#goodbye to all my once functioning braincells

[singular-braincells]

howdy party people, guess who got into genshin impact? its me. good news, hot people. bad news, subjecting all of you to ramblings about said hot people.

i am so salty over not being able to pull thoma during the yae miko banner so here i am thinking about fictional people as a sad coping mechanism. anyways, thanks for coming to my ted talk

not proof read brain go brr i will fix in the morning when braincells decide to function again and maybe went a lil overboard with diluc 🙃

genshin characters (kaeya, lisa, and diluc) when they see you napping

kaeya

draws weird shit on your face with a permanent black marker 

kidding lol

you just came back from doing multiple commissions and helping out the acting grand master with a horrendous amount of paper work

working since six am till about one in the afternoon, lisa forced asked you and jean to take a break

she took jean to the angel’s share tavern and promised to bring you lunch from good hunter’s. you went to an empty unused room in the knight’s headquarters to take a short break 

you pulled out a book lisa had lent you and went to an unoccupied couch in the room. located next to the window, you could feel the sunshine on your skin and see the clear skies out 

flipping through pages of your book, the warm sensation on your skin along with the minimal hours of sleep you got the night before had pulled you into a much needed nap. feeling your eyelids getting heavy and your breathing slowing down, you feel yourself succumbing to an afternoon nap

your normal aware and alert state that being an adventurer has refined over the years has left you vulnerable as you continue to doze off. kaeya considered himself lucky when he accidentally came into this room looking for jean

your relationship with kaeya was a bit odd, not gonna lie. you thought he was nothing more than a big alcoholic flirt who wanted nothing more than to inconvenience you. kaeya thought you were way too uptight for your young age and wanted to somehow crack the serious front that you put on (he knows that there is a nicer side to you, he has seen you interact with kids. the serious mannerisms falls and all that’s left is a kind and playful young soul)

luckily kaeya didn’t wake you up, he always thought you were kinda cute but with the way that the sun hits your face, the way your hands carefully clutch your novel, and the particular way that your chest goes up and down... he could feel his chest just tighten up a little bit (not that he would ever admit that)

for once, kaeya decides to be a nice person and drapes his tacky fur coat over you. he notices part of your hair covering your face and moves his slender hands to brush it out of your face and behind your ear. “my, you are awfully cute when you’re not always overworking yourself.”

kaeya leaves a cup of ice water for you on a nearby table and a note for you for when you wake up. maybe he’s not too much of an inconvenience. you’ll thank him by buying him a couple of drinks at angel’s share next time you see him stumble in after your shift 

lisa

you were tasked with being lisa’s little library helper by the knights (something you personally didn’t mind, it was better than having to babysit kaeya at the tavern)

lisa needed help putting away recently returned books while she ran some errands for the acting grand master

she gave you a list of the books that have been returned and where they needed to go. she apologies for leaving the work for you and promises that she’ll make the two of you some tea when she returns

you tell her to not worry about it since it’s the reason why you are here helping her in the first place. “why, thank you cutie. i’ll be back right before you know it” you wouldn’t admit this to her, but every time she calls you “cutie”, you melt on the inside like a popsicle in summer heat

you wave goodbye to her as she leaves the library, trying to keep your flushed face out of lisa’s sight

you looked up to lisa, like a lot. the way she was able to handle the knights’ workload and to be able to maintain the library without breaking a sweat. the way that she effortlessly makes you feel giddy just from the way she talks to you. every hug that she gives you is like a slight squeeze to your heart

determined to make lisa’s workload easier, you get to work by sorting out the returned books by author’s last names alphabetically

hours go by before lisa returns to the library and you manage to go through 90% of the books and have tried putting them in the right spots

the only books that were remaining were books checked out from the restriction section. you’d have to ask lisa for help with those books

there was one book on the shelves that had caught your eye when you were working. taking it off the shelves, you go to a quieter area of the library to read your book. there was a rather big leather chair next to two potted plants 

cracking open the book, you begin to read the pages leisurely while waiting for lisa’s return so that she can help you with the rest of the books

you can feel your eyes droop and the somewhat shady area you were in made you want to sleep even more. you notice this and shake yourself awake. you had to stay up in case lisa returned.

well that was short lived because before you knew it, you were out. snoozing peacefully, you didn’t realize that lisa had returned by the opening of oak doors at the opening of the library

lisa kept calling out your name, tea and lunch hot in her hands. she wanted to take you to the benches located by the knight’s headquarter entrance to eat lunch

what she didn’t expect is to see you sleeping soundly with a novel in your hands. “how cute.” lisa thinks to herself as she sets down the food and drinks in her hands

she leaves for a brief moment to go to her desk. opening the drawer, she retrieves a soft grey blanket and heads back to your sleeping form

she drapes the blanket over you and takes the book from your hands and sets it on a table next to the chair

lisa pats the top of your head and tucks you in, doing her best to not wake you up. “we can have lunch as soon as you wake up cutie.” 

diluc

you and diluc were good friends (well at least you thought you were good friends, didn’t want to ask him though in case y’all weren’t friends lol) who occasionally helped you out with your commissions. in return, you would help out in the angel’s share in place for charles (for emergencies or just to give the poor man a break from all the drunks)

you had learned all the bartending ways from your grandmother and grandfather. you don’t consider yourself a very very good bartender, but good enough to keep customers happy

 you weren’t one to keep up with all the various holidays that the city of mondstat celebrated, but you kept track of holidays in case the angel’s share needed an extra set of hands during busy days 

diluc would normally be the one to approach you when they needed help (he knew where to find you anyways)

today’s commissions seem to be piling on more and more for some reason. many adventurers took off for a holiday, but it had slipped your mind

thinking that today was like any other normal day, you tried to finish as many commissions as possible. hilichurls, finding lost animals, delivering packages, and everything in between

by the time the evening arrived, you were beat. ecstatic to finally be able to go home, you head towards katheryne to claim the commission rewards for when you see diluc

“oh, good evening master diluc. didn’t expect to see you here this late.” waving at him, you flash him a tired smile

as you hand katheryne all the commissions that you’ve completed, diluc and you make casual conversation

“that reminds me, would you mind giving charles an extra hand tonight? it’s rather packed in the angel’s share and he could really use the extra help.” there goes your plans for resting tonight. you didn’t want to say no to diluc and you didn’t have plans anyways

“uh sure. let me finish a couple of tasks first and i’ll be there as soon as possible.” diluc nods and thanks you. “of course. don’t mention it”

you finish whatever tasks you had left as quickly as possible and head over to the angel’s share. when you came in, it really was packed to the brim with adventurers, citizens, and entertainers alike

you go behind the bar and greet charles as you get to work. tying a black apron around your waist, you put on a tired smile and start whipping drinks together

hours and hours pass but as the most people know, time flies fast when you’re working hard. you don’t notice your fatigue and the screams of your body telling you to rest

after the last drunk has been kicked out from the bar, the two of finally have a seat. a huge sigh of relief escapes your lips as you take a large sip of water

“thank you so much for your help tonight, (y/n). i really couldn’t have done it without you.” you brush off charles appreciation. “not a problem. it had slipped my mind that today was special. would have come in earlier had i remembered.” 

you don’t notice, but diluc slips into the enterance of the bar to help you and charles clean up after a chaotic night. you glance up from your seat to see him, all in his bartender fit glory (you think he looks like 10000 times better in this outfit but would never tell that to his face)

“nice to see you again master diluc.” he nods towards you. “likewise. how was tonight?” him and charles seem to be talking, but none of what they’re saying is processing through your head. feeling your head pound, you decide to put your head down on the table and close your eyes for a brief moment

as soon as your head is in your arms, you doze off. after the large amount of commissions and mixing drinks / tending to customers all night long, you hadn’t realized how exhausted you were

diluc noticed that you hadn’t given your input on anything for the past 10 minutes and turns his head in your direction. he notices the slow rise of of your chest 

diluc feels awful for making you work so late and hadn’t even realized the state you were in before asking you to help out at the share. normally he would have noticed your exhaustion, but being busy with preparations for a busy night he hadn’t taken it into consideration. he sighs and takes off his coat. diluc glances at the goosebumps on your skin and puts his warm jacket over you

he and charles clean up the bar while you nap peacefully. after the bar is clean, diluc sends charles home. by the looks of it, you’re gonna be out cold for the whole night. he lifts you up and takes you to an unoccupied couch

somehow, you don’t stir in your sleep at all. diluc gets a small pillow and puts your head on it, moving slow and carefully. 

while you are slumped over the couch, diluc uses his coat to cover you as a blanket. there's enough space on the couch for diluc to take a seat next to you

before you know it, he's fast asleep next to you. another idiot prone to overworking himself to exhaustion

[sunsetinmyvein]

I Know That I’ll Lose - Chapter Thirteen - Love Me (If That’s What You Wanna Do)

Just like the mornings prior, the light streaming in through the large windows in Matty’s bright house woke her up. However, unlike the mornings prior, the tangle of arms and legs, the arm around her stomach, the soft snoring in her ear and the curly hair tickling her cheek were a welcome new addition. Her eyes took a brief moment to adjust to the room around her. It was nice not being jetlagged, or hungover, it meant that she had enough braincells functioning to accurately recall the events of last night. She shuffled slightly, moving to grab her phone from the bedside table to check the time, only to feel Matty’s arm tighten around her and pull her back into the middle of the bed.

“Stay in bed.” He mumbled; the tone of his voice thick with sleep.

“I thought you had stuff that you’re meant to do today?” She questioned, letting him keep her there anyway.

“Don’t care. Want to stay here with you.” He answered. She already felt that heart-warming feeling spreading through her chest after remembering how last night had gone, and he was very easily amplifying it tenfold with such a simple comment. 

“When did you get so sappy?” She muttered as she pressed her forehead into his shoulder in an attempt to hide the blush covering her cheeks.

“I will be as sappy as I damn well want.” He laughed as he squeezed his arms around her, trailing kisses from her cheek to her lips. Fucking hell. How did she ever think that she stood a chance to not fall prey to his charm?

Which pulled her mind back to how they’d left things last night. “So…” She cleared her throat anxiously. “Uh, when did you wanna talk?” It seemed best in her mind to just get it over with.

“Whenever you’re ready to.” He shrugged.

She paused for a few seconds. “Now?” She suggested.

He let out a deep sigh, ending it in a yawn as he rolled over, stretching his arms above his head. “Let’s head downstairs, then.” He nodded. “We can chat over breakfast.”

They made their way downstairs, Y/N/N taking a seat at the small outdoor table as she watched him potter about the kitchen. He hummed quietly to himself as he searched the cupboards for something basic for the two of them to eat. The contented atmosphere around him was plain to see. It was nice seeing him at ease when he was frequently so tightly wound or on edge about something.

  He sat down at the table, setting a mug down in front of her as he cradled his own tea in his hands. As he stared down into his cup, he tried to carefully picked his words. Where to begin? “I guess I should start with: I’m sorry about the bet. It er, got a bit out of hand, I suppose.”

“No kidding?” She replied sarcastically as she took a sip of her drink. He couldn’t help but let out a laugh at that before pulling himself back on track.

“It started as just messin’ about. I liked your company and you gave me a run for my money. I didn’t know what I wanted out of what we had because I wasn’t sure how I felt. I thought…” He swallowed hard, hating that he had to admit the next part. “I thought that I just liked having you around because you helped me deal with my thoughts when they were… getting difficult. I told you that things run smoother for me with company, but I truly struggle without my friends. I wouldn’t have been able to get clean - stay clean, if it weren’t for them. I rely on them massively. When you came along, it was easy for me to shift some of that emotional reliance onto you.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” She frowned. Had she known that was the case, she would’ve been able to offer some assistance through his rough patches rather than watching him suffer in silence.

“Because I thought if I told you that I felt dependent on you to stay in a good headspace, you wouldn’t wanna be around me anymore. It’s hardly charming to hear that I don’t function properly alone.” He answered truthfully. “In my best efforts to avoid confronting that, I did everything I could to keep you around without being open about why. And the bet seemed like a good way to do that. If I kept dragging it out, it gave me an excuse to stay in your life.” He elaborated.

“Matty, you didn’t need an excuse-”

“Yeah, I know that now, Y/N/N.” He grinned. “But hindsight is twenty-twenty. As it so turned out, anyway, that wasn’t why I was so hell bent on keeping you around.” He pointed out as he took a swig of his tea.

  “So…” He stared down at the hole in his jeans, picking at it absent-mindedly. “I ignored my motivations behind what we had for a long time, and gradually they changed without me noticing. It wasn’t until George talked some sense into me after tour ended that I realised why I’d been doin’ it.” She stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue. “Because I was into you, too.” He clarified with a roll of his eyes.

“You see? See how it fucking feels to have someone make you say it?” She laughed as she shoved his shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah. I said I was sorry, all right?” He chuckled. “I only realised it while you were away working at that show.”

“Is that what that voicemail was about?” She asked in surprise as the pieces suddenly clicked into place.

“Uh, kinda. More so what the call the next day was about. And why I asked you to come out here. Once I was aware of it, I finally had to do what you’d been bugging me about since we’ve met and actually work out what I wanted.” He said with a short laugh. “I wanted to tell you, I knew that much. But the rest I needed a bit of help with.”

  “And that brings us to the difficult bit that you didn’t want to confront: what happens after all this is said and done.” He added as he stood up and walked over to his coffee table. He opened the drawer on the side of it, pulling out a stack of papers. Glancing at the cover quickly to double check that he’d definitely grabbed the right thing, he made his way back to the outdoor table. “Because I know that us being into each other doesn’t mean much if I end up on tour for the majority of the year.” He flipped through the pages anxiously, choosing his words wisely before he spoke. “I want you to come and be the director of our merch.” Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. What? “It’s, erm, it’s a real job. Not something daft I made up like the Rome merch gig. You’d be in charge of our whole merchandising operation: organising stock levels, contracting out the merch jobs to the venues as we tour, making sure that they set it up correctly and that sales are lining up. Sam and I would still be designing our stuff, but you’d do pretty much all the rest. I know you don’t like sitting around doin’ nothing, so it’s proper work. You’d pretty much have to live on the road with us, have downtime when we record or have downtime ourselves. But, um, you don’t have to decide now.” He handed her the thick wad of paper. “This is the contract. Read it over, make sure you know what the job is. And don’t say yes because of me. The offer isn’t anything to do with me, it’s The 1975 exclusive. It was George’s idea actually, it didn’t even come from me.” He laughed lightly, scratching nervously at the back of his neck. Ah, that explained their secret conversation yesterday. “But I don’t want you to say yes because you think I want you to. Which is not to say that I don’t want you to, it’s just…” He let out a deep sigh as he tried to get his thoughts back on track. “Whether you say yes to the job or not, it doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t change any of my opinions. And if you say yes, anything that happens between us, good or bad or nothing, it doesn’t affect the job, yeah?” He had too many things on the list in his head to try and convey that he was starting to worry that his point wasn’t coming across coherently.

  She stared down at the papers in her hands as she mulled over the offer. “This is incredibly generous, but I don’t want to be taking someone else’s job away from them.” She said as she went to pass them back. He just pushed it back into her grip.

“You’re not.” He assured. “Previously this is something that Jamie or I did. It’s about time we delegated, so if you don’t take the job it will be offered to someone else.” As he spoke, the sound of his ringtone started filling the air around them. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the caller ID. Realistically, he shouldn’t have been surprised. “Ah, shit… That’s Hann.” He huffed, running a hand through his hair. There was still so much more that he wanted to say.

“Are you running late?” She asked.

He nodded. “I gotta go meet the guys at the studio. I’ll be back in a bit. Read the contract, see what you think. Jamie said you can have a week to think about it before he looks for another person to fill the position.” He explained as he made his way inside, throwing a jacket over his shoulders. “There’s a spare key on top of the fridge if you need to duck out.” He shouted as he headed towards the front door. A quick goodbye was thrown over his shoulder, before the heavy door was pulled shut, and she was left by herself to digest all of this information.

  She migrated back inside to sit on the couch as she flipped through the contract. He was right about it being a proper job offer. Everything was listed in these sheets of paper, from the amount of hours she should be expecting to work down to how she would have to filter any posts online about the band. The pay was… more than adequate. There were even clauses in there about the contract not locking her into any long-term agreements, she was free to leave when she wanted. It was a tempting proposition. She loved doing merch work, and she’d been doing it on and off for over a decade now. It made sense to take a leap into something more permanent than just taking jobs as they were offered to her during peak touring season. Controlling a whole merch operation for an entire band would be an interesting challenge to tackle, a rewarding one she suspected. But this was much bigger than just a job. It would mean uprooting her life at home, committing to a life on the road. And as much as he said that it didn’t, it did mean committing to Matty to a degree. Whether that was in the sense of a relationship or not, it meant that he was going to become a permanent fixture in her life. Was she certain she wanted that? She’d had less than twenty-four hours to come to terms with the fact that her feelings were actually reciprocated. And did he actually want that? It was a while of her looking at the pages before Allen came to find her; the big dog padding into the living room and watching her with curiosity. She read and re-read certain clauses as he jumped up on the couch and rested his head in her lap, trying to find something that would either seal the deal or break it. But in the end, it was her decision to make. She had to weigh up the pros and cons and decide what was going to give the best outcome.

  * * *

 Matty made it to the studio a bit breathless, having half jogged there in an effort to not be too late. They were meeting with someone to sort out the pressing of the album on vinyl, and the meeting had started fifteen minutes ago. He exchanged a few quick greetings with the people mingling around the front of the building before making his way down to the back room where he knew the rest of his band would be waiting for him.

“So sorry!” He blurted out as he stepped into the room. “Time got away from me this morning.”

“Not like you to be late.” George stated, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. Matty could hear the teasing tone underlying his voice.

“Yes, well…” He tried to think of a witty comeback as he shrugged his jacket off. But he found himself coming up empty.

“Are they the same clothes that you were wearing yesterday?” Ross questioned, eager to jump onto this bandwagon.

“Did you sleep in those?” Adam chimed in.

Matty sat there in silence, running a few responses through his head. None of them were going to get him out of this. “So, we need to get Notes out as soon as possible,” He started, opting to change the topic instead. George sniggered a laugh under his breath.

  The meeting went well. They organised that the vinyl could be out in a few months once they were ready to go ahead with the final master of the album. A few last administration bits and pieces were confirmed. They lined up their next few social media posts and when they would be posted. Things were really starting to come together. Once it was just the band left in the room, Matty finally felt the stress release from his shoulders. He knew he was about to receive a hard time from his mates, but at least now he wasn’t gonna have to let strangers in on his personal life. 

“Why were you actually running late?” George asked eventually. “Did you finally talk to her?”

The smile he was trying to conceal gave him away before he could even start talking, earning a chorus of approving noises from his friends. He waited until they’d calmed down for a second before he spoke. “Yeah, we’re on the same page now.” Matty nodded. “And I was going over the contract when you rang.” He added, gesturing towards Adam.

“Ah, shit. Sorry, man.” He apologised.

“It’s cool.” He shrugged. “I left it with her so she had a chance to read it.”

  “And?” George urged.

“And what?” The lead singer frowned in confusion.

“Are you guys together now or what?” He clarified.

“Oh, erm, well…” Matty started hesitantly. He hadn’t had the chance to get to that bit this morning.

George let out a loud groan in annoyance. “You still didn’t ask?”

“I didn’t want her to feel weird about it! Throwing the job offer and that at her in one morning seemed like too much. I just told her that it didn’t matter if we were or weren’t, the position was separate to all that.” He explained. Adam nodded in agreement. “I was gonna get to that part once she knew if she wanted to join the team or not.”

“Well, we won’t keep you any longer then.” Ross said with a nod towards the door. “Go see what she has to say.”

 * * *

  The sun was beginning to set by the time she heard the front door lock click open. Allen instantly jumped off the couch next to her to bound towards the sound of the noise, and she heard Matty greeting his dog eagerly before seeing him step into the living area.

“Sorry, I tried to get out as quickly as I could.” He said, kicking his shoes off.

“How was the meeting?” She asked as he flopped down onto the couch next to her.

“Good, yeah.” He said with a nod. “We sorted out a few last things with Notes so it should be right to go soon.” He eyed the papers sitting on the table. “So, uh… how did you get on with the contract?” He asked, clearly anxious about her answer.

“It’s very… thorough.” She chuckled.

“George wrote it up with Jamie to make sure that all the legalities were covered and you had an out if ever you wanted one. We of all people know how rough this sort of lifestyle can be.” He should probably stop talking about the downsides of the job if he ever hoped for her to want to accept it.

“I went over it a couple of times, the job itself seems great.  The only things that worried me were having to relocate my existing life at home to commit to living on the road with you lot. I don’t know if I could cram my life into a suitcase. And I’ve never handled something as major as this. There’s a lot to learn, with pretty high stakes involved and I’m sure I’ll be being thrown straight into the deep end.” She sighed, feeling the sense of dread at fucking it all up sitting at the back of her mind.

  “However, despite of all of that, I’d like to take the job.” She grinned. He couldn’t help but match her smile as a wave of relief washed over him. When she’d started talking about the negatives, he was sure that it was going to lead to her turning the offer down.

“Welcome to the team.” He said, holding his hand out to her for a handshake. She laughed lightly before shaking it. “We’ll have to head down tomorrow to get all this finalised and tell the guys.” The excitement shone in his eyes.

“I look forward to it.” She replied.

“That just leaves one last question, then.” He continued, wanting to keep the ball rolling.

“Hm?”

“What did you want to do about us?” He asked as he tried to maintain his usual confident bravado, at least until this conversation was over.

  “Ah, yeah… about that…” She sighed. His hours out of the house had also given her a lot of time to consider what she wanted out of all this - out of him. “Matty, you are quite possibly the most egotistical and arrogant person that I’ve ever met. You are relentless when you’re right, and just as difficult when you’re wrong.” These were things that he was already well aware of, but he couldn’t help the pang of hurt in his chest at having to hear them again. “And yet, for whatever reason, I haven’t been able to get you out of my head since we met.” She huffed. What? “Which might be because despite the incredibly annoying traits that you possess, you also possess many redeeming ones. You’re passionate and kind and endlessly talented.” He could feel his cheeks warming slightly at her words. “You go to the ends of the earth for the people that you care for. You’re smart and funny and fuck. I don’t think I could continue ignoring my feelings for you, even if I did want to.” She admitted as she ran a hand down her face in frustration. “Even at my most blindly stubborn, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself if I committed to being around you more than I already am. Especially after everything that’s happened since I got here.”

He considered what she was saying carefully. “What did you want our next step to be, love?” He asked, wanting to leave the ball in her court and not push her into anything. 

“I’d be keen to give a serious relationship a try if you were.” She answered bluntly. He let out a triumphant laugh. “Don’t get too cocky now that you managed to win me over.” She cautioned him, but her smile betrayed the warning in her words.

“Too late. That ship has long since sailed.” He said as he pulled her into a tight hug.

  She hugged him back just as tight, glad to finally have it all out in the open. It was probably going to be a bumpy road ahead, with a million setbacks and challenges. But she was pretty excited to be facing those things with Matty by her side.

“To think, you got yourself into all this mess with a troubled musician just because you didn’t know how to reprint a t-shirt.” He scoffed as he pulled back. She could hear the joking tone in his voice, but the incessant need to correct him still bubbled to the surface.

“That is not at all what happened.” She argued.

“I’m fairly sure it is.” He nodded. “Pretty sure that I walked in there, you needed me for help with the shirts and then you begged me to hang out with you more.” He lied.

“I’m certain that you are the one who bothered me to hang out with you more.” She shot back. The smirk on his face made it pretty clear that she’d just taken the bait. Again. “Stop being such a twat.” She laughed.

“You make it way too easy.” He replied with a chuckle before leaning down to kiss her.

 Last Chapter

Next Chapter

[solarune]

the bean

(1) citrus: the bean | series masterlist | next

pairing: kim namjoon x reader genre: fluff, college au warnings: none word count: 1,602 summary: you and namjoon are paired up together for a project in your greek literature class a/n: part 1 of my college!namjoon series. dedicating this to @mingyoongles for inspiring me to write this because of our talk about joon lmao

The class lets out a collective groan after your literature professor announces a surprise group project—another following soon after when you all discover that not only has your professor given you a group project, but has taken it upon herself to randomly assign pairs. Beside you, Sooyoung drops her head down on your shoulder, her forehead rubbing against your shirt as she shakes her head back and forth.

“This is a disaster!” she whines before finally looking at the board to see who her partner is. “The only competent people in this class are you, me, and that Namjoon guy, how am I supposed to survive without you?”

You pat her head at her dramatics, chuckling as you also look for your name. “Hey, maybe we still got paired together, you never know. Or you could’ve gotten paired up with Namjoon.” You finally find your name and purse your lips when you see the name next to yours. “Or maybe not.”

At that, Sooyoung sits up, eyes frantically searching the list of names to find yours. “You got paired up with Namjoon? The universe really does hate me.” She slumps down in her seat and you give her a pitiful smile, patting her knee as she looks at you like she’s dead inside. “I just hope this Taeyong kid has at least one functioning braincell.”

The professor announces to the class to find their partners and discuss the details of the project until the end of class and you sigh as you begin to pack up your things. “Then that means you’ll only collectively have 3 braincells, how are you supposed to get an A with that?” you tease her, dodging her swat at your thigh with a laugh as you walk to the front of the classroom to sit next to Namjoon. You smile at the boy when he greets you quietly, his hand shaking as he runs it through his blond hair and you find it cute at how nervous he seems.

“I, uh, have an appointment with my advisor right after this s-so I can only stay for a few minutes,” Namjoon says as he scribbles something on a piece of paper. “But I’m free around 5 if you can meet up then? We can go to The Bean o-or something…” His sentence gets quieter towards the end as he hands you the paper, his name and number neatly written on it in black ink. “And here’s my number, you know, just in case.”

You nod at his words as you take the paper and slip it into your jacket pocket, your eyes following his movements as he packs up his stuff. “I don’t get out of my research lab until 5 so I’ll be a few minutes late, but I’ll be there, I’ve always wanted to go to The Bean.”

At that, he freezes and looks at you with wide eyes. “You’ve never gone to The Bean?”

You laugh at the shock on his face, slowly beginning to pack up your own things as well. “Shocking, isn’t it? It’s my third year here and I haven’t been to the campus’s coffee shop. I just prefer to make my own coffee or buy it from Dunkin’ because it’s cheaper.”

“This coffee is going to blow your mind, I promise. I’ll see you at 5!” Namjoon waves goodbye to you before rushing out of the classroom, shaking hand running through his hair once more as he glances back at you before turning the corner. You think you see his face turn red as he quickly walks away from you but dismiss it as a trick of the light, attention drawn back to Sooyoung as she bounds up to you with complaints of her partner already falling from her lips.

As soon as you step foot into the campus coffeeshop, the smell of fresh coffee instantly washes over you, baked goods and sweet frosting following soon after. You feel your body relax as you walk towards Namjoon, the clinking of mugs and chatter of students providing calming background music as you sit down in the seat across from your partner and startle him out of whatever he was working on.

“H-Hi!” he exclaims a bit too loudly, slouching down when a few people look over at him and giving you a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I was… working on something for a different class.” Namjoon quickly rushes to gather his things up, papers and notebooks that were spread out along the table now being messily piled on top of each other to give you your own space.

You shake your head as you take out your laptop, almost knocking a mug out of a waiter’s hands as he sets two down on your table. “It’s fine, I kept you waiting anyways. Are these for us?”

Namjoon nods as he lifts his mug up to his lips, carefully blowing on the coffee as his face flushes. “I ordered my favorite drink here for the both of us, I hope you don’t mind. It’s just a latte.” He takes a sip and gasps when the hot liquid burns his tongue, grimacing at the pain while you laugh, causing a bit of foam to go flying at him.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry,” you apologize through your laughter, scrambling to wipe the foam off of his papers before they got ruined. “The face and noise you made was just really cute.” You look up after you’re finished cleaning to find his face as red as a tomato and it’s only then that you realize what you said. “Uh- I mean- um…” you bite your bottom lip as you try to come up with an excuse, anything really. You barely know the guy and now you’re calling him cute all of a sudden? You take a sip of your coffee as an awkward silence settles over the two of you, you desperately trying to avoid eye contact while Namjoon looks down at his lap with his hands covering his cheeks. “Anyways,” you clear your throat, making Namjoon jump in his seat. “For the presentation, I was thinking that we could talk about how divine intervention undermines Greek civilization? She said that we need two sources and we could definitely talk about The Iliad and then something else. How does that sound?”

Namjoon nods along at your words, frantically typing on his laptop with one hand while the other shuffles through his pile of papers and notebooks to pull out the anthology required for class. “I was thinking we could talk about how it undermines their civilization too, and I like the focus on divine intervention. Let me see what other story we could use…”

You nod at his words even though you know he’s no longer paying attention to you when he trails off, your eyes following the movement of his hand as he thoughtfully rubs at his bottom lip while reading. They then flit up to his face, taking note of the way his jaw is clenched in concentration, before jolting yourself out of whatever trance you were in and beginning your presentation. You and Namjoon work in silence most of the time, only occasionally talking to sort out any confusion about the plots of various stories or to ask for confirmation about something. You’re not sure what it is, but something about Namjoon makes you feel… like yourself. Maybe it’s his soft voice, or the way he gently picks up his mug and nestles it between his hands, or the way he looks at you whenever you talk as if it’s the most important thing in the entire world, or the way he scrunches his nose to push his glasses up the tiniest bit. Regardless, it has a warmth blooming in your chest that you had never felt around anyone before.

Hours pass and you’re about to finish your second latte when you look out the window, shocked to find it already dark outside. When had that happened? Your eyes widen when you see the time and only grow wider when you get a text from Sooyoung saying she’s waiting outside for you. “Shit,” you hiss as the chair almost falls backwards in the process of you standing up. “I’m so sorry, I have to go, I have a volleyball game tonight.”

Namjoon looks up at you with a dazed expression on his face, and you have to hold back a laugh at just how innocent he looks with his doe-eyes looking up at you (going back and forth between various Google searches and a giant anthology will do that to a person). “That’s okay, it’s getting pretty late anyways. If you want, we can work on it on Saturday? It would have to be at my place though because I have a plumber coming. I-If that’s okay with you, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything by having you come over.” A blush begins to creep up his face once more and you’re starting to think that Kim Namjoon can’t get any cuter than when he’s flustered and his face is as red as a tomato.

“Saturday at your place it is,” you nod with a wide smile as you shoulder your backpack. “I’ll text you later tonight and we can figure it out. See you later, Joon! And thanks for the coffee, I’ll buy next time!” You run out of the café and into Sooyoung’s car, the only thing on your mind being warm brown eyes behind wire-framed glasses as your roommate goes on about your upcoming match.