#cravity serim angst | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

writingmochi · 11 months

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Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, home to pizza and entertainment from our animatronics, Freddy Fazbear & Friends. Oh… What's that? The animatronics walks by itself and you can smell a rotten odor? Don't worry about that. Fazbear Entertainment, as the owner of the pizza franchise, is not responsible for any death or disappearance

cast: sunoo ✗ fem.reader (ft. itzy's yuna, cravity's taeyoung and serim, with a few ocs)

synopsis: pizzeria, animatronics, missing children, and mystery. those are words that encompass what people may believe of freddy fazbear's pizza, whose doors were closed years ago. so, what do you do if you and your friends have to stay in one of their abandoned establishments from midnight 'til sunrise? are you able to survive the night? and be careful what you answer, they're listening

genre: horror, mystery, adventure, survival, dark comedy, high school au, a bit of fluff, angst

based on: video game series five nights at freddy’s (2014-present); set before five nights at freddy's 3 (2015)

word count: 17929 (17.9k)

warning(s): blood, arson, a small kiss and romantic part, description of unpleasant odor, mention of missing and dead children, mention of murder, mention of animatronic and animal mascot (for those who have masklophobia), a bit lore dumping but i have to make you guys know it (especially in the context of the plot) (if i forgot something, let me know!)

message to the moon: remember that this story is fiction and do be careful and read the warnings at the top. all the idols mentioned here are not what they are in real life.

it's here!! and it is still june *weights drop off my shoulder* this is meant for sunoo's birthday so as long as it is his birthday month. i am extremely fine with that :D + the fnaf movie trailer came out yesterday. so i guess it is the right timing to upload it today

mini playlist: van halen's "jump"; toby fox's "amalgam"; lena raine's "scattered and lost" ; allen simpson's "d.j. music man"

now open

“what do you guys know about freddy fazbear’s pizza?”

“that pizzeria franchise? what about it?”

those two sentences were the start of a pretty unusual conversation you have with your friend group during recess. lifting your head from opening the snack you bought before as you and your friends sit in the cafeteria hall, other students walk around trying to find a table or return to one. the conversation continues with the boy and girl sitting across from you while another boy sits silently eating the snack that you open.

“serim got access to the abandoned building that used to be a franchise near this city.” you watch taeyoung lets out a smirk as yuna contorted while shaking her head, already knowing what he might say next. your eyes widen as you are now intrigued by following the conversation.

“how did he get it? did your dad buy the land there?” yuna replied, her eyes squinting at the boy your group of friends knows is the richest of the four of you. his father owns multiple properties in the city for whatever construction he has planned or selling them to the highest bidder.

“that’s what my brother implies.” taeyoung’s eyes wander between the three of you. you turn your head slightly towards sunoo, your next-door neighbor and best friend since you two were kids. both of you were quiet as you observed your two friends converse about taeyoung’s ‘special access’ to the mysterious building you had never heard of before, but have learned the stories surrounding what it has.

“and like that stupid brain of his, he dared me to stay there from midnight to 6 in the morning.” taeyoung ruffles his hair as you see him roll his eyes and scoff, covering himself because of the ridiculousness.

“what you’re getting from that?” sunoo asked beside you as you nod while raising your eyebrow. taeyoung is not stupid enough to be gaslighted by his older brother like that, isn’t he?

“his allowance for three months, you know how big their allowances are especially college students like him,” taeyoung replied snarkily, a smirk forming on his face. “and also my dignity cause you all recognize how much he teases me.” you see yuna rolled her eyes as sunoo giggled, you pursed your lips, looking at the boy in front of you in disbelief, leaning your body back as you don’t want to get involved in their sibling rivalry while grabbing the snack that is now in front of sunoo.

“and he said i can bring my friends so i want to bring you all.”

what?

hearing the ridiculousness of taeyoung’s invitation with the whole context made sunoo covers his face in embarrassment. yuna looks at the boy beside you and nods, understanding his feelings before looking away. you, on the other hand, viewed your surroundings as the voice of the cafeteria environment making your focus turn away.

“guys, please? (y/n)? you like true crime, right?” taeyoung asked, bringing your focus back to the table as your name is mentioned.

you and your friends know how much you love true crime. how your favorite board game is clue while your favorite activity while going out with them is to go to escape rooms. half of your entertainment is watching criminal psychology videos—including their interrogation or just story time of the true crimes that happened in history, both solved and unsolved. you have always liked mysteries, help solve alternate reality games on the internet with the skills you train to use. they always seem to intrigue you, the absence of certain information. it’s no different with freddy fazbear’s pizza and the scandals surrounding it.

the legend that is freddy fazbear’s pizza, their franchises and stories about how it becomes the business failure that has always intrigued you. how back in the late 70s, two people by the name of henry emily and william afton tried to open a diner by selling pizza for kids’ birthday parties. you learned from what you read, back at that time, mascots are popular in those establishments, so they create two spring-lock animatronics made for the kids’ entertainment the two can wear, while also prototyping four others which will possess their own sense of control. henry‘s called fredbear, a yellow bear, while william‘s called spring bonnie, a yellow rabbit. the other four are freedy fazbear, a brown bear; bonnie, a purple rabbit; chica, a yellow chicken; and foxy, a pirate-costumed fox.

that is until five children went missing and the animatronics started to act weird, as people back then described. it all goes downhill from the incident.

the original diner closed after lawsuits and missing children were reported with the diner as its connection. henry emily and william afton fought with each other where henry cuts their partnership and created his own company, hiring employees to get the business together in the 80s, it’s called fazbear entertainment. the company opens so many franchises of freddy fazbear’s pizza until one by one it closes down. rumors of odor coming from inside the pizzeria and the animatronics going ‘haywire to walk around the vicinity’ at night are the main reasons for its downfall until the early 2000s when the company disappeared, never opening another franchise again.

you always believed there is a connection between the missing children, the odor, and the animatronics acting weirdly. you really wanted to find out about it. never have you assumed that near where you lived, there was once a freedy fazbear’s pizza. and the news was the reason for your shock when taeyoung said that he, by proxy from his dad who is a property developer, gained access to one.

“i mean… i do.” you replied to taeyoung with a tilted head. “but never have i thought that you’re going to ask me to go to one of their places. heck, i didn’t even know our city had one.” you continued, unconsciously biting the inside of your lips.

“well, that’s good, right? you can explore the building while getting to know it and its history? maybe be able to contribute to the story that is out there.” you can only nod after what taeyoung said as it is, in your mind, the truth. you maybe aren’t the best equipped to solve this kind of mystery, but being a high school student sometimes has its boring times and this is an opportunity of a lifetime, a story that you can tell someday. you don’t even know if this abandoned building also owns its secret. were there also missing children cases back in their prime days like the other franchises? does it also have any link to the odor and weird animatronics people have associated the franchise with other than their pizza and arcade?

“i’ll go.” sunoo and yuna stare at you bewildered after what you said, making taeyoung lightly bounce on his side of the table. you can’t help to want to know. all the curiosity that’s running through your mind envelops you—you don’t even have enough moments to think about how to survive a night there, at an abandoned building engulf in trees where it is hard to reach. where danger can just be right around the corner, yet you just want to know what happened and why it has become like this.

“if (y/n)’s going, i’ll go too.” you see sunoo replied. you let out a small smirk as you glimpse at the boy, lifting your fist up for him to fist bump where sunoo grins at you while giving a light one.

yuna lets out a sigh and said, “fine, but, i know the other two agree with me. we want those allowances to be given to us evenly.” you let out a chuckle as the three of you glare at taeyoung with a baffled look on his face, before letting out his breath.

“25% for each of us?” taeyoung sees all three of you nodding, a sneaky grin on all of your faces.

“fine by me.”

“you’re nervous?” you heard sunoo speak as you tie your combat boots tightly and slip the remaining laces under the tied ones. sighing quietly as you look up to admire his room that you’ve visited hundreds maybe nearing thousand of times while looking at the backpack you packed full of stuff you needed as you told your mom and his mom that you’re having a sleepover in his room tonight.

“it’s… mixed. like nervous but excited and also scared.” you bounce your feet on the floor sitting as he furrows his eyebrows while also checking the backpack you can see is beside you. “anything can happen there.” you mumbled.

sunoo smiled as he replied, “we can get through it, all of us.”

in your group, sunoo has always been the optimistic one: like when all four of you play dodgeball for p.e. class with your other classmates, he is usually the one that commands the most but also throws the most, most of his shots are a hit which—you can’t deny—also amazed you. yuna is the pessimistic one: worrying at first but being solid at it after, like when she complained to the rest of you before a physics exam and then found out that she also gets the highest score. taeyoung is the mischievous one that pranks and dares all three of you, sometimes not even caring if karma gets him like a ball to his nuts. while you are the curious one: sometimes your curiosity gets you in trouble like getting detention but it also helps your friends in acing the hardest math exam you have ever taken with the answer key you remembered reading and all four of you got at least a 90 on the scores.

“speaking of getting through it, what do you bring?” you nudge your shoulder toward his backpack beside yours.

“snacks, water bottles, blankets, medkit,” he replied as he closes his bag, his gaze now on you.

you hummed as a smile formed, “like a scout. nice!”

“you knew about me going camping before. so i packed the things i pack when camping, “ sunoo answered as he gently put his hand on his waist. “how about you?”

“a notebook, pencil, spare clothes, water, spare batteries, and a pocket knife,” you reply while you think about how funny your differing priorities are for today’s adventure, exactly like what you group yourself and your friends’ stereotypes. both your phone vibrates at the same time as you glance at yours, the message being shared in your group chat showing on the screen telling you they have arrived at the meeting point. the open window of sunoo’s ground-floor bedroom opens to the front side of his house, ready for you both to go through.

as you two picked up your backpacks and climb out the window, sunoo slowly closed it, leaving a small gap so he can push it open when you both arrived in the morning. you two walk into the night to the corner of your block where a car waits. both of you can see taeyoung from the front seat window as you both are approaching, gesturing you to go into the back seat. climbing into the car with serim driving and yuna that sits with you two at the back, the car zooms away as saturday slowly ends.

seeing the streetlights illuminate the road and trees forming around it, you trail your eyes off to yuna who is sitting next to you. she has a small backpack of her own on her lap.

“how are you, bestie?” you nudge her shoulder with your own.

“to be honest, i’m sleepy. after we arrive, we should find a good place so that we can stay and i can sleep,” she replied, making taeyoung who sits at shotgun tilt his head back to take a glimpse at her and you.

“she doesn’t believe the roaming animatronics stuff.”

“as if they’re real.” she crosses her arm and leans against the car door beside her while the dark woods slowly envelop the car. the headlights are the only source of light other than the ones coming from the moon above you.

you heard serim chuckle from the driver’s seat. “i agree like what’s with the rumored stuff with the kids and animatronics being tethered. just tell the truth that they are malfunctioning. what an exaggeration to say that they walk around the restaurant.” you glance at yuna, who is nodding after serim finish his opinion. yet, you are still convinced they are tethered in some way. maybe the animatronics are haunted…

the car goes deep on a wide enough dirt track for a single vehicle and stops in a small clearing, a building’s silhouette upon it with an enormous billboard on the top of what you presume is the entrance. it stops and you all step out from the cramped interior, feeling the chills forming from the night wind blowing through the thin spaces of trees’ trunks and branches.

“the keys, taeyoung.” serim lightly flings it to taeyoung who catches it perfectly. “best of luck to you all, i guess, especially you. big stakes right here.” he points to his brother and gives a wink, the said boy getting disgusted by it and silently gagged. yuna, who is beside you, picked up everything as she chuckle next to your shoulder.

“shut the heck up.” taeyoung mumbles making serim lightly laugh as he grabs the steering wheel in front of him.

“see you at 6, losers,” serim said and then the car drove off. you can’t help but look at the time from your phone that you picked out from your pocket.

00:00

the beam from the flashlights all of you have brought shines on the path to the abandoned pizzeria building. the lights roaming on the building's exterior, seeing the scraps of a billboard on top of the building with a freddy fazbear head as the logo and the name is written across the bottom of the logo, signalling its glory and how it has withered with time with it being slanted; almost fallen off the roof. looking around the entrance’s exterior, you see images of the animatronics in a cartoon style in front of a mini playground with slides, monkey bars, and swings. in the distance, you can also see a silhouette of what looks like a door on the other side of in it. the door is most likely an emergency door shown by the weird positioning that is placed. if it uses another color, it will stick out too much. so that's why it uses the same paint as the exterior walls.

there are questions instantly running through your mind as you step closer to it. why isn’t the main entrance bordered with planks of wood like other abandoned buildings you know from documentaries or the internet? is it because every franchise is closed around the same time, and the staff and management didn’t mind the leftovers that they can use if they want to try again? maybe, they wanted to continue, but the lawsuits and pressure are just too much for them to be open. maybe, fear might have a factor in it.

you hear the jingling of the keys and the lock on the iron fence that stands in front of a set of glass doors. the metal creaks as taeyoung continues to move forward and open the glass door. one by one, you all go in as yuna slowly pushes the glass door open.

stepping inside the room, your flashlight lets you observe the strips of wallpaper that are deteriorating and watermarks staining the wall from leaking spots. you walk at the back with sunoo while letting your eyes adjust to the darkness as the flashlight beams roam the spacious room of what used to be a reception room, with its lectern for one of the staff to stand by and the many amounts of benches for people in the waiting list.

hearing the scrunch under your feet, you let your flashlight shines on the scattered pizza boxes on the floor and party decorations that have filled the room. your nose itching from the cumulated dust in the air but not enough to make rub your finger against it or make you sneeze. taeyoung walks to the front as the lights coming from his beam show promotional posters on one side, bathroom doors on the other, and a large doorway on the same side at the end of the hallway. old telephone booths sticking out onto the wall beside the entrance to the main area.

“we can spread out, but don’t go out of this room.” sunoo whispered behind the crowd as you all enter a giant room which you guess is the main area of the pizzeria, and its condition is worse than the reception area.

the room is full of dining tables and benches with paper plates and open pizza boxes, a stage on one of the sides, and arcade cabinets on one corner of the room; some stood while others were laying broken as a pool of glass shards reflected the shine of your flashlight. rubbers that were supposed to resemble balloons are flat on the ground—a few are looking like the air leaked from them while others look like they popped as their edges look like it was ripped apart. a few of the tiles on the floor are cracked and you can hear them crunch under your footsteps. holding your breath as you look like the restaurant resembling a shipwreck, your light shines on two hallways on two sides of the arcade area. both of them leading to dead ends that have a poster attached to the wall, but the one on the right has light coming in from a plank-covered window. and as you look closer, you can see doorways on both of the hallway; a room is there behind the arcade.

you and your friends scattered around the dining tables to search the nooks and crannies of the room. walking to where the stage stood, you could see chipped wood from the front of the stage and an emergency exit door on the corner beside it—the same position you see the silhouette on the outside. scattering your lights to view the surroundings, you see yuna shines hers to one of the dining tables. approaching it, you find rotten pizzas in an open pizza box that isn't complete or on top of a paper plate that has confetti on its design.

“ew, there are rotten foods here,” she commented lightly, waving her hand from the disgusting smell of spoiled food that have kicked your senses. you let your feet walk to one of the entrances to the hallways across the room, seeing a few doors in a hallway with a double door to the right.

“we should find a place for our base camp for the next hours,” you mumbled, the quiet atmosphere attracting their attention towards you as they approach where you stand. your flashlight shines in the hallway in front of you.

“yeah, we don’t know what is lurking in this building, so it's best if we can find a safe place.” sunoo echoes your idea, earning a nod and smile from you. peeking from the corner of your eyes, you can see he lets out one too from the slight shine that reflects on a bit of his face.

“we can search one by one.” yuna remarked behind you as she looks in the hallway and taeyoung hummed, agreeing to what you all said. all of you approach the two doors to see them made out of glass and windows spread along the wall beside them, miraculously not broken into smithereens like the glass screen from the arcade cabinets. an anomaly from the other two glass doors you presume will be an identical type of room is the double doors right on your right side.

“this must have been a private party room,” taeyoung commented with you turning around, letting his lights shine inside the room as you all take a peek from the glass door. bookshelves stood across the entrance with a few windows on top of them, a short table with cushion chairs surrounding it, confetti paper on the floor with party hats, matching paper and cup set of chica and a chalky and crumbly birthday cake at the other hand of the table with a blackboard that said “happy birthday“ written with chalk.

“is it just me or even though this place has been shut down decades ago, many of the decorations and small trivial things are still there? like why would they leave food?” yuna added as you take another glance at the long table where you can see other rancid food on it—resembling the ones in the main dining area. it seems as if the management doesn’t want to care about the restaurant when it closes. none of the furniture was moved out or cleaned up before being. it looks as if the staff working had disappeared so suddenly one day into thin air, and no one has the responsibility to clean the mess before letting it spread all over the restaurant.

“looks like the building has stayed in the past cause all i can think about is people abandoning the building and all of its activities without no actions to clean them up.” sunoo made a hypothesis the same as what you thought.

“hmm, 80s fresh air, felt so different.” taeyoung joked as your hand reaches the handle of the door and slowly open it. yuna’s flashlight right behind your body shines the room from on top of your shoulder. the chairs are so small you assumed it's for children around and under five years old.

“do you want to stay here or stay outside?” you turned to your friends as you gently held it open.

“inside the room is safer and we can barricade it. good for escape if we can reach up the bookshelves of the window above it. while outside, there is much more room to run if there is danger and the path to the exit, but we’re much more exposed.” you let out your thoughts as all four of you look at each other, gently letting go of the door before putting one cushion to the doorframe, not letting it shut as you don’t want to cause a loud noise if—if it is true—something is lurking in these hallways and rooms.

“inside could work.” taeyoung voiced out as he settles his bag on the ground. “great access to see the outside if we see any animatronics roaming down the hall.”

“no, they’re not.” yuna exclaimed as her face creased from the comment, then immediately yawns after before continuing. “since we searched the place when we get here, we should be able to make a small map of the place, right?”

“yes, we can,” sunoo said as he places his backpack and then looks at you. at first, you were confused by what he implied, but his eyes move to the bag on your back. you silently acknowledge before pulling your backpack down and opening the zipper, pulling your notebook and pencil out. all of you sit down, taeyoung sits on the cushion and yuna sits on the floor while you kneel on your knees down as you put the notebook on the dusty table, tracing the rough layout of the building from what you could remember.

“i’ve drawn the main entrance and reception, the hallway with the bathrooms, and the doorway to the dining room.” the others see your drawing as you let your fingers fidget with the pencil.

taeyoung gently grabs the pencil from you as he continues your drawing. “across from the entrance there is a small stage and a door. and the place where we are is through here, near the doorway from the reception. a hall with two party rooms and a double door to a room on the right side.”

“the kitchen.” sunoo cuts in as he is standing and looking at the double doors outside from the window. “i can see glints of silver in there from the circle window. on some angle, i can see the metal thingy where you suck up smoke from the stove and some circular stuff dangling which i guess are pans.” he tells his assumption.

“that makes sense. i was scouring near the arcade in the dining room and see the little window where servers usually grab food from the kitchen. the big cartoon-ish animal drawings on the wall can’t be ignored.” yuna said as she leans near you.

“i found another hallway beside the small stage and arcade. lights coming in seems to be a large window with a door at the end of the hallway on the left and one near the front of the hallway on the right.” sunoo added as you continued drawing the new areas on the map, few of the ones you made have already been assigned with their descriptions from all of your friends help. you added the stage you saw, the emergency door beside it, and the other hallway between the arcade and the kitchen; the one where sunoo didn’t catch as you heard him hum.

“i think that is all…” sunoo turns back from where he stands, now crouching on the other end of the table while looking at the sketch. you put down your pencil, unconsciously biting the nail on your thumb.

“what are the other two rooms then?” yuna asked from beside you. seeing the three empty rectangles with no scribbles on top of it. the room across from where the hallway to reception, the hallway sunoo mentioned with the door on the front right side, and the room behind the arcade.

taeyoung inspects the paper and the words inside them to indicate their purpose. “this is a restaurant, so supply closets for cleaning stuff and extra party decorations. and they have animatronics so maybe one of them is to clean their parts and repair them. what’s the last one then?”

“security,” you murmured, letting your thumb fall from your face.

“the animatronics are dangerous apparitions after all. security has to have their own office to help track animatronics and not let them do dangerous things.” you see the others nodding as you added the last three names for the last three doors beside the layout. the current matter is that you don't know the certain locations of them.

01:00

you felt your body being gently shaken inside the blanket that you are sleeping in.

by the time you finished talking about the layout of the rooms inside the abandoned building, all of you let your tiredness get to you and fall asleep. sunoo, who brought blankets, gave one to you as you are the only that doesn’t bring any form of sleeping props; taeyoung with his pillow-neck while yuna with her towel-turn-blanket. the thing is, you didn’t get any sleep when you can hear muffled clanks from outside of the room, your mind letting you awake, letting you observe the area with your hearing. and now, you can feel your head throbbing as you are placed in a between rem and non-rem sleep.

“(y/n), please…” you hear yuna’s recognizable voice. feeling a tad bit safer, your eyes open and you sit your body up on the party room floor.

“what’s wrong? did you also h-“

“i need to pee,” yuna hissed as she kneel beside you, trying to hold it in. the concern in your eyes fall as you let out a chuckle at the girl. dragging off the blanket from your body, you lean in closer to her.

“you can pee in the corne-“

“i rather get grabbed by the animatronic than see the boys seeing me pee.” yuna’s tense face made you chuckle again as you nod your head, seeing a small smile forming on her face before you paused when you heard the muffled clanks again. turning your head against where the sound came from—the double doors across from the room you are in. sighing, you quickly turn around to crawl closer to your friend, shaking his upper arm with enough force to wake him up.

“sunoo…” you whispered, seeing him stirring with his eyes open. his eyebrows are raised as he looks between you and yuna, who puts her hands on your shoulder.

“what are you doing?” he mumbled as he leans up.

“we’re going to the bathroom. i just need you to know so you can stand by if anything went wrong. don’t fall asleep on us,” you warned him as sunoo sits up while stretching his arms and neck. as yuna waits by with sunoo, you scrambled to your bag and grab a few needed items to be on your body: your phone and a pocket knife, before going to the glass door as yuna gently opens it. you turn around to close it and see sunoo now sitting on the cushion as taeyoung still sleeping on the other side of the room. you gave him a small nod as you point at your phone in your hand before gently walking away.

you were glad that the hallways are close enough with each other that no other occurrence really disturbed you in someway—the clanking that lingers in your mind for the past hour suddenly disappeared. you both walk to the hallway and stand facing the bathrooms, the female one is wide open with a poster of chica on display, while the male one had its door slightly open. yuna walks towards the female bathroom where you suddenly grab her wrist, stopping her movement before turning around towards you.

“what’s wrong?” she scream-whispered towards you. you jutted your chin to the door as you see how the hinges of the bathroom door she wanted to enter are broken, how the door is slanted and battered like many pressures of opening said door too hard has caused it to be like this.

“we should use the male bathroom. if something happens, the door from the male one can be our line of protection,” you replied as yuna looks back between you and the female bathroom before looking at the door beside it. she tilts her head and shows a slight nod before walking—also pulling you—to the male bathroom.

hearing the door screech as she pushes it wider, a flickering horizontal light from above the sink illuminates the dirty bathroom, the only evidence that electricity still reaches this building which has been abandoned for years. yuna pulled you to the stall in front of the last one at the back where the door is slightly open to see the dirty toilet. seeing her holding a tissue that can help to clean the pee, you turn around and close the door behind you as gently as possible as yuna does her business, locking the door that is still working.

staring at the paint of the stall, you can trace the various intangible writings on the stall’s walls from kids dating back to the latest in 2005; someone wrote the year in black marker along with other doodles. there are also a few drawings of the animatronic characters made with the same pen that wrote the year instead of the illustrations that you see in the halls. it is childish in nature and as you pin it into your mind, you felt a sudden somber by the missing children incident that is related to the franchise.

that’s when you heard a music box playing, and it seems getting closer and closer.

catching the sound of tissue from yuna’s hand as she throws it away, you turn and grab her wrist as you put your pointer finger in front of your mouth. she follows your gesture as silence consumes you both before you hear the music box playing again. you see yuna’s eyes widen before the sound of a door opens, and it opens hard, slamming onto the wall. you jumped as you heard yuna’s gasp before you walk closer and cover her mouth, looking back toward your stall’s door to see the lock that you put in is still intact.

putting your lips in a straight line to help muffled yourself, your legs wobble when the music box sound is getting louder, followed by the sound of something metallic hitting the ceramic tiles of the bathroom. you gently push yourself to sit on your knees, the song of the music box playing sounded familiar to you, like a part of a classical piece. the sound of metal and footsteps is heavy and your pupils tremble when you peek outside under the door to see a pair of legs full of fur underneath the light of the bulb from the sink. seeing its shadow walking closer, you felt yuna’s breath beside your cheek as she replaces your hand with her own, seemingly paralyzed along with you as you see the legs coming closer towards your stall.

you can finally recognize the color of the fur of its feet, brown.

the sound of mechanical joints whirling can be picked up from above where you sit, obscured by the door as the feet are walking to the front of the stall you are in. you can’t help yourself to cover yuna’s hand with your own to help increase the muffling, hoping that it can mute your breathing as you try to hold it as best as you can. seeing the feet slowing down right where you are, you can identify the side of the three-fingered paws of the animatronic. yuna seems to hide her face on your shoulder as you listened to her muffled gagged before you smell the cause of the gag yourself. as it walks away, the waft of rotten odor coming from it also leaves your vicinity and you peek to sit it turning around from the wall on the last stall—the stall you are in—and now walk in a pace that you observed before. the music box panning from both of your ears as the music rewinds again, knowing that it can attract something or someone to get closer.

as you hear the music box now muffled from the layers of walls—the thing not closing the door at all—you quickly stood up from your position and gently open the lock of the stall, seeing the sink area intact as you walk further from yuna, who is still covering her mouth, to the entrance of the male bathroom. the sound of the music box playing from your left, where the entrance is. you were glad that sunoo had the right mind to not let it open wide and not close it shut but leave a small gap for both the glass door and the iron fence. you could make a run if you need to. but that means leaving the others behind.

pulling out your phone from your pocket, you open your camera and use the front camera as a mirror as you lean back—but not with pressure—against the door with yuna now standing beside you, peeking to examine the torso and head of the being that is creating music. it stands facing its back towards you where you can see from the silhouette courtesy of the moon: the rounded ears and the hat right in the middle. your lips tremble as you see it walking around the benches, making most of its body obscure by the wall, if you stepped out.

you can’t believe it as you see the back of its head move behind the wall as you stood in the hallway, the music box still playing the same song. your heart is beating like crazy and you know it can jump out if it wants to. the cogs in your mind moving in a frenzy as you now know what you encountered.

“that’s a freddy fazbear animatronic,” you whispered under your breath.

“what th-“

the music box stopped when yuna replied beside you, making you grab onto her arm and your phone on the other side tightly as you turn your body around and speedwalk to the dining room doorway. but then a shadow on the ground of a bunny figure appears, making you hide behind the wall beside the doorway, the phone booth can be felt on your back as you turn your head to watch the silhouette of the bunny animatronic walking away from where you at before turning a corner, making its back now facing you. you remembered the lines of dining tables you saw, four rows from the stage, that takes most of the hall.

you let go of yuna’s hand when you heard her whisper, “wait” as you crawl on your knees and open the cloth of the dining tables. looking back at yuna, who has frightened eyes. you nodded at her as she follows you and crawl to the opening you made. crawling past you before you instantly drop the cloth around the right time as you listened to the animatronic footsteps coming from where you were now at the doorway. freddy’s music box stops playing like it’s in alarm mode.

you drag your knees to bring you closer to the middle of the long dining table, opening your phone that illuminates the space under the cloth slightly, making you able to see the dusty tiles with a few toy cars, paper plates, and character masks on the floor. you quickly open the group chat for your friends and quickly type into the group chat.

y/n: SUNOO!

y/n: IT’S TRUEEE

y/n: IT’S REAL

someone types right after you.

sunoo: IK

sunoo: WE SAW A CHICKEN ONE COMING OUT OF THE DOOR ACROSS FROM THE BASE

sunoo: THE KITCHEN

the chicken one…

y/n: THAT’S CHICA

y/n: WE SAW FREDDYY

y/n: AND BONNIE

breathing rapidly, you notice yuna looking between you and the phone in your hand.

“you didn’t bring yours?” you whispered as she shook her head, eyes still wide. that’s when you picked up the whirring metal moving around you. a slight gap underneath the cloth makes you able to catch another pair of legs full of fur. but this one is not brown. it’s purple.

raising your hands to your mouth, you try to not make a sound as best as you can. seeing the furry feet stomping onto the tiled floor—crunching underneath its weight. you hope they don’t have joints where they could lean down and see you under the table. but then you remember that is supposed to be a singing animatronic, how else can they show their rhythm and groove without a joint to their hip area. the machinery walks slowly. but you also suspect that they could run with their current physiology.

something touches you and you got startled as you turn towards your friend in a position that looks painful, facing her stomach down as she looks out from the other side of the table. you grab her hand to reassure her when yuna pulls you to do the same thing. slowly approaching her, you try your best not to let the rubber sound on the dirty tiled floor.

“what is it?” you whisper directly into her ear. the glint in her eyes letting you know she might found something helpful.

“see that open doorway?” she whispered back, pointing to the rectangle void compared to the greyish hue of the wall.

“we could go there. especially if the boys are also in trouble,” she replied, almost letting out a chuckle before you reply by ruffling her hair, non-verbally expressing how proud you are of her. you scan the doorway from that small glimmer of open space between the tablecloth and your own, seeing that it is on the other side of the room. you slowly raise your body as yuna raises her, seeing you in a near crouch position as you tell her with gestures as best as you can, pointing between the two of you, your forefinger and middle finger bent as it moves across the dorsum of your other hand, pointing on the table that concealed the two of you and showing three with your fingers.

‘we have to crouch under the table three times.’

she nods, understanding what you meant. with the moonlight shining into the room, and a few exterior lights as well. you can see the silhouette of the figures roaming around the dining room. a burst of laughter caught your attention, something you didn’t hear before as another animatronic steps into the hallway from where the side where your base camp is. chica.

as you watch the silhouette from the table you are underneath, you can inspect where the animatronics are: bonnie is walking in front of the stage, going the direction where you are going, chica is walking towards the middle of the room, whilst freddy is still near the hallway to the reception area. the coast is clear as you give a look to yuna, her stance resembling yours as you give nods in a rhythm.

one…

two…

three.

you carefully lift the tablecloth as yuna moves forward first, her hand reaching for the end of the cloth as she opens it. your eyes only strained forward as you follow her before she closes the cloth. your legs nearly slipped on the floor as yuna braces you. with your adapting eyes, you notice the rotten cream on your sneakers as yuna lets out a grim expression on her face, almost gagging before you shush her up. you glance at the remnants of a pie here, complete with the degrading aluminium foil that is in its place—deep down you are glad you didn’t step onto the aluminium.

yuna nudges you to the other side of the table when you realize the gap between this row and the one across is larger than the one you just passed. bracing yourself, you glance at her as she nods knowingly when she does her own countdown and lifts the tablecloth for you as you rush out.

eyes only looking forwards as your knees nearly gave out when you reach the other table, too late to open the tablecloth as it slips from your force. you gritted your teeth as you hear the plastic utensils above the table scratching each other from the force, the hum of the machinery turns towards you as you stare at bonnie’s three-toed feet that are walking in the path that separates you and yuna.

you quickly cover yourself as your mind scrambles to find something to help her. your eyes follow the shadowy items near you as you find a plastic fork not too broken like the ones you came across. it can help to be a distraction to get yuna to you.

your aching feet take you towards the fallen plastic utensils—thoughts in your mind still wonder how this is still here even with it being closed down—as you pick up the fork and adjust its prong to its maximum potential. approaching away from where bonnie is almost nearing the end of the long table, you lift the cloth up and throw the plastic fork towards where the kitchen is. your hypothesis on the animatronic becomes fact as you see bonnie rush towards where the plastic fork landed, even freddy joining the frenzy. you immediately close the opening as yuna’s swift body move to where you are, slipping behind the animatronic.

approaching her, she lets out a silent exhale as her eyes are wide open, shaking her head as you both approach the final table and do the final dash towards the doorway. the gap returns to the shorter one as yuna opens the tablecloth for you to pass, the animatronics is still focusing on the fork and where it landed. you open the last one for yuna and quickly close it as you step onto something not flat. looking down, you again meet the character masks you also saw earlier: one for bonnie and one for freddy. you didn’t notice that you linger on them when yuna approaches the last obstacle before you finally leave.

“hurry (y/n).” her whisper rings as you picked the masks up in your hand and slip them through your arm. the almost broken rubber bands stretch against your skin as yuna stares at you weirdly before you open the tablecloth for her. she steps out and approaches the void before slipping to the side—the door dark enough that it looks wide open but it actually has a small crack open. your eyes scan at the silhouette of the animatronics as you can see chica almost approaching the path you are now. you sprint towards the door and slip inside. you felt large wires behind you as you grab one and slip it onto the doorway before pushing the door close so that it doesn’t make the usual click sound.

“bad idea.” yuna mumbled beside you as you finally stare at the room and the things decorating the wall.

both of you were met by the heads of the animatronic, jaw open with no eyeballs. most of them sticking onto the walls. in one corner, there is a pile of metal amalgamation with a few of them sticking out. you can catch yuna’s chattering teeth as she looks at the menacing heads on the wall. the vibration in your pant pocket tickles your thigh as you pull your phone out and open it. the screen filled up with sunoo’s worries as you glance at the clock.

02.00

sunoo: you okay?

taeyoung: we’re so freaking worried

typing the answer, the light of the phone illuminates you, yuna, and some of the room. pipes and wires draping from the ceiling as you can pick up the whirring machines outside of the small gap in the door.

y/n: we’re alright

y/n: though we are stuck now

y/n: gonna tell you the next plan later

you let the phone’s screen light up the room which still irks you in a bad way, but it’s definitely not the worst as the one from the outside. seeing the familiar faces of the animatronic heads, you piece up what this room might be. the scent of oil sticks to your smelling scent and yuna moves to approach the tall shelf where tools and equipment are oxidizing there. remembering the layout, yuna pointed to one of the rooms that you remember is unknown on your do-it-yourself map.

“this is the parts and service room,” you mumbled, glancing at yuna who turns her body to yours. she hums, lifting the tools as the small sound creates a scratch to your sense. slowly stepping onto the floor, you approach yuna as the light of the phone creates a spotlight to let you see clearer. it reflects on the metallic materials in the room. the soggy smell of fur from the backup heads of the animatronics, wet and might have moulds in it.

the metal amalgamation caught your eyes as you approach it. you crouch down and inspect the long pipe—like metal bones and joints that resemble the human skeletal system. you could identify the toes, fingers, hips, and torsos. as you approach, you glance at one head and look at a skull with uncanny eyeballs sticking to both the left and right sides. the eyes stare open, lifeless, yet it has eyelids that could blink in a moment; your heart thumps more imagining that. none of the skeletons stand tall, unlike the animatronics striding outside the room you are in, as if someone has pulled them apart to not let them be working.

“hey…” yuna calls with a small voice, the rubbing sound present also coming from her.

“i found something.”

“shoot,” you responded, straightening your stature as yuna stepped towards the metal table where half of chica’s head is present. the rubbing noise you heard is the large pieces of paper that she brought, shaped in rolls. tucking a few under her arms, she opens one roll and places tools from a wrench to a hammer on each corner.

“blueprints…”

pointing your lit screen towards it, you can see the white illustrations on the blue-colored grids and a few words around them. the unnatural shape of the top hat indicates that this is the blueprint of freddy. on the left side is the illustration of the body while on the right side is the illustration of the head, shaped meticulously so that it looks mascot-like and almost resembles the head of a real bear.

squinting your eyes, you scan the words surrounding it. it’s full of unfamiliar terms that you can’t instantly deduct. but you might figure out something when you glance and examine the body of the animatronic even further.

“their body is hollow. look at the gap between the skeleton and the outer casing.” you trace the skeleton’s spine down the drawing before trailing to the side where the stomach is. yuna stares at the mangled skeletons as you glance for a response from her.

“so they have an endoskeleton with fur casing? that doesn’t explain the odor coming from them and how they’re ‘alive’.” her hands lift to make air quotes.

an epiphany comes into your mind even though you don’t want to presume it happened. but you can’t hold it in.

“i think it has something to do with the missing children.” you pivot to her, seeing her shake her head.

“that can’t be possible, right? are they… possessed?” the pitch of her speaking voice tells you everything about her working mind.

“i mean… how can they still move even with decades past? the animatronic must be plugged into electricity to work. unless there is a supernatural thing going out, they’re not gonna move at all.”

yuna stares at you, her eyes trembling as she seems to consider the possibility of that happening. distracting herself, she returns to the blueprint as you turn your body around to lean against the metal table. the tap of the items on your arms presses against the edge of the table. your eyes stare at the mascot heads on the walls; how the fur is shedding from the casing and the watermarks trailing down, damping the paints on the wall so that it looks bubbly.

you don’t expect there was any missing children incident related to this specific building—especially in your town relating to a pizzeria. but the past is much harder to archive specifically with the little franchises separate from the main restaurant franchise. you don’t want to assume anything vile about what happened, but the smell of odor coming from animatronics makes you much more suspicious of what could happen. why the missing children from the main franchise building might not be found and how it could make the animatronics work and move like it’s alive. the uncanniness is making shivers run down your spine, but the animatronics act animatedly, unlike what a robot is.

“no way…” you heard muttering coming from the other person in the room. a small hum as a reply to her, yuna pulled your phone from your hand and pointed it to the words on the blueprint.

“facial recognition…”

you shift your head as you see her open more blueprints—bonnie’s, foxy’s, and chica’s—and check the same area as the first blueprint.

“they all have facial recognition. there are books from the same shelf. maybe a repair manual?” her words trail off as she turns to the shelf where she fetches the prints. the small beacon from your phone still allows you to trace the words of facial recognition right above the music box player on freddy’s blueprint. the heavy sound of books landing on something rings in the room as dust flies.

“aha!” she exclaimed with a little voice before bringing a book towards you. the word ‘manual’ sticking out to you when she flipped the cover open, tracing the directory before opening the right page. she held the book right by her eyes, seeing her eyes move behind the barrier from your view

“‘the animatronics has a facial recognition system that can detect the human faces from its fellow animatronic. this system was made to prevent entry for known child criminals and it has access to the criminal database…’” she read out the information. that’s when you stare at the items on your arm. the masks.

you push the masks slipped onto your arm to her as she stares between the book and the items on you. her eyes enlarged as she leans closer, slipping your phone back onto your open palm.

“we could wear this. get the boys out of the party room, and exit from the emergency exit, which is the door beside this room and get out,” you spoke, nodding your head along with it as you affirm yourself.

“that might work. we can recognize ourselves between them. let’s do it.” yuna said with a thin smile. you let her pull off the freddy mask from your arm. the mask looks like a child’s mask and you reckoned it might not fit your face, but when you slip the bonnie mask on, the bands stretching behind your earlobes, you can feel the plastic edge press against your cheek.

now, your view is much more obscured with only the holes for the eyes and nostrils helping to get the air in clearer. trying your best to inform the others, you send out a message in the group chat.

y/n: if you can, search for character masks to wear in the party room. we can meet up at the arcade area.

taeyoung: what’s this? ^

y/n: they have facial recognition. we can disguise ourselves - yuna

she slips your phone back into your pocket and gives you a pat. the scratching sound enters your ear as yuna now holds a wrench in her hand—better be safe than sorry. you take a deep breath, sensing her presence protecting you from the back.

“you ready?” she asked behind you.

“uh huh…” you said, with a tinge of worrisome you hope she didn’t figure it out. hand on the handle, the hinges creak as you pull the door open.

peeking your head out, you could examine the main dining area; thinking that enormous figures are roaming the hall, but finding it empty instead. the lingering sound of freddy’s music box is playing in the hallway on the other side of where you are. but no animatronics seems to be present. the curtain of the stage is closed like the last time you notice it and you caught clanging sounds from the kitchen area, probably from chica—the boys saw her from there.

yuna’s hands grip each of your shoulders when you step forward. each foot moves slowly on the tiled floor as the windows on the other side of the hallway let the outside light in. step by step, you amble beside the dining table you hide under a few minutes ago. you gaze at the abandoned food and utensils on the table. plastic plates, glass, knife; all you can study without worry.

looking towards the right, you find a half circle that is covered by the curtain—the small stage taeyoung mentioned. walking in front of the elevated floor, you notice the dark void in between the purple-patterned curtains. yuna’s empty hand grips your shoulder as you both stare at it.

“‘sorry out of order’?” you heard her faint whisper in your ear, but you didn’t expect a buzzing sound to come from behind the curtain. your body instantly shoves yuna behind you as you reach your other pocket, pushing your hand inside as you grip the handle. the source of light behind you reflects on something white as it gets bigger. a claw pushes out and moves the curtain out.

yuna’s trembling finger holds onto your waist as you see the silhouette of something poking out from the curtain, a head with a sharp nose. you held your breath when you look at the animatronic peeking out of the stage. the last animatronic of the roster: foxy, complete with its pirate garment of the eyepatch and the hook. its behavior is animalistic, jutting its nose as it sniffs the air with its artificial nose.

before it stiffs and turns its head towards both of you.

its body moves out of the curtain slowly as you both stood still, making yourself as robotic as possible. even with the mask as your front, you still feel as exposed as ever. the beating of your heart might explode out of your chest as your grasp on the pocket knife is ready to pull it out. biting your bottom lip, you let it stand before you as it scans your face. and it seems to recognize the familiar visual of the character’s face. its tall figure looms over both of you before it runs towards the bigger stage.

its heavy footsteps echo in the room as you stare at it moving away. your mind was too distracted by the animatronic that even a small, bitter touch on your exposed skin startled you. turning around, you find two people in chica and foxy masks.

your breath heave as you perceived the familiar touch of sunoo and the tousled hair that only belongs to taeyoung. the boy points towards the arcade area as all of you approach it. the clanking in the kitchen is still prominent enough as you stood beside the door.

“how’d you know the masks work?” sunoo asked as they gave out both of your backpacks back to their rightful owners.

“they have a facial recognition system. (y/n) suggests that masks might work so they see us as one of them.” yuna’s hand still grips your shoulder as you felt the wrench on her hand, swaying from the weight.

“we’re gonna get ou-“

the sound of an open draping cloth distracts you. your eyes follow the sound of it, the animatronic comes out from the stage as you see bonnie on stage. your breathing is calm and your mind is collected from the non-reactive way foxy did. but this is different as the sound of a ripping cloth filled the air. the bunny animatronic jumps down towards you and rushes towards you, letting out a gargled electrical scream that covers the music box from freddy.

“GUYS!” you exclaimed, but the animatronic only focuses towards you. the sound of the barging door opening from the side. chica’s laugh filled the room as you and yuna let go of each other and you pushed the others away as you let bonnie be distracted by you.

flicking open your pocket knife, you scattered towards the stage as bonnie jumps over the table to get to you. the rotting table legs collapsing as your hand still grips your backpack strap that is not on your shoulder properly. but the animatronic is too fast for your liking, from their taller stature to their mechanical limbs.

your backpack was caught as you pull it out of the animatronic, seeing it pulling as best as it can. its jaw opens and your tired body can’t hold itself up as your strength is lost against the robot. the eyes that are sticking to the endoskeleton are lifeless but reflect something that you have seen in other humans.

rage.

the robot growls as you’re being pulled against your might. the edge of the bonnie mask you’re wearing is pulled along your head with the strength of the conflicting forces, creating a flame to your skin senses. your head is almost near its wide-open jaw as you try hitting it with your knife; not applicable and only cut through the fur. not handling it well, you pushed the jaw apart with both of your hands.

your hearing is only focusing on the animatronic in front of you, making you didn’t expect the blow to the animatronic head as the eyeholes of your mask move nowhere near your eyes. pulsing bloodstream flowed to your palm as warmth wrapped around your wrist and drag you. trickling fluid coming out and dripping from your fingers as you still hold on to your pocket knife, not letting it go. you let your legs drag you along with the being that pulls you as it pushes you inside the room.

the heavy footsteps that followed you come to a halt as a loud bang comes before followed by the muffled one. you heard haggard breath as the sound of a large object scraping on the floor. something holds your shoulders up and you let your legs bring you somewhere else. but your vision is flickering as the black spots appear, tinnitus in your ear, your body getting heavy, and you can’t open your eyes anymore.

the void embraces you as your body shuts down.

03.00

something drips out from your lips.

hushes and the rustle of paper is all around you.

your hand fidgets as the pain spreads all around once again. opening your eyes, you were met with a blurry vision and light pointing towards the ceiling, painting it white instead of the musky grey. wooden marks from the ceiling tell you that this room in risk of leaking and might make the beam fall if not careful enough.

your lips are chapped as you sense a tear come down from the corner of your eyes, becoming clearer after each and every drop has fallen.

“oh gosh!” someone gasps as you felt your body being enveloped tightly. their hair tickles your nostrils but you needed the hug. your goosebumps grow as the coldness your body is showing is reduced by the warmth.

“you’re okay!” they whispered to you, pressing their palm against your cheek—a barrier that doesn’t allow the skin to skin contact makes a vertical down from under your eye to your jaw.

“sun?” you speak, a hoarse voice coming out as you see sunoo’s face. his smile is still as wide as ever, even with a smudge of thick dust on his cheeks.

“i’m here...” he whispered, holding onto your hand that is covered by something thin. noticing your expression, he lifts your hand so you could examine it. a bandage wrapped around your skin as you find a bloomed red coming from the palm.

“your tired body, adrenaline, and loss of blood make you instantly pass out as i brought you here. i tried to patch you up as best as i could.” sunoo answered your unspoken question, giving you the water bottle that he was trying to get you to sip even with your unconscious body.

“time?” you questioned, holding the water bottle as it still trembles in your hold. the soothing sensation wets your dry cavern as the water rushes down inside your digestive system.

“past 3. half past 4 actually,” he replied whilst looking at the lit phone in his hand. your eyes wander to the dim room, seeing the shelves rising above you like skyscrapers. a gallon of something looking like bleach is resting on one shelf—probably only left with its evaporated dust.

“we’re still in the pizzeria. locked in a cleaning cupboard of some sort.” his words reminded you of the locations of the map that are burnt into your mind. two out of three are identified. then the last room is security.

but when you touch the thin mattress beneath you, you became more alert as you can see a hole in one of the walls. through it, more shelves are standing and you can identify the familiar silhouette of brooms and mops.

“we’re deeper in it though. bonnie was still clawing at the door before i move one of the shelves over to hold the door close. then i found the hole, and it looks like someone lived here.” sunoo continued. one side of his face is shone by the flashlight, sitting with his knees now tuck to his chest.

“it’s a safe room of sorts, but by the messy mattress i found and newspapers. someone must have lived here.” your eyes wander to the pile of paper that sits beside him, scattered around the floor and a few near the edge of the mattress. you followed his hand as he picks one up and gives it to you. sitting up your body, you find the most comfortable position for you to read. eyebrows raised as you examine the headline.

Kids vanish at local pizzeria—bodies not found. Two local children were reportedly lured into a back room during the late hours of operation at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza on the night of June 26th. While video surveillance identified the man responsible and led to his capture the following morning, the children themselves were never found and are presumed dead.

Police think that the suspect dressed as a company mascot to earn the children’s trust.

“i tried to trace where these came from and a few of them led back to the missing person incident in the main branch of freddy fazbear’s pizza. but look at this.” he then shuffles some pages around as he pulls one out and gives it to you.

Four children reported missing in our town’s very own Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Investigators link the incident to other similar incidents occurring in the other franchises.

the news was concise. telling you that there might be ten or more missing children that are scattered across the different franchises that are open. it is suspected that the same motive is done between all these franchises: children allegedly lured into a backroom during late hours.

sunoo then gave you another clipping that read “Local pizzeria threatened with shutdown over sanitation.” one about the main building while a few related ones about the other local franchises also, including your town.

“the others and i tried our freaking best to piece these up. they’re now stuck in the kitchen,” he said as he know you might wonder about yuna and taeyoung. “but i think this is when your knowledge comes to help. you knew more about these stories than anybody in our friend group. wikipedia doesn’t even give any straightforward answers.”

the boy moves so he could sit beside you, shoulder to shoulder. your fingertips still run against the pile you allowed him to stack on your lap as sunoo continues to open his phone, glancing your eyes to see the group chat.

you pat his arm to help you fetch your backpack, finding it as battered as ever with one strap hanging for dear life with a piece of string to not break. sipping the water bottle to help you better, your brain is much more awake that a few moments ago. the gears in them are turning as you open the notebook and scribble everything you know. the founders. the original five missing children. animatronic going haywire. unpleasant odor. and you trace each newspaper clipping to create the most effective timeline you could create. some of the newspaper has its ink bleed from the moist on it, but you decipher it as best as you could.

“yuna said that you speculate the animatronics are possessed?” sunoo questioned as you skim the words on the clipping before putting it aside. you hummed as a reply, mind to focus on connecting all the dots as best as you can.

whilst opening a few pages, something slipped out of the pile and landed on the tiled floor beside you. dashing to get a grip on the corner of the rectangular paper. you picked it up and sunoo shines the light from your flashlight onto it.

“a cheque...” the boy spoke as you scan the words.

mike schmidt. $120. valued employee.

the reflection of the flashlight shines more than the ink from the front side you are reading. flipping it around, you see a written note almost in cursive as you tried your best to read.

Father. It’s me, Michael. I’ve followed along your trails of blood even to the towns outside of ours. I’ve seen each and every one of your creations, from how they react to how they’ve smelled because of you. They all seem to recognize me because they thought I was you. No trace of your golden bunny suit means you’re not here. Something has gone terribly for me. But I will try my best to find you... I’m going to come find you.

“michael?” sunoo muttered, your eyes peeking at him as he realizes something and typed in something in a browser’s search engine. the result comes out immediately as he presses on the link on one of the founders. william afton.

“no way...” he mumbled, skimming the web page as you lean in against him. his sturdy shoulder holding you one before stopping at one section.

“‘nothing is much known about what happened to afton, but he had mentioned that he wanted his son, michael, to continue his legacy’... michael is william’s son.” sunoo turns his head towards you, so close to yours as you can felt his breath on your cupid’s bow.

“wait, wait, w-“ you push your hand out as your mind goes into overdrive. all the information you have in your mind pinning up against the surface of your brain, ready to be pieced onto your inner corkboard.

michael is william afton’s son.

golden bunny suit.

missing children lured by an employee.

odor from the animatronics.

their unusual frantic acts with metal bodies.

bonnie being aggressive towards you, who was wearing a bonnie mask.

looking up, you gaze at sunoo who is tilting his head, watching you putting the puzzle pieces together.

“they’re dead. the missing children are dead...”

“uh- okay..? that is so grim.” sunoo lets out a reply before you hold his hand.

“i mean, listen. they’re dead and they possessed the animatronic endoskeletons. okay, let me just-“ you picked up your notebook so sunoo can see, pencil on hand as you create underlines under the missing children incident.

“so ‘kids vanish at local pizzeria-bodied not found’ leading to the suspicions of an employee luring them back into the backroom of the restaurant. that means an employee-only area which we know by schematics on the place is the kitchen, parts and service, stage area, supply closet, and security office.” the graphite creates a line between the phrases and keywords you wrote on the paper.

“because of the vanishing bodies, either they were kidnapped or murdered on the spot. but i suggest the latter because...” you make a line between the sentence to the one above it. “the animatronics has an unpleasant odor, relating it to the pizzerias that are succumbing to lawsuits and eventually shutting down.”

sunoo continues following the line you made as you connect the employee to william afton, “i suspect william is the killer because of what michael said, ‘no trace of your golden bunny suit’. i have a guess that he has been searching for the father. and- believe it or not...”

you wrote something you remember by memory about the pizzeria that you didn’t write yet, “both the founders had to use this spring-lock animatronic costume in the early years of their business. william uses a golden bonnie suit...”

“so you’re saying the founder just commit a killing spree?” he questioned as you reply with a hum of agreement.

“i’ve seen discussion on forums on why both of them dissolve. many suggest that they have this business rivalry—unmatched vision, one has more power than the other—because afton also has his own company called afton robotics...” you write the name of the company right beside the two aftons.

sunoo grips one end of the piece of paper, eyes trailing down the content before speaking, “william is on the run for revenge and michael is trying to find him...”

“that and he’s trying to hurt the efforts of his former business partner. he must have done this killing spree on many freddy fazbear’s pizza locations. and if he want to leave no trace, he had to stuff the bodies into the animatronics, fusing their soul to the metals.” you replied, leaning back against the wall.

“that’s why i got attacked by bonnie for wearing the bonnie mask, how it’s more aggressive towards me. the child that possesses that must remember the bunny suit-wearing man that killed them, also all of us who are still human and alive. they’re sad and angry about what somebody has done to them. they’re stuck in limbo now, unable to rest in peace...”

you felt sunoo’s hand on yours, interlacing his fingers with yours and putting them on his thigh. his eyes strain on your face, glancing at your trembling lips as you empathize with what the children faced that is so unfair. ripping their lives because of a crazed man hungry for revenge.

“what do you want to do?” sunoo asked. even with your glum eyes, he can still detect how your mind is thinking about something. pupils frantically move around as you gulp down your saliva.

“we have to help them let go of this world. help them tether the connection here to let them rest.” you lean your head against his shoulder, his thumb rubbing softly on your dorsal as you let your legs stretch. seeing his feet beside yours reminds you of when you are children, sitting on the grass in the playground by your school, gazing at your friends who are dangling off the monkey bars or sliding down the slide. realizing the approximate time age of the kids that possessed the animatronics, you got reminded that they are also around your age. but because of what happened, they’re unable to grow up and live their life. instead, they’re stuck to a robot suit.

sunoo’s phone screen lights up both of your faces as he typed in all that you spoke to him about. your phone vibrates beside you—letting them talk about things as you collect your thoughts. you glance to see yuna using taeyoung’s phone saying their worries and how tragic all of this is.

“as much as i want to escape...” your eyes move to look at sunoo’s face as best as you can before he continues, “having second thoughts about what you’re saying and... yeah... they’re kids. those animatronics are kids who are frustrated and stuck.”

more vibration can be heard between both of your phones together as you let sunoo be your messenger, “i agree. we should help them rest- we should meet up and talk about it and also help convince them.”

you nodded your head, lifting and turning your head to him. a thin smile on your face as you stretch your wounded hand. “the security room is our best bet. right near all of us, correct?”

“yup...” he replied as he pushes himself, his hand outstretched to you to help you stand up as you gather your items—sunoo helping you put on your nearly breaking backpack. he handed you your pocket knife and you swiftly open it, seeing blood on the ridge as you look at your reflection; your blood. the makeshift mirror shows your wounded face as sunoo’s phone screen is shining the side, typing away to tell the other two to meet up at the security office.

ducking out of the hole of the safe room hidden in the depths of the cleaning closet, sunoo pushed the shelf from the door as you glance at your phone one last time before tucking it in your pocket.

04.00

the clicking of the door catches your attention as sunoo leads both of you. his head turning right, then left as before he jutted his head towards the right side as you move in front of him. he is still wearing his mask as his eyes turned towards the larger space as you move deeper into the hallway. ripped posters decorated the wall on one side, as the other is a window bordered up by planks from the outside. even with minimal lighting, you could see the open doorway at the end of the hall.

flicking turning left from a poster, you were met with an open office area. on one side is a cracking wall with a small bed for sleeping and cabinets you can assume are used for storing pieces of information—unless they’re eaten by termites. your flashlight turns to the other side, seeing a similar open doorway across from where you are before going to the left. the wall is covered with papers sticking onto the concrete: a large poster of the fabulous four animatronics dominates most of the wall before you move your spotlight to the side, coming across the structured map of the pizzeria. that is until you notice pictures of people right underneath it.

footsteps approaching you as you step closer to the desk, eyes gazing at the fan and old boxy computer desktop that is full of dust. sunoo entered the doorway you came in from before both of you were distracted for a few seconds by the sound of an open door on the other side. seeing the shadow of two people running as carefully as they entered the room. heaves of breath flowing between all of you as you give them a smile when they pull off their masks. yet, your sense still stay at the pictures as you stepped aside.

there are four different pictures in four different forms stuck onto a wall with staplers. shining closely at it, your hand pauses as you let the sound of sunoo explain the theory you two made. you let the flashlight shines on the pictures, colors fading along with the degrading paper. but features are smooth enough that you can examine them clearly. staring at the top of the papers, you identify a recognizable logo and its description.

these are missing person reports from the police. all of them are children.

scanning through the report, all of them has the same information on the last seen part.

‘Last seen at the local Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.’

your hand reaches to pull them out, eyes looking closely as you can look at the sparks coming from the faulty and near-broken wiring, all connecting to one main switchboard with numerous other switches; divided into left and right for both lights and doors. recalling other than the exterior light, you could remember that the lights flicker back in the bathroom—electricity is still running through the building’s vicinity.

“guys...” you spoke and turn around. their flashlight shines their face ominously until you caught the two faces you hadn’t seen in the past hour. taeyoung has a bandage on his forehead while yuna has watering eyes, guessing it’s from the story that sunoo told them.

“aw (y/n)...” yuna sighed as you see her hand reaching for your bandage one. grimacing at her touch, you find taeyoung letting out a small smile while shaking your arm as carefully as to not hurt you more.

“i’ve told them the summary of our deduction and our idea to set them free.” sunoo said as you stood in front of them who are sitting on the bed.

“and we agree. they’re kids that are treated freaking unfairly by the world and they should deserve a rest. even thinking about it makes me so angry.” taeyoung spoke as you let out a snicker.

“thanks, guys. how did you two even survive in the kitchen, especially if it’s chica’s ‘place’?” you give an air quote.

“chica bangs on the kitchen door so much that we have to push the metal tables to both doors and sat in the middle of the kitchen so it couldn’t step inside. we also have the server hole that we used to peek outside at the animatronics.” yuna answered before noticing the paper you are holding in your other hand.

you give one of them for each of you as you let them read it through. you glance back at sunoo, his eyebrow folded from the information.

“they’re the children that possess this location’s animatronic,” you answered their unspoken question as you read the paper in your hand.

“in my hand is a report about junhao zhong. age 6 when he died. his parents described him as a child who is very active, especially running. the last time they see him, they remember him running around the tables in the dining area.” you read the information as briefly as possible, eyes lingering on the boy’s photo before you face the others.

yuna spoke after you, “her name is hanako yamamoto. she was 9 when she disappeared. in her description, it said that she likes freddy fazbear’s pizza a lot and that she could visit up to 4 or 5 times per week. she has a pretty chubby build to her because she loves eating.”

taeyoung leans his body forward and clears his throat, “this kid’s name is sei lee. she was 8. her parents describe her as a creative kid. likes to sing, likes to dance, likes to draw. one of her favorite past times here is drawing freddy and friends while they are on stage and meeting new friends.”

“and last but not least. we have kit murray. he is 11 when he died, the oldest of the bunch based on what each of you has told me. he is an avid freddy fazbear’s pizza fan. he had nearly all of his birthdays here after he became a big fan. he even spends the day after school here by himself or with his other friends. his favorite was bonnie based on this.” sunoo said as you look between them all, trying to figure out something that is stuck in your mind.

“what did you say about the girl?” you pointed towards yuna.

“hanako likes to eat-“

you snap your fingers as you contain your excitement at figuring something up, pointing towards the paper as you said with gritted teeth, “chica also likes to eat, right? it’s always in the kitchen most of the time.”

“right- wait. oh, shoot!” taeyoung’s face reflects yours as he also does the same gestures right at you.

“the girl is chica!” he exclaimed as quietly as possible as you nod your head. taeyoung seems to shake yuna’s body as he stares at him, speaking with his eyes to her as your mind is running everywhere on this.

“we could figure out which one of them is which...” sunoo cuts in as he stares at yuna’s shaken body by taeyoung before she then replied.

“taeyoung and i have been observing them so we can help with identifying their characteristics.”

“nice!” you emphasize the last syllable as you continue, “okay, about junhao being active-“

“foxy rounds around the room so much. he’s definitely the fox.” yuna jumps in as you see all of them nodding their head.

“now we only have kit and sei...” taeyoung mumbles as you tried to understand as best as you can. you want to assume kit is bonnie but you don’t expect afton will be that caring to have him reserved for his favorite character. your eyes glance at sunoo who is reading kit’s report.

“he’s 11...” he muttered. “and he loves freddy’s fazbear pizza. i’m just shooting it, but based on his age and his love for the franchise, he must’ve had great memories with it.”

“what are you saying, sun?” taeyoung asked, head tilted with curiosity.

“bonnie became aggressive after it looked at (y/n) wearing a bonnie mask. at first, i thought it was because the soul recognized the character masks match the same as who they are now but i was wearing a foxy mask and foxy stared right at me and he didn't become aggressive. it’s definitely more on the soul that is connected to the animatronic, not its system.” sunoo stood up as he turned towards you. you felt something warm on your covered hand as you find his hand in yours.

“11-year-olds are more developed, especially in relating to logic and action. him being the oldest helps because he could’ve figured out that the killer, william, wears a golden bonnie suit, especially since it’s his favorite character.”

“and that’s why he became aggressive when he looked at me. he thought i was him,” you mumbled, your memories return to the encounter you had with the animatronic. the eyes bonnie has: lifeless yet full of rage at the same time. he remembers the character that killed him.

“consensus says yes for kit is bonnie and sei is freddy.” taeyoung said as you all nodded.

“and we’ve seen freddy playing with its music box the whole time so it relates to her creativity too. but the thing is they’re more aggressive now knowing we're here.” yuna’s voice laced with resistance before continuing. “if we don’t act fast, they might actually notice that we’re here. so how can we do that?”

you glance at sunoo, his hand gripping yours carefully yet tight as he seems to understand what you’re guessing about.

“since the animatronics are made of metal and we can’t bury them or let them roam around other people.” you give sunoo’s hand a squeeze with yours.

“our only way to help them is to burn the building...”

05.00

it takes time for such a meticulous plan to be done in such an incomplete situation. and it took more than one hour to make the arrangements. yet, you persist and create the best plan all of you can conduct. you have your phone open as you are ready to click on the group call you are planning. your back against the desk, you gaze at your friends who are packing up their things. your eyes linger on your best friend for a beat too long. he had almost a pout that makes you want to giggle from the cuteness.

“remember, once i turn on the switchboard, the electricity will run to my area. there’s a chance that the animatronics will focus on me especially since i can control everything in the room. you all know your tasks, right?”

a chorus of agreement replies towards you as you gave them a nod before hugging them one by one. you smooth down taeyoung’s bandage on his forehead before giving him a pat on his shoulder as he lets go and leaves first. yuna is next as she hugs you tightly before she left for her task. your eyes landed on sunoo who has a stern facade on his face before it softens.

“you’re okay with leading the ship?” he asked as he reaches for your bandaged hand. the blood that seeps into the fabric has dry with leftover haemoglobins creating a maroon color.

“yeah...” you replied, falling out of your confidence as you stare at him. stepping closer, he interlocks both of your hands in his.

“listen, i-“ sunoo inhales before he continues. “if this doesn’t work or any of us are hurt by what we’re doing. i want to say that i care for you so much you don’t know how much. i was in tears while i was patching you up. you were bleeding so mu-“

you cut him off with a kiss on the corner of his lips, ending his monologue early as you glance back at him. letting go of his hand, you let yours trail up his arms before you held both of his shoulders, firming him up.

“i also care for you more than you think, sun. we’re gonna pin this, okay? it will work. you also plan this with every knowledge you know.” you pat his shoulders as he follows your nodding.

“okay, i’ll hear you on the call?”

“of course...” you replied as he retreated, stepping away to the door you came from as you turn towards the switchboard. the light of your phone screen is turned on and you can see the depleting battery. opening your group chat’s interface, you enter the group call—the only one inside as you waited for the rest to join in.

bracing yourself, you switch the main button on the switchboard and hear the buzzes fading in. the electricity now runs into the security office. the box screen turns on and the camera feeds show up, lights flickering on at the table and in the room, and even the fan turns on as it hums to create a solemn atmosphere if it isn’t for the sound of your friends entering the group call.

your eyes flicker to the screen as you watch the cathode-ray tube materials creating moving images of your locations throughout the night. with the joystick beside the switchboard, half of your screen focuses on one camera feed from the grid—no cameras in the kitchen or the supply closet. the feeds are black and white as you can only distinguish lights, items, and beings between each of the monochromatic spectrum.

“chica’s approaching you, taeyoung.” yuna speaks calmly in your talkie system when you pick up the sound of rummaging layers of walls from you. the sound becomes closer and closer as you turn the switch for the door to your right. it falls on the door frame, creating a thud as you glimpse at the switchboard bar right at the top, showing the amount of electricity left to be used.

pressing carefully on the lights button so you don't run the electricity out, you see chica’s silhouette from the small window by the side of the door. you hold your breath as the dark figure comes closer before it approaches the kitchen door, barging in with a loud noise. you could listen further from the call at the crackling sound of the animatronic trashing the kitchen for more pizza or food. that’s when you glance at one of the stages, seeing foxy’s head peeking out of the curtain.

“sun don’t step out no-“ you exclaimed as the animatronic ran to the side. with your swift reaction, you immediately close the door to your left and open the one on the right. you picked up scratches from the other side of the closed door as foxy shoves his face to the window.

“hi junhao...” you spoke as he pauses, seemingly realizing what you called him. the animatronic face moved back to its menacing phase as he continues staring at you. flickering the lights on the left. you catch him being distracted by the light and you behind the window. the correct moment for you to mumble, “you can move out now, sun. and watch out for bonnie. he’s by the stage.”

“got it...” the boy speaks as you distract foxy more. your sight goes back-to-back from the window and to the screen. in it, you see sunoo’s silhouette walking to the arcade area, ducking by the fallen and standing cabinets.

“i heard freddy’s music box. be careful, yuna!” said the boy as foxy’s moving away from the door, letting you open it to conserve energy. sunoo continues to duck as he looks behind him to meet foxy emerging from the hallway. the animatronic walks in a stance before he pronounces towards the stage, kicking anything that is on its way as it caught bonnie's attention. but not as long as you hope.

staring at the boxy monitor, you focus on the one by the hallway to the reception as freddy walks by the entrance before moving away. movements are there in the shadows. looking closely as you lean your body near the screen, yuna is hiding by the bench and fallen decorations, obscure by the darkness that is so grain-like to your eyes of the camera.

“(y/n), bonnie’s coming!”

you switched on both lights as you couldn’t guess where he comes from. the footsteps are too fade out as you decide to let the door close on both sides. feeling the rising panic internally as you flicker both lights, you jumped as half of bonnie’s body is visible by the window.

“you guys are in position?” you mumbled, focusing on the animatronic before you note the electricity that is depleting quick. a chorus of yes came in when you turn to bonnie once again. yet he stays there, standing idle. you tried to not do anything more on the switchboard other than letting the right door switch on.

“we gonna have to do this fast ‘cause the security office is depleting its energy fast. distract them towards me.”

your statement is then met by the sound of clicks and clanks from your call. on the screen, you look at freddy approaching the main hallway as chica’s laugh is followed—yuna steps out of the shadow as she creates something on the floor. the bear animatronic is approaching you fast as you yelled to get more of their attention; letting your plan go faster. sunoo gives a small glance at the camera he knows you are seeing as your shout makes each of the robot’s dangerous sides show once again.

you let them knock on the steel doors and you can see all your friends doing the plan. yuna is trailing along the papers and boxes she could as sunoo helps her as he pours out something out of one of the gallons that he brought. taeyoung is still not found as you can still hear the rummages in the kitchen.

your finger pads clench against your wounded palm, the pain is the constant reminder for you to stay awake and realistic. the knocking of the metal-on-metal is becoming more and more prominent even louder. you glance at both doors where you find dents forming on the barrier and screeching scratches all made into a cacophony to distract you.

“taeyoung, how are you doing?”

“almost there, don’t worry,” he replied.

yuna went out of the group call along with sunoo as they approach the tables, so your voice doesn’t distract them from doing their part and caught the giant machineries' attention.

“if you’re done, step out of the kitchen by the party rooms.”

taeyoung hums when you watch the energy bar decreases. two bars now becoming one as you are approaching your last 10%. you try not to panic, trusting your friends too much as you close and breathe as best as you can. the punching on the metal and impenetrable glass windows becomes background sound as you see that taeyoung is now outside of the group call from your small peek to your own screen.

your phone is hot in your hands as you turn the call off and pocket it. your backpack sways behind you as you peer at your friends outside from the boxy screen. taeyoung coming out from the kitchen doors farthest from you, a radiant light by him as the grey becomes lighter in the black and white feed. glancing at the electricity, you only have 2%. a few more seconds and your protection will be gone as the door will rise back to its inactive status; wide open.

the animatronic seems to notice it too as the lights inside the security office are flickering and the fan now turning off. each second passes and more electric appliances turn off. the monitor shuts down as you relay every last bit of the electric current so the doors can survive. you can survive.

in the deepest part of your heart, you might actually be ready for this; to succumb with the restaurant.

“HEY!”

a muffled shout pierced through the clanks as you watch them all turn towards the hallway and scurry away. their focus stayed on it as the doors slams up, exposing you. and in a beat, you run to the left side, seeing the emergency exit beside the stage.

heat spreads through the room as the animatronics gather at the center of the room. flame spreading fast as it all lits up any flammable material and substance it has on its way. you listened to harrowing screams coming from the center as the voice box machinery they have burned along with their metal bodies. they scream out of pain as they seem more alive than ever. you fast walk as you look at the abomination. bonnie’s eyes stare at you when you didn’t see any rage inside, but content.

“come on, (y/n)!” someone pulls you by your arm as you turn to face sunoo who is dragging you to the exit that is slowly going into flames. pushing the door open, you were met with the outside air after nearly six hours of staying inside. the sun peeks behind the trees at the east as the flame is ever so close to the door. sunoo pushes a big dumpster outside before you realize it and come to help, putting it to rest by the door as it's going to be harder for something inside to go out.

“the others are by the entrance.” sunoo with energy still going on surging in him, helps drag you as you run past the playground to meet yuna and taeyoung, who finished locking the lock to the main entrance. in the distance, you hear a honk. you all instantly run to it.

you couldn’t be happier to see a car.

“hey, losers! how is it-“ serim voice pitches up as his smug face turns to worry as you all approach the car.

“why is the building on fire-“

“GO NOW!” his little brother said as he sits shotgun. you’re back in your center seat between sunoo and yuna. serim presses down on the gas, the car lurching away as all four of you are panting. your eyes stared at the screen at the front as a radio fm plays an old 80s arena rock song. specifically on the clock at the top corner.

06.00

you felt your weight falling off your shoulders, letting you rest your head against sunoo’s beside yours. your hand in his as he brushes your skin.

“the hell was that? taeyoung?” serim questioned as you drive out of the forest to be met by the asphalt street, approaching society. the sun is now more visible as the car came out of the woods. it shines the new day and a new page for all of you.

yet all of you are too stunned to speak. you specifically can’t. your mind brought you back to the last eye contact you had with bonnie and the one pause you had with foxy when you mention his name. their aggressive machinery seems to cover their pain and sadness, especially with their young ages. but your eye contact with bonnie lingers as you view the content in his eyes. how he now knows what all of you are trying to do. to help them out. to set them free.

“it’s the electricity. the current is still on even with the old and broken cable and it created a fire in one of the rooms.” taeyoung mumbles, saying the explanation that you all suggest if serim or his dad asked what happened to the property. “i know we failed. it’s just getting to danger-“

“nah. i was about to call you to get you out,” serim asked, he glances behind from the rearview mirror. “all of you running to me makes my job easier. i thought all of you guys are asleep somewhere in the corner. and what the heck happened to your forehead?”

“he got hit by one of the doors.” sunoo lays out another lie to help cover it up. “the kitchen door is swingy and heavy even with the dust and trash inside.”

you all let the radio play the music as the car approaches your neighborhood, parking by the block corner that you also went to last midnight. stepping out of the car, you and sunoo let out small “thank you”s to serim and your farewell to your friends as you walk by the sidewalk, hand in hand.

yet your thoughts return to the moments before all of you begin the plan. sunoo’s sudden confession even in front of danger’s door, and you say the same to help him calm down. but you do. you care about him more than friends and you’re willing to try with him.

“we did it, right?” your voice rings between you two as sunoo giggles. you notice more soot and dust on both of his cheeks and how puffy his eyes become because of the lack of sleep.

“yeah... you have a lot of things on your mind...” you can’t help to let out a smile as he sees through you.

“it's... before you drag me away... i saw bonnie looking at me. i thought kit’s gonna attack me before i see his eyes. how at peace he is. how he’s telling me he is okay with his sight...” you watch both of your houses in your sight approaching closer.

“you did right. we all did. we help them rest peacefully.” sunoo reassured you as you approached the window you left. the gap is still there to let him open the window and for you to climb in. the bed is left a mess so that if anyone comes, both of you are still inside. seeing no difference, you let out a sigh as neither of sunoo’s parents seems to check on him before you let out a yawn.

sunoo plops down on his bed after pulling out his shoes as he opens his arm for you. your legs brought you to him as you lay down on the other side, grateful for the soft mattress he has.

“you knew i reciprocate your feelings, right?” eyes glancing at the boy.

he hums before speaking, “do we wanna do something about it?”

“i do but....” yawn came from you. “i need some sleep... and you too. you look so tired.”

he wraps his hand around your wrist before you move to let him hold you more.

“we should discuss after we get our deserving sleep,” he agreed, pulling the duvet so that it covers both of you.

you see the stack of cash on the table after taeyoung pulls it out. divided into four different stacks before he pushes to each three of you.

“thanks for making my brother broke, guys. he couldn’t even go clubbing anymore.” taeyoung said with a smirk on his face.

“anything to help your brother go a step away from alcohol poisoning.” yuna replied as you all giggled. the commotion in the cafeteria hall masked your conversation as all of you swiftly pluck one stack to be put into your bag.

“how’s the cut on your palm, bestie?” yuna nudges your shoulder with her own.

“it’s healing. i didn’t know it was that deep until i realize that it's because of me holding onto the blade while trying not to get my head chomped by bonnie.” you replied, turning it as trivial as ever as you don’t want the weight to get heavier. all of you spend your sunday healing up from the trip at the start of the day. no communication with each other as you tried to cope with each other, but you spend your time with sunoo instead.

it became more like an impromptu date as he asked you if you want lunch outside. knowing the change between you two’s relationship, you agree and you now see sunoo in a different light like he is towards you. locking your fingers seems to be the perfect pda for both of you who are very new to this.

“we shouldn’t ask (y/n) that.” taeyoung retorts. “we should ask about their date yesterday.”

the two giggle as you glance at sunoo who has his signature sassy look.

“it went well for us. we’re taking it real slow now,” sunoo said as you nod your head.

“that’s right. plus y’all have to change your mindset to always be our third and fourth wheels.” it’s now your and sunoo’s turn to snicker as the two jokingly roll their eyes.

the recess progressed as usual with a new light to it. the fact that all of you survive a dangerous situation. older you must think it’s stupid, to get paid for staying in a haunted place for six hours. but those six hours will stick in your mind for a long time now.

you let your eyes focus on your phone as you scroll down something on your timeline. the three’s conversation is becoming background sound that you could understand tiny bits. but your mind immediately mutes it as your eyes read the words that make you stop scrolling.

“guys...” your words cut through to their conversation as they all turn towards you.

“'the cult-favorite local pizzeria, freddy fazbear’s pizza, is planning to make a horror attraction called fazbear frights.’” you read and spoke the headline as you scroll down on the article, letting out a gasp as you continue.

“‘the owners of the attraction have salvaged and searched every remaining franchise to find animatronics for their attraction but only to find them torn apart or destroyed.'”

“that’s why dad is furious yesterday.” taeyoung exclaimed as he looks at all of you. “the fire makes the property cost plummet, especially with the pizzeria intact now burnt. he must’ve known that he could sell it again without cleaning it up.”

all of you hummed as you continue to scroll down and speak, “'fortunately, the owners already have one animatronic in their arsenal. an original animatronic dating back to years of history for the infamous restaurant chain.’”

“what animatronic?” sunoo exclaimed, meeting your stern eyes as you lift it up to look at your friends. your grip on the phone becomes so tight that you sag your shoulders to help you relax. gulping down your saliva, you finally say it.

“a golden bunny animatronic.”

taglist: @endzii23 @camipendragon @hiqhkey @wccycc @cha0thicpisces @y4wnjunz @yeehawnana @beansworldsstuff @kimipxl @reallysmolrenjun @beomgyumineiro

#enhypen imagines #enhypen scenarios #enhypen angst #enhypen fluff #enhypen x reader #sunoo x reader #rsc: pizzeria run #collaboration with the moon #cr: sunoo #cs: enhypen #sc: regina

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lavenderbang · 6 months

Text

Are We Just Friends?

Best Friend! Kim Taeyoung x reader

Genre(s): Best Friend to lovers, non-idol au, fluff I guess??? some angst because I couldn’t resist, Maybe slightly suggestive if you squint, and mentions of some of the other members of cravity

Warning(s): swearing, weed use, but that’s about it

Summary: Your best friend invites you to hang out late at night; that’s expected, since you usually hang out at night, but what you didn’t you didn’t expect was him to tell you something that has been on his mind recently

A/N: I AM IN LOVE WITH KIM TAEYOUNG. Okay but actually, I just really wanted to write this because I’m a self-indulgent fic writer and I want to hang out with Youngtae so badly bruh... So I’m writing this now. I hope you enjoy :)

HE IS SO PRETTY !!!!

Dumbass: I’m outside loser :p

You quickly slipped your old fleece jacket on before stepping out into the crisp cool night. It was late; later than you would usually hang out.

But with Taeyoung’s busy work schedule, you were just glad you were able to go see him. His junky grey car sat idling beside the curb; you could always hear it before you could see it, probably due to the shitty transmission or problems with the wheel bearings that Taeyoung didn’t have the money to fix.

He worked at your town’s local grocery store, mostly stocking shelves. He said it was only until he could find something better, but three years later he still spends almost everyday arranging boxes in the back and accounting for the shipments.

“Hey nerd, what’s the plan?” You said stepping into the car and closing the door behind you. He was wearing a simple black tee-shirt and a pair of baggy jeans. He also had the bracelet you gave him for his birthday wrapped around his wrist. It was a simple silver chain, but you had an almost identical one that you wore everyday.

“Wow, not even a ‘how are you’?” Taeyoung huffed, shaking his head playfully at you, “Straight to business I see...” You couldn’t help the smile the crept up onto you face as you rolled you eyes at him.

“Okay sorry,” You said sarcastically, going to buckle up your seat belt, “How are you?” “I’m good, thanks for asking.” Taeyoung said flatly, grinning softly at you before putting his hands on his steering wheel, “Is it okay if we go down to the river? Or is it too spooky for you this late?”

You lived in a small town out in the middle of nowhere; the population was low, mostly just families that had been there for generations and the occasional newcomer coming in for work. It was tucked up in the hills and surrounded by woods; It also bordered a river, which was a hot spot for people to visit in the summer to escape the blistering heat. Even though it wasn’t too hot now, it would still be nice to sit out there in the shroud of night and get a nice summer breeze off the edge of the water.

“That sounds fine dude,” You replied, tugging at the sleeves of your jacket, “But it wouldn’t be this late if you would have invited me out sooner.”

“Sorry, some of us have a job.” Taeyoung scoffed, putting his car in drive and pulling away from your house. Without looking away from the road, he tosses his phone into your lap, “You have to DJ because I have to make sure we don’t hit anything.”

“roger that.” You hummed, scrolling through Taeyoung’s Spotify to press shuffle on a playlist titled ‘The Jams’. The song didn’t really matter, since it was just background noise anyways.

“How was work today? You were there pretty late tonight huh?” You asked only for Taeyoung to groan dramatically.

“For some reason, Serim’s dad ordered a double shipment of a bunch of our items, so I had spent ages counting them out,” Taeyoung huffed, stopping at a red light and turning to you, “Why did he do that to me?! When Serim hooked me up with this shitty job at his dad’s grocery store, I thought it was supposed to be fun!”

Taeyoung started waving his hands around as he ranted. You couldn’t help but grin; it was a habit he had that you noticed almost immediately after becoming friends. You think it must just be from him getting too worked up over stuff, because you also noticed he did it when he was excited as well.

“I thought I was supposed to be chill because Mr. Park has always been super chill when we go to their house to hang.” Taeyoung continued, “But nooo! When I work for him, he orders a double shipment out of the blue or asks me to count everything again ‘just to be sure’. I swear he purposely makes me stay longer at work.”

“Youngtae,” You hummed, pointing out the front window at the traffic lights, “Green.” Taeyoung let out a sigh before pressing on the gas.

“If you hate it so much, why do you stay working there?” You asked, rolling down the window to let the cool night air in. Taeyoung approaches the edge of town, turning down the dirt road that would lead you both to the river bank.

“I heard the gas station Minhee work at is looking for someone. You could ask him to help you out.” You suggested, earning a “mmh-hmm” in response from Taeyoung.

“Maybe, but I’m pretty sure the owner hates me for shoplifting candies when we were in middle school.” He said sheepishly, cringing at the memory and pulling off the road; he drove through the long grass to the edge of the river before putting his car in park.

“Besides, I don’t want to be in this hellhole for much longer.” Taeyoung confessed, turning his car off and taking his seat belt off.

“No?” You replied, taking your seat belt off too, opting to lean the seat back a bit more before continuing in a teasing tone, “This place doesn’t tickle your fancy?”

“Not at all,” Taeyoung chuckled, pushing his dark hair out of his face, “You guys made being here manageable, but I can’t stand being here. I feel like I’m going to be stuck.”

“I get that,” You said, staring at your hands in your lap, “We all feel the same, I think...”

“Do you have your pen on you?” Taeyoung suddenly asked. You silently pulled it out of your pocket and handed it to him. He takes a hit of it before frowning.

“What flavour of cart is this? It tastes like ass.” Taeyoung complained, handing the dab pen back to you. You take a hit of it too, humming as you let the smoke fill your lungs.

“Its blackberry I think..?” You replied, bringing the pen up to your eyes to look at it. You shrug, taking another hit of it, “I wanted to try something new. Besides, it’ s not that bad.”

Taeyoung took it from your grasp before placing it between his lips. His eyebrows furrowed as he inhaled with a disgusted look on his face.

“Remind me to never buy blackberry.” He grumbled, giving it back to you as you giggled at him. The two of you sat in silence for a moment. You glanced at Taeyoung’s side profile, as he was seemingly staring out into nothingness.

“Did you hear Seongmin got into university?” Taeyoung broke the silence, and you nodded. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel while thinking, before leaning back, “I’m happy for him. He moves into the city sometime at the end of august. He asked me and a few of the guys if we’ll drive him in and help him move stuff into the dorm.”

“That’s really wonderful for him,” You said genuinely, eyes drifting away from Taeyoung to look out to where he was staring at. You could see the reflection of the water from the light of the moon, as it was pretty clear that night. You turned back to Taeyoung, trying to read his expression, “don’t you think its wonderful?”

“Yeah, of course.” Taeyoung said, smiling at you weakly before taking a deep breath, “Its just... I’ll miss him, y’know? I think it’s one of the big reason I haven’t left yet. I’d miss you guys too much...”

“Yeah, I understand what you mean.” You said, looking out your open window, “But I think it’ll be okay.”

Taeyoung looked at you, but you were leaned away from him against the window, closing your eyes just to bask in the night atmosphere. He could barely see you in this light, but your figure looked calm and relaxed in the light of the moon.

“You’re not worried about drifting apart?” Taeyoung asked, anxiety laced through his tone as he fidgeted in his seat. You glanced at him before sitting up in your seat.

“Not at all.” You said simply, smiling softly and brushing your hand through your hair, “I think if we all put in a effort to talk or text regularly, no distance could force our little group apart.”

You turn to face Taeyoung, who chewed his bottom lip nervously. His eyes shone like diamonds from the reflection of the sky, and you couldn’t help the grin that came across your face.

“It’s all about doing your part to nurture the relationship, y’know?” You concluded, taking your pen out and having one last hit of it before throwing it haphazardly in the cup holder.

“I guess you’re right... I’m just scared because it’ll be really different.” Taeyoung hummed. He picked at his nails, peeling the polish you did a week ago off them.

“Different doesn’t mean bad,” You replied, before smiling playfully and grabbing his hand to stop him from picking off the nail polish, “Hey, don’t pick off all my hard work!” Taeyoung chuckled at you, looking down at his fingernails and then back at you.

“Sorry.” He said and laced his fingers in between yours, “You’re right. everything will be okay. Besides, we will all move at some point, right?” You hummed in agreement, turning to look out the window again at the river.

Taeyoung’s hand was warm in yours; he felt clammy from the summer humidity, but it fit almost perfectly in yours. Like it was meant to belong there...

You sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments, nothing heard but the sound of crickets in the reeds by the river and the quiet melody of the song playing on Taeyoung’s phone.

That’s how it was with Taeyoung, comfortable.

You and him had always been close, you’d even go as far as saying he was your best friend in your little group of friends. But more recently, you’d been feeling a bit awkward around Taeyoung after an incident that happened that planted this annoying thought in the back of your head...

Jungmo had a party about a month ago at his house; His parents were out of town that weekend, so of course all of your friends were invited, plus a few other people you graduated with. Well, of course that lead to a bunch more people showing up (people you didn’t really know), but nobody really minded at the end of the day, since the more the merrier for it.

You, Taeyoung and a few of your other friends were sitting out in the backyard, overall having a good time. There were a few other people around, but you didn’t really notice to much; you were absolutely high at the time, as was Taeyoung and the boys from your friend group which were sitting with you.

“No you’re not listening to me (Y/N)!” Woobin shouted, taking slow, long blinks while putting his hands up in defense, “You would need to go to the boat, Like they do in the movie.”

“no no! I’d just swim around until the flood ended,” You argued, crossing your arms, “Besides, they didn’t even get to the boat in the movie, they just stood up on a rock and the water went away.”

“But the water only went away because of that dumbass squirrel and it’s acorn!” Woobin said with a huff, “Besides, you’ll get tired after swimming for a while. The only way to survive is getting on the boat.”

“What are you two arguing over? I can hear you yelling from inside...” Allen said with a drunken giggle, closing the patio door behind him as he sat down and cracked open the can of beer in his hand.

“How we would survive if we were in Ice Age, The Meltdown.” Taeyoung explained, grinning as he tossed his dab pen to Allen, “Ruby insists you’d die without getting to the boat and (Y/N) thinks they could just swim around until the water went away.”

“You’re both wrong and stupid,” Wonjin said playfully, wagging his finger around the circle before tapping on his head, “I’d just climb up onto the ice wall honestly.” You all let out exclamations in protest, talking about the water coming from the ice wall and Allen let out a hearty laugh at your antics.

“Youngtae,” You huffed in a whiny voice, leaning your head on his shoulder and sticking your lip out in a pout, “You think I could swim to survive, right?”

“If we are going based on the events of the movie,” Taeyoung hummed, tapping his chin clumsily while pretending to think, “I think you could swim for long enough to survive.”

“Ha!” You shouted, sticking your finger in Woobin’s face with a satisfied smile, “See? Youngtae agrees with me, which means I win!” You giggled happily and leaned more into Taeyoung, who slung his arm around your shoulder lazily.

“Whatever, I’m not listening to dumb and dumber.” Woobin said while rolling his eyes. You and Taeyoung immediately began bicker on who was dumb and who was dumber.

“I’m going in to get something to eat, anyone wanna come or need me to bring anything?” Woobin stood from his spot on the lawn and stretching his arms up over his head. Wonjin murmured something about chips while laying on his back and counting the blades of grass near his face. Allen shook his head no, before taking a sip of the drink he had in his hand.

“I wanna come! I have to pee anyways.” Taeyoung cheered, lifting you off of him to stand up. You grabbed onto Taeyoung’s arm and asked for a drink of water, to which Taeyoung acknowledged with a ‘roger that!’; then the two boys went inside, closing the patio door behind them leaving you with Wonjin and Allen and the few strangers from before. It was a girl you didn’t recognize accompanied by a guy you went to high school with, but didn’t really talk to, since he was a few grades above you.

“Hey guys, I think I took too much weed.” Wonjin said with a sigh, flicking the grass lazily, “My eyes feel like they are made of liquid and my body feels like it weighs a million pounds.”

“My mouth is just super dry...” You said, smacking your lips and touching your tongue with your index finger, “My thongue theels like thandpaper”

“You guys should have just had alcohol instead then,” Allen boasted, grabbing your arm to take your finger out of your mouth. He let out a little giggle, rubbing the back of his neck bashfully, “I mean, I had waaaaaayyy too much so I’m not any better off.”

“You probably came outside to make sure you didn’t puke on Jungmo’s carpet...” You hummed, earning a ‘bingo’ from Allen, who chuckled along with you before taking another swig from his beer and then setting the can down in the grass.

“You’ll be fine, Taeyoung is bringing you water for your precious tongue.” Wonjin said and sat up, pulling his phone out and turning it on only to put it back in his pocket. He then smiles gently to himself and snickering, “And Ruby is bringing me chips so I’ll be fine too, hehe....”

“You guys didn’t need anything, right?” Allen asked the strangers sitting off to the side. You turned to look at them and giving them both a polite smile, which they reciprocated.

“No we’re good.” The dude said simply, turning to the girl beside him and kissing her cheek with a grin. She leaned further into him as he pulled her closer, “Right baby?”

“Yeah, we are good.” She smiled at him before looking at you sweetly, “So, how long have you been dating?”

“....Huh?” You asked, furrowing your eyebrows at her, “Dating who?”

Just then, The patio door opened to reveal Woobin with a bag of tortilla chips and Taeyoung with two glasses of water in his hand.

“We have come bearing gifts!” Woobin cheered, throwing the bag of chips down onto the grass only for it to be snatched up quickly by Wonjin. Taeyoung gave you the glass gingerly, before sitting back down beside you with his own glass.

“What happened while we were gone?” Taeyoung asked, looking around at all the members in the little group.

“I was just asking your partner how long you two had been dating for?” The girl said, nodding her head towards you. You felt your eyes widen and your face heat up, as you quickly stared down at the grass. The girl turned to the boy beside her and placed a quick kiss on his lips, “Me and Christopher have been together for only a few months now, but it feel like its been forever. I was just wondering how long have you been dating for?”

“Me and (Y/N).... Uhhh...” Taeyoung mumbled, clearly taken aback by this girl’s question. He scooted a bit away from you, brushing his hair out of his face. The other boys looked between the two of you awkwardly, as you kept your eyes trained in your lap and the grass below.

“We aren’t a couple actually.... Just good friends, that’s all.” Taeyoung replied, embarrassment clear by the tone of his voice and the redness rising from his neck up to his ears. The girl had gone pale, letting out a quiet ‘oh’ before silence fell over the group.

“I’m sorry I assumed.” She apologized quickly, “You guys are just so touchy with each other and I saw the matching bracelets so I assumed. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s fine, you didn’t know.” Taeyoung laughed awkwardly, picking at his fingernails and looking anywhere but you beside him. You couldn’t bring yourself to look up at all. You felt your stomach sink and a horrible feeling of nausea washed over you as you tapped the edge of your water glass.

It went silent again, and you felt like everyone was holding their breath. You hated it. Were you and Taeyoung too clingy? Did people really think you guys were dating. There is no way you’d ever date Taeyoung, he’s your best friend! Why did you feel like your stomach was doing back flips and your face was on fire? You hated this whole situation; it was all too much for you right now.

You lazily checked your phone, pretending to look at the time before you downed your glass of water. You stood up, earning the attention of the rest of the group.

“Its pretty late and I had too much weed, so I’m going to go to bed.” You said with a weak smile, nodding to the couple of strangers, “Nice to meet you both.”

“Are you sure, (Y/N)?” Allen asked, standing up too. He gave you a subtle look of pity as you nodded, plastering a fake smile on your face. You felt like you were hyperventilating with all the eyes on you. It was all to much for you in this state.

“Good night boys.” You mumbled before retreating back inside, not sparing a glance at Taeyoung. Why did this situation make you so anxious. And why did this make you question your relationship with Taeyoung? Was your relationship perceived as more then friends by most people? Aren’t friends clingy anyways, or was it to a different degree you and Taeyoung? But most importantly, why did the idea of dating him not sound so bad to you when you really thought about it? You were going to be sick if you thought about it longer.

It was too much, so you pushed those thoughts as you retreated to Jungmo’s spare room and lock the door behind you, not to come out until the next morning, where nobody brought it up, not even Taeyoung.

Even when you hung out with him a week later, and then last week too, Taeyoung didn’t mention the incident at all, but you both knew it caused a change in the comfortability of your relationship...

It felt strange to hold Taeyoung’s hand after the incident. You weren’t sure what happened after you went to bed, but you were feeling a sense a relief that he did hold your hand when he needed it. It was a sign that maybe your relationship could be going back to normal maybe? Taeyoung brushed his thumb subconsciously over the back of your hand. Now buried in the relief arose a strange feeling, the one where your stomach was doing flips and your started to feel a bit warmer and that little thought of dating him crawled its way out of the back of your brain.

“Your hand is super sweaty dude.” Taeyoung laughed, giving it a little squeeze. You let out a laugh too, releasing his hand and wiping yours on your pant leg.

“Sorry, I guess I’m a little hot right now.” You confessed, “I shouldn’t have worn this shitty jacket...”

“I love that jacket, even though it’s so old and shitty,” Taeyoung said playfully, leaning over to grab near the pocket and smiling when he felt the crispy outline of a burn hole, “I remember when we all went camping last summer and you got hit by a stray spark from the campfire and it burned this hole in it. I remember you standing up so fast and me and you patting it out before it could burn you.” He chuckled at the memory, looking up at your face as you felt around the burn hole too.

“That was fun, minus me almost getting lit on fire.” You said grinning at the fond memory before looking at Taeyoung in the eyes, “We should go camping again sometime. Although, preferably when it’s not so hot outside.”

“If you’re really that hot, we could go for a swim in the river?” Taeyoung suggested nonchalantly, the corners of his mouth curling up into a cat-like grin.

“I’d love to, but do I look like I’m wearing a swimsuit stupid?” You chuckled, gesturing to your body before laughing a bit at the idea.

“Not a problem!” Taeyoung hummed, before surprising you by suddenly tugging his shirt up and over his head. Your eyes went from his bare torso back up to his face with a look of shock.

“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before because being in your underwear is basically the same thing as being in a swimsuit,” Taeyoung deduced, opening his car door and starting to undo his belt. His torso seemed to glow in the moonlight from the sheen sweat from the summer heat; he must have been just as hot as you were, but somehow you started to feel it even worse now that Taeyoung was more exposed. You couldn’t take your eyes off him and you felt your heart squeeze a bit, which was increasingly concerning.

“You coming or..?” Taeyoung asked with a smile, leaning down to make eye contact with you. His hands dipped into the top of his jeans, however he did not pull them down yet. You realized he was waiting for you to agree before doing so, which made you feel much more comfortable.

You thought for a moment. You knew this wasn’t a good idea, as the little voice in your head that arose form the party was getting stronger and you could feel the rational part of your head be clouded over by not only your other thoughts, but also the haze of your weed kicking in. You chewed you lip nervously before smiling softly back at Taeyoung.

“Fine Youngtae. Fuck it. It’s too hot” You sighed, taking your jacket off before stepping out of the car too. You piled all your clothing (besides your undergarments) haphazardly on the passenger seat and placed your shoes on the car floor in front of the seat. Now that you were out of the car in nothing but your underwear, you felt the coolness of the night air. However, you still felt just as hot, if not worse. You couldn’t shake the nervous feeling in the pit of your stomach or the beating of your heart the felt like it was going a million miles an hour from adrenaline.

Your nervousness must have showed, because you could hear a hearty laugh come from your best friend as he walked around to the front of the car.

“Relax a bit dude, it’s just me here.” He said, brushing his hair back once more. You refused to look anywhere south of his belly button, for your own sanity, but you did notice his boxers being a ugly plaid pattern from your peripheral.

“If I would have known you’d be seeing my underwear, I’d have worn nicer ones...” You said, trying to sound as casual as possible, but inside your body was on fire. Your brain was shutting down and your body felt jittery and nervous.

“Don’t worry about that, you look fine.” Taeyoung complimented, making your stomach drop. Taeyoung walked past you, going down to the very edge and walking along it, calling after you. “Come on, slow poke! The shallow area should be around here..”

You shook your head, trying to get a hold of yourself; taking a deep breath and following Taeyoung to the shallow part where people usually swam during the day. He stepped off the bank and into the water, having it come up to his ankles when he let out a few curses and curled his fingers into fists at his side.

“Brrrr! Its freezing!” He cried out, wincing at you as you laughed at how cute he was, “I’m going to become a Young-sicle after this I’m sure...”

“I guess I’ll be a (Y/N)-sicle then,” You said, stepping in beside him and feeling a shiver immediately run up your legs from the cold water. Your eyes meet Taeyoung and you both burst out in laughter at the knowing look of biting cold that you both are experiencing.

Taeyoung begins to wade out a bit further, complaining the whole time when you get an evil idea. You follow him, water getting up to around your knees with your grin growing as you close the distance between the two of you, so that you are are now standing maybe a couple feet away from each other again.

“Hey Youngtae!” You called to him to get his attention. He turned to look at you and before he had time to react, you dig your hands into the ice cold water and splash him. He shrieked due to the surprise of water hitting his body and the cool temperature of it of his skin. You laughed at his reaction, quickly doing a few more splashes so he doesn’t have time to recover, getting water all the way up to near his face.

“Quit it! It’s freezing!” He places his hands out to try and block the water from hitting him. Your laughter quickly goes from joyous to scared as he starts wading over to you.

“No wait! I’m sorry!” You said through a fit of giggles, weakly splashing at him to try and keep him away, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Youngtae, don’t!”

“You should have thought about that before you splashed me, stupid.” He giggled back, grabbing onto your arm and pulling you towards him so he can wrap his arms around your frame. You let out a squeal as he lifted you a bit, dragging you into deeper water.

“Youngtae, please don’t! I’m sorry.” You struggled against his iron grip, smacking his arms playfully, but you felt the chuckle leaving his chest as he held you still in the water.

“Sorry,” He hummed sarcastically, “Next time don’t start something you can’t finish.”

With that, Taeyoung quickly lifted you off your feet and promptly dunked you in the water, almost crushing you by laying down over you, just to make sure you couldn’t avoid the icy plunge. You screamed from the cold, while Taeyoung sucked air through his teeth at the freezing water rushing over his back. He let you go and you quickly spun around to face him before smacking him on the shoulder.

“Kim Taeyoung I swear, you’re dead meat!” You scolded while giggling at him. His expression mirrored your own, with only a slight hint of pride residing in his features.

“Hey! You were the one who splashed me first!” Taeyoung laughed, leaning back to sit in the shallow water; he crossed his legs, letting the water comfortably wade just under his collar bones. You mumbled in agreement, letting your laughter die down before you sat beside him.

The cool water was frigid at first, but after a few seconds of getting used to it, it felt refreshing. You let out a sigh of relief, feeling the heat from earlier subside even a little bit as you closed your eyes. You and Taeyoung were silent, just listening to the sound of the running water and the faint tune of Taeyoung’s car radio fill the air.

That is, until you best friend broke the silence.

“Hey, uhm.” He mumbled, causing you to open your eyes and look at him; you almost wished you didn’t. He looked beautiful, hair slightly damp, tan skin shining, soft eyes trained on you with his bottom lip slightly tucked between his teeth.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.” Taeyoung continued, scooting closer to you, causing the water around the two of you to ripple; much like the butterflies that arrive in your stomach from the possibilities of this conversation.

“What is it?”

“Well, I..... uhm.”

“Youngtae.” You said flatly, expression softening as you reached out for his arm to place a comforting touch to it, “talk to me.”

You could tell Taeyoung was anxious from the way his eyebrows furrowed and how his lips were pulled into a thin line. He had the same look before the talent show in middle school; It was the first time he performed in front of anyone and he was so nervous he almost threw up. But, just like now, you were there for him to make sure he was okay.

Like you’d always be.

He let out a sigh, before looking away from you, “I wanted to talk about what happened.. Y’know... at the party.”

It was your turn to be anxious now, body freezing up before you turned to look away too, focusing on the way the moon reflected off the dark water. Was this it? Did Taeyoung not want to be your friend anymore because of how you acted at the party? Did he think you were disgusted with the possibility of dating him? Would he be weirded out if he found out you felt quite the opposite?

“Look, I’m sorry.” He started out, struggling to find the words, “I know you were really uncomfortable and I.... I should have been more aware of how my behavior can be perceived by others. I know that we are just friends and I shouldn’t be so clingy...”

“Please don’t apologize! You didn’t do anything wrong.” You quickly countered, looking down at the way your body distorted through the water. You wanted nothing more than to drown yourself there.

You were the one who froze up and didn’t say a word. You were the one who left him alone to deal with the situation. You were the one who was slowly growing relationship-changing feelings... “It should be me who is apologizing.”

“For what?!” Taeyoung gasped, whipping his head to look at you.

“For making you think that I was upset with you! For leaving and making it awkward between us.”

“You weren’t upset?”

“No.” You huffed out, feeling your face heat up. You take your cold hands out of the water to pat your cheeks gently as you let out a sigh. Your mind felt cloudy and your heart beat went steady against your chest. You blamed the weed for allowing the truth to tumble out of your mouth, “I should apologize because I’m still making it awkward between us...”

“How so?” He mumbled, eyes burning holes into the side of your face as you looked out at the other shoreline. You heaved a heavy sigh, hanging you head before letting all the true thoughts and feelings you’ve been having spill out.

“Because I can’t stop thinking about how much I love you.” You confessed, words flowing from your lips much easier than you anticipated, “Not in a platonic, ‘we are best friends!’ way, but in a ‘I think about you all the time and want to wake up next to you everyday’ kind of way. I didn’t realize it until the party, but I am in love with you and I maybe always have been.”

The silence was deafening, with the only sound being the thumping of a nervous heart and the rushing of the cold water surrounding you. You drop you head, feeling the weight of what you just said.

Taeyoung was quiet beside you, seemingly from shock or being deep in thought.

You allowed the silence only for a moment before you turned to look at him. You couldn’t bear the uneasiness any longer.

“I’m so sorry.” You mumbled, your gaze catching his, “I know we are just frien-”

Taeyoung quickly cut you off by rushing forward, placing a hasty kiss on you lips. It was so quick, you weren’t even sure if it happened as you just stared at him, too stunned to speak.

He...

He kissed you?

“I’m sorry, I should have asked before I did that!” Taeyoung huffed out, running one of his wet hands through his hair as he smiled, mouth slightly agape. You noticed the redness creeping up his neck and cheeks.

“I... I’m just.” He stutters, brain seemingly short-circuited before he cleared his throat and took a deep breath to collect himself, “I just never thought you’d like me back.” “You... like me?” You asked, heart leaping into your throat.

“Well duh!” He giggled, “I mean, I thought I was pretty obvious about my feelings for you, but I just assumed you never saw me as anything more than a friend. And I’m more than happy to just be a part of your life.”

“Wow, I must’ve be blind...”

“No, just stupid.”

“Okay, that’s a bit uncalled for.”

“Sorry.” Taeyoung hummed, shifting to tuck his knees up against his chest as he wrapped his arms around them. He chewed his bottom lip nervously as his eyes darted down to the dark murky water, “So..?”

“So?”

“Now what?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know!” Taeyoung huffed exasperated , throwing his hands in the air, causing the water around the two of you to ripple. “Are we still just friends or....” He let his voice trail on, giving you a hopeful look, “Does this change everything?”

“I mean,” You spoke softly, feeling the heat rise to your face. Why was it all of a sudden so hard to talk to Taeyoung? You felt like you were choking on the words as you cleared your throat and meekly whispered, “I wouldn’t mind a change...”

Taeyoung nodded, smile slowly spreading across his face as he registered what you said. He turned to you, scooting a bit closer so that your shoulders touched and your faces were a few inches apart.

“I think I’d like that too.” He whispered, voice just barely audible as his eyes wandered your facial features. Without another word more, you slowly leaned in, giving him plenty of time to move away before you placed you lips against his.

You were felling so many things at this moment; joy, excitement, nervousness. But above all else, you felt right.

Being here with Taeyoung, kissing him and letting yourself love him just felt right. Like it was all falling into place and meant to be. You thought about your future with your best friend and how that was all going to change; but you had hope that it would be for the better.

—————————

A/N: In my Taeyoung vibes and I just didn’t have a way to finish it so please forgive a rushed ending. I love this man SOOO much !! Believe it or not, he’s actually my main man in Cravity, even though I haven’t posted about him lol. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!!!

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angelic-jeonghan1004 · 1 year

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Lyric prank || Serim

This isn’t my best but I’m trying to find fake sns apps for smau so I’m trying stuff out and so far I’ve hated every app 💔 but here is this seri content none the less to my fellow writers please tell me what apps you use I’d be so grateful

Pairing: Serim x Reader

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: mentions abuse (in line from she wolf by shakira)

#cravity fake texts #cravity x reader #cravity reactions #cravity imagines #Cravity fluff #serim x reader #serim fluff #serim imagines #serim scenarios #cravity serim #cravity angst

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nanaooyoo · 1 month

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cravity ot9 scenario

request for: @nctloverkpop. I switched up the themeing a bit but we came to an agreement about cravity scenarios wherein the boys help you get through a tough time. I had a lot of fun writing these and hope you and any one who sees this likes it and maybe feels comforted by it (sorry it took so long). Anyways enjoy ✨

warnings/headsup: discussions of mental health • no specific disorders named • depression • anxiety • woobin’s includes a very bloody lip • mentions of food • arguable depictions of self harm • hurt/comfort • 1.2k words average • 10.6k words total • gender neutral reader • angst if you squint • fluff • lightly proofread

couple scenarios: members x reader pt.I/I

❥Serim

Serim sat at the edge of the bed. He watched as you paced back and forth across the multicolored rug you had picked out just a few weeks ago. You shook out your wrists and loosened your fingers as Serim slowly raised and lowered his arms trying his best to redirect your breathing.

“In… and out… in… and out…” he tried his best to demonstrate and jog your memory on the techniques people had previously taught you. Today it was just taking a particularly long while.

“What’s the point! It’s not working!” You whined, continuing to pace the floor.

“It’ll work eventually, you just have to be patient.” Serim said.

“I don’t want eventually, I want now!” You mumbled to yourself, now stomping your feet on the carpet. “This sucks!” You moaned collapsing to the floor and rapidly chewing at your nails.

“It may suck but it’s totally normal.” Serim said “things are really hard on you right now, it makes sense to feel freaked out.”

You groaned and clawed at your hair. Serim’s ability to remain calm in almost any situation where you felt like you were losing your goddamn mind was somehow both comforting and infuriating. “Oh. My. God.” You muttered angrily under your breath. You could feel the tension in your bones. It travelled through you and settled amidst each of your joints making you feel like a poorly made and fractured wooden doll. You felt internally rusted like the bumper on an old car. “You’re driving me insane.” You whispered under your breath as quietly as you could.

“I heard that y’a know.”

You looked up from your crouched over position on the floor to see Serim standing up from the bed and coming over to crouch down next to you. His refusal and near inability to ever get mad at you was something that made you truly love him. It was one of the many reasons you had asked him to move in with you and pick new furniture, and appliances, and rugs, and so so so much more… but it was also something unfamiliar. You weren’t used to someone being so unbothered by all of your moods. You weren’t used to him not batting an eye when your whole body locked up. You weren’t used to someone immediately trying to take action and not running in the other direction when your ploys for stress relief became self-destructive. You weren’t used to Serim.

However you had to start getting used to him quickly, because he had already settled in with most of his stuff. You looked at him as he looked back at you, not a trace of animosity in his eyes. Serim simply waddled over to you, hunched over in the same position. With one hand lazily strewn across his knees and the other slowly patting your head. “Are you sure you don’t want to try the breathing again, and I mean actually try this time.” He looked at you expectantly waiting for some kind of response. Like two frogs squatting on a lily pad you two both sat there in silence for a moment. A very long moment.

You let out a long exasperated sigh and conceded “I’ll try the breathing exercises… again”.

He didn’t do a very good job of hiding it but Serim did his best to conceal the fact that he was beaming on the inside.

Later that night, the two of you had to sit down and have a long conversation about what it would be like living together. “As much as I love you and I want to be the one to take care of you, you know I can’t always be the one to remind you of what to do when you feel like you’re going to a dark place…” He said “Obviously I’m still going to be there for you… I just worry about what might happen when I’m gone for work or something” He confessed.

“I know… and I don’t want you to worry about me. I just feel like I’ve been dealing with a lot lately and I’ve been taking it out on you.” Your voice was low and meek and you looked down while saying it. “I feel like I’m self sabotaging in more ways than one.” You admitted.

“Well there’s nothing you could really do to sabotage our relationship.” Serim said earnestly reaching out a hand to grab yours and placing a gentle kiss on your cheek. “I just like you too much” he chuckled.

It took a couple hours to get you to feel calm again. Serim had to pull your hands away from your mouth to stop you from chewing your nails down to minute nubs more times than he could count, but his ardent love for you would have him standing around and trying his best to keep your wits about you forever and ever.

No matter how many breakdowns, or meltdowns, or freakouts he had witnessed it wasn’t enough to deter him from you because Serim knew that you would do the same for him. Despite your near constant refusal to take care of your own mental health, he had experienced all the times you had looked out for his. The many times you put his needs above your own made any attempt on your part to try and scare him away totally futile.

Serim watched as you steadied your breathing, before taking out some of your frustration on all the cardboard boxes that needed to be broken down and taken to the recycling bin. Whenever it seemed like your blood pressure would begin to rise again Serim would simply give you a comforting hug from behind, resting his head between your neck and shoulders, humming softly; his aura just had a way of rubbing off on you. Did that mean that this would be the last time the two of you would ever have to have these sorts of conversations on these sorts of days? Absolutely not. But that din’t mean you couldn’t look forward to having them together…

❥Allen

You had run out of tears long ago but that didn’t stop you from sniffling through belabored breaths as you laid on the couch. Of course Allen stuck close behind. One arm wrapped around your waist and the other propping up his head to get a better view of the TV.

It didn’t take him long to realize you weren’t really crying at the cheesy movie splayed across the television screen. You were more wrapped up with something else. You swore it was nothing, and to you, that may have really been true! Sometimes you got emotional or overstimulated for reasons you couldn’t really understand, even if your boyfriend knew that there probably was some underlying specific reason. The reason didn’t always matter, what mattered was how you felt in the moment, and right now you felt… well neither of you were quite sure how to feel?

“What’s wrong?” Allen whispered into your ear as he pulled you just a tiny bit closer.

“I really don’t know…” you said. You had been crying for so long that even if there was a reason for it in the first place you had forgotten it by now.

Allen snuggled closer to you as you did the same. Melting into his embrace and struggling to trace back the reason for your sadness, you still found it cathartic to let your emotions take over once in a blue moon.

Like a wave it washed over you at times though. You often had trouble experiencing your emotions but your emotions sure as hell had no trouble experiencing you. They had a way of taking you over that made it nearly impossible to focus on anything else while also making it incredibly difficult to pinpoint the triggers in the first place.

No matter what though, Allen always had a way of bringing you back to Earth. His calm and gentle demeanor, and carefree attitude made it so that you could always be yourself around him. Even if that self you needed to be wasn’t very pretty at times, he was always there taking notes and remembering things on how to help you better cope with your feelings the next time, and the next time…

Sometimes your big heart and structureless brain hindered you, sometimes they made life harder. But sometimes those things brought you to people like Allen.

The first time you ever cried in front of him felt mortifying! You were a complete blubbering mess and yet he still wanted to go out with you.

“Everybody cries” he had told you, no sense of irony in his voice.

“Yeah but I cry like… a lot” you responded.

All he did was shrug.

Now here you two were, almost a year later and you were still a self prescribed crybaby. Though, Allen didn’t like it when you called your self that, he found it demeaning and reductive but he also could acknowledge that you did cry! A lot! Not that it made him like you any less it just made him want to look after for you extra hard.

Allen lightly patted your stomach in a delicate rhythm making sure to not pull too much attention to the ways in which he was trying to comfort you. Of course he was letting you cry (or at least try to) for as long as you needed and he hummed softly in time with his small taps, subtly helping you focus on something other than whatever thoughts were running around up in your head. He really was helping, you just didn’t realize it. He was so good at helping without you realizing in fact, that it took him a good amount of time to notice that you weren’t awake anymore.

“Hey do you want to maybe watch something else?” He asked no longer hearing sniffling and wondering if that would make you want to move on the something more cheerful. “Or do you want to… cry some more?” He asked quietly peeking his head over yours to get a good look at your face. “So cute” he audibly cooed seeing your puffy cheeks and eyes squished against the soft fabric of the couch with your mouth slightly agape. “You poor thing.” He said to himself with more affection in his voice than any sort of pity.

Allen did his best to unlatch his arm from under you and move his legs that had found themselves intertwined with yours. He carefully wormed his way off of the couch and onto the carpet as quietly as possible. He reached an arm out to place it under your head and support your neck before pausing when you started fidgeting around again.

You always were prone to talking in your sleep. “Allen…” you muttered unconsciously, repeating his name a few times before flopping over fully asleep and snoring again.

Your boyfriend did the gentlemanly thing and supported your head before scooping you up and bringing you to his room. He made sure you were extra comfortable, covering every inch of you except the very top of your head in the biggest, fluffiest blanket he could find. You pawed at the blanket pulling it closer and Allen pushed some pillows into your arms as you began surrounding the pile of softness and fabric in your tight grip. You hugged them as if it were your boyfriend, none the wiser in your asleep state. Allen gave you a small peck on the part of your forehead that was still visible and quietly tiptoed out of the room.

He made sure to check on you every once in a while and rub your back or whisper something to you softly whenever you began tossing and turning again. He was used to regularly helping you fall back asleep when you had restless nights or night terrors so this was a walk in the park for him.

The next morning you awoke to utter darkness before clawing your way out of the cocoon Allen had made for you. The sheer white curtains in his room billowed in the morning breeze as you rolled over and noticed a small glass of water and a little pharmacy bag on the nightstand next to you. You had no idea when he had the time to slip out and get those as it was still quite early in the morning but all that crying, and tossing, and turning always gave you the most viscous headache. You wasted no time in sitting up and taking the pain medicine from the little parcel and taking a big swig of water.

A few minutes later the door to his room ever so slightly creaked open as Allen did his best to quietly shimmy through the doorway. “Oh you’re awake! Sorry I didn’t get breakfast or anything I assumed you’d be out for a little while longer.”

You stuck out your bottom lip pouting and wordlessly outstretching both of your arms signaling with your hands for him to come over. He complied, hopping up onto the bed and giving you a giant bear hug. He pulled back to look at you as more tears welled up in your eyes but these ones were more positive. You always appreciated how caring Allen was, how quickly he would move to help you without a second thought and without him, you wondered how miserable an entire nighttime of crying alone followed by a morning of throbbing headaches you had to deal with all by yourself would have been. You hugged him tightly, showing your appreciation the best you could as Allen leaned back to wipe some of the tears out of your eyes, worry fading and turning into a quiet chuckle as he realized you were now mostly okay.

Allen looked over at his phone “yeah we’ve still got so much of the day left, do you want to sleep more?” You nodded and hugged him tighter planting a small kiss on his neck. “Do you want me to join you?” He asked.

“Of course!” you chimed, voice still groggy but incredibly sincere.

❥Jungmo

Jungmo sat on the couch scrolling on his phone and playing with the collar of his tie as he waited for you to get ready. He hated having to dress up just to go to stuffy places and talk to a bunch of boring people and executives all night, but he had been invited to an upscale event and was required to go. At least he didn’t have to go alone, you were always down to join him in the things he found so boring, always whispering jokes and sharing drinks together in the corner of the room. He was excited to see what you would be wearing too! That was one of the few things helping him get excited for tonight. You were taking a little longer than usual to get ready but you also had an incredibly extensive closet and the biggest collection of accessories he had ever seen so he didn’t want to rush you. I mean, he didn’t want to rush you, but you guys were cutting it close if you took too much longer. “Y/N you almost done?” He asked walking over to the bathroom where you were supposed to be finishing up. “We can have like ten or fifteen more minutes but then we should probably g- Oh! You’re already ready!” He said barging into the bathroom and looking at you as your palms were placed flat on the counter and you stared into the mirror. “Wait, let me take a picture first, you look great!” He said excitedly.

You placed your hand over his phone and gently pushed it down. You shook your head and sighed. “No I don’t…” you trailed off.

Jungmo looked baffled. “What do you mean? You look amazing!” He said standing a little closer.

“Well I don’t feel amazing.” You retorted.

Jungmo took a second to take you in. He looked you up and down and then cocked his head to the side like a confused puppy. “Why not?” He asked. “I think you look incredible!”

You bowed your head and let out an exasperated groan. “Something’s just off… I just don’t look right.”

To him you looked breathtaking! Gorgeous enough to make him forget you two were supposed to be somewhere else in a few minutes time. “What’s off?”

“Just like… all of it!” A sad expression plastering your face. You rolled your eyes a bit every time you caught a glimpse of your own reflection in the bathroom mirror and huffed in annoyance at a problem you felt like couldn’t be fixed. “I can’t let anyone see me like this…” you said.

“I see you like this-“ Jungmo replied “and I like what I see.” He smiled.

“Yeah but your opinion doesn’t count you would have said that no matter what.”

“My opinion should be the only one that counts!” He said “Especially when you’re being way too hard on yourself.” Jungmo rubbed small circles onto your back in an attempt to encourage you. “Where’s all this coming from? Do I not tell you how good you look enough?”

“You tell me plenty!” You scoffed “it’s just something about this outfit, something about-“

“Then we’ll change the outfit. You’ve got plenty of stuff in your closet you barely ever get to wear!” Jungmo grabbed your hand but you stood still as a statue stopping him from dragging you away.

“That’s easy for you to say… you look great in everything.” You looked down at the floor.

Jungmo pouted. “The only reason I look good in everything is because you pick out all my clothes. I’d look a mess without you” he laughed.

You nodded your head in acknowledgment but still you weren’t fully convinced “maybe you should just go without me.”

“Go without you, are you crazy?” Jungmo furrowed his brows in complete shock. “When could I ever- how could I ever go to one of these boring corporate events without you?” He boomed. “I’m your boyfriend! Either we’re both going or neither of us are going!” He said unusually sternly for his laid back nature. “It’s up to you whether you want to stay or you want to go but either way I’m doing it with you!” He said. “And if this is all just over one outfit that’s an easy fix. We can be late, let’s go pick something else out.”

“Jungmo… I want to go with you I really do, but I just don’t want to drag you down…”

“You have got to stop saying stuff like this” he said. “You look great! You always look great! Even if you’re not feeling great I promise you no one in the world can tell but you… and maybe me on a good day.” He joked.

“You really don’t think I look awful?” You asked genuinely worried.

“It’s be impossible for you of all people to look awful.”

You sighed taking one more look back at yourself in the mirror. You still didn’t think you looked quite right and even just thinking of your reflection made you feel queasy, but if Jungmo thought you looked good then maybe you really did. You still wanted to change clothes though. The fabric all of a sudden felt constricting on your skin, it felt like a million tiny mites were crawling all over you. “Okay I’ll go change.” You said patting Jungmo’s chest and exiting the bathroom. He followed you out and to your bedroom where you began rifling through your closet looking for something else to wear that still matched your boyfriend and felt appropriate for the event. He stood there watching you for a moment.

“Do you need any help?” He asked.

“No, no I can do this myself. It’s more of a mental thing anyways, I won’t take too long”. You looked back for a second as Jungmo was still standing there watching you. “Can you go wait for me in the living room?” He didn’t budge.“Jungmo! Go wait outside.”

He looked surprised “Oh you’re serious.

“Yes I’m serious, I’m feeling kind of self conscious right now…” you said in earnest.

“Why though, it’s nothing I haven’t seen befo- Ouch that hurt!” Jungmo said taking a wadded up dress shirt to the face. “Okay fine I’ll wait for you in the living room” he said trudging off and rubbing his eye in slight irritation.

A few minutes later you reappeared into the common area of the apartment dressed in all new clothes. Jungmo smiled and clutched his phone once more. “Better?” He asked.

“Better!” you said.

“Now can we take a picture?” His eyes gleamed with hope as he swayed back and forth on the balls of his feet.

You hesitated for a moment. “Yeah sure, why not.”

Jungmo quickly grabbed your hand and raised his phone up to snap a few selfies of him kissing you on the cheek before you both rushed out the door. He still made sure to keep a tight clasp on your hand however. He also made sure to check in every so often as to how you were feeling. Most importantly, he made sure to keep reminding you of how good you looked all night. Even if you didn’t see it, even if you didn’t believe, even if your mind tried to convince you otherwise, Jungmo made sure to always be there as a ‘pick me up’ to make sure you were reminded of the reality right in front of you. The reality of having a partner that saw you for who you really were and would never falter when it came to reminding you of that.

❥Woobin

You placed your hand on the arm rest of the passenger’s seat and tapped your fingers in quick and nervous succession as Woobin held your other hand and started up the car. He whistled along to the radio and swayed his head to whatever ‘summery’ ballad was currently playing and set up the navigation app on his phone in blissful ignorance.

Since the weather had finally started warming up a mutual friend had invited the two of you over for a big get together. Though it was a relatively casual engagement, you still felt that all too familiar sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. The feeling you got every time you were about to ride a roller coaster, give a presentation, get lost on a hike, or in cases like these; go somewhere with a whole lot of people. You pulled at and fidgeted with the hem of your pants, letting go of the arm rest and aimlessly searching for some sort of cord or loose thread to pull on. You swallowed harshly feeling a lump form in your throat as Woobin absentmindedly rubbed his thumb across your knuckles with his free hand as he began to drive.

You could feel your heart rate rise as your body temperature did the same before quickly dropping again and again. You could’ve sworn you were sweating but turning on the A/C in the car felt like way too much. Your hands started to feel clammy as you looked over at Woobin who quickly glanced over to give you a warm smile before focusing his attention back on the road. His general sense of calm and the beautiful weather should have been enough to calm you down but it wasn’t really working. All you could focus on was the noise of tires scraping the road, the blaring music, the sunlight that was shining directly into your eyes, and how warm you felt. Or were you cold? You couldn’t really tell but what you knew for sure was that you did not feel good.

You almost started to feel nauseous as the car grazed over a tiny pot hole and your vision began to fog over a bit. You felt dizzy like you needed to sit down, but restless like you needed to just stand up and run all at the same time. You wanted to say something, and every time you looked over at Woobin you were almost compelled to, but for some reason or another the words just couldn’t escape your mouth.

“Are you okay?” Woobin’s voice rang out a little delayed in your ears but eventually registering properly.

You felt sick, you felt like garbage, you felt terrible! So of course you replied quickly “yeah I’m doing fine, I’m excited!” You said practically through gritted teeth, a cheesy grin plastered on your face. Why you lied? You had no clear idea. What you did know was that lying to him made you feel worse.

You chewed at your lip furiously as you often did when feeling anxious. You let out fast paced yet silent breath out through your nose and tried your hardest not to tap your feet in frustration. Your lips felt near swollen but you couldn’t stop biting. You bit, and bit, and bit until all you could taste was the metallic tasting saliva pooling on the tip of your tongue. Before you knew it, you were looking down as small red droplets dripped from the bottom corner of your lip and into the creases amongst woven denim of your pants “shit” you muttered to yourself. You just sat there and watched for a moment in a silent daze before speaking up. “Uh Binnie can we stop the car?”

“Yeah sure. Why?” He replied quickly adjusting his turn signal and pulling over into the farthest possible lane without hesitation.

As soon as the car stopped you turned to make awkward eye contact with your partner as he gazed in worry at the beet red complexion of your lips. “What happened?” Woobin scrambled to grab some tissues out of the glove compartment and wipe at your face. “When did you start bleeding? Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” He said eyes darting around looking for a cotton ball, or bandage, or anything of the sort. “Your jeans…” he said softly but still continued his frantic search.

“I think I’m gonna pass out.” you uttered plainly, stopping your partner in his tracks. You watched his dark brown eyes widen like saucers and then fill themselves with a new sense of determination!

Before you knew it you were sitting on a curb by the side of the rode near some random convenience store. Woobin returned shortly thereafter with a cold bottle of water, a first aid kit, and some tissues. He wasted no time in fixing up your lip and taking some solvent from the first aid kit to wipe at the little stains on your pants. He worked diligently sitting on the curb next to you, an array of medical materials strewn about. Watching him so focused helped calm you down a little bit, but you still weren’t feeling entirely better.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?” He asked nervously searching every inch of visible skin he could find on you.

You grabbed his hands and looked him in the eyes. “Babe I’m okay now.”

You could see the apprehension in the befuddled stare he gave you.

“Really, I mean it. I’m okay now!” You repeated.

Woobin swallowed a little bit and took a moment to gauge the look in your eyes before crushing you with a hug and rubbing your back as you both sat on the ground by the car. “Alright I believe you” he said before letting go and giving you a second to catch your breath.

You two decided to take a moment to enjoy the fresh air before getting back into the car. It really was a beautiful day out. There was a perfect amount of breeze and just the two of you sitting together made you feel much more at ease.

You both enjoyed your time in the sunshine looking up at the sky and taking in the tranquil scenery. “Look at that one it kind of looks like a cuddly bear doesn’t it”. Woobin giggled pointing at a cluster of clouds arranged ever so perfectly in the shape of a bear’s head with two perfectly fluffy cheeks and round ears to match. Finally, the cars didn’t feel so loud, and the air didn’t feel so stuffy. Woobin pointed up at the sky while expertly unscrewing the cap and placing a bottle of water in your hands without you noticing.

“Yeah it does, it looks a lot like you” you joked taking a swig of water and cooling down.

About half an hour later the two of you had your fill of pointing out silly shapes in the clouds and had stopped back into the store to grab some well deserved treats. Re-positioning himself at the wheel, Woobin took his phone off the dashboard and slipped it into his pocket.

“What about the party, don’t you need the directions up still?”

“Nah… let’s just go home, you’ve had enough socializing for the day.” He said clasping your hand once more and giving you a knowing smile.

❥Wonjin

“Alright… shower? Check. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Check. Room clean? Check-“

“Do we really have to do this Wonjin”. You groaned loudly, leaning your head back over one of your dining room chairs as Wonjin sat across from you and peered at your contorted face through the top of the frames of his glasses.

He took a deep breath “Y/N we really do.” He said clicking his pen and running it down the different elements of a check list.

“It feels so… silly It makes me feel like fucking kid!”

“Well it works doesn’t it?” Wonjin said.

“Can’t we do something else? You know like a normal couple…”

“We are a normal couple! We just have a system and the system works, so we have to keep doing it.” He replied not looking up from his official looking clip board.

You sneered a little in response “Why though…”

You and Wonjin had implemented a new process into both of your nightly routines where you would sit down and check off all of the necessary things you needed to do to function throughout any given day. Most of the things seemed intuitively simple but you and him both knew better than anyone else that one bad mood could send you into a spiral that prevented you from getting such simple things as grabbing the mail from your mailbox done once a week. If you were feeling down, you were dismal. It made it impossible for you to remember to take care of yourself when you had other things going on so Wonjin drafted up a list of some of the most basic things you needed to do each day. Things that came incredibly naturally to others but not so much to you. Wonjin made sure to get all the proper materials to make the process seem more legitimate to you. He got a special list typed up and laminated, dry erase markers for the fridge, brand new pens, a clipboard, sticky notes, and a tiny box full of trinkets and treats. You didn’t appreciate the machinations of his executive brain but that was okay, he was really proud of himself. He was especially proud with the box he had gotten. Not only would you get to reach in and grab a small reward each night but Wonjin would get one too if you completed all your tasks so that he could be more encouraged to help you. Not that he really needed any material incentive. This was something he would have done for you anyways, but making it a collaborative effort made you feel a little less alone.

The rewards inside the box were quite small but they were still enough to round out the rest of your night very positively. It was mostly full of stickers, charms, small bills, and little slips of paper with things like ‘have dessert a second time’ written on them. It was a crudely decorated little thing, covered in glitter glue and plastic gems with a picture from your anniversary stuck to the inside. The gifts may have been small but they still managed to brighten you up a bit even if you felt childish having to be monitored so closely.

You gave him a hard time about it but it really was helpful how Wonjin took the initiative in making sure you got things done. He got tired of always asking you about your day and not loving what he heard. At first you objected to the idea of a to do list being of any help to you and your mental health, but it was frustrating how well it worked.

Wonjin raised a single eyebrow and looked back over at you. “So I’m assuming you don’t want to pick anything from the special prize bin today?” He said.

“It’s not a ‘special prize bin’ it’s a cheap wooden jewelry box from the craft store.” You said.

“Well I’m gonna pick something from the special prize bin.” Wonjin made a big show of closing his eyes reaching into the box and rummaging his hand around in there for a while before pulling something out and immediately hiding it. He quickly hid his hands under the table and looked at something tucked away within his palms.

“What’d you get?” You asked slightly disinterested but still leaning over the table to better see what he grabbed.

“Uh-uh, no way. You didn’t wanna pick anything” Wonjin said sticking out his tongue at you. “Not my fault you didn’t want a prize.”

“If I pick something will you let me see what you got?” You asked.

“I don’t know…” he said “I think you deserve a prize but if you don’t think you deserve one that’s not on me.”

“I don’t deserve a prize for eating dinner…” you bit your lip and looked down.

“Of course you do! But I’m still not showing you what I got until you pick something…”

“Fine.” You said reaching for the box. Wonjin excitedly cracked it open for you just enough to reach your hand in and mull around for something that felt… right. You dug around for a bit and pulled out a chunky metal heart charm. “Cute enough.” You said to yourself. “Now what did you get Wonjinnie?”

Wonjin pouted and furrowed his brows. “Wait no I want to trade, you’ll like mine more anyways!” He said trying to grab the charm from you before you pulled your arms away.

“Since when have we ever done that?”

“Since now!” He said brows still fervently knitted together. Wonjin placed a little gachapon figurine on the table and offered it to you. You weren’t exactly sure who or what it was, but you did recognize that it was a character from one of his favorite comics.

“Why would I want something that was so clearly meant for you” you asked. “All I got was some like.. brecelet charm?”

“Just because.” Wonjin said, and you noticed his face redden a bit.

“Okay, okay fine…” You said and handed over the charm. The figure was pretty cute anyways and it reminded you of your boyfriend, so it wasn’t a big deal.

Wonjin would never admit why he was feeling so shy but he was glad you had just dismissed your prize and traded with him. If your eyes had been a little keener you might have noticed the small latch on the ‘charm’ you had picked out and realized it was actually a locket. Inside was a small picture of you as a kid smiling big, holding some sort of old stufffed animal. You hated looking at your childhood pictures for some reason, maybe because it brought back unpleasant memories, or maybe because it reminded you of a time in your life when you didn’t need a list to keep your mental stability in check, but Wonjin loved those pictures all the same. No matter how goofy you looked he loved them because he loved you and a little locket was the perfect gift to get him ready to do this all over again tomorrow. Even if you whined and complained, you just being here to complain, alive and well was what he really needed…

❥Minhee

Chores were always a thing that calmed you down, and as much as he might’ve hated doing them… Minhee loved you more.

You hadn’t spoken a word to each other in hours. You were diligently refolding and reorganizing each and every single article of clothing in your dresser drawers and closet. Why you had to be doing this on a beautiful Saturday afternoon he had no idea, but he was helping you anyway.

The weirder, more tedious, and unnecessary a chore was the bigger the issue you were currently dealing with. Sure it was a bit of a drag to be spending an hour and a half washing dishes, or in this instance multiple hours folding and ironing clothes but he preferred this to the ways you would try to divert stress when he had first met you.

Back then it would have been impossible for you to take breather without punishing yourself in some way but Minhee’s willingness to just tag along and do whatever you were already doing really helped you feel comfortable amidst the internal mayhem. For Minhee doing chores was a form of punishment but to you it was pure bliss.

You would often have periods of time where you just couldn’t get words out, to anyone, no matter what they were or no matter why you wanted or needed to say to them, but as a quiet person himself, Minhee didn’t feel totally uncomfortable in the silence. He liked the way the two of you could just be together, existing in the same space simply able to enjoy each other’s company. For each of you the presence alone of the other felt so grounding.

Minhee remembered a long time ago when you had told him that it was enough for him to just ‘be around’ and that made you feel better. It was then that his crush on you grew tenfold and he just knew he had to tell you about it. Of course he never did, he was too shy, but you guys had ended up together anyways!

It was times like these, where he sat crosslegged in front of your tidy ironing board, creasing out only a few wrinkles on some your clothes, that he was reminded of how you truly felt about him without having to say it with words. Even when you were struggling and couldn’t find the strength to speak, the way your pinky would ever so slightly graze his when passing garments back and forth or how your eyes would shoot up and follow his every movement every time he got up to walk away.

No matter what he would always say something along the lines of “Don’t worry I’m not going anywhere.”

If Minhee said he’d be back in a minute, not even sixty-one seconds could pass before he would make his way back to you. It always broke his heart and simultaneously endeared him the way your puppy like eyes would wordlessly follow him around a room, or how still you’d sit upon waiting for him to come back. But he aways did come back, so you didn’t have to worry.

Your fingers worked with an almost mathematical precision going through every t-shirt, every pair of pants, every button up, every pair of socks, everything! He never thought the time would come but eventually the two of you finished.

It almost startled him when you spoke for the first time in ages even though your voice was so soft and low. “Do you want me to do yours?” You asked genuinely, while placing the last piece of clothing onto a hook and shutting the closet door.

‘Could you be any more adorable…’ He thought to himself. “That’s okay Y/N” He said and walked over squishing your cheeks between his palms and peppering kisses all across your face. “Do you wanna talk about why we just spent four hours reorganizing your already perfectly organized clothes?” He cocked his head to the side and looked down at you. “-And why you want to do even more…”

You looked down in shame “I think I just want to be distracted right now. I feel like I need to be doing something… just anything…”

Minhee understood what that meant. There were times when talking was helpful and very necessary and there were other times were those conversations needed to be put off until later. Sure it tore him up a little bit inside that you didn’t immediately feel comfortable telling him what was wrong but he also would much rather you be keeping yourself busy and enjoying his company than locking yourself away. There were times when you would be so far gone that even if he physically shook you, you couldn’t reach him. There were times when the silence wasn’t a comfortable understanding but rather, a sinister creeping energy that loomed over the both of you stopping you from being to able to experience anything in that moment. Sometimes it scared him the way your mind could so easily take you away from him, but it impressed him all the more when you could pull yourself out. He was always with you every step of the way, charging uphill to make you feel better. And if what would make you feel better right now was going through all of his laundry then that’s what the rest of this Saturday would be made to do.

“We can do mine… my hamper’s full of stuff anyways!” He said.

“Thanks Minhee.” You said “Okay go get your basket, I’m already getting antsy!”

You appreciated how easily he could flip the script and just go along with whatever you needed in that moment. “I owe you ice cream or something…” You said trying your best to sound chipper.

Minhee trudged over with his enormous pile of laundry and gave you a playful scoff “You owe me more than just ice cream. You owe me whatever four hours worth of food is!”

You let out a small laugh “I promise I’ll wake up early tomorrow morning and cook you something that takes at least four hours to make. You can enjoy your Sunday morning by sleeping in.”

“Alright deal!” He said. Knowing full well that he would make himself wake up just as early as you so he could help you in the kitchen. “I’m toootally gonna enjoy sleeping in!”

❥Hyeongjun

You absolutely hated work! Not just work in general, but the work that you had to do specifically. Coming home from a long day at your job always left you drained. Your boss was always micromanaging, and your coworkers loved any and all types of gossip at your expense. It didn’t help that you were the youngest in the office either. It was nearly impossible to stick up for yourself without later receiving some sort of reprimand in the form of extra hours with no extra pay. Almost every weekday had you returning home absolutely exhausted. You’d slip your shoes off at the door and lazily slip your work attire off piece by piece leaving a trail of clothes on the floor before taking a nice long hot shower. After your shower, there was no guarantee you’d be energetic enough to make dinner so you’d rummage around in your fridge and just eat the first thing you saw. On particularly bad days you would immediately lay on the couch entering a state that was borderline catatonic. Some nights it felt like you only had time to lay on the couch for a minute and blink your eyes a few times. Before you knew it, the sky was a tiny bit brighter and the alarm on your phone was going off again signaling to you that it was now the start of another long day. Begrudgingly getting up and beginning to get ready was always incredibly difficult, but recently right before you walked out the door you would get a little text of encouragement every day.

You had only gone out on about three and a half dates (one of them was cut short due to a last minute call from your boss) but Hyeongjun was already so in tune with your schedule. It might’ve partially been because you complained about work so much that he had just picked up on it that way, but his little digital pep-talks always had a way of putting a smile on your face. Even on the darkest of days. It’s like he sensed when a day was going to be more difficult than any of the others because his messages were always the sweetest the mornings right before you experienced hell.

Hyeongjun made you feel like color had re-entered the world. Life had felt so black and gray for so long and you couldn’t remember the last time you had been excited to talk to someone. He was always cheerful but not too cheerful, empathetic yet discerning, reasonable but always kind, and he had such a way with words. You didn’t think you’d ever find another person who could find the joy hidden beneath all your sadness but Hyeongjun seemed like the one.

Even though you hated work you also hated the one break from work you got during the day. Your lunch break was usually spent sitting alone in your car for forty-five minutes staring off into space and waiting for the day to be done. Whenever you felt down you tended to lose your appetite and that had been the case the past couple of weeks. You knew you should have been hungry and you almost were, you could tell from the way your belly would growl every once in a while. However, your brain and the rest of your body just couldn’t and wouldn’t let you even stomach the thought of food. Sometimes you’d listen to the radio but other times you’d just sit there looking out the window but not really taking any of it in. Sometimes Hyeongjun would message you on your break to ask what you were eating or what you were doing to kill time and you couldn’t bring yourself to come up with a good enough lie, so you would just be honest and tell him ‘nothing’. It nearly baffled you how you could give him almost nothing, you could give him so little to work with and he could so easily keep the conversation going!

You were sure today was going to be another one of those days. You sat at your desk entering some pointless data into a spreadsheet reminding yourself of one of the messages your crush had sent you that morning. You were already halfway through the day, you could do a few hours more right?

Suddenly right before you were about to go on break you heard a series of little taps right above your head. You looked up to see Hyeongjun smiling widely at you, fingers gripping the top of your computer monitor. You looked around shocked for a second making sure that this was real. “What are you doing here?” You asked eyes wide.

“I’m here to hang out with you duh!” Hyeongjun stepped around your desk to grab your bag and sling it around his shoulder. He took your jacket off of the back of your uncomfortable office chair and held it out as if to put it on you.

There were a few odd stares from your coworkers but they didn’t pay the two of you much mind. You stood up and let the boy happily put your jacket sleeves over your arms and give you a quick side hug.

Hyeongjun looked away shyly for a moment. “You seemed so bummed out over the phone yesterday I hope you don’t mind me stopping by.”

You took a moment to think. Was it too early for things like this? Should you be more apprehensive? You felt uneasy for a moment but that feeling quickly dissipated as Hyeongjun flashed you a big toothy grin. “Of course I don’t mind” you said.

Taking the elevator down was awkward in the same way sitting in class next to the person you liked as a kid was awkward. The butterflies in your abdomen danced and your stomach did acrobatic flips and Hyeongjun’s pinky inched closer and closer to yours before wrapping around your hand and holding it gently. He didn’t say a word but the way his lips pressed into a thin line to prevent him from smiling told you all you needed to know. You had no idea how he knew that a little bit of surprise and the slight change in routine was exactly what you needed to uplift your mood. Your outlook had been so bleak as of late and you weren’t sure who you could talk to about how you were feeling, but you were pretty sure the man holding your hand right now was a step in the right direction.

Hyeongjun would never tell you but he had spent countless night just laying in his bed thinking about you and researching ways to help. Even if you didn’t say it out right he didn’t need to be told directly that you weren’t feeling like yourself for a very long time. You were complex and he felt like there was still a lot more of you to unpack and he planned on spending the next forty-five minutes getting you to open up to him whether you wanted to or not!

❥Taeyoung

“I’m baaack!” Taeyoung shouted loudly hoping to get your attention as quickly and abruptly as possible. He thought it was sort of strange the way he didn’t immediately hear a response, but what he thought was even stranger was when he saw no tiny beam of light leaking out from underneath the bedroom door. Usually his sign that you were home was the little ray of light illuminating his feet as he approached your room but now it was just dark. Your shoes were by the door, keys hanging on the hook in the exact same way they were when he had left. Those seemed to be the only signs that you were probably even here. He went to quietly turn the doorknob tiptoeing and slinging his backpack over his shoulder to avoid the noise it made as it dragged on the hardwood floors. Maybe you were napping? It was getting dark outside but it was still only the late afternoon. Normally at this time, you were absorbed into a new book or something like that. However, upon entering the room things really were just as he had left them, you included. Curled up in the same amorphous blob, room pitch black, curtains drawn, phone plugged into the charger and resting on the nightstand. Taeyoung checked his watch to make sure the jet lag hadn’t completely screwed up his sense of time. He looked at the screen of his watch and then back at the giant mass of grey comforter on the bed. “Are you really sleeping it’s only like 4PM…” he said dropping his bag onto the now plush carpet beneath the bed and crawling up beside you.

He sat up on his knees and peeked over the pile of a person next to him and gently shook the covers to see if you were actually there. He could feel your form underneath the blanket but you still didn’t say anything, no release of breath, no snoring, no adorable sleepy mumbles… nothing! “Hey are you in a coma or something” he huffed playfully “you’re normally way more excited to see me!” That’s when he heard a small groan from under the covers, for a second he could have sworn it was the creak of the floorboards but now he was sure it was a noise from you. “I didn’t mean to bother you I just figured I’d come straight here since it’s been a- Oh!”

“Hey” you croaked out, voice hoarse and face mostly buried amid the covers. You turned over slowly to greet your boyfriend “How was the show?” You asked without the usual sense of genuine intrigue in your tone.

“It was… good. How’ve you been?” He said reaching over to move a bit of the comforter to ruffle your hair and pat your head. “You haven’t been like this since I left have you?” He chuckled, the corners of his eyes crinkling in glee and then faltering a bit as you looked away and wearily bit your dry lips.

“When did you leave again?”

“You haven’t been like this since I left? Right?” a smidgen of worry entering his tone and then a currant of realization. “Y/N, really?” a mix of familiar disappointment and general unease wafted over your boyfriend as he scooted closer and sighed. “The whole time?”

“I mean I got up to like pee once. I think…”

“Why didn’t you call me?” Taeyoung let a harsh breath escape his nose before running a hand through his already messy black hair. “You could have at least shot me a text...” He said bleakly.

“I didn’t wanna bother you.”

“When could you ever even begin to bother me?”

Your face contorted in shame and you sunk deeper into the soft fabric adorning your body. “I meant to at one point, I really did, but then I just… I don’t know-” You inhaled deeply eyes narrowing, brain struggling to focus on the task at hand, and heart struggling to connect to the conversation.

“You know I hate when you don’t tell me when you’re feeling bad.” He said.

“I just knew you’d probably try and like come home or something and I didn’t really feel like getting up to grab my phone.”

“You didn’t want me to come home?” Taeyoung’s pupils enlarged slightly as he scoffed quietly.

“Of course I wanted you to come home! I just didn’t want you to come home early!”

“So you just laid down here in the dark for like-” He stopped himself as he felt his emotions bubbling over. You two complemented each other in that way but it also made things difficult at times.

You were used to keeping things bottled up inside and Taeyoung was used to forcing you to talk about those things. Taeyoung was used to getting easily worked up and frustrated over the small stuff and you were used to offering some gentle perspective. He had a more aggressive approach to pulling you out of these “slumps” and it could come off as intense but he really just had no other way of showing you how much he cared. Sometimes he didn’t really get it. Sometimes he thought it would be so much easier for you to just get up, to just open the blinds, to just call him. It drove him crazy that he couldn’t be privy to all of the intricate details of your mind. It bothered him that a person so wonderful, so kind, so funny, and interesting, and charismatic, and personable… wasn’t able to share that with everyone all the time, especially with him. More than any bother though, more than frustration, more than annoyance, or anger, or any other negative emotion, you had helped Taeyoung further cultivate his arguably most beautiful trait; his empathy. Sure he was still a little shit stirrer every now and again but at the end of the day, seeing you just as upset over something you couldn’t control, how your mind and body were at odds constantly telling you that the one person who loved you most in this world shouldn’t be bothered with your issues made him just want to help you the best he could.

Taeyoung took a deep breath “Let’s go for a walk while the sun’s still out, how about that.” He suggested. “Also maybe shower first…”

You wanted to object but as you mulled over your answer your boyfriend couldn’t help but reach his hands under the duvet to try and pull you out, tickling you in the process.

“Okay, okay!” You laughed as Taeyoung giggled and continued to try and pull you out. “I can get up myself jeez…” You still weren’t feeling your best but the hopeful look on the man beside you’s face made you want to make him happy.

“Sorry for raising my voice at you I just wanted to make sure you were okay and I freaked out seeing you so-”

You cut him off “it’s okay, I’ll be okay. I’ve just been really tired and stuff. I should have called you.”

“Next time…” Taeyoung said as you sat up and he tackled you into a tight hug. “Maybe we can even lay here together for a couple more minutes, better yet let’s just go on a walk tomorrow I’m tired too…”

❥Seongmin

“Are you gonna be done soon…” Seongmin asked cheek pressed against the doorway and lips pursed in minor annoyance.

More than annoyance however, he felt concern. His face squished against the wooden frame of the entrance to your makeshift office (the desk in the corner or your shared bedroom). Normally this would have been about the fifth time in the hour Seongmin would come over to disturb you while you were working, but this past week and a half had been pretty different. He had seen you like this before, completely absorbed in your work, tired and distracted… but now it felt more like you were purposefully over working yourself. You weren’t just absorbed in work, but completely overwhelmed by it, more than tired you were utterly sleep deprived, you weren’t even really distracted you were just distracted when it came to him. Seongmin was pretty used to having your undivided attention or at the very least viciously demanding it. You found it cute the way he always wanted to be at your side making you laugh or just watching your expressions as you listened to a story he told. It was one of the reasons he loved you so much. Your willingness to include each other in just about anything the other was doing without it even really being necessary was what endeared him to you in the first place. Though, that made it all the more upsetting when you couldn’t or rather wouldn’t include each other in something.

When you had started your relationship Seongmin remembered you telling him you were a difficult partner. That often times it felt like your brain would grow legs and start running faster than you could keep up. That you would become physically and psychologically exhausted out of the blue. He thought it was silly how you would think your own personal struggles would deter him from wanting to be with you, but he quickly realized that even the brightest smile and silliest nudge in the right direction wouldn’t be enough to pull you out of a spiral once it started. It wasn’t impossible, not in the slightest, but Seongmin did really have to try. He had to try and be delicate with his words, careful with his actions, and very intentional about the way he would attempt to help you. He remembered you saying it wasn’t always about just trying to cheer you up but just noticing before things got too bad. Now he was noticing, and remembering the last time he saw you like this.

“Do you want to eat dinner… or like… take a break?” Seongmin asked. Gentle voice ringing throughout the room and eventually echoing through the nearly silent apartment. “You know you have to respond to me eventually.” He huffed stopping before he got frustrated.

All he got was a sort of muffled “sorry” from you in response as you kept clacking away at your computer.

He slowly unstuck his face from the doorframe “is typing more important than me?” approaching slowly and cracking a smile he reached his arms out to not only try and softly grab your shoulders but also to steady himself while sauntering over the sea of loose papers and piles of books strewn about the floor. “I was making a gentle suggestion before but now I’m serious! It’s time to take a break Y/N!” Seongmin rested his hands at either side of you just beside your neck and placed his thumbs right by your shoulder blades. He used his remaining fingers to lift up your chin and straighten out your posture a bit. “You haven’t looked me in the eyes in like two days.” Adjusting your chin more he leaned over to look at you flashing his signature puppy eyes, dark brown and sparkling as you returned his gaze.

You finally looked back at him letting him take in the bags under your eyes, visible even in the dim yellow glow reflected from your beat up desk lamp. “That’s a bit of an exaggeration isn’t it”. You said smiling dryly and stifling a yawn.

“Not really…” His reply had tinge of genuine sadness to it but he tried his best to hide it with another smile.

You spun around in your chair to face him better. “Sorry” you said again, this time a little clearer. “I just… have a lot of work to get done. Once I start it feels like I can’t stop.” You looked off into the distance, avoiding your partner’s eyes as you spoke. “I just feel like if I stop I’ll feel worse and I already have a lot of stuff to do so I just need to keep going, I just-” you furrowed your brows and narrowed your gaze as if trying to remember what it was that had originally glued you to this chair a couple days ago. “-I need to…” you trailed off.

“You need to take a break.” Seongmin said in all seriousness “right now”. He reached down to clasp your hands in his, and prevent you from turning around and working again.

That was enough to bring some clarity to you and remind you of what it felt like to be present again. You had spent so many hours tucked away in this room for seemingly no reason that Seongmin’s plain gaze and soft yet firm grip around your fingers helped to un-numb your senses. A wave of hunger, thirst, fatigue, and an ache in your upper body from sitting in the same position for so long hit you all at once. “Shit I feel awful…” you said to yourself “and kind of stupid, I don’t know why I do that.”

Seongmin leaned down and placed a little kiss on your nose. “You’re not stupid, just silly”. He chuckled waving a hand in front of your face “welcome to earth, it’s good to have you back!”

You smiled in embarrassment and bit your lip anxiously. “It hasn’t really been two days has it?”

Noticing the slight worry in your eyes and the way your fingers started to twitch in his hands, Seongmin decided to forgo the truth. “No! No! It’s only been like… I was exaggerating before it’s been like… Hey! Do you want to order food you must be really hungry!”

“I mean I thought…” your mind was a bit foggy but what he was saying didn’t seem right. Then the mention of ordering food settled into your mind and that did seem right. “Oh yeah, I’m totally starving!”

“Let me go get my phone.” Seongmin ruffled your hair a bit and then rushed out and before you could even blink, he was pulling you out of your chair and onto the bed to sit and browse his food delivery app. The dark circles were still ever-present under your eyes and you looked a bit haggard but as your face scanned his phone, no longer absorbed in work, a genuine smile on your face, light returning to your being he thought you looked really beautiful. Rubbing small circles on your back he reminded himself to remember this for next time, because no matter how awful it seemed there would always be a next time and that was okay…

-🍌🍶

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