#fun fact I made this my new desktop background I love it so much

[silvers-starrway]

ALT

Been having a lot of thoughts about ep 7 lately and how that applies to the au. Sonic's body getting contorted and changed into becoming a puppet to the solver... him losing agency as the episode progresses... hrm lots of the thoughts indeed.

Version without a background that I like under the cut :]

ALT

[lynzishell]

✨23 Faves of 2023✨

I've been tagged on a few different versions of this throughout the month. For mine, I've decided to take 23 moments from my story and share them in chorological order. 💖TYSM for tagging me @hannahssimblr, @jarakio, @rebouks, @theosconfessions, @bloomingkyras, @igotsnothing 💖 I'm sorry if I missed anyone... I'm usually better at keeping note of who tagged me but I dropped the ball on this one and had to search through my mentions lol!

Alright... let's dive in shall we?

✨First up: Looooook at baby Phoenix 🥹 hehe! This was the first time he visited Mt Komorebi and the first time he saw snow... sparking his love affair with both. If you listen carefully, you can hear Wolfgang yelling in the distance, "Yo Penis!" (I miss that nickname. Special thanks to Becca for never letting it die 😅)

✨Ahhh The Bluffs -- I think this is my favorite lot in game, and look how stunning it is at sunset! This is from Phoenix's 18th birthday... aka that fateful night when [redacted] was [redacted]

✨Just me being obsessed with San Myshuno... particularly the Spice District. This is from Phoenix and Dawn's movie night... back when they were still just friends/co-workers.

✨Eeee this moment still gives me all the feels! When these two finally crossed the line from friends to lovers.

✨This one doesn't need a caption... just look at them... and the vibrant colors... 😍

✨The moment they became official

✨Falling in looooooove

✨I don't know why, but this is actually my favorite pic of them

✨Greta returns...lol! It was actually unintentional how well these two match the environment, but it made taking screenies so fun!

✨My second favorite pic of these two... *sigh* just look at them

✨Enter my Asher obsession... I can't tell you how happy I was when I found this pose because this is exactly how I envisioned him entering the room... against the door frame all leaned over and relaxed... even the way his feet are crossed and his left arm just hangs... it's just sooo HIM.

✨I mean... ahhh! I love him! and Lex too lol... we don't see much of her in my story, but these two have been BFFs since middle school. She's super sweet and funny.

✨Atlas and Asher, my loves. There's so much in this scene for me... I had such a clear picture of it in my mind looong before I created it in sims, and I was pretty happy with how it came out. And the song I used was very purposeful (even if I never state why lol) This moment here was actually quite self-indulgent if I'm honest.

✨Yep, still obsessed with these two lol! I just love this shot... the colors and the way they're holding each other. This is actually the desktop background on my laptop lmao

✨I had soooo much fun making this post!! Omg this song is so fkin good! I'll probably reblog this post on New Year's just for funzies 😊

✨Back to Phoenix and Dawn as they prepare to move in together... Had to get a shot of the fountain before saying goodbye to the Spice District

✨Ahaa and here we are.. beginning the journey up Mt Komorebi! I think this little bridge is my favorite spot along the way. It's really cool, and I got lots of great screenies from all angles. I really like this one.

✨Love how this shot came out! We all know this moment, yeah? Right before Dawn [redacted]

✨Yay! Celebrating the fact they made it to the summit... enjoy you two, you earned it!

✨Me carefully side-stepping the sad posts... love this moment of the two of them reconnecting... with the water and the city in the background... I just think it's nice.

✨Relaxing in their favorite summer spot... I love all the blues

✨I really like this shot from Kiyoshi and Kaori's wedding, with only their ceremony in the distance in focus, and the vibrant colors.

✨This seemed like a nice one to end on. I love the snow falling out the window, and the way Dawn is lit up by the candles. And I know there are mods to get rid of the z's when they sleep, but tbh, I kinda think they're adorable lol

Thank you to anyone who took the time to go on this little journey with me! If you made it to the end, please help yourself to a cookie 🍪 and know that I adore you!

My story will return on Jan 1st yay!! 🎉

I'm not going to tag anyone because a post like this doesn't need a tag! If you haven't done this yet, PLEASE do! Revisit your work from the year and share your favorites with us! Let's all go into 2024 feeling excited and inspired 💖

[medicus-felini]

Questions for the mun _(:3」∠)_

On what platform did you start to write?

How far do go with divergencies when it comes to your canon muse?

FC or story first when you develop an OC?

Have you ever developed a ship based on writing with a certain other character / mun? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

What new addition would make your Tumblr experience so much better?

@waxgentleman`♡´ Questions for the mun.

On what platform did you start to write?

Okay, okay, don't hang me on a cross, but when I was a smol Fungi, my friends and I started with Telegram because of the options to make separate groups, and the fact that you would generally have better options than WhatsApp (also a desktop version!) just made us use this for rp and writing. Publically, I started on Tumblr uwu

`♡´

How far do you go with divergences when it comes to your canon muse?

My personal taste is to stay close to the official canon portrayal of the muse. I do like to nibble on it and change some things here and there. If things change or come to mind as hcs, you just sprinkle it on top of them ♡

Nothing against canon divergent muses, I adore them very, very much. It takes much courage and creativity to actually pull that off. I am just a little coward who clenches on the canon portrayal too much ;w;

`♡´

FC or story first when developing an oc?

Most of the time, I have brain farts for some interesting background or maybe some fun character dynamics. Like for Linn, my mind was like, "Man, these guys are absolutely feral and scary. What if they had a literal sweetheart angel on their ship?" And the rest followed. Like personality always comes first, appearance comes afterward, mixed with backstory.

`♡´

Have you ever developed a ship based on writing with a certain character / mun?

Namae just wants to hear it like the attention-seeking puppy he is. YES, I DID AND YES MR. 3 WAS THE ISSUE. That is the charm of letting things happen naturally, I suppose =3=. Like my humble self, it was not planned! But it turned out very spicy and is probably one of my all-time favorite ships. Honestly, I would ship with all your muses if you happened to write more. You make it so easy darling baby ♡

`♡´

What new addition would make your Tumblr experience so much better?

Feeling like Tumblr staff wrote that question, lmao. Get rid of the Lives. I would love to tinker more with my dashboard. Give me the decision to start on my Following tab. Give me quick access to my drafts and my inbox without taking 1000 clicks (because I forgot that they are under your own account first).

And by all that is good and holy, please make side blogs have more liberties. I want them to be like normal ahh blogs. I want to switch quickly through my muses. Not only that, but I have five Google accounts for every muse I write. You could just make the good ol' Instagram and toggle your accounts with one click.

I have more, for sure, but these bug me.

[headoverheelsforramsey]

Hello, hello! This week, we are going on a little:

Home Tour!

Notes: Answer the following with pictures (dialogue from your characters is optional!). Collages are highly encouraged if you want to answer a question with multiple pictures because tumblr mobile only allows 10 total pics. Otherwise, tumblr on a desktop lets you add multiple pictures (non-beta)!

For both:

What does the outside of the home look like? (Front/back yard, garden, pool, etc)

Living room and home office (if any)?

Kitchen and dining room?

Bedrooms? (Master, guest, others)

Other rooms?

Do you own your dream home? If not, what does that dream home look like?

What is your favorite room to spend time in with each other?

Super super late to this, because of my stupid exam but now we are here so let's go! 💃🏽🏠

A/N : I am placing this two years and seven months after the wedding, because I HC Ethan and Meera staying at Ethan's apartment for two years after the wedding and they only start house hunting when they have the baby talk and start trying for a baby. So technically not newlyweds anymore. Now let's get started! ✨

Meera opens the door and greets Bree.

Meera : Hii Bree, welcome to our humble abode.

Bree (chuckles) : This place is anything but humble. I hope I am not causing much trouble.

Meera : Absolutely not. Who else is going to make me feel like a youtuber?

Both laugh, Ethan joins and greets Bree.

Bree : Congratulations on the good news Dr. Ramsey. How far are y'all?

Ethan : Thank you Bree. It's been 3 months already.

Meera (cradling her small bump) : Yup one trimester down two more to go.

Ethan (kissing her forehead) : And then there will be a mini version of you running around these halls.

Meera : Nope it's gonna be a mini you.

The couple shares a look as if challenging each other.

Meera : Fine, Bree, whose team are you on? Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl?

Bree : I am happy with either because at the end I'll be interviewing him or her too.

The three of them share a laugh.

Bree : Let's get started, shall we?

Ethan : Sure.

What does the outside of the home look like? (Front/back yard, garden, pool, etc)

Front :

Meera : We were looking for something modern yet chic, something that is totally us. I fell in love with the design whereas Ethan was in total awe of the open space and glass doors. Needless to say our heart was stuck on this no matter how many more houses we visited.

Backyard :

Ethan : The backyard also doubles up as the garden but it's not quite completed yet.

Meera : Yes it's been two months since we moved, and we haven't been able to work on the garden because of work and the pregnancy. Ethan : But we want to build a garden with a tree house and maybe some swings.

Meera (too excited) : Ohh swings! Yes please add it onto the list. Why didn't I think of it before?

Pool :

Meera : Definitely my favorite part!

Ethan : She is a water baby through and through so that's no surprise.

Meera : Don't act like you don't appreciate me in a swimsuit, Ramsey (winks)

Ethan : There is no denying that.

Living room and home office (if any)?

Living room :

Ethan : Meera was hell bent on having an L-shaped couch.

Meera : Those things are so bougie I had to have one because now I can finally afford one. But yeah the living room is so relaxing with a beautiful view of the outside.

Home office :

Meera : Honestly speaking, I do not understand the utility of a home office, I didn't understand back at his apartment neither do I understand now. If I am supposed to work from home I can do that on the couch or on my bed or even better on the daybeds by the pool.

Ethan (shaking his head) : You'll get it darling. When you start your maternity leave I'll see how you make zoom calls with the pool as your background.

Meera shrugs.

Kitchen and dining room?

Meera : This part was all Ethan so I'll let him do the talking.

Ethan (proudly) : A Poggenpohl kitchen with a granite-topped island adds an ultramodern touch. Glass shelves display colorful glassware convenient to the wet bar. A translucent sliding glass door below the shelves hides the more utilitarian gadgets. And finally playful mod pendant lights seem to levitate over the dining table, which is meant to resemble a river running through the woods.

Meera : You sure you didn't miss your true calling as an interior designer babe?

Ethan (smirks) : Nope, just the fact that I tend to excel at everything I do, Rookie.

Meera : And that makes you 10 times hotter!

Bedrooms? (Master, guest, others)

Master bedroom :

Meera : The bedroom has a different color scheme and tone from the rest of the house because I wanted it to stand out and break the monotone.

Ethan : Again the chandelier was Meera's opinion.

Meera : Finding common ground between his minimalistic taste and mine was difficult but we made it through.

Master Bathroom :

Ethan : Meera I don't think it was necessary to bring Bree in here.

Meera : It was absolutely necessary! Just look at this tub Bree! The bubbles and champagne dates we have here are a total hit.

Guest rooms :

Ethan : We have two guest rooms and both are styled the same way, but unfortunately we haven't had any guests yet. 

Meera : Is it unfortunate Dr. Ramsey? Bryce is just a call away from crashing here. 

Ethan (pinching the bridge of his nose) : Anyone but Lahela.

Meera : We haven't thought about the baby's room yet. But we have the nursery now. 

Ethan : Yes, maybe we'll turn the nursery into a bedroom or one of the guest rooms in a few years. Let's see.

Nursery : 

Meera : This was completed just yesterday hence the delay in the interview, Bree. 

Ethan : We decided to keep the gender of the baby a surprise so we went with a gender neutral nursery that matches the colour scheme of the house. 

Meera : Also because Ethan Ramsey would rather die than paint the walls of his house pink and blue. 

Ethan (rolls eyes) 

Other rooms?

Home library :

Meera (takes in the smell of books) : Better known as my safe haven. 

Ethan : This was absolutely non-negotiable for Meera. 

Meera : We both own a lot of books and the collection keeps on increasing now with the baby incoming. And look at this reading space. It's from my dreams. 

Ethan : This is tucked away in a far corner of the house and is the most serene place around here. Once, I returned home from the hospital and called out to Meera a hundred times, she didn't answer, I started panicking and then found her silently sitting here in her own world. 

Meera : If I ever go missing please check here before running to the police, because once I am in here I forget the existence of the world.

Bree picks up "Peppa pig's super noisy Sound Book" which was kept on a thick medical journal with a smile. 

Ethan feels embarrassed but Meera laughs. 

Meera : Yes these are the new ones in our collection. Ethan was reading it to the baby before you arrived. 

Home Bar : 

Ethan : The wine cellar grew into a home mini bar because we had this unused space left. 

Meera : He loves showing this and his collection off. 

Ethan : Excuse me! If I remember correctly your friends were very impressed as well. 

Meera : True that. Bryce went bat shit crazy during the housewarming party. He said he felt he got back his bartending days.

Ethan (proudly) : And Jackie's exact words for that evening's toast was "to hell with Donahue's" 

Meera : Yeah yeah, you did a great job honey. Also the more surfaces the better for us. 

Ethan : Keep it PG for the love of God. 

Meera (shrugs) : Pregnancy hormones. 

Bree (points) : And that? 

Ethan (facepalms) : The only thing that doesn't match with the vibe here.

Meera : Nonsense! It was a housewarming gift from my friends and I absolutely love it. Ethan just feels it is a cheaper and juvenile version of his favourite game, soccer. But don't worry Bree, I'll get him to play someday. 

Ethan (smirk) : I would very much like to see you try Dr. Ramsey-Bose.

Meera : And I'll see how you say no when your son asks. 

Ethan : It's gonna be a daughter. 

Meera : We'll see. 

Do you own your dream home? If not, what does that dream home look like?

Ethan : For the majority of my life home for me was a structure of bricks and cement with a ceiling but Meera was the one who brought all the love and light and showed me what a real home felt like. So for me, my home is where my heart is and for this lifetime it's kept safe with this gorgeous woman whom I fortunately call my wife. 

Silence lasts for a couple of minutes then Meera snorts. 

Meera (drying her eye) : Damn you pregnancy hormones, I am not even wearing waterproof mascara. It was super cheesy Ethan, a non pregnant me would have definitely called you out on your cheese but this pregnant Meera has to agree with you. Even a stable is my dream home if I have my dream husband with me. (she kisses Ethan) but I wouldn't mind a Jacuzzi, a home theatre, a game room (laughing)

Ethan (an easy smile on his face) : Always knew you were in it because of the money Bose. 

What is your favorite room to spend time in with each other?

Meera : The library. Just him reading to our unborn child like he isn't already the most perfect man in the world. 

Ethan (a very satisfied smile on his face) : First I am very surprised that you kept it PG. So the obvious answer is the bedroom but other than that, the patio, which is not a room though.

Ethan : Meera has a slight deficiency in vitamin D so to avoid complications, we spend a lot of time here in the sun. We play board games, read and even discuss work here sometimes.  

Meera : Ooh yes! This was another great investment and a great way to utilise the humongous outdoor space we have.  

Ethan : I hope you had fun Bree. Thank you so much for doing this. 

A quick shoutout to @a-crepusculo and @jamespotterthefirst who came to my rescue when  I couldn't add more than 10 pics. Also thank you Bree for doing this you are a star and an angel. 💜

Tagging my usual : @starrystarrytrouble @mm2305 @charisworld @choicesfanaf @potionsprefect @genevievemd  @shanzay44 @little-flowers-on-heaven @schnitzelbutterfingers  @coffeeheartaddict  @gryffindordaughterofathena @chemist-ana @adiehardfan @custaroonie @ireneadlerisseggsy @takemyopenheart @natureblooms24 @mainstreetreader @izzyourresidentlawyer @a-crepusculo @quixoticdreamer16 @starryeyedrookie @barbean

+ @openheartfanfics

Please let me know if you want to be added or removed. And if you want to sit out only the answers to the ask games hit me up too. There won't be any hard feelings. I promise. 💜

[siren1song]

Dating in Quarantine

Summary: The group is on video call, trying to decide the best dating strategy for quarantine.

Warnings: Quarantine, mildly suggestive language

Pairings: Anxceit, Logince, Intruality

Word Count: 878

Taglist: @acanvasofabillionsuns, @emo-disaster, @greenninjagal-blog, @jungle321jungle, @sleepy-sides, @gattonero17, @another-sandersidesblog, @strawberryjellystuff, @logic-with-a-pinch-of-deceit, @gr3ml1n-loser, @main-chive, @firey-alex, @spooky-scary-virgil, @yalltookmyurlideas, @sanderssidesweirdo, @stormypaint, @just-a-little-bit-gay-oops, @dying-is-a-hobby, @the-angry-ship, @rosesisupposes, @just-perhaps

Notes: I’m too tired to put my usual promotional stuff. Plus I gotta remake my commissions post to reflect new and updated information so just. Enjoy these dorks. Oh also I wrote this for @fandom-games!!

Ao3 Link!!

“You are not seriously suggesting that sending dick pics is a way to land a date in quarantine.”

“I am! And you’re too coward to admit it!”

Virgil sometimes wondered if Remus considered the words he said, or if he based every thought purely on how much it would annoy Roman.

“Uh��� Remus, honey, explicit pictures are only good when they’re asked for by the person you wanna send them to,” Patton spoke up, his camera quality making him jump around the screen and his uncomfortable expression barely visible.

“See! Patton’s right. You can’t woo any man by sending pictures nobody wants to see!”

“Roman,” Logan interrupted, briefly turning on his own camera to give his boyfriend a look, despite the fact that Virgil could see Roman on his desktop in his background.

While Virgil watched them argue, he got a dm from his own boyfriend, who was technically downstairs but neither of them felt like bothering to move from their spots.

[Snake Boi] how long until they realize remus is basing his argument on experience?

Quickly muting himself, Virgil let out a loud snort. Patton narrowed his eyes at his screen (he thinks, the camera fuzz made it difficult to tell) and he typed a quick bullshit explanation of his allergies acting up or something.

[Bat-tle Axe] forever until patton admits he’s not as clueless as they all think

[Snake Boi] i still think we should coerce them into admitting their relationship to the others

[Bat-tle Axe] tricking patton into saying hes in love with remus isnt coercing snake bite

[Snake Boi] youre no fun

“Virgil? You’ve been muted for several minutes, are your allergies that bad?” Logan asked, making Virgil swear as he finally unmuted himself.

“Nah, I just forgot to unmute myself. What’s the verdict on dating in quarantine?” he asked, toying with the idea of turning on his camera before once again deciding against it.

He hasn’t done laundry in weeks, and was just in a hoodie and boxers, he’d rather not expose that to the world.

“Ya sure that’s all, kiddo?” Patton asked, his camera flickering into a rare moment of clarity to show Virgil his suspicious look.

[Bat-tle Axe] shit pat’s onto me

“Yeah, pops, I’m sure.”

Patton grinned at the fatherly nickname and his camera quality went right back down the shitter.

“Anyway, the verdict on dating in quarantine is none of you know how to make a man swoon,” Roman said, continuing the conversation and glaring at the screen.

Remus’ grin indicated that while Virgil was distracted, he’d said something to infuriate his brother.

“You don’t either, Roman,” Logan pointed out, though his voice was quieter and his account had left the call so Virgil was pretty sure he decided to do something productive.

Virgil let out another snort, covering his mouth with one hand even if his camera was off.

[Snake Boi] yOu DOnT eitHeR roMAn

[Snake Boi] logan stfu youre the one who didnt even realize roman was crushing on you for a whole year

A wheeze and a too fast rush to breathe later, Virgil was choking on air and pushing his laptop off his stomach so he could sit up and ease the coughing.

“You alright over there, Ursula?” Remus asked, and it took Virgil a moment but he eventually managed to send a thumbs up into the chat.

“Good! You must be over there choking on Jayjay’s d-”

“That’s enough, Remus!” Janus cut in, finally unmuting his mic in a frantic to not have his best friend bring the conversation to his sexual exploits.

Virgil tried to laugh again, but the scratchiness of his throat sent him into another coughing fit.

“If you guys kill Virgil, I’m killing you,” Roman said, crossing his arms and leaning against his desk to take his glare closer to the camera.

“I thought you had a rivalry with Virgil, dear,” Logan said, his voice louder.

Upon looking up, Virgil noticed he was hovering over Roman’s shoulder, looking at what was happening.

“Yes, but a rivalry means that if anyone is gonna ‘kill’ him, it’s gotta be me,” Roman explained, instinctively turning his head and pressing a kiss to Logan’s cheek, which in turned got a soft smile from Logan.

Gross.

“Nobody is killing anybody! Kiddo, you need to get some water,” Patton said, getting a ridiculously close to his own cam to show his concern.

“Way ahead of you,” Janus said, making Virgil yelp because the fucker was right in his room.

“Don’t-” he started, but was quickly interrupted by another round of coughing.

Janus raised an eyebrow and extended his hand with the glass of water.

“What happened, love bite?”

“Laughed too hard and spit went down the wrong pipe,” Virgil croaked, grabbing the water and drinking until half of it was gone.

While he shifted to put the glass of water on his desk, Janus got comfortable on Virgil’s bed and gestured for him to lay against his chest.

When he finally got his laptop back in his lap, Janus turned the camera on and they were met with a mixed chorus of delight and teasing.

“You all are aware that online dating apps exist, right?” Janus pointed out, and the conversation about dating in quarantine resumed.

[katfox]

A friend asked me to do RFA+ Minor trio - mc/reader having over protective brother.

I changed it up a bit to have half with older brothers and half with younger brothers, just for fun I hope they don't mind!

💫 // 💢

Zen - Older Brother

• You bring your brother to one of Zen's shows since he wanted to make sure you're seeing a good guy.

• Your brother is skeptical since Zen has many female fans. But Zen would never do anything to hurt you, he doesn't see anyone but you.

• You tell your brother that Zen is a gentleman and very loyal.

• After the show you bring your brother backstage to meet him.

• Zen hugs you before offering a handshake and dazzling smile to your brother.

• He can see a bit of distrust in your brother's face considering if he should take his hand back or wait.

• They shake hands and your brother starts going in with some questions.

• "What are your intentions with my little sister?" A flustered zen responds with, "W-well I care for (y/n) very much I can't thank her enough for coming into my life and supporting me with her heart."

• "How do you plan to support her?" Zen replies with all seriousness, "I may not be rich or have a fancy place but I will support her with anything that she may need, we may struggle but if I have (y/n) by my side, we can make it through anything."

• Zen looks over to you smiling as he's looking at the most wonderful woman, until he notices how short your skirt is.

• "Jagi that skirt is too short! what if another man looks at you! Men are wolves!!"

• Your brother is a bit put off that he would even be looking down at your body.

• Suddenly laughter fills the air as your brother found Zen's protectiveness similar to his own of you and couldn't help but to let out a few chuckles.

• The awkwardness between everyone starts to dissipate and he slowly approves of the relationship.

Jumin - Older brother

• Jumin made a reservation for dinner as he wanted to meet his fiancee's brother.

• Your brother was surprised to hear that you were suddenly engaged to a man that he nor did the rest of your family know.

• Hes already in a slight mood as he felt left out and had no idea of what Jumin was like. Other than the fact that he was the director of his family's company.

• Of course Jumin would choose one of the nicest restaurants to make a good first impression. Money meant nothing to him anyway.

• Your brother meets you both at the restaurant he hugs you tightly as he hasn't seen you in so long.

• Jumin waits there, standing patiently as you finish your greetings. He smiles seeing you so happy to see your brother again.

• Jumin introduces himself to your brother giving a firm yet warm handshake. He had become nicer since you came into his life.

• "Please order anything you'd like" jumin says confidently but not cocky. Your brother was more curious as to how jumin could propose to you without the blessings of your family.

• "So Jumin... what gives you the right to ask for my sister's hand without asking permission first." Jumin slightly clears his throat before speaking "I can see where you would feel offended, and I sincerely apologize however I can't apologize for my feelings towards this beautifully amazing woman."

• Your brother is taken aback a bit as he was expecting jumin to be a jerk in his response.

"I will take care of her to the most of my ability, I have guards that will protect her as well as the will to keep her happy and smiling for all the years to come." Jumin assured

• Your brother can see how serious jumin is about you and he's never seen you smile this much before. He seems to have softened up to accepting this relationship.

• Eventually becomes the best man at your wedding.

Yoosung - Younger brother

• You had to take your little brother with you as you were always going to yoosung's house and he was upset about it.

• "Yoosung I'm here!" you say, but your brother starts to step in front of you as yoosung rushes over to hug you.

• "She's my sister you can't have her." Yoosung starts to feel a little intimidated before he realizes that he's older than him.

• Yoosung smiles lightly and bends over a bit to meet your brother. "uh- eh.. do you like games? he..heh.." expressing a nervous laugh.

• Your brother scoffs and crosses his arms "you just want to distract me so you can get with my sister."

• "No! that's not it at all. I.." Yoosung becoming more visibly flustered.

• You tell your brother that he should at least give it a try. And he agrees but he's reluctant.

• Yoosung guides you both into his room and starts to set up the game on his laptop for her brother. While he, of course uses his desktop to play.

• Your brother is worried that yoosung will try to take you away from him.

• yoosung teaches him how to play as you sit and watch to see them. Smiling, hopeful that they can work together and grow closer.

• They start playing around with each other and yoosung teaches him almost everything he knows. "Superman Yoosung will show you the way!" You try to hold back a chuckle.

• He starts to feel that yoosung isn't so bad and you can see that your brother is starting to let him in. "Thank goodness!", you think to yourself

• They start to get along and yoosung looks over at you, you shoot him a kind smile and he kinda melts from it.

• Looks like yoosung got another boy hooked on LOLOL.

Seven - Younger brother

• You were out and about with your little brother when you get a phone call.

• "I see you! hehe" You hear on the other end and couldn't help but chuckle at Seven's voice.

• "Where are you god seven?" you say causing your brother to give you a scrunched face as today was supposed to be his day.

• You Eventually excuse yourself before hanging up on your boyfriend and focus on your little brother.

• "Today is my day.. what does he have that I don't have? you never spend time with me anymore!"

• He runs off and you try to find him but he knew how to blend in.

• After about 30 minutes of not being able to find him to contact your boyfriend for help. "Hello meow ~" you hear him answer.

• "My brother! I can't find him!" seven switches his mode to serious as he started looking at all the cameras in the area to help find him.

• He leads you to your brother and you hug your brother tightly "Please don't run away from me again" you manage to mutter.

• He felt bad, "But you're my sister and he's all you talk about. it's not fair."

• You take him by the hand and talk things through as you bring him to seven's bunker.

• The automated system makes him jolt as he wasn't expecting it. It pulls a chuckle out from you.

• Seven notices you're here and he buzzes you both in.

• Your brother's eye open wide seeing all the huge monitors all over before seeing all the bags of HBC. "woah.."

• "Woah is right. I have the rare HBC!!! are you hungry for some? Hahaha!" Seven responds with that cheeky laugh of his.

• "Want to see something cool?" your boyfriend asks before placing an order for your favorite pizza.

• Your brother furrows his brows as he's a bit confused up until seven pulls up camera feeds to watch them make their pizza.

• "No way!" He says as his eyes lit up, he goes to you telling you about it while God seven smiles widely in the background watching you.

• They became best friend since then and now your brother begs you to take him over to Seven's.

Saeran - Older brother

• Your brother wasn't so happy that you just forgave and fell in love with someone who kept you captive in a cult.

• You tell him that it was mostly a misunderstanding and that Saeran is very gentle and sweet.

• He wasn't having that though, he went to the new apartment that the two of you shared to give a piece of his mind.

• Saeran answered a knock at the door only to be greeted with a fist to the face.

• You gasp going to his side trying to check up on him as you scold your brother.

• Your brother felt no sympathy for Saeran thinking that he deserved more than just a punch to the face.

• He couldn't see what you saw in Saeran. He wept a bit as you caress his face gently.

• "N-no.. (y/n) he has a reason to be upset with me after everything I put you through.. please stay by my side"

• You nod softly looking at Saeran lovingly before pleading with your brother to talk things out like adults.

• He agrees to hearing him out over tea that you made.

• There were many things spoken and cleared up, however... he wasn't going to be able to just give and forget as easily as you did.

• Saeran was very thankful that you has such a protective brother in your life and wished he had the same relationship with his own, although he would never admit it out loud.

• Saeran ships a bouquet of flowers to your family with the meaning of forgiveness, starting to make amends.

• Your brother eventually offers to go to therapy with you both to support Saeran in becoming the best he can be.

• Saeran only knew abuse and neglect for the majority of his life and he needed all the care and support he could get.

• It makes you happy that they are accepting each other's presence, slowly letting each other in.

V/Jihyun - Younger brother

• You get a call that Jihyun came back from a trip he had taken, he invites you to his studio as he had a few projects he needed to work on.

• You agreed unconsciously as you missed him so much although you had to watch over your brother since your parents were away on business and couldn't take him along.

• You go tell your brother the news that you'll be visiting jihyun at his quiet place. Your brother wasn't exactly excited to be going to some "boring" art studio.

• He huffs looking at you, "what if I don't want to go..."

• You look at him planning on teasing him a bit. "Well I guess I'll just have to go on my own." You gasp "B-but.. oh no! who will protect me?"

• He jolted up and ran to the door rushing to put on his outerwear. You can't help but to let out a small chuckle before following him.

• You both make your way to Jihyun's studio. You were so excited to see him but you both kept in contact with letters and pictures from his travels in the mail.

• You get to his studio were he was waiting for you at the door, his cool mint eyes beam with happiness as he lays his eyes upon you once again.

• Jihyun greets you with a kiss among your forehead before stepping aside to let you both in.

• Your brother was sticking to you like glue, Jihyun asks if you'd love to help make a new piece to hang in his place.

• You glow with excitement and go to agree before your brother steps in. "No! She'll get dirty in here." he was so cute that neither you or V can hold off from small giggles.

• "That's part of the fun" Jihyun said before bringing them into a tarp covered room with a huge blank canvas.

• He dips his hand in paint before flicking it at the canvas letting the paint smack against it.

• Your brother was surprised that you could make a mess that big and not get in trouble. He scoffs feeling a little jealous before V takes his small hands dipping them into two colors before helping him fling it.

• You smile seeing the crack in your brother's face start to beam with excitement. You look at Jihyun warmly before joining in the fun.

• Your brother had so much fun that he tuckered himself out, leaving the two of you to reconnect since he had been gone.

Vanderwood - Older brother

• Your brother was already in a sour mood. He was comforting you for what seemed like the hundredth time.

• Vanderwood came home to his apartment when you stayed when he went away.

• He was gone for many months on a special mission and there was hardly any contact, especially during the last month.

• You could only think the worst honestly, even though you knew he was a great agent.

• You were crying while your brother consoled you, hugging you tightly and wiping your tears.

• Vanderwood comes up to the room seeing you so sad, with your tear stained cheeks.

• "Babe- why are you crying are you alright?" He says as he drops his things trying to rush to you.

• "I didn't hear from you- I.. I thought that you were.." you say through tears before he cuts you off. "Don't say it, I'm here.. I'm right here"

• Your brother was annoyed that he could act so nonchalant about the whole situation. "A word..", he says wanting to have a chat with vanderwood.

• Your brother waits down stairs for Vanderwood. Once downstairs he couldn't hold back, letting a punch fly against vanderwood's face.

• Vanderwood wasn't too keen on getting punched and responds with a punch to his gut. Your brother kicks vanderwood against the side table, causing the lamp to fall over shattering.

• The noise caught your attention and you rush down stairs to see them fighting. You put yourself in the middle knowing that they would never lay a hand on you.

• You cry, begging them to stop and to just talk things through..

• They talk things through but it ends at an impasse.. You hoped it would go better but you'd consider it better than fighting and being at each other's throat.

• They don't necessarily get along and it will take a long time before he can fully accept your relationship with vanderwood.

If there are any mistakes I apologize! Please let me know and I can fix things.

Also my asks are open so if you want to see anything specific let me know. It can be for one, multiple, or all mysme boys.

Thank you for requesting♡

Thank you so much for reading! xx

[aerielz]

Here's a lb of the When We All Vote special because I just needed to talk about it I guess?

I mean, it really is just me geeking out about the filmmaking and quoting my favorite lines but be my guest

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

It's always amazing to me how Brad's voice haven't changed at all but he looks like a qtip, it's great.

OH WAIT THIS IS A READ THROUGH. THEY'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO READ THE SCRIPT THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE. and smart too.

And it's great because Aaron's earlier scripts read exactly like a play, like, it's really is three lines of stage direction and then just... dialogue all the way down.

Oh God the staging and the direction is so solid damn you Tommy Schlamme. As far as a staging goes this is solid. I mean, the blocking is SO nice??!! And very theater-y! Going minimal was one hell of a good idea, specially considering the time frame. Ugh damn this is a smart production.

"I was thinking how much things change in sixty seconds"

Tell me about it.

The titles! Crying? No I'm not crying you're crying. THIS IS SO PRETTY! I love how they decided to put in moments of the making of, this is a THREAT

I’m gonna screencap the shit out of this episode and cycle the shots as desktop background, it’s decided.

The lines between the act breaks are actually pretty funny and I love the fact that both Eli and Aaron wrote these inserts, because Sorkin is hilarious but then Eli comes with the I Know What I’m Doing with the politics and the speeches are solid.

THE CUTS ARE SMOOTH IN WAYS THAT DON'T MAKE SENSE HOW THE FUCK MAN

OKAY I AM SORRY BUT I'M GONNA GO FULL GEEK OVER THE FILMMAKING HERE OKAY just skip to the next bolded line after this one if you don't wanna read about it.

LET'S TALK ABOUT HOW THIS SHOW WORKS (as far as craft is concerned):

You have a classic Hollywood filmmaking style for most of the time: smooth and invisible tracking shots in dollys (little carts that push and pull the camera over a track for smooth movement), beautiful close ups and focus racks (when you pull focus on something on the foreground then change it to the background, or vice versa, without cutting) to make use of your entire depth of field. That by itself ties nicely to Aaron's 40's-ish scripts: heavy plot and lots of fast talking require you to keep moving so things don't get boring, but it can’t be overwhelming because the writing is already like ok wow too much; the jokes need that precision in timing, too, it all needs to be like clockwork. And the atmosphere all of that creates is just right too: the precision and the damn fine acting you need to pull this kinda shit off are a testament to the very themes and setting of the show so *chefs kiss*

AND THEN ON TOP OF THIS YOU HAVE THE SMOOTH STEADY-CAM AND THOMAS SCHLAMME PROVES HE KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING. because it's so good. The camera floats through the west wing as if it was a character itself, you’re dropped right in the middle of the action. the way the camera circles the characters puts you in their mindset: things are HAPPENING decisions needs to me made. it’s what’s next in visual form. and it pulls the show right into the 21st century, because it’s such a modern thing, such a technical achievement, to be able to stage and 

THE THING IS, THIS IS A STAGE. THIS IS NOT A FULL SET, like they had back in the day. so the staging needs to make sense and the movements have to be thought out to match the next cut. they blocked the staged to allow for continuous long shots of the more complex sequences but some cuts here are still kinda tricky. this is by no means impressive by Hollywood standards but it’s still not really trivial? might be after you’ve spent 8 years filming like this, but all in all it’s not nothing. 

I talked once about how it’s kinda funny that almost half of the shot/reverse shots (dialogues are usually shot like that: you have once person talking, then the other, and you usually shoot the entire convo one side then the other, and then cut them in together so it makes sense. it’s p much the first thing you learn if you go to film school) are out of focus, and about how it’s prob because the schedule must’ve been insane. but I say this out of sheer respect. you naturally spend more time and effort on set pieces and difficult shots but half of this fucking show is a set piece.

I mean IT’S SO SIMPLE. BUT IT’S SO GOOD. There’s nothing extraordinary going on but it’s so beautiful and so well done and I'm constantly blown away by how much this show does with what ends up being just basic filmmaking.

it really all just comes down to great scripts, great acting, and a handful of techniques to bring it all together. and in this day and age when everything became a desperate and artificial attempt to make the audience respond, that is impressive.

ok I’M SO SO SORRY. end of me geeking out about filmmaking

"DONNA!"

My first reaction to this one single line was omg- I missed this so much. and I’m actually rewatching the whole thing it’s been 0 days since I've heard josh screaming at donna. I can only imagine what it was like for them.

I just don't have words anymore to talk about how much I love this show.

God fucking damnit THE ACTING.

JANEL'S ACTING. THE TINY REACTIONS.

On stage you don't have the realism, you don't have anything to help you believe it so it's SO MUCH CLEARER how GOOD these guys are.

Okay I understand if everyone ends up pissed because this is not at all new material, etc etc, but I GOTTA SAY I AM THROUGHLY ENJOYNG THIS THING. Sorkin writing is made for stage and having the chance to see these guys actually doing it on stage is a blessing if you ask me.

You just know this exchange is gonna become gifs that people will subtitle with whatever else line of dialogue they want and I can't wait for it.

I really want to to back to the episode later and compare the acting (which is kind of a dick move but I'm inconsequential to them they'll never know), because Janel is fucking NAILING young Donna after all this time and this is just insane.

"Give it up, tiny"

that's a bold line when it comes to Allison Janney

"I moved my pawn..."

"Well, it's as popular today as it was back then."

Please please please please tell me the bit about the stuffed animal is true. Please. it’s probably not but I don’t care it’s in my head and it’s not gonna go away

"I think if my dog could pull that off his vote should count."

Oh my God.

"Did Aaron write this?"

Oh my God.

I'm-

"You're a sap?"

"It's called poetry, me bucko."

Can you tell that at some point I stopped thinking and just got really into the show?

"He's not gonna-- that's the other guys! He's not gonna gonna privatize social security. he'll privatize New Hampshire before he privatizes social security."

I remember that this line made me actually stop the episode to laugh back when I first watched it and guess what yep I did it again

UGH.

I really love how this episode ends. I really love the feeling of how Bartlett is pretty much teaching Sam how play the game on a higher level, I love the feeling of ‘oh okay this guys is GOOD we get’. I think a month ago in one of those interviews they were doing to promo the thing Sorkin said people respond to the sigh and sound of competence and he’s absolutely right.

oh, and that ending right there was an definitely an "I have no idea what to do about that" solution, but it wasn't a bad one? it clashes, but it’s not bad at all.

I LIKED IT. I really really really liked it. This was really fun and the only bad part is that we're gonna gonna get to see them just doing everything else too. Like, it ended and i was half expecting to see he next episode but it wasn't there and that was the one disappointment tbh

[voices-ringing-out]

CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY: Maximilian ‘Max’ Navarro

Trigger Warnings for religious trauma and religious abuse, as well as a fairly disturbing death, please proceed with caution.

"The closer I got to the Church, the more hypocrisy and corruption I saw. The so called ‘keys to heaven’ were being held by perverts and con men, the very evil I wanted to fight. What kind of god would allow that scandal? So I quit the Church, quit believing in their lies... figured that there is no God so I could live by my own rules; pick on somebody else. All I ever knew was religious rituals, labelism, and prayers. So me and my best friend, we started this show. I didnt think it mattered it was fake. People loved it. People loved me.”

                                                           ~*~

Max was born to two staunch Catholics, so religion was interwoven with his upbringing from the very start. For most of his childhood, he took it all very seriously, but certain parts of it - the long Masses, then later Catholic school - clashed with his naturally active and energetic nature. He was constantly finding himself punished by either his parents or members of the Church - or his teachers later on - because of his struggles with staying focused and staying still, and his inability to memorise the things he was supposed to memorise. 

Despite his high levels of energy, Max had a hard time with socialising, which meant that while it was easy for him to make friends, it was difficult to keep them - either because their interests weren’t the same as his, or because he was simply ‘too much’ for them to handle. So when one friend that he made when he first entered Catholic school - Andrew - stuck with him, regardless of his shortcomings, Max decided early on that he would do anything he could to stay friends with Drew. 

School is not an enjoyable time for the two. Drew does well - if not for what the nuns see as Max’s ‘bad influence’, he would be a model student - but since he refuses to leave Max’s side, whilst Max struggles to know when the right time for cracking jokes are and has trouble memorising the prayers and Bible verses that they are required to know, he is dragged down with him. When Max is punished for being unable to recite a prayer, Drew tries to mouth it to him and is punished for helping him. At the age of 13, Max and Drew are kept after class yet again; lectured about not taking the rules and rituals seriously. Drew tries to take the heat to protect Max, and the teacher - fed up - grabs him by the hair and begins to slam him into the desktop again and again.

When his cries for her to stop go unheard, wracked with panic and guilt that his friend was going to die, Max lunged forward and knocked the nun over. Unfortunately, he did so at the same time a pencil rolled off the desk, and she fell onto it; it went through her eye, blinding her and she later died. Because it was marked an accident, Max and Drew were not punished for it - but Max was haunted by that teacher for the rest of his life, through high school and college. He entered seminary, hoping to make amends for the things he had done, but upon realising how corrupt the religion he had followed his entire life was, he rejected it.

He and Drew remained friends, and when Max left the seminary, he had the idea of The Cleansing Hour - an online webseries that aired live once a week, where he performed exorcisms, fake though they were. It indulged his love for theatre, as well as his deeper and quieter need for attention, and gave him some sensation of defeating evil like he had always wanted to... even if it wasn’t real. The older he had gotten, the more Max had fallen back on a facade; playing up a charming, debonair, and outgoing character to hide his own insecurities, and this also made the show a perfect way to keep that facade up, as well as gave him a way to distract himself from the evil he had already witnessed.

Unfortunately, whilst playing with the concept of demons, he ended up attracting one of the real ones.

the basics

full name: maximilian david navarro.

aka: max, maxi.

age: since he’s a new muse, he only has his main verse, in which he is 33.

gender & pronouns: cis man, he/him.

orientation: pansexual and desperately trying to keep hidden the fact he has had a massive crush on drew since they were kids.

species: human

occupation: 'priest and exorcist’ (a false identity), actor, online influencer.

residence: at the moment, los angeles.

physical appearance

hair: usually messy or in a bun; a dark brown, though on occasions before he started The Cleansing Hour, he would dye it in fun colours. it’s very wavy by nature, so sometimes he straightens it.

eyes: whiskey brown.

complexion: tan.

build: tall, thin, and fairly fit. he frequented the gym before he started his show, and still goes every now and again to stay fit but nowhere near as often as he used to be.

scars: his knees, back, and hands are covered in varying scars from the various beatings and punishments he endured as a child at the catholic school, as well as some from self harm on his arms that he makes a point to keep hidden. he also has a scar on his chin from an automobile accident in college.

tattoos: for now, just one, a matching tattoo that he and drew got - the two of them, in college, got matching anchor tattoos on their forearms. back then, their life plan had been that they would save up money, get a houseboat, and spend their life taking it easy at sea. as they got older, plans changed, but max still treasures the tattoo.

piercings: both of his ears are pierced and he often wears golden hoops, though he takes them out when filming episodes for the show to keep up the ‘man of god’ image.

etc: his grin is often described as ‘crooked’ or ‘lopsided’!

face claim(s): ryan guzman; he seems to have short hair most of the time which doesn’t fit my interpretation, so i’m currently searching for some other faceclaims!

personality

zodiac: leo.

alignment: chaotic neutral.

hogwarts: slytherin.

positive traits: ambitious, clever, determined, affectionate.

negative traits: hedonistic, self-centred, temperamental, stubborn.

medical record

mental: PTSD, social anxiety (which he masks with a facade), borderline personality disorder. 

physical: N/A

phobias: necrophobia (fear of death), sphenisciphobia (fear of nuns; though it’s more a trigger of his past trauma than a phobia), taphophobia (fear of being buried alive), aerophobia (fear of flying/planes).

eyesight: 20/20 vision.

drug use: due to his hedonistic nature, he has tried most drugs and will often go back to them, though he has been fortunate enough not to get addicted to any of them. 

alcohol use: alcohol, however, he has an addiction to. he drinks regularly, oftentimes at irregular hours on his days off.

background

birth place: reno, nevada; his parents eventually moved to sacramento, california before he entered school.

ethnicity: hispanic and jewish primarily, with some english and norwegian.

parents: manuel and hannah navarro. 

siblings: one younger sister who still lives with his parents; grace, 15 years old.

pets: his parents kept dogs growing up; he was only ever particularly attached to their yellow lab, Domingo. in present day, he doesn’t have space for a dog in his apartment, but has taken in two stray cats that he rescued - two small kittens who were dumped in the street by an asshole who didn’t want them. one’s a male dark striped tabby he named Sixx (after the Motley Crue singer) and the other is a female tortoiseshell he named Nikita (after the Elton John song).

education: he graduated high school, and got most of the way toward an associates’ in arts degree in college before attempting seminary - which he also eventually left without completing his education there.

notable skills: he enjoys music; he is a good singer (except when he’s too drunk), and dabbles in playing the guitar and the drums. he has a way with words if given the chance to think on them a bit, and has perfected his acting throughout the years. similar to his passion for music, he is also a good dancer. those are the skills he’s most proud of anyway.

languages: english, and he is passable in spanish. he also knows some latin.

[joonie-beanie]

Connected

Summary: A bond that can’t be broken + Friends to Lovers

Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

Genre: A lot of fluff, a splash of smut, and a hint of angst

Word Count: 18,260

A/N: This fic was one that I started a long while ago. Because of school, and a lack of motivation to write, I picked it up and put it down a lot. Finally, it’s done.

I really enjoyed creating something that feels so pure in nature. I hope you guys enjoy it.

**In the event that you’re unable to load the fic on the mobile app, please try desktop! I learned from Act On It that the app has trouble loading long posts!**

You’ve always hated the country.

For the most part.

The stretching fields, the dirt roads—the smell of cow manure and the decrepit barns and abandoned houses. Your parents had always tried to convince you that getting away from the city—seeing vast land like this—was a good thing. Taking the back roads and exploring were things that children were supposed to enjoy. An adventure to find things yet seen—but to you, one corn field is the same as the next. The faded red barns and boarded up houses become an eyesore.

You really hate coming out of the city and into the country.

The only thing here that you like is your grandmother.

Oh, and the boy next door.

Your grandmother has always lived out in the country—a peaceful area to retire, with few neighbors and little disturbances. She likes it here, and you doubt that she’ll ever move. And sure—coming out to visit her isn’t all bad. She feeds you and plays games with you. Stocks up on movies for the two of you to watch, and makes spending the day with her fun.

You love your grandmother, and visiting her—but you start to love it more the day you meet Taehyung.

One day, your father parks in the driveway in front of your grandmother’s ranch-style home. He reminds you to grab your overnight bag as you climb out of the car—the ripe age of 8 and a half. You reach back in to grab it as your father closes the driver’s side door and moseys up the drive.

After swinging your bag over your shoulder, you reach up to slide your door shut, but pause once your hand touches the handle. On a whim, you glance back at the main road, eyes catching on a small figure across the street.

In the country, houses aren’t very close, but you can still make out the little boy standing in the lawn of the house parallel to you grandmothers. His dirt splotched overalls are cuffed around his ankles, red shirt sagging off his shoulder, and black hair messy on his head. He’s staring at you with amazement written on his face, and before you know it a blush has risen on your cheeks.

You don’t realize it until later on—what the heat on your face and the flutter of your heart meant (because crushes are a little hard to figure out, in your opinion)—but that’s the moment you saw him.

Kim Taehyung.

Your father calls after you, and you hear your grandmother open the front door. Snapping out of it, you slide the car door shut and run inside.

You don’t see Kim Taehyung until you come back to visit 2 months later.

This time, he appears much, much closer. On the front porch of your grandmother’s house, in fact—hidden behind his own grandmother’s leg shyly.

“Oh, Taehyung here says that he saw your granddaughter last time she came to visit and wanted to play. But he’s a little shy,” his grandmother says, smiling fondly as she reaches down to ruffle the boys hair.

“Oh, Y/N is a little shy too,” your grandmother laughs, placing her hand on your shoulder. “But what do you say? Would you like to play with Taehyung today?”

Your eyes flit to Taehyung, excitement and anxiousness mingling in your veins. Trying to make new friends has always been scary to you, but…

“Yes,” you say, watching as Taehyung immediately perks up—smile breaking out on his face.

“C’mon!” he shouts and reaches forward, clasping your hand in his. He tugs you right out the front door and onto the grass, beaming a box-shaped grin as he makes his way back towards the road.

“I have some action figures we can play with!” he declares as his grandmother promises to have you home by dinner in the background. “Nana just got me a new game too! It’s a game with marbles and I’m still learning it but I think it’d be fun!”

For a moment, you simply stare at him—caught off guard by his friendly demeanor, when just seconds ago he had been acting much shyer than you. And yet—

His smile is contagious, and you laugh, nodding your head as he leads you across the dirt road—hands still clasped tight.

“Let’s play with it all!”

You tell your dad that you want to start visiting grandma more. With a knowing smile, he says that he’ll try to work it out.

Taehyung is your best friend. Some people at school don’t believe that your best friend is a boy who lives in the country. In fact, the mean girls’ claim that he’s made up—an imaginary friend that you say exists since you only have a select few friends at school. But, you know that he’s real.

The warmth of his hand in yours as you walk around the field behind his grandmother’s house is proof enough.

Between the ages of 8-10, you are able to visit Taehyung quite frequently. Your parents work out a play date schedule with his grandmother, and at least once a month you’re able to drive out of the busy city and into the quiet country to visit him.

Since Taehyung lives with his grandmother, but your grandmother only gets to see you so often, there’s a bit of a rule—

“Make sure to spend time with your grandma too, Y/N. I know Taehyung is fun, but your grandma loves you very much and would love to spend time with you as well.”

So, you make sure to tell Taehyung that you can only play with him until dinner. He’s unperturbed.

“Let’s just ask your grandma if I can spend the night then!”

He takes your hand and leaps into action. You’re shocked at his declaration, but blushing at the thought of being able to spend even more time with him. And when Taehyung runs through the front door of your grandmother’s house and loudly exclaims his idea to her, she only laughs and smiles fondly.

“You won’t be able to spend the night all the time, Taehyung, but I’ll let you spend the night tonight, okay?” She places a hand on his dark hair that has turned a little brown thanks to the exposure of the sun, and grins at you when your eyes sparkle with excitement. “Just go home and make sure it’s alright with your Nana.”

Taehyung nods so quickly you think his neck might snap, and the next second he’s out the door.

That night, the three of you feast on grilled cheese and tomato soup. Your grandmother puts on the Lion King for you both to watch, and you sit hip to hip, shrouded in a thick blanket while your grandmother knits in the corner. When the scary parts happen, you reach for Taehyung’s hand under the blanket, and he holds you tight.

Once the movie is done, and the sun has set, your grandmother tucks you both into the double bed in the guest bedroom. She asks if Taehyung wants to use the pullout bed to have more room, but you’re both quick to interject, saying that sharing the bed will be fine.

Your grandmother only smiles.

“Goodnight, Y/N. Goodnight, Taehyung.”

“Goodnight!” you both chorus, and your grandmother flicks the light off and closes the door. Taehyung rolls to face you. In the darkness, you feel his lips touch your forehead.

“Tae!” you squeal quietly, jumping in shock as you quickly bring your fingers up to touch your head. Your cheeks feel as if they’re on fire, but Taehyung doesn’t seem to realize that he’s done anything out of the ordinary.

“What? My Nana always gives me a kiss before I go to bed!”

“O-Oh,” you stutter, wondering if Taehyung can hear the pounding of your heart in your chest. “Okay.”

It’s silent for a few seconds.

Taehyung shifts against the sheets.

“Can you…um…are you gonna give me one back?”

The heat from your cheeks creeps down your neck.

You’ve never kissed a boy before…

“I…I can. Do you want me to?”

“Mhmm,” he answers, and you wonder if he’s blushing like you are. His tone sounds shyer than before.

You take a deep breath and puff out your chest, trying to calm your frazzled 10 year old nerves. This is just Taehyung—your best friend, and…the boy…you like.

Before you can think to back out and hide yourself away in embarrassment, you lean forward and press your puckered lips to his forehead. His bangs are in the way, since you hadn’t thought to move them, but Taehyung seems satisfied nonetheless.

“Thanks,” he says, snuggling into his pillow. You nod to yourself, settling back down. The moonlight coming through the window is dim, but you wonder if it’s enough for Taehyung to see how red your face has become.

You feel his warmth spreading against the sheets, and your knees knock together. Taehyung yawns, suddenly sounding quite tired.

“Goodnight, Y/N.”

“Goodnight, Tae,” you respond, closing your own eyes as exhaustion from a day of fun begins to sink into your bones. Outside, you hear the chirping of crickets and the muted calls of cicadas. The sounds begin to lull you into slumber. However, just before you fall asleep—

“I love you…,” you catch the words mumbled by Taehyung, and mentally question if perhaps the boy has forgotten that he’s not at his grandmother’s home. But either way—

“I love you too,” you respond in a whisper, too tired to be embarrassed, and promptly pass out.

Taehyung is a year older than you, so he starts middle school a year sooner. According to him, middle school is a lot harder than elementary school. You come to believe him when his grandmother sadly tells you that you won’t be able to come over and play as much, since Taehyung needs to focus on his studies. You tell her that you understand, but a part of you doesn’t want to.

Either way, you give Taehyung a hug and wish him good luck before running back across the road to spend the afternoon with your grandma.

Your trips to the countryside lessen—cut in half. You see Taehyung perhaps once every two months, and in order to try and make up for his lack of appearances in your life, the two of you begin substituting play dates for phone calls.

Once a week, Taehyung and you sit down and talk for an hour. He tells you all about middle school and the friends he’s made and the kids who aren’t exactly nice to him. In return, you tell him about how you’re looking forward to starting middle school next year, and how you’ll always protect him from bullies. He laughs and assures you the same.

For a time, you think that this substitution will work just fine. Except…you miss him, and talking to him on the phone makes you miss him more.

You want to see him—his skin that is tan from the sun and his clothes that are always a little dirty from helping his grandmother tend to the field. His voice gives you comfort, but nothing can replace the feel of his hand in yours and the way he smile so brightly every time he sees you…

“Y/N?” Taehyung questions when he hears you sniffle on the other end of the line. “Are you okay?”

From the comfort of your home, you shake your head. Tears roll down your rosy cheeks, and you curl into yourself, bottom lip trapped between your teeth. Taehyung’s heart breaks, worry flooding his chest as he listens to you try and stifle your sobs. He attempts to calm you down, asking again what’s wrong, and it takes a minute before you’re able to gather any words to say.

“I miss you,” you sob, quiet and broken, and Taehyung jolts—as if to jump through the phone and give you the biggest hug he possibly can.

“I miss you too,” he says after a few seconds, and you can hear the sadness in his voice. “But we’ll definitely see each other again, Y/N. I promise.”

“Promise?” you echo, messily wiping the tears off your cheeks with your palm.

“I promise. Even if it isn’t on the farm we’ll meet again. I’ll find a way.”

“Okay,” you respond with a smile, finally feeling reassured. “Good.”

“Now no more crying!” he declares, his tone goofy, and it immediately makes the mood brighten. “You should only smile when you think of me!”

You giggle. ”Okay, Tae, when I think of you, I’ll smile.”

Reclining back against his mattress, phone pressed to his ear, Taehyung blushes happily.

“Good.”

It takes a while, but you and Taehyung meet again. It’s not a planned meeting—in fact, it’s not exactly meant to happen, but you decide to make it happen.

“Y/N!” your father calls after you as you hop out of the car and run back down the drive way towards the dirt road. You pass a few cars on the way—those belonging to your aunts and uncles—but despite the fact that you have somewhere else to be your heart is alight with excitement.

“I’ll be right back!” you call to your parents as they watch you run across the street, shaking their heads. “I just wanna say hi!”

“Don’t be too long! You’re not here to play!” your mother responds, and you understand. You’re here for a family gathering, not to hang out with Taehyung.

…but still.

You hop onto the doorstep of the home of Taehyung’s grandmother, and knock at the door. You’re giddy with excitement, shoe tapping against the ground. It’s been over a year since you’ve seen Taehyung, and 6 months since the phone call where he’d promised that you’d see each other again.

You worry if he actually wants to see you, since it’s been so long, but oh—how you’ve missed him.

The door is pulled open, and a boy with short black hair stands before you. He blinks, brown eyes wide, and you have to glance up to meet his stare. His chest is broader and his legs are longer but—

“Taehyung?” you question, as if you’re deceived. How can one boy grow up so much in just one year? And yet, the sound of his name coming from your mouth has his signature grin breaking out on his lips, and he nods excitedly. His arms extend outwards, and he envelopes you in a tight hug, your feet nearly lifting off the ground.

“You’ve grown up,” you giggle against his shoulder, wrapping your arms around him in return. Taehyung laughs, leaning back, and there’s a blush on his cheeks.

“Yeah, well, I’m almost 14. Puberty is finally starting to kick in, I guess,” he laughs, scratching at his cheek, and your eyes flit up to his hair.

“Your hair looks better this way,” you tell him, fingers lifting to comb through the short, black locks on his head. He no longer has the shaggy bowl cut you’ve always seen him with.

Taehyung blushes visibly at the compliment, the feeling of your fingers in his hair foreign, yet welcome. You toy with the soft strands for another few seconds before you notice the pink color on his cheeks, and you end up feeling quiet warm as well.

Quickly, you pull your hand back, and it’s at that moment that Taehyung’s grandmother appears over his shoulder.

“Oh! Y/N, it’s been so long!” she says, and Taehyung steps aside to give his grandmother room to hug you. She seems frailer than you remember, so you try not to squeeze too hard.

“Hi Grandma Kim, it’s nice to see you.”

“I’ve been waiting for you to show up again!” she exclaims, and then turns, heading back into the small home. “Wait right there, I’ve got something to give you!”

“Okay!” you respond as she disappears, and your eyes immediately return to Taehyung. He smiles, a fond twinkle in his eye.

“Is middle school as great as you thought it would be?” he questions, and you huff.

“Not exactly. It’s hard, and I have a lot of homework, but it’s still fun I guess. More teachers and more exciting classes.”

Taehyung’s eyes shift to the side, the sound of his grandmother coming back towards the door reaching his ears.

“Well, next year I’ll be in high school, so once school starts I’ll call and let you know what it’s like in comparison to middle school, if you want.”

“Of course!” you respond, beaming a smile, and at that moment Grandma Kim reappears.

“Here you go sweetie,” she says and reaches past Taehyung, slinging a thick red blanket around your shoulders. You blink, reaching up to secure the large blanket tighter around yourself. Grandma Kim smiles.

“I made it for you. You always did get cold in the winter, and the colder days are approaching.”

Your lips part, and you find yourself speechless. She…had made this for you and waited all this time…?

“Thank you…,” you say sincerely, and Grandma Kim ruffles your hair.

“Of course, sweetie. Now run on home—I bet the rest of your family is waiting for you.”

“Okay!” you nod, smiling, but when your eyes shift to Taehyung your smile wavers. You’d barely gotten to talk with him, and who knows when you’ll be able to meet him again…

You push forward and wrap your arms around him once more, squeezing him tightly. Taehyung blinks, caught off guard, but is quick to hug you back, his fingers digging into the fabric of the blanket around you.

“We’ll talk soon,” you tell him, and he nods.

“Alright,” you both pull back, but Taehyung doesn’t get too far. You feel the blanket on your shoulders shift, and Taehyung blinks in surprise as a loose thread follows the retreat of his body—curled tightly around one of his fingers.

“Ah—,” he pauses, head turning to look back at his grandmother, fearing that he’ll be in trouble for ruining the blanket she had put so much time into making, but his grandmother is far from mad. In fact, there’s a look of wonder on her face—one that lasts only a few seconds, before her eyes soften with understanding.

“You know, you two,” she begins, finger lightly tracing the unwoven strand that keeps you and Taehyung tied together. “It’s said that a red string connects two people that have linked fates.”

“Really?” you question, and she nods.

“Really. This just shows that no matter how far apart you two are, you’ll always be connected. Don’t you think so?”

You and Taehyung glance at each other, a soft blush having risen on both of your cheeks, and you smile. Together, the two of you bob your heads in unison. Grandma Kim smiles.

“Good,” she says, and unties the string from around Taehyung’s finger. At that moment, the door of your own grandmother’s house opens, and the voice of a child is heard.

“Y/N! Dinner! C’mon!”

“Coming, Kook!” you shout back, and take a step backwards, raising a hand to the two in front of you. “Bye, Tae. Bye Grandma Kim!”

“Bye!” Taehyung yells, waving back as you turn and jog across the street, red blanket fanning around you like a cape. A few seconds later, you disappear through the front door of your grandmother’s house, a small brown haired boy closing the door, and Taehyung feels a little empty again.

Little did either of you know that that would be your last time seeing each other.

You talk on the phone every so often still, but you’re both busy with school and clubs. Taehyung continues to help his grandma tend to the fields, and you’re busy with sports and homework, so over time your calls to one another slowly cease. You never forget about Taehyung, and sometimes you long to see him, but life is just too busy.

You turn 14, and Taehyung turns 15.  You’re no longer at an age where it’s fun to spend the night at grandma’s house. You’d rather be hanging with your friends or playing video games at home. So, you really don’t go to your grandmother’s house anymore.

In fact, the next time you go to your grandmother’s house is after you visit her in the hospital—pale, and ill. She manages to remember your name, and you tell her you love her, breaking down in tears as you drive home that night. The next day, she passes away.

Her house has to be sold, and the whole family takes a day off to help pack up her belongs and get the house ready to be put on the market.

Taehyung recognizes your father’s car in the drive way from across the street, and jumps up to go and say hi. His grandmother stops him at the door, shakes her head no, and with a pout Taehyung stares out the front window, wishing he could see you.

That evening, you drive away from your grandmother’s house and never come back.

“Fuck,” you hiss as some of the coffee in your portable mug splashes across your fingers as you rush to lock the door to your apartment. With a loud sigh you set your coffee on the carpeted floor, bag and purse following right behind it, and move to try and lock your door again.

Outside you can hear the bustle of cars and honking of horns, signifying that today is just like any other Monday—a clusterfuck of everyone attempting to get to work on time.

Picking up your belongings—you’re careful to keep the hot coffee from spilling again as you head towards the elevator. The double doors slide shut behind you, and you descend to the ground floor of your apartment building.

The front desk manager you’ve come to know throughout your last 2 years living here smiles at you, wishing you good luck on the shoot today, and you know that you’ll need it.

Currently, you work as a photography assistant for a fashion magazine. It’s a lot of work, considering that you, the newbie, pretty much act as the rest of the staffs pack mule. According to your job description, you’re supposed to be helping with lighting, prop positioning, and overall arrangement of the set. And, to be fair, you typically do all those things on a daily basis, but…they also have you: running for coffee, assisting in the photo editing process, cleaning up the set, packing equipment, and a few other random jobs.

Truthfully, you don’t get paid enough for what you do. However, this is the only job that would hire you straight out of college that didn’t pay minimum wage, so for now you plan to stick through it and gain the experience.

Exiting your building, you turn left and head through the fairly crowded streets. You’re used to living in a suburban-city setting, since you’d grown up there, but metropolitan areas like this still overwhelm you at times.

The car your father had driven since your childhood is still sat in the driveway of your parent’s home two hours away. Your dad had offered to give it to you, since it was time for him to get a new one, but you’d sadly turned down his offer after you’d come to sign the lease for the apartment and seen how utterly useless a car would be in the traffic packed streets.

While you hate it, you travel quicker on foot.

Keeping stride, you make your way down the road. The studio is about 15 blocks away from your apartment building, so it’s not too terrible of a walk. At least, not until the sun is beating down on you unbearably, or the snow is up to your knees. During times like that, you sacrifice one of your meals out for the week and call an Uber instead.

However, today seems to be a pretty solid day considering you walk into work right on time with no delays.

You traverse the large, open space—greeting your coworkers with small smiles and many “good mornings”. The set is bustling like usual, everyone working to get lighting and props positioned. You’ve got two shoots planned today—one with a local upcoming actress in the morning, and one with a male model in the afternoon.

“Y/N! Go and grab the fan! I think we’ll need it,” the director shouts, and you call back in acknowledgement. Dropping your bag and drink off in a vacant chair, you jump into another busy day. But honestly, you don’t even mind.

Time flies. Between fetching things for the staff, setting up equipment, and whatever else—you rarely ever look at the clock. The actress arrives, the shoot commences, and before you know it someone is announcing that lunch is here.

You spend the much needed break munching on the catered sandwiches and scrolling through your phone. The actress thanks everyone for their work and departs. Once she’s gone, the director announces that the model should be arriving soon.

And so, lunchtime ends. You throw your trash away and move to help rearrange the set. Not much changes, but still—the photographer is particular, and especially so today.

“He’s very good looking, so I need to make sure everything is perfect,” you hear the middle aged woman say. She fiddles with her camera, and you’re tempted to roll your eyes. She’s never made a single mistake, but she’s stressing out because the model coming in is hot? Amazing.

Somewhere in the distance a metal door creaks open, and all attention turns in the direction of the entrance. The first person to step in must be the star of today’s shoot, because nearly all the women in the room swoon.

The model—whose name you unfortunately don’t remember—is indeed handsome. He’s tall and well proportioned—platinum blonde hair styled lazily, and glasses hanging off the tip of his nose. There’s a bored look on his face as he enters, eyes idling on the phone in his hand, but when the photographer happily calls his name he immediately looks up and plasters a smile on his face.

“V! How nice to see you!”

“Director, always a pleasure,” he responds charmingly, voice deeper than you had been expecting. As the two exchange pleasantries, you can’t help but stare. There’s…something so familiar about “V”. You can’t place it, because you’re sure you’d remember meeting a face like that, but…

“Hey,” your co-worker nudges you, sending you a little glare. “Stop ogling.”

You blush, holding up your hands defensively. “No, I’m not—it’s just—”

“Save your excuses,” she cuts you off, sneering. You’re a little shocked. You’ve never seen her like this before. It’s like she’s being…possessive?

“I…okay, my bad,” you settle on responding, and she nods in satisfaction—her attitude doing a complete 180 as V makes his way over. When he gets close enough, he politely bows, and you reciprocate dutifully. However, once he breezes past—heading over to where makeup and wardrobe are set up—you can’t help but stare after him.

Your eyebrows pinch together. There’s something about him…something familiar, but what?

You feel daggers being glared into your back and immediately avert your gaze from the model. Behind you, your coworker watches you like a hawk as you speed walk away from her and towards the set.

“Anything I can do to help?” you ask your director as she frets about. A handful of other people are tweaking props at her command.

She waves a hand at you. “I think we’re just about fine here. Why don’t you go and make sure V is comfortable—fetch him what he wants.”

You glance over your shoulder, spotting the coworker who had been glaring at you. She’s distracted now, but…

“Are you sure I should be doing that? Maybe—”

“You’ve done it fine before, so I trust you to take good care of him. V is one of my favorites,” she cuts you off, no room for argument. You frown.

“Is his name really V?”

At that, your director pauses, looking back at you curiously. You’re asking such a silly question during a time like this?

“No, of course not. It’s his modeling name.”

“Do you know his real name?” you ask, biting your lip. Something about V has a feeling of déjà vu lingering in the back of your head, but the memories won’t come forth. Maybe if you knew his name, then—

“I don’t know! I think it’s “Kim” something! Now go and do your job—we’ll be starting the shoot soon.”

You startle out of your thoughts, bowing to her in apology before scurrying off.

“Kim…,” you mumble aloud as you head towards where the model is seated, once again busying himself with his phone as the hair dresser circles around him. All of the sudden, your grandmother pops into mind—her wrinkled face smiling brightly as she greets you on the porch of her house.

You shake your head—why are you remembering her at a time like this? You’d mourned properly, there’s no reason—

“Did you need something?” a deep voice speaks, and you look up to find that you’re stood beside V. His eyes are boring into you, unamused. Embarrassment swims in your chest.

“I—yeah, sorry, my director wanted me to see if there’s anything I could get you before the shoot started.”

V eyes you a second, and then glances down at his phone. “I could use a coffee. 2 sugars.”

“Sure,” you respond, bowing, and then hurry towards the table in the back where the drinks are. Your face feels warm, and inside you feel a bit…hurt? You’ve never worked with V before, but he’s not as nice as you had hoped…it seems like the only one he’s willing to warm up to is the director, and that’s likely because she’s the one that’s going make his photos turn out well.

Reaching for a cup, you mindlessly pour in the freshly brewed coffee from the pot nearby and then grab two packets of sugar. After mixing the drink, you idle for a few seconds, and a coworker nearby taps your shoulder.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, sorry!” you respond, laughing in embarrassment.

What the hell is up with you today? You’re never this distracted during shoots. It’s always business—what comes next, what can you do to help. So why is today any different?

Turning, you begin to head back towards where V is seated. You make it a few steps before a male in a chair nearby pushes up and approaches the model. He says something to V—something you’re too far away to hear—and the model sighs in aggravation, pushing up from the stylist’s chair.

“I told you to tell the company that I wasn’t interested in doing that shoot, Namjoon hyung.”

“I did, but they think it’ll be a good opportunity for you,” the taller male—likely his manager, by the sound of it—responds. V laughs bitterly.

“Fuck them.”

Namjoon clicks his tongue, narrowing his eyes at V in disappointment. “Taehyung, you know if I could I—”

Taehyung? The name echoes in your head, and your stride slows, eyes going wide. All of the sudden, clear as day, an image of your childhood friend flashes in your head. Silly smile, shaggy black hair—none of it’s the same as it was all those years ago, but—

“Taehyung,” you speak, his name wondrous on your tongue. There’s no doubt in your mind that it’s him. He has grown up, but it’s him. It’s your childhood friend—the boy who you’d loved and lost, thanks to the flurry of life.

It’s Taehyung.

Tears well in your eyes uncalled upon.

Hearing his name—his real name that not a lot of people know—Taehyung and his manager turn to look at you. The cup of coffee in your hand mindlessly slips from your fingers, hitting the ground and splashing hot liquid all over Taehyung and Namjoon’s shoes.

It takes a second, but you come to realize what you’ve done. Fear battles with nostalgic feelings of love inside your head as you debate how to react to the accident. However, when Taehyung frowns at you—judgement written in his gaze—the fear wins over.

“I’m so sor—”

“Seriously?” he cuts you off, sighing loudly. He bends to try and wipe some of the coffee off his shoes, and the hair stylist quickly offers him a rag. You remain standing there, shocked. You heart aches painfully, because this isn’t how you’d hoped this moment would go…

“V! Oh my gosh, I am so sorry about her!” the coworker who had glared at you earlier exclaims, swooping in with a handful of napkins. She gets on her knees and begins cleaning up the mess on the ground, all the while batting her eyes up at him.

“This never would have happened had I been the one to help you.”

All of the sudden, you’re aware of at least a dozen pairs of eyes on you. Everyone is watching to see how this will play out, and you’re sure none of them are aware of you inner turmoil.

You glance up to Taehyung, and his face only portrays annoyance. Suddenly, you no longer feel like long lost friends. You feel like he’s on a pedestal in front of you, and you’re some lowlife servant who had made a mistake.

Your bottom lip quivers.

You can’t handle this right now. The image of the boy you had loved during childhood compared to the current man in front of you are too stark a contrast. You feel like you’re drowning in your emotions.

Not daring to say another word, you bow a full 90 degrees, and then turn on your heel and head for the door.

“Y/N, wait--!” your co-director calls, one of the nicer people on set. There’s a sliver of sympathy in his eyes as he watches you, but it’s not enough to make you stay.

Hurriedly, you gather up your bags. Somewhere in the background you hear your name again. It’s spoken slowly—in confusion.

“Y/N?” Taehyung’s brows knit in confusion, his gaze glancing from the co-director to you. Your back is tense as you hurry to escape, and Taehyung finds himself regarding you closer now—the way your hair moves, the color of your eyes, the fullness of your lips—

His eyes widen—dread pooling in his gut. There’s no way…

“Y/N,” he says again, realization dawning on him. This time you glance over your shoulder, briefly meeting his eyes. You can see the wonder in his gaze as his face goes slack, but all he can see in yours is hurt. His heart aches.

You exit the building. Taehyung’s fingers twitch at his sides—his stare still lingering on the door where you had disappeared.

For a moment, he’s enthralled. His heart begins to race. He’s finally found you, after all this time! But…

He places his face in his hands, a groan muffled in the back of his throat. He had fucked up.

Dammit! He thinks, wishing he could kick himself in the ass. Of all the days for you to walk back into his life, it’d been the one where he’d allowed his frustrations to get the best of him.

His company had been pestering him for days about doing more risqué photoshoots—ones that he had expressed no interest in doing—but they’d been accepting invitations behind his back. Today his anger about the situation had finally boiled over…

“V?” The director asks, voice close, and Taehyung suddenly remembers that he’s on a photoshoot. Taking a deep breath, he looks up and flashes the director a smile.

“Sorry about that. Can we start the shoot? I’d like to get home and rest. I’m not feeling too well.”

“Of course!” she responds, and immediately the crew is bustling to get to their places. When Taehyung is no longer surrounded by onlookers, he allows his shoulder to droop in defeat. Beside him, Namjoon quietly speaks up.

“That didn’t happen to be the love of your life from ages 9 to 15 that you just yelled at, did it? The one you bring up at least half a dozen times a week? The one—”

“Yes, hyung,” Taehyung cuts him off, glaring a little. He doesn’t need to be reminded of his dumb-assery right now.

Namjoon blinks.

“Oh…that’s rough, buddy.”

If glares could kill, Namjoon would be dead.

When you get back to your apartment, you promptly drop your bags onto the floor, kick off your shoes, and order a large pizza for one. Tears are streaming down your cheeks as you settle into your couch, wrapping yourself in your favorite blanket.

“I’m an idiot,” you sob into cushions. Taehyung’s angry face pops into your head, and your heart breaks a little. Realizing that V was Taehyung had made you so…excited and giddy! After all this time you’d finally managed to meet him again! Despite the years apart you had never forgotten about him, and had hoped that you’d be able to find him and reunite but…

To think it would happen like this.

You weep grossly, feeling frustrated with yourself that you’re so upset over one bad reunion. So what if you’d imagined marrying him? So what if you’d envisioned an entire life together? That was when you’d been kids, and…and…

People change.

You just hadn’t expected Taehyung to change so much.

Sitting up, you reach for the box of tissues on the coffee table in front of you.

Obviously Taehyung had grown up to be quite the looker. You had never imagined him with glasses and colored hair—standing there looking like a proportioned god, but…what had happened to his happy-go-lucky personality? The Taehyung you know would never yell at anyone. He would have walked onto the set with a bright and sunny smile—greeting everyone and even offering to help if he could.

You dab your eyes. Perhaps its best, then, that he’d given you a hard awakening today.

“Mm,” you nod to yourself, feeling a little bit better. Even if this wasn’t what you had been hoping for, it’s good that you’d learned the truth. Now you can stop holding onto all those feelings of longing. The Taehyung you know clearly isn’t the Taehyung of the present.

You blow your nose in a second tissue, desperately trying to convince yourself that that’s the correct way to be thinking right now. And yet—

The look on Taehyung’s face when he’d realized who you were pops into your head, and your heart foolishly holds onto some hope.

He had looked regretful towards the end, but that still doesn’t change the things he’d done and said.

Suddenly your doorbell rings, and you look up to find that an hour has already passed.

“Shit!” you hiss, remembering the pizza you’d ordered. You struggle to unwrap yourself from the blanket, yelling towards the door when the bell rings again.

“Coming! One sec!”

You finally get to your feet and scuttle to where you’d abandoned your purse. You grab a 20, spare another second to make sure you look like you haven’t been having a breakdown, and then run to the door.

The pizza delivery guy forces a smile when you greet him, simply telling you your total. You hand him the 20 and tell him to keep the change, and he’s gone as soon as the pizza box is in your arms.

With the help of pizza, and perhaps a shot or two, you’re sure you’ll be able to get over the heartbreak of today’s events with Taehyung.

You grab a plate and drink from the kitchen before settling back into the couch. You then pull up Youtube on your TV, and search the type of video that never fails to make you laugh—vine compilations.

You’re about 3 compilations and 5 slices of pizza in when there’s a knock at your door.

You blink in surprise, reaching over to pause the video.

Who the fuck?

You hesitate in getting up, but decide that you’d better answer it. If it’s your neighbor two doors down—the one who always gives you shit for not answering your door, even if you’re not home—then you’d just be better talking to them now.

Standing up, you brush the crumbs off your shirt and head to the door. You don’t bother looking through the peephole—because who else would it be but a neighbor?—so when you pull open the door and find none other than Kim Taehyung standing there, you almost die.

“Um, hi,” he starts off, smiling a little awkwardly. You stare at him with unabashed surprise, frozen on your feet. He notices you glance back into your apartment, like you’re debating running away and locking him out, so Taehyung quickly speaks up.

“Okay, so first, I’m super sorry for just showing up like this! I asked the director to give me your contact info because I felt absolutely terrible about what happened earlier and I know if I had just called you to say sorry it wouldn’t have felt right, so I decided to pay you a visit instead. And I know that’s so fucking awkward,” he babbles, missing the way your eyes lighten.

“—But I really have wanted to see you all these years and to think that I was such an asshole to you earlier, I’m so so SO sorry. I promise you I’m not a huge stuck up prick, I’ve just been dealing with some stuff lately and I’ve been stressed out, so—”

“Shut up, you dumbass,” you interrupt him, and Taehyung goes silent when he feels your arms wrap around his neck. You hug him tightly, tears pooling into the fabric of his shirt. You know it’s sudden—to just jump on him like this, but…this is your Taehyung. Genuine and apologetic and awkward—everything you remember and everything you loved.

Butterflies flood Taehyung’s stomach, and he wastes no time hugging you back. He holds you like you’re his lifeline, fearing that if he lets go you’ll disappear for another decade.

“So…am I forgiven?” he asks hopefully and you laugh. Pulling back, you smack his chest, and he jolts.

“You embarrassed me in front of all my coworkers to the point I ran home crying,” you remind him, and his face saddens at hearing he’d made you cry. Immediately he looks like a scolded puppy.

“I don’t know how many time I can say sorry but if you pick a number I promise I’ll say it that many times,” he tells you, smiling a little when he hears you laugh. You glance up at him fondly, and Taehyung finally notices the redness in your eyes. It seems you’d been crying for a while…

Heart aching, he reaches down and grabs your hands—his thumbs soothing over your knuckles methodically. You eye him curiously, cheeks feeling warm. The two of you used to be intimate like this all the time, and it’d always made you blush. It seems like nothing has changed in that regard.

“I really am so sorry, Y/N. I would love if we could sit down and talk, and I understand if you’re not ready to forgive me yet. But please give me a chance.”

You shake your head at him, smiling. “You’re such an idiot. But…I missed you,” you admit shyly, squeezing his hands. The tips of Taehyung’s ears turn red at your admission.

“So yes, I’d love to sit down and talk. I think we’ve got a lot to catch up on.”

“Yes, we do,” Taehyung laughs, and your eyes meet for a few long seconds. Then, you both glance away. Taehyung coughs, stepping back and dropping your hands.

“So, um, I’ll text you? I got your number from the director, so…”

“Yeah, that sounds good!” you respond, taking a small step back into the threshold of your apartment. Taehyung smiles.

“Okay! I’ll text you soon then!”

“Okay,” you respond, feeling a little awkward as your heart begins to ache. A part of you doesn’t want him to leave. Taehyung must feel the same, for he lingers a moment too long.

“Well, ah, I guess I’ll actually go now.”

“Okay, Taehyung,” you say, your gaze fond, and Taehyung’s heart thrums. Finally, he turns on his heel and heads back towards the elevator, glancing over his shoulder once or twice to wave. Once he’s gone, you close the door to your apartment. Tears are welling up in your eyes once more. However, this time they aren’t due to sadness.

Making your way to your bedroom, you throw yourself onto the mattress and hug your pillow happily, a feeling of relief overwhelming you. Just hours ago you’d been planning to try and forget about Taehyung forever, but now…

You smile stupidly, more tears falling.

Now you can’t wait to see him again.

The next day, Namjoon fully expects Taehyung to walk out of his apartment building a stupid mess. Even if he had begged the director for your contact information, what kind of person would just forgive the guy who yelled at her for an honest mistake? And after he shows up at your apartment unannounced no less.

Sighing, Namjoon flicks through his Twitter feed, mentally preparing himself for another rough day. It’s already hard enough trying to delegate between Taehyung—who’s trying to preserve his values—and the agency—who wants to make money. Thanks to the ongoing feud, Taehyung has been in an irritable mood for quite some time now, and the only thing that seems to help ease the tension is when Namjoon brings up your name.

Honestly, before yesterday he really didn’t have the slightest clue of who you were besides the fact that Taehyung had been in love with you during childhood. He spoke of memories of you all the time—your name becoming one to remember even for Namjoon—who had no connection to you. Despite never being around the two of you during your time as kids, Namjoon had unknowingly come to support your friendship thanks to Taehyung’s reminiscing.

Which is why yesterday, when Taehyung had accidentally lost his cool and sent you running, Namjoon’s heart had ailed. He’d always imagined the two of you reuniting like long lost lovers in a cheesy romance movie—all smiles, with roses blooming in the background. Not…spilled coffee, and hurtful words.

I better try my best to cheer him up today, Namjoon thinks to himself, glancing up from his seat in the back of the taxi. His timing is impeccable, because at that moment Taehyung exits his apartment building and strides towards the cab.

His face is practically glowing. Namjoon blinks in surprise.

“Good morning…?” he says as Taehyung pops open the door and slides into the seat beside him. The model’s hair is pulled back by a hairband, so Namjoon is clearly able to see the pleasant look in his eyes—not a stitch of stress anywhere on his face.

“Morning,” Taehyung responds, taking a swig from his water bottle as the taxi pulls away from the curb. Namjoon eyes him. Taehyung must feel his gaze, because after a moment he glances over, cocking an eyebrow.

“What’s up, hyung?”

“Shouldn’t you be looking like a man who hasn’t slept a wink? A man who got his ass kicked? A man—”

“It went fine, hyung,” Taehyung interrupts him with an eyeroll. “I went and apologized and…well, I don’t know if I’m actually forgiven yet, but she didn’t push me away. It went…well,” he says, a small smile tugging at his lips. Namjoon can see the fondness in Taehyung’s downcast gaze, and his eyebrows nearly touch his hairline.

“Really? That’s…well, that’s not what I was expecting, but I’m happy for you. She really must be the goddess you make her out to be if she’s willing to forgive you just like that.”

“I don’t make her out to be a goddess,” Taehyung mumbles in response, pouting a little. A hint of a blush rises on his cheeks, and Namjoon rolls his eyes.

“She’s just…she’s always been a good person.”

“Mhmm, okay. I won’t push it,” Namjoon replies with a good-natured chuckle, and then pulls up the daily schedule on his phone. As he looks it over—double-checking it just in case he missed something earlier—he pipes up again.

“So…what happened?”

Taehyung glances at him curiously, and Namjoon shrugs. “I want to know. I’m nosey, okay?”

Taehyung smirks a little, and after a few seconds of thought responds.

“Well…I basically just told her I was a dumbass and apologized a lot. She—,” suddenly an image of you jumping into him and holding him tightly flashes in his mind, and his heart skips a beat.

“—she told me she was mad about happened, but was willing to meet with me again and talk. Catch up. I told her I’d text her.”

“And have you?” Namjoon questions. Taehyung’s eyes go wide. Namjoon face palms.

“God, please help Kim Taehyung before he loses his mind and his lady.”

“She’s not—shut up, we’re childhood friends!” Taehyung hisses in response, frantically digging in his bag for his phone. Namjoon raises an eyebrow.

“Childhood friends who were mutually pinning.”                                    

Taehyung laughs, the sound sarcastic, yet a blush has risen on his cheeks again.

“Didn’t I show you pictures of me when I was a kid? I didn’t get handsome until college.”

“You think how handsome you were when you were 10 matters to a 9 year old girl?”

“Children are superficial,” Taehyung responds seriously, too busy searching for your number to look up. Namjoon snorts a laugh, staring at him in amusement. What a dumbass.

As Taehyung hurriedly attempts to type up an appropriate text to send you the taxi pulls up to the location of Taehyung’s first shoot of the day. Namjoon gathers his belongings and steps out of the cab, pausing when he looks up to find that Taehyung is not doing the same.

“Tae, we’re here,” he says, ducking his head back into the vehicle. Taehyung is frowning at his phone, tongue poked out from his lips cutely as he concentrates. Namjoon hasn’t seen him think this hard in a while.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, momentarily pocketing his phone as he opens the door and steps out. However, as soon as the two are safely on the sidewalk and headed into the building, Taehyung is back at it.

“Are you writing a novel?” Namjoon snorts, amused. Taehyung huffs.

“I’m just trying to make it sound polite.”

“Don’t make it sound polite,” Namjoon responds, eyes ahead. “Make it sound like you.”

Taehyung pauses, eyes blinking curiously. Him? He glances down at the text on his screen, not yet sent. When he reads it over, it indeed sounds very formal, and that’s not what he wants. He wants…things to be like they were. He’s still himself, and you’re still you.

He backspaces the message. Up ahead the studio doors come into sight, and Namjoon glances back at Taehyung.

“We’re almost there,” he says, giving the model an appropriate heads up. Taehyung nods, thumbs tapping at his phone screen. Just before they enter the studio he hits send, and steps inside with a bright smile.

“Good morning!”

Taehyung immerses himself in his work, and the morning flies past. By the time the shoot has ended, 3 hours have passed. He thanks the crew for their hard work after changing into his regular clothing, bowing and smiling as he makes his way to the door.

“Good work,” Namjoon tells him as they head outside, raising his hand to signal a taxi. Taehyung smiles.

“Thanks, hyung.”

Out of habit, he reaches into his bag and takes out his phone—expecting that he’ll have new social media notifications to attend to. However, when he sees the text notification from you his heart jumps into his throat.

Quickly, he clicks on it. His eyes light up as he reads your response.

Taehyung: Hey, it’s me! Sorry about not messaging you sooner. I’d still love to get together soon! Are you free this weekend?

You: This weekend should work fine! Just let me know a time and place and I’ll be there ^^

There’s a short lapse in the time, and then—

You: I’m looking forward to seeing you, Tae

Taehyung can’t help the grin that overtakes him. At his side, Namjoon smirks.

How nice it must be to be a fool in love.

You both end up deciding on Sunday, but end up not picking a place. Taehyung says that he’ll simply come to your apartment around 2pm, and you can discuss where you want to go together.

You turn your head to glance at the clock on your nightstand. 1:30—he’ll be here in half an hour. Anxiety swims in your gut—your bottom lip pulled between your teeth as you stare into your closet.

What the hell are you supposed to wear? You don’t know where you’re going, or what Taehyung will be wearing. Fuck, the only time you’d seen him so far he’d actually been dressed up pretty stylishly…

“Well, he is a model,” you mumble to yourself, reaching forward to push a few hangers aside. Typically on the weekends you just wear jeans and a t-shirt, but today that seems like too little effort. So, you decide you’ll dress up a bit.

Moving around, you gather a pair of jeans, a black cardigan, and a white V-neck t-shirt. You settle on a pair of dark heeled boots, and throw on a necklace to accessorize. You’re debating what to do with your hair when there’s a knock at your door.

Your eyes go wide, and you glance from the entrance of your apartment to the clock. It’s already 2:03.

Curse you for being so indecisive!

You bustle out of your room and to the front door, only pausing to take a deep breath before you pull it open. As you do, Taehyung glances up and smiles brightly.

“Hi,” he says.

“Hey,” you respond, your eyes raking him over. He’s wearing a jean jacket over a printed t-shirt that’s tucked into a pair of black slacks. His hair is styled a bit lazily, just like you’d seen it the other day, but overall he’s still his handsome self.

“Oh,” Taehyung suddenly says, and you look up to see his gaze on you. His eyes look you over from head to toe, making your cheeks feel warm, and then he tugs at his jacket.

“I think I may have underdressed,” he laughs. You frantically raise your hands.

“No! You look really good!”

Taehyung pauses, lips parting slightly in surprise, and then after a second he smiles cheekily.

“You think so?”

If you weren’t blushing before than you’re certainly blushing now.

“I mean…yeah, you always look good,” you tell him sincerely. He laughs a little, posing a hand on his hip.

“Even when we were kids and I was constantly in overalls and covered in dirt?”

You smile fondly, recalling how he’d been back in the day. He’s grown up so much.

“It was a part of your charm,” you tell him, flashing him a wink. Taehyung looks taken aback, the tips of his ears turning red.

“Really??”

You blink. “Yeah, of course. It was really cute. It was…you.”

“Oh, well, thanks,” he says, lifting his hand to rub his neck, clearly a little embarrassed. Suddenly you feel a bit warm as well.

“Well, come in! I still need to grab my purse, and there’s no point in you standing in the hall!” you exclaim, motioning him inside. Taehyung excuses himself as he enters, looking around your apartment curiously as you retreat into your room to grab your things. His gaze roams over your kitchen, your furniture—the way you’ve decorated your life.

His eyes soften.

He can see bits of the old you mixed in with the bits of you he’s yet to know. The idea that he’ll be able to learn about the times he’s missed with you has him feeling excited.

“Sorry to make you wait!” you exclaim, emerging form your room with a smile. “Where did you want to go?”

“Well, if you haven’t eaten, would you like to get lunch? I know a Chinese place not far from here—assuming you still like fried rice and wonton soup,” he suggests, grinning cheekily when you roll your eyes.

“I can’t believe you remember that.”

“How could I forget the order of the girl who would pick the bean sprouts out of her wonton soup every time we ate it?”

“Okay, so I hated vegetables as a kid—don’t remind me of my terrible eating habits,” you scold him, lightly bumping his shoulder as make your way towards the door. Laughing, Taehyung follows after you.

“The funniest part is that you hated vegetables, but whenever we picked pea pods from the garden and I offered you some, you’d eat them.”

“Well…I mean…,” you sputter, ducking down as you turn to lock the door, hoping that Taehyung can’t see the redness of your face. It’s been years, but you’re not sure you’re ready to tell him that it’s because you’d had a huge crush on him. During your childhood, you would have done just about anything for him.

Taehyung snorts another laugh, and you turn to glare at him.

“Well! If we’re talking about habits from our childhood I could always bring up your obsession with getting forehead kisses before we went to bed during our sleepovers.”

This time, Taehyung is the one turning bright red. Laughter bubbles in your chest as you lead him up the hall.

“I thought it was normal...”

In front of you, the elevator doors open, and you step inside with a small grin. Reaching forward, you hit the button for the ground floor.

“It was your normal—but definitely a little bit embarrassing for me.”

Taehyung blinks innocently. “Did you not like it? I didn’t think you minded after the first time.”

You glance down at your feet, lips pouting slightly. “I mean…it’s not like I didn’t not like it.”

Taehyung grins, and you feel your heart thrum a bit erratically. Happiness swells in your chest as you watch him.

You’re so glad you’d found him again.

Exiting the elevator, you and Taehyung traverse the city streets shoulder to shoulder. Your conversation shifts from childhood reminiscing to the events you’d missed in each other’s lives. You learn that Taehyung had dropped out of college after being scouted by a talent agency, but had been planning to major in Psychology. In return, you inform him that you’d graduated last year, having majored in business and minored in photography (which was your true passion, but not many school offered it as a degree).

“That’s so cool!” he exclaims, wonder in his eyes. “Have you gotten a chance to do any photoshoots yet? As the photographer, I mean.”

“Eh, not really,” you respond, shrugging your shoulders. “I mean—with friends, yeah. They help me out from time to time, just so I can expand my portfolio, ya know?”

“I’ll help you out, if you want!” Taehyung volunteers. Your eyes go wide in shock, and when you imagine being the one behind the camera as Taehyung models your face heats up.

“D-Don’t you have a contract though? Can you really be doing that?”

Taehyung waves his hand in the air flippantly. “As long as you don’t leak the photos to magazines, we should be fine.”

“Well, then I guess that’d be a big help. I’ll probably take you up on that offer sometime,” you say, smiling. Taehyung grins happily in return, and then points up the street.

“Ah, that’s it!” he says, reaching back to grab your wrist. You stare down at his hand as he tugs you into the Chinese restaurant up ahead. He doesn’t let you go even as the hostess leads you to a table, and you wonder if he realizes he’s still holding on.

“They have really good almond chicken here,” he tells you, moving to occupy one side of the booth, but pauses when he feels some resistance. Looking back, he notices that he’s still gripping you tightly, and immediately releases you—his eyes glancing up to your face, half embarrassed and half apologetic.

“I…wow, sorry. I guess I forgot to let go.”

“It’s okay!” you assure him, waving your hands, but you’re both blushing as you settle into your seats. Luckily, the menu distracts you, and your conversation quickly turns to the topic of what you want to order. As it turns out, both of your tastes haven’t changed much from childhood.

After placing the order, a brief silence descends, and Taehyung finds himself biting the inside of his cheek. He glances up at you, shy yet contemplative.

“So…do you have a boyfriend? A girlfriend?”

Your eyes widen in surprise at his question, cheeks flushing, and Taehyung immediately tries to clarify his intent in asking.

“I-I mean! We’ve been apart for so long, I don’t know what’s going on with you anymore, so…”

You shake your head a little. “No, I had a boyfriend in college for about a year, but it didn’t work out. I’ve just…been busy, and no one has really managed to catch my interest…”

Except you, your mind adds in, and if you could punch your brain you would. The crush you’d had on Taehyung had strictly been during childhood…or so you attempt to convince yourself. But when you glance up at the male in front of you—polished, and grown, yet still dorky and charming—butterflies dance in your stomach.

You reach for your water, needing something to help cool you down.

Dammit! Get ahold of yourself.

“What about you?” you pose once you’ve taken a swig. After all, Taehyung is a good looking guy, and a model no less. It’d be weird for him to not be in a relationship.

“Ah, I’m single,” he informs you, and you try to ignore the way your chest lightens in relief. “I’ve been on a few dates in the last year, but they either seem to want me because I’m a model, or they just don’t work out.”

You blink. “Girls seriously go after you just because you’re a model?”

“You’d be surprised how often it happens,” he says, laughing a little. You regard him quietly, a mischievous sparkle coming to your eye.

“How do you know I’m not one of them?”

Taehyung pauses. “One of what?”

“One of the girls going after you just because you’re a hot model,” you clarify, grinning. For a second, Taehyung is silent. Then he mirrors your grin—a playful twinkle lighting up his gaze.

“I’m sorry, say that again? “Hot model”?”

Suddenly you realize what you’ve said, and you face goes bright red. Taehyung laughs heartily as you bury you face in your hands, quietly groaning.

“I hate you!” you whine, and Taehyung smiles so hard his eyes shut.

“No you don’t, don’t lie~” he responds, and when you make another disgruntled sound he laughs some more. His gaze trails on the top of your head, his smile slowly dying down as he watches you. Then, after a few seconds of contemplation, he quietly speaks up.

“Well…for what it’s worth, you’re not too bad yourself.”

Surprised, you glance up at him, heart fluttering when you see the bashful look on his face.

“Really?”

“What?” he says, “you don’t think you’re cute?”

“I mean…I usually do, but like…,” you stumble over your words, not sure what you’re trying to say. Taehyung raises an eyebrow.

“You didn’t think I would think you’re cute?”

His words have you blushing out of embarrassment, and you nod your head a little. He looks slightly appalled.

“You’ve always been cute,” he tells you seriously. You cover your face with your hand again.

“Why are we talking about this?”

For a second, Taehyung debates changing the topic, since clearly he’s making you a bit uncomfortable, but…

“I think it’s good that we’re talking about it,” he admits, watching you carefully. Somewhere within him determination firmly roots itself. Even if it’s been years, and even if it’s awkward to talk about, somewhere within him he’s always had a thing for you—even when you weren’t around.

“Tae…,” you say quietly, not sure how to respond. A part of you wants to explore the path your conversation is taking, but another part of you doesn’t want to risk ruining your friendship. You’d just gotten him back. If you talk about this and it changes things for the worse…you’re sure your heart will break.

“No, seriously Y/N, listen--,” Taehyung begins to say, but at that moment the food arrives. Your waitress arranges the dishes on the table, and then excuses herself. You and Taehyung are left in silence.

“Later, Tae,” you end up saying when you spot him fidgeting in his seat. He looks up at you, eyes creasing as he smiles—a little perplexed, yet hopeful.

“Okay, yeah,” he agrees, and with the topic of your unknown attraction for each other placed on the backburner, you both dig in.

You quickly find yourself glad that Taehyung had suggested this place, because the food is delicious.

“How did I not know this was here?” you say in amazement, staring at the food in front of you. Taehyung chuckles.

“I’m not sure, but I’m glad I could introduce you to it.”

“Seriously, you’ll have to take me out for food more often,” you tell him, half joking, but Taehyung takes it to heart.

“Oh, I can definitely do that,” he grins happily, and you find yourself blushing once more.

How many times can one person possibly make you blush in a day? This is getting ridiculous.

For the remainder of your meal you and Taehyung make pleasant small talk about work and hobbies. Even if it’s about little things, you find yourself thrilled to be able to learn more about his life.

Taehyung, while unbeknownst to you, feels exactly the same way.

“Thank you so much,” Taehyung tells your waitress as she picks up your bill along with a few empty dishes. Once she has walked away, he places his hand in his palm and stares at you. “So, anything else you’d like to do?”

“Well, I--,” you begin to speak, but at that moment Taehyung’s phone rings. Blinking, he digs into his pocket, his eyes going wide when he sees the caller.

“Shit—hello? I, ah, yeah, I’m so sorry. I--,” he glances over at you apologetically. “No, it should be fine, I think I’ll still be able to make it. Yep. Okay, I’ll see you soon.”

With that, he ends the call and then looks up to you. You stare at him with a small, yet sad smile.

“Let me guess, you forgot about a shoot today?”

“No, worse,” he says, scooting to the edge of the booth. He stands, a look in his eyes that you can’t quite place, and you quickly follow after him. He exits the restaurant, and turns to you once you’re both out on the street.

“I’m really sorry Y/N, but I need to go and see…wait,” he says, a baffled look spreading across his face. He laughs, dragging a hand through his hair, and turns his gaze back to you.

“Y/N!” he exclaims, reaching forward to place his hands on your shoulders. “Come with me!”

“With you?” you echo, startled. “To where?”

“To see Nana!” he says, shaking you a little. “She’s in a home outside the city—I forgot that I had said I’d be by to visit today, but I’m sure she’d love to see you! Well, she’s a bit forgetful with names and faces nowadays, but still!”

“I…,” you say, a little shocked. Grandma Kim is still alive? She must be at least 90! “I mean, yeah—if you want me to come of course I’ll come with you.”

“Ah, this is gonna be such a great surprise!” he says excitedly. He turns and starts heading up the street, but then quickly pauses and reaches back to grab your hand. This time he appropriately slots his fingers through yours. When you glance up at him, eyes wide, he simply winks.

“Just for a little bit. You can scold me later if you hate it,” he tells you, and once again you feel warm. However, deep in your heart you can’t deny the contentment that’s growing.

Now on a mission to visit Grandma Kim, you allow Taehyung to lead you through the city. He drags you into the subway, and you take the train to the very edge of town. There, Taehyung hails a taxi, and you drive out of the busy metropolitan area and into suburbia. After a short while, the cab pulls up to a retirement home, and you and Taehyung step out.

“Well, this is it,” he says, standing at your side. As he looks up at the building you can see the sadness in his eyes, but he doesn’t let it deter him.

Turning to you, he smiles pleasantly.

“Let’s go surprise Nana, yeah?”

Taking the lead, Taehyung heads inside. The lady at the front desk scolds him as he enters, but her words die off when she spots you trailing behind him.

“Well, if it’s because of a date then I guess I can’t be too mad!” she exclaims, and then drags Taehyung close, whispering in a voice that’s loud enough for anyone to hear. “She’s really cute—don’t mess it up, okay!”

You and Taehyung share a look, and then promptly glance away, blushing.

“Yeah, yeah,” he says, and reaches back to grab your hand once more. He proceeds to tugs you further into the nursing home, leading you through the corridors effortlessly. Then, finally, he pauses in front of a door with the name “Kim” plastered on it.

As you stand there you take a deep breath, suddenly feeling a bit anxious. Taehyung glances over at you, a soft look in his eyes.

“Don’t stress. It’s still her,” he says, squeezing your hand reassuringly, and you nod. You wonder how many times he’s stood here and told himself the exact same thing.

Satisfied, Taehyung reaches forward and slides open the door. You both enter the small room. Near the window, a woman is sat staring out at the trees. It’s been 10 years, but it’s still the Grandma Kim you know and love. She’s just…got a few more wrinkles, and is hunched a bit more.

“Hi, Nana,” Taehyung says softly as he approaches her. You stay near the door, feeling a bit awkward. You’ve come unannounced, and according to Taehyung she’s become a bit senile, so…what if she doesn’t even know who you are?

“Hello, sweetie,” Grandma Kim responds, and even her voice sounds frail. Slowly, she reaches her arms up and returns the hug that Taehyung bends down to give. You notice that he’s careful not to squeeze too hard.

“One of the nurses told me you were late.”

“Ah, yeah, I’m sorry about that. I lost track of time,” Taehyung says, and then glances back at you. He motions his head towards his grandmother, smiling, and you take a small step forward.

“But I brought someone along with me today. You know her.”

“Oh, do I?” she asks, her interest piqued. Taehyung steps to the side, allowing Grandma Kim’s gaze to fall on you. You take a few more steps forward, a hesitant smile pulling at your lips. For a few seconds there’s only silence—Grandma Kim’s eyebrows furrowing in concentration as she looks you over. However, when you raise your hand and smile a little wider, greeting her with “Hi, Grandma Kim” a look of realization washes over her.

“Oh, heavens me!” she exclaims, hands moving to grip the arms of her chair as she struggle to push herself to her feet. Taehyung quickly swoops in, placing his hand under her elbow to give her some support. Once she’s gotten her balance, she pats his arm in thanks and then raises her arms to you.

“Y/N! Dear, what a surprise!”

Instinctively, you step forward and wrap your arms around her—chest alight with relief that even after all this time, she’d still remembered your face.

“It’s so good to see you!” she says, a little unbalanced on her feet. Taehyung steps forward to help, but you’re already offering your arm. Smiling, Grandma Kim takes it, and you help lead her to the bed. Taehyung watches on, a fond look in his eye.

“It’s good to see you too,” you respond sincerely, taking a seat in the chair beside the mattress. “It’s been so long.”

“Oh, not that long!” she refutes, and then glances over to her grandson. “See! You were all worried for nothing! I told you that one day you would find each other again.”

Taehyung blushes, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. Leave it to grandma to blatantly tell you that he’d been thinking about you all this time. However, you simply smile.

“You always did say that we were connected,” you say quietly, memories resurfacing. Grandma Kim notices the contemplative look in your eyes, and reaches over to grab your hands. She hold them tightly in her own—worn and boney fingers soothing over your skin.

Her eyes soften as she speaks. “Did you get good use out of that blanket? I never got the chance to ask.”

You realize that the last time you’d seen her had been the day she’d given you the blanket. The day you’d given Taehyung one last hug before you’d disappeared from each other’s lives for a decade. And not because it’d been of your own volition, but…

Suddenly you’re remembering your grandmother, smiling and waiting for you on the steps of her home out in the country. The country that you came to love because of her, and Taehyung—and tears sting at your eyes.

You miss her greatly. You wish that she hadn’t died so soon, and that her death hadn’t caused you to lose track of your relationship with your best friend.

“Oh, sweetie,” Grandma Kim soothes, one of her hands moving to grab you a tissue as the tears fall down your cheeks. You sniffle, trying to pull yourself together, and in the background Taehyung’s heart aches. He wants nothing more than to pull you into a hug and never let go.

“I still have it—the blanket,” you admit, voice wobbling a bit as you dry up your tears. You flash Grandma Kim a smile. “After a while it frayed more, so I ended up making it into a scarf. I wear it in the winter when I need warmth, because that’s what you intended it to do—keep me warm.”

“I’m guessing you still get cold,” she laughs quietly, giving your hands a little squeeze, and you nod.

“Every time I’ve worn it I’ve thought of you and Tae.”

Grandma Kim hums happily, and then motions for her grandson to come closer. Dutifully, he does—blinking in surprise when she reaches over to take one of his hands as well. She lifts both of your hands and holds them close to her chest, her eyes shutting. You and Taehyung glance at each other curiously. Then, Grandma Kim speaks again.

“A red string connects two people that have linked fates,” she says, and your and Taehyung’s eyes widen in shock as you realize she’s quoting what she had told you all those years ago.

“Even before I knitted that blanket, I knew that you two would always be connected. No matter the distance, or the struggles. A bond like that can’t simply be broken.”

She opens her eyes and fondly looks up at the both of you. It’s not hard to tell how tired she is. Not just at the moment, but…

“I may be old, and I’m not as spry as I used to be, but I can tell my time is waning,” she says, yet there’s no regret in her voice. She only smiles. You glance over to Taehyung, and can see that his eyes have glazed over with tears.

“That’s why I’m glad you two managed to find each other again. Y/N,” she says, and brings your and Taehyung’s hands closer. One by one, she threads your fingers together, and then cups your and Taehyung’s bound hands with her own. “You are the person in this world who is closest to Taehyung’s heart after me. When I’m gone, I need you to look after him.”

“Grandma Kim, please…,” you beg, emotion welling in your chest. You’re not ready for this. This is your first time seeing her in so long, and now she’s acting like she’ll be gone by tomorrow. How are you even supposed to respond?

“Taehyung,” she continues, pausing to lift her fingers to his face when she sees that he’s crying. Your and Taehyung’s clasped hands fall between your bodies, but neither of you let go. Grandma Kim brushes a few of his tears away, and he bites his lip—unable to face her.

“I am so happy for you, dear. You’ve become such a splendid young man, and I couldn’t be prouder. From now on, don’t let Y/N out of your sight. Perhaps I was wrong to keep you from seeing her that day she returned, but I always knew in my heart you’d find each other again. Even if you forget about it, that red string will always be there, keeping you both connected.”

Silently, tears begin falling from your eyes as well. A small piece of you realizes that this sounds a lot like a blessing, and a goodbye.

“Now, I believe someone should be coming to get me for supper soon,” she comments, as if she hasn’t just emotionally wrecked both you and Taehyung. Sniffling, Taehyung raises his free hand to his face to messily wipe away the rest of his tears.

“Okay, Nana, I’ll come visit again soon,” he promises, and then bends down to hug her once more—his hand unbudging in yours.

Out of the corner of her eye, Grandma Kim glances at you, smiles, and raises her arm a little.

“Come now, dear.”

Laughing, you lean down and hug her as well. The three of you stay like that for a long moment.

“It was so good to see you both,” she says once you pull back, her eyes creased pleasantly. Just then, a knock sounds at the door.

“Mrs. Kim? Are you ready to go and eat?”

“Yes, I’m just about done,” she responds, and one of the staff opens the door to the room. She pushes in a wheelchair, and Grandma Kim flashes you both one last smile.

“Be happy, you two,” she says, thanking the nurse when she offers to help Grandma Kim into her chair. Stepping back, you and Taehyung allow the staff some room to work, and after a second Taehyung pulls you into the hall. You’re both silent, but you give each other’s hand a little reassuring squeeze.

A few moments later, Grandma Kim emerges beside you. She glances up, a look of surprise on her face.

“Y/N! Taehyung! Did you come to visit?”

Taehyung’s demeanor noticeably saddens, and your heart aches for him. Leaning down, he gently kisses his grandmother’s forehead.

“We just visited, Nana. We’ll be back again soon.”

“Is that so? Well, I hope we had a good chat,” she says, smiling, and waves as the nurse begins to push her away. Taehyung waits until she’s gone before he turns toward the entrance.

“Let’s go home.”

Nodding, you walk alongside him—still holding his hand.

The journey back to the city, you and Taehyung talk sparsely, but the atmosphere between you doesn’t necessarily feel uncomfortable. You stay close to each other, sometimes silently brushing hands or knocking your knees together. It’s just…how are you supposed to act after your conversation with Grandma Kim? There are too many things that need to be unpacked…

“Hey, do you mind if I walk you home?” Taehyung asks when you’ve departed the train station—your feet once again planted in the busy city streets. You shake your head, sending him a small smile. You don’t know where he lives, or how far out of the way it may be, but if Taehyung wants to walk you home then you won’t say no.

Besides, maybe he still needs some company after what had happened.

“Sure, Tae,” you respond, and he grabs your hand once more. Together, you make your way back through the streets and to your apartment building. You’re not exactly sure how far he intends to walk you, but he ends up following you into the elevator, and suddenly you’re both stood beside your front door.

“Well, um,” you say, glancing up at him. There’s a look on his face that you can’t quite decipher. “Thank you for walking me home.”

“Yeah, of course,” he responds, but doesn’t move to leave. Taehyung only continues to stare at you, his brows furrowed. You feel heat rising on your face. Just what is he thinking about?

“Well,” you speak again, giving his hand a squeeze—a sign that you’re intending to finally part. However, Taehyung holds on tighter. After a second he steps a little closer, his free hand raising to cup your cheek. Immediately your heart feels like it might explode.

“T-Tae--?” you sputter, the skin on your cheeks burning brilliantly. Taehyung soothes his thumb over the pink flesh, eyebrows knitting together.

“I want to kiss you,” he admits quietly, as if it’s painful for him to say it. You pause, gaze deepening with sympathy, and you raise a hand to place it atop his.

“Is this because of what your grandmother said?”

Closing his eyes, Taehyung shakes his head. “No…No, I’ve…I’ve always wanted this. Since we were kids. Nana’s talk just made me realize how I should come out and say it. Even if you don’t feel the same way, I want you to know how I feel.”

Unsure how to respond, you simply let him speak.

“I know it’s stupid, because how could a crush from childhood possibly withstand a decade without contact, but…since the moment I realized it was you at the studio, and you hugged me and we reconciled, I…I realized that my feelings never waned. Maybe they got put to the side because I was busy with other things, but I never forgot about you, and I never stopped liking you.

“So, even if it doesn’t work out, I need you to know,” he says, a pleading look in his eyes as he stares at you. “I can’t keep these feelings at bay forever. They’ll overtake me, and I’ll drown.”

“I…,” you speak, struggling to find words. You’d noticed during your childhood that your pinning likely hadn’t been completely one-sided, but you’d never imagined Taehyung had felt this strongly. That he’d really been keeping in all his feelings, just like you had…

You’d both been fools.

Biting your lip, you curl your fingers around his palm, steeling your determination, and then press forward. Taehyung makes a small sound of surprise as your lips connect, but he’s quick to react. He wraps his free arm around your waist, pulling you close, and deepens the kiss.

There’s no spark—no electricity running through your body—but there’s a deep feeling of longing, and satisfaction. Desire drives you seek more, and you kiss him again, and again. Your bodies melt together, kisses becoming drawn out with passion.

Deep in his throat, Taehyung groans. He finally releases your clasped hands—instead moving to tangle his fingers in your hair. Your chests are flush now, and the new leverage allows him to take control of the situation—his tongue sneaking past your lips.

You gasp in surprise, your free hand raising to gently push at his shoulder. Getting the hint, Taehyung allows you to nudge him back. There’s a worried look in his eyes, but it’s overwhelmingly outweighed by the look of satisfaction on his face.

“Too far?”

“I…we’re in the hall,” you respond, blushing. Blinking, Taehyung glances side to side, realizing you’re right.

“So…can we go inside then?” his question is a bit cheeky, and you send him a glare that has no real anger behind it. Turning, you face the door and dig in your purse for your keys. As you do so, Taehyung wraps his arms around your waist and places his head on your shoulder. A contented look washes over his features—his heart beating happily. A plethora of emotions threaten to overcome him—because there’s so much he wants to say and do, but for the time being he manages to hold himself back. However…

His eyes shift over to your neck, a large patch of unmarred skin tempting him too greatly. Leaning in, he presses a light kiss to the flesh, pausing when you shiver.

“Tae!” you hiss, nearly dropping the keys you had finally located. Taehyung’s eyes shine with a bit of deviance.

“Sensitive?” he questions, but before you can respond, he’s littering your neck with more kisses. At each one he feels you jolt, your breath coming out in short pants—and he smiles happily. He wants nothing more than to learn you in all the ways he’d been unable to during childhood. Of course, during that time there had been little to no consideration of sexual attraction. All he’d wanted had been hand holding and forehead kisses, and declarations of “I love you”. Perhaps towards the end, when he’d entered high school, he’d begun to contemplate sexual love with you, but—

At that moment you finally open the door to your apartment, and you quickly haul Taehyung inside. He watches as you kick off your shoes and abandon your purse. Once that’s taken care of you turn to face him—your cheeks still prettily pink.

“I…,” you begin to say, eyes darting around nervously before settling on him again. You pout your lips, embarrassed by what you’re about to say. “I want more.”

Taehyung raises an eyebrow, but his heart soars. “More?”

“I mean…if you don’t have anywhere to be, and you weren’t disgusted by what we just did in the hall, then—”

Before you can even finish your sentence Taehyung is sweeping you into his arms once more. The kisses pick up where they left off—hot, and heavy, and opened mouth. The hesitant, nervous nature that had been present in the hall begins to fade away, and you both move more freely.

Grabbing Taehyung by his collar, you lead him to the couch. He stumbles over his feet in his haste, and drags you into the cushions when he falls. You land atop him—your legs slotted together and chests flush. If it were anyone else you might be embarrassed, but right now you’re too caught up in the moment—too caught up in him—to think about it twice.

Leaning down, you connect your lips once more, and Taehyung happily reciprocates. As you kiss, his arms loop around you—one hand resting on the back of your head while the other trails down your spine. Eventually, his palm settles on your ass—fingers giving one of your cheeks a squeeze—and you feel him grin against you.

“Nice,” he simply says, and you huff, pushing your hands against his chest as you prepare to sit up. However, Taehyung only chuckles and uses his grip on your head to pull you back in. Your tongues drag together, and a quiet moan builds in the back of your throat.

Taehyung pauses, pulling back to stare at you. There’s a blush on your face, and you look embarrassed, but…

“Is this okay?” he asks, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious. He hadn’t intended for things to go this far. He had hoped to maybe kiss you a few times, but things had escalated very quickly, and Taehyung can’t exactly ignore the lust that’s growing in his gut.

You nod, hand moving to cup his cheek at you stare at him. There’s a loving look in your eye, and it has Taehyung’s heart racing.

“I feel like I’ve been in a desert and you’re the oasis I’ve found after too long,” you say, laughing a little at your own analogy. Sweetly, you lean down to kiss him. You whisper against his lips.

“Are you okay?”

“More than,” he responds, leaning up to complete the kiss. However, when he parts his eyebrows pinch, and he soothes his hand over your spine. You watch him patiently, wondering what he’s thinking of. After a few seconds you’re rewarded.

“Tell me to stop,” he says, and you stare at him.

“Do you want to stop?”

“No, I…,” he shakes his head a little, both his hands moving to grip your ass. He uses his hold to grind you down against him, and you blush at feeling how aroused he’s gotten. You’d been trying not to think about it, but you’d been feeling pretty needy down there yourself…

“I really, really don’t want to stop, and that might be a problem,” he admits with a quiet laugh. You can tell he’s trying to be considerate of you while also battling with his urges. “I didn’t intend for it to happen like this and I totally understand if you want me to go. Just tell me to stop and I will, but…,” he leans up, his lips brushing against yours, and you can sense his hopelessness.

Your eyes soften and you cup his cheeks. “Tae,” you say, and a groan unintentionally sneaks past his lips when you grind down against him. “You don’t need to stop.”

You kiss him once more, feeling shy, yet wanton. You had never intended for this to happen either, but…more than anything you don’t want it to end. You want Taehyung in any way he’s willing to give.

“Oh thank god,” he breathes, momentarily releasing you as he pushes himself up. The shift in position now has you seated in his lap—your thighs on either side of him and your crotch dangerously close to his hard-on. However, Taehyung silences your frenzied thoughts with another kiss.

He kisses you languidly, his hands moving to your shoulders as he slowly peels your cardigan down your arms. You feel yourself flush, suddenly nervous as you realize that you’re more than likely about to get very intimate with one of your best friends from childhood. But…you glance at Taehyung—no longer a child—and the anxious feeling in your chest easies slightly. You’re no longer kids, and you’d both given your consent. There’s no reason to be so worried.

Feeling reassured, you kiss him once more, and pause when he suddenly begins moving his lips down your jaw. He peppers the skin of your jaw and neck with kisses, grinning when he once again locates the sensitive spot from before. You instinctively wiggle in his hold, gasping, and Taehyung nearly moans when you unintentionally grind against him.

Never in his life has he been so aroused before.

“You’re too cute,” he says, biting down, and the sound you make has his dick straining.

“I’m gonna kill you,” you respond, face beet red, but Taehyung doesn’t believe you one bit. Satisfied with the mark he’s left, Taehyung dips lower—kissing the skin on your chest. His fingers sneak beneath the hem of your shirt, ghosting up your spine and causing you to shiver. You arch into him, instinctively trying to escape the sensation, and Taehyung grins.

“You really are fun.”

As he fiddles with the clasps of your bra, you reach a hand behind him to smack his ass in retaliation. Taehyung only laughs though, a fond look in his eye. You feel your bra go slack, and Taehyung distracts you with a kiss as he attempts to finagle it out from beneath your shirt. Clearly he has some experience, because you don’t even need to help him.

“You’re an idiot,” you tell him, moaning against his lips when he moves his hand to grope you through your shirt. The soft mound of flesh weights pleasantly in Taehyung’s palm, and he gives it a gentle squeeze—feeling satisfied at the reaction he elicits.

Curiously, he allows his thumb to roam over your perk nipples, loving the way they harden even more thanks to his ministrations. Helpless—wanting him to explore you in any way he desires—you simply sit there and allow Taehyung to have his fun. However, he quickly becomes annoyed with the fabric in the way of what he really wants to see.

Gripping the edge of your shirt, he pulls upward and you obediently raise your arms, allowing him to shed you of your top. You feel self-conscious all over again as he stares at you—his gaze unabashed with his hunger. It’s not like you haven’t been intimate with other people before, but out of everyone, Taehyung definitely means the most to you.

“You’re so beautiful,” he ends up saying, his palm moving to splay against your breast as his mouth descends upon the other. If his words don’t make you blush than his actions certainly do.

Groaning in satisfaction, Taehyung allows his tongue to flatten against your nipple, loving the way you gasp and whine beneath him. He toys with the sensitive bud—sucking, and nipping until it’s perfectly taut. He then moves to give the other the same treatment, but pauses to glance at your face. The front of your hand is covering your mouth in embarrassment, cheeks and chest flushed in arousal. He can see the lust blooming in your gaze, and he moves a hand down to sooth against his cock through his pants. You notice and glance down, realizing that he must be uncomfortable.

“Here,” you say, feeling a little bold as you reach down and pop the button on his slacks. Taehyung’s eyes widen in surprise, but when you peel the zipper down and slip your hand into his boxers—rubbing his aching length—his eyes nearly roll into his head.

“Fuck,” he curses, taking your other breast into his mouth. He’s less gentle this time around—more teeth than tongue—his fingers digging into the flesh of your other tit as he grips it possessively. You gasp, not disliking the pain, and all of the sudden Taehyung swoops up to kiss you. He cradles your jaw, grinding his hips against your hand as you stroke him.

“I need this,” he says, a little breathless. “I need you. Please.”

“The bed would probably be more comfortable,” you respond between his frantic kisses, and he nods. Just as needy, you’re quick to stand up. You start towards the bedroom, glancing back to make sure Taehyung is following, and drool pools in your mouth when he see that he’s begun to strip.

He tugs off his jacket without care, dropping in on top of your own pile of clothes, and then quickly moves to shed his shirt. As a child he’d been quiet scrawny, but now he’s toned and broad, and you feel your pulse speed up.

Finally, Taehyung notices you’re staring, and a grin overtakes him.

“Like what you see?” he asks, teasing, and nearly dies when you nod with complete sincerity.

“A lot.”

Unable to hold himself back, Taehyung steps towards you and claims your lips once more. As he does so—slowly backing you into your room—you reach down and attempt to shuck his pants down his legs. He laughs at the futile effort.

“Needy?”

“Clearly not more than you,” you respond cheekily, eyeing his hard-on, which has begun to weep through the dark fabric of his boxer-briefs. Grabbing you by your ass, Taehyung dumps you onto the mattress and grins down at you.

“You’re saying I’m the only one turned on here?” He speaks boldly, confident that he’s right. Fully intending to prove his point, he curls his fingers beneath the band of your jeans and tugs them down your legs. You watch him with flushed cheeks, realizing how vulnerable you are, but you don’t care much about that right now. All you want is some type of relief.

“See…,” he mumbles to himself, two of his finger rubbing your womanhood through your panties. There’s a definitive pool of your arousal on the fabric. Curious, he moves the fabric aside and slowly pushes both of his fingers into you. There’s little resistance—your walls soaked for him.

“Tae,” you whine, gasping when he raises his other hand and places his thumb on your clit. He rubs gentle circles, his cock aching when he feels your pussy clench around his fingers.

“I told you,” he says, his voice deep. He begins fucking his fingers into you—his pace too lax to do anything except rile you up further. Your chest feels like it may burst.

“You’re right. I’m wet. Please—I need you to do something, Tae, anything--,” you beg. Taehyung glances up at you, a fire spreading in his veins when he sees the desperate look on your face. He never thought he’d see that kind of look on you—the look of a woman pleading to be pleasured—and it’s absolutely maddening.

“You want me to fuck you?” he asks, already reaching down to grab his cock. It’s so sensitive—he’s kept himself waiting too long, but—

“Yes, please. I need it,” you respond seriously, too needy to be bashful. Taehyung groans, stepping away from the mattress to shed himself of his underwear. You watch him with hunger in your eyes—tongue darting out to lick at your lips when his cock finally springs free.

It’s weeping for attention.

“You’re gonna be the death of me,” he says, returning to the mattress and positioning himself on top of you. He braces your leg with one hand and guides himself with the other. You feel your walls stretch as he seats himself inside of you—but the feeling isn’t uncomfortable in the least. Pussy throbbing, you reach up and grab him by his hair. Taehyung allows himself to be dragged down into your kiss—your noses knocking together as he slowly begins to fuck in and out of you.

He rocks his hips rhythmically, the motion becoming bigger and increasingly quick. You moan around his tongue, your fingers tugging at his roots, and Taehyung groans.

“Fuck,” he says, breathlessly pulling back for air. His face is flushed, brow beading with sweat as his need overwhelms him. He wants this so badly—with you. He’s never been surer of it. In this moment, he’s right where he’s supposed to be.

“Tae, you can move more, I’m--,” you struggle to say, your face equally as red. You grind your hips down to meet thrusts, and Taehyung shamelessly moans. His head drops, his cock thrusting into you faster and rougher. You gasp, one hand moving to grasp your tit as the other reaffirms its grip on his hair.

“Good?” he manages to question. You bite your lip, nodding frantically.

“Very. Don’t stop. Please.”

“Can’t,” he bites back, readjusting his angle and snapping his hips particularly hard. Unexpectedly, he hits your sweet spot and you gasp lewdly. Taehyung’s eyes shift up to you, and he grins a little.

“Right there, huh?” Reaching down, hooks his elbow under the crook of your knee and opens you up a little wider. The position leaves nothing to imagination.

“Fuck, Tae--!” you cry, breath catching when he once again locates your g-spot. Your pussy clenches around him—creating more friction—and his jaw tenses. Fuck, he’s not gonna last very long.

Attempting to keep up his pace, Taehyung thrusts into you with vigor. His eyes roam your body—shifting from the glistening folds of your pussy and the way his dick enters you so perfectly to the swell of your bouncing breasts and the fucked-out look in your glistening eyes.

You’re so flawless.

“Tae, I need--,” you struggle to speak, overwhelmed with a desperation to cum. Tears stick to your lashes, and Taehyung manages to lean down and kiss your cheek.

“Tell me what you want, love.”

“I want to cum, please,” you cry, reaching up to cradle his face. A tidal wave of emotions flood your chest. You feel so much love and adoration for the man making love to you that it’s nearly impossible to digest. Years of missed opportunities with him pangs your heart with regret, but you know that this is only the beginning. You’ve got lots of time.

“Please, I need you,” you beg quietly, your pussy throbbing as you pull him into a sweet, yet yearning kiss. Taehyung’s dick twitches inside of you, and he messily kisses you a second time.

“I’m right there.”

“Me too,” you assure him, wrapping your arms around his back. Your nails scrape against his skin, leaving little marks, and he shivers.

“Fuck.”

Gathering his remaining stamina, Taehyung fucks into you—smacking his hips lewdly against yours. You gasp with each thrust, skull straining back against the mattress. It’s all so intense, but so good as well. If only the two of you could stay like this forever.

“Taehyung,” you call his name, your voice hitching with every smack of his hips. For a man already on the edge, the fucked out quality of your voice is too much to handle, and Taehyung’s rhythm falters.

“Y/N,” he moans, and, unexpectedly, your name falling from his lips so needily is what pushes you to your release. Your body tenses, toes curling, and then all of the sudden the tension melts into bliss. Your pussy clenches around Taehyung’s length, and he almost chokes.

“Tae, cum,” you tell him, breathless with pleasure. You cup his face, eyes glazed over with adoration as you intently watch him. Taehyung is helpless to obey.

Fucking into you one last time, he fully sheathes himself between your walls and allows his bliss to find him. His shoulders drop, head coming to rest against your chest as he empties inside of you, and your fingers card through his hair soothingly.

Finally, when the pleasure has faded, Taehyung pulls out of you with a hiss—his dick overly sensitive.

For a long moment, the two of you can only stare at each other.

Long lost childhood friends, turned lovers in less than a day. So much had happened in such a short amount of time.  

Your face breaks out into a smile, a laugh sneaking past your lips.

“What?” Taehyung asks, mimicking your smile. You shake your head, one hand raising to cover your face in an attempt to hide your blush.

“This is crazy,” you say, and Taehyung glances down at your naked bodies—glistening with sweat. Suddenly he realizes what you’ve done. His cheeks turn red, and he rolls to the side, landing on the mattress beside you. You glance over at him, watching his reaction carefully.

“Having second thoughts?” you tease, though anxiety rises in your chest. You feel more comfortable around him now more than ever. With your feelings for each other out in the open you can freely be with him in any way you’d like—ways you couldn’t have before. Admitting that you like him doesn’t feel so hard to do anymore.

“No,” Taehyung eventually responds, shifting to fully face you. He reaches his hands forward, gently cupping your jaw, and guides you into a kiss. His heart aches with the amount of love he feels for you. It’s an amount that threatens to overwhelm him, but he manages to hold it at bay.

Well, mostly.

“I love you,” he whispers against your lips, feeling the skin of your cheeks heat up beneath his fingers. Peeking open his eyes, Taehyung smiles when he sees you staring at him in shock.

“I know, it’s…soon. We just had an entire handful of our firsts together in the span of a few hours, but…I’ve always loved you. Even if it always hasn’t been romantic in nature. Though I assure you it is now, but,” he trails off, grinning when you smile and reach forward to lightly smack his chest.

After a second you pout your lips, hand moving to caress his cheek. Taehyung leans into your touch, and your gaze softens.

“I never expected to be in this situation, and it’s crazy to think that we’re here after being separated for a decade, but…I love you too,” you tell him, thumb brushing over his cheek. He smiles, turning his head so he can kiss your palm, and you laugh a little.

“If you promise to never yell at me again, then I’ll even consider being your girlfriend.”

“I said I was sorrryyyyyyy~,” he whines, rolling onto his other side. He kicks his feet indignantly, and you giggle. Scooting up behind him, you wrap your arms around his torso and pull yourself flush against his back—nose nuzzling between his shoulder blades. Beneath your fingertips, Taehyung’s heart beats steadily—happy, and placated.

“So? Do we have a deal?”

Taehyung chuckles, wiggling in your hold. You allow him some space as he flips around to face you, his arms reaching out to hold you tightly. Your head tucks under his chin, and he slots your legs together. Everything falls into place, fitting perfectly.

“Be mine,” he says, lips pressing against the top of your skull. You can hear the emotion in his voice. “Please. I never want you to leave again.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” you promise him, tilting your head up and pursing your lips. Getting the idea, Taehyung happily bends down to meet you. Your lips are tingling when he pulls back.

Sated, and finally at peace with your feelings for each other, the two of you simply lay there in each other’s arms. After a short while, the exhaustion from your dirty deed sets in, and Taehyung yawns. You glance up at him tiredly through your lashes.

“You can stay, if you hadn’t figured,” you say, and he nods—a lazy smile pulling at his lips.

“Good.” He gives you a little squeeze, and your own eyes flutter shut. The warmth of Taehyung’s body washes over you like a blanket, and before long you’re out like a light.

In the morning, you wake up in each other’s arms…and to the blare of Taehyung’s ringtone.

“Shit!” he curses, tumbling out of your bed and into the other room, where he’d abandoned his phone. He manages to pick it up on the last ring, and you sit up groggily, eyes shifting over to the clock on your night stand.

6:30am.

“Taehyung!” you hear a semi-familiar voice as Taehyung puts the call on speaker. He sets the device down on your coffee table, plopping down on the couch behind him. Still half asleep, he rustles his messy hair.

“Yes, hyung?”

“I’m on my way to your apartment—you didn’t respond to my texts. Are you ready?”

“Ready?” he repeats, deep voice scratchy with unuse. Namjoon sighs.

“Did you forget we’re doing an early shoot for that magazine today?”

Taehyung’s eyes widen—the remnants of sleep disappearing from his face.

“Oh fuck. Uh…,” he glances over to you—now stood in the doorway to your bedroom wearing nothing but the shirt he’d been brandishing the day before. As you cutely rub at your eyes in an attempt to wake yourself up, Taehyung feels his heart soar and his dick throb.

“I’m actually…not at home, hyung,” he admits, and there’s a pause.

“Where are you, then?”

Taehyung smiles fondly as he speaks his next words. “I’m at my girlfriend’s place. I’ll send you the address—you can pick me up here.”

He glances over to you, eyes sparkling when he sees the blush that has spread across your cheeks.

“Girlfriend?!” Namjoon responds, obviously shocked. “What about Y/N??”

He’d been rooting for you two to reconcile and get together, after all!

“That’s who I’m talking about, hyung,” Taehyung responds with a laugh, wrapping an arm around you when you make your way over and plop down beside him.

“Hi, manager-nim~,” you chime in before Namjoon can think of how to respond. There’s a long stretch of silence, and for a second Taehyung thinks the call may have dropped, but—

“Y’all were really pinning for each other like fools for 15 YEARS, and ended up getting together in ONE DAY!” he yells, sounding exasperated. You and Taehyung glance at each other sheepishly. However, before either of you can think of what to say, Namjoon chuckles.

“That’s the kind of love I want in my life.”

Grinning, Taehyung turns to you and cups your cheeks—guiding you into a sweet kiss. Butterflies tickle your stomach, and you smile against his lips.

“Hyung, it’s only going to get better from here,” Taehyung responds seriously—kissing you again. His words have satisfaction settling deep in your bones.

You could really get used to this.

[hoegrove]

hi!! I was just wondering what you use to make your until dawn profiles? I would love to make some for my own characters but I cannot for the life of me work out how to do it!! I love your au and ALL of your content! thanks in advance for any help

Hello dear :) thanks for the ask!

I started making the profiles in Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended, and I’m using Adobe Photoshop 2020 now. Photoshop is pretty much the only graphic design software I’ve ever worked with, so I don’t know much about GIMP or others, but… you should be able to follow my steps in any other graphics software (I hope)

1) I looked up screenshots of the game, like this one and saved it to my desktop

2) I then tried to recreate the background (forget about all the text, the cinematic border, and even his face, this is only about colors) - you can also add a texture. Look up “free textures” and maybe “light” or “dust particles” because these work well here; here’s an example

3) I then added the cinematic borders and some PlayStation-buttons (yeah, I cropped them from a screenshot and pasted them on there, haha) - looking for fonts was harder, and so I settled for “Constantine” (character info, etc.) and “Arial” (traits and the objective, not the title, the actual objective)

4) Now you wanna think about adding the text. I did it via of thumb estimate, tbh. I tried to go for “one half is the text” and “the other half is the character’s face”

5) About the “Character Traits” and “Relationship Status”-bars. I made the white lines for the first one and then copied it for the others. (on separate layers, the same goes for the bars) - I maybe could’ve made it easier for myself but this file goes way back; fun fact: it goes back to 2015, yeah, it’s that old.

6) Add the picture of your character (make sure the pic is HQ, it makes everything easier), and play around with colors and lights again. Like here, let’s take a look at Billy-boy without any added effects

VS this here, the version that I uploaded

Like I said, I don’t really know too much about other graphic software, but it all boils down to trying out new things… my settings for Billy were: Linear Dodge, then went over to Adjustments and played around with Selective Color, Vibrance, and Curves. (+ I added another texture; the cut there on his cheek is a scratch-texture; makes the whole thing darker and yah, I liked the scratches)

And that’s it…? Like… even I noticed a lot of flaws in my steps, tbh, I might have to re-do the thing sometime. But that’s pretty much it- work your way up from the background and don’t forget to use more than one layer :’) I know it probably won’t help but I’m willing to help, so just ask if you need to!

Also thanks

edit: tumblr cut off parts of my message??

What I wanted to say is thanks!!

[theoneinmultiplefandoms]

Attention dear Pewdiepie Fans, especially those who follow the @pewdsfanarchive blog!

I’m doing an announcement here on my main blog because I want to say something about the Fan Archive, since that blog is my responsibility and hopefully, people will understand what’s going on. (Spoilers: No, I’m not deleting it. In fact, I’m doing something with it.)

Read more below!

(Most of what I’ll be talking about could be a bit personal, but at least it has some honesty from me. Take your time to read them.)

First off, about the Information Posts:

It would’ve been a miracle if one could do an Information Post for every Pewdiepie video existed. Sadly, a human like me, who is busy with other stuff IRL and has this type of motivation that keeps waning in and out, couldn’t be that miracle. I really love Pewds’ videos (old and new), don’t get me wrong, but doing Information Posts by myself for every video started to feel more like a task forced upon me rather than something I want to do, even on my spare time. (You can even notice it through all the delays and announcements I’ve done in that blog.) It made me feel like I’m not actually ready for such a huge responsibility, although I did want to do these things.

Yet throughout the delays, all of you still enjoyed those kinds of posts, even if it’s through small likes/comments/reblogs. In fact, I even recall how fun it was, searching up all those memes/arts/whatever information pops up from those videos and typing them down in an organized way. It tends to be a bit tiring, but it made me happy thinking about how much effort I placed on these posts, and for you to see and appreciate them in some way.

Conclusion: the Information Posts stay. However, they’ll be more focused on videos of Pewds’ that I find interest of, and will be posted whenever I have the time/motivation to do so. Chronological order will not be followed anymore, so expect a slight mess.

Second, about the blog itself:

Now that the Info Posts are not considered as an urgent task anymore, what will it mean for the blog in its entirety? One obvious answer I can think of for this question is: I’ll make the blog more community-focused. (Yep, it means more reblogging.) 

I’ve seen brilliant pieces of fan-arts, wonderfully edited gifsets, and lovely little appreciation posts made by some of the Tumblr peeps in the #pewdiepie tag behind all the hate and callouts. I want to give them recognition for their works too, even those who haven’t been able to post in a longgggg time. In some way, I’d like to give positivity back to the tag and on any Pewds fan’s dashboard, because they too inspire positivity for me.

If you’re wondering about what I’ll reblog, it’ll be a mix of past, present, and even future posts/arts/gifs/whatever!

Finally, about the layout/appearance of the blog:

For me, new changes means a new look. I’ll be placing the blog in "w.i.p.” mode for now until I’ve decided with its new appearance, in hopes that I’ll find a theme more user-friendly than that of the old one (the posts on Desktop mode look too large for me). I’m opening up to people who’s willing to provide me some gifs/wallpapers/backgrounds I can use for the new theme!

Thanks for taking your time to read! I’ll be seeing you soon, with new colors!

[nickmuch]

c.z.k. - high school (part 3)

PART 1 / PART 2

Note: Honestly, I have nothing to do at work atm, so I might update this daily. Can’t wait for Part 4! Bc I have finally some more Zion action planned.

Also: It might be prom season there, but you didn’t hear it from me. My favorite part to write was probably the one that took place after prom.

Aaand: mobile tumblr seems to ignore all the paragraphing I put into the text to indicate the end of a scene???? So it’s probably easier to read on the desktop version.

A week had passed since my outburst. If you thought that everything magically turned upside down and we lived a happy life riding into the sunset on our white horse, then you thought wrong. Absolutely nothing happened. I returned back to class that day, not even flinching from his words. And he came back a couple minutes later, both of us acting as if we didn’t just kiss. He went back to her and I went back to feeling like shit. The usual story.

I acted like it didn’t faze me when he approached my locker at the end of the school day. “So …” he began. “You and Edwin?”. His voice sounded nervous when he asked me. Scrunching up my face, I fully turned towards him. “Me and Edwin what?”. Sighing, he grabbed my arm making me look him dead in the eyes. “You guys together now? You both seem oddly close these days”. Wow, I couldn’t believe the words that left his mouth. “Congrats! You have officially lost your mind, Caleb” I started picking up my pace. The front door wasn’t too far from here, so I hoped he would just let it go and let me drive home in peace. I hoped for nothing because clearly, he and his long legs caught up to me rather quickly, opening the door to my passenger seat before sitting down. “Look, I’m sorry for everything. But honestly, I just wanna put this all behind us. I miss my friends and I feel like I can’t hang out with the group while you’re still mad at me” “I’m not mad at you, in fact I give zero shits about you. But if you have something to talk about with the boys, then do so. I’m not keeping you from seeing them. They were your friends first, so you have every right to chill with them. I just don’t wanna be included, s’all”. A tap on the window made us look up. There she stood, tight smile on her face and eyes cold like ice. “Aw shit” he said, hurriedly opening the door to get out and explain why in the name of God he was sitting in his Ex’s car talking. Since I seriously didn’t need to hear their arguing – which was bound to happen any second now – I quickly drove off.

“Prom is right around the corner. What do you mean you’re not going?! Yes, you are! Don’t leave me alone with these fools!”. Edwin was close to having a breakdown. All because I didn’t plan on going to prom. There was no reason to go, really. I had no date, it was way too cold In New York to walk around in a dress the whole evening, and I wasn’t in the mood anyways. “Eddie, I love you, but please don’t make me go. I would only destroy the fun” I begged, thinking that would change his mind. Wrong! Because Edwin was – well – Edwin. My excuses were exactly that: just excuses. And he knew. “Okay bebecita, I knooooow you don’t feel like going”. He was convinced that easily? Wow, okay. “But!”. Ah there it was. “We will have fun. Trust me! When have I ever lied to you?”. I mean, he was right. Whenever he said something was going to be fun, it actually turned out to be. “Fine, we’ll go! But make sure that Zion leaves me alone. He thinks we’re dating and I don’t feel like dealing with his headassery again”. Edwin’s eyes nearly fell out of his face. “What?! Oh my god, is he serious?”. A hearty laugh filled up the whole living room. “Mijo, not so loud!” his mom shouted from the kitchen, making him quit immediately. “Anyways” he plopped down next to me on the couch. “No offense, but even if you’d be the last girl in the world and we had to reproduce in order to save the human civilization, I still wouldn’t touch you” Edwin finished. “No offense taken. You’re not my type anyway” I casually said while not breaking my eyes off of the tv screen. Gasp! “I- what? I meant because you’re my twin sister! Not because of your looks!” he cried. “Uhm … oh y-yeah, that’s what I meant too …?”. No way I could save my ass out of this. He looked hurt for a second but didn’t seem to dwell on it when he used my lap as a pillow to watch the show. “Don’t be fooled, you still suck ass”.

The night of the prom, Edwin had officially turned into a bridezilla. Minus the bride, of course. His steps could be heard from everywhere in the house, like a ticking clock you couldn’t dismiss. It was driving me insane. It was driving us all insane. “Edwin, you need to calm down” I tried. “There’s no way! No. Way.” he frantically walked from one room to the other. “My clothes need to be ironed, you still aren’t in your dress- “. “It’s 2 p.m.!” my voice sounded squeakier than expected. “- … your hair’s a mess, face not beat, my hair is acting up, and the damn rental car is running late” he finished with one last breath before collapsing on my bed. “We won’t be on time. Just cancel on the boys for me, the stress isn’t good for the baby”. “What baby?!”. “Me. I’m baby”. I couldn’t believe my ears. This boy lost his mind. Narrowing my eyes at him, he challenged me back to a stare-down. “Listen here, egghead” An offended gasp left his lips. “You’ve been talking about this night for weeks. There’s no backing out now. Move your ass up and get your to-do-list, so I can help you with everything. We still have four hours left before the boys are supposed to be here. So, let’s start!”.

The white Range Rover came to a halt right in front of the school building. Loud music could be heard already, some new rap song playing in the background. “This is gonna be so lit!” Edwin bounced on his seat excitedly before jumping out and dragging the rest of us with him into the gym. The motto for this year’s prom was “neon festival”.The wall decoration was painted in a mix of fluorescent colors, which reflected every time the lights hit them. Bright yellow stars adorned the ceiling, some white smoke even coming out of a smoke machine. Everything was arranged so nicely, I couldn’t help but admire the great effort of the students who probably worked hard for this to come true. Now I understood why Edwin wanted to go so badly. Back home, our prom nights were pretty basic. No one could be bothered to put so much effort into an event, just for it to be over on the same night.

“Here, for you” Nick handed me a red solo cup, which was filled with some pink drink, accompanied by a cocktail umbrella. “Thank you” I said, turning my gaze towards the shining stars again. “I’m so sorry about what I’m gonna say next” he looked slightly uneasy, so I tried to calm him down by laying my hand on his shoulder. “Z and Asya will be joining our table. I mean, only if it’s alright with you”. As if on cue, my eyes wandered over to where I last saw the boys, seeing that – in fact – they were surrounded by the couple. All of them looked so happy, laughing and joking with each other. No matter what I felt towards Caleb, I had to set my pride aside and act nice from now on. The boys were longing to hang out with their friend again and I didn’t want to be the reason for a strain in their friendship.

“It’s alright with me” I replied. His hand cautiously wrapped around my hips, like he was scared of making me uncomfortable. “Lead the way, Mara”. He grinned at me. “Say no more, Honoret”. I rolled my eyes at the name. He knew I wasn’t really a Honoret, and yet everyone just called me that, totally ignoring all my attempts at correcting them.

Luckily, I got the seat between Edwin and Brandon. I didn’t know how to greet Zion and his girlfriend. She was too busy typing away on her phone to notice my arrival, anyways. So, I just gave him a short wave and a shy smile. “Looking nice” he said, motioning to my baby blue velvet bodycon dress. His girl was so busy, she didn’t even notice him complimenting another female. Either that, or she didn’t care. “Thanks Caleb, you too”. Coincidentally, he wore a dark grey suit with a baby blue pocket square. To not give awkward silence any room, Austin suggested to me to dance. Gladly taking his offer, we made our way to the dance floor. Soon enough, Edwin and Nick joined us, their dance moves putting me and him to shame. “You guys enjoying yourselves?” Brandon shouted over the music. I pulled him closer by his forearm to join us. “Very”. My grin however didn’t last. When I looked back to our table, I saw Zion all by himself. He looked bored, occasionally scrolling through his phone. “I’ll be right back” I told no one in particular before making my way over to the lone boy.

“Why so lonely, Kuwonu?” I nudged his arm. With a weak smile on his plump lips, he answered “Asya is preoccupied with her group of friends. I don’t really vibe with ‘em”. Nodding understandingly, I offered him to accompany me back to the others. “As long as you don’t hit the folks, we’re good” I playfully teased him. “Ha ha, very funny” Caleb sarcastically remarked. It was nice to talk to him without an attitude or tension building up. Maybe I overreacted a little bit in the last weeks. Having him around felt good, if you ignored the butterflies that erupted deep down in my stomach every time he looked at me or smiled his goofy grin. But we had our chance and it didn’t work out, that’s why I had to get over it. Better to have him as a friend than anything else. Right now, though, was about having fun and enjoying the company of good friends in a night that seemed to be endless.

The thing is, everything has an end. And so, I found myself in the booth of an old diner. The fake leather of the seats was peeling off and little bolts of cloth got stuck to our clothes. One of my legs was pressed against the window side, my other leg was touching Brandon’s involuntarily. Edwin thought a corner booth would totally suffice for all seven of us. Well, he thought wrong because now we were all huddled up, trying to get as comfortable as humanly possible with not much space between us left. Asya decided to not tag along, saying she was too tired from dancing with her friends all night.

“I hope they hurry up with our order, I’m starving!” Ansley sighed dramatically. Turns out, Austin was talking to her for weeks now, he just couldn’t build up the courage to ask her out yet. So, Edwin being Edwin, persuaded her to join our trip for a midnight-snack, claiming that “this pizza is going to be the best you’ve ever had!”. Judging from the interior design and the slack expression we were getting from the waiter, I highly doubted he was right. But then again, never underestimate Edwin.

“Okay, you were right. This is the best pizza I’ve ever had. Kudos to you, Ed” Ansley munched happily on her slice. Suspiciously examining the pieces in the center of the table, I couldn’t really put too much trust into her words. For some odd reason, the pizza had more grease on it than my face in the morning before washing it. “Just try it, she isn’t lying” Zion slid me a slice over. “If I die, tell Mama, Papa and the babies that I love ‘em” I told Ed before taking a bite. This was actually pretty good. Maybe not the best I’ve had, but it came close. “What makes this the best pizza in all of New York, though? It doesn’t taste that special”. The boys smirked knowingly, all eyes looking down trying to avoid my gaze. “It’s not necessarily the taste but rather the memories this place holds, you know? Back when we were younger, we’d spend our evenings after school here since our parents were working and we had no one to watch us in the meantime” Brandon nodded along to Edwin’s words, clearly remembering it all as if it had happened yesterday. “Can you imagine the mess we’d make?! Five little boys, full of energy rushing in to buy themselves some junk food, not a single care in the world” he paused for a moment, giving the others a short smile. The moment was filled with a melancholic retrospective feeling. “We literally grew up in this place. T’was safer to play and wait for our parents in here than at home or on the streets. I guess that’s what makes this so special to us” he shrugged. Sensing that he had finished the story, I nodded slowly, comprehending everything he just told me. “I like it here. Has charm to it”. Grinning widely, I took another bite to further prove my point.

People think of New York as this cool and hip city, with expensive luxurious apartments and such, but they seem to forget that not everyone is fortunate enough to live that life. Some of us have to learn from an early age that this world is full of bad people. Not everyone is going to wish you the best or give a helping hand. “We kinda are like OMB if you really think about it. Sure, no one is forcing us to join a gang or sum, but we do live a similar life” Zion threw in. “Actually, the weedhead might be onto something” B exclaimed. “You moving here out of nowhere” he said, pointing towards me. “Ed having to give up his room for you. A weird crackhead as a friend like Jamal” Now it was Edwin’s turn to be pointed at. “Hey! That’s rude! Besides, don’t do my bro Jamal like dat. He’s a great friend, always got their backs and shit” Ed tried to argue. “You’re a great friend, too. And an even better twin brother” I genuinely told him. A chorus of “Awwee”’s followed the round. “Now this is how you talk to friends! Take notes, ladies”. When he said ladies, he definitely wasn’t referring to me or Ansley.

The night itself turned out being amazing and I was glad that Edwin had convinced me to go to prom. We were talking about everything and nothing, really. Moments turned into minutes. Minutes turned into hours, and soon it was already time to leave. Ansley had to be home soon, so Austin took it upon himself to make sure she would arrive there safely. Edwin was craving donuts from the corner shop across the street, but since he couldn’t be trusted on his own, Brandon decided to follow him. “Is B really the right fit to watch him not do any shenanigans?” Nick asked warily. “… honestly, talking from experience, I should probably go with ‘em before their sugar high kicks in”. With that, I was left alone with Zion in the booth of a run-down diner in the middle of New York. Despite being in one of the biggest cities, the world suddenly felt so small around me.

“So …” Zion said, looking around the place. “So …” I mimicked. Shaking his head, he just laughed. “This is low key awkward, not gonna lie”. It was true. In a group we no longer had trouble talking, however when alone it was a whole another story.

“I’m sorry”.

“You say sorry way too much”.

“Maybe. But this time I wanna apologize for attacking you with that kiss last week”.

“It’s all forgotten”.

His mouth opened and closed, scared to say something but I knew there still was something he wanted to get off his chest.

The bell above the door frame signaled the arrival of someone. “Guess what I gotchu guys?!” Edwin trotted over, taking a seat on the table, so that he had both me and Z on each of his sides. A small brown paper bag rested on his lap. With one swift movement, he pulled out some twizzlers, and shoved them in our hands. “And we also bought you make up wipes!” happily Brandon said in a sing-song voice. Fishing out the pack, he handed them over to me. “I love you guys!”. Nick walked in last. “Yo, I’m slowly getting tired. Can we drive home now?” sleepily he rubbed his eyes, already pulling on Zion’s sleeve. Reluctantly, Edwin followed behind, even though all he wanted was to eat his candy. His sugar high was still going in full force. Therefore, he didn’t feel an ounce of sleep.

“Why the fuck is he so bouncy?!”Austin asked. We had called him earlier to ask for his location, so that we could pick him up and drive home as well. He climbed up the Jeep, sitting next to an energetic Ed. “Twizzlers?” he offered to his friend. “No, thanks. Also, please stop smiling so creepily, you’re scaring me”. This was going to be a long drive.

Note: Part 4 will have more Zion moments. The plan is to have only one or two settings, so hopefully it’ll work out as planned.

I’d love to get some feedback, good or bad doesn’t matter!! What direction would you want this to go? How would you like this to end? Let me know!

Cami

[fatebreaking-a]

☀️

I like how this is literally indecipherable on desktop, so I had to go onto my phone (where it was still indecipherable) and then open it in safari to figure out which one this was.

☀ What’s your rp pet peeve?

It’s this one and not the other one right above it that also looks like a sun.

Emoticons, man.

Well, that was fun and all but- rp pet peeves. Stuff under the cut. Pour one out for the entire community, because I’m about to take a pound of flesh from everyone.

There’s a lot of stuff in here that boils down to just being a good writing partner and all that, trying to advance the action in a natural way, and so on… and I think a lot of it can boil down to either a lack of awareness or a lack of experience. People get better at writing by writing, so I find it hard to really be frustrated and stay frustrated by someone who falls into some of these pitfalls. So you’ll notice I don’t really target things that have to do with writing skill as much as I target ‘attitude’ and ‘conscientiousness’. There is a lot that bothers me though, so here’s a short list.

Criticizing the way other people have fun. This is a big one. What this boils down to is conversations about how “this ship isn’t realistic” or “your ideals on writing are dumb” or “you take writing too seriously/not seriously enough.” I’ve seen all of these. And I used to know someone on a forum-based RP site that would actively go out of her way to criticize that people would include a lot of introspection in scenes that were fast paced. For instance, using poetic language, or talking about how they’re feeling, what the situation was, “he felt like he was up against the tide, that his heart was being torn in two, a cut made deeper with every clash of their blades” - stuff like that. She hated it. And she made sure everyone knew that she did not approve of how much they were writing, because it was ‘not realistic’. And yes, there is definite merit to the claim that people do not have time to introspect about their entire lives and their relationship to their allies and enemies between sword swings... But so what. I don’t think it’s wrong to advocate for shorter, simpler posts with less descriptive text, and to manage in 200 words instead of 600. That’s great. Simplicity has value, being concise is great, ‘brevity is the soul of wit’, whatever. But the problem, the problem was that she would criticize others for writing in a way that they enjoyed. No one got on her case for writing less, but she was so grating on this point that eventually people just did not want to be around her.

It was something I’ve experienced even here. Finding the balance between “writing to improve your ability to write” and “writing just to have fun” are two separate matters. People forget that individuals exist from both camps, and I have known people (multiple) who say ‘this is important to me, I’m growing my skills using RP as a medium’ but fail to empathize and recognize that not everyone has the same viewpoint. Caring about things that make you feel something over technically good and well executed writing does not make you a problem.

And as a big follow up, I find that this is a big issue in life in general. I think that people often forget how much time it took them to learn a certain thing, recognize their own investment, or recognize the disparity between their own idea of ‘common knowledge’ vs actually common knowledge. When I joined the community, I did not know what private, selective, independent, mun, muse, or mutuals meant. For someone who’s brand new, these are terms that can be hard to decipher. And it’s the similar with ships - I think that people forget that not everyone who comes to RP is from a writing background. Some of them may just have enjoyed reading fanfiction, or may have enjoyed their favorite bot lane duo, or they have a main and their partner has a main and they like the aesthetic. So long as it’s not inherently problematic (incest, pedophilia), it’s cruel to degrade someone and call everything that doesn’t make perfect sense a ‘crackship’. Fanart also has a big role to play in this. Do I personally like Sona with Ka/yn, Yas, Sy/las, Jh/in, or Dra/ven? No, I don’t. I don’t, but equally, it’s not right for me to get in someone’s face for liking it. If you love MF/Sona because it’s a fuckin’ sick classic wombo combo bot lane... that’s cool, more power to you. I wish people would ease up and remember to just let people have their fun. There’s a Jh/in that follows me, who politely asked if I shipped it and I said no, and then there was no hard feelings at all. And that is ideal for me. Really.

T h e f t.

And being ultra conscious of it. I am in a very unfortunate circumstance that many of my Sona hcs are very similar to another blog in the space. I found that out by accident, and we reached similar (but also different!) conclusions. But now I am terribly terrified of ever speaking to them, because gods above I want to lift all my duplicates into the air, kiss them, and scream about them... but I don’t want anyone to feel anxious that I’m copying them. It’s also why until about a week ago, I only followed one other Sona blog ever - written by one of my very, very close friends. I never want people to feel like I’m stealing from them, but I also want my duplicates to feel comfortable on my blog! I want them to feel okay about reblogging art of their characters if they like it or talking to me about things... And I’ve put in a lot of effort to be very divergent with my portrayals, but I still ended up in this situation. I won’t name names ( and I really hope that no one bothers that other Sona, because she’s a genuine sweetheart and deserves love and appreciation ),  b ut... This is a big issue for me.

And it’s exacerbated by the fact that some people are lazy as fuck and actually just straight up steal ideas. It’s not ‘inspired by’, which I usually take care to do, giving proper credits or speaking about where I got information from or from whom or that it is on some level almost collaborative (because this is a collaborative space where we interact with each other, but that’s another topic). But I mean some people just recklessly steal and because we all have anxiety (TM), the line between coincidence, inspiration, and theft blurs. Understand that on some level, plagarism is an ethical dilemma, and I exist in the camp that says “hey man that’s cool come talk to me” - but I can exist in that camp because I insist on a very divergent interpretation that is almost ‘theft-proof’. I do not think any other Sona blog will ever have this combination of headcanons: “is a construct inspired by a house spirit, made up of one part crashed titan goddess, three parts demons, and each demon is represented by one of the strings of the instrument, which by the way shattered because bad reasons”. But if you’re not me, it’s hard to... stay loose about it.

And it’s hard to not get jealous.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. Alright I wrote down a list when I actually got this ask, so let’s run off that. ( Yuki, you fuck, you’re not done? Fuck no I’m not done. ) These next ones are big for me.

MISREPRESENTING YOUR WANTS / YOURSELF

what does that mean, you ask me. It means this. It means pretending to be interested in ideas or interactions, even if you’re not interested. I do not ever want to be in the situation where I am happily chugging along, talking about a dynamic, and then find out that the other person isn’t as interested.

It’s fine to be mellow about it dude. I would rather know that you’re like... just okay on it all. I don’t want you to be polite and ‘spare my feelings’ and force yourself.

I want you to have fun. Have fun. God just have fun, you know? Please. There are a ton of interactions I’m “just okay” with, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I can be just okay with stuff and it’s fine. Not everything needs to click instantly but like...

Only showing interest to appeal to me or spare my feelings kinda sucks. It doesn’t last forever. It feels really bad. And eventually when things fall apart, it feels even worse. Like oh you really just did not care that much. Or you didn’t enjoy writing with me? Or what is it? See: jealousy/anxiety. Just be honest.

I think you especially have seen this with me, but I have a penchant for just being sincere and honest about how I feel about things. At least a little bit.

Don’t share things people tell you in confidence.

Fucking duh but it needs to be stated. Sometimes people gotta vent. It happens. And I get that ‘talking behind someone’s back’ is not great, but expressing frustration is a real thing that has real value. And then finding out that those things were shared. If I didn’t bring it up with them myself, I didn’t want them to know. Duh. I’m not talking to be catty but because I’m upset. S h i t. Some of the drama that I’ve seen happen from others doing this (and not to me, but in various cases) was entirely unavoidable. I’ve seen so many variants of this. It’s dumb dude. It’s dumb.

Hard vs Soft statements (Stating opinions as facts)

This is another one that gets me. I come from a world where we write, ‘Sona tries to’ and so on to others. Tumblr as a whole doesn’t seem to conceptually engage with the idea of ‘interrupting actions’ and accepting that interactions are a little malleable. And it in turn reflects how others speak about characters.

I never see, “I think Sona is”, I see “Sona is.” This is such a minor little thing, and I’ve come to accept that it’s part of the culture, but it can be terribly frustrating when others speak about your characters. I often say things like “I see Sona as” or “Because of xyz, Ori/anna would probably-” etc. But that isn’t something that I see here from some people. I know that I do this a lot less these days, in part because I have acclimated to the culture.

Incidentally, there are some joke versions of this that are also frustrating. People can really think they’re being funny, but end up just shutting you out of the conversation entirely when they say ‘No’. I might be a little too sensitive to this though, in that I often disengage from conversations because “it’s not really about my interpretation, so it’s better if I not say anything because it’s not relevant and doesn’t contribute.”

Really, I’m just a weenie baby, but I know when someone’s being rude vs when it’s just my own anxieties. I don’t expect everyone to have unshakable confidence, I also don’t expect that everyone be quivering in their boots. Some people can be really, really dismissive and it’s kind of not so great because it comes along with them otherwise being pretty neat.

Last one: Misrepresentation of data / using a ‘preponderance of evidence’ when there really isn’t that much.

How do I even put this.

CONJECTURE IS NOT FACT.

CONJECTURE IS NOT FACT.

CONJECTURE IS NOT FACT.

Phew. Okay that’s done. That right there is a big problem (and in combination with the pet peeve before that, it gets worse.)

Something to understand is that sometimes there is no good reason to pipe up to correct someone. Often, people are having a visceral, gut reaction and it’s very emotional. Criticizing that ignores the intent (that they’re frustrated), so it’s often a good idea to let it be.

But that doesn’t stop me from seeing that facts are poorly stated or misrepresented. The community likes to talk about league so I see it in OOC posts, and I also see claims that are just wrong. They’re misstated, exaggerated, or phrased in such a way that you could accept them - except one fact check will prove otherwise. But again, why get in someone’s face when they’re frustrated?

But this leads to some people feeling ‘complicit acceptance’. Which is in itself another problem that I won’t get into.

I as a person tend to be pretty rigorous. If I see facts and I can check them with a quick google search, I often do - especially League. It’s so easy to check a champion’s win rate or popularity. Other people do not always exercise this rigor.

“Alright fuckface but that’s talking about league and not rp.”

Yeah okay you make a fair and valid point, except for the part where you missed bullet points 2-4. I’m more talking about the general attitude people have but let’s talk specifically more about RP.

There’s content. A lot of content. And most of it is really vague, because that’s how R I O T G A M E S does things. We still can’t get a straight answer on whether Sona’s adopted mom, Lestara, is alive or not. H u h?

And this often leads to us making connections and conclusions based on the limited data we have. We’re extrapolating, taking what we know and trying to figure out something new.

Except when we get a new data set, sometimes our extrapolations don’t work anymore.

Except we just spent three months world building around our guesses ( because that’s what they are)

Oops I’m divergent now.

That happens. A lot. My entire blog was evidence of that, where I made extreme guesses and then accidentally got validated as Demacia went full grimdark. But it even happened last year, when suddenly we gained new information! Mage registration! That’s a thing! And it changes how we perceive things.

And you may be thinking, ‘ok fine but what does that have to do with misrepresentation’ and it has this to do with it. People will make conclusions based on their own view, then solidify these conclusions as ‘fact’.

For example, I wrote a small article on how “magical sight was not a reasonable power to have” and then soon after, Mageseekers appeared. Oops. Oops.

And these extrapolations get treated as though they are really fact. The line between what is ‘real’ and what is ‘assumed’ blurs. The truth is this. Unless it’s directly and unambiguously stated, it’s basically not fact. “But we can conclude-” I know. And then we’ll get new information and that’ll change. Ideas in this fandom are like balloons, you need to tie them down with text evidence or they’ll just float away before you even know it. I can talk about how Sona is a literal genius level intellect all day, and tomorrow I can be proven wrong by one little shift or clarification in the lore. ‘Within months’ - okay how many months? Fifteen months? Three months? Unknown.

And this leads me to preponderance of ‘evidence’. This one is long because it bothers me a bunch.

‘Preponderance of evidence’ (quotes required) is basically the situation in which someone goes and tells me:

“Listen buddy, I have these seven pieces of evidence, so I can reasonably conclude that [x] is true.” And that’s solid conjecture and extrapolation and I accept that.

Except that maybe you seven pieces of evidence aren’t all solid pieces of evidence.

Oh.

Oh no.

And that’s happened. I have seen evidence pieces one, two, four, and six all be good. And pieces three, five, and seven are a stretch at best.

But because they have so many pieces of evidence, it’s hard to critique back. Because they still do have four good pieces of evidence!

But the strength of the conclusion increases with more accurate and valid data points, and if your data points aren’t-

And that’s the rub, basically. Sometimes I see people fit evidence to their conclusion without even realizing it. Some of the most intelligent, rigorous, and well-versed writers on this site I’ve seen do it.

And it sucks.

And it’s a peeve because here’s  the truth.

The truth after all this talk is this very important fact.

I don’t say anything about these things to people because I don’t want to ruin anyone’s fun or engagement.

People make mistakes and say many things because they are passionate about what they’re talking about. Often that’s the case. And harmless conjecture misunderstandings are not the end of the world because this is not academia.

except that one time I wrote a writeup on how Aphe/lios isn’t mute but whatever.

And so while I have said all these things and have a lot of these feelings, I also think there’s no point to saying most of them directly to the person that bugs me. What good will it do? To someone who is reacting with their emotions and just wants to get their frustration out, or is speaking passionately about something... Just let it go.

And so often I let it go, even if I disagree. I have an opinion, but I don’t go out and toss it back in your face. I just get mad quietly and grump about it.

And that’s why I end up being a very ‘stay in my lane’ person.

The end.

If you read all the way through this, I’ll give you a cookie tbh. Many cookies. This is almost 3000 words and 7 pages.

[guernsey-island]

Please answer 1-98 >:3

Weird asks that say a lot

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans?      water bottles 2. chocolate bars or lollipops?      chocolate bars 3. bubblegum or cotton candy?      cotton candy, though I don't like either very much 4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you?      I don't know 5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups?      plastic cups??? 6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear?      sportswear I guess 7. earbuds or headphones?      I only have earbuds right now, but I like both 8. movies or tv shows?      tv shows, but that doesn't mean I don't like movies too 9. favorite smell in the summer?      the ocean 10. game you were best at in p.e.?      capture the flag 11. what you have for breakfast on an average day?      whatever I can find 12. name of your favorite playlist?      "Good Songs :D" 13. lanyard or key ring?      key ring 14. favorite non-chocolate candy?      I don't particularly like any non-chocolate candy. Too artificial and sweet :/ 15. favorite book you read as a school assignment?      Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 16. most comfortable position to sit in?      leaning back and with my legs out 17. most frequently worn pair of shoes?      white converse 18. ideal weather?      raining or a mild temperature like 80 degrees F paired with high humidity 19. sleeping position?      I fall asleep on my side and wake up on my back 20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)?      Google docs heheh 21. obsession from childhood?      I was one of those warrior cats kids (no, I didn't pretend to be warrior cats at recess) 22. role model?      Snickers 23. strange habits?      popping my back, checking sunset/sunrise times 24. favorite crystal?     all crystals are great 25. first song you remember hearing?      Counting Stars by OneRepublic 26. favorite activity to do in warm weather?      hiking 27. favorite activity to do in cold weather?      reading 28. five songs to describe you?      Modern Loneliness- Lauv // Scared of Heights- Loving Caliber // backpack- slchld // By Now- Will Jay // Come True- khai dreams, Forrest., Biskwiq 29. best way to bond with you?      don't annoy me 30. places that you find sacred?      the beach when no one is there or deep in the mountains 31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?      ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 32. top five favorite vines?      road work ahead, jared 19, damn daniel, 2 bros chillin in a hot tub, x files theme 33. most used phrase in your phone?      probably >:3 34. advertisements you have stuck in your head?      that spotify ad about peter and jumping/skipping rope. IF you knew what an 8track tape was!! 35. average time you fall asleep?      ~2:30am 36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing?      the pepe the frog memes 37. suitcase or duffel bag?      suitcase 38. lemonade or tea?      lemonade but tea is also superb 39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie?      lemon cake bc I've never had lemon meringue pie 40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?      I don't really remember. Let's go with Mr. Rightmyer and Mr. Mikow in general (ig matrix_multiplication). or maybe the time Sami put a lamp on her head and pretended to be Shaggy 41. last person you texted?      Snickers 42. jacket pockets or pants pockets?      jacket pockets 43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket?      hoodie 44. favorite scent for soap?      hmmm something tropical 45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero?      sci-fi 46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in?      clothing 47. favorite type of cheese?      swiss or colby jack or parmigiano-reggiano 48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be?      peaches bc they're the best fruit 49. what saying or quote do you live by?      "you become what you think about" "success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal"- Earl Nightingale "the opposite of courage is not cowardice, it is conformity" "sanity and happiness are an impossible combination"- Mark Twain "If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading"- Lao Tzu "failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough" - Og Mandino 50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have?      let's go with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TilHylia7rE and more recently, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voncdcV648g 51. current stresses?      upcoming exams, writing essays 52. favorite font?      My current favorites are Frank Ruhl Libre, Overlock, and Rajdhani 53. what is the current state of your hands?      good, though I perpetually have a bump on one finger from writing too much 54. what did you learn from your first job?      job?? what job? 55. favorite fairy tale?      three little pigs 56. favorite tradition?      sleeping 57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome?      I don't know 58. four talents you’re proud of having?      Freestyling (ground moves and juggling), shooting knuckleballs, popping my back really well, running a 5-6 minute mile 59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be?      I don’t know what my catchphrase would be 60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be?      a shonen where the protagonist is trying to survive in a crazy world, become the best at something, or master some special power (examples: tower of god or solo leveling if it was an anime) OR something with a mafia 61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.?      "Well, if you only knew how little I really know about the things that matter"- Elio in cmbyn the movie (think about this quote all the time) "Let us cultivate our garden"-Candide in Candide by Voltaire “The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas.”- Sinclair in Demian by Hermann Hesse “I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?”- Sinclair in Demain by Hermann Hesse “Know yourself and go in swinging.”- More than this by Patrick Ness “Just leave me alone. I’m not myself. I’m falling apart, and I don’t want you here.”- Charlie in Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Tons of quotes and references from Arthur, httyd, and other media 62. seven characters you relate to?      Lance (vld), zuko (atla), okonkwo (things fall apart), nwoye (things fall apart), bokuto (haikyuu), sinclair (demian), hiccup (httyd) 63. five songs that would play in your club?      Wednesday Girl- Elijah Who, Aso, Peachy!, Kudasaibeats, slchld // Way Back Home- SHAUN, Conor Maynard, Sam Feldt // Let Me Down Slow (Acoustic)- New Hope Club // Crush Culture- Conan Gray // All Night Long- TAEYEON, LUCAS 64. favorite website from your childhood?      animal jam 65. any permanent scars?      I have a ton of scars on my legs and knees. I ran into a cart at staples once and have a big scar from that. I have a few scars on my elbows too 66. favorite flower(s)?      columbine (CO state flower) 67. good luck charms?      none 68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried?      I have no idea 69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned?      I don’t know 70. left or right handed?       right 71. least favorite pattern?      cheetah or zebra print 72. worst subject?      hmmm biology but only bc I don't put in the effort 73. favorite weird flavor combo?      I don't know. I like food 74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen?      I don't think I've experienced enough pain to accurately answer this question. I've only taken ibuprofen once (when I got my wisdom teeth taken out), but I didn't think it was that necessary to take 75. when did you lose your first tooth?      probably when I was six 76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)?      scalloped potatoes, hash browns, Spanish tortillas, potato salad, mashed potatoes 77. best plant to grow on a windowsill?      aloe vera 78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store?      sushi from a grocery store 79. which looks better, your school id photo or your driver’s license photo?      school ID 80. earth tones or jewel tones?      earth tones 81. fireflies or lightning bugs?      they're called fireflies 82. pc or console?      pc 83. writing or drawing?      writing 84. podcasts or talk radio?      podcasts 84. barbie or polly pocket?      no 85. fairy tales or mythology?      mythology 86. cookies or cupcakes?      cookies 87. your greatest fear?      Accidentally biting off my tongue and then choking on it, seeing things in mirrors, being stabbed with a knife as I enter a hotel elevator, receiving emails 88. your greatest wish?      Happiness??? I don’t know 89. who would you put before everyone else?      Snickers 90. luckiest mistake?      I don't know 91. boxes or bags?      boxes 92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights?      sunlight 93. nicknames?      let's not talk abt that,,, 94. favorite season?      spring or summer 95. favorite app on your phone?      google play books, goodreads, tumblr, kakaotalk, spotify, google keep 96. desktop background?      it's a slideshow. the background at the moment is a photo of Manarola, Italy taken by Peter Hegedus. It's one of my favorite photographs of all time 97. how many phone numbers do you have memorized?      three not including 911 (so four) 98. favorite historical era?     1300s in the Mongol empire or around when the spice trade was at its peak, 1800s in America during westward expansion, 1920s, ancient egypt, Harlem Renaissance 

[douchebagbrainwaves]

IN FACT, I'D SAY TWENTY

It was supposed to be making an effort. At first desktop computers didn't look like much of a role as gatekeepers. You should be able to build everything they need. Though Balzac made a lot of i/o fast. And whatever its components, they're not even fun. That will tend to be very disciplined if you take the latter route that the lawyer is representing you rather than merely commenting on them has similar incentives. What's missing or broken in your daily life? See, we love big juicy lumbar disc herniations, but they must both squeeze equally or the seed spins off sideways. Essentially, they lead you on. But the fact is, most startups that succeed do it by pretending to be overstretched.

Stir vigilantly to avoid sticking. The actual questions are respectively patents or secrecy? This doesn't seem to work themselves out. Especially if you're also looking for a cofounder. You have to understand what it is. Essays should aim for maximum surprise. This is no accident that the middle class. Rockefeller said in 1880 The day of combination is here to stay. When Richard Feynman said that the average American watches 4 hours of TV a day. Even now the image of a great hacker.

But even at the most successful startups are the exact opposite of this. Companies like Cisco are proud that everyone there has a cubicle, even the CEO. We are having a bit of a hack. This principle isn't only for big ideas. It seemed to me as if the test of a language is to be something you have to make a difference. For example, when Leonardo painted the portrait of Ginevra de Benci in the National Gallery, he put a juniper bush behind her head. The reason you've never heard of investors caring either. Dartmouth, the University of Washington yielded a high-school kid. Stop fundraising when it stops working.

It's very dangerous to start worrying too early that you're default dead, start asking too early. You don't have to do licensing deals, or get shelf space in retail stores, or grovel to have your work tangled together with a lot of bandwidth. Make Wealth in Hackers & Painters that hadn't been online. Those who would later be vanquished by one of them from doing too much damage. Buy millions of dollars a year. Being Wise? Whereas I suspect over at General Motors the marketing people convince everyone that you're ready to fight to the death is actually to be ready to start that startup. 06%. John Nash so admired Norbert Wiener that he adopted his habit of touching the wall as he walked down a corridor. And yet those who dislike the term are probably right, because if they don't work, and when one appears, grab it. E-commerce, it turned out, was no coincidence that Microsoft and Facebook both got started in January. Here, as so often happens, the closer the paraphrase is to plagiarism, the more options you have—not just at this stage is probably the first you've founded.

This was the most significant thing they'd observed, it was the season Dallas premiered. I've often had a juicy bug to track down. But unfortunately when you graduate, you should try to stay as close friends as you can in so many print publications—which is one of the most important quality in startup founders. There have been famous instances of collaboration in the arts. So I say let's aim at the problems. The reason I want to examine a more specific question: why Europe grew so powerful. In the meantime founders have to do 7.

I only had two hours before dinner and think fastest while writing. And of course any VCs reading this are probably rolling on the floor laughing at how my hypothetical VCs let the angel keep his 10. This won't get us all the answers, though. And yet the Lisps we have today are still pretty much what business consists of. Suppose there were some excessively compact way to phrase something, there would be little justification for using any but the most popular kid in school, though that counted for something, in the same category as being a publisher. So I decided I'd pay close attention to accidents and to new ideas has to be good-looking, natural athletes, or siblings of popular kids, they'll tend to nominate only the most charismatic guy? Work. Html#f10n 17. In every swing state they overestimated the Kerry vote. If you suppress variations in income are somehow bad for society. Perhaps it's in the sweet spot for startup founders, and one kind that's called into being to commercialize a scientific discovery. One professor friend says that 15-20% of the grad students they admit each year are long shots.

But there are some things that will make it. Agreeing tends to motivate people by saying Real artists ship. If you want cohesion now, you'd have to watch what you said to your friend. You could serve them targeted offers, and maybe turn it into an official job later, or not what you're trying to do real work, jump on it. There is nothing more unconvincing, for an investor or acquirer will assume the worst; investors who are their customers—the endowments and pension funds and rich families whose money they invest. Test Ultimately, I think we will, with server-based software blows away this whole model. At the stage where they're sufficiently convincing well before Demo Day, we have to remember that art has an audience. I was running a startup, it will become less common for the master to paint the others and the background. Earlier he'd had an opportunity to invest at all. And I wasn't alone. I asked if they'd still be interested in a social network for pet owners.

What little original thought there was took place in lulls between constant wars and had something of the character of the site rather than enhancing it. You can of course be especially suspicious of grants whose purpose is some kind of paternal obligation that isn't there in transactions between equals. You can still see fossils of their origins in their graphic design. But the real costs are the ones most people don't choose programming languages simply based on their merits. They were effectively a component supplier. The reason Aristotle didn't get anywhere in the Metaphysics was partly that he set off with contradictory aims: to explore the limits of whatever you're doing, your servers keep crashing, you run into in chance meetings are in the earliest phases. Learning for Text Categorization. While certain famous Internet stocks were almost certainly overvalued in 1999, so I can usually be found sitting in a corner somewhere with a copy printed out on paper, trying to arrange deals. That's one of the most successful people I know are some of the smartest people and get them to move to your silicon valley like to get money. For example, the Honeywell thermostats in my house in Cambridge, it was a mistake, of exactly the right thing.

Thanks to Jackie McDonough, Hutch Fishman, Trevor Blackwell, Ariel Poler, Parker Conrad, Jessica Livingston, John Bautista, and Brian Oberkirch for their feedback on these thoughts.

[secondscratch17]

weird asks that say a lot

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans? All of them. I drink tea in coffee mugs and teacups. I love drinking wine. I like that I can recycle soda cans

2. chocolate bars or lollipops? chocolate

3. bubblegum or cotton candy? bubblegum if the flavor lasts long

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you? the stereotypical quiet, obedient, smart, goody-two-shoes kid

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups? somehow I like the aesthetic from soda bottles

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear? hONESTLY I can dO ALL OF THE ABOVE in the span of days. Went to work one day wearing beach-y clothes for spirit day. Returned to pick up a friend to go see a metal concert in VERY metal concert attire. I own short, sweet summery floral dresses and gothic dresses, too

7. earbuds or headphones? Earbuds, they allow me to be more mobile

8. movies or tv shows? movies

9. favorite smell in the summer? Fresh cut grass. The smell of the ocean. Churros at the fair

10. game you were best at in p.e.? Soccer, obvs. Somehow would always last until the end of the game in dodgeball tho because I was small and no one could hit me

11. what you have for breakfast on an average day? Cereal

12. name of your favorite playlist? Don’t have one. 

13. lanyard or key ring?  Key ring

14. favorite non-chocolate candy? Smarties!

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment? I remember re-reading Holes over and over just to make my book reports easier since I knew the boo so well. The Kite Runner was phenomenal and unforgettable

16. most comfortable position to sit in? idk?? I really can’t sit still in one position for too long

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes? Currently my hiking/outdoorsy shoes. Also my black Nikes that I play pickup in and wear to the gym

18. ideal weather? Sunny and 65. Maybe one or two clouds. The tiniest of faint breezes to cool me down. 

19. sleeping position? Any I can get into and fall asleep in quickly

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)? Laptop. I can edit easier.

21. obsession from childhood? Probably any cheesy show on Animal Planet. The Most Extreme, Meerkat Manor, Big Cat Diary, etc

22. role model? I have a lot of different ones. Role models for athletics, role models for career and ambition choices, artistic role models...can’t pick just one

23. strange habits? Spelling words with the tips of my fingers

24. favorite crystal? Aquamarine

25. first song you remember hearing? how in the FUCK am I supposed to remember that. I do remember my parents playing The Beatles for me when I was a toddler

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather? Soccer! (futbol) 

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather? Sledding, making hot chocolate, or playing indoor soccer haha

28. five songs to describe you? Who I am Hates Who I’ve Been by Relient K, Proud by the Icarus Account, Land of the Dead by Voltaire, Always Leaving by Mayday Parade, Wavin’ Flag by K’naan

29. best way to bond with you? Listening to my favorite music with me or watching the US Women’s national soccer team with me

30. places that you find sacred? Belfast, Maine. Gold Camp Road. Newport Beach

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names? Tight jeans with holes in them, fishnets, and a crop top

32. top five favorite vines? Vines still exist?

33. most used phrase in your phone? “tbh”

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head? O O O O REILLYYYYYY’S autoparts

35. average time you fall asleep? around 9

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing? I don’t remember

37. suitcase or duffel bag? suitcase

38. lemonade or tea? Is it warm outside? Lemonade. Is it cold outside? tea

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie? PIE!

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school? Zombie hunting or my professor cutting lab a half an hour short to go look at some Cedar waxwings

41. last person you texted? I think it was Robert

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets? Pants pockets

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket? Jean jacket

44. favorite scent for soap? Anything fruity

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero? Fantasy. It depends on how good the sci-fi movie is

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in? as little as possible lmao

47. favorite type of cheese? Parmesan

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be? A raspberry

49. what saying or quote do you live by? A great amount of good is always evened out by a great amount of bad

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have? Honestly Daniel knew how to make me laugh better than anyone. There are a couple of memories with him that I don’t remember entirely but I know that I ended up cry-laughing so hard that my head hurt. There was a time during my orientation camping trip when a bunch of us were playing ultimate Frisbee, and Jesse went to catch the frisbee in the most perfectly lateral horizontal position and the expression of focus just frozen on his face had me laughing so hard that I couldn’t see

51. current stresses? Sam. Jobs that I can apply for starting in May of 2020. Sam. STUDENT LOANS. Bills. Car payments. Wondering how fucked up my car has gotten since I’ve lived here on this ranch. Sam. 

52. favorite font? Anything that looks fancy and sarcastic

53. what is the current state of your hands? Need to be washed. 

54. what did you learn from your first job? The world is cruel and bad things happen without warning

55. favorite fairy tale? Uh....the Pied Piper?

56. favorite tradition? when my family visits for Christmas, eating lots of traditional Chinese food with them

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome? Heartbreak. Staggering rejection from the field I majored in. Probably a lot of body image struggles in there as well

58. four talents you’re proud of having? Writing, futbol, adaptability, flexibility. I think the last two are just traits but I don’t have a lot of talents I can invest in

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be? Let’s make like a baby and head out

60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be? No idea

61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.? Though we are far apart, our spirits share the same earth and the same sky

62. seven characters you relate to? Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit, Data from The Goonies, Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, Eliza Thornberry from The Wild Thornberries, Raven from Teen Titans, Isaac from Teen Wolf

63. five songs that would play in your club? ANYTHING by Within Temptation. I wouldn’t be a good club owner. The catchy and pump-up songs from Hamilton.

64. favorite website from your childhood? Wasn’t allowed much computer time. I was allowed to visit educational sites and occasionally the Disney site

65. any permanent scars? some self-harm scars. Probably the one on my right leg that I got from CO parks and wildlife. I stepped on a barbed wire fence that had been plastered to the ground, but the metal sprang up when I stepped on it and ripped through my skin

66. favorite flower(s)? Plumerias

67. good luck charms? I’m not sure if I have any. 

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried? earthworm flavor from Bertie Bott’s every flavor beans

69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned? uh...Something about not being able to spray silly string on Halloween in Hollywood

70. left or right handed? Right handed

71. least favorite pattern? wtf

72. worst subject? anything math related, I really struggled in GIS.

73. favorite weird flavor combo? I...have no idea

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen? 2. I’m a baby

75. when did you lose your first tooth? I was 6

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)? chips and fries

77. best plant to grow on a windowsill? a succulent

78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store? sushi from a grocery store, the quality can surprise you

79. which looks better, your school id photo or your driver’s license photo? Both are terrible

80. earth tones or jewel tones? Jewel tones

81. fireflies or lightning bugs? I hate bugs

82. pc or console? PC

83. writing or drawing? Writing, I’m terrible at drawing

84. podcasts or talk radio? Not into either

84. barbie or polly pocket? I had both

85. fairy tales or mythology? God!!!! Like hearing about both but mythology I guess

86. cookies or cupcakes? Cookies

87. your greatest fear? Being forgotten. I also have a terrible, horrible fear of drowning

88. your greatest wish? In the times I’ve struggled I often find myself wishing for peace. Not only for myself, but for others to easily feel peace with everyone else

89. who would you put before everyone else? Sierra

90. luckiest mistake? Mistake? There’s been lucky accidents but I don’t think any of my mistakes have been lucky

91. boxes or bags? It depends on what I’m packing and where I’m going

92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights? Sunlight

93. nicknames? T, Tear, Tear-tear, T-Dog, Miss T..a few of my recent favorites from soccer: Ronaldinha and Thierry Chun

94. favorite season? Fall! Shit, especially in New England

95. favorite app on your phone? I don’t know

96. desktop background? A picture of a simple dock leading out to sea

97. how many phone numbers do you have memorized? My parents’ and brother’s

98. favorite historical era? Victorian era, for sure