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#because I feel a lot of different ways about online schooling
phas3d · 2 months
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Fake Dating | Slytherin Boys
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type :: fluff
tw/cw :: none
contains :: draco, tom, mattheo, theodore, lorenzo
notes :: fake dating is the FUEL TO MY LIFE AHHH slightly inspired by "please please please" by Sabrina Carpenter because ofc it is
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DRACO MALFOY
He's bullied you for ages, literally making your high school years hell
But after his father and mother pressure him with questions about a girlfriend
He gets sick of it and wants to shut up for ONE NIGHT just one fucking night
So he gets you to pretend to be his partner, because you're the only girl willing to say yes (because ur scared of him)
Corners you and threatens you, "If you don't give me an Oscar worthy performance I will literally burn all of your uniforms and books"
Now you're at his house, eating expensive steak under 3 chandeliers
No one knows why he has 3 chandeliers,,, not even his parents
But instantly, his parents love you for your nerdiness and cuteness
They see you as a sweet and innocent little partner for Draco :)
But uh oh... you were TOO perfect for his parents
Now Draco is asking you to go with his parents to Germany for a "little trip"
Except their idea of a "little trip" is a week vacation in the most expensive hotel and meeting German celebrities
You can't speak German, but Draco can so he helps answer any questions asked towards you
But for some reason, he gets super agitated as you keep attending parties and people keep coming up to you
He gets so mad on the second-to-last-day of the week vacation to the point he grabs some random guys collar and shouts at him
You pull try to pull them apart but it's too late...
Draco gets his ass whooped... Badly... Embarrassingly bad...
You leave the party early, going back to the hotel alone as you patch his wounds
That's when you ask why he was so upset
But he refuses to answer, saying it's just that the guy was annoying
It's obvious that he's lying, so you keep pushing him and pushing him
So he angrily blurts out: "Because people keep fucking asking for your number!!! GOD!!! You're so dense!"
He says as he lightly flicks your forehead before staring deeply into your eyes: conveying everything he's been feeling for you for these past weeks of "fake dating"
TOM RIDDLE
Mattheo is Tom's worse enemy, despite being brothers
Yet again, Mattheo teases and mocks Tom for being a loser with zero "rizz" or whatever that means
He's sick of Mattheo's stupid ass slang, everyday he hears "you're a beta" "ur aura is so low" "zero rizz bruh"
He's literally going to kill him
But sadly he can't do that, so he comes up with a different solution
He chooses you, a random kid he did a project with once, to pretend to be his new partner
You were hesitant but he then threw in an extra bonus, he would do all your homework for two classes of your choice
So obviously you had to take it
He had to prepare you for the worse: Mattheo
Tom forced you to visit his dorm to study how to reply to Mattheo when you finally meet him
He also made you study how to act like a couple in public
Which he knew nothing about... He was technically right about hand holding and matching clothes
But his version of hand holding was very uncomfortable, the type where you don't interlock fingers
And the clothes he picked were ugly as hell, no way you'd ever wear that stuff
So you had to help him a lot with learning how to act natural in relationships
When he feels that you're finally prepared, he lets you meet Mattheo
Mattheo is super sus at first but is too dumb to question harshly
But now, you're stuck as pretending to be Tom's girlfriend for the rest of the year
He's painfully unaffectionate in public which makes you slightly embarrassed because he makes you look like a clingy girlfriend
But in private, when he's teaching you what to say and doing your homework: he's surprisingly sweet
He gets better at being a boyfriend over time and even takes you on full dates, not just fake photoshoots to post online
But he's still insisting to keep this relationship as just beneficial, no string attached
You can't help but start to fall for him, it's literally impossible to not
He gifts you everything you've ever wanted, takes you to fancy places, making him chuckle under his breathe feels more rewarding than any A+ ever, and those small private moments where you can feel a soul behind his eyes instead of the ice cold make you love him
So you cut it off with him, lying and saying you don't need the benefits and it's too hard to keep lying
He accepts this and lets you go
You end up being really popular once you're single
And that pisses him off ENDLESSLY
He found you first! He basically made you! You're still his, he can't let someone take all his hard work
And for some reason,,, he felt hollow after you left - as if he lost something dear to him
He's not sure how you brought out these emotions, but he wants it back ASAP
MATTHEO RIDDLE
Oh my god double trope: because Mattheo started dating you because he was dared to
You're seen as a kinda bitch in Hogwarts because a group of girls said so
But in reality, you're really chill and grounded, which surprised Mattheo when he went on your first date
You made him laugh a few times (a lot, he's too cocky to admit it)
And you also were really similar to Mattheo, you liked the same games and shows
As he kept pretending to date you, he started to actually like you and your presence
But he's still not too attached because he knows he needs to break up with you in about 2 months
As the weeks pass by, you accidentally read a message for Mattheo
It was from Theo, saying "Jesus dude, you two almost seem like a real couple. You should try acting haha"
You froze but started to plot your revenge on him
You kept acting like everything was fine and normal, and then broke up with HIM
Mattheo was shocked, because not only has he completely fallen for you but he's also never been broken up with
He unsure of what to do, but all he knows is he wants you back
THEODORE NOTT
Pulling girls has almost never been a problem for Theo his entire life
He even pulled grown women while being 14 years old (he's a victim...)
But his main problem is pulling a girl that would be approved by his parents
Theo surrounds himself with heavy drinkers, partiers, and dumb jocks: meaning there's not many partners that are "marriage material"
So he asks you, the Head Girl of your house, to pretend to be his girlfriend for family events
You agreed due to the large sum of money he was paying you, it's insane how rich he is
Every time Theo had a family event, he would just call you up and BOOM his family loves you
But as you keep coming to these family events, acting as a couple becomes less and less awkward for you both
You both agreed to not kiss each other due to this just being acting, plus kissing at family events is weird
But God, Theo really wants to break that rule when you and him are alone on the balcony at night while you ramble about the struggles of being Head Girl
He never thought he'd fall for the super nerdy, responsible, and awkward Head Girl - but he did, and he fell super hard
Theo wants to straight up ask you to be his real girlfriend, but he's so scared
He's scared of making you uncomfortable for catching feelings or making you think he planned this all along
LORENZO BERKSHIRE
Enzo's best friend is Blaise, almost everyone knows that
But what everyone also knows is that Blaise has the FATTEST crush on your best friend, Pansy Parkinson
And even more well known is that Pansy liked him back
There was literally no reason for these two to not get together, they were just too scared to confess
Which is odd since they're both so head-strong and confident, you guess it's just because they're scared of rejection
So Enzo reaches out to you, asking you to help come up with a plan to set them both up on a date
You two are complete strangers, only ever talking once or twice whilst in a group
So you both create a lie: that you and Enzo are going on a first date and need them to tag along to make it a "double date"
Obviously, this works on them because they're great friends
So now you and Enzo are on an awkward fake date while your best friends basically make out next to you
The original plan was just to tell Pansy and Blaise that there was no spark between you and Enzo
But due to you both spending an entire 12 hours together with Blaise and Pansy, you guys got comfortable with each others
He makes you laugh a ton and you do the same
You both love really niche topics and shows, even sharing the same favorite sports teams
Your bond only grows stronger after Blaise and Pansy ask for another double date
But you and Enzo take it slow, having the most sexual tension for months because you both were just claiming to be "friends only"
You finally broke that after about 4 months, thank God
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neos127 · 3 months
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Could you please write a story about a foreign exchange student, featuring any member of ENHYPEN, who stays at your house and gradually falls in love with you? Personally, I can see this happening with Ni-ki, but feel free to choose whichever member you like! thank you! love <33
international love
nishimura riki x gn!reader; genre. fluff, strangers to lovers and slight slight angst wc. 1.6k cw. a lot of time skips! i didn’t want to make this too long
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riki was sure this was the most awkward meal of his life. his host parents were sweet, trying to make conversation and make the boy feel comfortable. their daughter was nice as well, but riki wasn’t sure why you seemed so weird around him. he knew that his awkwardness when it came to you was because he thought you were pretty. riki had only met your parents online before he came to your country, simply knowing that they had a daughter but not knowing what she looked like. imagine riki’s surprise when he saw your face for the first time.
he had a few crushes back in japan, but he was positive that you were the most beautiful girl he has ever seen in his life.
later that night, riki was getting ready for bed in the guest bedroom. he felt a bit home sick and sighed as he looked out the window, taking a mental note of the differences in the view. riki sat down on his temporary bed with a slight pout, missing his room already.
“can i come in?” you asked, knocking on riki’s door. the boy jumped up from his bed, his heart racing at the sound of your soft voice. as soon as he opened the door, you stepped back in surprise, nearly forgetting how tall riki was.
“hi. i-i just wanted to make sure that you were doing okay. or if you needed something that my parents might’ve forgotten to give to you.” you spoke up, nervously playing with your hands. riki bit back a smile, finding you to be very adorable.
“no…don’t worry im okay.” riki replied, giving you the most awkward thumbs up. you let out a chuckle before nodding your head. the two of you mumble ‘goodnight’ and you race back to your room. you heart pounded against your chest as you closed your bedroom door, face heating up as you replayed the conversation.
when you had found out who was coming to stay with your family for your school’s exchange student program, you instantly tried to find the boy on social media. when you did you were stunned, noticing how cute he was but also how talented. he posted many dance videos with his friends and older sister and he was really good.
so meeting him in person completely caught you off guard. had he seemed as tall as he was in the pictures? why was he even more gorgeous in real life? you felt silly about your feelings, trying to bury them down and simply be friendly towards the exchange student. he was new to your country and you didn’t want to scare him.
little did you know, riki felt the same way you did.
. . .
halfway through the school year, you and riki became close friends. he had met many people during his stay, a lot of girls and boys desperately wanting to befriend the boy because of how cool and handsome he was. but riki only really cared about hanging around you. you became his best friend— and the girl he secretly had a crush on.
you learned a lot about him and his life in japan as he warmed up to you. he would spend many nights with you under the stars, telling you how much he loves being in japan and how the city life is really fun. he would teach you different words and phrases in japanese and even made you promise to come visit him when he inevitably goes back.
and unfortunately when that dreaded day came, no feelings had been shared. riki had cried all night, similar to the night he first came to your country when he thought that he had made a huge mistake.
his eyes were red as the two of you embraced at the airport and you simply cried against his chest. your parents had already said their goodbyes to the boy and went to find food to give you two privacy.
riki had been a better friend to you than anyone you had ever met in your city, he understood you and never took your friendship for granted. the boy was understanding about your feelings and kept your life filled with laughter and fun—but unfortunately he lived in a completely different country and he wouldn’t be by your side as you went off to college.
“i’ll come visit you…i swear.” you cried, squeezing the boy harder. riki nodded, his hand still on your held as he held the back of it.
“i lo-i’ll um, i’ll miss you. i’ll be waiting for you.” riki mumbled, his words having more meaning than you understood at the time.
“we’ll talk, okay?” you asked, trying to wipe all your tears away once you pulled back. riki smiled, gently wiping the remaining tears from your cheeks before softly poking your nose.
“of course. i’ll see you soon.” he replied, giving your hand one last squeeze before backing away. with a sigh he grabbed his suitcase and gave you one last look before turning around. you began to cry again, attempting to hide your sobs as much as possible. you watched him until he rounded a corner of the airport— and then he was completely out of your sight.
. . .
riki hadn’t left your mind. you stalked his socials at night before bed, updated him on your day and even looked through the many pictures you two took together. a part of you felt upset that you hadn’t made a move on him. there was definitely a spark between you two, you were just too scared.
but as a couple years passed and you finally saved up to take your big trip to japan, you realized that you were tired of being scared. if riki had waited for you like he said he would, you were positive that you weren’t going to let him go this time.
“what are you doing right now?” you asked on the phone once you arrived. you were sitting on your hotel bed and staring out at the tokyo skyline, your stomach knotting with nerves. riki simply thought that you were calling him before you went to class like always, not knowing that you were in japan. you wanted to surprise him, hoping that he’d be happy to see you after so long.
“sitting at my favorite park- the one i told you about a couple years ago. it’s such a pretty night, i wanted to appreciate it and take some pictures. i’ll send them to you.” riki explained and you could practically see the smile on his face.
“enjoy yourself, riki.” you smiled, already typing the address into your phone’s gps. you had remembered the name of the park, wanting to visit ever since riki told you how beautiful it was. finally getting to see it with the boy you were in love with definitely had to be some sort of dream.
you kept pinching yourself on the way there, wondering how you happened to get so lucky with riki. he was the best person to ever walk into you life and it was painful not being able to see him or touch him for so long— you were practically jogging to the park as your desire to see him grew.
once you walked past the entrance, you wandered the place, searching for a tall boy with dark brown hair— different from the blonde style he had when you first met him.
“y/n, what the hell?” a deep voice spoke, causing you to gasp and turn around in surprise. you were met with the boy you were looking for, who seemed to have grown even more since you two last saw each other.
“what are you doing here?” he chuckled when he saw your surprised expression, his wide smile hard to contain. he never expected you to visit him so soon, but when he saw you wandering around his favorite place to get away, his heart began to beat out of his chest and all the feelings he harbored for you came rushing back even stronger.
“i wanted to surprise you.” you whined, your next words getting caught in your throat when riki pulled you into a tight hug.
“i’m still very surprised. and so so happy. i missed you so much, my y/n.” riki mumbled, taking in your scent and realizing that you still used the same perfume. the smell was nostalgic and comforting, it made him feel complete again.
“please don’t ever leave me.” he begged, still hanging onto your body while the two of you rocked back and forth in each others arms.
“i’m going to have to go back to [your country] eventually.” you sighed, burying your head into his hoodie.
“no, please stay with me. i mean it. i love you too much to let you go again. you could move in with me, we could be roommates. we can figure out the details since i know you’re not in school right now.” riki rambled, causing you to abruptly pull away and look at his face. he didn’t want to meet you eyes until you forcibly grabbed his face.
“you’re in love with me?” you asked timidly, the sound of your heartbeat filling your ears.
“definitely. i’m so in love with you that it hurts.” riki replied, dramatically clutching his chest and stumbling backwards. you giggled, feeling like the same lovesick eighteen year old that first met riki.
“i love you too, riki.” you spoke up, a big smile on your face. riki smiled as well before quickly scooping you up into his arms and kissing you. it didn’t last very long considering that the two of you were practically smiling into each others mouths.
“so you’ll consider staying?” riki asked, moving to place a few kisses along your neck and face. you giggled, running your hands through his fluffy hair.
“well when you ask like that…”
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yulin-pop · 10 months
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⤷ ✧ 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲
order 84 | Scenario | Cater, Jade, Idia, Silver | gender neutral
❀ NOTE: PRETTY BOYS AHHHH, I wonder if all the characters are canonically attractive or are some characters like Ace considered mid?
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re so…”
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➺ Cater Diamond
There’s a reason why Cater has so many followers on MagiCam. It’s because he has a cute face!! You’re not sure if he’s aware but he just has to be.
He does these tiny things like brushing the hair out of his face or slightly turning his head when he laughs. You didn’t really realize how pretty he was for a while. Sure, you got nervous just staring at him but now you can’t even look him in the eye.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re so hot…”
He blinked for a moment. He was in the middle of drying his hair when you said that. All he could think is “Oh wow?” He noticed that you’ve been staring at him so intensely for the past few days— maybe weeks.
But you said it straight to his face? He thought he misheard you at first but you definitely said that.
“Wow, I didn’t know you fancied me that way MC!” Admittedly it did fluster him, he was flattering in the best way possible.
“Don’t get it twisted, it’s not in the way you’re thinking!”
You’re in denial.
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⊱Jade Leech
He has that certain look to him. It’s different than Floyd even though they’re identical twins. Maybe he’s not aware how MMMMMMM he is but he has to.
Just the way he looks at you can get you weak on the floor. His eyes… You noticed how his eyes squint ever so slightly when he’s focused. He’s calm under any circumstances yet so amusing in his own way. He’s the type of person you’d want to follow around just for the fun of it. And in his own way… he’s just so damn cute too.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re so cute…”
He quickly turned his head to stare at you. He’s not sure what you mean or why. It was so out of the blue. You’ve been stalking him for a while. Of course he knew and allowed it and treated it as if it was normal.
“Pardon? In what way am I… cute?” He turned his head curiously.
“Cute!” You said again.
He wasn’t sure how to feel, the last time someone called him cute was when he was a little kid. Most people would think of Jade as alluring or handsome, cute is something he hasn’t heard in a while.
“If you’re talking about my appearance, you must think Floyd is cute as well.” He says while smiling at you.
“Eh I guess so. But he’s not as cute as you.”
He moved closer, “Tell me, what else do you think of me?”
You put your hands out in front of you, as if to say stop. “Why do you have to be so close..?!”
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*ੈ Idia Shroud
It’s already canon that Idia is very attractive from the character archives book and the ghost marriage event while being complete oblivious. He’s charming in his own way.
It’s hard to believe he’s so oblivious to his good looks. His smile is nerdy yet… attractive. His personality is rough but that’s what makes him so fun. Teasing someone like him is hilarious.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re so hot.”
He immediately cranked his head your direction with a baffled expression. He shook his head and let out an irritated squeal.
“Wh-who says stuff like that to somebody’s face?! Online I get it but this is IRL! Why does someone like you even think that?”
He just gets really flustered and ends up rambling about how it doesn’t make sense. But when he looks back on it, it gives him an ego boost for a few minutes and then he’s embarrassed because— it makes him happy that you think of him that way.
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-ˋˏ Silver
Unintentional or not, Silver has been seeing you around a lot. He doesn’t think much of it since you’re in the same school so it’s not anything crazy but when he does see you, you’re always staring at him with this… funny expression.
Did he do something wrong? He tries to wave at you when he can but as soon as he turns his head you run away or start acting like you weren’t the one staring first.
But what were you suppose to do? Whenever you saw him, all your attention was diverted to his gentle yet sharp expression. His resting face was already so deadly, you couldn’t imagine if he were to smile.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re so pretty…”
He froze with a puzzled look on his face. This was one of the times you actually started a conversation with him instead of staring and running away and you say something so flirtatious?
“Ah…” He blinked as you gazed into his eyes nervously, “Thank you I suppose.” But in what way was he suppose to take that?
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seospicybin · 2 months
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ON THE ROAD.
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PART I
Bangchan, Han & Jeongin x reader. (s,f,a)
Chapters: Part II
Synopsis: A group of friends going on a road trip that, little did they know, will change their lives forever. (19,1k words)
ON THE ROAD PLAYLIST.
Author's note: My inbox is always open for feedback and your wild theories hehehe enjoy this one too! x
A famous author once said that friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too?"
For years, Chan believes that in order to make friends, he has to have common things with them, for example, having the same favorite books having the same hobbies, etcetera.
That's what he thought until he found out that in real life, that's not always the case.
Chan learns all about friendship when he meets his friends. He first met them at the art school 8 years ago and they remain good friends to this very second.
Because they're now living in different places and working in various professions, they have this weekly group video call every Friday at 8 pm.
Chan is so busy editing videos that he almost forgets that it's Friday and it's ten minutes to 8, he hurriedly opens his laptop to start a video call with his friends. He knows it'll take them some time to come online so he notifies his friends through the group chat too, not forgetting to add that he'll not make them watch a foreign movie tonight in the hope that they'll hurry.
That's one thing about Chan, he's passionate about movies and dreams of becoming a great movie director someday. Other than that, Chan has many great qualities about him. He's smart, he's good looking, he lives a healthy lifestyle, and a true social butterfly, something about him that makes people comfortable being around him. Those qualities combined with his dimpled smile create this magnet that attracts a lot of girls.
However, Chan only has eyes on one girl and one girl only.
"Oh, hi, Chris!" A voice that's way too familiar says through the laptop, a voice that evokes something deep within him and sends a tingle down his spine.
"Hi, Jinnie!" Chan says back with a smile.
-
Jinnie's Friday night is like any other night, she's drawing in her studio with the scented candle filling the room with the soft and sweet smell of vanilla. At times, she'll take a break to sip her tea and check her phone for the time.
It's almost 8 and she wonders why the group chat isn't blaring with notifications, she pouts thinking that everyone is too busy to have a video call tonight.
Just like the universe heard her wistful thinking, her phone chimes with a notification and her face lights up as she opens it.
It's Chan sending a link to the video call. Jinnie wastes no time to get on her laptop and clicks on the link that takes her to where everyone is going to virtually meet. A few seconds later, her face appears on the box on the screen next to Chan and that means she's the first to come online after him which is not a surprise.
"Oh!" She delightfully gasps, feeling happy to see a friendly face even though they had one of the video calls a week ago.
"Hi, Chris!" She greets him while smiling and enthusiastically waving her hand through the screen.
"Hi, Jinnie!" Chan replies with his sweet, dimpled smile.
It's kind of adorable to find him waving with his muscular arms and Jinnie can't help but smile. She adjusts her desk lamp to give her proper lighting then stacks her hands together.
"It's always us, huh?"
"What?" Chan asks as he leans closer to the screen.
"It's always you and me," Jinnie says, pointing at him and then at herself while half laughing.
Chan cracks a laugh at that, "And that means Jeongin will come next."
"Cause we all know who will come last."
"You mean who will come late?" Chan corrects him with a smirk.
Jinnie lowly chuckles and grabs her cup of tea from the other desk, "How are you, Chris?"
"I'm doing great, I guess," he answers.
"I guess?" Jinnie squinted her eyes at him as she repeated his words, "You've been staying up all night again, did you?"
"Well, uh..." Chan tries to make up an excuse but fails, he covers his eyes in embarrassment and laughs it off, "I tried not to."
"Are you working on something?"
"Yeah, I'm editing these videos for a short film I did with a friend," he answers.
"Oh? Is it the same one as the one you told me?"
"No. It's a different one."
"I know you're working, I hope you keep taking care of yourself well, Chris," Jinnie warmly tells him, genuinely concerned as a friend.
Jinnie has always been like that, kind, attentive, and a great illustrator, she's as gentle as the colors she uses in her art. She's beautiful but not solely because she's the only girl in this group of friends.
Jinnie's outer appearance matches her inside and you rarely find that kind of person.
The other often think of Jinnie as an angel that unluckily fell on this part of the earth, right in the middle of this friendship, and has become a blessing to everyone ever since.
"Oh, there's Jeongin!" She gasps, showing the same enthusiastic and bright smile whenever she sees her friends.
In other words, there's lucky to have Jinnie as their friend.
-
The letter feels heavy on his hand even though it's only a piece of paper, a piece of paper that holds his future and will forever change his life.
Jeongin should be happy, this is what he wants but something is tugging at his chest. He slips the paper back into its envelope and hides it in between pages of the book he's reading.
He reclines on his chair and runs his hands through his hair, feeling torn but he doesn't know what makes him feel that way. He closes his eyes as if it would help him shutting his mind off and ignoring the chimes that come from his phone until he remembers to check it.
Using his hand, he gropes around the table to find his phone without looking and unlocks it to find some notifications, the first three are coming from Chan.
Jeongin rushes on his chair realizing that it's Friday and he forgot about the video call. He immediately gets on his computer and logs into the link Chan sent him through the group chat.
Despite knowing that he's late, he remains calm because he knows he'll not be the last to join, there's someone else who will come later than him.
The screen takes a moment to load the video call and he appears on the lower box between his two friends, Jinnie and Chan.
"Oh, there's Jeongin!" Jinnie exclaims in joy, as beautiful and bright as usual like she's bringing her own sun wherever she goes.
"Well, Chan said we're not going to watch a weird foreign movie so here I am," Jeongin jokingly says.
"Thank you, Jeongin," Chan says, poking his cheek with his tongue, easily offended as expected which truly shows he's the oldest one in this group of friends.
"But the last one we watched was really good," Jinnie says, defending Chan with his exquisite taste in movies.
So here's the thing, everyone knows that Jinnie and Chan would make a perfect couple but it's a mystery why they're not dating yet.
Jeongin knows for sure that Chan has a feeling for Jinnie and it's so obvious, but he can't say the same about Jinnie even though it's impossible that she missed all of those signs.
Or maybe love is a simple thing because Jeongin is someone who watches from the outside and it's different for those two individuals involved. But still, Chan has been there all along and Jinnie doesn't see it, which infuriates Jeongin at times.
Whenever he sees them together, he gets the urge to point out everything but instead of that, he lets out a sigh and then puts on a smile.
"So, how are you guys?" He asks.
Jeongin has always been the quiet one, but don't take his silence as ignorance, he's very observant. He watches everything and remembers everything to the tiniest details, that's also why the others become extremely careful with what they say or do around Jeongin because they know he has their cards under his sleeves.
But being observant also means he has sound judgments about things, he's fair and sensible and that makes Jeongin the most reasonable one.
"I'm great. I'm having a cup of tea with me," Jinnie says, showing the cup of tea she's holding with both hands with her eyes forming two crescents as she smiles.
"And I'm good, thank you for asking," Chan says with his dimpled smile.
"I'm not asking you, Chris," Jeongin jokes.
Chan presses his lips together until they form a thin line and lets out air through his nostrils with his eyes closed while Jinnie is giggling.
"How was the recital going?" Jinnie asks.
"It went well," Jeongin answers.
Honestly, everything went so well, he's still playing piano as always and has shows to do but something about it makes him feel a little distressed that he feels the need to shift the talk.
"Well, we're not watching Chris' weird movie tonight—"
"It's not weird," Chan groans in disagreement and a glare aimed at him.
Jeongin refuses to correct his earlier remark and continues, "So what we're going to do tonight?"
Truthfully, Jeongin really needs the distraction tonight and he doesn't mind at all even if it means he has to endure three hours of watching a movie he can't understand, plot or language-wise.
"I have an announcement," Chan says.
"What kind of announcement?" Jinnie curiously asks with her eyes comically widening.
Chan swivels his chair to the side and plays with a stress ball in his hand, "I can't say anything yet until everyone gets here," he says.
Jeongin groans as he reclines on his chair and covers his face, knowing that it'll take only God knows how long until the last person finally comes online.
"In that case, I'll get myself a can of soda first," he says to everyone, then gets up from the chair.
When he returns to his room, Jeongin notices that the fourth person has joined the video call. Actually, he can hear it even before he enters the room from his babble.
"I know you guys have been waiting for me. No need to get that excited!" Han says, acting like he didn't just make everyone wait for him as usual.
-
Han is trapped in his own head like usual, arranging words in his head to make good lyrics for the track he made last night. He pictures those words in his head as he hums the melody to himself and then jots them down in his notebook.
He puts the headphones on again to hear the track once more, singing the lyrics to fit the melodies and only realizing that his mom is calling for him once she appears in front of him.
Disoriented, Han sits up on the bed and puts his headphones down, "What's wrong?"
"I've been calling you for dinner!" His mother scolds him.
He lets out a chuckle and takes his headphones off altogether, "But it's only five," he says.
His mother must have been so used to seeing him in his room and unaware of the time.
"I put the dinner in the oven," she informs with a dramatic head shake before exiting his room.
Is it dinner time already? He looks around for his phone on the bed, he's sure it's somewhere in there. He's flinging the duvet and then there's the sound of his phone falling onto the floor.
"Owh?!" He gasps, covering his small mouth with his hand.
Han rushes to the other side of the bedroom and picks it up, fortunately, his phone doesn't crack or break, but the time...
"Oh??!" He gasps again in a rather panicky tone.
It's almost 9, he's late for the video call again. He rushes to his laptop and it won't turn on because it runs out of battery.
"Ugh!" He groans as he struggles to plug it in the first time and groans again as he plops onto his chair.
It's always like this, losing track of time when he starts working on something. He remembers it was only four when he started writing his lyrics and now it's almost 9 pm.
It's like the laptop knows he's in a hurry it decides to take more time to boot and Han nervously taps his fingers against the desk, knowing that he makes his friends wait for him for the umpteenth time.
His fingers are typing as fast as they can to log in to his account but it takes him another moment to load the video call.
"Work faster you piece of a—"
"Welp. There he is!" Chan exclaims, looking annoyed but relieved at the same time.
"Thank you for finally gracing us with your presence," Jeongin says with the right amount of sarcasm in his tone.
"Oh, hi, Han!" Jinnie says, being the most welcoming out of the three.
"I know you guys have been waiting for me. No need to be that excited!" Han playfully says. He knows they're upset and tries to lighten the mood.
In his defense, he didn't do it on purpose. It becomes a habit at this point and he knows everyone will eventually let it slide.
"I guess you've been busy working on your lyrics again, huh?" Jinnie asks, propping her hand under her chin.
"No, I was helping my mom fold the laundry," Han makes a joke out of his own life.
Unlike everyone else, Han is the only one who hasn't figured out yet what to do with his talent for producing music. He's been working on some tracks but that's about it.
"Anyway, what kind of weird movie are we going to watch tonight?" He asks, shifting the talk to something else.
Chan clicks his tongue and says, "Thank you for making it obvious that you didn't read the group chat."
"Well, I opened them but didn't read them like all cool people do," Han confidently says with a sly grin plastered on his face.
Despite the uncertainty of his career, Han thinks he's the coolest of them all and doesn't care if anyone thinks otherwise. He's funny, and he's the mood-maker of the group but in all honesty, he's just being his authentic self 24/7.
"Okay, now since we're all here..." Chan says, sitting upright in his seat.
"Oh, so we're not watching a movie tonight," Han says in utter confusion, this is why he shouldn't be late so he won't miss out on a lot of things.
"Just shh..." Jeongin hushes him with a finger in front of his jutted lips.
"You're not like... dying, right?" Han hesitantly asks because Chan puts on a serious face, "It's cause you look so pale..."
"I've always been pale. What are you talking about?" Chan grumbles in disbelief, not accepting the fact that his pale skin makes him look like he's dying to him.
"Hannie!" Jinnie sharply calls his name, that is her way of sparing herself from using profanities
"I told you to just shh..." Jeongin scolds him more.
"Okay, okay, I'll shut up," Han says with both hands raised in defeat.
"Anyway," Chan reels the conversation back to the main thing and claps his hands together to get everyone's attention, "I need you guys to get days off for a week at the beginning of next month."
"But why?" Jeongin asks.
"Jinnie, Jeongin, I give you guys a month of forewarning so there's no reason you can't do it," Chan explains, not taking any excuses.
"And you're not concerned about me?" Han asks, feeling left out.
"That's because I know you're always available," Chan shortly answers.
"I need to ask permission from my mom!"
"To do what?" Chan squints his eyes at him.
"Permission to go on a road trip with you guys," he innocently answers.
"You're not some 12-year-old going on a school field trip," Jeongin reminds him that he won't be needing that.
"Oh, yeah, okay," Han meekly says with a nonchalant shrug.
"Well, that means I only need to finish some of my drawings early," Jinnie calmly says.
Chan smiles at her through the camera, "I know you can do it," he sweetly says.
"Thank you, Chris," Jinnie says with a smile.
"Wait, wait, you haven't answered my question," Jeongin interrupts the tender moment between the two, "Why?"
Chan sucks air through his teeth and stretches his arms out, not sure if he's trying to show off his muscular arms or just wanted to stretch them out.
"Because we're going on a road trip!" He announces in a cheery tone.
Jinnie grins in reaction and then claps her hands in excitement, "That sounds fun!"
"Where are we going?" Jeongin further asks.
"I don't want to spoil it yet. It's a surprise," Chan replies.
"I doubt that it'll be a good surprise," Han says just to annoy Chan.
"Just trust me on this!" Chan remarks with a confident smile.
"I just can't wait to spend time with you guys," Jinnie warmly says, being not shy to show her excitement which makes Chan get a little flustered.
"For the rest of this month we'll stop the weekly video meeting," Chan comes with a shocking announcement.
It's the only way they can hang out with each other and knowing that they won't meet until further notice kind of bummed him out.
"Why? Why? Why?" Han repeatedly asks like a parrot.
"So you guys can sort things out," Chan explains, "and Jinnie needs time to finish the drawings, right?"
"Yeah, but..." Jinnie looks a little taken aback too, "I'm sad that we'll not be hanging out for weeks."
"But we'll meet again," Chan assures her.
He clasps his hands in front of him and goes into serious mode once more, "I need you guys to gather at Jinnie's on the first day of July and I'll pick you up there," he informs.
Jinnie nods
"What should we pack?" Jinnie asks, even getting her notes ready to write them down.
"Pack clothes for a week, swimsuits, sunblock, hiking shoes..." Chan lists various things.
"Hiking shoes?" Han gasps, "I'm not going then."
"Even better," Jeongin lightly comments.
"Any more questions?" Chan asks everyone.
Han raises his hand even though he's not in a class, "How's your little sister doing?"
This is where Chan gets a little more serious, he hisses and then says, "I'm not taking any more questions then."
"Why are you so against us dating?" Han pokes fun at him, knowing that he doesn't like it, especially when he asks about his sister.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we become in-laws? We can be brothers for real!" Han annoys him more.
"I'm going to say this once and for all, I don't want to become in-laws with any of you," Chan firmly remarks and then crosses his big arms together.
"So that means you're okay with us dating..." Han relentlessly annoys him with a smirk dance on his face.
Jeongin drops his head into his hands and shakes his head witnessing the interaction while Jinnie is quietly giggling with her cup of tea in hand.
"How am I going to survive not seeing you guys for weeks?" Jinnie sadly says with a pout.
"Not me. I'll manage," Jeongin coyly says, reclining on his seat while playing with his hair.
"We'll see each other soon," Han assures her this time.
Jinnie smiles and cups her cheeks with both hands, "I can't wait to see you all," she says.
There's a moment of silence but the comfortable kind and not conjure any questions, everyone lets it go on for another moment before it gets to the time to end the video meeting.
"See you guys soon," Jinnie says, blowing air kisses through the camera.
"See you guys. Don't miss me," Han says with a sly grin on his face.
"There's no being late," Chan warns a specific someone.
"Jeongin, don't be late!" Han averts the blame to Jeongin.
Jeongin shakes his head again and raises his hand at everyone, "Bye, everyone!"
"See you guys in a few weeks," Chan says, waving his hands close to the camera then ends the video meeting.
-
A FEW WEEKS LATER
When you asked Chan if you could tag along on their road trip, he said no for what you guessed these two reasons: one, he hates seeing you around the boys and two, he hates for you to see him act around the girl he likes.
But, of course, in the end, he said yes for one solid reason: because you're his sister and he can't say no to you.
It's so obvious that Chan is nervous and you guess it's because he's going to meet the friends he hasn't met in weeks and more importantly, a certain someone that he secretly misses but can't tell.
As Chan's little sister, you notice these kinds of things, the change of attitude or how he gets nervous all of a sudden.
"Unclench your jaws, Chris," you remind him.
"I'm not—" he stops himself from talking and does as you told him, unclenching his jaws.
He may have unclenched his jaws but now his shoulders tense up. You take matters into your own hands and push his shoulder down.
"You're way too nervous to see a friend," you poke fun at him.
"Shut up!" He spews out and you know it's coming out of his nervous system.
Everyone knows that Chan likes Jinnie and he's always been for only God knows how long, you guess you're not the only one annoyed by the fact that they're not dating yet because they're just so perfect for each other.
"Okay, shutting up now," you say, making a gesture of zipping your lips together to not let the scary mad Chan come out.
The car makes a turn toward an apartment building and Chan parked it next to the entrance. It seems like Jinnie has been waiting for his arrival, she comes rushing down the stairs from the second floor where her apartment is.
"Oh, my God! Chris!!!" She excitedly comes up to him with open arms
Chan is obviously as excited to see her and catches her right into his arms, he even lifts her off the ground for a moment and gives her a spin.
They're so stinking cute that you can't help but smile watching them through the rearview mirror.
"Good to see you!" She says once he puts her down.
"Good to see you too," Chan says back while holding her hands in his.
When you deem that it's the right moment to insert yourself into the scene, you get out of the car and slowly make an entrance.
They're so immersed in each other that you hesitate to burst their cute little bubble.
"Hi!" You awkwardly wave your hand at her.
Jinnie's face lights up when she sees you, "Oh, hi! Long time no see!"
You come up to her to exchange a hug with her, "Long time no see, indeed."
The fact that she, possibly, would become your sister-in-law doesn't bother you at all, Jinnie is as perfect as one can be. She's beautiful and kind, the nicest human you've ever known, you couldn't be happier if that becomes true.
"I hope you don't mind that I brought her along," Chan says, flashing a thin smile at you.
You shoot him a side eye in return and stay by Jinnie's side.
"Are you kidding? I'm happy that I have a girl companion," she says, pulling you close to her side and squeezing on your shoulder.
"Jinnie, do you mind if I use your bathroom?" You ask, getting the urge to pee all of a sudden.
"Not at all. I'll take you—"
"That's okay. I know where to go," you kindly refuse her help to show you where her bathroom is.
That way, you can give them another moment to catch up with each other. As you climb the stairs to Jinnie's apartment, you see how Chan is grinning from ear to ear and it seems like it will stay like that until the road trip ends. Maybe that's also another reason why he agreed to let you join the road trip, Chan needs a good wingman by his side.
-
The moment he got out of the taxi, Han immediately thanked Jeongin non-stop.
"Thank you Yang Jeongin," he says, calling Jeongin by his full name.
"If you didn't pick me up, I'd be dead late," he grumbles, lowering his voice as he's a bit ashamed to admit it.
"I just knew you'd be late," Jeongin says while hoisting the strap of his backpack higher on his shoulder.
Han hurriedly puts on a smile to greet his friends, acting like he almost got here late for the road trip. He sees his two friends, Chan and Jinnie putting their stuff in the back of the car.
"Rejoice everyone. Your favorite boy is here!" Han announces his arrival while walking in big, confident strides.
Chan and Jeongin just leer at him and Jinnie is the only one giving him a proper welcome.
"It's so nice that everyone's here!" She exclaims, smiling even brighter than the scintillating sun.
She gathers everyone into a circle and puts her arms around Han and Chan's shoulders.
"I missed you guys," Jinnie says, jumping on her feet like a child. She really is the special glue that sticks them all together.
Deep down, everyone feels the same way, Han must say it feels good to reunite with them, it evokes the same feeling of coming home. They're huddling together for a big group hug, relishing that longing for each other.
Han breaks away first to take the last empty spot on the trunk for his backpack, "Dibs!"
Chan and Jeongin groan in unison but at the same time, not surprised to see this display of childish behavior from Han. Chan continues organizing everyone's stuff in the trunk with Jeongin's help while Han comes around the car.
"I'm riding shotgun!" Han shouts, calling dibs for the passenger's seat.
Jinnie appears from behind the car, "I think Chan's sister will ride shotgun," she informs.
Han thinks he misheard her, he lingers by the car door and turns to ask her, "Who?"
"Chan's sister, she's coming with us for the— oh, there she is!" Jinnie points at the stairs.
Han's eyes are following where she's pointing and turns his head that way.
"Oh, everyone's here!" You say as you look at everyone from the top of the stairs.
Time suddenly goes so slowly as you descend the stairs, softly smiling as the gust of wind blows your way, sending your hair flying, and with the sun shining down at you, it creates a halo around your head.
Jeongin accidentally bumps him as he opens the car door, "sorry," he shortly says.
Han is completely gobsmacked to care, his eyes just can't stop following you even after you arrive at the base of the stairs and walk up to the car.
"I think it's true," Han foolishly says with a gaping mouth.
"Huh? What?" Jeongin asks in confusion.
"When the love is real... it finds a way," Han dramatically sighs with eyes big and wide like seeing something so wondrous.
Jeongin gives him the side eyes, but he decides to ignore him and gets into the car.
"I'm going to lock my apartment first," Jinnie informs, going up the stairs to her apartment.
"Hi, Han," you greet him.
Han tries not to crumble hearing you calling his name and instead of answering, he awkwardly raises his hand at you with a stupid grin on his face.
"Are you sitting in the front?" You ask.
Han's brain is not well functioning yet and it takes more time for him to compute a word.
"Well, then I'm going to take my bag," you say, stepping forward and getting in between him and the car door to take your bag from the passenger's seat.
The smell of your perfume is sweet and soft yet it's enough to get him intoxicated, he wants more of it. He suddenly has no desire to ride a shotgun and arranges a new plan in his head.
He rushes to the back of the car and yanks at Jeongin's jacket, "Jeongin, get in the backseat!"
"What?" He asks in utter confusion.
"Get in the backseat! Hurry!" He urges him, opening the seat to the back so he can move.
Doesn't want to deal with him, Jeongin reluctantly moves to the back as requested and Han sets the seat right back up, then keeps the car door open for you.
"Get in," Han says to you.
"Oh, thank you," you mutter, carrying your bag in one hand as you get in.
Noticing Jeongin in the backseat, you smile and greet him, "Hi!"
"Hi," Jeongin sheepishly says to you.
Han sees that Jinnie has returned from locking her apartment and hurriedly opens the car door for her, "You can sit in the front, Jinnie."
Jinnie looks at him, perplexed, "I thought you are..."
He can't hear the rest of what she's saying as he gets into the car and sits next to you.
"I hope it's okay that I tag along for the road trip," you say, putting your bag on your lap.
Han realizes that he should get his act together and forces his brain to function, "It's more than okay," he says with a smile.
This road trip turns into a chance of a lifetime for him. What could be more fun than being stuck in a moving vehicle with a girl he likes?
Chan gets into the driver's side, sighing as he's exhausted from arranging the trunk, and puts the keys into the ignition.
Oh, fuck, Han forget about the part that her brother is in the mentioned moving vehicle too, and drives it. Now, his sense of protection is heightened after seeing you sitting next to him.
"What's with this seat arrangement?" He asks, glaring at Han through the rearview mirror.
He innocently shrugs while Jeongin is staying quiet in the backseat by himself, enjoying the spacious seat for himself.
Jinnie is the last to enter the car and lets out a delighted sigh once she buckles her seat belt. She then looks around at the people in the back and asks, "Everyone is ready to go?"
In response to her question, Jeongin raises a thumbs-up while Han is weakly cheering with his fists in the air and you're laughing at him.
Jinnie then turns her head at Chan and says, "Let's go!"
And just like that, the road trip begins.
-
Everyone else thinks that Han's liking toward you is just a joke and he does that as a way to annoy Chan. Unfortunately, it's not.
He admits that at first, he didn't think of you that way. The very first time he received the information that Chan has a sister, he thinks of you not more than that, a younger sister of his friend.
That night Chan invited everyone to the bar to celebrate his birthday and you've recently turned 21 that year which is why your brother finally took you along with him to hang out with his friends for the first time and he believes that was when things take a different turn.
Han met you once, briefly at Chan's graduation and you've just entered college at that time. When he met you again that night, he almost couldn't recognize you because you've grown so much.
You were just a young girl when he met you for the first time and that night, he saw that girl had flourished into a grown woman and attracted him immediately.
He was so deeply mesmerized by you that he just stared at you the whole night that Jeongin had to constantly snap him out of his head.
The one moment that got him enamored is when you decided to take your jacket off that night and revealed the white camisole you wore that night, he could tell you were wearing nothing underneath because your nipples were poking through the silky fabric. He remembers watching you enjoy the night and dancing your heart out with Jinnie the whole night.
Han couldn't get you out of his head ever since, he grew some sort of infatuation with you, and he followed you on your social media.
When he feels bold enough, he slides into your DMs and asks how you're doing. Chan doesn't know and the fact that he's still oblivious about it means that you don't mention it to him and that's good, it spares him from his doom coming sooner than everyone else's.
Now that he gets to see you in person, sitting side by side when all he could do was just admire you through the pictures you posted. It feels a little surreal that he has to pinch himself a few times to convince him that you're real.
Since Chan is busy talking with Jinnie in the front, he takes it as an opportunity to talk with you because he's wasted three hours secretly staring at you.
"So, how are you doing?" He awkwardly asks while still getting used to sitting next to you.
"I'm doing great," you shortly answer, placing your hand on the space between you and him.
"I heard you're working at the magazine now?" He asks, making it sounds like he heard it from Chan but he actually knew it from your Instagram post.
"Yes, I am," you answer with a sheepish smile.
"I think that's great!" He praises and tries to keep his excitement in check.
"I'm just a copy editor for now. I don't think it's that great," you sheepishly say.
"No, I think that's great," Han feels the need to convince you so he seeks validation from a third party, "Right, Jeongin?"
Jeongin scratches his chin and stifles a nod, "Yeah. That's great!"
"Thank you," you mutter with a shy smile and tuck your hair behind your ear, "How about you? How are you doing?
"Good," he shortly answers but he knows you need more from his answer, "I've been working on a few tracks."
When it comes to you, Han doesn't feel like the coolest person but the objective remains the same, he wants to impress you.
"And I worked on that thing," he scratches his head while considering whether it's right to share it with you.
You tuck your hair behind your ear and look at him, "Worked on what?"
"I made this jingle for an ad," he hesitantly shares.
You shift your body toward him and ask further, "Do I know this ad or...?"
Seeing that you're genuinely curious about it, Han gains a little confidence to share more.
"It's for a shaving cream commercial and it goes like this..." Han starts humming the melody and serenading it to you.
"Didn't you do that thing last year though?" Jeongin interrupts his serenading with a truth bomb.
Han looks over his shoulder and glares at him, making Jeongin see his displeased expression that he's not a great wingman at the moment.
"Yeah, but..." he turns his body more to look at him but can't find something to defend himself.
"I did that," he continues as his confidence deflates in each passing second, "nonetheless."
"Everyone," Jinnie says from the front, "We're going to stop for gas."
Even Jinnie makes a better wingman than Jeongin and she's clueless about what happened in the back earlier.
"Oh, great timing! I need to go to the bathroom," you exclaim, gathering your hair to put it into a ponytail.
This is not a good start, he can tell that you're not impressed at all and far from attracted to him. He consoles himself with snacks, eating them right outside the convenience store.
"I blew that up," he sighs, then shoves chips into his mouth.
"That's because," Jeongin says, then pausing to take another sip of his soda, "you keep staring at her like a creep."
Han elbows his side quite hard that Jeongin yelps, "and you didn't help at all," he grumbles with his cheeks full of food.
"You're hopeless," Jeongin easily replies and steals some chips from Han.
"And you didn't think that's why I need the help?" Han grumbles again and shoves more chips into his mouth.
Jeongin coyly shrugs as he drains his can of soda empty then proceeds to crumple it and toss it into the trash bin.
"Hey, what are you guys having?" You appear from the corner along with Jinnie.
"Where's Chris?" Jinnie asks while fixing her hair.
"He's inside," Jeongin points to the convenience store.
Han quickly swallows everything in his mouth and brushes the crumbs on the front of his shirt, "Do you want some?" He offers you his bag of chips.
"Do you have something sweet with you?" You ask.
"I do, I do," he eagerly answers, rummaging through the bag of snacks he bought and pulling out a pack of strawberry jellies, "I think you'll like this."
"Oh, no, I'm allergic to strawberries," you inform.
Han quickly pulls out another pack of snacks from the plastic bag, "How about this?"
You take it from him and delightfully gasp, "Oh, I love these."
Chan comes out with Jinnie carrying packs of drinks for everyone and without warning, he tosses the car keys at Jeongin, fortunately, he has a good reflex and catches it right into his hand.
"Your turn to drive," Chan says to Jeongin.
Jeongin doesn't say anything else but walks up to the car with everyone following him from the back.
Han opens the car door for you when Chan grabs your hand and stops you on the track, "You ride shotgun."
"Yes, sir!" You also obey without complaint.
"And you," Chan points at Han, "Get on the backseat!"
Han frowns that Chan purposely separates the two of you and reluctantly goes to sit by himself in the back while Chan and Jinnie sit in the middle.
From the back of the car, Han can only watch you share the pack of chocolate maltesers with Jeongin in the front.
-
After four hours of driving, the car stops for dinner and everyone gets so quiet once the food arrives.
Chan makes sure everyone has finished so he can have all of their attention as he explains what the next plan is. Before you can ask for his dessert, he slides his plate towards you.
"Can I have everyone's attention?" He says.
Jeongin is mindlessly stirring his glass of soda with the straw but putting his attention on him meanwhile Han is slowly dissociating so Chan snaps his fingers right in front of his face to reel him back to reality.
Han swats his hand away and groans, "I'm listening, I'm listening."
"Okay, so, we're not going to continue to drive," Chan announces.
"Oh? We're sleeping somewhere for the night?" Jinnie asks, then dabs her mouth with a napkin, "And I need you guys to sleep early tonight because—"
"Because of what?" Han asks as he lazily brushes his hair to the back.
Chan sighs because Han cuts him off instead of letting him continue talking, "Because we have to leave early tomorrow morning."
"And where are we going?" You ask, sliding the plate back to him. Chan glares at you for leaving a small piece of dessert for him and you grin at him in return.
"Let me guess, surprise?" Han says with a mocking grin.
Chan scoops the last piece of cake into his mouth and ignoring Han's insinuation, he has a way to get back to him.
"Who voted for Han to pay the bill?" He says with his hand already raised in the air and Jeongin is the next one to raise his hand.
"W-what? Why? Why me?" Han blabbers in a slight panic.
Everyone turns their heads at Jinnie and since two of his friends already voted for him, she follows the majority and hesitantly raises her hand.
"Sorry," she meekly mutters at Han.
When it comes to you, you hurriedly shake your head and refuse to be a part of their shenanigans. Chan intensely glares at you, pressuring you to also raise your hand.
"Please, leave me out of this," you plead.
Having no other way to make you do what he tells you to do, Chan grabs your hand and raises it in the air. He then triumphantly grins at Han until his dimples sunken into his cheeks.
"Everyone says 'Thank you, Han'!" He orders.
"Thank you, Han!" Everyone says in unison while Han is slumped on his seat, suddenly not looking drowsy anymore.
With the information gained from the restaurant staff, Chan easily found the motel a ten-minute drive away. Arrive there, he immediately goes to check in while everyone is getting their belonging from the trunk.
Without saying anything, Jeongin hands you a bag and you look at it for a moment until you realize that it's yours.
"Oh, thank you," you mutter.
You also take Chan's bag, it's so heavy and you bet he's taking his laptop and camera with him which only reminds you to be careful with it. Once he gets back with the room keys, you hurriedly hand him his bag.
"This one is for the ladies," Chan hands one of the keys to Jinnie.
"Got it," Jinnie says, linking her arm with you to start walking to your room.
Everyone is heading the same way since the boys are staying in the next room. You can't wait to lie down after spending more than ten hours sitting in the car.
"It seems like we're sharing the bed," Jinnie says, seeing there's only one bed in the room.
"Don't worry, I don't snore like my brother," you immediately remark as you throw yourself onto the bed and sigh in delight.
Jinnie laughs as she unpacks her bag, "Wait... Chris snores?"
You roll to the side and prop a hand under your head, "I thought you knew," you say.
"I've seen Chris sleeping but he didn't snore," Jinnie shares, taking clean clothes out of her bag.
"Of course," you talk to yourself, Chan wouldn't let his crush know about his sleeping habit especially something as bad as snoring.
"What's that?" Jinnie asks, hearing you mutter to yourself.
"I just remember I need to charge my phone," you lie, rolling over to the other side to rummage through your bag.
"Do you mind if I use the bathroom first?" Jinnie politely asks, holding her clothes close to her chest.
"Sure," you answer with your hand still groping around to look for your phone charger. Getting hopeless, you call for Jinnie as she's about to enter the bathroom.
"Hey, Jinnie, can I borrow your charger?"
She stops on her track and then puts her clothes on top of the dresser, "Sure," she says, going back to her bag to get it and give it to you.
"I think I dropped my phone in the car," she mutters as she looks through her bag.
"Oh, no," you mumble but an idea comes to mind.
"I can call Chris to help you find it," you offer, turning her misfortune into an opportunity to set them up.
"No, it's okay. It's probably under the seat of the car," she says but she looks worried.
"Are you even sure that you dropped it in the car?" You ask, making her doubt herself.
Jinnie looks concerned now that she clasps her hands together in front of her, "I don't want—"
Before she gets to finish her sentence, you hit call on Chan's number and he picks up on the third ring.
"What's up, baby sist?" He slurs his words, he's just as tired as everyone.
Without greeting him first, you talk straight into the phone, "Jinnie dropped her phone in the car. Can you help her find it?"
You hear rustles from the other end of the call and his tone changes all of a sudden, "Just need to get my car keys and I'll be on your door in a minute."
There's no need to plead or beg, you only need to mention Jinnie's name and he's ready to do anything, he'd probably move mountains for her too if she asked for it.
You hold the urge to laugh and calmly look at Jinnie, "He'll be here soon," you tell her.
"Oh, thank you," Jinnie says, canceling her plan to wash up and putting her sweater back on.
A few minutes later, the knocking comes on the door and Jinnie goes to open it. You peek from the side to watch the interaction.
"Heard you dropped your phone in the car," Chan says to her.
"Yeah, I hope I didn't disturb you," Jinnie says.
"Not at all," he immediately says.
Jinnie looks at you and you pretend to be busy looking at your phone, "Hey, I'm going out for a bit."
"Yeah, sure, take your time," you say with a smile then realize that you're not using the right tone.
"Hope you find your phone," you quickly add.
Jinnie is trailing behind Chan as they walk back to the parking lot and he hurriedly unlocks the car at the first sight of it.
"I'm sure it's somewhere in the middle seat," Jinnie says, opening the car door and going straight to feel the gap between the seats.
"I'll look from the other side," Chan says.
He walks around the car and looks from the other side, he turns on the flashlight from his phone and shines it under the seat. All he finds are candy wrappers and he knows who the culprit is.
"Let's get these seats up," he suggests, turning the lever to fold the seats and making it easier to search for the phone.
As they're busy looking for the phone, their heads meet in the middle, and bumps against each other. Chan reflexively reaches for Jinnie's head and rubs on it.
"I'm sorry," he says while giggling, "Are you okay?"
Jinnie can't answer as she's busy laughing and after taking a breath, she nods, "I'm okay."
"You know, it'll be much easier to call you," he says, coming up with a faster way to find the phone a little too late.
"Why didn't I think of that earlier?" Jinnie says, feeling embarrassed as she holds her hair from curtaining her face.
Chan looks for her number and presses the call buttons, he waits for the dialing tone while Jinnie looks around in the dark.
"Oh, I heard it!" She gasps.
The muffled ringtone comes from the back and Chan flips the seat to the front, discovering Jinnie's phone caught between the seats. With his long arm, Chan outstretches his arm to get it and hurriedly hands it to her.
"Thank God!" She sighs in relief and takes the phone from him.
Chan closes the car door and quickly locks it again, he checks by pulling at the car handle to know if it's locked for good.
"I was so scared that I dropped it somewhere else," Jinnie shares, clutching her phone close to her chest.
"I'm glad you found it," Chan says, smiling because he feels good knowing that he makes Jinnie happy.
"Thank you for helping, Chris," Jinnie sincerely says with a smile that is as soft as the moonlight.
Chan would do anything to see that smile on Jinnie's face again, he then looks away before it gets too intense.
"Don't mention it," he coyly says.
As they walk back to the rooms, their hands lightly grazing each other's, and on a nice, summer night like this, Chan feels tempted to hold her hand.
He looks down and her hand is right there, a grasp away from him. All he needs to do—
Jinnie draws her hands and crosses them together in front of her, "I'm so curious where you'll take us tomorrow," she says.
Chan clears his throat and shoves his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants.
"Trust me, you guys will like it," he confidently says, "especially you."
Jinnie looks at him with a bewildered expression, "Me?"
"Yeah," he nods and grins.
"That only makes me more excited for tomorrow," she says, hugging herself tighter as a gust of wind blows their way.
Jinnie stops right in front of your shared room, she looks at Chan who's standing on the door to his room, "Thanks once again, Chris."
"It's not a big deal," he says with a smile.
Jinnie knocks on the door and a while later, you open the door with your head wrapped in a towel, "Did you find it?"
"Yeah," she answers, showing you the phone in her hand.
"That's a relief!" You exclaim, then step to the side to let her in.
Jinnie looks at Chan for one last time and smiles, "Goodnight, Chris."
"Goodnight," he says back, and once Jinnie gets inside, his foolish smile drops from his face knowing that you're watching him.
"Get back inside. Lock the door and sleep!" He strictly orders.
"Yes, sir," you reply along with a salute.
You grab the handle of the door and take one more chance to poke fun at him.
"Goodnight, Chris," You try your best to copy Jinnie's soft tone of saying it and quickly close the door before Chan gets the chance to scold you.
-
When Chan said they needed to leave early the next day, Han didn't think it would require him to wake up at 6 in the morning.
He doesn't know how Chan did that because he was the last one to sleep but he also woke up the earliest and even brought breakfast with him when he came to the room.
"Your turn to drive today," Chan says, throwing the car keys and clanging against the floor as Han fails to catch them.
"Ugh..." he lets out an exhausted groan and picks them up from the floor.
Concerned with his state, Chan grabs his shoulder and squeezes, "You sure you can drive?"
Han knows that if he says no, then Chan will take the task from him and he doesn't want that, Chan already did so much. He's sure he's more tired than everyone.
"Yeah, I can drive," he assures him with a not-so-convincing smile.
The doubts linger in Chan's eyes, he gives him a pat on the back and then says, "You know what? I'll get you another cup of coffee!"
The sun is peeking from the horizon and slowly climbs its way out, the sunray hits his eyes as Han arrives at the parking lot.
He unlocks the car from a meter away and puts his bag in the trunk first before walking to the driver's side.
"Ugh..." he groans again with one hand on the handle of the car door.
The last person who drove was Jeongin and thanks to his long limbs, Han has to readjust the seat because his arms aren't long enough for the steering wheel.
He's yawning as he takes his phone out and connects it to the car stereo, at least, being a driver means he has full control over the music.
"Morning," Jinnie cheerily says, with a smile that shines brighter than the morning sun.
Something about her smile that makes him can't help but smile back.
"Morning," he says back, "Do you need help with the bag?"
"It's okay. I'll do it myself," She says, heading to the back of the car.
Not long after, Chan comes carrying bags on each shoulder but looking unbothered by them, he ends up helping Jinnie with her bag. Jeongin comes next, handing his bag to Chan before getting into the car and sitting in the back.
Han is busy scrolling his phone to compile a playlist for the trip to realize that everyone is already getting in except for one person.
He looks to the back and sees Chan sitting in the middle with Jinnie so that means...
"I have your coffee with me," you say, climbing into the passenger's side.
He turns his head to the back to check if Chan approves of this seating arrangement but he's already snuggled up in his hoodie to sleep.
"Americano, right?" You ask, handing the cup of coffee to him.
"Oh?" Han looks at you and then at the coffee.
The second he realizes that you're waiting for him, he hurriedly gets it from you, "Thank you!"
Sensing that the coffee is hot, he carefully puts it into the cup holder and turns on the car engine. He waits until you're buckled in to start driving.
"So, where are we going?" He asks in utter confusion.
You let out a chuckle thinking that he's joking and Han chuckles as well, maybe it is a joke that he didn't ask Chan where to go before he started driving.
"Chris said you only need to follow the GPS," you inform.
"Oh, yeah, that's right," he feels embarrassed to ask and even more embarrassed to say that he is not good at multitasking.
It feels as if you read his mind, you look at him and say, "Don't worry. I'm a good navigator."
The cool morning air is so refreshing that Han doesn't feel sleepy anymore and with every sip of coffee, he feels more awake than ever.
He looks through the rearview mirror and sees that everyone in the back is sleeping so that means only you and him are awake in the car.
"Oh, wow, look at that," You sigh at the view of the sun rising on a hill, "It's beautiful!"
Han briefly glances away from the road to see it but the view he sees is of you and your hair flying around your face basking in the soft glow of the morning sun.
"Yeah, it's beautiful," he mutters and looks back at the road.
He's only an hour away from the destination but he likes this scene, the view and the road ahead of him, the person sitting next to him, also the faint music that plays through the car stereo. He wants to stay in it for a little longer.
"I love this song!" You exclaim out of the blue as the playlist plays a new song.
Han recognizes the song right away because it's coming from his playlist and it's one of his favorites.
"You know this song?"
"The Beatles, right?"
"Yes."
"It's in one of the playlists you sent me," you tell him.
The playlist is Han's love language. When he likes someone, instead of flowers or chocolate, he compiles a playlist of songs that reminds him of that person and gifts it to them.
When he sent them to you, Han isn't that confident that you will heartily listen to them because it's just a playlist of songs and you'd barely see the romantic gesture behind it.
"I'd like to be under the sea..." you start singing along to the song.
"In an octopus's garden in the shade..." Han joins in on the second line while keeping his eyes on the road.
"He'd let us in, knows where we've been. In his octopus's garden in the shade..." Together you sing the rest of the verse while smiling as the sun is getting higher in the sky.
"In an octopus's garden with you... In an octopus's garden with you..."
The GPS says the destination is only ten minutes away and it's directing him to turn onto the small road with nothing but trees that line up on each side.
"Are we going the right way?" Han asks you in a slight panic, not seeing any road signs.
You check the GPS and turn to look at him, "You're going the right way, yeah," you confirm.
Han bends down to see if there's any sign of life or if Chan accidentally puts the wrong address into the GPS.
"I'll wake my brother," you offer, turning around in your seat and outstretching your arm to reach Chan who's still sleeping.
You manage to grab the sleeve of his hoodie and yank at it, "Chris, wake up!"
Instead of Chan, Jinnie is the one who answers your call, "Mmh, are we there yet?" She asks.
"We're not sure," you answer and yank harder at Chan's hoodie.
Jinnie notices you need the help, she places her hand on Chan's arm and gently shakes him awake, "Chris?"
On the second try, Chan finally wakes up to Jinnie's call and you roll your eyes because it's getting ridiculous now that he recognizes her voice well instead of his sister.
Han decides to pull over to the side of the road and turns his head around, "are we going to the right place?"
Chan pulls down his hoodie and quickly brushes his curls to the back, he closes his eyes for a moment to adjust them to the light.
One glance at the GPS and he slumps back on his seat, "Yes, it's right," he slurs his words.
"Why am I not seeing anything else but trees?" Han hesitates but keeps driving anyway.
"Just keep going," Chan mumbles, getting a bottle of water and drinking it.
A moment later, Han's doubt is answered as a sign appears in front of him and it says that the campsite is 100 meters away.
"Oh, my God!" Jinnie loudly gasps, making everyone in the car startle in surprise, including Jeongin who's just woken up from his nap.
She looks at Chan with eyes widening and sparkling, "We're going camping?"
With a stupid grin on his face, Chan answers, "Yes."
-
While the boys are busy setting up the big tent, you and Jinnie are making sandwiches for lunch. Jinnie does most of the work while all you do is unwrapping the cheese singles and preparing the loaf of bread.
This is one of those moments that makes you think how can someone be this perfect? Jinnie is beautiful, smart, kind, and patient, she's great at drawing and now, you find out she's good at cooking too.
"What can't you do? Really?" You praise in awe as she meticulously arranges the ingredients from the vegetables to the condiments.
She lets out a shy chuckle in reaction and doesn't let it get to her head, she's concentrating hard on putting everything together without making a mess.
"You're an only child, right?" You curiously ask.
Jinnie wraps each sandwich with a food wrapper and does it so meticulously as if she's wrapping a gift, "Yes, I am."
"Would you like a younger sister?" You jokingly say.
She smiles at you and hands you the first sandwich she wrapped, "I already think of you as a younger sister," she says.
You grin at that and put the wrapped sandwich into the basket, "We should make it official then," you teasingly say.
"And what do you mean by that?"
"You know... you can be my sister-in-law," you coyly say while paying attention to her reaction.
Jinnie shakes her head in disbelief and shyly laughs, "You silly!"
It's too obvious for her to miss it, right? She should have known that you're hinting at something and it's your way to cajole her to open up but in the end, you're always the one left puzzled by the mystery of why Jinnie and Chan's ship is not sailing yet.
The peaceful nature sounds are interrupted by the sound of Chan hammering the spike to pin down the tent while Jeongin is setting the canopy. He pauses once he notices that you're struggling to carry the cooler box by yourself. He rushes to get it from you and puts it down next to the tent.
As a form of gratitude, you grab a can of soda from the cooler and hand it to him, "Here!"
Jeongin softly smiles and it's enough to make his dimples appear on both of his cheeks, "Thanks!"
"Baby sist, I want one too!" Chan grumbles as he sits on the ground, also exhausted from setting the tent.
It's fine when he called you that ten years ago but as you grow older, he should know that you've outgrown that pet name. You let it slide because his friends got used to hearing him calling you that around them.
"Catch!" You warn before tossing it his way and he catches it right in his hand.
Jinnie comes not long after, carrying the sandwiches along with some snacks on the side, "Lunch is ready!" She announces, putting everything on the table.
Han hurriedly carries more folded chairs and arranges them around the table. Everyone stops working to huddle around the table for lunch.
"Is it done?" Jinnie asks while distributing the sandwiches around.
"Yeah, we just need to put the mat and sleeping bags inside but we can do it later," Chan answers, ripping through the wrapper and taking a hearty bite.
Despite it being the beginning of summer, there are only two other campers on the site. But that's a good thing, it's not crowded and it won't spoil the serene, relaxing experience of camping.
The lunch feels so rewarding, especially to those who worked on the tent and everyone gets so quiet after. You and Jinnie work together to gather the trash and put it into a plastic bag.
"So... what now?" Jeongin asks, glancing his eyes from side to side.
Chan crumples the empty can in his hand and puts it into the trash bag, "We're resting for now and we'll go hiking in an hour."
"Hiking?" Han asks in panic, not in favor of the idea.
"I told you to bring hiking boots for one specific reason," Chan explains, putting his hat backward and then reclining on his seat.
Han slumps on his seat and makes those high-pitched groans while flailing his arms in the air.
To avoid the harsh sunlight, the hike starts a little after three and the boys are tasked to carry a backpack full of snacks, water, and clean clothes.
The forest hums with life as the five of you walk the trail with the sun breaks through the cracks, lighting up the dirt path ahead, decorated with outgrown roots, wildflowers, and fallen leaves that crunch beneath your feet.
You're gazing up at the canopy, searching for the birds that sing sweetly against the soft sound of the wind whistling between the leaves.
Chan leads the way and once in a while, he looks back to check if anyone needs a break. Seeing that everyone needs a break, he stops on his track and turns around.
"Let's have a quick break!" He announces to everyone, then uncaps a bottle of water to hand it to you.
"Thank you," you mutter.
You lean back against the tree and reorganize your breath to finally have a long sip of water that quench your thirst.
"Is it still far?" Jinnie asks, taking a new bottle of water from Han's backpack.
Chan swallows his water and wipes his lips after, "About half an hour more of hiking."
Han takes off the plaid shirt he's wearing and hangs it on one shoulder, "And how long have we been hiking?"
Chan looks at his smartwatch to be able to answer him, "About 25 minutes."
"Fuck!" Han curses, scaring away the small animals hiding between the bushes, "Why does it feel like we've been walking for hours?"
"That's just you," Jeongin sneers, drinking his water like he's shooting an advertisement video.
"It's going to be worth it, I swear," Chan convinces, brushing his hair to the back before putting his hat back on.
Hanging on to his words, everyone continues the hike, following Chan's lead while enjoying the greenery. Jeongin catches squirrels running in between tree trunks.
"Han, say hi to your friends!" He says to Han.
Funny that Han decides to play along with it, "Furry babies, hi!"
Chan notices that you're getting exhausted as beads of sweat roll down your neck, "Here! Hold the back of my t-shirt!"
You don't see why it would help you walk, "Why should I?" You ask in utter confusion.
He grabs your hands and makes you hold each side of his t-shirt, dragging you along with him as he tirelessly keeps following the trail.
"I swear to God if it isn't worth it like you said..." you grumble as you feel every muscle in your legs strained and screaming in pain, and your mouth is dry from you constantly panting, running out of breath.
The scenery slightly changes the further you walk, there are no more dead leaves on the path and the rich earthy smell is soon replaced by water-saturated air.
"Oi, look!" Chan taps your hand and then points at the view ahead of him.
Getting a glimpse of what lies ahead, you walk past Chan to discover a view that is too beautiful for your eyes to comprehend.
A white, frothy cascade of water falls into a plunge pool with mist billowing out in soft clouds, creating a mystical atmosphere but when the sun hits and refracts the lights, a rainbow appears.
It's a waterfall, a majestic one.
"Be careful! It's slippery!" Chan shouts, watching you walk down the rocky outcroppings. He knows that there's no stopping you and you can't hear him anyway.
Han dashes after you with the backpack bouncing on his back, trailing after you like a puppy.
"I was right to trust you," Jinnie stands by his side and places a hand on Chan's shoulder, "It's worth the one hour of hike."
Jinnie shoots him a warm smile that makes Chan's inside melt and turns into jelly and in response to that, Chan unknowingly grins at her, the kind that shows how much of a fool he is for her.
Unbeknownst to him, Jeongin has been quietly watching this interaction, including the shit-eating grin Chan has on his face.
"You're pathetic," Jeongin says to him once Jinnie leaves.
"Hey!" He yells in disagreement but Jeongin ignores him and walks away.
Taking a little rest from the hiking, Chan sits on the sun-baked rocks while admiring the waterfall and the serene surroundings.
"This is a beautiful place to tell someone your feelings," Jeongin says, taking out a can of soda from his backpack.
Chan scoffs and plays dumb, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, come on!" Jeongin groans and subtly rolls his eyes at him.
"We all know you have feelings for someone," he pauses to gesture at the figure standing on the rocky perch, "There she is!"
This proves two things, their years of friendship and that Jeongin always observes, either way, he feels so caught by his own ineptness.
Worse, Chan decides to keep playing dumb and looks away even though it's too late for him to do that, there's no way he can escape Jeongin's observant eyes.
"Why-why should I..." he scratches his head in a slight panic.
"Just tell her how you feel," Jeongin says, "I think she feels the same thing for you."
At first, Chan wants to keep it to himself but since Jeongin knows already and it's tiring to have to keep hiding, he decides to tell him.
"It's hard," he openly admits with a heavy sigh, "We've been close friends for too long that I can't tell the difference anymore."
It feels so good that Chan is finally able to get that out of this chest and he knows he can trust Jeongin to keep it between them.
"And she's just... she's just perfect," Chan says with a hopeless sigh, he picks up a pebble and throws it into the water, "and I don't want to lose my good friend."
Jeongin leans back by propping his hands behind him and lets out a sigh, "It doesn't matter if the guy is perfect or the girl is perfect, as long as they're perfect for each other," he eloquently remarks.
"Wait, I think I heard that somewhere before," Chan's forehead wrinkles as he rakes his brain to recall where he heard this line before.
All of a sudden, Jeongin punches him in the arm, "It's from your favorite movie. Good Will Hunting!"
"Oh?!" Chan loudly gasps, it feels like a crime that he doesn't recognize the quote taken from his favorite movie.
"At this point, Han will beat you up to it."
"What?"
"He'll date your sister faster than you get to date Jinnie," Jeongin says with sheer indignation.
Chan's eyes dart at you and Han talking under the shade of a tree that stoops so low it's almost touching the surface of the water.
"Ugh, no, that can't happen!" He says in disgust.
"I bet he's serenading your sister with the jingle he made, again," Jeongin mumbles.
At the same time, Jeongin and Chan look at each other and start singing the jingle together, surprising themselves by how well they memorized it.
"Are you guys talking about me?" Jinnie jokingly asks as she walks by.
They immediately shut up and Chan turns his head away even though his eyes are searching for her, demanding her to always be in his sight.
"Are we waiting for Christmas to swim or what?" Han shouts, fussing like a child with his hands planted on each side of his waist.
-
Han once thought that if someone ever gets to see your body, he believes they'd turn to stone and that's because he thinks no one can handle that much magnetism and sex appeal.
Today, he gets to put that notion to a test even though he's risking himself to the possibility of getting petrified. He tries to keep his cool as you stand not far from him, tugging the hem of your t-shirt and then pulling it over your head, revealing the top half of the swimsuit you're wearing underneath.
So far, he still finds himself breathing and able to move his limbs but let's see when— he holds his breath as you unbutton your denim shorts and pull it down, slightly bending down to get it off your legs.
His eyes immediately travel down your body, admiring every curve of your body as you bask in the warm sunlight and the tiny droplets of water land on your skin.
You flip your hair to the back and slip your fingers under the strap to adjust it on your shoulder, his breath hitches as you pull it and let it slap against your skin.
Now, he's petrified. He knows he shouldn't be ogling at his best friend's sister, especially with her brother around but he can't help it, he's instinctively attracted to you like a moth drawn to light.
Jinnie offers her hand at you as she's already in her swimsuit as well, "Come on!" She says.
You take her hand and giggle as you slowly make your way toward the water with pebbles against the bottom of your bare feet.
"Ack!" You shriek, feeling a shock of cold water touching your feet then back to giggling again.
Han realizes that if he doesn't want to miss anything, he should get changed now. He gets up from the bed of rock he's sitting on and finds Chan is already hallway to get naked, exposing his muscular upper body, his pale skin shines under the sun.
"Show off," he mutters, placing a gentle slap on his abs as he walks past him.
"What's that for?" Chan says with a perplexed look.
The breeze plays with Han's hair as he treads the water and more droplets of water hit his skin the closer he gets to where you are
For a second, he loses sight of you until you emerge from the surface of the water, glistening wet with your swimsuit stuck to your skin, enhancing the features of your heavenly body.
You're saying something to Jinnie as you're floating in the water but the words are lost in the roar of the waterfall. With a grin plastered on your face, he doesn't need to hear it to know you're having fun.
"Hey, come here," you shout in his direction.
Han looks around thinking you're talking to someone else but there's no one else but him there. He looks back at you and you're already making your way to him.
"I want to show you something cool," you say, taking his hand and dragging him with you.
Honestly, he's willing to go anywhere you take him even if you take him to the pit of hell and sweat he'll follow you there.
"Now, we have to dive in," you say, getting to the center of the pool where it's deep enough for a dive.
Han draws a big, deep breath before following you where you lead him, he sees through the blurry water where your figure is diving to and then comes out of the water.
You wipe the water off your face and put your hair away, "It's cool, isn't it?"
Han doesn't realize it at first but once he rubs the water off his eyes, he's standing on the other side of the waterfall, and behind him is a tall, slippery wall of rock.
It's just you and him, concealed behind an iridescent wall of water.
"Yeah," he nods as he looks at you to which you respond with a smile.
Out of nowhere, two figures emerge out of the water and startle you both. It's Jeongin and Jinnie, discovering the spot and finding you both there.
"Wow! This is amazing!" Jinnie gasps as she looks around while wiping the water off her mouth.
Jeongin doesn't say anything but stands close to the back, his skin a contrast with the dark of the rocky wall behind him.
The smile on Han's face slowly fades knowing that someone has shattered the tender moment he's having with you. He looks at you and your eyes are nowhere near his eyes, the next thing he knows, you dive your way out back to the world.
The fun continues as you and Chan team up to fight against Jinnie and Han. He's carrying you on his shoulders and clashing you at Jinnie who also rides on Han's shoulders, coming at each other until one of you falls into the water. Thanks to Chan's strong lower half body, you won most of the time.
Tired from swimming, everyone is chilling on the big bed of rock, drinking and eating the snacks they packed while drying up under the warm afternoon sun.
With your fingers pruning up, you're struggling to open a bag of chips and someone takes it to help you to open it.
"Here," Jeongin says, after swiftly opening it for you.
"Thanks," you mutter.
Jinnie let out a sigh as she hugs her knees, "I think this is the most fun I ever had in a long time."
Han gets up from lying down and puts his arm around her shoulder, "That's true."
Chan triumphantly grins as he uncaps a new bottle of water, "I told you guys to trust me."
"I trusted you," Jeongin mutters in defense.
Chan points at Han as he drinks his water, hinting that he's talking about a specific person. Grinning as he sees Han feeling called out by that.
"I didn't say anything," he defends himself, waving his hand in front of him in strong disagreement with Chan's accusation.
"Yeah but you were like whining the whole hike," Chan says, giving him a head shake of disbelief.
"I didn't," he resists to admit it, then looks at Jinnie to seek someone on his back, "I didn't, right?"
Jinnie looks at him and then looks at everyone, "Well, I wouldn't call it whining," she says.
Han glares at her as he senses a but trailing behind Jinnie's sentence. He puts his arm away from her and grumbles, "You know what? I'll not say anything on the hike way back."
On the hike way back, Han doesn't whine like he promised but he makes grunting noises. Chan knows he wants to complain but he wants to stick true to his own words.
He guides the hike back with you by his side and he's been catching you looking back a few times. He scoffs, knowing his sister so well to know that you're not just looking, you have eyes on someone.
"Who is it, baby sist?" He curiously asks.
You snap your head back and look ahead, "Huh? What?" You play coy.
With his hand on your shoulder, he stops you on your track and looks into your eyes, "I'm your brother. I know when my sister likes someone," he states.
You sigh because that's true, you can't hide the things from someone you've grown up your whole life with.
"Yeah, okay, you got me," you say in defeat.
"I didn't think much about it then but now, he's always in my head," you share, surprised that you don't find it awkward to tell personal things like this with him. Deep down you know it's not awkwardness you feel, you fear that Chan wouldn't be accepting of your choice.
"So, what do you think?"
Chan softly laughs and offers his hand at you as support to climb the outgrown tree roots, he waits until you safely land on the other side to answer.
"Well, I don't really have a say on that, do I?" he says.
"As far as I remember, you're really against it," you say, reminding him of the same ultimatum he says to his friends plenty of times.
"Yeah, but you know, as long as you're happy," he answers, along with a coy shrug.
Out of the blue, he playfully nudges your shoulder with his, "Ooo, baby sist is falling in love," he teasingly says.
You shove him hard until he's staggering to the side, "Stop calling me that!" You slap his big arm with each word.
Chan is as protective as a brother can be but he knows that he can't dictate every aspect of your life, including the person you like. However, as your brother, his opinions matter and it feels good to know that you have his approval.
-
The sun is setting when everyone returns to the campsite, painting the sky with bursts of red and yellow, gradually sending the day into the calm of night.
Before it gets dark, Chan orders everyone to work for dinner, he and Jeongin immediately build a campfire and the rest are setting the gas stove to cook.
"Can I help you with something?" Han offers his help to you and Jinnie who's busy prepping ingredients for dinner.
Jinnie hands him a pot, "Can you fill it with water?"
"How much water?"
"Just fill it full," she answers.
"Got it!" He takes the pot with him and comes back a few minutes later, carrying the pot of water with a lot of focus and cautiousness.
"Where do I put it?" He asks in a panic.
Jinnie gets out of the way to make space for him, "Here! On the stove!" She says.
He is concentrating hard on putting it right on the stove without spilling a drop, "How do you turn it on?"
You look away from the vegetables you're chopping and notice something on Han's leg, it seems like he scraped his knee without him knowing.
"Goodness, Han!" You gasp.
"Wh-what?" He asks in panic, looking at you in worry when he should be worried about himself.
"Your knee is bleeding," you point at the blood gushing out of his scraped knee. You scramble to find something for his wound.
Jinnie gets ahead of you, she comes with a bottle of water to wash the blood and tells him to sit down as she runs to the tent to get a first aid kit.
"Does it hurt?" You ask, finally find a napkin for it.
Han is surprisingly calm about it as he gently places the napkin over his wound, "I think I hurt my knee when I was getting water."
Chan pauses on grilling the meat to know what the ruckus is about, "What's going on?"
"Hannie scraped his knee," you shortly answer.
Jinne comes through with her bag of first-aid kit and pulls out a tube of ointment, she takes a dollop with a cotton bud and with so much gentleness, she dabs Han's wound with it.
Han hisses and winces in pain, reacting to the treatment and Jinnie quickly blows on it to soothe the pain.
"I just need to put a band-aid on it," she says and proceeds to take one from the pack. She puts a lot of care into covering his wound with it then sighs in relief.
"Thank you, Jinnie," Han sincerely says while holding the side of his knee.
Jinnie looks up as she's kneeling in front of him and warmly smiles, "You're very welcome, Han."
Despite the minor incident, dinner was a success as everyone finished the food in under an hour, and there was no better way to end a tiring yet fulfilling day than with cans of cold beer.
The night brings such a silence that the crackle of the campfire is all that could be heard with the sparks flickering and drifting upward. The smell of smoke mixed with the sweet smell of roasted marshmallows.
Being the good brother he is, Chan hands you the smores he made and takes the stick of marshmallow you're still roasting.
"Thanks," you mutter, wasting no time to bite into that gooey, crunchy sweetness.
Han wants to do the same for you, he makes smores out of the marshmallow he roasted a little too long and nudges Jeongin by the elbow.
"Pass it to her," he whispers, asking for his help to deliver it to you.
Jeongin doesn't say anything but takes it from him and without hesitation, he bites right into it.
"Hey, I made it for her!" He scolds him, putting his hands around Jeongin's neck to choke and force him to spit the smores he ate. That doesn't faze him, Jeongin has another bite to finish it and has no problem swallowing it down.
Thinking that Han is mad because Jeongin ate his smores, Jinnie gives the one she made to him as a consolation, "Here. You can have mine."
Han looks at it and feels bad to take it, "I– It's okay, I'm full anyway," he lies with a grin.
The night is a special kind of blackness, the kind that wants only to hold the stars and help them shine all the brighter. You tilt your head up and see those stars like pinpricks against the dark of night.
"Woah, look at those stars..." You sigh in wonder.
Everyone else follows suit, looking up at the night sky and feeling the same feeling of awe. When we realize how vast the universe is, our matters suddenly feel so small, don't you think?
"I have something to share with you guys," Jeongin suddenly announces.
Everyone stops staring at the night sky and looking at Jeongin, some are merely curious and the rest are anticipating what he tries to share.
"Remember when I told you guys I auditioned to join the Royal Orchestra?"
"Yeah, a couple of times," Chan says, bobbing his head at him.
"Last month I got the letter," he shares further.
"Oh!" Jinnie gasps in excitement even though Jeongin is not finished with the announcement yet.
Jeongin looks down at the blazing fire that gnaws on the logs of wood, making everyone wait for him to continue. After a while, he looks up and finally announces, "Well, I got in."
"Oh, my Gosh..." Chan sighs in relief with one hand clutching his chest.
"Yeah, man!" Han gives him a celebratory punch in the arm then puts his arm around him, "I just knew you'd get in."
"Duh!" Jinnie eggs in, "You're a great pianist, they're stupid if they didn't let you in."
"Congratulations, Jeongin! We're so proud of you," Chan says, giving him a pat on the back and a proud smile that exudes his paternal side towards Jeongin.
Jeongin looks at you and his eyes drop to his hands, "Which also means that I'll leave soon," he continues with shocking news.
The smiles on everyone's faces slowly fade at that announcement, it turns quiet again as everyone processes that there's a downside to this happy news. Jinnie looks devastated and she rests her head on Chan's shoulder to seek comfort.
"When do you have to leave?" Han asks.
"Next month," Jeongin replies.
"So... this will be the last time we're going to be together?" Jinnie sadly asks even though she's on the verge of tears already.
"Guys, I'm not dying," Jeongin says with an attitude.
Everyone lightly chuckles at that, Chan rearranges the logs to keep the bonfire alive and looks at Jeongin.
"How long will you be there?"
"It's a two-year contract," he answers.
Jinnie sniffles and puts on a small smile, "Just promise us that you'll always come to our weekly video meeting," she demands.
Jeongin chuckles and nods, crossing his fingers together as he says, "Promise!"
"Two years isn't that long," Han coyly says, poking the burned log with a tree branch.
"By the time I get back, I expect one of you to already be married to someone," Jeongin jokingly says, secretly throwing a glance at Chan and raising his eyebrow at him.
"I'm getting drowsy," you say, stretching your arms up and tilting your head side to side, "I'm going to head in and sleep."
Jinnie lifts her head off of Chan's shoulder and crosses her arms together in front of her, "Yeah, I'm going to sleep as well," she says.
It's getting late and the night only grows colder, Chan decides that it's time to sleep. He volunteers to put out the bonfire while Jeongin heads straight into the tent.
After taking a quick trip to the bathroom, Han enters the tent and sees that the sleeping bags have been arranged. Jinnie takes the farthest right and you're sleeping next to her, bundled in the warmth of your sleeping bag.
The middle one belongs to Chan and since Jeongin takes the farthest left which means he's going to be sleeping between them. He slips himself into his sleeping bag and turns his head only to find that you're still awake.
"I thought you're sleeping already," he lowly mutters.
You don't say anything but smile at him with your eyes soft and tender, blanketing his heart with warm feelings.
When it occurs to him that he's sleeping in this shared space with you, he gets that fluttering feeling inside, a kaleidoscope of butterflies flying around in his stomach.
"Goodnight, Han," you lowly murmur.
"Goodnight," he murmurs back, not taking his eyes off of you until you turn your head to the other side.
Han continues to admire your profile from the side, your eyes, your nose, and the plump of your lips that he's dying to taste. You're so beautiful and he gets to enjoy that beauty as much as he pleases.
"I'm surprised I didn't find you snoring already," Chan says as he enters the tent and zips it close.
Then there's the brother who always ruins this special moment. Han turns his head away and scoots slightly to the side to make more space for Chan, knowing how big he is.
"Let's see who gets to snore first," Han dares him.
The next thing he knows, Han finds himself in the forest again and he can hear you laughing. He looks up and finds you standing next to him with your hair wet and your feet bare.
"Take you somewhere..." you vaguely say.
Han doesn't answer but takes your hand, together you're walking through the forest. He feels the rough stone handholds against the palms and fingertips and tall lush grass sliding across calves.
Then he looks at you and you're smiling at him, your eyes bright and droplets of water are dripping down the end of your hair.
"It's cool," you say, laughing at him.
He thinks you find something funny about him so he starts to grope his body around and checks what is it that makes you laugh.
"Come here," you say, giggling with your hand still holding his.
"What?" He asks.
"It's cool," you say again, then you take the straps of your swimsuit and pull them down your shoulders. You're giggling while keep pulling the straps down, revealing your bare chest to him little by little until—
"Han, wake up!"
The image blurs as someone shakes his body awake. He ignores it and tries to go back to sleep, hoping that he gets to continue the dream.
"Wake up!"
"Ugh... mmh," he incoherently complains and curls up in his sleeping bag.
"Just let him sleep," you say to someone.
Han's eyes snap open the second he hears your voice, he then scrambles out of his sleeping bag, disoriented with his hair tousled.
"Are you coming?"
Without looking, Han can tell that it's Chan's voice.
"I'm coming, yes, coming," he mumbles with half-shut eyes.
He shivers as cold air blows into the tent, he gropes around for his jacket with eyes barely open, "What time is it?"
"It's four," Chan answers.
"In the afternoon?" He gasps in shock, can't believe that he slept through the day.
"In the morning," Chan corrects him.
It's even more shocking that he wakes up at four in the morning when the sun is not even out yet. He opens his mouth to complain but he sees you coming into the tent.
"Chris, can I borrow one of your hoodies?" You ask.
Han grabs what he assumes is his hoodie and hurriedly gives it to you, "You can wear mine," he offers with a sleepy smile.
Chan takes it from his hand and then gives it to you, "Hurry up! It's sunrise in any minute now," he rushes him.
Han is barely functioning but he tries to keep up with the group, walking through the path in the dark of the night that still lingers and the stars that insist on shining bright against the bruised sky.
He rushes to walk next to you while hugging himself to shield himself from the cold, "Where are we going?"
"Just to the top of that hill," you answer, looking beautiful even with your face bare and your eyes puffy from the lack of sleep.
It gets tricky as the path turns into climbing the rocky outcroppings and it's a bit embarrassing that you're the one helping him not the other way around.
"There she is," Chan says, pointing to the golden disk that rises on the horizon with its honeyed glow.
It is the time when the day casts away the cloak of night and makes an entrance with a bright, gold light of warmth, making it known that she rules the day once and forever more.
Jinnie walks up to Chan's side and stands so close to him, arms brushing and elbows grazing.
"It's like you have to whisper," Jinnie murmurs, thinking that she would disrupt the serene view by talking loudly.
When Chan looks at her, he realizes one thing. Jinnie is like the sunrise, she doesn’t care if anyone watches it or not, she will keep on being beautiful, even if no one bothers to look at it.
"You know what, Chris?" She suddenly asks.
"Yes?"
"This is one of those moments that I'll share with my future husband and children," she says, her eyes set on the sun that keeps on rising, gently and swiftly at once.
Hearing her talking about the future makes Chan wants to make it all true for her and have the chance to tell her future children, 'Yes, Dad was there too'. Just the thought of it already makes him so giddy that he finds himself smiling.
Jinnie slowly rests her head on his shoulder to enjoy the sunrise together and Chan gets what she said earlier, he also feels like saying things out loud would only ruin the moment so he decides to keep it in his heart a little longer.
"Ugh! He's stressing me out," You mutter to yourself, seeing Jinnie and Chan sharing an intimate moment and instead of using this as an opportunity to say something, Chan does nothing but stare at her like usual.
"That's my hoodie," Someone says.
You turn to the side and find Jeongin there, "Sorry?"
"You're wearing my hoodie," he says, pointing to the hoodie you're wearing which you thought belonged to Han.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know," you meekly say, torn between keeping it on or not, but you know you need it, it's so cold to take it off.
"That's okay," Jeongin says, leaning on the rock next to you.
It's hard to interact with Jeongin because he rarely talks, he only talks when he has important things to say or has savage takes on things. You hesitate to talk to him without feeling like you'll waste his time. Still... you muster up the courage only to get interrupted by Han's head lolling onto your shoulder.
You check on him and see that he's falling back to sleep. You quickly put your arm around him to keep the back of his head from hitting the rock.
"We should have let him sleep," Jeongin says.
"Yeah," you respond with a soft laugh.
Now that he's speaking to you, you use this as an opportunity to congratulate him, "I didn't get the chance last night but congratulations for joining the Royal orchestra," you tell him.
Jeongin brushes his hair to the back and then clears his throat, "Thank you."
"I went to one of your shows two months back," you share and instantly regret doing it, what are you expecting though? For him to thank you.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Jeongin asks, he seems to find it important to know the reason.
"Well, I just... I don't know, I don't want to disturb you and I was with a friend anyway so..." you vaguely explain.
There's no other reason why you came to his show except to watch him playing his piano, you thought of seeing him after the show but you were afraid that he'd be too busy for that.
"We could have hung out. I'd treat you to dinner," he says while scratching his ear.
"That sounds nice," you comment with a smile.
"I'm not a cheapskate like Han," he jokingly adds with a soft laugh.
"Well, I was think— Oh!" You abruptly stop talking as Han nuzzles his head further into your neck and puts his arm across your chest.
Jeongin gets on his feet and makes you switch places with him. He takes Han's arm from around your shoulder, offering himself for him to lean on instead of you.
"Is Han sleeping?" Chan asks, noticing his friend is draping on Jeongin's shoulder.
"I told you to let him sleep," you grumble at him.
The walk back isn't as bad as the climb, Han is being dragged by Chan to make sure of his safe return to the campsite. Jeongin is tasked to brew coffee for everyone while Jinnie and Chan are making breakfast together. You volunteer to tidy up the tent and fold the sleeping bags.
Once you're done, you join everyone around the campfire and Jeongin immediately hands you a cup of coffee.
"Thank you," you mutter, holding it with both hands to absorb the heat.
Chan mischievously slaps Han's shoulder, startling him awake from his sleep and making him jolt on the chair.
"Time for breakfast!" He informs him.
He looks at him with wondering eyes, stretches his arms out, and then lets out a big yawn. Even with a barely functioning brain, Han knows that it's time to eat, he takes a plate and a piece of toast.
"Here. Have an egg," Jinnie says, sliding an egg onto his plate from the frypan.
She then turns at you and says, "You too."
You hurriedly grab a plate and mutter your gratitude at her, wasting no time to start digging in. Soon, everyone is stuffing their mouth with food and it gets quiet that you can hear the forest come alive around you.
"We're going to drive the whole day today," Chan informs out of nowhere.
"Can we know where we're going now?" Jinnie asks, taking a bite of her bread.
Chan pulls out something out of his jeans pocket, a piece of paper but he continues to unfold it open. With an excited grin, he turns it around and reveals a poster.
"How long have you been keeping that poster in the back of your jeans?" Jeongin curiously asks, then takes a small sip of his coffee.
Not getting the reaction he expected, Chan frowns and his shoulders slumped. Han snatches the poster from his hands and looks at it with utter bewilderment.
"What? Did you get tickets to this? How?" He asks with his cheeks full of food.
You don't recognize it at first until you see the logo of the band and gasp in surprise, "Am I seeing The Hare concert poster?"
The grin blooms on Chan's face once more, "More like the poster for their secret gig this Friday night," he humbly brags.
"What?" You ask again with eyes widening.
Han roughly yanks the sleeve of Chan's sweater, "How did you get the tickets?"
"Let's say I knew someone who knows someone," Chan cryptically says, deciding not to tell everyone how he acquired those tickets.
"Anyway, I think it's better if the girls take turns to drive first," he continues with the planning.
"Yep. It's best if you boys get some rest before driving all night," Jinnie agrees, already collecting the trash from around the table.
You're representing everyone when you say that Jinnie and Chan make a great team, they're the ones who came up with the planning and handled the financial stuff, and they make sure everyone is doing well and having fun. They're basically playing parents to you, Han, and Jeongin which adds one more reason why they should date as soon as possible.
-
Jinnie offers to take the first turn to drive and Chan is the last one to get into the car as he has to return the rented tent and pay for it.
"Everyone please make sure you've checked your belongings," Chan says as he puts his safety belt on.
Jinnie turns on the car engine and checks everything, her safety belt, and the angle of the rearview mirror, and then adjusts the seat.
"Do you mind if I play music from my phone?" You ask.
"Not at all," Jinnie replies, tucking her hair behind her ear as she backs the car from the parking lot and starts driving.
Not long after the car driving through the main road, Han startles in the backseat and then asks, "How long have we been driving?"
Chan glances at his smartwatch and turns his head to the back, "About 35 minutes. Why?"
"I want to pee," Han says, his face doesn't show any expression but it makes his face appear so round.
"Can you hold it?" Chan asks.
Han considers it for a moment then slowly leans back on his seat, "Yeah, I'll– I'll hold it," he doubtfully says.
"Distract yourself, you know, think of something so you don't want to pee anymore," Chan suggests.
"Think of the waterfall we went to yesterday," Jeongin playfully adds with a suppressed laugh.
"Hey!" Chan slaps Jeongin's arm, saying the opposite of what he suggested.
"I'll try to sleep," Han finds a better solution to detain his urge to pee.
"That's a great idea!" Chan says.
It's a good thing that Han is one of those people who can sleep anytime anywhere. He manages to sleep through two hours long of drive until the urge comes back.
"Guys, I don't think I can hold it anymore," he mutters, biting his lower lip until it turns pale.
Jinnie looks at him through the rearview mirror and sees how he can't hold the urge anymore, "The sign says rest area is only 10 kilometers away," she informs.
Han grips the headrest of Jeongin's headrest, "Okay."
"Are we good?" Jinnie asks.
"Yeah," he meekly answers.
"Just a few more minutes," you convince him.
There's nothing you can do to help him but you can relate to that feeling, you look back to check on him once in a while.
"Jinnie?" He calls again.
"Yeah?"
"Please step on the gas!" Han says, looking a little pale now.
Considering the urgency of the situation, Jinnie allows herself to go above the speed limit, she steps on the gas and the car picks up the speed, launching the car forward.
Sensing the change in speed, Chan wakes up from his nap and looks around in confusion. But the first thing he does when he gains his sense is check on Jinnie.
"What's wrong?" He asks.
"Han needs to pee," you answer for her since she focuses on driving.
"Almost there!" Jinnie says as she changes the lane to enter the rest area.
Han hops out of the car once the car gets to the parking lot of the rest area and immediately runs to search for the bathroom.
Once the car is parked, Jinnie lets out a sigh and leans back on her seat, "That was the most intense ten minutes I ever had in my life," Jinnie says.
Seeing the hilarity of it all, the three of you burst into laughter almost at the same time, making it one of those memorable little things that happened on this road trip.
The laughter wakes Jeongin up from his nap and he looks confused as to why everyone is laughing, "What's happening?"
No one is answering him but keep laughing until we're running out of air. Oh, there's nothing like the deep breaths after laughing that hard. 
-
Since they're stopping at a rest area and it's close to lunchtime, they may as well take a break from driving to ear. Everyone scatters the second they step into the food court to order the food they want. You decide on a bowl of ramen and get in the queue with Jinnie behind you.
Even though he's already carrying a tray of food in his hands, Chan stops next to the queue and scans the menu.
"Hey, baby sist!" He loudly calls you.
The people in the queue turn their heads to see who he calls baby sist, you hurriedly turn your back to them and glare at Chan.
"Please don't address me with that name in public," You scold him through your gritted teeth.
"Order a portion of fried dumplings for me," he says, ignoring your complaint and leaving with a grin.
Everyone gathers at one of the long tables in the middle of the food court with their choices of lunch, you slide the plate of fried dumplings at Chan and steal one piece with your chopsticks.
"You better not drink a lot of sodas if you have a weak bladder," Jeongin and his savage intake make an appearance.
Han pretends not to hear him and continues to stuff his cheek with more food.
The lunch is not enough, so everyone scatter once more to buy snacks. You're getting a bag of mini fish-shaped cakes for desserts and Han appears behind you with a big smile on his face.
"Got you ice cream," he says.
"How nice of you!" You delightfully exclaim.
"I don't know what you like so I chose three flavors at once," he explains the different flavors of ice cream in one cone.
"Thank you," you mutter your gratitude with a smile.
"I have to go for another bathroom break," he says with a grin lingering on his face, then leaves the other way.
The ice cream would make a great dessert if it didn't have strawberry ice cream in the mix. It's obvious that Han completely forgot that you're allergic to it, you can't eat it, or throw it away. You can give it to Chan but Han would know that you're not eating the ice cream he specifically bought for you and he would find that disrespectful, or worse, upset him.
Making your way out of the food court, you carry the bag of snacks in one hand and the ice cream in the other, still have no idea what to do with it.
Out of nowhere, Jeongin comes from the side, also carrying an ice cream in hand. He takes the one from your hand and switches it with him, a chocolate-flavored one.
"You can have mine," he says, not waiting to bite right into the ice cream.
Not only that he remember your allergy, but he also comes with a new ice cream and you find that endearing. You let out a mix of scoff and laugh, "I've never seen someone bite into ice cream."
"Well, there's always a first time to everything," he coyly says.
-
It's your turn to drive now and thankfully, you have set up an hour-long playlist for it. Jinnie remains in the front, sitting on the passenger's side and putting her legs up as she draws on her sketchbook.
The boys don't find it hard to fall back to sleep after a hearty lunch, you lower the volume of the music and only hum along to the song currently playing in the car to not wake the sleeping beauties in the back.
"What do you think?" Jinnie asks, holding her sketchbook out to you.
You keep the steering wheel steady to glance at the rough drawing of you from her point of view, then look back straight ahead.
"Wow. That's good!" You compliment.
Jinnie is a great illustrator, she mostly does illustrations for children's books and magazines which explains her exceptional talent for drawing.
"Please tell me you'll finish it and then email it to me," you say, already planning on making it your profile picture for your social media.
"I'll finish it when I'm not in a moving vehicle," she says, putting her pencil back into its case and putting it on the dashboard along with the sketchbook.
"I think it's cute," Jinnie says while stretching her arms to the front.
"What cute?" You ask with a perplexed smile.
"The way Chris calls you baby sist," she answers.
Oh, she must be talking about that little incident that happened back at the food court. You nod and tap your steering wheel to the rhythm of the song playing.
"Look, I don't mind when call me that in front of you guys. Just don't do it in front of a bunch of strangers," you explain, briefly shifting your focus to driving by a big truck.
"I mean... what if there are cute guys there and they heard it," you playfully remark.
Jinnie softly chuckles and grabs a bottle of water from the cup holder, "You're beautiful and smart, you shouldn't have any problems getting a cute guy," she says.
"That I agree!" You jokingly say with a sassy eyebrow raise.
When it occurs to you that this would be the perfect opportunity to have another crack at her, you arrange the words in your head before saying them out loud.
"I can say the same thing about you, Jinnie. You're beautiful and smart, except you have a lot of patience in you," you pause for a chuckle and briefly glance at her, "you shouldn't have any problems getting a hot guy."
Jinnie gets quiet and you begin to think that your words offended her in a way yet you give it another moment for her to digest your words thoroughly. She suddenly looks back, probably making sure that none of the boys are listening in on this conversation.
"I'm just a girl," Jinnie meekly says, lowering her voice as she slightly slumps in her seat, "All I can do is wait for the other person to profess their feelings to me."
Oh, finally! You manage to successfully crack her this time. You keep your cool and continue to crack deeper into it.
"I have to stop you right there!" You tell her with your hand raised, making a stop sign at her.
"You're not just a girl, you're incredible!" You may have exaggerated your tone a little bit but she needs to hear the truth in your words.
"You're not just beautiful and smart, you're kind, compassionate and you're strong and gentle at the same time. And if I'm being honest, I look up to you a lot," you openly admit.
"Aww..." Jinnie coos, she seems to be taking your compliments well along with a shy smile.
"And a girl like you shouldn't wait. A girl like you take matters into your own hands and you know, tell him how you feel," you encourage her.
Yeah, okay, maybe there's an underlying motive here but that doesn't make what you said to her a lie.
"It's a different thing when the person you like is your friend and you've been close with that person for so long," Jinnie sighs, her voice drops lower and she seems smaller than ever.
However, the mystery is now solved. Jinnie is indeed having the same feeling, she's hesitant only because they've been friends for too long. You get it that sometimes it's a bit scary to date someone who knows so much about you but if you focus on the good side, it means that they'll be more accepting and understanding towards your qualities.
If there are two people who truly deserve each other, it's Chan and Jinnie.
"Isn't that a good thing? You've known each other long enough to learn so much about each other and understand each other better," you give her your opinion and secretly glance to see her reaction.
Jinnie plays with the lint on her jeans as she digests your words while looking at the ever-changing scenery as the car keeps moving forward.
"You're right," she finally responds to your words.
Now, that you've tried your best to give her that little push, you can only hope for the outcome and hopefully, it'll be the best one.
"I know I'm right," you confidently remark, then burst into laughter.
Unbeknownst to you and Jinnie, Chan has been listening all along and behind his dark hoodie, he's smiling from ear to ear.
-
After stopping for dinner, the trip continues with Chan behind the wheel and Jeongin on his side. Jinnie takes the middle seat with Han and you occupy the backseat, using the extra space to curl up and sleep.
It's a bummer that you're not sitting next to him but this way, Han can easily look to the back and see you peacefully sleeping with a hand under your head, lost in your sweet dream.
"Hey, Han, can you get me a can of soda?" Chan asks without looking at him.
Since he's too busy watching you sleep, Han doesn't hear it the first time and snaps his head to the front, "What?"
"Get me a soda," Chan repeats while holding his arm out to the back so Han can hand it right into his hand.
Han rummages inside the small cooler box next to his feet, grabbing the first can that rolls into his hand and putting it into Chan's hand.
"Thanks!" Chan shortly says to him.
The road is eerily empty as it turns smaller from four into two lanes and the last sliver of sun has fully disappeared, replaced by the soft moonlight on a hot summer night.
Having nothing to do, Jeongin looks into the GPS to assess the route and the final destination.
"It says we'll arrive at 7 in the morning," he says.
"Yep, there's no hurry. We have plenty of time until the gig," Chan calmly says, still holding the soda in his hand, unopened.
Jeongin reclines on his seat and crosses his arms together on his chest, "And what we're going to do until then?"
"I booked us rooms at a hotel nearby," Chan informs, "we'll have some rest before leave in the afternoon."
"Hotel, right? Not motel?" Jeongin asks with suspicious eyes because the last time they stayed at the motel, he had to share the bed with Han.
"Yes," Chan hastily answers.
"I'm going to get my own room," Jeongin says.
"I thought you like sharing the bed with me," Han jokingly says.
"That's the least of my worries," Jeongin says, then gives each of them a glare.
Han pops his head in the middle of them, "Then what's the problem?"
Jeongin gives each of them a glare, "It's you guys snoring. It's like a whole orchestra in there but all the instruments are tuba," he says with a shiver.
Han grabs the front of Jeongin's shirt in response, "My snore sounded nothing like tuba!"
"How do you know what your snores sound like?" Jeongin asks, giving him the side eyes.
"Last time I checked it's Beethoven's Symphony No. 9," Han answers without a beat.
Jeongin leans at him and gives him a perplexed look, "What?"
"What?" Han asks back with daring eyes.
"Beethoven's Symphony No. 9," Chan says, finding himself giggling to it and his giggles gradually turn into laughter that fills the small, enclosed space.
Chan slows down the speed and holds the steering wheel steady with his forearms to open his can of soda. The second it pops open, the carbonated drink fizzles and spills out of the can.
"Oh, no, man..." he groans in complaint, seeing the soda get all over the steering wheel and dripping onto his lap.
"You made a mess, Chris," Jeongin grumbles, pulling multiple tissues out of the box and then handing some to him. He helps to wipe the droplets that somehow land on the console.
With one hand steadily holding the steering wheel, Chan keeps on dabbing the wet patch on the jeans with a ball of tissues.
"Ugh, it's sticky," Chan groans in disgust and then looks down at his lap to see if he misses anything.
The moment Chan's eyes are off the road, the headlights shine on an object that comes into sight, and Jeongin, as the only one aware of the deer standing in the middle of the road, reflexively grabs the steering wheel and turns it hard to the right.
Losing control of the car, no one can do anything to stop it. The tires are screeching against the asphalt as the car spins around, and eventually stops as it hits something with a loud banging sound, but no one is moving.
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fixyourwritinghabits · 5 months
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Post NaNoWriMo - Now What?
So if you've only been loosely paying attention, the NaNoWriMo organization has collapsed in a controversy of mismanagement, lack of oversight, abusive forum moderation and a whole host of issues that's resulted in souring the whole thing for a great deal of people. While the spirit of NaNoing will probably continue, a lot of people understandably don't want anything to officially do with the organization anymore.
But you - like I have - still think NaNoWriMo has been very useful to get writing done. Here's some ideas on how to keep going.
How to Get Started
Think Local - All those places you used for NaNo events, libraries, schools, cafes, etc - may be more than willing to launch something similar with enough interest. Just because it won't have the NaNoWriMo name slapped on it doesn't meant it can't continue. My local library has started a monthly write-in event, for example.
Take the Initiative - If you know of a group that you usually NaNo with, it's never too late or early to reach out to them about create an alternative plan. You probably aren't the only one thinking about it!
Talk to your (former) ML - Many Municipal Liaisons I know feel burned by NaNo and won't join it again, but they did love running the event. My local ML is continuing our group under a different name, and yours might appreciate getting assistance or sharing resources about how to run a month-long writing event if you ask.
Find Your People - If you're in school, new to an area, or just not good at reaching out, I feel you. But if you do nothing, you get nothing. Reach out to people you know. Online Discord or Zoom meetings can work just as well as in-person events if you're too remote or broke to meet.
What to Use to Get Started
Shut up and Write provides quick and easy ways to find local groups or form your own to carry the write-in momentum all year round.
MyWriteClub copies the writing tracking method of NaNoWriMo to keep track of your wordcount.
Pacemaker Planner offers multiple ways to track your writing.
Regular old Excel. Or LibreOffice if you'd prefer to wash your hands of Microsoft. It's not as exciting, but a regular spreadsheet with an AutoSum of your daily progress can work just as well as a fancy website.
You can keep going with the NaNo energy without the official name. My local library has started a monthly write-in, and I know many people who have found success with Shut Up and Write. Look into what works for you!
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furiousgoldfish · 3 months
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I didn't see this right away, but my parents refusing to teach me anything really got to me, and not only in the way of lacking survival skills. I was being told things like 'how old are you not to know this' and 'you should know this by now' constantly, but nobody ever took the time or patience to explain or demonstrate to me how anything works. I had school education, so I was able to absorb information, but that was still, me being one of the 20+ children sitting down, with one adult who spent more time trying to keep us disciplined and quiet, than managing to explain anything. If I didn't get anything, I was too afraid to ask. I was being told I was stupid on a daily basis anyway.
My parents insisted that I was too stupid to get anything, too clumsy and ignorant and incapable, so it wasn't worth trying to teach me anything, it was a waste of energy. I was supposed to absorb knowledge by looking at what they're doing, but they would often give me other tasks to do, I wasn't free to observe. I believed that I was specifically dumb and incapable, and this was the only reason why I didn't have any skills. I actually believed that I was clumsy, stupid, incapable of doing anything correctly. I didn't think I was worth teaching, worth mentoring.
There was one time I was in my friend's house, and there was a guitar. I touched it, fascinated, since I've never had the chance to touch one before. My friend's father saw my interest, and offered to show me how to play. I was flabbergasted. He showed me how to hold it, how to press my fingers on the strings to create different chords, how to make sound happen. It took maybe 20 minutes. But it was the first time an adult showed me how something worked, and I felt.. unworthy. I didn't understand how could I deserve so much of someone's time and patience, because it had never happened before. I couldn't retain the knowledge, because that was the last time I ever touched a guitar, I never got the chance again. I still feel indebted for that 20 minutes, it feels like too much spent on me.
I thought back to those moments a lot, thinking about how special I felt for an adult to believe that I was worth teaching. If someone gave me a guitar now, I'd be ecstatic to try and learn it, because I remember that someone thought I could, someone showed me how. All of the other skills, I had to learn while already thinking I would fail, that I couldn't do it, and had to deal with extensive negative mindset before even trying to start. There is no skill that one can do perfectly on the first time, we all start by being awful, and then slowly get better with practice. But, with the 'I fail at everything and even if I try it will go bad' mindset, the awful start feels like a confirmation that we cannot do this, that we're too incapable, or stupid, or lacking in talent. Since all my work was heavily criticized no matter how well I've done, I had to go back and figure out what things I actually do okay, and criticism was unwarranted, and where I've actually been lacking in knowledge. And that is a complicated thing to do, when all of the criticism feels so painful, and even trying to do something makes you hear the words of ridicule, degradation and berating in your head. It makes you want to go the route of perfectionism, to try and do things so well they would be above criticism in general, but that's impossible. Criticism we receive in abuse is not actual criticism, it's often directed at us only to hurt our feelings, to discourage us, mock us, make us feel inadequate, sometimes even out of jealousy or because our capabilities present a threat, so they need to run that down. But how would we know? If all feedback is negative, it's impossible for us to sort trough what is a confirmation of being awful, and what is a jealous remark created to sabotage our good work.
Sometimes it feels bad learning everything on my own. Finding online tutorials and youtube videos for every skill imaginable, sifting trough forums to find information on finances and economy, trying to put together how society works by analyzing how people live and not daring to ask them to explain how they got where they are now. I had no guidance, and sometimes things would be too complicated, and I would give up. I often wish I could ask someone to explain it to me, instead of typing questions into google. The information is stored differently when it comes from a human, it creates warmth and the knowledge that someone cared enough to explain it to me, that I didn't have to put it together from various sources myself.
Learning basic survival and life skills was unnecessarily painful for me. I still have things I cannot do, just because of how much pain is associated with them. But to think everything could have been as simple as that guitar! If every time I showed interest in something, an adult who knew how it worked sat down next to me, demonstrated it, gave it to me to hold, put my hands in the right places, and directed me to what I should do. Would I ever have trouble believing in myself? It wouldn't have crossed my mind that there's anything I can't do. Or that I would fundamentally be bad at anything, just because I'm bad at it on the first attempt. When you're a kid, you don't even know if you're doing good or bad, if your first attempt gets a 'good job!', you're incentivized to do it again, until you do get good at it. That's why we encourage children, not to lie to them, but because we know how painful it is to be told off on your first try, and that it will make the second try unlikely.
Today I understand that all skills are gained trough practice, and that I can pick and choose what skills I want, and I can get them with enough practice. I can and do give up on some that are too frustrating, and that's okay too, we are all more inclined towards some activities, while others feel bad even with improvement.
As a kid I was enveloped by fear of not being able to do anything, not being useful enough to be kept alive, never being good at anything, not finding any kind of place in the world, just because I can't do anything right. All of that fear was necessary, there's tons of stuff that anyone can do, with some more complicated stuff that one needs to be specialized in, but it's not necessary for survival, or even for earning a place in society. We all have a place, by birthright, and just having skills is not as important as with what purpose you're using them for. You can be extremely skilled and using those skills to exploit, destroy and do damage to society, or even to isolate some members of society who you can then hurt. Or you can have very few skills but be insistent on using what you do only to help those around you be safe and sound.
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buckysdollbarnes · 1 month
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you are in love series - part one
one look, dark room
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PAIRING: tfawts!bucky x grad student!reader
Summary: Moving to NYC to go to grad school, your friend's dad has a connection with the owner of a rental building in Brooklyn where you can live on your own, for cheaper than you could get anywhere else. On a student's budget, you strive to still make your place your own by thrifting as much decor as possible. Meeting your quiet and somewhat secretive neighbor, James, you gain some free labor to help you move the random stuff you buy, and with that he may be growing to love parts of the modern world he has been missing. With you in a big, new city feeling alone for the first time and Bucky wanting to make a connection with someone other than Sam and his therapist, maybe online marketplaces and a turntable will bring you both what you need most.
warnings: mild language
word count: 4.7k
a/n: this is my first time EVER writing fiction, usually I only ever write academic papers so this is fun. :) I read over and revised this chapter so many times, so I hope you enjoy it! Feedback is always welcomed and I'm excited to start on the next chapter.
a/n: also!! sorry for it being so long genuinely just so much had to happen in this chapter for it to be set up the way I wanted, which I think I did well enough. lmk what you think <3
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Why did I think carrying this by myself was a good idea? It might be cute and a great deal, but I don’t think I'll be able to feel my arms tomorrow. I might need to hit the gym again before I find more bargains like this. Hell, maybe I'll even invest in a neck towel, because this heat is unbearable. I’ve been searching for some larger pieces to fill my apartment, and this vintage bar cart should fit perfectly. Just five more blocks to go.
Moving here alone has certainly come with its challenges: being on my own in such a big city, dealing with a lot of stress, and managing on a tight budget. But I’m determined to make it work though and prove everyone wrong. Growing up, you see so many romcoms where the heroine leaves everything behind to chase her dreams in NYC, landing a job at a magazine or fashion house, living in a gorgeous high-rise, and meeting the perfect guy. It’s a beautiful fantasy really, but the reality is much tougher. New York isn’t a movie set; it’s a real city with real people, and you have to work just as hard, if not harder, to be here. I know that, but it feels like a majority of my people back home DON’T know that I know that.
I came here for school. In about two months, I’ll be starting my Master’s program at NYU. I don’t think I’ve ever been as proud as when I received my acceptance email. I worked my ass off in undergrad to earn strong recommendations and good academic standing, and seeing it all come together was a huge relief—until the reality of the cost hit me.
Luckily, a friend's dad has a connection with a landlord in Brooklyn and got me a good deal on a place of my own. It’s incredible not to have a roommate in this market, especially in a place where your bed doesn’t touch your stove, though it can be a bit lonely.
Finally, reaching the stoop, out of breath, you set the cart down on the pavement. Wiping your brow, you notice the street is unusually quiet for this time of day. The city never truly sleeps, but the residential streets seem to take occasional naps. A little breath of air somewhere where it feels like oxygen is running out sometimes. Light filters through the trees, momentarily blinding you, and you turn back toward the building.
“How on earth am I going to get this up to my floor?”
Carrying it down the street was one thing, but hauling it up the stairs is a whole different challenge. Plus, who knows when the building's maintenance has last been here, the steps might not hold up under the cart’s weight. They usually feel like they could give away holding one person.
Deciding that falling to your death and being crushed isn’t really how you want to go, you open the double doors and drag the cart into the lobby, using the wheels on one side. Passing the main desk where the worker, who looks completely uninterested, engrossed in a crossword puzzle, you make your way to the end of the hall and start pulling the cart backwards up the incline of the stairwell.
“Nah, I can’t,” you say aloud, after struggling up two floors, letting the cart rest on the landing. There’s still three more floors to go, but your body is clearly telling you the cart belongs right here. Maybe the universe wants it to stay here—who knows, maybe the entire second floor needs a communal bar more than you do.
“Excuse me,” a quiet but rough male voice comes from behind me. You turn around to see him—a guy you’ve seen around your floor a few times, though you’ve never talked. One of the neighbors. You quickly realize you’re blocking the entire staircase.
“Sorry! Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I’ll move this um — just give me a second.”
You shove the cart closer to the wall to make some space for him to pass, but he stays put, his gloved hands in his pockets. He’s definitely handsome—tall and solid, but not intimidating. His furrowed brow and tight-lipped expression don’t exactly scream “welcome,” but he’s still got a certain charm.
He shifts a bit, clearly wanting to say something but hesitating. Feeling a bit awkward under his gaze, you decide to try talking to him again.
“You can just squeeze by if you want. It’s just really heavy, so I’m taking a quick break before I try lifting it up again.”
After a moment, he seems to make up his mind and asks, “Do you need help?”
Looking back at him, you consider saying no. You pride yourself on being independent and capable, and part of you wants to insist you can handle it. But then you think about the struggle of getting the cart up the last two flights of stairs—only this time, it's three—and decide against it.
“You wouldn’t mind? You’re headed down, I’m sure you’ve got somewhere else to be.”
He gives a little smirk that makes you feel a bit dizzy.
“Well, I’m already here so.”
You nod slowly, a small smile appearing on your face.
“Sure, you can take this end, and I’ll get this o—” you start to say, but before you can finish, he’s already in front of you, lifting the cart with ease and starting up the stairs without breaking a sweat.
“Hey! Be careful, uh—,” you pause, realizing you don’t know his name.
He picks up on your hesitation and hesitates himself, considering whether to give his name. He’s wary of how others might perceive him, potentially recognizing his name from past news broadcasts or papers, still dealing with the shadows of his past despite his efforts to make amends. Not wanting to be dishonest, he chooses the safe option.
“James.”
“Be careful, James. I don’t want you tripping and falling on my account.”
“Won’t happen, doll.”
“What-,” you start, caught off guard by the pet name, “what if it does?”
“It won’t, see?” With the last few steps, you and James arrive at your floor. “Already here.”
He must have seen you around before too, to know where you live.
He gives you a quick look and then carries the cart to your door.
“This is yours, right?” He turns and looks at you expectantly. You rush over, fumbling for your keys to unlock the door. If he’s willing to move it all the way, who are you to turn him down?
You lead James into your apartment, wondering if it looks anything like his. The layout can’t be that different; it’s not exactly a luxury building.
He strolls further into the room.
“You can set it right here,” you say quickly. “Thank you for bringing it up for me. I was honestly thinking about giving up when you showed up.”
Setting the cart where you indicated, he straightens up, rolls his shoulders back, and gives you a look that feels intense.
“It’s no problem.”
His gaze wanders around your apartment, taking in the mix of vintage furniture and eclectic decor. On a student’s budget, you’ve filled your space with secondhand finds. It’s more affordable and personal that way. The place might not be filled with new things, but it’s entirely curated by you. Finding beauty in the mix of old and new is something you do well, and now, thanks to James, you have one more piece to add.
James’s eyes land on your turntable setup. He seems intrigued by your collection of records but doesn’t say anything, turning his attention back to you.
“I have to go.”
Your eyebrows lift at his abruptness. Sensing your surprise, he quickly adds, “I’ve got an appointment.”
You nod vigorously, urging him to go and thanking him again for his kindness. Feeling a bit sad that this chance encounter with your new neighbor is ending so quickly, you call out as he heads for the door.
“I’ll see you around then? Since you live here too.”
He turns on his heel, giving you one last smirk.
“Yeah, you’ll see me.”
As he heads down the stairs, you shut your door and lock it behind you. Wandering over to where James’s gaze lingered, you pull an album from the shelf, lift the acrylic cover on your turntable, and set the record down. You close the cover, push play, and let the needle softly drop onto the vinyl. As the music starts, your mind drifts back to James.
Embarrassingly, you find yourself hoping this isn’t a one-time encounter. You don’t know much about him beyond his name, but there’s something about him that makes you want to see him again.
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“Two hundred bucks for this is crazy,” you mutter to yourself, staring in disbelief at the sofa you’re eyeing on Facebook Marketplace.
“People are practically giving this stuff away.”
Not wanting to miss out on such a good deal, you message the seller to check if it’s still available.
Since you got the bar cart about a week and a half ago, you haven’t picked up anything else. With the July heat blasting, just thinking about moving a sofa in this weather makes you want to rip off your skin to cool down.
You can’t help but think of James, who you’ve seen briefly in the hallway since your last encounter. He just nodded as he passed by, and that was it.
Your phone dings, snapping you out of your thoughts. The seller confirms the sofa is still available and offers to deliver it since they have a truck.
Excited, you reply with a yes, and they let you know they’ll head your way soon.
You get up to rearrange your furniture, making space for the new sofa. You don’t have much to move since you’ve been slowly collecting things. As you shift the pieces around, your turntable stops, signaling it’s time to flip the record. After you do, you take a moment to picture how the sofa will fit in the space.
Then it hits you—moving a sofa is way heavier than the bar cart. If you struggled with that, how on earth will you manage this?
“Independent woman, my ass.”
With the delivery imminent, you decide on the only solution you can think of. Without hesitation, you head to the apartment across the hall and knock softly on the door. You wait, hoping James will answer. After a moment of shuffling and then silence, you start to wonder if you should just try something else.
Just then, the door cracks open, revealing half of James’s face. He looks curious but not annoyed—no one usually visits him.
“Hey! James! Great to see you again! I hope I’m not interrupting anything, but I was wondering if you could help me out a bit? I just bought a sofa from this marketplace deal, and the seller’s coming to drop it off right now. He said he’d deliver it, but didn’t offer to help get it up to my apartment. I realized a sofa is way heavier than a bar cart, and you saw me struggle with that, so I was kinda sorta hoping you could help me bring it up here?”
After your rambling, you offer him a hopeful smile, waiting for his response.
A few moments of silence later, that smirk you’ve been missing appears on his face. Opening the door wider, he comments with a grin.
“You bought another thing you knew you couldn’t get up the stairs?”
“I honestly didn’t think it through. The deal was too good to pass up. I’m really sorry for bothering you. I can try to find someone else if you’re busy.”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t help, doll.”
The smile that blooms on your face is unavoidable.
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As the delivery guy drives away, James shows you where to grab the sofa and effortlessly lifts the other end. He encourages you to take the lead, making sure the weight is on him as you both navigate the stairs. With minimal effort, you get the sofa up to your place.
After some awkward maneuvering, you finally get the sofa into your apartment through the thin door and set it down. You put your hands on your hips and exhale deeply, only to find James already looking at you with that same intense gaze from before. It makes you a little nervous.
You can’t help but feel grateful—there’s no way you would have managed this on your own.
“I could have handled the bar cart,” you say, nodding toward the cart now adorned with bottles in the corner, “but this? No chance. Thanks so much for your help.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he replies. “I wasn’t busy.”
As you look at him, you start to feel like you know him from somewhere beyond being just a neighbor. Maybe you’ve seen him around the city before you moved?
Brushing off the thought, you offer, “You’ve helped me out twice now, and it doesn’t feel right not to return the favor. If your whole evening consists of not being busy, why not stay for dinner? I promise I’ll cook something totally good and not poisonous.”
James looks surprised by your offer but quickly hides it.
“You don’t need to do that. You don’t owe me anything,” he says, not wanting you to feel obligated or uncomfortable. He worries that his presence might not be enjoyable.
He wishes he could be as charming as he was back in the 40s. Being friendly used to come easily, and if he were still the same person he was at 26, he wouldn’t have left so quickly after helping you on the stairs the first time. He wouldn’t have had a therapists appointment to go to and he wouldn’t have a hidden arm made of metal. He’d have asked you to dinner or for you to let him take you dancing instead in return for his brawn. Now, he struggles to make new connections beyond a few familiar faces, like Sam, and asking someone for a dance feels out of reach.
“No, no! Stay, I insist! It gets kind of lonely around here, doesn’t it? Why not have a friend dinner?” you press, hoping he’ll take you up on the offer.
Seeing your sincerity, though still feeling a bit miffed, he finally agrees.
“Yeah, sure. I can stay.”
James settles onto the sofa while you work in the kitchen. You’ve decided on making some stuffed ravioli and garlic bread—easy, delicious, hard to mess up.
Before getting into cooking, you switch out the record, letting new music drift softly through the space. Unbeknownst to you, James watches closely, paying attention to how you handle the records and the turntable. The care you take when putting a record back in its slip, taking a new one out of its dust cover, and gently putting it on.
Seeing you focused on cooking, James gets up and strolls over to your setup. He runs his fingers lightly across the spines of the record sleeves, feeling a surprising sense of comfort. He hadn’t realized people still used record players so often.
The setup looks quite familiar to him, with many aspects reminiscent of the record players he used back in his earlier days. In his life before this one.
As you finish preparing the pasta and pull the bread from the oven, you call out, “Hey, food’s ready!”
You glance back to see James hovering by the turntable. He quickly moves to the table and sits down.
Over dinner, the conversation flows comfortably. James seems to be relaxing a bit, his initial reserve fading. He’s still somewhat guarded, but what he does share is genuinely interesting. You sense that opening up is challenging for him, so you respect his pace and take whatever he is willing to give. Laughing with each other a few times and getting through some odd topics, he mentions that he hasn’t had a home-cooked meal in quite a while and thanks you with a smile.
After a pleasant dinner, you decide to bring up something you’d been curious about.
“You like records?”
Caught off guard by the question, James tries to answer without revealing too much about himself. It feels strange to be here, knowing you don’t really know who he is, but he worries that being too open might scare you away. He decides to keep his secrets for now, selfishly hoping to get to know you better before revealing more.
“Yeah, I used to have quite a few records as a kid. My ma would play them too, especially when she was cooking, just like you. I didn’t realize they were still so popular.”
Excited by this glimpse into his past, you push further.
“Oh, there’s definitely a huge market for vinyl. Lots of people who think it makes them superior, but also a lot who just love the physical aspect of it.”
“So which one are you?” he asks.
You laugh and reply, “Maybe a bit of both.”
You glance up at him from beneath your lashes, catching his rare smile.
“But really, I just like having it. There’s something different about the listening experience. It requires more effort than just hitting play on a playlist. It’s about choosing a full album and actually sitting down to listen. That feels more intentional to me, and that’s why I do it.”
James seems to ponder your answer, his expression softer than before. He then turns his gaze back to the turntable.
“So, since you mentioned you had records as a kid, do you not have any now?” you ask.
He shakes his head.
“Haven’t had any for a long time. Talking about it makes me miss them. Everything these days feels so complicated. I like simple things like that.”
Watching him as he looks away, you hesitate but notice the nostalgic shine in his eyes. You sense he might appreciate physical music even more than you do.
“If you ever get any and don’t have a place to play them, you’re welcome to use mine.”
He turns to face you, his expression unreadable.
“I mean, I know it’s not the most convenient offer, but it’s there. One record lover to another,” you add with a smile.
He returns your smile, saying, “Okay… thank you. I’ll keep that in mind, Doll.”
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That night, Bucky lies on his makeshift bed on the floor, staring up at the ceiling and replaying the events of the day. You knocking on his door for help with the couch, inviting him over for dinner, and all the easygoing conversation you shared. It was such a stark contrast to his usual rigidity. He'd let his guard down just a little—letting himself smile or flirt ever so slightly.
He wishes he were better at this. It used to come so naturally. Hell, before he left for war, he’d gone dancing with both his own date and Steve’s at the same time. Now, he finds himself listening to you talk while struggling to share anything of his own.
He doesn’t want to pass up your invitation, especially since you’re inviting him into your space again. Clearly, his reserve hasn’t put you off too much.
“What would I even bring?” he wonders aloud.
All he’s ever listened to is 40’s music and big band. He doubts that’s readily available these days.
Rolling onto his side, he grabs the cell phone Steve had insisted he get before he went back in time to live his real life, without Bucky.
“You can do anything on here, Buck!”
Scrolling through the three contacts he has, he taps on the name of the guy who’s been trying to reach him for weeks.
“So, is there a valid reason why you haven’t picked up my damn calls?” Sam’s voice comes through.
“Sam, hi.”
“Did you finally learn how to click the screen? Is that why I’m hearing from you now, old man?”
“Look, I’m sorry. I just don’t like the thing. Too confusing,” Bucky says, grimacing as he fiddles with the phone.
“Okay, okay, what’s going on, man? You doing alright?”
“I’m fine. I just have a question and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t harass me about it.”
“Is it about wizards?”
“What?”
“Wizards. Is the question about wizards?”
“No, what the hell. Look, I had dinner with one of my neighbors tonight—”
“Was it a girl?”
“Does it matter?”
“Hell yes, it matters. And from that response, I KNOW it was a girl, so—”
“It doesn’t matter. She has a record player, which I didn’t know people still used, and she offered to let me use it, but I don’t have anything to play on it.”
“I’m not getting the problem.”
“I only like the stuff from the 40’s and—”
“Did you listen to that Marvin Gaye playlist I sent you?”
“Not interested.”
“C’mon, man, it’s good stuff. Give it a listen.”
“Not feeling it.”
“Alright, your loss, I guess. Still not seeing the problem though.”
“What do I bring? I can’t just bring around the stuff I know because where would I even get it?”
“Whoa, man, what do you mean, where would you get it? Just go to a record store and hit up the vintage section or something.”
Bucky pauses, mulling over Sam’s words.
“They have that?”
“Duh. You know, you could answer these questions a lot easier if you just looked them up on your phone—”
“Thanks, Sam. Talk to you later.”
Lying back down, Bucky decides that the next time he’s out to see his therapist, he’ll first stop by a record store to find something to bring over to your place.
Your easygoing presence was so comforting, and he found himself longing for it as he drifted off to sleep. He’d see you again soon enough.
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Later in the week, as you wind down from a busy day, you focus on making your space as calming as possible.
You light some candles and turn on an orange floor lamp, the soft glow wrapping around you and setting the perfect mood to sink into your sofa with the book you’ve been neglecting.
You’ve just started settling into your reading when you’re jolted out of your half-nap by the sound of someone knocking on your door.
You get up and peer through the peephole, and there’s your dinner guest from earlier in the week.
Opening the door with a smile, you greet him.
“Hey James, unexpected visit! What’s up?”
His eyes linger on you for a moment before he speaks. You glance down and realize your outfit—shorts that really lived up to their name and a tank top—might not be the most guest-appropriate.
Brushing off your embarrassment, you look back up at him.
“I’ve got something I’d like to play, if that’s alright?”
Bucky’s mind races. Standing at your door, he worries maybe you only offered your place to be nice, and now he’s making a fool of himself. Of course, you didn’t want him there—he could barely talk.
Just as he’s about to get lost in his own head, your bright smile pulls him out of it.
“Oh my gosh, please, come in. What do you have?”
His doubt fades away as he sees your genuine excitement.
“Brought some Sinatra. Not sure if you’re into that, but I used to like his stuff when I was younger.”
You spin around abruptly, staring at him in disbelief.
“There’s no way you think I don’t know who Frank Sinatra is…”
Bucky stumbles over his words.
“Well, I mean, it’s not exactly new stuff so—”
“You think I wouldn’t know ‘Fly Me to the Moon’? ‘Singin’ in the Rain’? ‘New York, New York’? I mean, I even moved to New York—I had to get the romanticism from somewhere.”
“What are those?”
You pause, confused.
“Like, the most iconic Frank Sinatra songs. You are talking about Frank Sinatra, right? Not some other Sinatra I’ve never heard of?”
“No, you’re right, it’s Frank.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“I guess I don’t know those ones.” He admits.
“So, what era are we talking about?” You ask, reaching for the record.
As you grasp the sleeve, you notice a glint of light catching James’s bare hand. Realizing he’s not wearing gloves, confusion sets in before it clicks. You HAD seen James before.
Looking up at him, he seems frozen, obviously panicking. He planned to tell you eventually, but not like this. Not when you weren’t close enough yet.
He thought there is no way you are going to want anything to do with him now.
You thought there is no way was there's an actual Avenger in your apartment right now.
You’re frozen, just like him, but more in shock rather than fear.
“Do you… usually go by James?” you ask cautiously.
Hesitating, he shakes his head.
“What do you usually go by then?”
Bucky feels anxiety creeping up his back. You’re both still holding the record, and he can’t tell if you’re scared or just surprised.
“Bucky.”
You stay silent for a moment while Bucky’s nerves are on edge.
“So… metal hand…”
Clenching his jaw, he replies, “Arm.”
“You’re that Bucky.”
“Yes.”
After a long pause, you start again.
“You’re an Avenger and you didn’t tell me?”
Bucky hesitates, his discomfort visible. “I’m— I’m not an Avenger.”
“What do you mean? You’re totally an Avenger! Why wouldn’t you tell me? How did I not recognize you before?” you ask, laughing in disbelief.
Bucky’s taken aback. You really thought he was an Avenger? You’re not scared of him at all, which surprises him. You must not know much about his past if you’re still standing this close.
“No wonder you don’t know ‘New York, New York,’” you say, almost to yourself. “It’s from after your time! This is crazy, I—”
You’re interrupted by his response.
“Are you not scared?”
“Of course not.”
Bucky closes in on himself, panic evident. “If you really knew me, you’d want nothing to do with me. I’ve—”
“I might not know the version of you you’re talking about, but I’ve met James, who helped me not once, but twice  carry stuff he definitely didn’t have to up the stairs, stayed for dinner, has been very polite to me, and has given me zero reasons to be scared of him.”
He looks at you, his piercing blue eyes revealing an internal struggle. That one look holds more weight than his words. You can see the battle within him, torn between his past and the present moment.
“Listen,” you say, finally letting go of the record, “if you don’t want to stay, you don’t have to. But I’m not scared of you, and I actually like your company. So, regardless of whether you’re James, Bucky, or whoever, you’re still welcome here.”
You pause, adding, “And we can still play this if you’d like.”
Bucky struggles with his inner turmoil. The idea that you know who he is but still want him around is foreign to him. He doesn’t feel worthy of the kindness you’re offering, but it’s been so long since he’s received such warmth that it’s almost impossible to turn it down.
He’s not comfortable with his identity or his past, but in this moment, he wants to push it aside. If you don’t care, maybe he can allow himself not to care, even if just for a bit. Maybe he can prove something to himself, or even his therapist.
Handing you the record, he relaxes his face slightly. You’ve always thought him handsome, but in the dim light of the dark room, he looks almost ethereal.
You’re hoping he believes you because your excitement for his company tonight feels more significant than it probably should, but you’re okay with that.
“I’m Bucky.”
You smile warmly at this change. “Alright, Bucky. What do you want to do?”
He gazes at you deeply, his look sending a shiver down your spine and warming your chest. “Play it.”
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a/n: well, hope this was alright. as I mentioned before, ive never wrote fiction before, but ive definitely read enough to get the gist.
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AITA for putting a hit out on an ex friend’s dnd character?
A few years ago I [M 18] was the link between two different online friend circles along with my longtime friend A [M 22]. Essentially, both A and I ran two different dnd campaigns that acted as a melting pot between our two friend groups. It was really fun, super casual stuff. Enter C [M 19], who was originally one of my friends and played in both groups. Over time it became clear that C was, to put it lightly, not a great person. At the time, I was a really new DM and struggled a lot with my self confidence. C was a super disruptive player in my group, going off the rails and generally trying to undermine both me and other players. I tried to sort it out between sessions, but it didn’t end up working out. It came to a head where I ended up shutting down my campaign, claiming school got to be too much, but in reality I just couldn’t deal with C’s behaviour. It was a really big blow to my self confidence at the time.
At this point a lot of people had been cutting out C for various other things like this - generally being disrespectful and callous, not taking responsibility for harm he caused, etc. Pretty soon the only times I was interacting with C directly was during A’s campaign.
A, who wasn’t 100% aware of the situation, came and talked to me after a session one day about why I’d shut down my campaign, and I told him everything about how I was feeling. He was really understanding, and said that he got the feeling that I probably didn’t want C around anymore, and neither did he. I agreed, so A offered to ‘sort out some stuff with C’s character’ and shuffle him out of the group. I made a joke about wanting C’s character to die, in a pretty flippant way, and the conversation diverted.
This is where things get kind of weird.
So, at the time, I was expecting A to just talk with C and kick him out of the group in between sessions, but that didn’t end up happening. C was at the next session just as planned, and continued to show up for several weeks. During this time A, and I really don’t know how else to describe this, pulled some Machiavellian scheme on C’s character as the DM to ruin his life. A wove in this story where C’s character got this evil mask shard of a dead god, and played on C’s want to sabotage other players & go his own way in a very ‘lone rogue’ way to isolate him from the group and get him involved in all these evil deeds (killing minor npcs, etc). None of our characters knew about this in character, but A dropped all these hints and the context lined up to make it seem like C’s character was slowly going insane. C, unable to communicate in or out of character, backed up this idea by refusing to talk about the god IC or OOC. Eventually this god fragment lead to the death of C’s character when an overpowered assassin struck him down, in a fight that felt very ‘well this could’ve been a party boss but because you didn’t tell anyone, you died’. Immediately following this the party found out about C’s character’s evil deeds, meaning he wouldn’t be mourned by the party. The whole death felt so… hollow. It really felt like C had ended up in this situation because of their own hubris. But they hadn’t.
A had masterminded the whole thing. He’d given me live updates about his plan to essentially manufacture a situation where C’s character died a miserable death that felt totally deserved in the eyes of the other party members. And then we all just blocked C anyway???
I’ve never seen someone manipulate somebody like that in my life before and I’ve never seen anything like it again. I’ve never told anyone else in the group that the death was masterminded by A because of my petty grudge about my failed campaign. I don’t speak to either A or C now but I still feel bad about not doing something. Should I have just told A to kick C way before this?? I had no clue it would spiral into actual months of chess mastering his demise!!
What are these acronyms?
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p-h-a-n-t-a · 1 year
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Nimona was the first piece of media i found after realizing i was nonbinary that spoke to me, i read the webcomic every wedsneday in my history class in 7th grade. Middle school was hard for me because i was one of two kids in my whole grade that was out as some form of queer (pan, i didnt come out as nb until high school) and i lost a lot of friends from it. But also from just being "weird." I tried to come out to my dad at one point and heard nearly the same line balister says to nimona in the new movie "wouldnt it be easier to be a girl?"
I am now 21, working in a library where i see kids gravitate more and more towards graphic novels and we have the nimona graphic novel on our shelves, and i have waited so long to watch the movie, that when i finally watched it, i could not believe it was not just speaking to me, but screaming to me. Im a nonbinary individual that loves men in a queer way, and yet has been a weird little girl outcast for things other people did not understand. I have seen grown adults attack children online for not being straight or cis, and seen them say it is under the guise of protecting their kids. In the time between now and reading the webcomic in my history class, i have felt so many different ways about my identity and my existence, and holy shit does the nimona movie speak to me. In almost every stage of my life.
N D Stevenson, and all the people who made this movie survive and be possible, you were able to reach into the core of my being and make me feel just as seen as i first did when i laughed about shark boobs in a middle school computer lab. Thank you so much!!
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scarletwinterxx · 1 month
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Can you a idol jaehyun x non idol reader where reader gets jealous of jaehyun 's interaction with a idol so jaehyun tries to comfort her
a/n: hellooooo sorry this took awhile but i hope you like it! i don't play about when it comes to bf jaehyun fics HAHAH he's soooo boyfriend coded🥺🥺😭
For my other works you can check them out here, and for my other story series’ you can check them out here.
and if you want, u can buy me coffee(totally optional but any donation is very much appreciated!) thank you🥺💛
All works are copyrighted ©scarletwinterxx 2024 . Do not repost, re-write without the permission of author.
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The first thing Jaehyun noticed after rehearsal was the lack of message from you. Usually you'd text him after your day at work, something as simple as "on my way home" makes him smile. It's the thought that even though the two of you are apart, he's still a part of your day whenever you take your time to update him.
Your lives are the complete opposite. You live a very mundane life, probable the thing that makes your life so different is the fact that you're dating an idol. That idol being Jeong Jaehyun. THE Jeong Jaehyun.
Your love story started out way before his fame. It's funny to think that this man who looks like he was carved by the Gods and can only exists in your favorite fictional book happen to harbor a secret crush on you during your school days. It took a lot of time and courage for Jaehyun to approach you and confess his feelings but he's glad he did.
Now years later he's still in love with the same woman he fell in love with all those years ago.
If Jaehyun gives 110% to his idol career, he gives his 200% to you. You are the very reason he keeps going, the inspiration behind his craft.
And you, well safe to say you're his number 2 fan. You say that because you know his mom is the number one, and probably the only one you're willing to yield that position to.
Dating an idol of course you know all the precautions. The two of you never go out on broad daylight together, your dates mainly happen after a very long day at work. Or indoors. You love to cook, you love it even more when you're cooking with him.
Today was a particularly long day for Jaehyun, he had a fansign event then had a few hours of recording then rehearsals. He just wanted to go home to you.
Finally a little after midnight they called it a day, bidding a quick goodbye to his members before going to the car. All of them know about your relationship, even his managers and the company. You are Jaehyun's 'non-negotiable' as Jungwoo would tease the both of you.
He will always do his best at being an idol, he loves this job. But if he's being honest, he loves you more.
When he got to your apartment, the another thing he noticed was all the lights were off. Usually you'd be in the living room or in the kitchen. But then again it's past midnight so you're probably already sleeping.
He puts his bag down by the door before going to the kitchen to get some water before making his way to the bedroom. A light from the room across catches his attention though, the door slightly opened making his curiosity peak.
Jaehyun was surprised to see you still awake, sporting a very tired look. But in his eyes, you look beautiful.
"Hey, why are you still awake?" he asks, pushing the door wider catching your attention
It looked like you weren't expecting him to be here tonight, "Just working on something"
"Busy day at work? You didn't text me today" he tells you, still standing by the door way.
You rub the sleep off of your eyes, you are tired and it's been a very very long day. You're so stressed at work but the cherry on top was a picture you saw online.
Now most of the time you wouldn't let a silly tweet ruin your day. You're dating Jaehyun, you had to get used to the dating rumors and miliions of girls and guy simping over your boyfriend. All of that is background noise to you.
But some days it's a bit harder to ignore. Like today.
You saw a polaroid picture of him with a fan, it was from a fansign event. It looked cute and yes it did annoy you.
That annoyance brewed over the hours and now you're in a sour mood. You didn't even remember to text him when you went home today.
You're not sure who you're mad at, Jaehyun? for being so boyfriend material. The company? for making them do events like this or the fan? who just wanted to express their love for their idol.
Maybe you're annoyed at yourself for feeling this way.
At this rate you're at war with yourself.
"Love, you okay?" Jaehyun whispers, sauntering over to you. He cups your cheek in his hand, caressing your face so gently like he's afraid you might break right in front of him
"Just a long day"
"Talk to me, you know I'll listen"
He searches your eyes for answer, trying to figure out his favorite puzzle that is you. Even though it's been years since the two of you started dating, he loves learning more about you. What makes you laugh, what makes you cry, what makes you smile, what's your favorite food or color or time of the day.
You look straight into his eyes, searching also for something you will never find there. Indifference. All you can see is adoration and love and care that this man has for you.
Now you feel mad at yourself for doubting him for even a second.
"Now you're pouting. Talk to me, babygirl" he chuckles
"I just... There's this picture I saw online, of you and a fan. This polaroid event thing you got going on" you start to explain and immediately he smiles.
Now he knows why you're in a sour mood, it's adorable whenever you get jealous really because to Jaehyun even though he can have an arena, a stadium even, full of women screaming his name, he only ever want you.
"I don't know. It's stupid but it annoyed me and now my day's even worse-"
He cuts you off by leaning down to put his lips against your, effectively shushing you. It's a smart way, his favorite way, to cut your cute rants.
Jaehyun kisses you like he's telling you vows, but without words and only his lips and tongue. He kisses you like he's saying all the things you wanted to hear, assuring you, washing all your worries away. He kisses you until you're short of breath and a blushing mess.
When the two of you separate, he kisses you on both cheeks then the tip of your nose then on your forehead before he pulls you up from your seat.
"They can have the polariod pictures, you got the premium here" he tells you with a cheeky smile
"Oh yea, what's that?"
"Well to tell you Miss, you just won your self cuddles for tonight and the rest of your nights. And you got me, forever" he smiles, pulling you in his arms
"Sounds like jackpot to me"
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johannestevans · 9 months
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Where do I find the queer people?
Making friends and finding social & community spaces as an LGBTQ+ adult.
Originally published with Prism & Pen. Also on my Patreon.
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Photo by Brett Sayles via Pexels.
A friend and I recently went to a Queer Open Mic night after I saw it advertised on the same afternoon. While we were on the way back, she asked about how I’d found it.
“I just feel like you always know loads of queer events that are on,” she said, “and I don’t know how to begin to find them.”
I sat down with her a few weeks later and showed her some of the ways I find events, regular or otherwise, and where I look for others — especially given that on social media in the past few days I’ve seen a few people talking about the difficulty of finding and meeting with new queer people when not online.
I thought it might be useful to put it together here.
It’s quite hard with the pressure on and elimination of many third spaces to go out and easily meet people, and given that most of us use a lot of online socials and dating apps, it can feel difficult to seek out and engage with in-person spaces without knowing exactly what the protocol or format of the event is going to be.
Especially given that many people are still more isolated than they were before the start of the Covid pandemic, and/or struggle with seeking out events for themselves having finished school or university or other more structured environments, there can be a lot of anxiety about attending events or meeting new people. But it’s worth it to remember that pretty much everyone else is in a similar spot, and there’s nothing weird or unusual about wanting to make friends or have social time with others.
I am based in the North of England and generally go between the UK and Ireland. So this guide might be less useful depending on where you are. Obviously, in countries with more repressive legislation on queer identity, community groups will by definition be far more underground. Even in areas where this isn’t the case, some of these suggestions might be more viable than others depending on how densely populated your area is, how accessible different venues and events are, and how active your local queer communities are. So, just take what’s good for you and leave the rest.
Finding Local Queer Community Groups
In your search engine, put in simple search terms — [queer] [group] in [my area].
If you can, narrow your search to websites updated in the last 6 months to 2 or 3 years — you’ll sometimes find a website from six or seven years ago where the events haven’t been running for half that when you were already excited about it.
Search your town, city, or county first, and then widen your search — I normally initially look for Bradford and Leeds respectively, but then might broaden my search to West Yorkshire or even North England depending on the time of year and if I’m more willing to travel for certain events, e.g. looking up summer events around Pride, or specific holiday events if you’re looking at Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s, etc.
Combine:
“Queer”, “LGBT” or “LGBTQ”, “Trans”, “Gay Men’s”, “Lesbian”, “Transgender”, “Transsexual”, “Gay Rights” or similar terms
With:
“Charity”, “Support Group”, “Social Space”, “Community Space”, “Meetup”, “Society”, and similar terms
Swap around the terms and find what language seems to be used in your area — remember that depending on the age group and demographic you’re looking at or for, there might be terms you prefer.
I personally search for a lot of gay men’s groups because the average age tends to be a lot older and focused more on the experiences and social spaces of men who love men rather than general queer spaces, which I find can be a bit too young and fast-paced for my speed.
In general, I find that there’s a loose separation between younger trans and queer social groups, which tend to be a mix of differing identities and ages but with a big emphasis on young adults in the 18–25 area, and then specific gay men’s or lesbians’ groups, which will have a wider swathe of ages and might be a little bit less online.
I understand the fear some people have of these spaces being more transphobic than younger spaces — that’s not personally been my experience, as transphobia and lateral bigotry might happen in any social space, but unfortunately, you just don’t know the specifics of an event or a group until you get there and actually meet and talk to the people.
Some charities or community groups that run a variety of spaces might have specific age or identity guidance on group titles — some might be particularly for younger or older people, be for trans people more than cis people, and some might focus on particular sub-communities, such as BIPOC queer groups or specific religious or ethnic meetups, disabled queer groups, etc.
You also might find meetups that are centred around certain hobbies, professions, or interests — boardgames or Magic the Gathering, Doctor Who or fantasy novels, medical professionals or blacksmiths, etc, depending on how big the area you’re in is and how populous it is.
If you are already a member of an institution or society, whether that’s your school or university, your union, some workplaces, your temple or other religious institution, etc, you might find that there are already events running for you!
Finding Queer Events Online
There are almost certainly queer events on, and they’re probably advertised, but where do you find them?
What’s annoying about the Internet as it exists, corporate online spaces and otherwise, is that most events will be posted in one or two spaces out of hundreds. The good ones will sometimes be hard to find because there’s a bunch of shitty advertising in the way, and because individuals and small charity or community advertisers don’t necessarily know about things like search engine optimisation or how to make a good, searchable post. There will be really cool events that are advertised online, but just aren’t tagged or easy to find.
This means that it’s worth looking often but keeping it casual — glancing through the top page for events that might be coming up or meet some keywords, but if most of what you see is ads, just leave it and move on. Digging through for the good events in busy areas that are also ad-heavy can take ages and might not even turn up much.
If you find socials for local community groups or charities, even if they don’t run events themselves, they might regularly share other local events or cool ones, so it can be worth following them!
Ditto for other queer people in your community — follow local artists, performers, academics, creators, public speakers, craftspeople, or any local community leaders or public figures, and see if they share and boost local events.
They might boost special interest events that are of interest to you if you follow people who share certain communities or interests. If, for example, you have an interest in lolita fashion and follow queer lolita dressers in your area or in areas you can travel to, they might post events that are of interest to them and maybe to you — whether that means specific lolita events, other clothing and fashion events like gothic or steampunk markets and shows, or even anime cons or renaissance faires or whatever.
Obviously searching on social media can help — looking for keywords like “queer event” or “LGBT social” on one site or other can be especially good if it’s a site where you can localise your search results, such as Facebook or Instagram.
With that said, Facebook and Instagram are increasingly difficult sites to use given how much they’re overwhelmed by sponsored and corporate posts as well as spam and bot posts. So, it’s generally worth it more when you focus on either events in smaller and limited areas, such as small towns, or when you’re looking for crossing over of different areas of interest, such as particular queer hobbyist or interest groups. When you start looking for broader spectrum events in a busier or more populous area, you can get inundated by spam and copy-and-paste duplicate ads that have all been promoted. But it’s still worth it to have a glance and see if anything is up at the top!
Sites and apps like Eventbrite or TicketSource, or equivalents in your area, will often let you search for specific events . As with social media, these sites can have the same problem of sponsored events coming up first, and annoyingly you can’t block particular event providers or organisers to make sure they don’t show in your search results if they’re not your thing.
Use every option that comes up and see if you can cross search where you can — pick a particular location or area, click on free or paid events, pick events at certain times, pick a certain kind of event, add in tags like LGBTQ or similar if it’s a site that allows it, etc.
If an event comes up that you like the idea of, note it down, then look the organizer up on social media and see if they run or share other events.
Looking for local tourism sites will let you search for other local events as well — especially if you live in a city or regularly visit one, they’ll often have a What’s On page or a Visit [Blank] website or equivalent, and you can search through that — most of them will have cultural events or a specific LGBTQ section you can glance through.
Here’s the Visit Bristol site, for example:
What’s On in Bristol — VisitBristol.co.uk Click here to find out What’s On in Bristol!…Get the latest information on the latest Events, Festivals, Carnivals…visitbristol.co.uk
For obvious reasons, sites like most of the above will focus on paid events, especially evening and party events. Pub quizzes, drag events, bingo nights, balls, drinks offers, parties, etc.
These events aren’t for everybody — and if they’re not for you, focus on events that take place, if not in cafés and restaurants, then in libraries, universities, museums, and other public buildings.
Queer Events Locally Advertised In-Person
Wait, do people still do that?
Look for poster and notice boards in:
Libraries, museums, community centres, university lobbies
Vintage and alternative clothes stores, music venues, etc
Your temple, church, or other religious institutions
Gay bars, queer cafés, LGBTQ centres, queer bookshops
Doctor’s offices, GUM clinics, and sexual health clinics
Anywhere else you see a noticeboard with events showing!
Also look on flag poles or in windows around your local gay bars or businesses if you have any, generally around the gay village if there’s one to go through.
How do you know the events are good? How do you know they’re legit?
How old does the poster look? Do you see many copies of it around?
Look for dates for the event(s) they’re advertising on the poster, and then look up the venue the events are meant to happen at. Do the dates match? Is it a regular event? Is the event showing on the venue’s website or social media?
Is the event run by a local group, collective, or charity? When you search them, do they have socials or a site of their own? Do they seem active?
If a local queer poster gives you socials, check those socials out — do they have any followers you’re familiar with? Do they post their venues publicly and have defined and public meeting times? Do they seem to have active and engaged commenters? Is there a face or faces behind the social media, or are they anonymous?
If an event is run by anonymous people, or if it seems like they don’t have many followers on social media or very active ones, that might be a bit more suspicious — ditto if an event just gives you a phone number but not any further identifying info.
It’s not inherently suspicious for a queer event to be at an undisclosed location, because of course people do want to ensure some safeguarding and vet people before they come, but if it’s an undisclosed location in combination with anonymous organising, that might be a bit suspicious, and should probably be avoided.
Finding Queer People in Specific Hobby or Other Community Spaces
You don’t have to go to queer-specific events to meet other queer people — any hobby or community you can think of, there’s probably queer people in attendance.
If you’re in a busier or more populous area, say there are 5 events that centre around the same hobby — of those 5, some of them will have more queer people than others, and it might be worth checking them out just to see if you click with anyone there.
My partner and I attend queer-specific board-game evenings that are run out of gay bars or by queer clubs, but pretty much any board-game night is likely to have one or two queer people knocking about, whether they know or would identify themselves as LGBTQ+ off the bat or not.
While there are obviously more open queer people at the queer events, I would say that when we went to a local board-game night run by older straight guys, about a quarter of the attendees were older queer people.
Of my queer friends, pretty much all of them have varied interests and attend different groups or clubs with a lot of other queers knocking about without them being labelled or explicitly queer events — knitting and crocheting, computer coding, electronic music and DJing, fandom, blacksmithing, glassblowing, stand-up comedy, improv, cooking, gardening, board games, cosplay and historical costuming, LEGO, live-action roleplay, tabletop roleplaying games, Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, and other trading card games, poker, burlesque, sports games and clubs, swimming, cycling, fishing, photography, book clubs, bug collecting, birdwatching, weaving, painting, sculpture, pottery, video games, singing, songwriting, poetry…
The list goes on.
Hell, half the people I know seem to go and meet new dates at the local climbing wall, where it seems like all the lesbians and gay guys are crawling all over one another. Another friend of mine attends their local WI, and have met other queer people there.
Other Tips
Remember you can meet people on dating and hook-up apps and that doesn’t necessarily have to be for sex and relationships, whether that’s Grindr, Her, Lex, etc — or you can ask hook-ups and casual dates where they go or if there are local events they think are good or fun. Poly people are particularly useful for this, because they’ll often have a whole network of regular events crossing over and diverging.
If you’re nervous about going to an event alone and you don’t have anybody to go with you, it can be worth checking it out on socials first and see if you have any mutual friends with people that are going — if not, it’s worth heading along anyway, because people might well speak to you before you have to open the conversation with them.
Community groups will often have icebreakers or sessions where people swap names, pronouns, and basic introductions, and that can ease the way into getting used to the space.
If you see somebody else on their own who seems nervous to talk to people, they can be good to approach and say, hey, I also don’t know anyone here, what brings you here? And so on. Remember, other people are pretty much always in the same boat as you.
For me, one of the biggest anxieties about going to new events alone is the fact that I’m disabled and dependent on public transport, and that combo can make it tough on me if I get to a place and it’s inaccessible or just not my speed, and then I have to sort of immediately turn heel and leave, but wait ages for a bus in the meantime. I’ve missed more than one event I was really excited about just because transport didn’t line up for me.
Some considerations to keep in mind when you look for events:
Is the event free or paid? Is this clearly marked? Do you need to buy tickets in advance?
How recent is the posting about the event? Is it posted on a web page or a social media page? Are there recent comments or engagement on the entry? If there is a contact for the event, is it active and responsive?
Is this event regular or recurrent? Is it for a special occasion, and does it have sister events or concurrent events?
Is the event exclusively online, exclusively in-person, or do they change between the two formats? Would you prefer to attend online before you attend in-person?
Do you want to go to a closed and more private group — for example, one that has you message them for the time and location, seems to have capped attendee limits, seems to have a regular community. Or do you want to attend a more casual event in a larger, open space where people might not notice as much as you come and go? Is it going to be very crowded or more spaced out?
Where is the event located, and will you be comfortable in that venue? Is it in a community building such as a charity space, community group, religious institute, school, or university? Is it in a café, restaurant, pub, bar, club, or late-night venue? Is it an explicitly or dedicated queer space? If you are not out to other members of your community, will going into this space reveal that you might be a member of a queer group?
Is the venue age-restricted, and will it require ID? If you must provide ID, will providing your ID in a dead name or in a different gender presentation to your current one be anxiety-inducing or a potential problem for you?
How accessible is the venue to you? Is it walkable, on a regular bus route, or does it have appropriate parking for you? Does it have ramps or elevators? Is it well-ventilated, and does it have a HVAC or other air filtration and purification protocol? Is masking enforced, and/or are masks provided? If you might be watching something together, is there a hearing loop, will there be subtitles on a screening? Is there a first aider at the event? Does the venue serve food or drink, or provide refreshments?
If you are attending alone and have specific needs or requirements, or might need to leave abruptly, is there someone you can let know at the event, such as a first aider or community leader? Are there regular buses, a taxi rank, or online taxi access if you need to quickly head home? Have you let someone else know where you are going, just as a safety concern?
Is the event activity-based, or is it a space where people just sit and talk? Would one or the other of these feel more natural or comfortable to you? Do you have to bring your own activity, such as with a craft or knitting circle, or are supplies provided, such as boardgames or a screening?
Does the group or host for the event(s) have social media? Do they advertise the regular events on socials, or have a newsletter, or some other helpful reminder system?
Most community events will be free, but if it’s an activity group or society, or if it’s a private event, especially one where they buy equipment or supplies, there might be an up-front ticket or access fee, a membership fee or a collection jar or similar — most events will tell you in advance if there is a fee or if they might request a donation.
Most importantly, like… Have fun.
If it sucks, hit the bricks — there’s no obligation to stay anywhere if it’s not fun or doesn’t satisfy you in the way you were hoping.
There’s always other events out there, and you’re very unlikely to truly be the only gay in the village, even if it sometimes feels that way. Good luck!
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alexanderwales · 2 months
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The Digital Corpse
I always read about what school shooters or wannabe assassins have to say. I read or at least skim through manifestos, most of which are really poorly written and usually just have badly misunderstood ideas that are copy-pasted from diverse places. I read social media posts and discord logs, where available. Some of this is morbid fascination that I don't endorse, but some of it is the impulse to understand how and why a thing like this happened.
So I've been following the news on Trump's would-be assassin, and to all appearances he was just a kid who was bullied at school and didn't have a lot of hobbies, skills, talents, or friends. He wanted power and control and had no way to get it, and I think there's something to the notion that a lot of white men think that their whiteness or maleness means they're owed something. When Trump came to town, it was opportunity falling into his lap. If you're 20 years old and feeling like the world cares nothing for you, then yeah, I can see why you'd take your shot. It's a way of being famous, of going out with a bang, and young men often feel invincible anyway. The shocking thing is that it almost worked, and that seems to be down to incompetence and complacency.
But if it had worked, and they hadn't immediately shot him to death, he'd have gotten all the worst parts of fame (in addition to what would probably be life in prison). In death he's got intense scrutiny of everything he's ever posted online. There are reports about how sad and lonely he was. If he'd succeeded, maybe there would be some on the left who would idolize him, but as it stands ... I can imagine wanting to be megafamous, but I cannot imagine wanting it to be like this. It was almost certainly different in his imagination though, a grand moment that would give meaning to his life and demonstrate that he did, in fact, have power.
And of course the whole thing will be forgotten in a week or two. A year from now you'll say the name "Thomas Crooks" and people will say "huh, that ... do I know that name?"
On the other side of things, there's Corey Comperatore. He was the other person to die that day, just a random guy who had attended a Trump rally and got hit by a bullet because from one specific angle he was standing behind Trump. If Thomas Crooks left almost nothing behind to make sense of his life, Corey Comperatore left behind what feels like a lot. The fame is more double-edged. He's lauded as a hero by some, even if the only thing he did was catch a stray. Generously, that's a way of making sense of things: just like it's not enough for Crooks to be alienated and dejected, it's not enough for Comperatore to just be someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But Corey Comperatore is also having his life torn open, or at least the parts of it that he put online. Posting online was something he probably did without thinking too much about it. The worst one, for me, was him saying that the Palestinians would "get over it" like the Japanese did. It's something I think about a lot in the social media age, the picture that people would get if they went looking through all our posts, if they were trying to make a picture of you from the things you've left behind. If you died in a very public way, what's the worst post you've ever made? What would people find ironic? But of course you don't need to die, we're in an era where anyone can get flash famous by random happenstance. And of course in the modern day we want the delicious little morsels, the worst thing you've ever said, the most ironic, most iconic, most infuriating sound bite that can represent a whole person. Anything more anodyne is pointless, even if that's the bulk of someone's life.
I'm probably a little unusual in terms of digital fingerprints. I'm active on discords, I've written some four million words of fiction, and my reddit comment karma is in the six figure range, which probably means that I've got something like fifty thousand comments. I talk a lot. But I do think about being torn apart like that, what would happen if I were famous for a day before the news cycle moved on, if there were hundreds or thousands of people trying to make sense of me.
When I die, if anyone has reason to go snooping through my history, I hope there's a good-looking corpse.
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gatorbites-imagines · 2 months
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Hey! I hope you’re doing good in ur exams!!
Can I request a Tomura x Male reader?
Before the whole war…please, I’m grieving a lot for way too many reasons. ☹️
Tomura Shigaraki x male reader
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Big sucker for gamer Shigaraki, why did people stop writing it. So im basing this off earlier season Shiggy, but you can imagine him how you want.
Reader has a quirk vaguely based off Yaga from JJK, cuz I love JJK, and I love Yaga.
Dating Shigaraki was an… experience to say the least. He could be quite bratty or childish at times, but you couldn’t really blame him, especially after hearing about his relationship with that sensei of his.
You weren’t a villain. But you just… didn’t respect the system and thought the hero system was corrupt beyond redemption. You didn’t think Shigaraki’s Sensei had the right idea either. But you had been ignored more than once by the so-called heroes meant to save you.
You had what most would call a “villain” quirk, having the ability to make something akin to dolls or golems, some even being so complex they could think and feel on their own. You had even created more than one that didn’t know it was a doll.
Being raised by golems was an experience, as your parents had been so offput by your quirk and interest in how everything and everyone worked. They’d fed you and clothed you, but that was it. and when your younger siblings developed more “appropriate” quirks, the gap became massive.
It had led to you leaving home as a teen, having finished and graduated online school earlier than most.
You had left a small unnoticeable golem in your home, just to see how long it took your family to realize you were gone. The answer was three months, and it was only because your rich grandpa who had a string quirk, who had always supported your love for puppets, came back from abroad to visit.
The gratification of hearing and seeing your loving but serious grandpa rip your family apart verbally, and then take away all the monetary support he had been given them, was almost enough to cover up the pain of your empty stomach and warm you where you were huddled in an alley.
Meeting Shigaraki had been an accident in the beginning. Your golems had only gotten more and more complex, meaning you suddenly had an income that was more than enough to get your own place, with one of the golems as the “owner” of course.
After that you started selling information and different kinds of “defense” work. That meaning, you helped people hide from the hero commission, and get information other people couldn’t. what was better for that situation other than an army of people that just didn’t exist.
You were picked up by Giran, who had taken notice of your large net of people, whom he didn’t know were your puppets and golems. He, or rather All for one, paid much more than you really needed. But all these years had taught you more than most knew about the inner workings of hero society, so you didn’t turn it away.
You did have a slight feeling that All for one wanted to eat you after he learned about your quirk. But the whole having to build the skill and mental capacity seemed to stop him, for now, since he apparently didn’t have time to perfect it in time for what he had planned.
You were the first outsider in the league of villains, way before anybody else joined, which was how you and Shigaraki started spending time together.
In the beginning hed been his dry snappy bratty self, and he just reminded you of the dirty street cats that you used to feed when you still lived in alleyways. They’d hiss and spit, trying to puff up and look tough, but they always just looked so frail and vulnerable.
Neither of you could tell when your relationship became more than just coworkers. Maybe it was when Shigaraki had Kurogiri warp him to your penthouse since your tv “was bigger and better” than the one he had in his room.
Or when you started bringing him designer clothes that would fit him better than the rags he wore, or had your golems break into different shops to get him some ointment that would help with his scratching.
You even caught yourself once or twice trying to play his games, but you figured out your usual strategic and put together mind lost all its footing playing LOL. Never before had your age quit, and you were too shamed to try again after that.
Shigaraki would admit later that he had tried to get into your hobbies too, with a big blush on his face and a sour expression, like he didn’t want to admit that he had feelings. He couldn’t really get into the art that was doll and golem making, and just how detailed it got for you had his head spinning.
Neither of you ever outright asked the other to date, it just kinda progressed to that point. Shigaraki spent more time at your place than at the “villain hideout”, even after the rest of the league joined.
You started going on dates, which were you booking an entire arcade or restaurant, and having your golems serve you. Or letting Shigaraki lean against you playing his handheld as you planned stocks or different businesses you had your fingers in.
In front of others, you two just seemed like allies, maybe friends on a good day. And it only came out after Magne and Toga had been teasing Shigaraki about having no experience, where he snapped at them that he had a boyfriend, you.
The rest of the league were shocked to say the least, since you two didn’t act anything like a couple around them. But both you and Shigaraki just raise a brow going “why would we be all lovey at work”.
It didn’t surprise you that Shigaraki was touch starved and loved to cuddle. In the beginning he would almost act like it pained him to be touched and cradled. but so many years with no normal human contact always had that effect.
You weren’t used to it yourself, having gone so long with only the touch and comfort of your dolls and golems, but none of it was the same as when it was another person.
The two of you were pretty much dating in your shared opinion, before you ever really got physical. And by that, I mean, you started out by just sitting close or you wrapping your arms around Shigaraki.
Your lover was understandably scared of touching you with his hands, even when he wore gloves to stop his quirk from working. So, it was a major breakthrough when he did return the hugs, or would hold your hand.
But when the floodgates for affection opened, Shigaraki would always find himself clinging to you like a cat searching for warmth. It was pretty damn cute in your eyes, and whenever he would shuffle into the room, you just life an arm and let him melt into your side.
Most days you could keep working, answering the phone, checking your laptop, and what else. But there were also days where Shigaraki would grumble about dusting your stuff if you didn’t cuddle him right.
Part of you had a feeling it was Shigaraki wanting you to take a break, and the other part was sure it was just cuz he liked to be squeezed tight and snuggled. But who were you to complain.
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Hello! I'm a 15-year-old devotee of both Lord Hermes and Lady Aphrodite who is raised in an extremely Orthodox Christian household, and I would like to share my story with you ⋆˚ʚɞ
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Hi! for safety reasons I will not use the name I usually use online for this account, but you can call me Jellyfish. I live in Eastern Europe, more exactly Romania, a country whose population is 98% devoted to Christianity at the time of speaking. My mother is a perfect example. She wholeheartedly believes in God, I grew up with pictures of him and the Holy Mary all over the walls, which I wouldn't escape even at my grandparent's houses. My house always smelled of myrrh, I would carry a picture of God everywhere I went, I would pray to him before bed, go to church on every holiday, but I never felt fulfilled or connected to him in any way. I didn't truly know what I believed in. My mother was telling me all about how should I praise God, but I don't think I ever did it because I wanted to or felt connected to what she was telling me or felt like it was the life I wanted to live. When she would fight with my father, even now, she would threaten that she would run away to a monastery and become a nun. She thinks you cannot change your religion and you can not be Christian if you were born with Christian parents and raised in that environment. I did not have faith in God because I wanted to and felt connected to his message and wanted to worship his divine being, I did it because my mother felt that way. And that destroyed me.
As I grew older, I started believing less and less in God. I was struggling with going through teenagehood, fighting my own inner battles, and dealing with friendship that slowly felt like they were taking away my lifespan, and it wasn't just that I didn't have faith in a divine being (which is completely alright. Please do not believe this monologue is Anti-Christian, I believe everyone is allowed to believe and worship the one who they feel most connected and inclined towards.) I didn't have faith in anything anymore. When my brother reached 15, he hated my parents for their beliefs. I will not get much I detail since his story is not mine to tell, but he had battled with alcohol and substance abuse. And I was his only shoulder for him and my parents to lean and cry on. My mother told me to pray for our family, she would pray to god every day, light up myrrh, take me to churches, and I would feel miserable. I felt like an imposter in that church. I truly wanted to have faith in a god, anyone, but I felt like my only choice was God since that's what my mother taught me. Both my parents trust God so I cannot be different, can I?
How foolish I was. I can only look back to my past self and wish to embrace and hold her till she cries all her sorrow out. She was so confused.
Back in 2022, I had first heard of Aphrodite. My brother was sent to a mental hospital for his substance abuse when they caught him on the verge of overdosing. I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder after a suicide attempt, autism and ADHD, but my father (who already couldn't accept the fact that my brother has ADHD) fought with them saying they ,,don't know me well enough" and,,there's nothing wrong with me". And he's right, there's nothing wrong with me. Not even If I am neurodivergent. I was at my lowest, I felt disgusting, I fought with my parents and was their therapist every single day, I stopped going to school, I was a mess. But, I was heavily active on social media because I had tons of online friends. While scrolling on tiktok, I found a video of an Aphrodite devotee. My interest was piqued. I heard about Greek Mythology before but never actually researched it. I liked the video and commented, talking about how gorgeous their faith sounds, and that's when it all started. I started getting more info about Aphrodite, the swans swum by me every time I would go to the lake with my family so we could ,,get some fresh air". I started getting lots of pins on Pinterest with her. I always had a desire for water and the beach was my safe place, where I felt fulfilled and free from all I'm feeling. I had a Dove make itself a nest on a tree next to the window of my classroom which I would always sit by while having lunch (on the rare occasions I would drop by to school). I started researching more about Lady Aphrodite, loving her story, beliefs, ways of worshipping, how it felt like silence was washing over me when I would make a non-physical offering to her. Her tales. The way it felt like she was always there to give me a warm hug and squeeze me while I was crying. I also felt a boost in my confidence! I started loving my features, taking care of myself again, etc. It wasn't always just sun and rainbows, I would still have breakdowns and wish it would all just end and all that, but it was more bearable with her. She made my life more bearable. I love, worship, and adore Lady Aphrodite for that. I worshipped her till this year when I officially felt strong enough to devote myself to her.
This year, actually, I started noticing my strong connection to Hermes. I was always attracted to the kind-hearted, mischievous, kind-hearted, highly intelligent and funny thieves. I always idolized them and wished to be like them. That's how I feel about Lord Hermes. I feel like he was reaching out to me all my life. Everything he is associated with I had an inexplicable obsession with for pretty much all my life. Turtles, golden or silver, travel, learning new languages, astronomy, astrology, everything you could think of. I have been devoted to him since last month, that's when I officially started labeling myself as a Hellenic Pagan, but I am still a beginner, and I need to hide all of this from my mother since I am afraid of what she would do if she were to find out I have another belief since she reacted super badly back when I was an atheist :( I set up the first altar for Lady Aphrodite, and the second one for Lord Hermes. I always had been an artistic soul and loved making my room all pretty randomly so I told my mother this is one of those cases and she believed it. She does not know english and is not at all cultured about any beliefs besides Christians, Muslims, and Jews. They are both hidden in my closet. I feel very bad for not being able to make them a bigger and more obvious altar, I hope I'll have that chance when I move out from my parent's house..
I wanted to ask if Lord Hermes would be mad if my mom kept setting random things on his altar? she even put a picture of the Holy Mary. I moved it to the other side of the closet and made a DIY necklace for him out of orange garnet or beads to apologize to him, and he didn't seem mad, but I'm not sure...I sketched drawings of both of them and rested them on their altars. Everything you see are either offerings I heard they may like or things that reminded me of them! the little notebook on Hermes's altar is specifically made for learning new languages and thought he would enjoy it. Do you guys think any of my offerings are disrespectful? or should be removed? I'm open to any advice! Thank you for listening to my story <3
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salaciousdoll · 1 year
Text
꒷︶ ̇ ̟ ෆ ‿︵‿ The Salacious Exploits ‿︵‿ ෆ ̟ ̇ ︶꒷
•┈୨Chapter II୧┈•
•┈୨please be advised to the warning before continuing୧┈•: Hyperfeminine!reader, Bimbo!/ditzy!reader, Fem reader, smut, angst, fluff, laid back professor Gojo, Gojo being Gojo( I think), Gojo is a bit ooc when it comes to him being a perv, reader’s second day goes alright, geto pisses reader off and he liked it, Toji and Shiu are gym buddies, you and Eren talk all night on the phone, volleyball tryouts, reader owns her own volleyball, basically you are a pro at volleyball but not at running or certain positions( Libero), DARK CONTENT, taboo!, teacher x student relationship, this is not all glorified, there will be the downsides that come later, reader has daddy and mommy issues, daddy’s is more severe, self indulgent, reader is spoiled down, smut, Erwin smith is the first man you fuck, big and heavy dick Erwin, condom use because duh it’s the first official fuck, wall fucking, fucking on a sink, you roll the condom on his dick with your mouth, pet names( little dove, angelic whore, slut, pretty girl, etc.), degradation/praise, cervix kissing( gently but it can still hurt), reader is hyper sexual, History professor!Erwin, Jean meet you but doesn’t know your the new girl, bartender!jean, Eren is growing fond of you and so are Mikasa, Armin, and Maki, daddy kink is seen here once, dirty talking Erwin, coach! Onyankopon, Coach!Geto, lemme know if I missed anything,
゚•┈୨ Song for this Chapter୧┈•゚。: Party Girls- Victoria Monet
ෆ ‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿ ෆ ̟ ̇ ┈•゚Note from salaciousdoll: this is the second chapter of this series and I’m so excited for you all to read it. I’m gonna be starting my kinktober fics now, so this won’t be a weekly update, just until I at least make it to the end of the month fic. Anyways, HAPPY KINKTOBER BABIES🫶🏾
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Previously on Salacious Exploits….
Your voice came out calm and collected, “ You’re very welcome, sir. Have a nice day.” You smiled prior to power walking out of the classroom and building. You didn’t know who he was getting head from and you should’ve had a different reaction but this school looked fishy as soon as you stepped on the lawn and plus the false advertisement the website has is enough to make anyone turn it down but you and your mother were too dumb and naive to realize, your mother just wanted you near her. Though you couldn’t see Mr.Kamo face properly, yet you knew he was fine just from his moans and voice. On your way to your car to go home, you noticed a small sticker with a phone number on it and Eren’s name on top of it. You were surprised to see it because when the hell did he have time to do this. You most likely wasn’t paying attention when he did it because you were too busy looking around the school when you two walked to your first, well second class today. You did not like calling men first but you’ll excuse this because you had a feeling you were going to love that call. Just like you are going to love this school.
Waking up with Eren snores in your ear on the phone was funny and relaxing. You would’ve thought he would’ve hung up the phone after you fell asleep, yet he didn’t. You called him first and from that point on you two hit it off. You two talked about the school, his friends he’s going to introduce you to at the party someone’s throwing at the bar down the street from the campus today. You yawned and got out of bed walking to the shower to freshen up for classes today. You only had two classes today, psychology and physiology. Two classes you didn’t want to take but they were the last options when you signed up for classes online.
After showering and getting ready, you grabbed your supplies you needed for today and your Telfar Ballerina shopping bag with a lot of the materials you need for school and practice, slipping your shades on afterwards. Eren hung up the phone when you were taking a shower and you were partially glad for it because you didn’t want to talk to anyone before class. You had on a decent outfit today— tied-up pink cardigan over a black jumpsuit that showed off your hips, love handles, or hip dips with pink-satin miu miu ballerina shoes and black leg warmers.
You didn’t feel like doing anything special except trying out for volleyball, a sport you’ve been dedicated to since you were younger. It’s a pro and con sport for you because the pro is being the best on your team but the con is being the biggest in weight on your team. It's contradictory really. Now you get to see try out for volleyball for this college, maybe you’ll be able to face your old teammates from your old college. But first, you have to get through your classes first because right after your second class, it’s gonna be 30 minutes until tryouts.
Heading into the classroom, you spot Eren sitting with a boy with freckles and a girl next to him with dark green hair in a bob. She favored someone you met already and just couldn’t put it to mind especially with the way Eren was close-lip smiling at you. He was not paying attention to anything or anyone talking to him— all he could focus on is you. He was slowly catching feelings for you and he didn’t mind it one bit at how fast you captured his attention especially after getting over his break up with Mikasa.
You waved at him and took the seat he pointed to in the row in front of him. You were so glad that he got a seat near the end of the row because you didn’t feel like squeezing past people. Once you sat down, eren leaned down to whisper in your ear, “ had a great time last night on the phone, we should do it again sometime. You know… to get to know each other more.” You turned around to see him scratching the back of his head, almost like you made him shy or anxious.
You smirked at his actions, “ Next time, you call me first. A lady should never have to call a gentleman first.” Your teasing just made him raise his hand to cover his face from letting his friend see his blushing cheeks and nose. You wondered if he knew the tip of his ears were red as well.
Eren didn’t know what your type was and you honestly felt a little bad for him, but a little part of you hoped this was a puppy type crush and that’s it. What you really wanted was an older man, kinda like your professor that just walked in practically yelling good morning. You wondered how a man like him had this much energy as you eyed him with a tip of your pink pen in your mouth. His glasses were now clear prescription glasses and he looked even more gorgeous than before. You wanted to jump his bones right here.
Your thoughts were soon interrupted by professor Gojo clapping his hands and then motioning to the projector, “ You should already know what class you are taking—” Gojo then opened his arms, making his body into a T, “ But I’m gonna tell you anyway, Welcome to Psychology 112. For today, we will be learning about each other and reading the syllabus together. Originally, the syllabus was supposed to be your homework, but skip that! Don’t wanna give you homework on the first day, wouldn’t wanna overbear you on your first day like short stack Levi or for those who have Mr.Nanami, am I right?”
He was the first professor you’ve seen since yesterday that made the student laugh. You were surprised you let out a little laugh at his joke. You had a feeling you and Professor Gojo would get along just fine.
During his class, Eren couldn’t focus, he only paid attention when you spoke about yourself— starting with your name, “ Um, a little bit about me is that I like wearing high fashion brand clothing, I’m rich, and pretty.” Some of the girls and guys smacked their lips or let out loud sighs and some snickered to themselves.
Gojo stared at you with intensity before smiling to himself, “ anything else, miss { reader’s last name}. What made you decide to take my class?”
You mentally rolled your eyes at this question because you could either lie or tell the truth. You did what you did best, “ I was late when registering for classes and this was one of the last classes I had to choose but luckily I like learning about different behaviors and how it affects the mentality, ya’ know.” You lied and told the truth all in one. You thought nobody would notice, but Gojo did. Luckily, he let it pass by smirking at you and nodding his head. Once he went to the next person, you let out a relieved breath out of your mouth. Eren chuckled with Marco at your exaggerated action.
Marco extended his hand over your shoulder, “ sorry I couldn’t properly introduce myself. My name is Marco Boldt, as you may know from the previous introduction.” He let out a cute chuckle before speaking again, “ It’s a pleasure to meet you.” You turned to shake his hand as the next person spoke about their favorite hobbies and such.
“ Nice to meet you as well. Who’s the girl beside you Eren?” You eyed her up and down slowly and , to her, seductively.
She stuck out her hand like she was forced to stick it out, “ The girl next to him name is Mai, you would’ve known that if you paid attention, airhead.”
You wanted to curse her out but decided against it because maybe she was just a hard ass on purpose. Like she got a point to prove but to whom? You’ll never know especially when Gojo yelled out your name and to be quiet afterwards.
Smacking your lips was the first and only option you had as a reaction because it wasn’t even you that was speaking. You have been getting into trouble with the professors at this school too much already. It’s already getting on your nerves. You thought he was the least strict teacher here— you guessed wrong then. Only you didn’t guess wrong, he just wanted to fuck with you because he felt like it and he wanted to see how your name rolls off his tongue since it’s different than most people at this school. After everyone introduced themselves, you all read the syllabus and asked him questions about the syllabus.
Class wrapped up after that and when you walked past Gojo’s desk with Eren’s arm around your shoulder, scratched something inside of Gojo’s Brain and he didn’t like it. He had to know if you two were dating, not like that’s gonna stop him, but he didn’t need an hot head like Eren to fuck up his plan. A hot head that’s quick to spread rumors due to his indifferences with this school and much more. The only way he knows that is because he knew every last one of his students due to how little the social life here is at school. The school may be big, but the acceptance rates were lower than hell. Plus, he’s heard from the past professors that Eren is the star boy of the school.
“ Because of his fucking fath-”, Gojo says, before getting interrupted by a little laugh. He looked up and locked eyes with you standing in front of him with your books to your chest. You looked so fucking beautiful to him.
“ Mumbling to yourself Mr. Gojo, maybe psychology is the right major to teach for you.”, You say, laughing but stopping once you seen he wasn’t laughing just staring at you. You then realized what you said was inappropriate and hurried to back track until he held up a hand.
You waited for him to yell or give you the stern talk, but he just laughed with his head back, really loudly too. “ You’re a jokester, gotta watch out for you even more. What did you come to talk to me about? Any questions about the syllabus that you could’ve asked during class.” You squint your eyes at the last part prior to staring at him in silence.
He tilted his head and removed his glasses from his face to sit on the desk. When he did that, you had the urge to grab his face and kiss him, but you fought your urge and answered his question, “ Came to talk to you about how much homework we’re having for this class. Is it a lot? And how many essays do we have to do?”
Gojo smiled at you, “ It's not a lot of essays, only four for midterm and finals. There’s gonna be two chapters for you to read each day after today. Think of today as a free pass from homework.” He almost wanted to laugh at your expressions when he said 4 essays and two chapters.
You smiled at him and said your thanks, walking away afterwards. You had your last class of the day in 5 mins and it takes you three minutes to walk to the class so you’ll be on time. Meanwhile, back in the classroom, satoru sat there with your flavor perfume lingering in his classroom, well in the space by his desk.
Walking to Mr.Geto class was fun when you had Armin and his friends walking with you. His friends meaning Connie, Sasha, Yuuta,Maki, and Mikasa walking with you. You passed Mai and put two and two together when you took one good glance at Maki. They either had to be sisters or cousins. Crazy thing about it, is that you and Armin arrived 2 minutes early and were two of the three people already there.
There was another boy there with a high ponytail and on his lower cheek, close to his chin. He looked so quiet and you didn’t want to disrupt it so you sat next to Armin, who was sitting below the boy. You hope class goes by fast because then all you have to do is get ready for try-outs.
Soon, students started to fill out the classroom and in between the last two students, a tall man with his hair in a top bun— a piece hanging in the front of his head, black suit nicely tailored and decked, and several rings wrapped around about two fingers on each hand. You finally realized, after a long time of staring, that this was the man you locked eyes with when you were heading to Mr. Kamo class. He was coming from the gym and looked so hot, now he looks hotter.
“ Goodmorning class, today we’re going to read over the syllabus and I’ll go over the materials you need in order to pass this class. After that, I’ll let you all go to enjoy the rest of your day. Oh, I almost forgot, those of you know me already, some of you..”, Getos said walking back and forth until he locked eyes with you again. “ Don’t. So I’ll introduce myself, my name is Suguru Geto, you may not call me by that name, only my last, Professor Geto.”
He’s a little sassy with his introduction and you didn’t mind one bit in fact it made him hotter. He began plugging up his laptop for the projector while Armin spoke to a guy next to him. He was a handsome guy and you never saw him around the school before. Armin asked you for a pencil and you fetched your pencil case for a pencil. He laughed once he saw the color of the pencil, “ How did I know this would be the color of your pencils as well?”
You laughed and was about to respond until Mr.Geto cleared his throat, “ Okay, everyone, I got everything situated so let’s start? Yeah.” You did not know why but when he said yeah it was so sexy. You hated how easily you got turned on when it comes to older men. You suddenly got into your bubble of thoughts watching the way his arms flexed whenever he reached to point a finger at people or to point at the bullet point on the board. He was a beauty indeed and you knew it would take a lot to seduce him since he seemed all business at the moment. His dark eyes zoom in on you, spacing out with your legs crossed and your pencil eraser in your mouth, “ Miss {reader’s last name}, tell me what’s the fifth rule when it comes to turning in my essays?”
You hated being in the spotlight of answering questions, it’s annoying as hell and you disliked anyone who did it to you, “ I don’t know because I wasn’t paying attention, sorry for not paying attention, won’t happen again.” You didn’t want to give him attitude, so you just said sorry and kept silent the rest of the class. He didn’t like that you were as silent as a church mouse. He hated it in fact because when he wanted to call on you during class he felt your stone glare all over his PowerPoint and him. He could tell you were pissed but why were you so cute pissed off. He had to tell Satoru since he was speaking about you nonstop to him.
After some minutes, class was finally over and you were ready to get up out of there, in fact you were the first one to leave and he took note of that. He actually managed to piss you off on the first day and it was over something dumb. Not that he should care though, you’re the student and he’s the professor. But hey was he still thinking about you while waving bye to the rest of his students.
You, on the other hand, decided to transfer your anger onto the volleyball in tryouts. You had to walk across the street to the gym which got your blood pumping with adrenaline. So when you walked in the locker room, you placed your bag on the bench. Annie came in and sat her bag down next to you— changing her clothes right there. You gawked at her changing in front of you so boldly when there’s stalls in here. Mikasa, Maki, a girl with blue hair came in with them speaking loudly compared to the other two. Annie felt your eyes on her and turned to you with a deadpan expression on her face, “ What? Am I not allowed to change in front of you?”
You shrugged your shoulders, “ You could do whatever you want, I’m just gonna go change in the stall. No hard feelings babes.” She rolled her eyes at the nickname as she watched you walk off, waving to Maki and Mikasa.
You put on your attire for tryouts and made your way out the stall with your bag on your shoulder. You were making sure your knee pads were on properly, when a hand suddenly came out in front of you. Following the hand with your eyes, you smiled at her before hearing her speak, “ Why not have you apart of our competition, whoever gets the most serves and sets to the count of ten, wins and the winner gets to get free drinks from the losers for tonight’s back to school party at the bar, you’re in?” The blue haired girl was in front of you proposing a deal you couldn’t refuse if you wanted to because you loved competition. It makes things fun.
So you shook her hand while batting your eyelashes up at her, “ Deal. Be prepared to buy my drinks ladies.” You yelled out the last sentence as you made your way past them. Maki laughed, “ You’re confident. I like that.”
Mikasa shook her head, “ No, she’s delusional, especially if she thinks I’m losing.”
“ But you’re not winning, that’s for sure. So let her be delusional, they’ll only make it more fun when I win.”, Annie said, bandaging up her elbows while having a stare off with Mikasa.
Miwa smiled at her friends competing with each other because you’ve already walked out to the gym already whilst these three were still talking to each other. She loved volleyball season for a reason. This was one of them. It was great to be back. She just wished Mai was here as well— sadly she’ll just come late as always.
While the four of them were walking out the bathroom, you were already in the gym with the other girls that’s trying out for volleyball. The gym was huge enough for you all to have tryouts with the boys volleyball team. They were so tall and handsome, one guy stood out to you. He had a mullet and a beard that suited his face just right. He was working on his overhand serves just by swinging his arm up and down for right now. Armin was beside him with a guy with a bowl cut. You guess he was stuck in the 80s and 90s. Next to the bowl cut guy was the boy you met before, Yuuta.
On the benches against the wall, you see Eren, Reiner, Todo, Connie, Sasha, another girl with a blonde bob, a girl with two black pigtails and a girl with two blonde pigtails next to her, she could be mistaken for a little kid, honestly. Seems like some teachers are speaking with both coaches of the teams on the sideline.
I guess volleyball is an important sport at this school after all. You turn to see Mai beside you with an arm around your shoulder, “ Hey, my little pinky pie, ready to buy me a drink? I mean, you can make up for not listening to my introduction yesterday, that really hurt me, ya know?”
The blue haired girl came up on the other side of you, “ Mai, leave her alone. Can’t believe you made it on time.” She then turns to you with a pretty smile, “ I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Miwa Kasumi, nice to meet you. Don’t worry, I already know your name— so you don’t have to tell me.” You smiled at her and nodded your head prior to focusing back on pumping your pink and white volleyball full of air with their little air pumper.
You bounced it against the floor and watched it fly up, catching it afterwards. You smiled over at the girls that watched you, some of their eyes weren’t on what you were doing, rather than what’s behind you. Your ass looked so good in them spandex and if some of them weren’t straight you would’ve been wrapped around their fingers.
After a while, a tall black man with a clean cut bald fade and pretty smile blew the whistle and yelled out “ Huddle around, Girls.”
You all gathered around him with some of the gym balls and your own balls. “ Alright, so today Hange, who is the co-coach, is out for today because of their own business matters, so you’re only having me with you today.” He looked at each of you before speaking again, “ Today is about determining if you’re skillful enough to join this team. Here at Maria Kaizen, we take sports seriously just like academics. Sports are a huge thing in this city so you should already know that. So first, you’re gonna warm up, so give me about five laps around the track outside that door over there, come back in and get a drink of water— meet me back here afterwards, understand?”
You hated running laps so you took your time running while the rest of them didn’t take their time. Maki and Mikasa were toe to toe with each other until Mikasa got another boost of energy from nowhere and finished her 5 laps before Maki. After that the rest of the team followed pursuit but you were still on the 4 lap and wasn’t gonna speed up anymore because you were beginning to breathe hard. Another chubby girl and a skinny girl were running after you, both of them kept encouraging you to keep going and you hated it. You weren’t mean, it’s just it’s embarrassing when people run with you or encourage you to finish especially when you’re at the freaking finish line. Nevertheless, you still thank them— sharing high fives as well.
Once you finally finished your lap, you headed into the gym room and surprisingly didn’t see any of the other girls there, but luckily you spotted them standing outside the gym drinking water. You headed that way not noticing multiple eyes on you since you stepped back into the gym. Eren spotted you and so did Armin, Armin jogged to you first causing Eren to scowl at him— he hid it well when everyone looked at him trying to basically dive down the bleachers.
“ Hey, didn’t know you were trying out for volleyball, hope you make it, so I could go against you during practice.”, Armin says with a polite smile. You smiled at him and spoke to him, “ can’t wait for you to lose those practice games.”
With that, you walked off with him watching you walk away, a small smile adorning his face. Meanwhile, you were the last one to get water and was thankful for it because you almost drink the entire fountain until you heard a deep voice speak, “ Save some for the fishes sweetheart.”
“ Aww come on, girl must be tired after running 5 laps, ease up on her Shiu and besides we’re supposed to be going to the weight room so come on man.”, Another deep voice and the same voice you heard speak to you before. The security guard with black hair and green eyes. Another security guard was with him, he was so handsome, he had a compress shirt on with joggers to match with the green eye man.
You stared at them and they stared at you until the one with the green eyes spoke, “ Welcome to Maria Kaizen, I’m Toji Fushiguro and this is Shiu Kong, we’re the security guards here so you’ll be seeing us around a lot, see you around beautiful.” Shiu guy nodded his head at you and walked away, Fushiguro followed behind leaving you with rampant thoughts in your mind.
You finally snapped out of your thoughts when Maki came and got you for the beginning of tryouts. The first drill of tryouts was seeing if you could under serve and you got this. All of y’all had to serve your balls where the short gremlin of a teacher stood. You took a pretty good guess and knew he was probably filling in for Ms. Zoe. Maki served and it went over the net and nowhere near Levi, Mikasa served and it went over the next almost to where he stands, Mai served and it hit the net but still went over the net, that was a let serve, and Miwa served up a big hit making it go into the air, almost to the ceiling. She yelled an oops and sorry prior to running off behind Mai.
All throughout the rest of the team's serves, Levi had a mean scowl on his face and you could see that from where he stood or did you predict what he’ll look like. You laughed at your joke before it was your turn to serve. You bounced the ball on the floor once and positioned yourself on the line, holding the ball out and reeling your hand back before serving under. The ball almost hit Levi right in the face until he moved with a wide eyed stare at you. You hurry to yell sorry but Levi felt like that was intended since he did piss you off once, yet it wasn’t. Thing is, the speed of that ball was abnormal because usually he'd duck or dodge in a heartbeat, just then he barely moved in time. Miche was impressed watching on the sidelines if only Erwin was here instead of fucking someone on his desk right now then he would’ve seen this stunt.
Onyankopon was truly impressed so he had to see your overhand serve, so he had everyone do that next. Although this time, he asked Miche to stand there instead of Levi. Everyone overhand serves were good except for a few slip ups. Onyankopon made note of the five that slipped up. It was now your turn and he watched you carefully before looking around to find everyone looking at you. You’re gonna be a star if you make the team. A star right next to Maki and Mikasa.
Geto who was supposed to be coaching the boy’s volleyball team was watching you closely just like his co coach, Choso. Right now the boys were just serving non stop until he blew the whistle. Their tryouts were yesterday, so they were now just practicing. They watched as you angled your right arm in a 90 degree angle whilst your left arm was straight with the palm up. They both looked at each other, nodding their heads before looking over at onyankopon who nodded his head at them. They all knew that you knew what you were doing. You tossed the ball in the air and brought your arm up to smack it with so much force. Onyankopon took note of the way you stepped into the serve. It’s like you were a pro at this so he had no choice but to already think of recruiting you.
Now it was time to see if you can jump serve, set, and play the other positions well, especially the Libero position. And you played all of them astonishingly except for Libero. You hated that position so you didn’t even try and Onyankopon noticed that, which was a mistake on your part. He blew his whistle at the end of the tryouts, gathering you all around, “ Listen up ladies, I will let you all know if you made it at the next meeting, which is next week. This was a great tryout, probably the best tryouts I’ve ever seen over my years of coaching volleyball, if only coach Zoe was here to see what I saw in you ladies today. This is the conclusion of the tryouts and I will see you ladies soon. Now go shower and get to your next class or go home.” His voice was so smooth and deep, it drove you wild. He drove you wild already when you walked past him and smelt his cologne. You made note that it wasn't cheap cologne, so sexy to you.
You walked behind the girls to the locker room to freshen up. Your shower took a long time because you had to scrape off your sweat. You hated sweat sticking on your body. After washing your body, you dried off and got dressed. During the shower everyone said their see yous and goodbyes to you so you were the last one in the locker room getting dressed.
Once you finally got dressed in the other clothes you packed in your book bag you carried on your back, you walked out and almost screamed when you saw Mr.Ackerman standing with his back to the wall.
He looked unfazed at your screaming as he pushed himself off the wall stopping in front of you, “ Just for that little stunt you pulled, I’ll be giving you extra homework tomorrow.”
You scoffed and walked around him to walk off, “ It’s not even school hours for me and you’re getting on me. I didn’t even mean to do that honestly. So I will not be doing that extra work, see you tomorrow, Mr. Ackerman.” You hurried to walk away from that deranged little man and walked to your car in the parking lot. You would’ve stayed if he actually cared enough to keep you in his grasp longer.
After, you headed home while talking to Eren on the Bluetooth call. He just asked you about tryouts and gave you the address to the bar for tonight. You were excited to party because you needed it after this rough day. The only thought in your mind as you made your way home after ending the call with Eren is that your body will be sore tomorrow.
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Arriving at the bar took about fifteen minutes, so it wasn’t that far from the campus but was far from your house. You were now freshly done up like a doll. You looked so sexy in your choice of an outfit. You did your makeup perfectly. It was like you were a doll and an Angel at the same time. Dollgelic really.
Once you stepped into the lively bar, it was packed from the opening of the door. Eren spotted you while his arm was around Mikasa, who was stately immensely at you with a twinkle in her eyes. You made it, she didn’t think you would’ve come to be honest, you don’t seem like a bar kinda girl. More like a club kinda girl in her mind.
They both greeted you with a hug, both hugging longer than usual. You all begin to walk over to the group of students and all around you were cheers and whoop whoops from seeing you. Yeah they were drunk already but I mean what can you expect when you showed up an hour later than the original time the party started. Rather show up fashionably late or won’t go at all.
“ Hey new girl, you gotta drink your first shot of the night since you’re late missy, by the way the names Floch, what’s yours?”, Floch asked drunkenly. You smiled and looked at Eren with squinted eyes of ‘this better not be poison’ eyes and he nodded his head as a gesture of answering your question or reassuring you.
You took the glass from his hand and smiled, “ {reader’s name}, nice to meet you.” You took the shot after you said your piece, scrunching up your face at the sour and strong taste in your mouth. Floch shouted a loud yeah with his fist in the air as your face turned back to your regular face. He liked you already.
Eren shook his head and headed over to where Armin was sitting. On the other hand, you were heading towards the direction of the bar, only jumping when you felt a hand tug your hand, “ What the fu-” you paused when you saw who it was, “ oh it’s just you, Hi Sasha.”
Sasha squealed and hugged you so tightly like she knew you all her life, “ Oh my.. you remember my name. I would’ve thought you forgot my name.”
You stared at her with a confused expression on your face. You grabbed Sasha's face between both of your hands, squeezing her cheeks together, “ How drunk or high are you because we saw each other today—this morning.” You turned back to the bartender staring straight at you; he was admiring you so when your eyes caught his, his eyes widened when you spoke to him, “ Give me what she had, on rocks please?”
The hazel eyes went back to its original size prior to him speaking over the loud chattering and music to you, “ Coming right up and just know you have put me to work longer than I expected darling, but I’ll let it slide just this once for a beautiful lady like you.” You eyed him and noticed that he had a mullet and it looked so good on him and him only.
You were about to speak again when Sasha patted your hand with hers, “ Ywor Still hwding on tew mehh.” Her words were more slurred than usual due to your now squeezing her cheeks together with your soft hands. You laughed and threw your arms down, “ So sorry, Sash. I’ll head to the bar on that side and I’ll meet you all when I get the drink you had.”
Sasha yelled out the drink and your eyes widened. You remember drinking that same drink in the past and got wasted off the second go, so you now understood why she was wasted. You watched her laugh all the way until she got to where Maki and the rest sat. Continuing on, you positioned yourself at the end of the bar with pretty mullet boy still in view of you. You needed to get laid and you didn’t want to fuck any of the students, too much feelings and drama come with that. You haven’t fucked since this summer with your old play toy at your old school. God, you missed your old school more than ever now because you would’ve been in a club or party on campus, not a damn bar, especially a bar on a Friday night.
You didn’t notice the two pairs of brown and blue eyes staring at you from where they sat conversing at the table two feet from you. If you did, you would’ve noticed how handsome both men are.
“ Erwin, do you know who she may be?”, Nile asked his best friend. Erwin eyebrows were scrunched together as they took in every frame of your body. You were truly someone he needed. He needed to feel your big thighs wrapped around his waist as he holsted you up against him, fucking into you nonstop. He was surprised at his thoughts and snapped himself out of them by turning to Nile, “ No I don’t know who she is. Maybe she’s new in town, maybe she’s the sister of my new student who didn’t show up in class on her first day.”
Nile eyed you along with him as you thanked Jean for the drink, occasionally watching you take small drinks from it as your eyes scanned the club. It’s like you were scouting for a fuck and what perfect opportunity for Erwin and Nile. They just had to see which one would get to you first. Nile snapped out of his thoughts and turned to Erwin, only to see him not there. He was next to you. Shit, he’s late again. Oh well, his soon to be divorced wife will have to do for now, just until he gets Erwin to share.
You were enjoying the last few minutes alone before you had to go back to your group of people you were partying with until an alluring presence sat next to you with a drink in his hand already. You trailed your eyes from his hand that had two rings on them up until you got to his pretty blue eyes. Blue eyes scared you but he pulled you in. He was a handsome pale man, an older one at that. He was one of your types and that’s all you needed— flashing your pretty smile at him.
Erwin close-lip smiled back at you, sticking out his hand after, “ Hello, pretty lady. My name is Erwin Smith and I couldn’t help but come over to talk to you. You’re new around here, right?”
You nodded your head with a short laugh following, “ Oh, gosh, how did you know? Do I really give off the vibe that I’m lost or something?” You got him at the tip of your finger now, you just had to get him wrapped around the base of the finger.
Erwin took a sip of his drink and brought all of his attention to you, “ Just never seen someone as beautiful as you around here and this town is very little.”
“ How little?”, you replied, wrapping your glossy lips around your black straw, seducing him without even touching him.
“ Like a grape size, little. Still didn’t catch your name, darling.”, Erwin says with a small smirk on his face.
You started to giggle a lot which means you were a tad bit tipsy, so you needed to get laid immediately. “ You smiled and blinked your eyelashes at him, “ My name is { your name}, sir. I thought I told you that, hmm must’ve slipped my mind because I was focused on how sexy you are.”
Erwin smiled at your words and he haven’t smiled like this in years. You made him smile within minutes of you two talking with each other. Yeah, he needs you. He just had one more question to ask you, “ excuse me for asking this question but did you happen to move here with your sister who, by the way, was supposed to be in my class by any chance?”
You almost cackled at yourself because how did you score three points in a matter of minutes. Points of wrapping an men around your finger tonight, scoring an older man to fuck, and if you’re lucky you hope it’s a men in a profession job, preferably a teacher. You noted that you missed your class and he thought you had an older sister and you were the older sister. So you kept up with the lie with a devious smile on your face, “ I’ll only answer that question if we go somewhere quiet, I got a place in mind, what do you say, mister Smith?”
His eyes widened when you finished your question, he never met a woman that knew what and how to get what she wants— he was intrigued. Persuaded. Seduced. Enchanted. So he took his drink down with one gulp and watched you finish your drink, not wasting one drop. You even looked sexy while drinking your drink. You were perfect for him. Everything he wanted.
Erwin stood up and fixed his suit prior to holding out his hand for you to take as he led you to the bathroom. You gladly took it with your purse in your other hand not noticing the pair of hazel eyes staring at you both with wide eyes. He shook his head and walked to his friends greeting them with an arm around Connie's shoulder. He was happy to see his friends but the linger of you and his professor was clouding the back of his mind.
Back to you and Erwin, you both walked inside the one stall bathroom in the middle of the girls and boys bathroom. With the click of a lock, he turned back to you with low bedroom eyes, eyes dark with lust and lust only. Fuck, he needed you badly, Blisteringly when you gave him the look. The look of inviting. The look of want and desire next to the want to be desired.
“ Do you want the answer to your questi-mmph.”, you were interrupted by the feeling of his smooth but chapped lips on yours lips. The feeling of his big hands on your cheeks was everything you wanted and needed, now you just need them around your neck. He held you with so much care for a one night stand of you to be.
Your lips moved against his in a fast pace kiss. The movements of your heads moved in opposite directions as you two started to sloppily kiss each other. Small little whimpers and groans were heard in the big bathroom with the sound of rock music in the back. Erwin broke the kiss to whisper a small, deep “ jump” and you did. Surprisingly he helped you up and walked you to the sink— sitting you on top of it, not caring if you broke it or not, after all his buddy owned the bar.
Erwin starts to trail sloppy and sensually kisses over your face and neck while groping your plush thighs in between his long, slender fingers, “ you’re so goddamn sexy, my little dove. Gonna fuck you so good.” Erwin undressed your bottom half as you undid his belt buckle. He continued kissing over your breast as he trailed his warm fingers up your thighs again. He stopped at your warm pussy with lace panties covering your pussy, “ please grant me access to you, my little dove. Let me fuck you like you never took any cock before. Just… please.”
Your eyes widened as you stared straight ahead as he kissed up and down your chest, he was desperate for you as you were desperate for him. You two needed each other, him more than you. Up for debate right there. You whispered a small, “ Yes, take me. Fuck me because this is the last time you’ll see me.” He hated how you already had your priorities set and straight. What a woman.
He almost tore open the top part of your outfit until you stopped him, “ No, don’t do that unless you plan on spending 2k on this outfit again. Come on old man, you should know the value of clothes and how hard it is to come by nowadays.” Erwin stopped and scoffed at you prior to licking around the shape of your diamond hello kitty necklace your ex rich boy toy brought you, “ This old man is going to take you on a ride for a moment, brace yourself.”
He ignored your statement about the clothes because you were displaying how much of a rich brat you were, his actual type in women. He hated how much his ex mounted that into him or did he just attract rich snobby girls. Who knows. Not like he wasn’t a rich man himself.
With his last statement, he noticed you holding up a condom. Chuckling in response, he mumbled against your skin while bringing out his own, which was a larger size condom than yours. “ Smart girl you are. Not smart enough to carry my size though.” Your eyes widened at the Trojan magnum size condom, his dick was that big. How was it gonna fit? You never took anything that big before. You were breathing hard and Erwin noticed so he kissed you again to ease you up, “ breathe, little dove. I’m not gonna hurt you, as a matter of fact, we can stop at any time.”
The deep swimming pool of lust in his eyes made you more than eager to take him because for some reason you felt he wasn’t lying. His fingers curled under the lining of your panties, pulling them down to your ankles after the help of your hips lifting up to drag them down there. The cold air hitting your warm slightly shaved pussy was enough to make you shiver against him. His hands were freshly manicured and clean so you let him strum his fingers along the opening of your wet pussy.
You whimpered and he chuckled, “ I got you, little dove.” With that, he rubbed your clit in a slow circular motion making you whimper behind your hand. Your clit was so sensitive, always will be. So when the right man knew how to play with it, you couldn’t help but to fold under his touch. Your purse lay in the sink and your phone was vibrating loudly due to Eren, Mikasa, or Maki calling you to see where you went. You felt a tiny bit bad for leaving them unnoticed but you’re occupied with the man of your fantasies right here and wasn’t gonna let this opportunity slip from your pretty fingers.
You snapped Erwin’s shirt open as you two made out sloppily with spit drooling down both of your mouth’s in want. He hurried and shrugged it off before getting back to playing with your puffy clit. One of his fingers pushed inside of you and you gasped at the feeling of his thick finger pumping into you, “ You’re so pretty gasping for me, wanna hear you moan for me now, little dove.” You held onto the sink for dear life, nails could’ve broken from how hard you were gripping the sink on the sides.
Erwin pushed another finger inside of you, earning a whimper and moan from you, “ Please… go fas-uhhh!” Your moans were the prettiest he’s heard since fucking his favorite student and now situationship since she graduated now. He wouldn’t exactly call them to be in a relationship but he proudly says they were in a situationship since she still had a boyfriend.
Erwin curled his finger and watched your reaction to his fingers and God were you beautiful, “ So damn beautiful taking my fingers, now do you want anything else? Tell me what more do you want, little dove? Wanna become my little slut? Wanna be my little whore? Or do you want to be my Angel?”
His words and his fingers twist and curling inside you were making you come undone soon and you didn’t want to cum that soon. “ Treat me like an angelic whore. Your angelic whore, Mister Smith.” He smirked and stopped his movements for a second— pulling his fingers out but it seems like they didn’t want to let him walk away. Once he finally got them out, he laughed and brought them to his mouth.
“ Shit. You taste so delicious, little girl. So damn delicious just like an angelic whore.”, Erwin groans into your ear as he moves to finish unzipping his pants, letting his cock spill over his dress pants. His pre cum was oozing down his hole. Your mouth watered at the sight of his jumping cock— curved to the right with a girth and length that put other men to shame, pink flush mushroom tip with two visible veins running down his cock.
You breathed out a sigh and unconsciously moved your hands to your clit to play with it, only noticing what you were about to do when he gently slapped your hand. He looked at you with a stern look, “ That’s my job, tsk tsk tsk, a girl who doesn’t listen isn’t acting very angelic is she?”
You hated that he was taunting you and right about it, so you nodded your head in response. He shook his head, passing you the condom, “ Go on and put it on like a good little girl. Let me fuck you until you learn how to become an Angel again.” You reached to grab his cock in your hand, trying to wrap your hands around the entire thing, yet you couldn’t with the little inch of space left to connect your thumb to your other four fingers. That’s how much girth he had. He was a monster.
He was heavy in your hand as you grabbed the condom with your hand, seductively looking into his eyes whilst biting into the condom to rip it open with your teeth. You weren’t about to be a bitch and back down from taking the biggest dick you ever seen or had in your life. You then jumped off the sink still holding eye contact with him as you lowered yourself to your calves since you were still in your heels from Saint Laurent.
He watched you with curiosity in his eyes. He watched you put the condom in your mouth, feeling the glossy rubber in your mouth, moving your mouth a bit until you grabbed his cock with your pretty hands. He threw his mouth back when your lips wrapped around the tip of his cock.
He held onto the sink when you moved your head all the way down to the base of his cock, putting on the condom with a few coughs and gags from how full your mouth was. When you finally moved your lips off his cock and stood back up to sit yourself back onto the sink with a finger beckoning him to come over and get you, he knew he needed to see you again. “ You're a dream come true.”
You smiled at him in agreement. He stroked his condom wrapped cock with three strokes. Erwin soon rubbed the tip of his cock against your wet folds causing you to wrap your arms around his neck with a nod of your head. He caught the motion and moved inside of you slowly. You felt the rubber and the thickness of his cock spilling inside of you. The silent moan from you was everything he needed for him to ravish you. “ Never had anything like this, little dove.”
You shook your head and he laughed at you. Laughed at you again when you whined at the feeling of him stretching out your pussy when he thrust all the way inside of you with one go. You couldn’t take it, you thought you could but he was too damn big, “ fu-uhhh-ck, Erwin. I can’t.. I can’t.”
Your eyes suddenly watered and he kissed them away before they could drop down your chubby cheeks, “ I got you, little dove. You can take it.” You felt a surge of reassurance enter you so you wrapped your legs around his waist taking him by surprise as well.
He moved in and out of you once he felt you open up to him a little so now both of your moans and groans were mixed with the faded music in the background. You felt like you were in heaven as he gripped your hips with your fupa spilled over his hand, “ Shit, little dove, just like that.”
Your walls kept fluttering around him as you held onto his neck with a vice grip. He picked you up and walked to the wall. When your back hit the wall you knew you were no longer in control. His thrust began to speed up and slaps were heard loudly dancing along the walls of the bathroom. The grip he had on your ass only added to your pleasure, “ You’re fucking me so deep. S’deep~” the dragged out p’ told him more than enough.
Erwin sucked on your lip as he fucked your harder against the wall. The sound of your wet cunt and his balls hitting your ass was enough to add to both of your pleasures, you earned a groan from Erwin, “ Such a naughty little slut. Letting me, mmmgh!, take you against the wall of a bar bathroom.” He swirled his hips prior to snapping them against your thighs causing his cock to snap inside of your pussy hitting your cervix, more like planting gentle kisses on it. The pace got rougher and faster and you knew he was chasing his and your orgasm.
The snap of his hips did wonders to you, wonders that caused you to roll your eyes to the back of your head with your mouth open, letting out a loud moan. “ Fuck! Please keep hitting that spot. M’gonna cum. Gonna cum.” Once you kept babbling the words cum over and over again with tears pouring down your face and drooling down your mouth, he knew he had you wrapped around his fingers now. His grunts were raspier and he was close to spilling all of his hot cum inside the condom.
“ Fuck, this condom is not enough, darling. So we have to meet again in order for me to feel how great this pussy is. Need to feel your walls around me convulsing and taking me in, ready for me to breed this fat little pussy of yours.”, Erwin grunt in your ear as an ending for his statement. His words turned you in even more so when he kept kissing your cervix, your nails scratched down his back and legs tightened around his waist.
“ Ahhn~ m’cummin. Cumming. “, your moans were loud and anyone standing outside the bathroom could hear you loud and clear even with the loud music playing outside. Your cream dripped down your pussy and onto his condom, making the condom become creamy as still moved in and out of you nonstop. Fucking you through your orgasm. You never knew what that felt like until now and you loved it. But the tears that came with overstimulation was maddening.
Erwin followed suit and thrusted three more times before spilling himself inside of the condom. His neat blonde hair was now disheveled all over his head with drops of sweat pooling around his forehead. His breaths were harsh and loud as he continued to grip your love handles as he held you up against the wall. His trousers were to his ankles and his white shirt was drowned in sweat.
His body stuck to your sweaty body with your panties holding on to one ankle. Your heels were still on and the outfit you had on is long gone. This was the sluttest you've ever been in your life and honestly you loved it. Erwin kissed your forehead as you slipped off of him— just standing against the wall breathing in and out. “ My perfect little angelic slut, you did wonderful for me. The first one to take all of me, so proud of you.”
You were finally getting the validation you always wanted. You wanted someone to feel proud of you, to care for you with want or even love. You finally got it after years of not receiving it from your father or mother.
He pulled out of you and got rid of his condom after he stopped cumming into it. Your juices were sticky on the condom and his fingers. Fuck he wanted to feel that in his cock more directly, but he’ll have to wait a while.
Your legs were still shaking, “ Can you carry me to my car out the back door. Can’t let anyone see me like this. Pretty please, daddy. With a cherry on top.” You pop the p’ and he groaned. Only reason he groaned was because you called him the name he longed for you to call him while he was deep inside of your guts. You slipped your clothes on after sliding yourself from under him while he stared at himself in the mirror.
You had scratch marks on his back and he left you hickeys on your neck. Yet he wanted you to mark him like he marked you. He almost wanted to slap himself for getting too wrapped in already when he barely knew you. Once he seen that you were fully dressed and fixed up which was five minutes later. He let you get on his back and you two walked down the hallway, passed the men bathroom and out the backdoor. You told him where your car was and he walked you there.
He sat you down on the hood of your car before hearing you unlock your car. Once you did, he opened the door for you and placed you in the driver’s seat.
“ Here’s my number, Mr. Smith. I will see you next time right? Don’t really care if I don’t, just wanna make sure.”, You asked, giving him your card you made as you looked at him with doe eyes. Your makeup was a little messed up but that’s okay because he liked you like this. So messy just for him.
“ Yes, we will see each other again, sometime. Take care, little dove. Soak in epsom salt as well.”, Erwin says with a small smirk on his face. You rolled your eyes with a little laugh following, “ Will do, after all I have to prepare for my classes on Monday.”
Erwin's eyes widened and he was about to speak but you pulled off already leaving him distraught. You are a student and he didn’t even know that. Hell how could he when you two don’t know each other. He just hoped that you weren’t his student or a student in high school. He didn’t want a repeat or case.
Meanwhile, Eren, Armin, and Reiner were looking for you, hell even Mikasa and the other girls were wondering where you went and hoped you didn’t get snatched or something. Jean was the only one who knew where you were at but he just didn’t know your name. He’ll find out soon.
Oh there was a horny and crazy storm coming your way as you made your way to your house with a small on your face. The drinks that the girls brought were still on the table as they called you. Guess you were lying about wanting to drink.
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I used to love writing when I was in high school, but stopped after I graduated because of life. Now, after almost a decade, I want to get back into it but I don't know how. I have so many ideas but I tend to bounce around the same variations and don't know how to stick to one thing, or how to just get back into the rhythm of writing actively. Or even reading actively.
Any advice?
Getting Back to Reading and Writing
What you're experiencing is what I like to think of as "the creative zoomies."
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After so long away from actively reading and writing, there's now this flood of ideas, plans, books you want to read, and stories you want to write. You can't settle and focus on a single thing because your brain wants to do ALL THE THINGS, so you keep bouncing back and forth between things hoping something will stick.
First things first... DEEP BREATH.
As I said in an earlier post, remember: there is no ticking clock. It may feel like there is, sometimes, but we're just little ants on a planet doing our things. There are no deadlines unless you sign up for any, and you don't have to worry about that right now.
So... start by taking an honest look at your schedule and your life, and see if you can figure out a realistic estimate of how much time you have in a given week. Where are there slots of time you can dedicate to writing? How about reading?
Next, it can be immensely helpful if you have a comfortable, relaxing space, free from distraction and interruption, where you can go to write. Some people like to go write at a coffee shop or library to get away from family shenanigans or bothersome housemates. If it's not a billion degrees where you are, you might also try your patio, yard, or a nearby park. Listening to soft music or "ambience rooms" (tons on YouTube) through headphones can also help you focus. There are also still some different apps and programs for distraction free writing. Just make sure to save often and keep a master document on your computer to prevent losing all your work in case the app or program gets glitchy. Also: put your phone on silent, turn off your internet if you must, and let people know not to bother you. This is your writing time... don't be afraid to guard it fiercely.
As for choosing ideas, I'm a big fan of the old-fashioned methods... random number pickers, drawing out of a hat, rolling dice... But you can also do a process of elimination based on what appeals to you the most. If you get it down to two, and then you're disappointed with the one you're left with, you know the one you just eliminated is the right idea to go with.
If you're not sure what to write, try doing some writing prompts. There are lots available online and there are some great books with writing prompts. Doing one a day can be a great way to get yourself back in the habit of writing again.
As for reading, start by reading during moments of spare time, such as if you're taking a bath, riding your stationary bike, sitting in a waiting room, or riding public transportation. You can even read during your morning coffee or your lunch break. Also, embrace the world of audio books. This is one of my favorite ways to read, because I can do it while I'm exercising, showering, cleaning, cooking, driving, doing projects... I get through so many more books by listening to audio books. More than anything, just remember that once again, there's no ticking clock. You don't have to finish a certain number of books before the end of the year. Read what you want, at the pace that works for you, and don't be afraid to DNF if a book isn't working for you.
I hope this helps!
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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!
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