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bobsyourdylan · 7 months

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Okay, so – a few thoughts on Izzy’s death. I’m sure other people have also laid this out, but I haven’t stumbled across it yet, so this is partially for me to get my thoughts organized. For the record, I love Izzy – he fascinated me (in a horrified sort of way) in season 1, and then he grew on me significantly in season 2. What a weird little guy. But also – I’m fine with them killing him off, and also with how they did it, because I think it makes sense for the story. But I know that a lot of people are super upset about his death, and also about the way he died. So, a few semi-coherent thoughts on that:

Why not a sacrifice play?

This writer’s room is so self-aware, so deliberate about engaging with tropes – there is no possible way that they sat around breaking the story of Izzy’s death and no one said “woah, wouldn’t it be symbolic and gut-wrenching if he sacrificed himself for Ed? Or Stede?” No way. So why didn’t they go that route?

Izzy’s arc in season 2 has been all about becoming his own man, separate from Ed/Blackbeard. Like – that’s what he’s worked towards, this whole season. That is his growth. It would be insulting to take that away from him at the last minute, and make his death purely about Ed and Stede.

Listen, I love a sacrifice arc as much as the next person. But Izzy’s life isn’t about sacrifice anymore – that’s the whole point of his season 2 arc. He has spent decades sacrificing both himself and Ed to the altar of Blackbeard. No more.

It also means that Ed and Stede’s mourning doesn’t have to be tinged with the guilt of “he sacrificed himself to save me/my partner.” They can mourn Izzy purely for himself, because he is worth mourning. This, I would argue, is the send-off that Izzy’s character deserves.

Izzy’s death wasn’t accidental on Ricky’s part – it wasn’t a stray bullet.

We see from the scene when the crew is locked up in Spanish Jackie’s that Ricky recognizes Izzy. We know from their conversation that, for Ricky, Izzy is the epitome of piracy – Izzy, not Blackbeard, is the legend.

The thing is – Ed and Stede are both in the scene where Izzy dies (I’m not sure if you can see Stede on screen, but the bts photos show Rhys’ position, on what would be the far right of the shot). Arguably, Stede would have been the easier shot – Ricky wouldn’t have had to complete a full 180-degree turn before he could pull the trigger. So why doesn’t he go for Stede, who abandoned him to the tender mercies of Spanish Jackie in the first place? Or Blackbeard, arguably the greatest/most famous pirate alive, with the possible exception of Zheng, who he’s already targeted? Sure, you could argue that he’d going for Ed here… but I don’t think he is. The shot’s too low to be accidentally aimed for Izzy – it would hit Ed’s knee or something, probably. I think that yes, it’s a panicked shot, not well-aimed at all. But if it’s aimed at anyone, I think it has to be Izzy. And at the very least, the symbolism of it is very much not accidental.

For probably the first time since they created Blackbeard, Izzy isn’t just a stand-in for Ed. His significance is his own in this scene – in all of his interactions with Ricky. He’s not targeted because he’s Blackbeard’s first mate (why go for the first mate when you could go for Blackbeard?). He’s targeted because he’s Izzy Hands – because he is significant, powerful, famous, respected in and of himself.

And more than that – this is an arc about the end of piracy. And Izzy Hands is piracy – the show has been telling us from the beginning that piracy is a mixed bag, full of the good and the bad, and Izzy represents that – represents both the toxic, violent side of piracy, and the side of piracy that he grows into, that he explains to Ricky – piracy as family, home, belonging. Izzy dies, and it hurts, because not only is he a great character, but he represents in one person all of the complicated, hilarious, heartbreakin, violent, loving aspects of piracy – and of the show. But it is so, so important that Izzy dies as himself – not as a symbol or shield of Ed, or Stede, or Blackbeard. Not even as a symbol of piracy, but instead as the active embodiment of piracy – as something/someone who grows, changes, ends. Not as static or passive, but as better than when we first met him, as transformed as Buttons in his own way.

Izzy’s death sets up a possible revenge arc:

We know that everything in this show ties back to the main relationship between Ed and Stede. Izzy’s death is, I think, significant on its own, for him as a character – but it is also, by necessity, significant to Ed and Stede’s relationship. Namely – it sets up an interesting conflict for season 3 re: a potential revenge arc for Ed.

Now, clearly they’ve carefully ended season 2 on a relatively high note in case we don’t get a season 3. But we know they’re gonna be terrible at running an inn, and we know there’s unfinished business with Ricky. Ed’s current strategy of dealing with everything that’s happened seems to be “I don’t want to be a pirate, get me out of here” – which, while fair enough, won’t last, because that’s the nature of unfinished business. So, at some point, Ed and Stede are going to need to confront Ricky again. And, if the writers decide to lean into the revenge arc, I’d say the odds are pretty high that, when Ed lays eyes on Ricky again, we get a flashback to Izzy’s death.

And this sets us up for a pivotal, and necessary, moment in Ed’s character arc: when confronted with pain, loss, negative emotion in general – can Ed deal with it without losing himself? Ed needs a balance between the Kraken, Blackbeard, and Edward, and we see at the end of season 1 and beginning of season 2 how challenging that balance is for him to find, especially when confronted with loss or pain. We can see Ed working towards that balance when he’s interacting with Low – Low’s taunts don’t push Ed to violence, but instead get to Stede. But comparatively, Izzy’s loss is a much greater blow, and at some point, Ed is going to need to confront that.

Plus – we know the writing team are thinking of Izzy’s death at least partially in terms of the mentor/mentee arc, which often confronts the question of revenge – after the mentor’s death, the mentee is required to choose on their own how to go on, what kind of person they want to be. And this often requires a confrontation with both the mentor’s loss and a decision about how far they want to take their desire for revenge.

Why not a cooler death?

Okay — I get this criticism. I do. Izzy is an amazing fighter, we all love that about him. And you can keep most of the above symbolism and still have him die fighting two dozen British soldiers.

But — again — we are back to the root of this show: Ed and Stede.

Izzy has two deaths this season: one in the premiere, one in the finale. The first is Stede’s fantasy. Cool swordfight, and Stede triumphs, obviously — but the premise of the fight is that Izzy’s a great swordsman and Stede bests him because now Stede’s a great pirate. This is Stede’s ideal pirate fantasy.

But Izzy’s actual death is not like this. It is messy and inelegant and painful and no one gets any glory from it at all and Ed is crying with Izzy dying in his arms, and Stede wants to help, goes for bandages, but he doesn’t know what to do and it’s not enough anyways — And this is not a fantasy anymore. This is piracy, and this is the piracy that Ed wants to escape. And it’s important that Stede sees this, sees what Ed is done with.

And it’s also important that Stede tries to save Izzy. Izzy isn’t just a symbolic barrier between Stede and Ed anymore, to be sacrificed to Stede’s reunion fantasy. He’s his own person, with his own death, and Izzy has grown, yes, but so has Stede.

And by using Izzy’s death to make this point, we both get Stede learning the reality of piracy and growing beyond his fantasy, and the glorious fantasy fight kiss i love you reunion between Ed and Stede (if Ed and Stede had reunited by fighting off dozens of British soldiers, but Izzy had died doing the same, the dissonance would have messed with both the death and the reunion, because we the audience wouldn’t be able to distinguish between the fantasy and reality worlds). And getting both of these is the premise of the show — fantasy and reality both.

And sure — you can be mad that the show used Izzy in this way. But that is the show’s premise — everything is in service of the protagonists and their relationship. This is not a surprise— it’s been openly talked about since day 1.

You don’t have to like what the writers did. You don’t have to agree that it was the correct choice. But they have proven to us, time and time again over the last year, that they are self-aware and careful with this show that they know we love so much. So we absolutely owe it, to them and to ourselves, to ask why they made a choice that not everyone may agree with. What is the payoff? Why did they decide to do this thing that they knew would upset fans? Because we know it’s not that they hate us. So what is it? You don’t have to agree that the payoff is worth it. But do the writers, and the show, and yourself the favor of recognizing that there is a payoff here.

#screaming into the void #as someone who studies and teaches literary analysis for a living #i am begging everyone to please at least try to think through the reasons for this arc #ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #the izcourse #ofmd s2 meta #ofmd meta #our flag means death #our flag means death s2 #i’m gonna regret getting involved and i know it #but i just had to get this off my chest

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kingofbodyrolls · 10 months

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BTS fic recs: June 2023

I've finally gotten back to reading again, so I wanted to make a monthly rec list of my favorite readings for that given month 🥰 All the fics on this list hold a dear place in my heart 🥹

I want to thank each and every writer on this list for creating such wonderful stories and art - you are truly amazing ✨

If you read anything on this list and you like it, please leave a comment to the writer or reblog the original fic’s post ♥

BTS fic rec index → May |💜| Jul | Aug | Sep (jjk)(knj) | Oct (pjm) | Nov (*) | Dec (ksj)(kth) |

Emoji meaning → angst = 🌩️, smut = 🥵, fluff = 🥰, comedy = 😂, personal favorites = 💯.

⭐The Boy with Galaxies in His Eyes 💯 by @oddinary4bts // jjk x reader // idol!au + fwb2l // 🌩️🥵🥰

📝 You had never thought the night sky could be found in someone’s eyes. That is, until you met Jeon Jungkook and his gravity pulled you in. Will he crush you with the galaxies in his eyes, or will you learn to explore his worlds and make them yours?

🗨️ It is a long one, but damn is it worth it! It will take you for the very best rollercoaster ride of your life. So if you haven’t read this yet, what are you honestly doing with your life?

⭐The Boy with Galaxies in His Eyes: The First Time (drabble) by @oddinary4bts // jjk x reader // idol!au + fwb2l // 🥵🥰

📝 Jeon Jungkook is an enigma of galaxies and black holes. When he texts you to hang out late at night, you can’t resist the gravity of him. After all, you’ve always been a sucker for outer space.

🗨️ This is a drabble of their first time together and if you read the parent fic, promise me you won’t sleep on this one! ✨

⭐I want to be with you 💯 by @oddinary4bts // pjm x reader // idol!au + s2f2l (fan) // 🌩️🥵🥰

📝 Moving to Seoul has always seemed like a good idea, until the bubble bursts when you realize your new neighbor is Park Jimin, and he’s not the sweet angel you’ve always imagined him to be. Will the reality of Park Jimin forever be a nightmare, or will he turn into a sweet dream?

🗨️ This was the first idol!au that I loved (and made me read the others). I adore this and I will read it again sometime 🥰

⭐Beneath the Water 💯 by @jungshookz // pjm x reader // fantasy!au + mermaid!au // 🌩️🥵🥰😂

📝 His legs were sparkling. You looked up from his face slowly and towards his legs, your head tilting in confusion when you were met with the sight of… well, it certainly wasn’t a pair of legs. What the fuck?

🗨️ This is just perfect; a tiny bit angst, gold certified comedy and fluff (with a sprinkle of smut). There’s also a bullet point drabble of this, so please check that out too (here).

⭐Failure to Communicate by @gukslut and @stutterfly // pjm x reader // college!au + r2l // 🌩️🥵😂

📝 Could either of you write an enemies to lover story about jimin and y/n set in college where he was her TA and got her kicked out of her major bc he didnt give her the grade she needed and was generally unhelpful?

🗨️ I don’t have much to say, just go read it - it speaks for itself ✨

⭐On Mute by @yoon-kooks // jjk x reader // office!au, coworkers!au, fuckboy!gamer!jjk + f2l // 🥵🥰

📝 You always assumed your handsome coworker was down to fuck anyone in the office except for you. He always assumed you weren’t interested in a guy like him. And both of you were content with never admitting your feelings… until he unknowingly confides in you in the realms of a certain tactical FPS game.

🗨️ It’s just so cute and wholesome 🥹

⭐Make Me 💯 by @jikookiekosmos // pjm x reader // office!au, boss!jimin/employee!reader + dom/sub themes // 🥵🥰🌩️

📝 After a bad breakup, you decide to go out one night and drink your sorrows away - that is, until you see your now ex-boyfriend there with someone clinging to his arm. To get your mind off of things, you go back to your job after hours; what you don’t expect is for your boss and CEO of the company, Park Jimin, to show up and offer you help in ways you didn’t know you needed.

🗨️ It has heavy dom/sub themes (which I’m normally not into, but imma switch for this one!). It is incredibly hot and so, so damn perfect 🥵

⭐Pay Attention 💯 by @jikookiekosmos // pjm x reader // office!au, boss!jimin/employee!reader + dom/sub themes // 🥵🥰

📝 You’d mentioned it in passing once before, your fantasy about blowing your boss - and now boyfriend - under his desk during one of his important CEO business meetings. So what happens when you want to turn that fantasy into a reality, and he wants it just as much?

🗨️ This is a sequel to ‘Make Me’ (but can be read as a stand-alone) - and it is just pure dirty smut. The dynamic between reader and Jimin is just so good ✨

⭐On Call: part 1 & On Call: part 2 by @yoonjinkooked // jjk x reader // s2l + rom-com // 🥵😂

📝 After a catastrophic first date, you end up leaving the hospital angry, tired and date-less. Hoping to have a drink or five, you end up in a nearby bar, sitting next to the same doctor who caught your eye earlier.

🗨️ Both parts are really, really good!

⭐Shake Shack 💯 by @kth1 // pjm x reader // s2l (though they went to the same high school) // 🥵🥰

📝 Crushing on a man ever since high school, you failed time and time again to actively talk to him. Until one sweaty summer day, you finally developed the courage to ask him out on a date.

🗨️ The story is so good, perfect amounts of sweet, a bit fluffy and then downright saucy!

⭐A Night at the Mall by @bunnybubae // jjk x reader // f2l // 🥵🥰

📝 Your best friend Jungkook works as a security guard at the mall and everything takes an interesting twist when you go to visit him during his shift on a friday night.

🗨️ Jungkook is so sweet and funny in this, ahh.

⭐Backtrack 💯 by @mapofthesea // myg x pjm x reader // producers!yoonmin, assistant!reader, bi!yoongi // 🥵🥰

📝 There’s no telling just how long you’d been stuck in the windowless studio, and you’re just about ready to walk out and forfeit your paycheck for the week, until your bosses strike up an interesting bargain.

🗨️ Holy fuck 🥵 I feel like I need to take a very long shower now 🫣🫣🫣 this is probably one of the dirtiest fics I’ve read. It’s so good 🤤

⭐The Forgotten Spaces [completed series] 💯 by @oddinary4bts // jjk x reader // college!au, dancer!au + e2l // 🌩️🥵🥰

📝 you’ve been dancing on the same dance crew since your teenage years, and you finally have an important role in it. It feels like life is taunting you when your rival comes back after disappearing for a year, ready to tease you every chance he gets. Will the teasing turn into more, or are you going to take him down with you?

🗨️ This is truly a masterpiece! The writing is perfection and the characters have so much soul, dimension, hurt and love. It is exceptional 👏🏾♥️ you just have to read this gem 💎

Thank you so much for going through my recommendations! I hope you find something that you like and show it some love. All of these fics and writers have inspired me to write again, so I'm finally working on my own stuff again (it’s been like 7+ years, yikes 🙈). Hopefully I'll actually finish something this time 😂 but damn it feels good to write again ♥

If you should be interested in more BTS fic recs please find more here 😀

#bts fic recs #bts fic #bts fanfic #bts imagine #bts scenarios #jimin fanfic #park jimin x reader #jungkook fanfic #jungkook x reader #yoongi fanfic #Yoongi x reader #bts smut

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youryurigoddess · 6 months

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Welcome to the Magic Shop

Or why Will Goldstone’s Magic Shop might be more important than it seems to be and why the Bullet Catch isn’t the only trick in its stock that should interest us in the context of the Good Omens plot.

Let’s start with very first thing Aziraphale saw and literally ran towards after crossing the shop’s threshold. It’s nothing else but the legendary sword Excalibur (foretelling the divinely appointed ruler) and a prop for a spectacular illusion called the Excalibur chest.

But wait, there’s more to it! During the handshake besides the Excalibur itself, placed right between Crowley and Aziraphale, there are three more swords struck into the angel’s back. It’s Tarot symbolism: reversed Ace of Swords (miscommunication, clouded judgement) and reversed Three of Swords (recovery from a difficult patch in a relationship or heartbreak). I’d say it checks out for the angel in this minisode! Reversed because they suddenly switched sides for this particular scene.

Insane how the Good Omens crew found a cobra from the snake-charming act and put it on the counter in front of Aziraphale — as if it wasn’t clear enough that this angel is a professional snake charmer, right?

I wanted to make a joke about Aziraphale buying the cobra afterwards, just like Crowley bought the eagle lectern as a souvenir of that night, but then I remembered… this stupid, sentimental snake HAD IT IN HIS BEDROOM IN S1.

Just imagine how many Aziraphale-related memorabilia he had accumulated over those six thousands years, when only one night out with the angel led to two new items in his collection.

The only way for Crowley to be more obvious would be covering the walls of his apartment with Aziraphale’s pictures like in a classic Stalker Shrine trope.

And since our thoughts are already in the present, there’s also something super interesting in the background between Crowley and Aziraphale during their visit in the shop in S2. Look to the right!

As you can probably suspect at this point, nothing in this shop is what it seems to be. This isn’t just any piece of rope, but a prop for the Indian rope trick, sometimes described as the world’s greatest illusion.

The story behind it revolves around someone going to Heaven and the magician bringing them back in the most spectacular fashion! And one of the Good Omens producers, Catriona McKenzie, shared this BTS photo with it some time ago.

The classic trick looks like this: the magician’s assistant climbs the rope until he’s lost to view, as if ascending to Heaven. The magician calls him and feigns anger upon receiving no response. He arms himself with a knife or sword, climbs the rope, and vanishes as well. An argument is heard and then human limbs fall, as if cut from the assistant’s body by the magician. When all the parts of his body land on the ground, the magician climbs down the rope, collects the severed limbs, and puts them all in a big basket. The assistant resurrects/reappears from it uninjured.

Not that it means something in particular, but this scenario would be extremely fun to play in the context of getting the Supreme Archangel Aziraphale back to Earth.

#Yuri is doing her thing #good omens #good omens meta #go2 meta #go2 spoilers #aziraphale #crowley #silly little guy #souvenir #ineffable husbands #Will Goldstone’s Magic Shop #set design

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cloudykaii · 1 year

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little scenarios

pairing: txt x 6th!member, platonic

warnings: nothing too bad i think, maybe some cursing and crying

this is like an extendeed version of my little things series! just instead of bullet points it's little scenarios. for comparable work, check out care, on my bts masterlist

When you first joined the group there was a bit of controversy about it. Granted, you had joined them as the last member to be added, but you had still debuted with them. It was what attracted the most attention to your debut. Five tall guys and one short girl? You were also the youngest, so you were still a minor at debut. It took a while in order to get to the point where people seemed to be genuinely interested in your talent instead of how crazy or ridiculous it was for you to be in such a group.

Unlike the general public, the guys never really seemed to care. When you were added, there was a few days of panic. Were you all going to share a dorm? Would you even be comfortable that? Then, when you moved in, that changed to the topic of how to not accidentally walk in on you and what to do.

You had been nervous, too. You had worked as hard as you possibly could and then some in order to make this happen. You just got handed the opportunity of a lifetime and what if they didn’t recognize how hard you had worked in order to prove that you had the talent and the backbone to handle this opportunity?

But then you actually started working together, and everything seemed to fall into place,

Debut performances made anyone nervous, anything could go wrong, and what if you secretly weren’t as good as you thought? But you were nervous for a different reason about your debut. You didn’t mind being the only one given a skirt while the guys were in suits on some sort, and you didn’t mind the shoes they gave you to make you a little taller and to monopolize on the cute look you were supposed to have… but the skirt was really short, and the shoes only seemed to magnify that.

During the little interview beforehand, you had been given a jacket to lay over your lap. You were grateful for that but now that you were going over the moves in front of the mirror before you had to actually perform, you couldn’t help but notice that while your outfit was cute, the last thing it was is functional. When you practically flashed yourself in the mirror you decided enough was enough and shyly moved to find Soobin.

He was talking to someone that looked like a staff member for the show you were performing on, and you stood by him, anxiously clasping your hands together as you waited. You tried to hold out until he could give you his attention all by himself but knowing that time until the stage was closing in, you finally reached out and anxiously tugged on his sleeve. He looked down at you finally, eyes widening slightly as if he was surprised to see you there. He must have seen the anxious look on your face because the first thing he asked was, “What’s going on?”

“Uhm.” You began. “I could probably tough it out if it’s an issue, but is there any way I could borrow someone’s jacket or something?” Your little voice was practically a whisper and he had to lean down a little to hear it, but he got the message. He pulled away a little to look down at you and his jaw dropped when he realized just how much of you he could see. He moved to cover you a little, slipping his hand into yours.

“Let’s go find your stylist.” His cheeks burned with a blush as he kept his eyes straight ahead, looking for the woman in question. When he found her going through her makeup supplies, he immediately started in. “Can we get a better skirt? Honestly, change the whole outfit if you have to, but she cannot perform in that.”

She looked at him, confused. “But.. she looks fine, and she wore it for the interview, so if she’s the only one who changes outfits then it could spread rumors about her being a diva..”

Soobin stared at her, face blank. “I don’t care. Respectfully, she is not only a minor, but she’ll flash the whole audience if she goes out there dancing in that.” He was trying to be as respectful as possible but he was just getting the vibe that she just didn’t want to go through the effort of changing the outfit, and you looked so scared behind him, he felt something surge in his chest. He was ushered out the door so you could change finally.

When you came back out only minutes before the performance in a longer skirt and with a much more comfortable look on your face, he was satisfied. When you gave him that big, happy smile and went, “Thank you,” all shyly, he felt his chest swell with pride for helping you as a person and as your leader. “Any time,” he said softly. “Now, you ready to go blow the world away?”

Sure, not all of the moments shared were happy, especially in the beginning.

If there was one thing Taehyun liked doing, it was fucking with you- sometimes, at the expense of others. The entire dorm was woken up at seven in the morning to the sound of your screaming. It was alarming in itself, but when you were the only one with your own room, it became an emergency. However, when they went to open the door, and all they saw was you on top of Taehyun and hitting him with one of your textbooks while he laughed uncontrollably, they didn’t know what to do at first. Finally, Beomgyu moved to tug you off of the younger boy, taking away the book.

“What is going on?” Soobin asked sleepily, but Taehyun was still cackling. “Oh, you should have seen it! She screamed so loud!”

A sarcastic comment like “We heard,” was about to leave Yeonjun when you huffed. “Every day this week, Taehyun has found some way to mess with me. All I want to do is sleep in, so that I can wake up and focus on getting all of my assignments done so that I can practice more for the performance this weekend!” You looked exhausted, Yeonjun was the first to notice.

You were pale, there were dark circles under your eyes and more than mad at anyone, you looked like you were about to cry. Taehyun stuck his tongue out at you, and you lunged at him again. Yeonjun had an inkling of what was going on, judging by the way things were strewn across your room. He knew you were under a lot of stress, but he didn’t really know how bad it was. Between classes and working on your Korean and performing and any other social aspect, you felt like you were drowning.

Figuring you probably wouldn’t want to be seen crying, Yeonjun pulled you with him out of the room. “Hey, what’s going on, little shark?”

You sniffled a little at the familiar nickname before mumbling. “I just wanted to sleep.” His heart broke when you broke down in tears, and he rubbed your back softly. He saw Taehyun’s sheepish face and moved to shut the bedroom door with his foot, shaking his head as if to say not now. “Have you not been sleeping?” he asked you softly, and you just sniffled. “No.. I’ve been trying to do as much homework as possible so I don’t have to do it whenever we have something big! And I’ve been trying to practice my Korean and my dances and I’m scared because what if I’m not any good at it and I’m so tired,” you cried and he just soothed you for a second. No one was judging you for being so upset. Hell, they had all felt like that since their career started, and worse than that, you were so young.

You were giving up everything to chase your dreams, and that took a lot of guts- Yeonjun figured you had more than enough bravery to match the pressure you were under. He gently pushed you away from him to lay you down. “No, I need-“

“What you need to do,” he interrupted, “is get a few hours of real sleep. This is the quietest, and coldest room here, so just close your eyes for a bit.” Yeonjun brushed some of your curls out of your face. “You can rest now, it’s okay.” It was hard to remain noble against him and insist that you needed to work when he could see your eyes were already droopy. He just made sure that you were tucked in and asleep. And, to Taehyun’s credit, he did apologize. He hadn’t really understood the amount of pressure you were under; after all, you never really talked about it and you managed to make everything seem so easy.

But that was just how it was sometimes, sometimes you needed someone to realize you were drowning and reach out to help you, and that was exactly what they were there for.

#aimee grace writes #txt #txt x reader #txt imagine #tomorrow x together #tomorrow x together x reader #tomorrow x together imagine #txt 6th member #choi yeonjun #choi soobin #choi beomgyu #kang taehyun #huening kai

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jmdbjk · 4 months

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Episode 2: Adolescence

Beyond the Star, produced by HYBE Media Studio

They begin by conveying how important concerts are for them. Concerts. Not performances. Concerts.

They thought they “made it” in 2016 when they booked the Olympic Gymnastics Arena for a concert. It was the dream venue for idols at the time and are amazed they are performing there and never imagined they’d have a concert that big.

During the interviews where they are expressing their thoughts about what performing during concerts means to them, we see footage of different concerts illustrating what they are trying to explain.

Hobi harkens back to their first concert in October 2014 for The Red Bullet tour, at Seoul’s AX Korea with 6,000 in attendance. He says they didn’t care about how many hundreds or thousands were there, they were just so thankful for the fans who came to see them.

Attendance rose at each progressive concert. Their fourth concert in 2015 had 13,500 in attendance at the Seoul Olympic Handball Gymnasium, and their fifth concert in May 2016 at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, mentioned at the beginning of this episode, had 25,000 in the audience. They were in awe at how huge it was when they first arrive at that venue, looking out at the empty seats before they began rehearsing.

They were always so emotional during their ending ments, so thankful for what they were experiencing after knowing how hard they’d worked from debut up until the end of each one of those concerts.

In the early years, the hearts of those young men were bursting with passion and to see so many fans supporting them had to be an overwhelming relief, its no surprise their emotions overflowed.

Though they finally saw their hard work being appreciated, the joy was tempered with having to deal with pushback.

One of the things I noticed that was not mentioned yet in Episode 1 was how much pushback, bullying, negativity and hate they received from their peers and other fans outside their team and company from the very first day.

Working their asses off to fulfill their dreams while being faced with all that makes it even more amazing that they stuck with it.

It was them against the entire kpop industry. We all know how much BTS is hated by other kpop fandoms. We see it daily on the X timeline. The jealousy is real, it's destructive and it's dangerous.

BTS is untouchable now but in 2013, Jungkook was 15 years old. A CHILD! Jin was 20! BigHit had no money. There was a point after debut when they were asked to move out of the dorm because the company couldn't afford it anymore. Underdogs is an understatement, truly what the hell did they think they were doing up against all these established kpop groups, their fandoms and the big 3 companies?

Now, in Episode 2, we start to hear how the guys handled all this. For some of them, they did not handle it very well. Namjoon talks about his panic attacks and how he avoids the internet and going online during a song/album release.

In Episode 1 we saw Hobi and Jin so thrilled and excited, anxiously waiting and monitoring online their very first album release at midnight on June 13, 2013 and for Namjoon to tell us now he can’t enjoy the thrill of that is so devastating to me.

When an artist sends their art out into the world, it is like a living part of themselves, an extension of themselves that they lay bare to the world. The visceral reaction of panic when seeing people hate you for it…and the amount of courage it takes to ignore that and keep going and make more art to release into the world…I challenge anyone to show me they have THAT amount of courage.

And I implore you to understand the depths these guys LOVE their fans ESPECIALLY BEFORE THEY WERE BIG to keep doing it in spite of the hate.

Yoongi was incredibly diplomatic when he says “we had a lot of unreasonable controversies.” I would have said "we had a lot of total fucking bullshit that meant nothing thrown at us by a bunch of stupid butt hurt people." There, I fixed it for you, Yoongi.

They had a ludicrous amount of people gunning for them, hating them for being successful, hating them for being different. Jealousy drives people to do the most hateful things.

Jimin says, “having to deny the bad rumors was always so upsetting.”

Namjoon recieved death threats during the Red Bullet Tour. Early on they were accused of chart manipulation because they sold so many albums. This is the company had no money, there was no money to spend on chart manipulation!

They were accused of plagiarism and brought to court and were exonerated because it wasn't true.

Jimin received death threats at the end of the Wings Tour.

Being the humans that they are, with feelings and emotions, Yoongi says they and the fans were getting desperate and spiteful in the face of all this backlash and hate.

The fan song “2! 3!” was an anomaly. It is somewhat somber for a song dedicated to fans. Most fan songs are light and cheery. But this song fit the emotions BTS was experiencing and bonded them closer with their fans and was again, another instance of the members being sincere and genuine in their expressions.

The emotional scenes of BTS standing on stage, Army singing the lyrics back at them, waving their purple plastic bagged Army bombs, has to be one of the best memories for them. A truly bonding moment between artist and fan.

December 2016, Mnet Asian Music Awards, they win Artist of the Year. It is their first major award. Yoongi says “in a movie, the ending credits are supposed to roll at this point.”

They’ve reached the top… as they knew it. End of story... 2016? Nope.

Early the next year while they were on the Wings Tour, they were told they were going to the United States for the Billboard Music Awards. No other Korean act had ever done that before. They had no expectations for that trip. They had no idea what they were supposed to do when they got there.

It’s kinda cute seeing them prepare and wondering what to expect. They are so young and you can tell they are trying to figure out if they’re supposed to try to emulate the image of a western pop star.

When they get out of the van at the red carpet event, they all look around the back of the van to the other side of the street and see the fans screaming at them. They knew who the real fans were and they wondered what everyone else thought: perhaps people were just curious about who they were.

Namjoon wonders how different it may have been had they, the members, been a little more culturally proficient, meaning at that time, they were inexperienced, naive and ignorant about the impact they were making. It was all a big wonder to them at that point. They were thinking “do they even know who we are?”

Then they win Billboard’s Social Artist award, not a major award but still, it had been won by Justin Bieber for many years prior and now it was BTS’ opportunity to kick in the door. And they did. With all seven pairs of feet. Western artists began to take note and wanted to collaborate with them. The thorn in the western music industry's side had arrived in the form of this team of 7 and their fans.

Yoongi thought it was a one-off token award, but then they were invited to perform at the AMA’s. They can’t believe they’ve made it that far.

They are soaring and going places they never imagined they’d go. Everything seemed like a fairytale, the success, the adulation, the global attention…

But it was happening too fast, their young minds, their emotional development and sense of self never had a chance to mature and catch up to their work load and the pressures and expectations their image and success placed on them. They never had a chance to stop and assess themselves personally and consider if this level of fame was something they even wanted.

Literally, they never. stopped. working. When they say "we just kept running forward" that is not a euphemism, it is literal.

As soon as one event, concert, appearance, fan meet, photo shoot, shooting Run BTS, music shows, whatever was over, it was on to the next one...from plane to hotel to venue back to hotel back to plane, to be repeated over and over.

In mid-2017, by the time they talked about resting for a while, it was perilously close to being too late. They still had the rest of the Wings Tour to complete through December. Some of them had already considered quitting. Some did not possess the confidence to endure the burden. Some of them wondered if pausing was the right thing since they were doing so well.

They were confused by how they could be feeling like this after they’d worked so hard to get to this point.

The title of this episode is "Adolescence" and it pertained not only to the members who were just emerging from it and their careers that had gotten past the starting line and now riding an almost out of control rocket to stardom. It also was a point in time for the company trying to get its feet under it, for its leader Bang PD trying to steer this team, to figure out how to manage this worldwide sensation they'd created.

Bang PD had to learn how to deal with his team's enormous success as he watched them begin to burn out. He embraced a philosophy of focusing on the importance for an artist to have autonomy and be happy as a person which was not a thing in the kpop industry at that time. He was worried about their mental well being and their happiness. He suggested a break.

They knew there was an "end" coming eventually. End of contract, military... et al. They pondered the inability to enjoy the fruits of their hard work and that it couldn't "end" with them being unhappy.

We know in 2018 they renegotiated their contracts.

For a group as close as they were, as committed as they were to their careers and to each other, they had to come together and discuss how they were feeling while being burned out, they had to admit to each other they wanted to quit. We don’t know the nitty-gritty details of how it went down but they worked through it and re-committed to each other and their team.

They didn’t give up and that tells me not a single one of them are quitters.

My own personal thoughts are that they recognized they needed to stop at that specific point in time and regroup. They knew enlistment was coming eventually and the typical life-cycle of a kpop group had been about 7 years when idols aged and younger ones took their place. But they'd reached places in the stratosphere that none other had before. I think they paused, recalibrated and actually let themselves seriously think of a future after enlistment that would allow them to keep up this level of success, to keep pushing boundaries...and therefore they re-evaluated what was in that contract to include things that ensured their well-being so they could grow. That new contract was set to expire this year, well after Jin was supposed to be back from the military and most likely all of them. I am curious to know what that original 2018 contract planning included...

Anyway, I accidentally rambled a lot adding extra context and my own thoughts while watching this episode.

Review of Episode 3 next…

#bts beyond the star #jimin #jungkook #jin #taehyung #namjoon #hobi #yoongi

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canonicallyobserving911 · 26 days

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Buck & Eddie: Buddie Endgame!

Before 7x5 aired, I decided to take a break from 911blr and Buddieblr since the BTS pics and the "supposed leaks" for 7x5 showed they were about to do another wash, rinse and repeat with both Buck and Eddie. Their storylines have been seen before and at this point, they've become predictable. Anyway, I'm glad I took several days off because I figured most of the people who watched it would see Buck on a date with T*mmy and it would prompt them to start "Jumping ship" (Eddie’s words from 7x4) even though the whole situation was rushed and there's no substance there. If people did jump ship, they have every right to do so but just in case they're new here and they haven't watched all of Buck's train wreck relationships starting in season 1, the facts are Buck is making the same mistakes he's made in the past even though in 6x1, he said he didn't want to do that anymore.

Here's the thing... I'm not trying to convince anyone about who they should and shouldn't ship because everyone has their own preferences. However, I do think it's interesting how some are choosing to forget or just don't want to acknowledge/admit the fact that T*mmy did the same thing to Buck that both Taylor and Natalia did but it didn't take him multiple episodes to do it either.

Here are the cycles...

WASH: He showed up to the loft UNANNOUNCED.

RINSE: He kissed him.

REPEAT: And then he left him standing there dazed just like they did.

BONUS SPIN CYCLE: He told Buck to "Take care of yourself" (he just said it before he showed up unannounced and he said it while they were at Air Rescue when he was trying to date Eddie 👀).

Therefore, it appears the only difference between T*mmy and Taylor and Natalia is, T*mmy's a man which seems to be the only reason why some are willing to look past his bad character traits (discussed here) based solely on that fact. He's just like Buck's previous relationships where it starts off with Buck being kissed like he's in some kind of fairy tale or some BS and then it follows the same pattern as before (as indicated above).

I'm not going to go into the Buck and T*mmy of it all or lack thereof any further because this post is about Buddie and only Buddie!

I've witnessed the REAL LOVE Buck and Eddie share and it's the reason why I have and always will ONLY ship them with each other. They've built a family together and the fact is they know each other inside and out. They don't have to pretend and they know how to take care of the other one. They agreed to have each other's backs years ago and they've continued to do it. Chris views Buck as his second dad and he was doing it way before Eddie updated his will and named Buck to be Chris' legal guardian. Chris called Buck when Eddie was having a mental breakdown and it's obvious he could have called 9-1-1 but he didn't. Reminder, Buck and Eddie are both first responders so he could have called emergency services but he called his other dad, the man who told him months before Eddie was shot that he's not going anywhere 👀.

Buck has cried, screamed and clawed at the ground while trying to dig through 50 feet of wet earth to get to Eddie. He's also crawled underneath a ladder truck (one of the things that tried to take his leg) to save Eddie after Eddie was shot by a sniper in front of him. Eddie’s blood splattered all over Buck’s face and he was in a CATATONIC state of shock until Capitan Mehta tackled him to the ground.

Eddie was the one bleeding out but he was conscious enough to ask Buck "Are you hurt?" before he went unconscious for the last time from the pain of being shot with a large caliber bullet. Eddie climbed up a 70 foot ladder while it was extended in the air without being harnessed in to get to Buck after he was STRUCK BY THE SAME BOLT OF LIGHTNING AND WAS CATAPULTED OFF THE BASE OF THE LADDER to get to him. He was the one who restarted Buck’s heart after Chimney had been doing chest compressions on him for 3 minutes. Trust, that last 17 seconds was ALL EDDIE DIAZ! Eddie took Buck to play poker to help him keep his mind off the fact that he died so he could relax and have a good time.

THAT'S LOVE!

Buck’s own definition of love describes EDDIE DIAZ and only Eddie Diaz! Therefore, it's ridiculous that people are literally trying to dismiss Eddie’s love for Buck just because some dude with a sorted past (with Buck’s found family. Hello Taylor Kelly anyone?) put his lips on Buck and kissed him the same way all the women Buck’s been with did.

Buck and Eddie are IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER and they're each other's ENDGAME!

The point of this post is people can ship whoever they want but I HAVE AND ALWAYS WILL SHIP BUDDIE because they share a once in a lifetime, love of their lives, soulmate type of love that transcends space and time.

I'LL NEVER SETTLE FOR A KNOCKOFF VERSION OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP. WHY? BECAUSE FOR ME ANY ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS they've had or will have with others resembles a cheap piece of costume jewelry that looks ok from far away until you get up close and realize it's a cheap imitation of the real thing.

Why would I settle for Buck to end up with a KNOCKOFF version of Eddie?

I won't!

And why would I settle for Eddie to end up with some babysitter who's more in love with her brother when Buck’s already been shown to be another one of Chris' parents?

I won't!

Buck and Eddie DESERVE THE REAL EPIC LOVE STORY that 9-1-1 has been showing and telling the audience about them for the last 6 years and no other love interests have or ever will compare to what they mean to each other.

Ship whoever you want but I only ship BUDDIE and I always will.

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iamadequate1717 · 6 months

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OFMD S3 (Manifesting!)

I think we've all seen Casey Bloys' comments on an OFMD S3:

“What’s a little bit different in a linear world than here is… how a show performs over a longer period of time than three weeks or something,” Bloys stated. “So we’re figuring out how it’s doing, what it’s looking like.”

My reaction:

Really, HBO? HBO, after running one of the worst, most spoilery, most front loaded marketing campaigns I have ever seen, wants to talk about the long term?

The question that was driving everyone feral for an S2 was, will Stede and Ed find each other again? HBO/MAX put their first face-to-face meeting in the trailer. Why watch the show when the marketing will just toss a greatest hits reel out to the public before the episode even releases?

The showstopping set piece of 2x3 (MerStede rescuing Ed) was spoiled in their "marketing" since they released the concept art for MerStede days before the episode aired in a BTS video.

Let's look at the finale:

The beach kisses and the inn were spoiled in BTS videos released days before the episode was released after putting a week between 2x7 and 2x8 releases. Yeah, yeah, they didn't show the kisses exactly, but what else would that pose be for? It really enforced that 2x7 and 2x8 should have been released together, but HBO/MAX choose to create a cliffhanger while immediately posting the resolution in their marketing

Ed thinking Stede was dead was spoiled by the episode promo

Ed and Stede running toward one another on the beach was spoiled by the trailer. (It didn't show them in frame together, but it was obviously the same location and the direction they were going in matched.)

Ed reading one of Stede's letters was spoiled by marketing a few days before the finale release for no discernable reason

Izzy's climatic speech to Ricky (and that he was saying it to Ricky!) was spoiled in the trailer. It could have been a good hype VO, and they didn't need to spoil whom Izzy was talking to

The crew in the British garb and taking out soldiers was in the trailer. This plot begins nine minutes before the credits start.

The Revenge Crew working with Spanish Jackie and Zheng at some point was well spoiled beforehand in their BTS promo material. Zheng saying they should team up is three minutes before the credits start.

(Has anyone seen this amount of BTS material of episodes, including the season climax, released before an episode releases instead of after? Just holding this BTS material until after seems like a no-brainer to extending a show's interest after the finale is released.)

The reason the pacing felt super "off" on your first watch is because HBO/MAX already released a bulleted run through of the episode beforehand, and you were mentally ticking it off as you went instead of watching it organically. Watching it a second time really improves the flow of the episode.

This is a show whose popularity was raised created entirely through word-of-mouth excitement. The greediness of these streaming companies is why we couldn't have the actors doing promo, but then they took away the show's next most powerful tool, the word-of-mouth discussion, by releasing large swathes of the climax of the season before it aired, and the social media hype and discussion was front loaded to before release instead of after.

S3 was set up to show Ed and Stede as a solid couple and to show the pirate community against the British, and the season climax of these two points was released by HBO/MAX before the episode, and it was excitedly discussed then. Now, a week after release, we're stuck in some horrible gravy basket of discussing the part of the last five-ten minutes that HBO/MAX didn't outright spoil (though they tried their hardest with the grave promo stills and Ed's bloody hand in the promo!): Izzy's death. No one is having fun!

There is a lot of story setup for an S3 but DJenks and company had to set up a season that could double as a series finale in a pinch, so we also lost the "What happens next??" fervor because HBO/MAX wouldn't greenlight two seasons at once of their biggest new IP of 2022. The bizarre marketing strategy didn't lend itself to a long term success, and it's up to the fans once again to do HBO/MAX's job for them.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd 2x08 #hbo max #ofmd s3 #renew as a crew #talk it through as a crew #ofmd meta #renewal gravy basket #ranty rant rant #ofmd s2 spoilers #is it worth tagging s2 spoilers anymore?

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herarcadewasteland · 2 months

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Masterlist ♥

Authors favourites will have a ♦ next to them! I'll try and keep this up to date, this is as of 20/03/23

Author Appreciation ♥ (aka my favourite fellow writers)

ATEEZ

Spin, Dare, Hide - ot8!ateez x reader ♦

-The Chase - pt. 2 of S.D.H ♦

Wooyoung Bullet Point Story - wooyoung x reader ft. san

Bounty - jongho x reader

-the inspo

Stolen Glances - san x reader ft. seonghwa

-the inspo and beginning

.mp3 - mingi x reader ft. hongjoong

-the thought that started it

Tears And Healing - jongho x reader (SENSITIVE CONTENT)

Trouble - wooyoung x reader x san

Mingi Bullet Point Story - mingi x reader ft. jongho

STRAY KIDS

River Under The Stars - chan x reader x hyunjin x seungmin

Happy Death Day - ot!8 skz x reader ♦♦♦

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Han Jisung Hard Thoughts

First Dates With SKZ, a mini-series! (with the lovely @bunnliix ♥)

____ - chan x reader (lixies work!)

___ - leeknow x reader (lixies work!)

___ - changbin x reader

___ - hyunjin x reader (lixies work!)

Between 2 and 12 Hours - felix x reader ft. han (both of us!)

___ - seungmin x reader

___ - jeongin x reader

BTS

Parties and Punishments - jk x reader

Spankings - jk x reader

Atta Girl - yoongi x reader

Office Hours - yoongi x reader

Tragic, Really. - hoseok x reader ♦

Protection Comes At A Cost - jk x reader

Let Go - just x reader angst

Caution when entering demons and smile!!!!

Demons - jk x reader

Smile - yoongi x reader

Instinct - ot7!bts x reader (blurb for now)

Battery - jimin

Curious, Darling? ♦

Hoseok

Jungkook

Taehyung (the start of it all)

Renfield

Danger Lurks - teddy lobo x reader

Bite Me - renfield x reader

Harry Potter

Discoveries 2, 3 (probably discontinued)

The After Effect - draco x riddle!reader

Untitled Sirius Black x Reader

THE WALKING DEAD

His Property - 2 - pairing not found

Disguises - pt 2 - reader x daryl

Attention - pt 2 - reader x negan

#herarcadewasteland #masterlist #masterpost #ateez fanfic #skz fanfic #bts fanfic #twd fanfic #harry potter fanfiction #x reader #18+ only

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sisterofficerlucychen · 2 months

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the way i'm sitting here like 👀 6x10 dod part 2 chenford canon edition? 👀

slight spoilers below?

i keep thinking back to what bts content we've gotten for it and what i can tell from it at least?

ends with some type of op ... maybe full circle to the premiere?

location heavily involves a laundromat because they've been filming in it for almost two weeks?

also involves some type of fight/gun fight outside because nolan's covered in dirt, angela has dirt on her face/leaves in her hair

there is a gun fight because angela's vest catches a bullet

lucy goes off on her own at some point before/during/after they're all at the laundromat because she's wearing the same clothes from that op

tim may also go off on his own because of that truck fight stunt??

but there's also the bts pic with tim, lucy, and the guy from the truck

something happens to lucy??? maybe up, maybe abducted again?? because melissa said her last words for s6 last week but was there for last day of shooting s6 — the one thing that makes me go back and forth though is that they'll film scenes out of sequence?? but it's weird that there was a difference between that like it was definitely a little teaser of something

#the rookie #chenford

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pascallatte · 1 year

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hiyaa!!! I just wanted to ask a question. Based on what instances or events did Pedro and actress!reader's fans decide to go and tell that oh they're dating already like when did they feel the shift in the two's dynamics?? But did they stop when pedro was seen with lena or they called it a pr stunt to hide whatever's between him and reader?

Helloo!! this question's interesting tbh so I'll try to be as clear as possible in answering. Since there are like 3 points here let's start with point one. (also please remember this is all for the series' plot line and does not apply in real life, ty♡)

Pedro and Lena?(1)

They in fact did not think it was a pr stunt because of how the two were around each other and like I stated in my past answer, no one denied or confirmed anything, leaving everyone in the air. But let's say that Lena's doing it for Y/n, despite being closer to Pedro.🤭

And the rumours did not stop even when Pedro and Lena were seen together, they just got really confused.

When did they (the fans) feel the shift in their relationship(2) and in what instances(3)?

so like let me do a bg check in bullet form

2012 - they were shipped but obviously aren't together since actress!reader is still with Andrew G.

2013(late) - was when the video on the set of GOT became viral and was questioned on their relationship despite reader still being with A.G.

2014(early) - after the news of her break up with A.G., Pedro has been spotted with her multiple times which started the rumours once again.

2015 - so this is when it gets complicated, rumors of them now dating intensified after someone posted that BTS of Narcos.

!!! fic spoilers ahead !!!

now, the first shift they felt was when they were seen together, now this isn't new to everyone, but their body language has changed significantly. from the subtle touches, how close they are to each other, and how they look at each other has changed. and their walks became frequent. Also, as frequently as when they were seen leaving each other's place in the morning, actress!reader was also often seen sporting sweatshirts and hoodies that are obviously not hers. Also, a video of a fan, when they saw them claiming "something was really different between them, but in a good way." (TBA). (2015-early 2016)

The second shift, like the last one, was how they are around each other, not only during the ones where they are caught but also when being on screen, and interviewed (TBA). What also gave away hints was when co-stars often answered/teased things that are too..... specific, making fans question the meaning behind their words (TBA). (2016-mid 2017)

The third and last shift (actually not a shift cause it's clearly a giveaway of something more) solidified their suspicions, was during their annual Amalfi trip, now it was evident that they're really more than friends (TBA). And of course, the unforgettable New Year's Eve live, which resulted in them going public back in December of that same year.

Hope this clears out any confusion or curiosity you have !!! And thank you for following through with the series. 🫶🏻 🫶🏻 🫶🏻

#nenna's asks #it's me nenna #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal fanfic #pedro pascal x actress!reader #pedro pascal fluff #pedro pascal imagine #pedro pascal x female reader

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active-mind-15 · 3 months

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I've had a thought for some time now... what if Akashi was a BTS fan?

At first, I was entertaining this idea simply because BTS and KNB are my biggest interests, but then I started to think harder about it, and I think it would make sense for him to be a fan of them.

Now, I know some of my KNB moots on Tumblr listen to Kpop, but I know that not everyone does, and even the ones who do are not all fans of BTS. With that being said, I'll try and explain things as best as I can for all the folks unfamiliar with BTS so this headcanon is easier to understand even for non-fans.

I predict this is going to be a very long post, so I'll have mercy on y'all and put the rest of this under the cut. Enjoy!

A summary of who BTS is for anyone reading who doesn't know them:

7-member music group from South Korea. They debuted on June 13th, 2013, and are comprised of 3 rappers and 4 vocalists. The members are RM (leader and rapper), Jin (vocalist), Suga (rapper), J-Hope (rapper), Jimin (vocalist), V (vocalist), and Jungkook (vocalist). Here's a picture for reference. I also wrote their stage names down next to each member so you know who is who.

BTS is an acronym for Bangtan Sonyeondan, roughly translating to "bulletproof boys". So, BTS aimed to be the bulletproof shield to protect people--especially those in their 10s and 20s--from harsh societal criticism that rained down on them like bullets. Their fanbase is called ARMY, an acronym that stands for "Adorable Representative MCs for Youth" (yeah I know it's wordy), and with that name, BTS hoped that listeners of their music would be inspired to find their voice and spread positivity. While they do have their fair share of cute/silly songs, a very large chunk of their work is lyrically introspective and touches on a lot of social, psychological, and even political issues. Bolstered by the fact that their music is self-written and co-produced, their authenticity is one of their biggest strong points and has allowed millions of people worldwide to relate to the messages in their music.

That being said, what does this have to do with Akashi being an ARMY? Well, I just wanted to imagine how he would become fascinated with a group like them, so I'll be splitting up this post into sections. I don't know how many sections I'll do, I'm winging this as I go, so let's just start with section 1.

HOW DID HE BECOME AN ARMY?

Mibuchi. Mibuchi strikes me as someone who would already be an ARMY and would convince Akashi to give them a shot. Maybe Akashi catches Mibuchi gushing over some photos of them online and it happens enough times that he finally cracks and asks who they are.

As someone who is an ARMY of 7+ years, when someone asks me who BTS is, I have to hold myself back from exploding where I stand because I get so excited when someone wants to know about them because they're so amazing that I always want more people to discover their music. Mibuchi, being the dedicated ARMY that he is, would instantly fill Akashi in on the details of who they are, the type of music they make, and who each of the members is, and Akashi would listen very intently, getting more curious the more he listens to Mibuchi talk about them.

Something I usually do when people ask for BTS recs is ask them for their favorite genres. The reason why I do that is because BTS has experimented with so many genres that their discography is incredibly diverse, probably more diverse than most artists I've ever listened to. So, I usually just fine-tune my recommendations to people's preferences to make the initial listening experience more palatable. And that's what Mibuchi does for Akashi. Once he gets Akashi's favorite genres, he sends him a playlist of BTS songs that fit his preferences. And so, because Akashi isn't one to turn down music recommendations, he keeps his word and listens to the playlist front to back.

After finishing the playlist, Akashi lays on his bed and stares at the ceiling, the chemistry of his brain permanently altered, wondering how on earth he went so long without knowing who BTS was.

AKASHI'S BIAS AND BIAS-WRECKER

If you don't know what these terms mean, having a 'bias' just means you have a favorite member. It's someone you feel your attention is naturally drawn to more than others in the group. You can be drawn to them for multiple reasons such as liking their voice, thinking their fashion is cool, or having a similar personality to theirs. There really are no rules for this kind of thing. A 'bias-wrecker' is a member who steals (said endearingly) your attention away from your bias, on occasion. Think of it as two members constantly replacing each other as your favorite. However, this is not always the case and not every ARMY has a bias/bias-wrecker. Some spread their attention pretty evenly across all the members and don't really have a particular favorite. But it's a fun question ARMYs like to ask other ARMYs every now and again, so for the sake of this post, I will include who I think Akashi's bias and bias-wrecker would be if he had them.

So, right off the bat, I know deep in my heart that Akashi's bias would without a doubt be Suga.

Reasons why I think Suga would be his bias:

All of the BTS members are authentic, but Suga is most notably known for his raw unfiltered lyrics and his candidness about his past experiences. He suffered a lot in his teens and 20s to be able to make music the way he is today. Despite all that, he's unafraid to speak about his mental health journey and often encourages ARMYs to be open about our own journies as well so we can normalize conversations around it and get the support we need. Through listening to Suga's story, Akashi would probably relate a lot to his struggles and gain strength from his words.

Suga's stage name is actually short for "shooting guard" because that was the basketball position he used to play back when he was in high school. So, he would get extra points in Akashi's book simply for that. I know he'd be excited to find out that piece of information and relay it back to Mibuchi, who would then show Akashi videos of Suga playing basketball and get him more excited about Suga. I can just imagine him going into captain mode and making little comments here and there like "he has a nice release" or "his shots go in very cleanly" or "I would have scouted him for Rakuzan if he were a high-schooler".

I also think there are a few similarities in their personalities Akashi would pick up on. Aside from their shared love of basketball and personal struggles with mental health as teens, I would say they're both pretty introverted, are extremely hard workers, both play piano, both show affection to their loved ones through acts of service, and both of them are incredibly strong, despite all that they've been through.

But who is Akashi's bias-wrecker? I'd have to say it'd be RM.

Reasons why I think RM would be his bias:

As I've mentioned before, RM is the official leader of BTS. I think for that reason, he would garner a lot of respect from Akashi, who would be impressed as to how he could be the leader of a globally recognized group starting from such a young age, especially when he hears about all of the hardships BTS had to face as they climbed up the ladder. As someone who has also had to step up and be a leader from a very young age, Akashi would look to RM and take notes of his leadership style to see if there's anything he could implement in his own life.

RM is also one of the main lyricists of BTS and the way he can speak and carry himself with such poise and maturity would also be another thing that Akashi respects. He loves to analyze RM's lyrics for every use of double entendres, wordplay, and literary/psychology references. (I have a separate headcanon that Akashi is at least conversational in Korean, if not fluent, so I'm sure that would make RM's lyrics all the more interesting to dissect.)

Akashi would also find similarities between himself and RM, too, outside of being leaders of their respective teams such as a love for the fine arts and nature, high intelligence (RM has an IQ of 148), and his down-to-earth demeanor.

FAVORITE BTS GROUP SONGS:

So I'm just gonna go album by album and list the songs that I think Akashi would pick as his favorite from each one, mostly due to the message in the lyrics, but some will also be because I think the instrumentals would be up his alley. I'll also provide some links to lyric videos so you guys can listen and read along to further understand my song choices. Any songs with an asterisk(*) next to them will link to a music video, so just turn on the closed captions. Fair warning, the older music videos have translated captions that are a little bit clunkier, but they're still readable. Anyway, let's go!

2 Cool 4 Skool (2013):

No More Dream*

O!RUL8,2? (2013):

Intro: O!RUL8,2?

N.O*

Skool Luv Affair (2014):

Just One Day*

Dark & Wild (2014):

Rain

The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1 (2015):

Intro: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life

Moving On

The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2 (2015):

RUN*

Butterfly

The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever (2016):

Butterfly (Prologue Mix)

House of Cards (Full Length Edition)

Epilogue: Young Forever*

Wings (2016):

Lie

First Love

Reflection

2! 3!

You Never Walk Alone (2017):

Spring Day*

A Supplementary Story: You Never Walk Alone

Love Yourself: Her (2017):

Serendipity*

Outro: Her

Sea

Love Yourself: Tear (2018):

Singularity*

The Truth Untold

Paradise

Magic Shop

Love Yourself: Answer (2018):

Euphoria

Answer: Love Myself

Map of the Soul: Persona (2019):

Mikrokosmos

Jamais Vu

Map of the Soul: 7 (2020)

Black Swan* (also the classical version*)

Louder Than Bombs

We are Bulletproof: The Eternal*

BE (2020)

Life Goes On*

Blue & Grey

Proof (2022)

Yet To Come*

For Youth

BTS has released some Japanese original songs, too, so I'll include which ones I think would be his favorite among those!

Crystal Snow (2017)

Lights* (2019)

Your Eyes Tell (2020)

FAVORITE BTS SOLO SONGS:

Each of the BTS members has dropped their own solo projects whether it be singles or full albums, so I'll go member by member and talk about which of each member's solo songs I think would be his favorite.

RM:

Life (RM, 2015)

uhgood (mono, 2018)

forever rain* (mono, 2018)

No. 2 (Indigo, 2022)

Jin:

Tonight (2019)

Abyss (2020)

Yours (2021)

Suga/Agust D:

So Far Away (Agust D, 2016)

People (D-2, 2020)

Set me free (D-2, 2020)

AMYGDALA* (D-DAY, 2023)

Snooze (D-DAY, 2023)

J-Hope:

Piece of Peace (Hope World, 2018)

Blue Side (Hope World, 2018)

Equal Sign (Jack in the Box, 2022)

Safety Zone (Jack in the Box, 2022)

Jimin:

Promise (2018)

Like Crazy* (FACE, 2023)

Alone (FACE, 2023)

Scenery (2019)

Snow Flower (2020)

Rainy Days* (Layover, 2023)

Love Me Again* (Layover, 2023)

Jungkook:

Still With You (2020)

Stay Alive (2022)

Shot Glass of Tears (Golden, 2023)

HOW AKASHI FEELS BEING AN ARMY

I think finding out such a prominent music act is singing about topics he directly relates to is such a shock to him. It's like he feels seen at long last and he isn't going through these issues alone. Even if BTS doesn't know who he is, the fact that their music speaks to him is enough to comfort him through tough times.

I'd like to think that when he's had an exceptionally rough day, he likes to just lie in bed and listen to them. He seems like the type of person to reserve time out of his day to just listen to their music in silence.

Because he became such a fan, he and Mibuchi would now have so much more to talk about with each other, and Akashi would also come to understand why Mibuchi would be such a big fan of a group like them. Together, they'd stream new releases right when they come out, watch BTS's livestreams together, and, if they're able, go to concerts together. Concerts are more of a new thing for Akashi since I feel like he has never been to a proper concert before, so the first concert he'd ever go to would probably be super overwhelming, but he'd feel reassured with Mibuchi by his side. And the concert ends up being amazing and Akashi feels like he just...belongs. Something would finally click for him that day, and he would realize that this level of connection, not just with the artists, but with the fans as well, was something he really enjoyed.

BTS would kinda stay as mainly Akashi and Mibuchi's thing, but Hayama and Nebuya do give BTS a shot, too, and find they do like a lot of their music as well. Their favorite songs are probably the more upbeat ones, though, as opposed to most of the ones I chose to be Akashi's favorites.

But the bottom line is that being able to come together with his friends over a common interest outside of basketball makes Akashi happy and he hopes he can continue to share memories with his friends through music.

Okay, I've gotta cut it off here, I have to get ready for a family dinner outing. If you managed to make it to the end of my post, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings and also the music I linked. Bye for now!

#my most self-indulgent chronic akashi brainrot yet #i have done it again #rip to whoever read all this #i just really like BTS and wanted to toy with the idea of akashi being an army #anyway gotta go #BTS #bangtan sonyeondan #kuroko no basket #knb headcanons #akashi seijuro #mibuchi reo

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4am-enha · 1 year

Text

☕️ .・📖・。. 🖇 ─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ─── 🧸・。. 🎞 .・🫧

ello ello my luvs! thank you for visiting my page. here you will find enhypen related writings! i only write on here. extra and general stuff will be on my main blog: @4amwon. wattpad coming soon~

you can find the full master list & more below.

fem reader ✩

gender neutral reader ☼

masc reader ❅

ㄴ please let me know if i made a mistake. i may not always catch it.

! currently on a tight life schedule & slow at posting !

OT7

⌲ OT7 text scenarios

ㄴ screenshot format text messages with enha in a certain scenario. (most popular!)

enha when you start your period ☼

enha when you lowkey confess (but you’re drunk.) ☼

enha when you ask them to be your valentine☼

enha when it’s storming ☼

enha when you send them a selfie [snapchat pic format] ✩

enha when you cry over a sloth video (ask) ☼

enha when you forget it’s gfs day ✩

enha when you have an interview ☼

enha when you have a pretty bad argument ☼

enha when you’ve had a pretty bad argument pt.2 (anon ask) ☼

⌲ OT7 short scenarios

ㄴ similar to the above but one-shots in written format.

enha when you’re not feeling well ✩

enha when you go to a haunted house ~halloween special~ ☼

enha when they find you crying ✩

⌲ OT7 bullet points/notes

ㄴ short but sweet bullet points/thoughts on the members.

enha as love tropes ☼

enha as love languages ☼

enha as feelings ☼

enha as your group in a zombie apocalypse ☼

enha reactions when you’re a boxer ☼

⌲ OT7 fic

ㄴ longer one-shots with all enha members together in one.

enhypen eve ~ christmas special ~ ✩

cabin fever (anon ask) ✩

HYUNG LINE ONLY

⌲ text scenarios

ㄴ screenshot format text messages with just hyung line in a certain scenario. only hee, jay, jake, hoon !!

hyung line sending a bold text. ☼

SPECIFIC MEMBER

⌲ 정원 - jungwon

ㄴ usually longer one-shots on just reader x jungwon unless stated otherwise!

$3 coffee ✩

a kick in the heart (anon ask) ☼

⌲ 이희승 - heeseung

ㄴ usually longer one-shots on just reader x heeseung unless stated otherwise!

late summer lovin’ ☼

late summer lovin’ alternative ending (anon ask)

⌲ 박종성 - jay

ㄴ usually longer one-shots on just reader x jay unless stated otherwise!

pouring ☼

⌲ 심제윤 - jake

ㄴ usually longer one-shots on just reader x jake unless stated otherwise!

~ coming soon. ~

⌲ 박성훈 - sunghoon

ㄴ usually longer one-shots on just reader x sunghoon unless stated otherwise!

sweet (in)convenience ☼(ask)

⌲ 김선우 - sunoo

ㄴ usually longer one-shots on just reader x sunoo unless stated otherwise!

studying you (anon ask)☼

puppy bunny love (ask)☼

⌲ 니키 - niki

ㄴ usually longer one-shots on just reader x niki unless stated otherwise!

return home ✩

SMAU SERIES

~ nothing here yet ~

* this is my first time writing on tumblr, and my schedule is insanely packed so please be patient with me!

* practically none of the pictures are mine. almost all pictures i use are from pinterest! all creds go to the owners!

* i will not write smut on minors so don’t even ask! i am also not very skilled in the smut portion of writing, so expect mainly fluff and angst in here!

* feel free to leave requests in my asks, i may not always respond but i promise i look at all of them and will occasionally write them. i’m always looking for inspo!

* feedback is always appreciated, but please be kind. i don’t usually respond to reblogs on here to avoid spam and make my page easier to navigate, but again, i really appreciate and read them all. they matter to me :)

* all fics on here are reader x enha/enha member, if i ever write any member x member fics they will be on my wattpad! i will announce that separately. please remember it has nothing to do with the real enha members and you shouldn’t involve/relate them with fan fiction. don’t be weird and make them uncomfortable, keep it to yourself and the authors. fan fic ≠ reality. xoxo

* my main blog @4amwon is where i will post updates and random things related to enha and probably also bts & nwjns! i reblog on there too. prepare for jungwon posts galore. i love that man.

* asks will be replied to under the #ask 4am!🧸

anon symbols already taken: 🐴 .

my ults bias list: jungwon (enha), taehyung (bts), haerin (nwjns).

languages: english (fluent) & korean (intermediate)

timezone: KST (Korean Standard Time)

#welcome #4am!🧸 masterlist #masterlist #enhypen

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minniepetals · 2 years

Text

cry me a river | the abuser and the bystander

— summary: it hurts just as much knowing someone could have stopped it all but chose to stand by and watch instead

— pairing: bts x reader

— genre: angst, mafia!au

— word count: 7.4k

— warnings: violence, mentions of physical abuse, use of poison, mentions of child labor and child abuse, manipulation, gaslighting

— PART 10 / previous part / masterpost

He levels a glare your way but even still, furrows his brows with confusion by your words. “What?”

“It’s alright, Hoseok, let him go,” you tell the man beside you with a soft pat against his arm. Hoseok hesitates to do so, a glare leveled at Jummy but he gives in to your words nonetheless, letting go but not without force and causing Jummy to go into a fit of coughs.

You grin with amusement. “Hey, Jummy,” with a hand trailing onto his shoulder to wrap itself around and hold the nape of his neck, you lean forward so close to his ears in order to fall out of earshot from everyone but Jummy. “You know what’s funny?” Hoseok’s brows furrow at the sight, not liking how close you are to the man and the fact that he can’t hear a thing you’re saying. “My father never once laid his hands on me.”

“That’s because that bastard always had others do the job for him.”

“That’s right, and you were one of those people, weren’t you? So don’t you think it would be right for me to do the same?” You take a step back, a smirk held his way.

“...What?”

“Yuna.”

The second you speak the name, Yuna is at your side in an instant. No one knows where she came from but here she is without falter, dressed in complete black from head to toe.

“For all the times you were stood on the side, unable to do anything as Jummy did what he wanted to do with me, you can seek your revenge now.” If Yuna had eyes, you’re sure they would have darkened at your commands, or perhaps they would have filled with thrill and excitement. She grabs ahold of her two sai blades which lied on each side of her belt, spinning them well along her fingers before holding onto them with a tight grip, and even without eyes, Jummy feels his body running cold upon Yuna’s attention.

“Y-you really think you can come here and take over my party? All the guests here are—”

“No one’s on your side, Jummy, haven’t you realized that?” Upon your words, he looks around frantically for help but no one steps up. “If they were to come after me, it’d be their revenge for me taking Daejung’s head but in your case, only you can protect yourself now.”

“I-I have my own people to—”

A bullet from a high distance shoots a man down when he tries to come to his boss’s aid and you send the man a smile as the party falls into an uproar upon Dasom’s signal.

“Well then, good luck, Jummy.”

With that, you turn your back on him and begin to walk away as your people take over.

“He wasn’t the one you were after was he?” Hoseok asks, his feet carrying him to walk along your side.

You shrug. “Hey Hoseok, could I perhaps give you the honor to get rid of a man for me? I think you’d quite enjoy the job.”

“Who?” He doesn’t ask why, just ready at your command and you take ahold of your gun amidst the chaos, pointing it at a man from afar and without hesitation, shoot right upon the thigh of his leg.

“That man,” you say. “Looks familiar, doesn’t he?”

A limp in his foot, the other leg now taken from you once more, and Hoseok gets his gun ready. “What about you?” He asks, wondering what your plans were.

“Don’t worry about that, I can take care of myself.” With that, you’re taking off on your feet, disappearing into the crowd with your long black dress and heels clicking away.

Hoseok stands there watching you for some time before he takes off in the opposite direction, trusting you in your plans. “Jimin, Yoongi,” he calls into the intercom.

In just a split second, the younger man’s voice comes in. “Hyung.”

“Get to Y/N,” he orders as he catches sight of the limping man trying to escape. “Something tells me this is bigger than it seems.”

There’s no way you just put on a show just for the fun of it. Jummy wasn’t your target. Perhaps he was indeed someone who did you wrong but you’re letting one of your members kill him off for you, telling him that perhaps all of this was just to divert the crowds’ attention from somewhere else.

Somewhere you’re heading towards.

“She’s heading for her real target.”

“Hello there, Ying.”

You slide in through the window like a slithering snake and situate yourself against the windowsill with a leg crossed over the over, revealing more of your bare legs.

Ying pauses in his tracks as he looks over at the call of his name, his expression appearing calm as he turns to face you and gives you his full attention. Adjusting the collars on his sleeves, two of his men who fall on each side of him stands tall and intimidating, while he observes you.

“Missed me?” You chirp with an easy-going grin.

“Y/N,” he says, voice low and calm, unlike his hot-headed younger brother. “You seem to be doing well.”

“Well, taking over the throne has certainly given me much more freedom than my father would ever have,” you say, shrugging lightly. From the corner of your eyes, you notice two familiar silhouettes just outside your viewpoint, blind to the men before you.

“You have my brother cornered, who knew you were such a smart woman behind that silent gaze. Are you upset at him for what he’s done to you?”

“Oh Ying, if I was that upset, I would have taken care of him myself, no? Jummy’s just a waste of my time.”

His brows crease slightly. “Then why are you here? To sign an alliance with me?”

You laugh aloud. “Men are so, so foolish, aren’t they?” You jump from the windowsill, approaching him, and even as his two men step up on guard against you, you ignore them to continue your way towards Ying who remains standing still with no will to move away. “Did you know that the abuser and the ones who simply decide to just watch the abuser and do nothing about it are just as bad?”

“So what? You’re upset I never stepped in to help you?”

“If I was really that weakhearted, would I have survived for this long?” You ask him, a raise in your brow. “You pretend to be the good brother, the knight in shining armor, and if I wasn’t such a smart little girl, I would have totally fallen for your charms and believed you were on my side all along. But in reality, there’s something much darker about you, isn’t there?”

“What are you saying?” He looks down at you with furrowed brows as you play with his tie. “Was my kindness to you not enough?”

“Kindness?” You snicker. “You don’t actually believe offering me a few sweet words and tending to my wounds after your brother’s abuse would have been enough to swoon me, did you?”

“Just clench your teeth and the next time it happens, it’ll all be over before you know it.” You remain silent as he speaks those words, head lowered while he sits before you, carefully looking over your body and tending to the wounds himself. Even though he has his own men in the room, Ying always offered to do the treating himself.

But this isn’t kindness.

Not when he’s always there to watch Jummy hurt you and do nothing about it, simply letting his younger brother do his thing, and then deciding to step in once it seems the ignorant brat is done taking his anger out.

This isn’t kindness. He’s just trying to sweeten you up, have you believing he’s on your side when he’s really not.

You’re just a puppet to his eyes, someone who can help him in the future, someone who can give him power and authority. He wants to use you, to pretend to be a good man, and perhaps even make you fall in love with him in order to claim the Reaper’s seat.

You’re much too scarred to ever trust a man that easily again but if he wants to pretend then you’ll pretend as well.

“Why don’t you do anything, Ying?” You ask him in a small voice, pretending to slowly break. “You’re the older brother, can’t you…can’t you stop Jummy? It hurts, Ying.”

“I know, but it won’t be too long until all of this is over, alright? Just hold on a little longer.”

Just hold on a little longer. It’ll be over soon.

That’s what he always tells you. How long has it been since the first time he’s spoken those words? Perhaps a year now. Yet he still thinks he can sway you with such words.

“I’ll be right back. I’m going to talk to Jummy, alright?” When you don’t give him an answer, you feel his large palm touch you on the top of your head. And then, he leaves along with his men, leaving you all to yourself once more.

When you look up to stare at his back, the glare that levels his way, even after the door closes, doesn’t ever leave.

You rip the bandage he wrapped around you, calling unto your boys. “Mingyu. Yeonjun.”

They come in a split second.

“Be a good girl and head back home, Y/N. You’ve already gotten Jummy.”

He takes you to be a fool, he always had from the very moment he laid eyes on you. The Reaper had always been quite a force and because of that, you were a tool used by your father who wished to exploit you in all the ways possible.

When Ying found that out, he decided to fake his way into your heart and pretend to care when no one else did, having no idea of your own loyal members who were already doing their jobs well.

Yet unlike him who only stood by to watch willingly and feign his kindness afterward, your Reapers always had a hard time holding themselves back when watching you get hurt by your father’s men. Unlike him who had the power to stop them at any time, your Reapers were forced to stand back, knowing that one wrong move would have your secrets all spilled out and everyone would end up dead while you suffer the consequences.

There is a difference between being a willing bystander while knowing you have the power to do something, and being a bystander who has no power and no choice but to stand and watch, knowing that if they were to do something, it would result in serious consequence.

Ying is different from your people.

He feigns his kindness and you hate fake people.

“If you want me to go home, get these men out of the way.”

“No.”

“Why not?” You feign a pout. “Do you see me as a threat, Ying? Aren’t I just a hopeless little girl who needs a knight in shining armor in your eyes? What can a small girl like me do to you? Look,” you slither your hands up and around his neck, causing his men to quickly act but are immediately held back by Jimin and Yoongi. You ignore them to remain staring into Ying’s eyes. “My hands can barely wrap themselves around you. If I were to choke you, you’d have me dead in a split second.”

Ying remains still as he meets your cunning gaze, face only deciding to inch closer to him.

“Ah but my sweet Ying wouldn’t ever hurt me, would he? You promised after all.” You laugh at the memories before looking over to the side when more of his men seem to gather around. Jimin and Yoongi step up to deal with them while you keep yourself busy with the boss at hand. “Hey Ying, maybe you could call off your men, yeah?”

“You’re here to kill me, aren’t you?”

“Hm…am I?”

“Do you want an apology? For all the times I stood by and didn’t stop my brother from hurting you? Is that what you want?”

How foolish. “No, I just want you dead,” you admit casually as if speaking about the weather. “You have to realize, Ying, that it hurts just as much knowing someone could have stopped it all but chose to stand by and watch instead.”

Namjoon was the sole reason the relationship fell and when you needed the rest of them to step up, they did absolutely nothing. He was in power, sure, a man in a position higher than any of you, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have done anything for you.

You wonder what was going on in their heads when Namjoon spoke insults at you, when you were so desperate to save the relationship, pretending everything was okay while trying your best to keep everything stable with everyone else. You wonder what they were thinking when you fell silent upon their ignorance, upon your desperation.

You wonder why they never did anything to stop Namjoon. You wonder why they never tried to help you.

You wonder why they just stood there, doing nothing.

“You’re just as bad as the abuser.”

As you speak those words, something so small yet so sharp stabs against the nape of his neck. Ying’s face crumbles with pain, his body lurching forward, falling to his knees, but his struggle doesn’t last long because just seconds later, his heavy body has dropped to the floor, left lifeless.

You’ve learned from Daejung that simple poison won’t work on the men you’re trying to rid of. They’ll put up a fight, hurt you, and cause you more damage than you’ve already gotten from them. So you had Yeonjun look into creating a much more lethal poison that wouldn’t give you any trouble.

It worked.

“Y/N—” You ignore Yoongi to throw a dagger at the man who ran up from behind him.

“Come on, Yoongi, you know better than to get distracted during a battle.” With that, the three of you come together to deal with the rest of the men who’re too stubborn to leave you be, especially after their boss had just fallen.

They should know when to retreat, especially when you give them no mercy and claw away at them, stabbing blades after blades, shooting each of them down with your gun. You don’t care for the messes you’re making, you welcome it.

After all, disorder is much better than perfection.

And soon enough, everyone’s body has fallen dead on the floor with you standing right in the middle.

When the two men look at you, they see nothing but a blank stare, emotionless and filled with an empty void. You don’t cower before the blood, you don’t even attempt to rid of the stench and stain which now decorates your body and dress.

Instead, you stand there almost as lifeless as the bodies on the floor.

When you look up at them, there is nothing but silence.

You’re just as bad as the abuser, they remember you say and for a moment it almost seems to be directed at them.

They still remember those days as clear as the sun. How could they not? They once loved you so dearly and now a part of you will always doubt that love.

“Feel better, alright?” Those were the words Jimin remembers saying to you at the beginning of it all, as if it was that simple, as if it was that easy.

But it wasn’t and when you needed them the most, they left you all alone.

It’s a long silence but eventually, you’re the first to break the stillness of the room, stepping towards Ying’s body to search for something in his pockets.

“We’re not done yet,” you say.

“We aren’t?”

“I didn’t come here just to kill a few people.” A black card flashes in your hand from Ying’s pocket and you begin to walk off. “Follow me,” you say, and after sharing a glance at one another, the two of them follow along.

You lead them to the end of the hallway where an old elevator resides and step right on in. Once there, you scan the black card upon an empty space, causing a small beeping sound to then resound and the ground floor button appears.

Jimin’s brows furrow. “What is this?”

“Ying had a secret he kept from everyone. Something I found out a year into knowing him so I had my team investigate his suspicious act and low and behold,” the doors open to show a dark underground, “there was something quite dark and disgusting about the man.”

“What’d you find out?”

You fall silent without an answer to Yoongi’s question, simply stepping forward to walk into the darkness. They follow without a word, knowing they’d find out the truth themselves. It grows colder and colder by the second the further the three of you walk through the undergrounds, until eventually you make a right and a few guards that have been posted are seen.

They’re on the floor for some reason, however, lifeless, and you guess someone must have already gotten here before you.

Your brows furrow at the sight until the dungeon of cages appears and a man stands in the middle of the hallway, holding onto a child while more surround him at his feet.

“Children…?” Yoongi whispers in disbelief at the sight of frail little children who’re now out of the cages, clothes shriveled up and ragged, their bodies dirty, faces heavy with fatigue as if they’ve been forced to do harsh labor.

You don’t pay attention to them even as a few gasps upon your entrance, your eyes are simply trained at the man in the middle, feet quickening until you’re up kicking the dirt from the ground and jumping right in to land a forceful kick on his stomach, causing him to fly backward and hit the wall behind him.

You walk forward to grab the little boy out of his hand, a glare leveled his way.

“What are you doing hanging around him willingly?” You ask the boy in your arms, brows furrowed with anger.

“B-but he—”

Before he can say another word, you inject a needle poison into the man’s neck and the children gasp at the sight of a man killed right before their eyes.

“Y/N what the hell?” There’s no way you just did that in front of the children.

You ignore the two men to turn back to the children as you set the boy down and crouch to their level, eyes stern and hard while they lower their heads, cowering in fear.

“Well?” You prompt, demanding an answer out of them.

Sunoo, the little boy, speaks up. “He…he was nice, milady.”

“So what? Are you going to trust every nice adult out there?” You accuse, voice hard and scary despite the fact that you aren’t yelling. You never yell, not once have they ever heard you yell, but when you’re like this, you’re much more scary than all the other adults that have laid their hands on them.

“Tell me, Poya,” you turn to the little girl closest to you and she straightens up upon your call, “when has that man ever helped you?”

“He…” She hesitates. “He would give us extra food when we behaved well and..and he would treat our wounds when we got hurt.”

“And did he ever do anything else?”

“Huh?” She looks up, confused.

“When Ying would come in, yell at you, accuse you all of something you hadn’t done, criticize you for your lack of your strength, your lack of worth, and when the others would harm you when you did one small thing wrong, tell me, did he ever step up then?”

“W-well…”

“That’s because he couldn’t!”

“Yeah! He couldn’t.”

Your eyes harden and they quickly fall silent once more. “That man may not have authority over Ying but he had enough authority to stop the rest of the guards from hurting you, didn’t he? Look at you.” You take one of their hands, turning the palm over to find it swollen. “Pain.” You point to a little boy’s knee. “Cuts.” You shove the sleeves of a little girl to reveal her arm. “Wounds and bruises. You see this? Did he ever stop them from hurting you? And who are you to know the medicine he treated you with will help you rather than cause you more pain? He only stepped in when there were no eyes on him, only smiled at you and gave you sweet words when everyone else was gone or asleep. Do you really believe this to be kindness?”

They don’t say a thing but you know your words are getting to them.

They’re understanding.

“He didn’t abuse you but he stood there doing nothing and only faked his kindness after you were hurt,” you point out with a hard stare. “There is a difference between not being able to do anything out of your control and doing nothing at all when you know you could’ve helped. This isn’t kindness.”

You see the way their shoulders tense up, how their bodies begin to tremble, a teardrop falling to the floor from a lowered head, how they’re completely silent and still, knowing that showing you any form of weakness or tears will only cause you to push them away.

Because Sir Mingyu said crying in front of you will only burden you. You hate tears, you hate weaknesses, you hate love. So they have to be careful around you.

They have to be careful if they want to remain by your side.

“Why were you late?” Sunoo asks, his voice cracking a bit but he clears his throat afterward, looking up to feign bravery and strength. When he looks at you, there is no ounce of hatred in his eyes, no level of accusatory leveled your way. Just the burden of a child who should not have lived through the things he did. Yet he puts you first and foremost. “Are you okay now?”

“Do not concern yourself with me,” you deadpan in an emotionless tone. “Worry about your own well-being first if anything.”

“You got hurt,” Vinni says, tugging at the blood stains on your dress.

“Was it difficult coming here?” Lily asks, her hand coming up to take your hand as she stares at the cut you grazed on your arm.

“Who do you think I am?”

“Right, of course. My lady fought well,” she says, her brows furrowing slightly when her little hands come up to gently stroke around the blood of the cut, making sure she doesn’t accidentally touch the cut.

You notice her concern. “Seems blood doesn’t scare you anymore.”

“I’ve gotten braver!” She declares proudly when she looks up at you with a bright smile.

“Have you now.”

“Mmh!” She nods happily. “It’s because we knew you were coming soon, milady. We were right to believe in you.”

You frown. “What did I say about believing in people so easily? Even I can betray you one day. What would happen if I were to never show up? Would you still believe in me until the day of your death?”

“Well…” She hesitates, unsure of what to say upon your interrogation. Even in front of the children, you remain hard-headed, unwavering, but even then they were never afraid of you. You’re not like the rest of the adults, after all. Even behind that cold gaze, you’re kind. “I just knew,” she whispers, “I knew you wouldn’t abandon us.”

Because just like them, you were once a lost little child who had no one to rely on, hating the evils of the adults, not knowing who to trust and who to keep your guard up against.

Just like them, you were hurt plenty by the people around you.

Seeing the small little tears in their eyes which they do so well to hold in for your sake, you know just how strong they’ve been.

“You did well,” you speak into the silence, “all of you.”

The way their eyes brighten, the way their lips curl up upon such simple words are almost enough to let the tears flow but they keep strong, blinking them away, hiding them into their arms when some of them can’t keep it in.

“Where will we go now, milady? What will happen to us now?” Sunoo asks, his eyes filled with worry as he looks up at you with his big rounded eyes.

When you stand back up, their eyes follow you like you’re the alpha of the wolf pack, looking at you for guidance, for instructions. “You said you believe me, right? So heed by those words and just worry about yourself. I will take care of everything.”

“Mingyu! Sir Mingyu!”

“Miss Somi!”

Dasom’s face cringes with discomfort as she eyes the second in command with disgust. “Why the hell are they calling me that? They picked it up from you, you bastard.”

“Hey, mind your language,” he whispers to her ear. “Also it’ll do you well to look more kindly in front of the children.”

She tsks while Mingyu turns his attention back to the children, crouching before them with a friendly smile.

“Looks like you haven’t eaten in some time,” he observes as he stares at their skinny little bodies. “Did you get your shots from Yeonjun yet? Have you gotten treated?”

“Yep! That’s why we’re here otherwise Lady Y/N will get angry.”

Seeing their apprehensive expression upon that, Mingyu narrows his gaze as he tilts his head to the side. “Hm, looks like you’ve already made her angry though.”

They pout upon the reminder, head lowered with shame. “She scolded us,” Poya admits and Mingyu laughs aloud.

“Of course she did. She wouldn’t be Y/N if she doesn’t get angry that easily. She’s a real demon, you know. One time I—”

Dasom hits the back of his head without hesitation. “If boss hears you, I wouldn’t hesitate to volunteer to kill you myself.”

“Why’re you always so mean to me?” He cries.

“What are you planning to do with the kids now that you’ve rescued them?” You look up at the sound of Hoseok’s voice as he takes a seat beside you where you sit on the stairs of the building, eyes staring mindlessly at the empty streets before you. “You’re not thinking of sending them away to some orphanage, are you?”

You scoff a little at the question. “I’m not that cruel, Hoseok. Anyone who came into this business because of the orphanages is proof they don’t treat kids well.” He’s a living proof of it and he knows you understand that. “I’ve built an academy for them about two years ago, before the plan to rescue them took place today,” you say, eyes returning to stare at the street. “A few of my people outside the mafia will be in charge of it, making sure they get their education, their meals, and live in a safe environment.”

“For a moment there I almost thought you’d take them in yourself.”

“Ha, and bring them in deeper with what this world has to offer?” You laugh at the thought before your expression hardens. “They don’t deserve this kind of life, they’ve already been through enough.”

Almost everyone who’s joined the mafia has gone through the process at a young age, the rest of them an exception. After all, it’s always been a wiser decision to train their people when they’re still young and striving with ambition. It’s easier to instill loyalty into them, easier to break them.

Hoseok can still remember his time so vividly as if he was living it yesterday. He’ll never forget it.

When he looks your way, the sight of your hand touching the cheek where Jummy had hit you catches his attention.

“Looks like it does hurt after all,” he observes, a slight furrow in his brows. He remembers the slap well, how it echoed into the silence of the room, how you just simply let him do that. You provoked him on purpose, wanting a reaction out of him, and received a slap in return. You let him slap you.

“Well,” you say with a shrug, “whether I like to admit it or not, a slap will always hurt.”

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“What?”

“You knew that provoking him would give you a slap in return,” he says. “Being as you had history with him, he’s probably laid his hands on you multiple times before.”

“Probably.”

Feeling a rush of ire running through his veins, Hoseok just can’t seem to read you. “Why do you say that so calmly? Shouldn’t you be more upset?”

You laugh a little at his question, not taking this seriously at all and it makes him mad. “Hoseok, if I got upset and let every little thing get to me, do you really think I’d be where I am now?”

“Still—”

“My goal wasn’t him in the first place, it was Ying. Yuna was the one who wanted to hurt him. She carries my emotions.”

He looks at you for a moment, thinking, wondering, and when you turn your head towards him upon his silence, you feel Hoseok’s hand placed against your cheek. The stinging sensation is still there, you can feel it, and when Hoseok touches your cheek, the coldness from the night breeze begins to warm.

You frown. “What are you doing?”

“Do you not feel anything anymore?” When you try to run away, Hoseok doesn’t let you and instead asks a question, softly, and something that had been hidden in your memories surfaces.

“Why aren’t you getting angry? He did something to you, Y/N, so don’t you feel anything?” Hoseok was so angry, so upset, and for a second you remember almost seeing his eyes watery with tears. He was feeling all these emotions for you, all for you.

“Hoseok…I..I-I’m okay, so—”

“You’re not okay and you know it,” he emphasizes, brows furrowed heavily as he runs his hands through his hair, frustrated. You watch him for some time, unable to say anything, not sure of what it is that you should say, so you stand there, silent, while he paces through the room back and forth, staring at the watch on his wrist as if trying to see when the rest of them would return.

“Hoseok…”

He lets out a heavy sigh and turns back to you, shoulders falling with defeat. “Were you scared?” He asks, softly. “You were scared, weren’t you?”

You don’t give him a reply but Hoseok knows. Hoseok always knows. And when he opens his arms out for you, you don’t hesitate to run into them, engulfing yourself in his warm embrace.

“I’m sorry,” he says against your hair. “I’m not upset at you, it’s just…I wish you’d get upset too.”

“But…what if you don’t like me because of that?”

“Why would I not like you because of that?” He asks, sincerely confused. “It’s human emotions, it’s natural. Just like I don’t like getting sad but you still welcome me either way.”

“It’s…similar to that?”

“Mmn.” He leans away just enough to see your face as he brings himself forward, forehead resting against yours. “I’ll love you despite everything so get mad, get upset, throw a tantrum, and I’ll still love you even then.”

“I do feel, Hoseok,” you tell him, hating the memories that have walked into your head. “I feel anger for all the people that have done me wrong, that’s why I’m going after them for revenge.”

“I feel like I should be proud but…that’s all you feel now, don’t you? Other than anger…there’s nothing but a void in your heart.”

You turn away from his hand, eyes stripping away from him to avoid those eyes that may become a weakness to you. “It’s better to not feel. In this way, I can go about my plans much more successfully. If I let my emotions get the best of me, I’ll just give myself weaknesses to shoulder and we can’t have that if I’m trying to get rid of all my enemies.”

“You’re doing risky business, Y/N.”

“From the minute we were associated with the mafia, everything became risky. In your case, at age nine.” You lost your only love and protection at age nine, Hoseok lost his innocence at age nine.

What a time to be alive.

“And you?”

You look over at him when he asks the question, a chuckle running through your throat. “I was born into this life, remember? Being a mafia heir isn’t an easy task, Hoseok. Whether you were someone who was loved dearly by your parents or not, this business will always serve dangerous for anyone that lives in it. Only ten years ago did I finally find the courage to embrace it. After all, you can’t ever escape the shadows once you step foot into it. That fantasy I lived in only proved to me that living a false life of freedom isn’t something that’s meant for me.”

That fantasy.

The false life of freedom.

You mean to say the three years you spent with them, don’t you? He knows it well and remembers how happy you were in spite of the fear and danger that surrounded your life. You had let them take care of you, trusted their words to never make you fall, to always be there to love and protect you. You gave them your trust and they destroyed that.

The person that you are now doesn’t strive to seek for that happiness anymore. It’s almost as if you’ve truly come to understand all it is that exists in this world of greed, power, and imprisonment. He lived like that for a long, long time, until he found his sanctuary.

You did too but it was forcefully taken away from you unlike him who still has the honor to keep it for his life.

When he looks at you, a burning ache shoots at his heart because he knows he could have saved you. He could have prevented so many things if he knew.

If only he knew.

The boys were too cowardly to let him in on the knowing while you grew afraid, forcing you to a point where you had to leave. You were afraid to destroy his relationship with them, afraid to hold him back. You left for yourself and you left for him.

“Don’t look like that.” Your voice brings him back from his daze and he looks up, blinking.

“Huh?”

“You’re blaming yourself again,” you say, head turning back to look at the streets before you. “It’ll do you no good to always put yourself in the blame. On the bright side, I’m much stronger than I was then.” The dagger in your hand spins effortlessly without falter, a skill that probably took years to master. He notices you’re more comfortable with the blade. Was it the first thing you touched when you decided to train?

It makes sense. After all, during your years of living with them, you were always afraid of going near a gun, the incident with the two bodyguards that died before you always made you tremble in your wake. So the question lies in how long it took you to find the courage to hold a gun.

“Who trained you?” He asks and you pause in your flickering. He wonders why. But before he can even speak up on it, your head turns his way again, a light smile on your face.

“A great master whom I also choose to go up against one day.”

Hoseok’s brows furrow. “It wasn’t your father?”

“Ah, father tried for a good time but then decided to hand me off to someone else. Someone stronger than him.” Someone who could break you down much easier than him. You laugh a little at that. “When it’s time to take him down, it’ll definitely be a fight. I might even die.”

“How can you joke around like that?”

“It’s not a joke, it’s the truth.” You say that but you’re still laughing, as if going up against danger is all that you seek, as if your life means nothing to you.

“So you don’t care if you die?” He asks, not liking the sound of that.

“So as long as I live, I’ll keep going after the people that have wronged me in the course of my lifetime.”

He wonders if those people include Bangtan; the other six. Namjoon. But something tells him in their case, you won’t be going after them with the intent to kill. After all, so far the people that have wronged you have all done something unforgivable — not that what Namjoon and the others did to you isn’t unforgivable but deep down, Hoseok still believes you to be someone who still holds kindness in her heart.

“I won’t go after Namjoon,” you assure as if reading his contemplating thoughts. “That’ll be an easy way to die, after all. And you might even hate me for that.”

So you care if he hates you?

“So you’re willing to die by anyone else’s hands?”

“Of course not. I’m just saying, if I die, I die. Who cares by who and who cares how.”

“But what about your Reapers?”

“What about them?”

“They hold a strong sense of loyalty to you,” he states. “At the split call of their names, they’re right next to you, heeding at your every word. Whatever you say is law. Whatever you do, they follow with no question. You don’t see that just anywhere, Y/N, not even in Bangtan. So don’t you think it’d affect them quite a bit were you to carelessly die by a nobody?”

You fall silent to that, hand continuing to play with the dagger at hand. The light reflects from it ever so often, whiffing sounds leaving as you flick about, spinning it, throwing it, catching it.

“I’ve trained them to not care about those sort of things,” you say after a moment. “They all know to prepare themselves if I were to die. Mingyu will take up the throne and things will go about as if I never existed in the first place.”

You let out an exaggerated yawn after speaking those careless words, arms stretching out before you. “Anyways, if I don’t wake up in ten minutes, call Mingyu for me, yeah?”

With that, you rest your head against the cold, hard railing of the stairs, eyes quick to close.

As Hoseok sits there watching you, he can only think of how wrong you are.

“Sir Mingyu, um…”

“Hey, what did I tell you about calling me a sir? Say hyung. Hyung. You’re making me feel old here, little man.”

“You are old.”

He glares up at Dasom’s retort. “Don’t you have somewhere better to be?”

She brings her hands up in defeat. “Ah, you’re right. Anywhere without you is a much better place to be.”

“That Somi,” he mutters under his breath as she walks away casually, knowing not to put up a fight otherwise she will literally try to obliterate him.

Learned that the hard way.

“Anyways,” he turns to the little boy who had walked away from his friends to approach him, “what was it wanted to say, Sunoo?”

Sunoo stands on his toes, eyes hesitant as he brings his hands forward, fiddling with them while his mouth opens and closes ever so often, as if what he wants to say is something he shouldn’t be saying but something he wants to say.

Mingyu crouches down to his level, a gentle hand placed on his shoulder. “Come on now, it’s not like you to be so hesitant. You want to ask me something, don’t you?”

“I…”

“Boss always says in all the seconds that pass through hesitation, it could be spent in being killed. That’s why you must never hesitate, no matter what it is. The seconds are always ticking after all. Time never slows down for anyone.”

Hearing those words, Sunoo is quick to straighten up as his head picks up, eyes a bit more strong than they were when he had initially approached the older man. Mingyu chuckles silently to himself, knowing anything that has to do with you, anyone will listen well.

You have everyone wrapped around your fingers, whether you know it or not.

“I..I want to become a Reaper, Mingyu hyung!”

For the first time in his life, Sunoo watches as the amused and easygoing expression on Mingyu’s face washes over in a second, replaced by something much colder and much more intimidating.

He physically shivers in fear.

“Sunoo…”

Sunoo’s back straightens even more upon the call of his name as he feels the hand on his shoulder tighten. An unexplainable fear washes over him and he feels pricks of needles pinning through all of his back, legs, and feet.

He can’t move.

“Never utter such words again, you got that?” He stands from his spot and turns around, quick to dismiss the conversation before it can continue any further but Sunoo stops him, not understanding.

“Why?” He asks, a tug on Mingyu’s blazer. “I want to protect Lady Y/N and the only way I can do that is—”

“If you really want to protect her, you’re better off staying away from us.”

“What…?” He stares at the older man in confusion, dreams and hopes ready to shatter but Sunoo holds on, not wanting to go down without a fight. You’ve protected him from so much and now that he wants to pay you back, he can’t do it in the way he knows how to?

Mingyu lets out a sigh when the kid doesn’t let go and turns back around, his expression still firm and grave, different from the man everyone knows him to be. “It’s a good thing you came to me first, otherwise boss would have killed you herself if she ever heard you say such words.”

“But—”

“Until you learn how to manipulate your emotions and hide them well, until you understand what it means to restrain yourself, to stand by and be a good bystander, only until then will you ever be worthy enough to serve along Y/N’s side.”

“A good…bystander?” What is that supposed to mean?

A kid will never understand, Mingyu knows, because kids who care for someone will always stand against the unjust and recklessly put their lives and everyone else’s lives in danger just for that person. Whether it’s their mother, their father, a friend, a lover, whoever it may be, they will not hesitate to scream and shout, begging and pleading, standing in the way of the unjust, stepping up and defending that one person.

He will be killed in an instant if he doesn’t understand control, if he doesn’t understand his role, and it will break him in more than one way.

“When you learn how to play that role, and know how to play it well, only then will I deem you worthy enough to stay by boss’s side.”

“Yo idiot, boss fell asleep on the stairs.”

Upon hearing Dasom come back with a finger pointed towards the outside, Mingyu looks up, face returning to his usual easygoing expression as he takes a stand.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going. Honestly, why can’t she ever sleep during appropriate times and at appropriate places?”

While Mingyu complains under his breath as he’s walking away, Sunoo remains standing still in the place Mingyu left him, eyes shaking with a waver, his heart aching when he realizes he’s just gotten rejected.

He’s not worthy enough to protect you, to even stay by your side. He’s not worthy enough.

And whatever Mingyu meant, if he never figures that out, if he never learns how to be a good bystander, he will never be worthy enough to ever even approach you.

“Hey kid.” He slowly turns at Dasom’s call, head still in the clouds, hurt by what Mingyu had told him. Dasom lets out a heavy sigh as she pats his head. “The idiot’s right. The only way you can protect boss now is by staying away. She’ll never let you serve her otherwise.”

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