. Not that he really cared, but he remembered that you would try to get along better and so far, all he’s done was give a nod towards your direction when he walked into his home as you were leaving yours.

His bedroom blinds were always closed now because he knew that if he were to see you doing your… whatever you do in your room just once, he’d change his mind about the whole thing. It still bothered him, but not as bad as it did when he first saw it.

Draco’s stomach growled as he sat on his couch, bringing him out of his thoughts and walked over to the kitchen. To his despair, his pantry, cabinets, and fridge were all empty. Guess I’ll have to grab something. He pondered on what he was in the mood for as he ran out the door. Draco figured he'd just figure it out as he drove around the streets downtown.

Since moving to America, he found so many new cuisines than he had ever imagined. He usually always ate at home, and if his family ever ate outside of home they usually went to the finest restaurants in France. Of course, they were all wizard-owned restaurants. But in New York, he’s been introduced to new things. For one, he had his first ever hamburger with Blaine. Ashley took him to a Chinese restaurant, and Ian bought Draco a traditional New York pizza.

Yes, all these things existed in London. Maybe not so much New York-style pizza, but there was pizza. Draco, however, never had the opportunity to try any of these foods. Lucius was extremely strict about eating out. It was never necessary considering he could afford the best quality foods to be made at home. When they did eat at restaurants in France, it was only because a higher official at the Ministry had invited them for a night out.

Around the streets, the bright lights of buildings and restaurants lit the streets as he drove around them. Draco turned into a street he hadn’t been into yet in hopes to find something else he could find to try. There were a couple places he hadn’t been into; a Greek restaurant, a Brazillian one, and a couple shops. There was one shop close to the end of the street. It was sandwiched between two boutiques and had a neon green and purple sign in the front. Soul Beads. In front of the building was a man with a weird sign in one hand and an even weirder thing that seemed to have made his voice louder in the other. Draco couldn’t make of the rubbish he was yelling into the thing from inside his car.

Draco pulled to the curb to walk around the street and check out the restaurants. A bell jingle caught his attention, turning around to see one person he didn’t really expect to see here. “Draco?” your face showed the same expression as his. He watched as you closed the door to Soul Beads and walked up to him. The weird man that stood in front of the store yelled out, “DON’T TALK TO HER, THIS BITCH HERE WORKS FOR THE DEVIL!”

“Do you know him?” Draco asks with a quirked eyebrow. The stranger kept yelling profanities at you but Draco saw how you couldn’t be bothered by it. “He does this every couple weeks. What brings you out here?” Your hands were stuffed tightly in your pockets for warmth.

“Do you own the street? Can I not be here?” he asked sarcastically. You faced him with a deadpan look as to ask him again without having to say the words to him. Or call him a smartass. Which he is. With a roll of his eyes, he continued, “I’m looking for something to eat but I’ve never been to these places before.”

“Ah,” you started, “Well I don’t know what kind of stuff you’re used to, but I suggest the Greek restaurant right across. Over-priced, but the best gyros you’ll ever have in Buffalo.”

“It’s yee-roh, not jahy-row.” Draco corrected. He couldn’t tell if you were irritated or confused after he said that. Probably both.

“You know Greek?” you asked.

“I studied it when I was a child. My tutor showed me the word once and hit my hand when I had mispronounced it. Learned the hard way to never do that again,” flashbacks to the older woman teaching him the language cursed his mind for a few seconds.

His stomach growled even louder now in the silence between them. Draco blushed in embarrassment, shifting around to look away so you wouldn’t see. You slightly chuckled and tapped his shoulder. “Come on, neighbor’s treat.” And you walked onto the busy street.

This bloody woman is crazy to be crossing a busy street he thought as he rushed to follow you across the street. He got scared as a car got too close and ran to the safety of the sidewalk. “You’re gonna get yourself bloody killed one of these days like that,” he scolded. “If you’re gonna live in New York, you’re gonna have to deal with annoying pedestrians and sometimes be an annoying pedestrian. Be glad you don’t live in Manhattan, they’re worse. A person could be hit by a car and he’d just get on up and keep walking.” you informed.

Draco would be lying to himself if he said that didn’t spook him a little. Sure, he’s seen a few students get hexed, some by him, but they’d never just dealt with it and continued walking in the halls. They’d either have to hope their friends knew the counter curse or they’d end up in the hospital wing and had Madam Pomfrey help them back to normal. These muggles really are just… strange.

The restaurant looked old and desperately needed a remodel but by Merlin, it smelled amazing. “Now, are you getting a yee-roh sandwich or are you getting something else?” you mocked his previous correction with a playful roll of your eyes. Draco looked at the menu but it didn’t matter as he didn’t know the first thing about Greek food. What the hell did my father force me to take lessons for? “Do you want me to just order for you?” you asked as he kept browsing for too long. There were only 12 things on the menu but it still confused him.

He held back a snarl as he agreed to your help. He stood aside as you ordered and waited until it sounded like you were done, then headed up to the window to pay. “Oh, you don’t have to. I insisted I would pay,” you tried to push his hand away and reach for your credit card but he proceeded to hand the money to the cashier. “It’s nothing.”

“Here or to-go?” the lady asked with a thick New York accent. The two of you just looked at each other waiting for someone to say something. “Do you want to just-”

“Eat it here?” He looked at the small space and saw only one unoccupied table by the window. One of two tables. No longer growling, his stomach was shaking nearly violently, indicating that he can’t wait any longer. It was a strange feeling to be starving. Never had he ever had to wait for food at Malfoy Manor nor at Hogwarts. Whether it was house elves or first years, someone always ran to get him food with a snap of his fingers. “Yeah, here’s fine.”

The lady handed your plates to you as he went to claim the small table before someone else did. He looked around the space with a slight disgusted look. It’s not that it was run by muggles, but just because the place looks so old and kind of dirty. Even the house elves at the Manor lived in better conditions. The corner he sat in made him feel slightly claustrophobic. How do they sit and enjoy anything like this?

You sat the food on the table and shook your jacket off on to the chair. Draco watched as you placed the plates as neatly in front of you both. He couldn’t help but notice the rings that covered most of your fingers. Some were simple silver bands, some bronze bands, and some looked like wire that had a wrapped, colorful rock in the center. They were mismatched but coordinated at the same time. If that made any actual sense.

You started some simple small-talk, “So, what brings you all the way out here?”

“I got a better job opportunity,” Draco responded. His voice sounded uninterested, and his eyes stared at the plate. It had three pieces of meat on a bed of white rice, a small salad and a little dipping bowl of some white sauce. He dipped the meat into the sauce and as he tasted it, he nearly groaned in content. The flavors danced around his mouth and he had to hold himself back from devouring the whole plate in a matter of seconds.

He could feel you staring at him but chose not to look up to see judgement in your eyes. Whether it was with amusement or not. The food was so good and he would most definitely order another one to-go on his way out for his lunch break tomorrow. I’m definitely bringing Blaise and Theo here.

“What kind of job do you do?” Draco stopped chewing his food and swallowed nervously. He should’ve expected this kind of question sooner or later, but here he was sitting in silence trying to figure out what to say. He couldn’t just tell you that he’s a Healer because then that would lead to more questions and that’d be more answers he couldn’t give you. “What, you don’t wanna tell me?” you furrowed your eyebrows at him as he continued his silence.

Finally, the word popped in his mind, “I’m a doctor.” Hopefully that ends that conversation.

“That’s cool, what kind of doctor are you?” Shit. There’s more than one kind?

“Uh, I work with people who come into the hospital with major injuries like a broken arm and such,” Draco stuttered.

“So, an emergency room doctor. You work in the ER then,” you concluded with a hand over your mouth as you chewed. “Y-yeah, that.” Draco tried not to sound suspicious. “What about you?”

You cleared your throat, drank some of your soda and pointed out the window, “You see that store over there? Soul Beads? That’s my store.” It was weird how coincidental it was that of all streets to drive into and of all people to run into, he ran into you coming out of your personally owned store. Looking back at you, he saw your face relax and smile at the building. “What do you sell? I’m assuming it’s not food seeing as you didn’t invite me in.”

Now it was time for you to stutter, “Oh, just candles and stuff. Nothing too flashy.” You poked at your food and took small bites of it. There was an awkward silence between you two for about ten minutes before you started the conversation before, “Assuming you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, will you just be working that day?” Draco didn’t know much about the holiday, only that he was getting paid more that day.

“Yeah, I’ll be at the hospital for the night. Probably until four in the morning.”

“Well that sucks. You’ll miss out on the greatest American tradition that is Black Friday,” you chuckled.

“What’s that?” Yet another thing Draco didn’t understand.

“Black Friday is when people fight to the death for a discount on things like appliances and tvs. It’s quite amusing to watch,” you slightly exaggerated. Keyword slightly. Draco had wide eyes as he heard the description. “I’m sorry, to the death?”

With that, you laughed so hard you placed one hand flat against your chest and the other held the table with a tight grip as if you were to fall from your seat. He then realized you actually didn’t mean to the literal death and mentally scolded himself for being so gullible. You continued laughing and he rolled his eyes before chuckling to himself. You leaned back up and wiped some tears underneath your eyes, “Oh my god, I needed that laugh.”

A shiver went up Draco’s spine once he caught a glimpse of your smile. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen you smile at all. Before your little argument, you would smile towards him and all the other neighbors all the time. But this never happened before. He looked away from your eyes and tried to find anything else to look at. Tilting his head up, he saw an air conditioning unit. Oh, that’s why.

Small talk ended there with a clear of his throat and proposed to go home. Draco saw how you looked a little disappointed and forced a small, kind smile on your face, “Yeah, it’s getting kinda late and I don’t want to keep my mother waiting. God knows what she’s done to my house while I was gone.” He wasn’t going to keep pressing on the matter as he figured they still weren’t close enough for that. One dinner didn’t make them friends in his book. It wasn’t terrible, though. Maybe he would do it again.

Walking to their own cars, she said “See you around, neighbor,” and got into her car and drove off. He just nodded his head as he always did and drove off as well. They arrived home at the same time and walked inside without looking at each other, thinking that it would just be weird to keep saying goodbye.

—

It was finally Thanksgiving, and Y/B/N and Stephanie were going to be over around three in the afternoon. Your mother was more of a pain than usual, waking you up at six in the morning to do last minute cleaning, grocery shopping, and starting on roasting the ham. The loud argument over ham or turkey in the grocery store the week before lasted for an embarrassing two hours after your mother caved and let you pick the main entree for dinner.

Once you got an hour to yourself, you went to your closet in the hall and grabbed a small glass jar then walked to your backyard for some lavender. You walked to the kitchen for a stick of cinnamon, placed the items on the kitchen counter and walked quickly to your room for something small. Your eyes found a loose ribbon on the floor and grabbed it then went back to the kitchen.

You put all the items into the jar and browsed the kitchen for one more thing. There was a bouquet of flowers on the dining table that your mother bought. Perfect. You grabbed a couple flowers and took the petals to mix in the jar. Once you were done, you chanted to yourself three times:

“Goddess, please take the negativity out of this kitchen.

Replace it with positivity and love. So mote it be.”

You heard your mother waking up from her nap from the guest room and ran into the kitchen to hide the jar somewhere she couldn’t see it. The spell can’t exactly work if she sees something to nag about. She walks in the kitchen and sees you looking suspicious.

She looks at you with squinted eyes - mainly because she had just woken up - but said, “I’m not gonna ask what you’re up to. Can you make the potato salad? I like the way you make it better.” You silently agreed as you looked for the things in the fridge and grabbed a large bowl to mix it in. Your mother walks up to one of the cabinets to grab a pot to boil the potatoes with, only to find the thing you tried to hide. “What’s this, honey?”

You stammered over your words trying to find an explanation before she cut you off, “It’s pretty with all the things in there. You should keep it out.” She placed it beside a photo on the countertop and walked away to fill the pot with water. You were surprised she didn’t ask any further questions. You continued cooking and had a hopeful smile on your face. Maybe it won’t be so bad tonight.

The doorbell rang and you both looked at the clock on the wall. It read 1:55 and you looked at each other in confusion. “Y/B/N must be early,” your mother guessed and went to the door to let him in. The greeting was loud as she greeted him in. You could hear your little brother’s laugh with enthusiasm as he walked into your kitchen, “What’s up, big sis?”

You placed the utensils down and ran up to him with your arms up, “I’ve missed you too, baby brother.” He was much taller than you as he picked you up and hugged you tightly. You slightly swung your legs to give him the signal to let you go. He got his height from your dad, leaving you short thanks to your mother. Your brother had a big smile on his face and you reciprocated the smile. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen each other.

“Oh, lemme introduce you. Steph, c’mere!” He looked over his shoulder and called for the special guest. A beautiful woman with long, chocolate brown hair and doe blue eyes walked next to Y/B/N. “It’s so nice to meet you, I’m Stephanie.” She held her hand out causing you to quickly wipe your hands on your apron. “Hi, I’m Y/N.”

“Y/B/N has told me so much about you. I was so nervous to meet you,” Stephanie admitted with a slight blush on her cheeks. “I wonder what this dummy told you. I bet you I can tell you more embarrassing stories about him,” you jabbed his arm.

“That’s not fair, I didn’t say anything all that bad. You’ll hex me or some shit,” he had his hands up in defense.

“Y/B/N!” Your eyes widened and you laughed nervously, “Don’t listen to him, he’s an idiot.”

Stephanie looked back and forth at the two of you and finally settled on you, waving a hand, “Oh no, that’s okay. I practice, too.” Wait, what? It seemed your mother thought the same exact thing, only out loud. “Yeah, Stephanie also does the same thing you do. Crazy, right?”

Your mother stood shocked before them, not saying anything. Your brother had a smile that wasn’t exactly fitting the situation. Stephanie had a kind smile, and although you were visibly surprised that your little brother’s girlfriend was, of all things, also a Wiccan, you were laughing inside at your mother.

This is gonna be the most interesting Thanksgiving ever.

—

next chp

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