#here’s hoping we get a season 3 announced after this comes out

[mrultra100]

Got some new promo art for PHP Immersive!

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Good Omens graphic novel update: June 2024

Welcome to the June update. A lot of behind the scenes work at the moment but we're grabbing the travel sweets, popping in the Bentley and hitting the road. More on that below.

Admin

Ongoing reminder that the project FAQ can be found here. 

I pledged using my Apple ID, or no longer use the address my pledge is attached to, or I cannot work out what email address my pledge is connected to. What should I do? Please contact us via your Kickstarter account where the pledge is connected; we will be able to see on our system which address it is. If it's one you have access to, great! The FAQ has information on how to resend your invite link to access the PledgeManager. If it's one you are not able to access, then you can let us know which email is preferred and we can update this on the system, which will automatically send a new invite.

Events

We've had a lot of queries about when the Good Omens team will be attending events more formally, after some Aziraphale and Crowley spotting at conventions we'd been to previously. Well, we're excited to confirm the first: Good Omens HQ will be at ACME Comic Con in Glasgow, Scotland this September.

We'll be bringing the actual-real-life-home-to-Crowley-and-his-plants Bentley from Season 2 of Good Omens, the first time the car has been made available publicly for fans to come see and get photos with, ahead of its journey back to the set and the start of Season 3 filming.

We also see Quelin Sepulveda, aka Muriel, has been announced for the event for some additional ineffable joy.

You can get your tickets for ACME Comic Con here. We hope to see some of you there.

While we won't be rocking up with the Bentley to this next one, we want to let you know about Ineffable Con which, though sold out in person, is also taking place virtually in July. The fan-run event hosts great panels, auctions and more, with money raised going to Alzheimer’s Research UK, in memory of Sir Terry Pratchett.

Where next? We have - not an exaggeration - a list of about 200 events somewhere from when we asked fans this on Instagram and while we can't promise quite that amount of convention attendance, we're certainly looking to do some more things in future with Good Omens at large. Watch this space.  

Good Omens items...

This month has largely seen prototypes and samples for the wider Good Omens merch store arriving, and while we can't share those yet, we are certainly excited to see more fan product suggestions coming to life. That does, however, leave our public item updates a little slim on the ground.

To make up for that, here's some new panels from Colleen:

Also known as, "What could possibly go wrong?" And:

Also known as, "Well why don't you ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇ ▇▇!@#▇" or words to that effect, we'd imagine.  

Update from Colleen

Following such a positive response to Colleen's piece last month, bringing you behind the scenes into making the Good Omens graphic novel, we are delighted to say that she has agreed to write something for our updates going forward! For June, she's going more in depth into the process of flatting and the technicalities of colouring on screen vs print. Over to you, Colleen.

---

I mentioned the other month that I use a flatter to help me with technical work on GOOD OMENS, and here is a great example.

This is my original, hand drawn line art.

And this is the flatting file which was created using the MultiFill computer program.

It will put your eyes out.

The raw image above demonstrates how the color art lines up solidly under the line art. If it doesn't do that, you get a weird phenomenon in print called ghosting, a tiny little line of white around each segment of color. I had this issue on one major project and ended up redoing every single color file after I got a look at the first printing. Nearly two weeks of work.

The same image with the line art on top.

The layer order looks like this.

Background copy is the clean, line art layer.

I scan the art at 600 dpi, then make the blacks pure black, the whites pure white. Then I convert back to greyscale, then RGB, then duplicate the layer. Then I delete the white on the upper layer so the line art layer is transparent but the blacks on that layer are not.

If you have blacks on a layer that has been multiplied, you can see slight color through those blacks. You want pure black.

The lower layer is where I use the MultiFill program to create the digital flats. First you use MultiFill to drop in the random colors, then the companion plug-in Flatter Pro to make those colors seal under the black lines.

This probably sounds like a silly thing to worry about, but if the flat colors don’t line up perfectly under the black line art, you get the dreaded ghosting I mentioned. You can see it below in this image. It’s a tiny little white line that will appear around the black lines and color areas.

This drives me nuts and is an absolute nightmare to fix.

It’s a very common problem, especially for people who work for web and don’t anticipate the problems going from web to print.

What looks great on your computer can cause big problems in print.

From here, my flatter Jul Mae Kristoffer, who is way over in the Philippines, does flatting that is more in keeping with the areas of color I want to isolate. As you see on Layer 1.

But again, this is still pretty ugly, and not what I would use for final color. Flatting is a technical issue, not a creative one, though in some cases a flatter will make choices you may use. Most of the time they don't.

Here is my final color page.

Sometimes my MultiFill flats are so wonky I have a hard time getting my brain to snap out of what I see before me. If I get stuck, it's a good idea to just pick at it and come back to it later.

If it really, really bothers me, I’ll take the MultiFill flatter layer and desaturate the color so it doesn’t poke my eyes out.

Here’s an example. The digital flat file.

The desaturated flat file that doesn’t make me want to poke my eyes out.

And the final color.

Sometimes I just put in a solid white layer so I don’t see the flats at all. Flatting is there to allow you to easily pick spots to color in, and doesn’t usually appear in the final work.

Sometimes I want to create my colors using transparent color over a white ground, which is more delicate in the final.

Here’s an example from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. I also selected all black line art here and converted it to sepia to give it a vintage look. Except for the fairies. They’re green.

A colorist must also consider color settings.

Different clients can have different requirements. I find these color settings, which I got from the Hi-Fi Studio, to be pretty solid. I use them as my default for all my projects unless otherwise requested. If your publisher has other settings, they’ll usually send you a csf file which you can upload to Photoshop. The program will save your files and you can just switch between them as you need them.

This tells the printer things about the paper and the spread of the ink you will use. That’s what dot gain means - it makes printed color look darker than intended, so you set up your files to account for it.

When you hover your pointer over each box, it will tell you what each setting is supposed to accomplish.

Another really important thing to consider when coloring comics is color range.

I’m coloring this book in RGB range, but for print you use CMYK.

I’m about to confuse the heck out of some people with this post, I’m afraid. But here we go.

Here is this shot in RGB color setting.

And here is the same page calibrated for print in CMYK.

The biggest shift is in the reds. Print cannot match those reds.

You may not see much difference here, but it’s the sort of thing that drives artists crazy.

A computer should be perfect for conveying exactly what you want, right? It's all just 0's and 1's, binary information, and that information should be the same from one computer to the next?

Nope. Not even close.

First off, computer monitors must be calibrated. You can use a computer program or a tool that measures the color on your computer screen and then adjusts the color to an industry standard.

Have you ever been in an electronics shop where a bunch of TV shows were on display, all of them playing the same show, and have you noticed how different the color was from one TV to the next?

It's like that.

I freely admit I don't pay a whole lot of attention to calibration, but if I were a professional photographer I would. I'd have a little spectrometer attached to my screen and software would adjust my monitor to the best possible standard range. As it is, I just use the default setting on my computer and hope for the best.

If your monitor is properly calibrated and your art is shown on another monitor that is properly calibrated, the art will look almost identical from one monitor to the next.

YAY!

But from one monitor to the next, that's about where the resemblance ends.

Colors are calibrated to something called RGB, or Red, Green, Blue.

All colors come from a mix of red green and blue. At their greatest intensity, all the colors in the spectrum together become pure white light.

This is why RGB is called ADDITIVE color, because you ADD colors from the spectrum to get ALL colors, and all colors create the entirety of the rainbow, and pure white light.

Your computer monitor, your phone, your television, all images are created via light using RGB, a gamut that covers all possible colors that can be created.

That's a lot.

And that's why some of the colors you see on your TV or phone are so deep and intense.

For the widest possible range of color and intensity, you use RGB.

Unfortunately, there is what you can create with light, and then there is what you can create with pigment or ink. And that is why printing what you see on your computer almost never looks exactly like what you see in a book.

For printing, you must use a color setting known as CMYK. This stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key/Black.

In printing, the pure blue is actually Cyan and the pure red is actually Magenta.

CMYK color range is not created by addition, but by SUBTRACTION. In order to get the color you want, you reduce the percentage of one of the four colors for ink mixing. Mixing all colors, instead of giving you white, gives you black.

The gamut of CMYK is limited to what can be created with ink.

You've probably heard the term four color press? This is what that means. Four colors, with each color of ink run over the paper on rollers which, combined in varying layers of opacity, create all the printing colors you see.

But remember, what you see on your computer monitor and what CMYK gamut can handle are two different things.

Now, I’ve been really careful with the color settings on Good Omens, so there haven’t been any big surprises, but let me show you a snippet of a project I did for the French fashion house Balmain.

The RGB version:

And then this shot after it was converted to a CMYK file for print.

That's a pretty big difference.

Now, you see this shift mostly with vibrant colors, such as that pink there. But other colors hardly changed at all, right?

That's because this issue is about range of color. CMYK and RGB occupy a shared range which you can see demonstrated by this graphic I got from Wikipedia.

The graphic shows the RGB ranges supported by various digital formats. SWOP CMYK is the most common range my publishers use. Note that the bounding box line shared by the RGB and SWOP CMYK formats shares about half the range space. So whatever RGB colors you use that are outside that range will be digitally converted to the smaller SWOP CMYK range.

And you may not like what you end up with.

As you can see, some of the most ethereal and intense colors get lost outside of the SWOP CMYK boundary.

A look at the Dark Horse Comics color settings in Photoshop. Theoretically, this information should prevent your art from looking like mud on publication.

Now, after I just told you the dangers of coloring in RGB then converting to CMYK for print, I tell you I am coloring Good Omens in RGB anyway. There’s a couple of reasons for this.

Remember, RGB give you a greater range of color, so it can be to your advantage to preserve your original files using a format that gives you the greatest range.

Again, here is the unaltered file.

You can see what the CMYK result will be simply by clicking the Proof Colors button here. This will show you how the art will convert.

And the Gamut Warning will show you which colors are out of gamut range for print.

The intensity of that magenta and that purple in the top right are not going to print true.

This is how it will look in final.

So even if you do what you think is perfect color on screen, there is no way it can perfectly convert to print. Almost everything will involve a little bit of compromise.

Even though you have to consider the color shift issues, preserving your files in RGB gives you greater wiggle room, especially if you get lucky someday and get to work with a printer who can print in 6 colors. Or maybe some technology you don’t know about will pop up and make printing super glorious. Who knows.

Regardless, you should keep an eye on that gamut and color for CMYK print, while preserving your master files in RGB.

Until next time.

[starkwlkr]

it’s nothing new | sebastian vettel

part 1 part 3

REQUESTS ARE CLOSED

update: i decided to make this into a series, thanks for reading! you can read it here!

“hello?”

“mark, hi.”

“y/n? it’s been a while. how are you?” the aussie asked. it had been years since you spoke to mark, but he always kept you updated. he sent messages about how everyone in the paddock was doing, which you appreciated him for.

“i . . i’m okay. is this a bad time to talk to you?” you asked. you suddenly remembered about time zones.

“it’s alright, i always have time for you. what’s going on?” he questioned.

“so i am at my sister’s house and i didn’t want to sleep the whole flight so i decided to read your book.” you replied. “it’s a beautiful book, mark.”

“thanks.” he knew there was more you wanted to say. “are you mad?”

“mad about what?” you asked. “what you wrote about sebastian and i? is that what you’re talking about?”

“well yeah. i tried to contact you several times. you wouldn’t answer my messages so i assumed you changed numbers. seb told me he didn’t care if i wrote it in—”

“mark, i’m not mad. i’m far from it. i just want to know if it’s true. did he tell you everything? the night he won the title, i mean.” you asked. you remembered that night clearly. you didn’t finish the race, but that didn’t stop you from celebrating with sebastian.

“he would never lie about you, love. i told him to tell you, just to get it off his chest but he wouldn’t. you were with someone else, it was wrong.” mark explained. “you know the day you announced your engagement, he hated himself for not telling you sooner. maybe things would’ve ended differently if he had.”

maybe . .

“does he hate me?”

there was always that possibility. but when it came to sebastian, he would rather die than say he hates you.

“he could never hate you even if you did throw a show at him and call him a cunt.” mark chuckled. “he still loves you, you know, he asks about you all the time and i have no idea what to tell him.”

“well maybe i could tell him myself . . do you have his phone number?”

after you were given seb’s number, you noticed he never changed it. you weren’t sure why, but you decided to text him instead of calling.

y/n

hi seb, it’s y/n. i know it’s been so long and i’m sorry for how things ended. i hope you’re doing great. i’m not doing too good right now. my marriage is ending so i have that going for me. i’m staying with my sister and her family. anyways, i hope you don’t mind me messaging you. mark gave me your number but turns out i still have it saved. speaking of mark, i read his book on the flight, it’s very interesting. i’ll leave you alone now, thanks for caring about me all these years.

after you sent the message, you didn’t expect a reply. it was as if he was waiting for a message this whole time.

seb

hi y/n. i hope you know i never forgot about you after all this time. i’m sorry about your marriage, i really am. i don’t mind at all that you message me, i never changed my number in hopes that one day you would. as for mark’s book, i hope you’re not mad, but if you need to know, it’s all true and i wouldn’t change anything. being with you made me happy and everytime i hear your name, i’m reminded of the joyful memories we shared. i have something to tell you, only a few people know. i plan to retire at the end of the 2022 season. it would be nice if you would come to abu dhabi for my last race. i understand if you can’t make it. take care and i love you always. (it’s nothing new at this point)

@hc-dutch @lightdragonrayne @multiplefandomwritings @woozarts @jggykhug09090 @neivivenaj @kissesandmartinis @barnestatic @avythef1addict

[yumeka-sxf]

As if the season 3 announcement several hours ago wasn't exciting enough, now we have one hell of a new chapter 😭

It's just one tragic event after another...Martha can't bring herself to confess to Henry (and regrets it later), her letter gets censored so she's left waiting in vain to see him, she's basically forced to join the front lines or be killed, meanwhile Henry is struggling to figure out his own feelings but then has a total breakdown when he thinks Martha's dead, gets beaten up and thrown in jail, then is coerced by his father into marrying someone else. Gosh, these two just can't catch a break 😓

But my favorite part of this chapter is young Donovan Desmond's speech. What he says here so perfectly conveys the overall conflict of Spy x Family and sets him up as the ideal antagonist.

The series has shown us over and over how people are indeed liars, but it's also shown us time and time again how amongst all the lies, mostly through the Forgers, that people can still come to understand each other. Donovan's view is one of hopelessness - that true understanding can never be attained and human beings will always wage war, and while the series doesn't downright portray this as false, it does show that there is hope...that, even though people will never stop committing atrocities, at the very least, a middle ground of peace can be found even amongst those who lie to survive.

Donovan believes that we can never know the true intentions of others because we ourselves are hiding our own true intentions...the Forgers are hiding their true intentions, but in spite of that, they've come to love and understand each other. Like Twilight said when he first met Donovan, he won't ever stop trying to understand others and will always try to meet them "in the middle" if he can. Again, this is why Donovan is shaping up to be a great "final boss" who challenges the hopeful message the series has advocated so far. Another example of how, even though this arc seemingly has nothing to do with the Forgers, Endo still ties it back to them and the story overall.

Now the question for the next chapter is...who saved Martha? Also, judging by Henry's reaction when he first sees Martha in the present time (pictured below, chapter 72 during the bus hijacking arc), it doesn't seem like he had thought she was dead at that point. So he must have found out somehow before this that she had survived.

We'll have to wait until next time to find out! Even as the series hits chapter 100, Endo isn't done with this tragic love story just yet 😅

[cheriladycl01]

Mercedes Golden Girl - Grid x MercedesSplit! Reserve Driver

Plot: You are the woman to have come the furthest in modern Formula 1, as reserve driver for 3/10th of the grid she's thrown about the shop in the season of 2024.

Y/N Y/L/N was a name in Motorsport History books. She had currently come the furthest a woman has in F1 in many years.

Following in Oscar Piastri's footsteps, you won F3 in 2022 two years after him while he was storming through F2. You had an extremely dominant season being 30 points ahead of the next person behind you.

F3 wasn't too bad, you had one other girl with you that you were able to hang out with, as the boys were all the same in F3.

It was harder in 2023 when you graduated to F2 and were the only girl on the grid. Obviously you made friends with the boys but you always felt like the outcast, you never understood the 'boys jokes' and sometimes they wouldn't invite you to stuff because 'girls wouldn't like it' and it upset you.

You were very nervous to get into F1, only assuming that gap would be larger than it was in F2. So when you won the championship it only seemed smart for Toto to Promote you to the Mercedes reserve driver, on loan to McLaren and Williams as and when needed.

You'd been in the Mercedes Young Driver and Development Programme since Karting thanks to your family connections to one of the mechanics.

He begged Toto to go see you karting and give you a change and that was when his mind was set to help you further your career where he helped you into F4 and other racing.

There was an open spot in 2024 for you to be a Reserve Driver for Mercedes with Frederick Vesti and Mick Schumacher starting to look at other racing categories like WEC and Indy Car. So having you available in a second was important for Toto, they made a clause as engine suppliers for Williams and McLaren that they could also use you as a reserve driver as long as Mercedes had first dibs on you.

You thought your 2024 season would be pretty slow, only getting to go in the F1 car in Free Practice sessions like you had before but oh boy how wrong you turned out to be.

When Lewis announced he was moving to Ferrari in 2024, you had conversations with Toto Wolff and George Russell to see if that Mercedes seat could be yours, despite their being talk of Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, Kimi Antonelli, Mick Schumacher and Frederick Vesti all up for taking that seat you hoped that maybe you could get it.

Toto didn't confirm anything and for the first four races, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Japan you did everything you could for the team, grabbing waters, helping hospitality make food, being chauffeur to any of the drivers who were tired after the races and everyone could see how much effort you were putting in.

CHINA 2024

In China, Logan Sargeant sprained his wrist in training and by the time FP1 came around the medical team said it wasn't safe for him to drive. As the sole and only reserve driver Williams had it was up for you to race.

Williams hadn't had a good season and they were worried having a rookie in the car. Both Alex and Logan had their fair share of mistakes and they were worried about their spending this year. They couldn't afford another chassis until Miami.

They also had yet to gain points with either the boys currently.

You were a lot smaller than Logan so they spent time padding out the car to help you so your neck didn't suffer with the G-Force as much.

By the time FP1 came about the car had been padded out fully.

"And here we have a very nervous looking Y/N Y/L/N who has been confirmed to take Logan's place for the race this weekend and will be partaking in her first F1 race. Awwww look at her talking to Logan and his team..." Ted says as he sees her on screen, talking through what was probably race strategy.

"Yeah, obviously she's done these Free Practice sessions but never a race so I'm excited to see what she can do on Sunday!" Martin says looking at her as she starts to pull her race suit up and put her helmet on.

You get in the car and after some wet conditions and not everyone getting out your fourth fastest on the board.

All the interviews were joking around saying how you were a Mercedes miracle.

FP2 saw you get P12 and you were pretty happy with that result as you weren't trying to drive quickly, you were just trying to get used to the track. You'd never driven the Shanghai circuit so getting to grips on the circuit was difficult.

FP3, went better and you came P9, trying to see how confident you were on the track and you were trying to go the quickest time you could without risking the car too much.

Qualifying was not good, your breaks were faulty meaning you didn't make it pas Q1 saddling up in P16.

"How did you feel about that qualifying session Y/N?" an interviewer asks and you.

"Yeah I think I got as much out of that car as I could on that day. I'm not only learning the track... I'm still learning the car and how it's built and just how different it is from F2. Learning both at once is pretty complicated so I'm personally proud of what I've achieved and yeah I hope the team is proud of me too.

"Yeah Y/N i think you've really got to understand just how amazing what you've done so far this weekend is already amazing and no matter the result tomorrow people will still be incredibly amazed by what you've managed to do in a lower end car" he smiles and you grin back.

"Thank you really!" you grinned, nearly tearing up at the kind words.

Come the Sunday and you were ready and raring to go, Williams had come up with an impeccable strategy that you knew you'd be able to pull something off.

"IT'S LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO HERE WE ARE RACING IN SHANGHAI CHINA FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2019. AND EVERYONE MAKES IT ROUND TURN ONE, BUT OH MY GOD CONTACT IN THE REAR WITH, WHAT THAT A WILLIAMS AGIAN?" the commentator screams and everyone in the garage is holding their breath, the dust from the gravel trap not allowing them to see which car went into the wall.

Your family were panicking thinking it was you.

"IT'S NOT! IT'S THE RB OF YUKI TSUNODA AND THE ALPINE OF ESTEBAN OCON! AND NOW VALTTERI BOTTAS IS HAVING TO STOP HIS CAR ... LETS REWATCH TO SEE WHAT OCCURED!" the commentator says as they watch the replay of Esteban taking the turn to wide and not leaving enough room for Yuki crashing into the side of him while clipping Valtteri's wheel and wing.

The race went on and you'd managed to climb all the way to 5th thanks to you having insanely good tyre management. It was always one of the things you were condemned for in the lower feeder series is how well you looked after your tyres.

"Y/N is just doing an amazing job, not only is she currently the only one to have not pitted but she's managed to climb her way up the ranks and get that distance she'll need to pit" the commentator says watching.

"I think she's really starting to struggle on those tyres though. I can imagine they'll put her on soft tyres for the last few laps to help her gain those vital positions. Everyone else seems to be on the mediums right now" he explains and on the next lap you called to pit.

However the commentators our outraged as Williams fumble, calling both you and Alex into the pits at the same time.

"Guys what the hell is going on?" you ask waiting behind Alex's car who was getting new tyres and had a very quick pitstop.

However the crew weren't prepared for the double up, so they run getting looking around for what they need for you. It ended up being a 12 second pit stop and you were crying with frustration by the end.

"Y/N I'm sorry we are looking into it" Logan's engineer says and you just ignore.

You came out of the pits in P15 so you had a lock of making up to do.

"AND FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS YEAR WILLIAMS HAVE RECIEVED POINTS, AND BOTH OF THEIR DRIVERS AT THAT DESPITE ALL THAT WAS THROWN AT THEM TODAY THEY HAVE GOT THEMSELVES THOSE VITAL POINTS THAT WILL STIR WILLIAMS IN THE RIGHT WAY!" the commentator yells and as you drive past the pitwall, all engineers from many of the teams are cheering your name making tears come from your eyes, scoring your first point in F1. P10 in your first race.

"You really were just phenomenal out there today Y/N. You had the best tyre management by statistics which is incredible for a reserve rookie... you've just amazed us all!" Naomi smiles at you.

"Honestly its such a great feeling going out there and making the team proud, i think Williams still have so much to work with and I experienced that today but with drivers like Alex and Logan who are both so driven and hard working i can really see them improving throughout the season.

"Do you think you'll do any other races this season?" he asks and you laugh.

"I think I'm lucky as a reserve driver to have been given this opportunity. Obviously my heart goes out to Logan and I hope he makes a full recovery for his home race! But ultimately i dint think I will be called on again this season." you nod.

MONACO 2024

"When you got the phone call from Toto explaining that Lewis wouldn't be able to race in Monaco, you were shocked. It would take something really big to make Lewis not race.

You'd come to the paddock pull of nerves and you felt physically sick. Mercedes, even though their car was pretty shit this year, still had a mid field car and you were going to prove that you could drive it like it was a championship winning car ... if it was any other circuit than Monaco.

Monaco was... well Monaco. It's an itty bitty small street track that didn't have a lot of room for overtakes, had twisty corners that were very unpredictable and could always have a chance of rain.

So yeah you were worried.

Too the point you actually had a panic attack, there you were in your drivers room crying and sobbing over the pressures from media day before going out to FP1.

"Y/N?" you heard from outside your drivers room making you stop completely in your tracks trying to make your crying silent but you were doing this weird little hiccupping sound as you were gasping for breaths.

"I'm coming in!" George says and he walks in, greeted by your red puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks.

"Awwww baby" he says with a pout and pulls you into a hug as you sob more. There wasn't as much pressure on you as there were in the Williams, Mercedes had been constructors champions for 8 years in a row.

"George I'm so scared, what if i mess up!" you cry looking at him and George was nearly brough to tears himself seeing this 21 year old girl sobbing into his chest at the prospect of her messing up.

"What are you worried about messing up!" he asks.

"The race, the constructors championship! Everything!" you cry harder. George stays with you until you both are needed for the Free Practice Session.

Lewis' Mercedes has to be very packed out for you as he was a bulky man despite his height and that was the first issue in FP1. They hadn't packed you out enough and your were struggling a little with the G-Force, some corners the particularly fast ones, your head was flying to the side causing your steering to be a little off.

Despite that it made for a great weekend. George was right, you didn't have anything to worry about and you came P7 while George game P5 having car problems in qualifying meaning he'd had the better overall driver working his way up to the position he had.

"And again Y/N, how do you feel now that you are above Ollie Bearmen in the drivers Championship!" she asks and you giggle. You and Ollie despite being in different driver development programmers had a special bond. You both karted together a lot as kids and you went to the same school as him despite being a few school years above him. You had a sibling sort of bond.

"Yeah, i mean it's a little unfair to compare me at all considering he drove the second best car on his first F1 race... but i think we both stepped up to the challenge well and really took it in our strides. I'm excited to see of there are any teams willing to offer him a seat. I think so much talent from F2 is being wasted and the feeder series doesn't feel like its doing well of getting drivers into F1... so it would be interesting to see a new category added that's closer to F1 than F2 ..." you admit knowing that's how all of the washed out F2 drivers felt that will potentially never get to experience a career in F1.

SPAIN and AUSTRIA.

You were on a yacht, you didn't know whose but you were on a yacht when you had the news that George Russell had fully broken his foot in a crash Canada and they'd need you to step in for two races while it healed. He was getting surgery... of course he was and it should be healed by the time George's home race came around.

Getting to drive alongside your idol Lewis was incredible. He'd made you feel so safe and comfortable the whole weekend and you clung to him in all the media and interviews.

Not that Lewis minded, he found you adorable and didn't want you to feel left out or side-lined. He brought you out for food with some of the other drivers who you got talking to finding out their likes and dislikes. Lewis and Charles would excitedly gossip about them being team-mates for 2025 and whether Toto had found a replacement.

"Well... Carlos told me... and you cant tell anyone... promise?" Charles said seriously as the three of you were stood at the bar. And you nod.

"He's been offered a 3 year contract at Red Bull which is perfect for him to then make the move to Audi!" Charles exclaimed and you let out a breath of release.

The Mercedes seat was still up for grabs.

Spain was incredible, you'd never felt the heat and an atmosphere quite like it and you got you best result yet, coming P5. You kind of blamed that on Max and Perez crashing into each other and the debris messing with Carlos' car meaning Charles, Lewis and Lando took the podium while you and Oscar were just shy of it.

Austria was also good where you came in P8, Aston and Ferrari having had upgrades meant it was a tougher battle with everyone on the grid.

You now had 21 points, and were 10th in the constructors championship despite not being there for all the races which you were pretty impressed with. You'd scored points at all your races.

But it wasn't until Monza that the big one came.

MONZA

You were asked to fill in for Mr Oscar Piastri who had come down with what the medical team deemed invasive tonsillitis and he was not on par to drive.

Again you were nervous but having driven the Mercedes a few times you felt more and more confident.

You and Lando had pretty much spent the whole media day messing around. Lando did it, not only because he liked you but because he knew you were nervous despite the front you were putting on for everyone in the garage.

You and Lando got on like two pees in a pod and everyone found the dynamic hilarious. Lando flirting with you while you were innocently oblivious to his moves.

Lando found you insanely attractive. Every race you turned up at he'd look out for you in the paddock just so he could see you in your Mercedes gear.

Today however, you looked even better rocking the Papaya.

"You look good today!" Lando attempted as he grinned at you.

"Thank you! I got a new helmet design for this one, wanna see?" you ask and he nods. You show him your helmet which was so you, but you'd gone all out making it glittery. One side had Lando's pattern on it from his standard 2024 helmet.

"Oh woah! That looks great!" he grins, watching as you pop it on. He teasingly slaps the lid down making you try to reach up and swatch his hands away and lift the visor back up.

"Lan come on!" you cry frustrated making him chuckle.

Qualifying came and Piastri's now your car had so many issues meaning you were starting in Sunday in P11, which wasn't great. But the engineers promised to fix the issues before the race.

Lando got pole and you were overjoyed no longer caring about the shit show of your Qually.

You were jumping and hugging him as he got out the car and he enveloped you back in the hug.

"I'm so proud of you!" you'd squealed to him, and thank god his helmet was on because boy was blushing hard.

"Thank you!"

Sunday came around and it was carnage.

"AND AFTER A DIFFICULT RACE LANDO NORRIS WINS THE 2024 ITALIAN GRAND PRIX HIS FIRST EVER WIN, HERE COMES MAX VERSTAPPEN IN P2 AND Y/N Y/L/N GETTING HER MAIDEN PODIUM AS A RESERVE DRIVER FOR MCLAREN. WHAT A RACE SHE HAS HAD!" the commentator screams.

All of the Mclaren team were celebrating from the pit wall as you and Lando waved at them.

Being up there on the podium with Lando and Max was like nothing you've ever experienced. You were drenched in sticky champagne and you were laughing and joking with two friends about the victory.

"If that doesn't get her a seat next year I don't know what will" the commentators say before the Sunday Race stops broadcasting live.

Taglist:

@littlesatanicassholebitch @hockey-racing-fubol @laura-naruto-fan1998 @22yuki @simxican @sinofwriting @lewisroscoelove @cmleitora @daemyratwst @lauralarsen @the-untamed-soul @thewulf @itsjustkhaos @purplephantomwolf @chasing-liberosis @summissss @gulphulp @starfusionsworld @jspitwall @sierruhhhh @georgeparisole @youcannotcancelquidditch @tallbrownhairsarcastic @ourteenagetragedy @peachiicherries @formulas-bitch @cherry-piee @spilled-coffee-cup @mehrmonga @bigsimperika @blueberry64857959 @eiraethh @lilypadlover @curseofhecate @alliwantisadonut @dark-night-sky-99 @i-wish-this-was-me @tallrock35 @butterfly-lover @barnestatic @landossainz @darleneslane @barcelonaloverf1life @r0nnsblog @ilove-tswizzle @laneyspaulding19 @malynn @viennakarma @landosgirlxoxo @marie0v @yourbane @teamnovalak @nikfigueiredo @fionaschicken @0picels0 @seomako @urdad-hot @tinydeskwriter @ironmaiden1313 @splaterparty0-0 @formula1mount @styl1shl1v

[dobrikobx]

Silver Jewelry || Tyler Owens

A/N: Hi so it’s been a while since I wrote a fanfic so I really hope you all enjoy!! I have seen twister 4 times now and physically can’t stop thinking about Tyler Owens.

Inspo for this fic came from a Tiktok poem from the account raegan entitled “it’s just the little things”

pairings: Tyler x reader and asshole Scott x reader

Warnings: Scott as mentioned is an ass to the reader at times, toxic relationship (with Scott), no y/n

summary: You are dating Scott who doesn’t treat you right.

————

“Scott look at how pretty this is.”

you proudly hold up a beautiful gold necklace

“yeah babe real cute”

he said not really looking. You shrug and turn back to the sales lady

“I think it’s real pretty, honey”

You turn and see tyler looking at the necklace

“T when did you get here?”

You throw your arms around his neck

“Oh a little while ago. I came to get some food for me and the crew, we set up at the old motel if you two want to come by and see everyone”

“Yes we will be there right after we finish here. Right Scott?”

Scott walked up holing his hand out for Tyler to shake which they did even if they glared at each other.

“Sure baby, if you want. We will grab something to eat and head over, Owens”

And that’s exactly what you two did. you were having a great time catching up. It had been since last tornado season that you had seen everyone. You and Lily were chatting about her new girlfriend and how you and Scott were talking about moving in together when your phone went off.

“Shut up!”

you scream everyone turned to look at you

“What? What?”

Lily said slightly panicking you turn your phone to her so she can see that your favorite artist just announced a new album coming out next week. You were so excited and couldn’t stop thinking about it or talking about it.

“Oh my God Lily I can’t wait for it to come out I’m going to stay up all night to listen to it! If you want to you can totally jo-“

“Baby, I don’t think Lily is interested. Maybe you should chill a bit. Nobody really likes their music here.”

You start to blush. After being together for almost 3 years you shouldn’t be surprised by Scott’s lack of concern about things you care deeply about and it didn’t necessarily surprise you but that didn’t mean it still didn’t hurt when he brushed you off.

“I’m sorry Lily. Sorry guys, I guess I just got carried away”

Lily’s face scrunched up but before she could say anything Tyler cut in.

“Well I won’t speak on Lily’s behalf, however Boone and I happen to love that artist and I would be more than happy to have a listening party for the new album”

“Tyler it’s fine you don’t have to pretend to like their music”

You look and the ground more embarrassed than before.

“I am not pretending I love their music I own every album”

you slowly lift your head and see him looking back at you with so much sincerity you had to believe him.

“Okay then,if your sure, Thursday night”

you smile at him

“Sounds like a plan we can have it in my room so your boyfriend won’t be a party pooper”

He says giving Scott a go to hell look

After that everyone went back to their conversations. Scott came up to you and grabbed your arm.

“I got us a room here. Ready to turn in?”

You nod and say goodnight to your friends

“What the hell was that?”

Scott said the second your door closed

“What are you talking about?”

“You. Flirting with Tyler”

You scoff

“I was not flirting with Tyler! I agreed to hang out with my FRIEND. Besides it’s not like you wanted to listen to their new album anyways you can’t stand their music Scott so if anything I did you a favor your welcome.”

“You never asked me to listen”

“What are you talking about! Every single time I play their music you complain about how much you hate it and how insufferable it is. This way you won’t have to listen to it and I can enjoy it. If you really want to join, you can. I’m sorry I assumed you wouldn’t want to.”

“That’s okay. I don’t want to intrude”

“No please, Scott, baby, I want you to come”

you wrap your arms around his waist

“Okay if you really want me to come. I guess I will.”

he kisses your forehead

“I really do. I’m sorry again for assuming you wouldn’t want to join”

“Already forgotten let’s go to bed.”

Thursday night came and went and besides a few complaints from Scott and Tyler glaring at him through most the album you guys had a fun night.

“Javi!”

“Hey girl”

He says wrapping you up in a hug

“Just the guy I wanted to see I need your help with Scott’s anniversary present”

“I didn’t think it was here already?”

Javi asked confused

“Well I mean it’s not for a few months but, you know… I want to really make it special.”

“Alright then let’s see what we can do”

After months of anguishing over the perfect presents for Scott you had everything picked out and ready. Now if only you could shut your brain off and go to sleep before you had to wake up to see Scott off before he went chasing tomorrow.

Three years, three long years, with him. You laid awake staring at the ceiling you and Scott had been together three years it was officially your anniversary as of 25 minutes ago. You loved him you were sure about that. But, were you happy. For the last two years you wondered this… was it a coincidence that these thoughts doubled during tornado season when you inevitably ran into Tyler. No probably not.

Tyler was sweet and kind and caring. He showed you kindness even when your boyfriend wouldn’t. But you did love Scott. Plus, Tyler he is just your friend. That’s all you two would ever be.

You rolled over and looked at Scott. You loved him. That was enough it had to be. Your heart sank as you kissed his cheek and cuddled into his chest

“i love you”

you whispered even though you knew he couldn’t hear you

The next morning you woke up to kisses all over your face. You let out a giggle.

“Scott”

“Happy anniversary, baby”

you open your eyes and smile and stroke his cheek

“Happy anniversary, my love”

“Here I want you to open your present first.”

He said handing you a small blue box. You open the box to see the necklace you had shown him that day in the store only in silver.

“Oh.”

you tried to muster all you could to put a smile on your face

“I love it. Will you put it on me?”

“Of course, baby”

You look yourself in the mirror trying not to cry as Scott clasps the necklace. It’s not a big deal it’s just a necklace.

“Okay so what did you get me”

“Oh right let me grab it”

You go to your bag and grab the box of items that you had picked out making sure Scott would love.

“Wow babe these are perfect how did i get so lucky?”

you smile as he kisses you

“I’m going to hop in the shower before breakfast”

You say as you smile sadly at him

“Okay we’re stuck with everyone for breakfast since I have to go chasing today but tonight it’s me and you baby. I’m going to head down see you there”

you give him a closed lip smile and nod still fighting the tears.

you turn on the shower and look yourself in the mirror

“pull yourself together”

you say

“It’s a stupid necklace one that you said you wanted at least he took notice of the style”

That’s when the tears started and they didn’t stop. You got in the shower hoping that may help ease the nerves. When that didn’t seem to help you get out and get ready for the day making sure your necklace is out so Scott can see. Putting on a smile you walk to the cafe that is next to the motel.

You greet everyone with a smile and slide in the booth next to Scott

“I already ordered for you hope you don’t mind”

he said. you shook your head and grabbed his hand

“Three years it’s a big one Scott already bragged about his gifts you got him. So what did he get you.”

Lily asked excitedly

“Oh this necklace I wanted. Isn’t it beautiful”

You hold the necklace out for them to admire. They all admire it all but Tyler.

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear silver before.”

He says everyone turned and looked at you

“Um”

Suddenly the room was too small.

“Well I do sometimes. I’m actually not hungry so I think I’m gonna run to town and grab some stuff for tonight”

You get out of the booth and start to out the door to your car.

“Wait!”

Tyler.

“I really need to go T”

You had to go before he caught you crying. He would think you were stupid for crying over something so small.

“No hold it. Why are you upset?”

“I’m not”

“You are. I know you.”

“Just leave it, Tyler”

“No I can’t keep going on leaving it. He doesn’t deserve you.”

“I love him Tyler”

“I don’t think you do”

“I do.”

“Look me in the eye and say that and maybe I’ll believe it. I know you, I know you aren’t happy. I have seen you happy. And now might not be the right moment but I know I could make you happier than he ever has if you just give me the chance. He doesn’t even know you sweetheart. You’ve been together three years and he doesn’t even know you wear gold jewelry. What else doesn’t he know if he doesn’t even know that basic piece of information? I I know I might not know everything but, I know more than that. I know that if you gave me a shot baby, you’d be happier in a day than he’s made you the entire three years you’ve been together”

You look him in the the eyes

“Ty-Tyler”

You don’t even begin to know what to say but the tears you’ve been holding back begin streaming down your face. Tyler grabs you and pulls you against his chest. That’s when Scott decides to come out the cafe.

“What’s up? Owens why is she crying?”

He said irritated. You pull back from Tyler mascara running down your face.

“I think we need to talk. Lets go upstairs”

You two head back up to your room

“I I can’t do this anymore Scott.”

“Why it’s our anniversary”

“I know but, who is my favorite tv character?”

“I I don’t k-“

“What is my favorite show? movie? book? Hell, what’s my favorite snack?”

He just looks at you

“Nothing Scott really? We have been together three years and you can’t answer those basic questions. You got me silver jewelry for crying out loud.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I don’t wear silver Scott. Always gold. Just ignore the fact that we have seen each other most days these three years. We have plenty photos together I showed you the exact one I wanted. Hell Lily is right down stairs you could have asked her. I’m sorry I just I can’t do this anymore”

“But I love you”

“I know you think you love me and maybe you do but you don’t like me. If you did, you would know what I like you wouldn’t get annoyed by all my quirks. I thought I loved you, Scott and I’m sorry to both of us for me not realizing what we have isn’t love at least not the love we should have for each other.”

“That’s it. Three years”

“Three years that I wasn’t appreciated. I just I’m sorry Scott I really am. I’ll come grab my stuff after you leave”

You walk out your motel room

“Hey darlin’ want to get out of here?”

You look over at Tyler and smile

“Absolutely”

You climb into the truck after driving for a while he pulls into a field

“Did you mean all of that stuff you said at the motel?”

“Of course, honey. I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. How did you feel about what I said? I know you just broke up with Sir Dick Wad-“

“Tyler”

You give him a pointed look

“Right sorry. I know you just broke up with Scott but I’m crazy about you”

He pushes your hair behind your ear

“I’m crazy about you too Tyler. So much so that I am in a random field in the middle of tornado alley.”

Tyler leaned over giving you plenty of time to pull away. you close your eyes and push you lips against his.

———————

I hope this wasn’t bad and I hope you enjoyed.

[miloformula123fan]

Could you do fic for Toto Wolff with wife reader? He opted to hold her hand during the celebration of the Merc's double podium because there were too many people. "Move through the crowd while holding hands so as to not lose one another – and not letting go afterwards". Just something fluff and comfort. Add something if it's not right. Tag me later!! Thanks :)))

sorry it's so short! but I loved writing this fluff, and honestly churned it out in like 1 hour.

also if you have older requests i am working on them, I am just also working on school work.

luckily, all my assessments are nearly done, and holidays are next week so yay! more updates :)

Please keep requesting - y'all have awesome ideas we agree on a lot of stuff :) - my guidelines are here, and if you want some prompts, they are here.

also feel free to come in and start chatting to me in my asks, would love to get to know y'all better

and if you want to be added to my taglist lmk :)

toto wolff x wife!reader

“AND THAT IS A MERCEDES 1-2 TO THROW THIS CHAMPIONSHIP WIDE OPEN AT THE SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX AND 3 YEARS AFTER WINNING HIS LAST GRAND PRIX HERE, LEWIS HAMILTON HAS WON HIS 104TH CAREER VICTORY AND WHAT A WAY TO DO IT IN HIS LAST SEASON WITH MERCEDES.”

The rest of Crofty’s speech was drowned out by the cheers of the garage around Y/N as the team who had gone so long without winning, especially Lewis’ side of the garage cheered and yelled and as the pit mechanics came back from where they’d been on the fence yelling and contributed to more noise.

Y/N felt a little overwhelmed. She hadn’t really been in the garage since 2021, due to her husband’s tensions during the year and her wish to continue to just focus on her own career. She tried to insist she was the team’s bad luck charm after Abu Dhabi, until people had pointed out that she’d also been there during the dominant 2020 season. And as she had spent 2022 and 2023, which also were not great years for Mercedes, she’d agreed to do a lot more of her work remotely and come to the grand prixs. She insisted that she was bad luck at the first grand prix, and Toto had basically dragged her along to Saudi.

Maybe she was their good luck charm, she thought, as the garage exploded when Max and Sergio had crashed into each other, making both the red bulls retire. The Ferrari’s had been having problems all weekend but no one truly hoped even when they were sitting in a 1-2.

At least until they’d crossed the line. And then they’d had hope. And then the celebrations had begun. Someone had already found champagne and begun spraying it around, no one thinking about the podium, until all of a sudden everyone was and they were all rushing around and Y/N was all caught up in the rush and being pushed around by everyone, trying to find Toto until she felt a hand slip into hers.

She jumped back, not wanting some strange man holding her hand until she looked up and realised that it was in fact her husband who was trying to hold her hand.

“Sorry…didn’t realise it was you.”

“That’s okay Liebe. I’ve got you. Now lets go watch Lewis on the podium, okay?”

The second she nodded in agreement, Toto slipped his hand back into Y/N’s as he tried to push through the crowd again. Being tall and the team principal helped, and as they weren't coming for the pre podium celebrations, which is where everyone else was rushing towards. As the drivers were hugged and yelled at again by the mechanics (honestly how were they going to have voices tomorrow, and how were the red bull mechanics’ voices not very raspy after doing this practically every week for the past few years). Y/N thought she was going to have to cancel her meetings for the next few weeks as she would just be unable to talk.

Toto pushed through the throng of mechanics, pushing through the Mercedes and Williams colours everywhere, trying to get a good position at the front, and then the announcers began, and Toto and Y/N were wedged against the barrier and they decided to stop and watch the podium.

Y/N watched as Albon mounted the podium, grinning to the feral screams of the Williams mechanics to her left. She’d ended up wedged between James and Toto, smiling at James’ excitement on Alex being on the podium. She smiled at him as the noise from the Williams side of the podium celebration. He smiled back, almost bouncing up and down by the excitement of what Williams was achieving. And as Lewis, George and Bono bounded onto the podium, bringing up a round of screaming and even Y/N raised her hands. And as she raised her right hand, she could feel Toto’s hand, still intertwined with hers. She smiled, locking eyes with Toto.

His eyes twinkled as he smiled down, before his attention was brought back to the podium and yelling at the drivers.

The German and British anthems blared out, and while Y/N knew most of the words of the British anthem (it was mostly just the same words on repeat ‘god save our king’). And while Toto was able to sing the German anthem while Y/N butchered it here and there. She loved listening to her husband singing or talking in his natural language. It was very hot, if Y/N had to admit it.

As they left the podium to go back to the garage, Toto had still not let go of her hand as they continued winding between what felt like millions of people crowding the pit lane.

When they finally returned to the Mercedes garage, and walked up to Toto’s office, Toto finally let go of Y/N’s hand and started to gather up his work and laptop to get ready to return to the hotel.

“Hey, toto?”

“Yes liebe?”

“Why were you holding my hand?”

“Well, I didn’t want to get lost, and I didn’t want you to get lost, liebe.”

“Yeah, but why didn’t you let go of my hand when we got to the podium”

“Do I need an excuse to hold your hand, darling?”

“No but…”

“Then I kept holding your hand because I wanted to keep holding your hand. Is that a good enough excuse?”

“Okay Liebe.”

Toto put all his files and laptop in his left hand after shrugging on his overcoat, and then offered his right hand to Y/N.

“Can I keep holding your hand liebe?”

“Of course you can darling.”

---

taglist: @leosxrealm, @pear-1206, @tallrock35, @wolf-knights, @janeholt3

[seospicybin]

TOO HOT TO HANDLE.

PART III

Bangchan x reader. (s)

Too Hot To Handle Masterlist

Synopsis: You and Chan become contestants in a reality dating show, Too Hot To Handle. (11,7k words)

Author's note: Season 3 is done! See you on the next season :)

YOU: $0? [Facepalms] So, where do we go from here?

-

The bright sunny day is not working to cheer everyone up after the shocking announcement that there's no money left in the prize fund.

You've been sitting outside with Chan, holding each other's hand and trying to process everything while looking at the beautiful view of the endless sea and the surface of water glimmering under the sun.

Chan has been quiet for too long and it's concerning. You decide to break the silence, shaking his hand and saying, "We spent too much money, babe."

He sighs and rubs the back of your hand with his thumb, "Too much."

You don't want to put salt on the wound but it's time to face the the truth that you both fucked up.

"We let them down. We let everyone down," you say with a heavy heart.

He looks at you and sees you in the eyes, "I'm sure there'll be a way to make it up to them."

He doesn't sound that confident with what he said but you're grateful that in a time like this, he tries his best to comfort you.

"And we'll show them that we have a genuine connection," he says with a soft smile.

You return the smile and put your other hand on your clasped hands, "We took a big step last night."

Physical connection is not that new to you but after last night, you can feel that something shifts between the two of you into something that is peculiarly new yet familiar at the same time.

"I feel closer. I feel more connected to you," you honestly tell him the changes you felt.

"That's true," he agrees with a smile that is more brighter and hopeful than before.

You take the chance to comfort him this time and sweetly smile at him, "We got each other," you remind him.

It's you and him versus everyone. For better or worse, through ups and downs, you face it together. You may be at the bottom now but you're sure you both will be back on top, together.

"Always," he says.

He brings your mouth close to his mouth and kisses it, "Since day one."

That makes you take a look back. You've been going through so much together and it makes you realize that with him, you feel like you can do anything.

Together you are invincible.

-

YOU: I feel terrible for what I did but at least, now I no longer doubt the feelings I have for Chris. It feels real now and it's scary... in the best way.

-

In the afternoon, Lana calls everyone to the cabana.

Chan hasn't recovered from the announcements from this morning yet so he's not keen to know what's coming his way, he has an inkling that it's not good for him and you.

Just like you read his mind, you place a soft kiss on his neck and wipe the lipstick mark you left on it with your thumb.

"We got each other," you whisper.

Chan is grateful for you, you've been so open and understanding, even though he's a hard-shell type of person, you make it hard for him not to let you in.

The chime comes and Jace gags in response. The melodic chime is certainly, anxiety-inducing.

"The prize fund is currently at $0," Lana announces as if everyone has forgotten about it.

"However, there will be more tests and opportunities to replenish the prize fund," she further informs.

It's like everyone is collectively letting out a big sigh of relief and getting a breath of fresh air at the mention that there's a way to return some money into the pot.

"I'll commence the first test," Lana continues.

Chan gets stressed once again and so is everyone. Test means he's not doing great, test means that it's not going to be easy, test means bad.

The worst thing that could happen is his name got called by Lana for that test.

Like he manifested it into reality, Lana does call his name along with yours. He sees you look at him and feels bad that he can't show a brave face to you.

"I gifted you watches as an incentive to connect on a physical level for the right reasons. Yet you have shown a complete disregard for my gift and your fellow guests."

He looks at you and you put on a thin smile for him, he puts his arm around you to pull you closer, he needs something to hold on to.

"Therefore, drastic action is required," Lana sternly says.

-

CHRIS: I've messed up. Big time. [Deeply exhales]

-

Deep down, you know you deserve what's coming for you but you don't want to go home, no, not yet.

"You both..." Lana drags her words to heighten the suspense.

You and Chan still have some growing to do as a couple and if Lana is kind enough to let you stay, you'd be very grateful. If not, then... it's not like you didn't see this coming.

You have to own up to your mistakes so whatever happens, you will try to accept it.

"... have 12 hours to prove you can connect on a deeper, more emotional level."

You feel a little lighter knowing that it's not an elimination but it's not time to be relieved yet, you're still waiting for the catch.

"If you fail to get a green light in those 12 hours, your time here will be terminated."

There it is. The catch. This is you and Chan's biggest test yet. There's no wasting time, you have 12 hours to prove or you go home.

"Your time starts now!" Lana announces.

-

YOU: This is going to be a challenge for us. We've never really talked about our emotions.

-

It's going to be harder for Chan.

He realizes he rarely talked about his feelings with you. His default setting is to show affection through actions so he is never good at verbalizing it.

"I don't want to go home," you tell him, cuddling on the sofa outside, "I want to spend more time with you."

He holds your hand and puts it close to his chest, "I don't want to go home either but I just—"

He inhales air and finishes his sentence, "It's not easy for me, talking about emotions."

"We can try," you say with your fingers lightly caressing his bare chest.

You tilt your head to face him, "You know what? I'll start," you volunteer.

He puts your hair away from being blown by the wind and holds it there for you, "Yeah?"

"Remember when we first met and I made you tell your name again?"

He nods as the recollection of it plays in the back of his head.

"I pretended not to hear it because I wanted those lips near me," you confess with a giggle.

He can't tell if you're trying to get a green light or just want to make him feel better, either way, he finds it adorable of you.

You check your watch and pout seeing that it's not turning green, "Well, it's worth a try," you say with a laugh.

As he breaks into laughter, he pulls you close and kisses you on the cheek.

"No need to hurry," you playfully say.

You rub his back and place a sweet kiss on his neck, "We still have like ten hours to get a green light."

That only reminds him to hold you tighter, he needs it more now than ever after knowing that he possibly wouldn't be able to do it again.

-

CHRIS: I find it hard to open up and talk about my feelings. Not sure I can do it.

-

With time keep slipping out of your hand, and your heart is getting worried.

You give Chan space and time to be on his own, organizing his thoughts and maybe it'll help him find the courage to talk about what he truly feels.

You remind yourself that it'll not be his fault if both of you end up getting eliminated. So you let go of the guilt and prepare yourself for the worst outcomes.

Before he leaves for his workshop, you pull him aside and warmly hug him.

"I really like you, Chris," you murmur.

You look up and softly smile at him, "I care about you."

You don't want to pressure him but you want to let him know that whatever happens, you will have no hard feelings nor hold a grudge against him.

"I know it's tough for you to open up but if you weren't ready, it's okay. If we got sent home, that doesn't mean things between us are over, you know that?" You say with a smile.

"I know," he lowly answers.

You stand on your tiptoes to plant a long kiss on his cheek, "Don't pressure yourself, okay, baby?"

He nods and hugs you back, locking you in his big arms because this might be the last time you embrace each other like this.

-

YOU: This is more difficult than I thought. At that moment, I think we might be going home.

-

"That dress looks good on you, darling!" Dani praises you as she watches you checking your appearance on the big mirror in the dressing room.

"Yeah?" You ask yourself why bother looking this good on your last night in the retreat.

"Yes," you suddenly shout.

"I want to look good when I get eliminated," you take a jab at yourself and laugh.

"Nah..." Lola groans, "Don't say that!"

Dani props her chin with her hand and looks at you, "You're going to get that green light tonight," she says.

The boys are back from the workshop not long ago but they're all coming back with paints on their bodies. Chan is still showering and it'll take more time to get dressed.

You're waiting for him by the fire pit, sipping your wine while half-heartedly listening to Pierre, Alicia, and Olivia talking.

As you're sipping on your second glass of wine, Chan comes and holds his hand out at you.

"I believe we have to talk," he says to you.

You put your glass down and take his hand, feeling more nervous now than before.

"I'm rooting for you guys!" Alicia mutters with an encouraging smile.

Chan takes you somewhere quiet and sits on the bench that overlooks the sea with the reflection of the moon drawn on the surface of the water.

There are still three hours left to the time limit but it's never too early to start and try to open up.

"You want me to start again?" You ask because he's been so quiet even after you both get the privacy to talk.

He cracks a laugh and puts an arm around you, "Yeah, sure."

You lick your lips and try to articulate your feelings as best as you can. You look him in the eyes and just pour your heart out to him.

"I like you. I like that I can be myself around you. You understand me, you put up with a lot of shit to be with me..." you pause to let out a laugh, "I'm happy that we became closer."

Chan can't stop smiling as he listens to you speaking your heart out. You can see the fondness in his eyes and you also hope that he gets the sincerity in your words.

"And I think... this is a good chance for us to talk about how we feel about each other," you conclude.

-

YOU: I can tell him more things that I like about him but sadly, time is not on our side.

-

It feels great hearing what you thought about him but at the same time, Chan feels burdened to be as open as you.

He's aware of how much you've shared with him while he gave you so little in return. He owes you a lot and it's time for him to settle that debt.

"You look gorgeous," he starts with a compliment.

You reach for the collar of the baby blue linen shirt he's wearing and compliment him back, "So do you."

You rest your hand flat on his chest and dreamily sigh, "You look good in colors other than black and white, you know that?"

He grins at that and nods, "I'll wear more colors."

"Okay, good," you say with gentle pats on his chest.

It's not time for small talk, time is running out. Chan grits his teeth and starts talking, trying to empty his heart through words.

"I'll be honest with you," he begins.

He sees you swallow air and nods, "Okay."

"I haven't completely opened myself up to you."

"Mm-mmh," you hum in response.

He takes your hand and holds it tightly in his hand, "The last relationship I had..." he refrains from sharing too many details on his past.

"From that relationship, I got myself a trust issue out of it, and as much as I like you, it's hard for me to trust you. I got haunted by my experience with trusting someone with my heart..." Chan takes a moment to collect himself and not lose it completely to his emotions.

"I didn't think that I'd get here and find someone like you in here," he says with a low laugh.

You lowly laugh along with him, "Yeah."

"I feel extremely lucky to find you and I realize now that it's not fair that I compare you with my former partner. She might have caused me a trust issue but that doesn't mean you'll do the same to me," he says.

A smile blooms on your face and he feels your hand in shaking in his hold.

"I genuinely am feeling stronger emotions for you which I haven't felt in a long time," he earnestly says with a sincere smile.

His heart feels so much lighter and emptier now, that only means he has more space for these new feelings he has for you.

Chan's heart is full of warm feelings and other than that, it fills with hopes.

-

CHRIS: It's been such a long time since I've opened up like this with anyone but it feels so natural with her.

-

"I like you so much," Chan says while squeezing your hand in his.

It feels good to know that your feelings are reciprocated. You've been tormented inside and you keep it bottled up inside you, now you can let it go.

"I'm so excited for us," he adds with a smile.

Then the chime comes and you glance at your watch to see that it turns green.

You both did it and you didn't mean to cry but your eyes are like bursting dams right now, tears are flowing down your face. He immediately pulls you into a hug.

"I wasn't ready to go home yet," you croak with tears caught in your throat.

"Me too," he says.

He holds you for a moment and whispers into your ear, "Are we going to kiss or what?"

You completely forgot that the rules do not apply and you're allowed to kiss him. You hurriedly wipe the tears on your face with the back of your hands.

Chan doesn't hesitate to kiss you when you believe you look ugly from crying. He leans in and kisses you softly, brushing his lips as if he were telling you how you feel with it.

Your heart is heavy and quivering as it carries so much love inside you. You like him so much and it feels so good, it's so good that it's scary.

When he pulls away from the kiss, Chan holds your face and looks at you, tenderly wiping your eyes with his knuckle.

He's softly laughing as he says, "I can see now that you're just a baby."

He caresses your wet cheeks with his thumb as he fondly looks into your eyes, "just a baby, my baby," he says.

You pout yet smile at his words. There's no use to deny it when he can see everything now.

"My baby girl," he delightfully sighs and presses a long peck on your lips.

Sure you feel relieved you get to stay in the retreat but the best thing about all this is getting to know each other better, emotionally.

"Good job," you tell him with a smile.

"Good job," he says back to you.

-

YOU: Watching Chris open up and comfortably share his feelings makes me feel like I can understand him now. Also, it makes me fancy him more and more [smiles]

-

Chan didn’t expect everyone to wait for them to come back from their talk.

The resentment they have is nothing compared to the friendship they have sewn in time with both you and him. They look at him in anticipation of whether he passed the test or not. They're tucked in their beds and watch him as he walks to his bed with you trailing behind him.

"So...?" Pierre asks.

Chan can't contain his excitement anymore, he grins and says, "We got the green light!"

Everyone cheers for him and you, clapping with pride. Jace hurls a cushion at Chan as he shouts, "Congrats, Aussie boy!"

Alicia comes to his bed to hug you, "I told you. I'm rooting for you!"

Dani hugs her pillow in front of her and asks, "So, did anyone say anything?" She asks in curiosity.

"She told me she likes me," Chan answers without the slightest of embarrassed saying it out loud.

"Did you say it back to her?" Pierre asks.

"Of course!" He shortly replies.

You lay on your stomach on the bed, facing everyone, "It was really hard to begin with but he opened up to me."

"Aww..." Lola coo in response then lightly applauds for you.

"At least we don't have to worry about them rulebreaking now," Luke comments.

"Because there's no money to spend to begin with," Pierre adds.

Everyone is laughing the shared pain away. But with the promise that Lana will return some money through tests and you both passed one tonight, everyone gets hopeful again.

-

CHRIS: I'm so glad we're making progress. I'm so proud of her and me. We both got so far [smiles]

-

It's like you both got a fresh start at a new life.

Even with zero dollars on the prize fund, you feel happy to get to spend more time with him in the retreat. Yesterday was a torture and that only reminds you to use the time wisely.

But it's not like you can't keep yourself away from him you're smitten, you have butterflies fluttering in your stomach.

After last night, you talk about things deeply and openly, you talk more about your future together that it gets you giddy

You're straddling him on the bed and hovering above him, putting a safe space between your faces. You admire his beautiful face, trailing your fingers on his facial features, eyes, nose, and plush lips that lure you to kiss.

"Now that I'll be coming with you to Australia, where will you take me first?" You ask out of curiosity.

Chan has been resting his hands on your thighs and not letting them go anywhere. He looks up at you and answers, "My home."

You're giggling because your dirty mind can only think of one thing, "So we can—"

"I'll introduce you to my family," he slices through your sentence and takes you aback.

This seems that serious to him and you usually choose to step back when things get this serious, however, you're feeling excited about it instead.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I want them to know about our relationship," he casually says.

"Ooo... relationship," you point out the thing he just said and wonder if it accidentally slipped out of his mouth or he meant it. You bet it's the latter from how he gets so flustered and laughs at it.

"Why? Do you have anything else in mind?" He asks with a sly smile.

You look away from his eyes as he catches on your dirty thought, "You know what I'm thinking."

He sits up on the bed so he can hold you and you wrap your arms around his neck, "Well, before we do all that, I'll lock you in my room and we'll have lots of sex," he murmurs, then places a hot kiss on your neck.

You lowly moan at how his soft lips feel on your skin, sending a tingle down your spine.

"Oh, you have no idea what's coming for you," he seductively whispers with his breath tickling your ear.

He then switches to the other side of your neck and places a longer kiss with his tongue lightly licking the skin, leaving a wet kiss mark on it.

The emotional connection only heightens the sexual tension between you and him yet it feels like you've reached a new level in your relationship.

-

YOU: It's HARD! I like him so much therefore it's getting harder to resist him.

-

"Whoa, whoa, what am I walking into," Pierre says as he busted you straddling him on the bed.

Without getting up from his bed, Chan calmly responds with a joke, "There's no harm in losing more money."

"Damn right," Pierre replies with a laugh.

With someone else in the room, the tension is slowly fading out and you get off his lap, sitting next to him instead.

Chan notices that Pierre is smiling at himself and he knows that there must be something.

"What's up?" He asks while putting his arm out so you can rest your head on it.

"Alicia and I are going on a date later," Pierre replies.

"Oh, wow, that's great, man!" Chan offers his hand for a fist bump.

"I'm excited for you, Pierre!" You add with a gleeful smile.

But instead of bumping his fist at him, Pierre collapses onto his bed. It's the first time Chan sees him being this nervous, "Why are you so nervous?"

You're giggling next to him, "You've been sharing a bed with Alicia for so long," you add.

Pierre groans and holds his head with both hands, "Ugh... I don't know."

"Just do you, enjoy it, man," Chan suggests.

Pierre sits on the bed again now, "Yeah, you're right."

He gives Chan his fist bump now then gets up from the bed, "I have to get ready for the date now. See ya!"

"Good luck!" You shout at him before he gets out of the door.

It must be nice to get on a date with you but Chan understands that he has to earn it here. He looks at you and he can see that you're wishing for the same thing.

"We'll get our time," he tells you.

"Yeah," you reply with a smile.

"Come here! Hug me, baby girl!" He pulls you into a tight hug and flips over so you're under him now.

"I want to kiss you," he says as he looks at you.

You put your hand on his lips and glance at it, "We can't. We have to be good."

It's like the roles are reversed now. It's him playing the bad guy now and you're playing the good girl now.

"You're right," he says, he chooses to bury his head in your neck instead.

-

CHRIS: Lana, we’ve been good so please get us on a date too!

-

Lana throws a party tonight.

You're tired of guessing what she's trying to celebrate and if she has something behind it. The worst has happened, you want to enjoy tonight.

"What are you wearing tonight?" Chan asks while you're drying your hair.

"Uhm... nothing," you mindlessly answer.

He puts his arm around your neck and playfully puts you in a chokehold, making you laugh in response. He then nuzzles his nose into your hair and asks again, "I want to match my clothes with you."

"Aww... that's so cute, Chris!" Lola comments from the other end of the vanity table while putting make-up on her eyes.

You turn your head around and jokingly say, "Then... wear nothing."

He wraps his hand around your neck and tilts your head to the side so he can bite on your shoulder, "Just tell me what color!"

You're laughing as you try to get his hand away from you but he keeps ticking your neck with his nose. In the end, you both settle with his favorite color, black.

You're fixing the straps of your dress while looking at the mirror in the bathroom and Chan is leaning against the sink, running his eyes up and down your body.

"You're so gorgeous," he compliments with a grin and those cute dimples.

He bites his fist when you check the back of your dress in the mirror by turning your body to the side.

"Gosh, I'm the luckiest," he sighs.

You get flustered and say, "Stop it!"

Pulling him close, you turn him around and make him look at both of your reflections in the mirror. Not going to lie, you like what you see.

You turn to look at him and then say, "Damn! We look good!"

He looks back at you and smiles, "We look good together."

Without warning, he puts his arms around you and carries you out of the bathroom.

The party had just started when Pierre and Alicia were coming back from their date. Everyone is being nosy with their questions yet you can't help to get nosy as well.

"Tell us everything!" Lola demands.

From the look of it, Pierre and Alicia look happy and it makes you just as happy for them, everyone seems to feel the same way as well.

"It was nice. We went on a boat and enjoyed the sunset," Pierre says.

Alicia nods along to his words, "Then there was a funny question at the end," she says, then leers at Pierre.

Pierre cracks a laugh before answering, "I asked her to be my girlfriend."

Dani, being the one invested in the story, impatiently asks, "What did you say, Alicia?"

Alicia leers at Pierre again and smiles, "I said yes."

It's like watching a sports game and the home team scores, sending everyone into a celebration. Glasses of drinks raised to the air for a toast.

"To Pierre and Alicia!" Jace leads the toast.

"To Pierre and Alicia!" The rest repeat after him and take a sip of their drinks.

-

YOU: Well, unlike us... [chuckles] Pierre and Alicia are the most committed couple in the retreat so I couldn't be happier for them.

-

Instead of being jealous, Chan is happy for Pierre and Alicia.

He's happy to see his closest friend in the retreat happy and it's not like Chan is not happy, he is happy with you. He looks around and they're just as happy even though the prize fund is still at zero.

He holds you close and kisses the top of your head, "I'm so happy."

"Me too," you murmur with your head resting on his chest.

The music abruptly stops and Chan kind of guesses what comes next. There she is, the ultimate cockblocker and party crasher Lana.

Everyone already knows where to go and they drag their feet to head to the cabana. You sit next to Chan, putting one hand around his waist and the other clasped with him, resting it on his leg.

The money is at zero now but that doesn't make everyone less nervous, if anything, there's an anticipation for what Lana is going to announce this time.

Chan's heart skips a beat the second the cone lights up, signifying her arrival. She skips on greeting everyone and calls for both of your names.

You look at each other to exchange a mix of panicked and confused looks.

"On your previous test, you were able to access your true feelings for each other, proving to me that your connection is more than skin deep," Lana says.

That's good news and the applause everyone is giving toward both of you confirmed it.

"However, actions speak louder than words."

Chan hates it when that word comes in the sentence: 'however' because that means, Lana has bad news to tell.

"Tonight, you will both be put to the ultimate test, a night in the private suite."

Remembering that you both failed on the same test and knowing you both have to go through it again. Chan feels the pressure already and he sees you wince in response to that.

"If you refrain from breaking any rules, you will win back $100,000 for the group."

Everyone is cheering at the amount of money you can win back from it but your last failure reminds them not to haste to celebrate.

Chan notices a few pessimistic faces among the group and he understands that. But he knows that it's time he pays everyone back for the damages he did to the prize money.

"We'll try to win back the money for you guys," Chan earnestly says with you nodding along in agreement to his words.

"Please, make your way to the suite!" Lana orders.

He offers his hand to help you get up from the sofa and keeps holding your hand.

Jace nods at Chan to encourage him, "Don't mess up, 'kay? You got it!"

"Wish us luck!" You say to everyone for the last time.

-

CHRIS: This is it. This is the big, ultimate test.

-

The second you both enter the private suite, you throw yourself at him.

Thank goodness that he is quick to catch you and steadily holds you against him to keep you from falling. You loop your both hands around his neck and warmly hug him.

You pull away to look at his face, "We can do it," you murmur with a soft kiss on his cheek.

He returns the kiss but his lips land on your jaw instead, "for that to happen, we shouldn't have a bath."

You pout at him and say, "But I still need to have a bath. I'm dirty."

"You are dirty," he says with a sly smile.

You narrow your eyes at him and put your forehead against his, "Are you dirty?"

It's like a deja vu watching you get undressed in front of him, doing it so confidently like he isn't there and looking at your enticing body with dark, lustful eyes.

"You can join me or..." you nonchalantly say as you step into the tub.

"You can just watch," you continue as you lower yourself into the water, flashing him a naughty smile as you lean back in the tub.

Chan has seen and experienced this scene before but he doesn't like how it ended. This is why it's called a test, see if he can take it and come up with a better result than before.

"Atta, boy!" You exclaim as he starts to take his clothes off.

You intently watch him taking every piece of clothing on his body until there's none left. Your eyebrow raises as your eyes flick down there.

"Hi, there," you playfully talk to his semi-hard member.

Everything about you evokes the rebellious side of him, he just wants to do whatever he wants and pleases. He reminds himself that he needs to control himself and the money that he can win back from doing it.

With one foot down in the tub, Chan can already feel the heat of the moment.

-

CHRIS: When it's just the two of us the sexual tension goes...[Sighs] It's high!

-

Jumping onto the bed, you crawl over to get something from the tray of sex toys on the bedside table.

You know which one you want to get and take it with you as Chan dives onto the bed next to you. You waste no time straddling him, "Put your hands above your head!"

He ignores your order and laughs at you instead. He chooses to disobey you so you take both his hands and put them above his head, you cuff them with handcuffs.

"I'm sorry," you tell him with no hint of regrets whatsoever in your apology.

You look at him and smile in satisfaction that he's laying helpless underneath you.

"You've been very, very bad, Chris," you say in a low, sultry voice and run your fingertips down his bare chest.

He takes a deep breath and looks back at you, "I've been bad, so?" He dares you with a smirk.

As expected, he will disobey you and dare you to do things to him. He's enjoying it and you're more than willing to play along.

You crawl over to the side and use the opportunity to bring your ass close to his face while you take another sex toy from the tray.

You sit down on his crotch, intentionally hard, and enjoy the low groan he lets out. You show him the long, leather whip in your hand.

You put the end of the whip under his chin and used it to tilt his head to look at you, "Do you admit to being a bad, bad boy?"

Instead of answering, he bites his lips and fiercely looks at you. Taking him off guard, you slap his chest with the whip.

"Answer me!" You order.

He slyly smiles and refuses to answer again. You start to slap his chest and abdomen with the whip, making heart-shaped marks on his pale skin.

You decide to get off him and lay on your side next to him, "I'm going to keep doing it until you answer me," you taunt him as you drag the end of the whip down his thigh.

You lean into the side of his face and lowly whisper into his ear, "Answer me, Chris."

He shakes his head and you immediately land a slap on his inner thigh twice that he gasps in response. Feeling mischievous, you slip the whip under his boxer and rub him there.

"Will you answer me now, mmh?" You ask.

He catches you off guard now, rolling on the bed and putting his body on top of you. He buries his head deep in your neck while kissing you there.

"Oh..." you breathlessly moan as he bites on your neck.

Chan is always afraid to put his whole weight on you but you don't want to have it another way, so you put your legs around him and let him collapse on top of you.

He looks at you but his eyes are centered on your lips, "Do you want to kiss me, mmh?"

He alternates it by placing kisses along your jaw and finishes it with a sweet kiss on your cheek, "Actually, there are a lot more things I want to do to you."

-

YOU: Our prize fund is zero so that means there's no money to lose... [bites lips]

-

Chan keeps his handcuffed hands in front of him as you unlock it for him. He puts it back on the bedside table and sees you still straddling him.

He pats the space next to him, "Come here so we can cuddle!"

You shake your head and put your hands on his chest, "No, I like it here. I like sitting on top of you," you say with your eyes enchanting him to gaze back at them.

He puts his hands on your thighs, fingers teasing the hem of the short sleeping dress you're wearing, "Is this your favorite position?"

"Uh-huh," you answer and put your hands to hold your hair in a makeshift ponytail.

"You want to be on top, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm good when I'm on the top," you tell him with your head slightly tilted to the side and your lips curl into a naughty smile.

"Is that true?" He asks, allowing his hands to move up to your waist and hold you there.

"I can show it to you," you dare him.

Seeing you straddling him like this only gives him the glimpses of what you'd like fucking him and he bet it'd be so good. Swear his cock twitched just now from remembering how good it is inside you.

Now you're sitting on his crotch and there's only a layer of clothing that separates him from what he wants, he believes you can feel how his cock is achingly hard for you.

"Maybe next time," he kindly refuses no matter how much his body wants to scream yes.

"Why not now?" You ask with a low giggle.

You make it so hard for him that he has to lift you off him and lay you down next to him. Without giving you time to escape, he puts his arms and legs around you, limiting the things you can do around him.

"Stop teasing me," he presses a wet, long kiss on your cheek.

You helplessly try to get out of his hold while giggling but failing.

"Baby," you softly call.

You hold his chin in your fingers and turn your head at him, "I want to sleep naked tonight."

-

CHRIS: The longer they let us alone together, the more I want to do things to her [raises eyebrow]

-

Even after the morning comes, it doesn't mean that the test has been done yet.

Somehow, you wake up naked and find yourself snuggling to Chan who's just as naked. You don't want to force your brain to work just yet.

It seems like he's awake already as he puts his hand on your back and runs his fingers down your back, light and fluttering, lulling you back to sleep.

Realizing that the test is not over yet, he gets away from you only so he can lay next to you and easily places kisses on your bare back.

You delightfully hum every time his full lips make contact with your skin, warm and soft, making you tingle inside.

"You're so beautiful," he hums.

He then starts another trail of kisses from the nape of your neck and down your spine. He stops before he gets tempted to go lower than your waist.

"So soft, so beautiful..." he sighs with so much frustration as if he saw something he couldn't perceive.

Chan decides to prop both hands on each side of you and kisses your neck as he's hovering above you, waking you up with sweet, gentle kisses.

"Wake up, baby," he softly calls you.

Wanting more than just kisses, you pull him close so you can feel him whole, his body on your body, skin-to-skin. It feels rather more intimate than sex.

He puts all of your hair away to the side so he can pepper your shoulder with kisses, "Morning," he says in between kisses.

You smile with eyes closed and croak, "Morning."

There's not much time left in the private suite and you both have to face everyone soon.

"How are we going to tell them?" You meekly ask him, feeling the anxiety already.

He gently caresses your cheek with his knuckle, "I'll do the talking," he simply answers.

You overlap his body with yours and put your arm across his chest, "Can't we just stay here?" You innocently ask with a low laugh.

"We can stay a little longer," he consoles you with a kiss on your forehead.

As much as you want to stay, it's time to face the truth once more.

-

YOU: Last night was... special. The best night I ever had in the retreat. [smiles]

-

While holding Chan's hand, you wake slow walk on the way back to the villa, and meet everyone in the bedroom.

Everyone is looking a bit antsy even though they're still in their beds. They stop talking once they notice you're back from the private suite but they seem to be scared to ask the important question.

Chan gestures to you to sit on the sofa instead of on the bed next to the table where Lana is sitting still so prettily.

Before Chan can open his mouth and speak, Lana gets ahead of him, chiming on the table next to you.

"Last night, you faced your ultimate test," Lana skips the morning greeting and goes straight into business.

"As a couple, if you could refrain from breaking any retreat rules, the prize fund will be increased from $0 to $100,000."

You grimace at that because anything could happen at this point.

"However..."

Lola gasps at the mention of that word and hides behind the duvet. It's your turn to gasp as Lana calls your name.

"Even though you were successful in sexually arousing Chris, he was able to hold firm and respect the rules of my retreat."

Applause and cheers erupt from every corner of the room. You hate that Lana exposed you for what you did in the private suite but it won't stop you from celebrating as well.

"Which means that the prize fund now stands at $100,000," Lana updates.

More cheers and whistles are coming from everyone at the announcement that you both gained half of the total prize money back.

"I am so proud of you, babe!" Dani says to you.

You blow her a kiss as a token of gratitude and look at Chan, he's looking as proud as you are.

"This is what I call growth," Pierre comments with a smile.

"Yeah, that's true," Lola agrees.

Everyone gets quiet as Lana continues talking, "As a reward for showing restraint and putting the interest of the group above your own, you will be going on a date."

You turn to look at Chan and smile, feeling so proud of both of you. You look around the room and ask, "Can I hug him, now?"

They are all laughing before answering, "Yes."

You walk up to Chan and he welcomes you into his arms, holding you so tight while lifting you off your feet.

It feels good to do good and get rewarded for it, you lean close to murmur, "I'm so proud of you."

"I'm so proud of us," he says back with a kiss on your cheek.

-

YOU: The last few days have been so hard for us so I think we deserve this date and I'm just so excited [grins]

-

To be honest, Chan is nervous.

Yes, he's happy and excited for the date. What he's worrying so much about is the talk he'll be having with you and he wants to make sure that he gets his emotions across.

It's important that you know his feelings for you.

His face lights up as you walk toward him, he helps you board the boat to get to the other small island where the date will be.

"Gorgeous," he sweet compliments as he brushes your hair and tucks it behind your ear.

"Thank you, baby," you mutter and take his hand to hold it.

The two of you take a short walk to where the date has been prepared, a cute little picnic with a bottle of champagne chilled in a bucket of ice which Chan can easily pop open.

"Mmh... My man is so strong," you playfully praise him.

You take one of the champagne flutes so he can fill it for you, "What are toasting to?"

He thinks for a moment, "Mmh... for passing the ultimate test?"

You chuckle and nod in agreement, "For passing the ultimate test!"

You both clink your glasses together and take a sip of the bubbly wine.

-

CHRIS: We both know that we have a strong physical chemistry between us but I need to know if we have a strong connection as well. I want this to last.

-

The sun is slowly sinking into the horizon, painting the sky with stunning bursts of flaming gold colors.

Even Chan is here, in one of the most beautiful places he's ever been, he thinks that what makes it so special is because he's with you.

"Have you realized that it's been me and you since day one?" Chan asks.

You fix your hair and prop one hand next to you, "Yeah," you answer while nodding.

"We've been going through such... a long journey," he says, emphasizing how rough it has been for the two of you.

You nod again and softly laugh, "You know, with other people, I would push them away and keep moving forward. I never once in my life thought I would find 'that someone'."

This is why he's comfortable around you. He shares a piece and you share one piece of you too, it's never going one way with you. Everything is fair and he thinks this is what good communication is.

"As you know, the last relationship I had... it was ugly but in here, in this retreat, I learned how to confront my emotions and open up to someone," Chan shares his piece of him with you.

You're looking at him with eyes that match the soft smile on your face while tucking away the hair getting blown by the wind.

"Also, this retreat helps me put things into perspective," he continues, "I'm able to show sides of myself that I didn't know I had."

You take a sip of your drink and nod again, "Just like I said when people get into my space, I'd normally push them away."

You put your drink away before continuing, "But the fact that I met someone that I like... that makes me feel emotional and vulnerable."

Chan would be lying to say your words aren't making him feel the slightest bit emotional as well. He can feel the sincerity in your words, they are pure and heartfelt.

"I wonder if we're compatible moving forward in the outside world," you finish.

He takes your hand and holds it in the space between you and him. He then clears his throat before speaking.

"Now it's time where I can tell you and it would be wrong for me not to say this..."

His heart hurts as every bit of emotion is getting squeezed out of him into words but he wants to tell you everything, baring it out for you so you know his true feelings for you.

He looks into your eyes, it gives him the confidence to go on and say, "I genuinely do love you."

You close your eyes and break into laughter, it's not the reaction he hoped for but he waits for you to say something.

"I can't believe I came here and fell in love..." you say with a sheepish laugh.

You stare into his eyes and squeeze his hand as you say, "I love you too."

It feels like a ton of weight has been lifted off his chest. He thought he would be bound and confined the moment those words were out of his mouth, instead of that, Chan feels like he's been set free.

-

CHRIS: When I arrived here, I didn't mean to meet a girl and tell her I love her. I'm a changed man and it's because of her [smiles]

-

Seeing him happy makes you happy.

The happiness only doubled knowing that the feelings go both ways. Never in a million years have you ever thought you would be falling in love with a guy like him.

Chan is a gentleman, he's kind and sweet, he's very thoughtful and caring, and he has everything that you're not looking for in a man.

But he changed you and made you realize that you deserve a better man. Meeting him and being with him is a blessing like a star falls right onto your lap.

"I always told myself I'm better single and do my things, but with you, I feel safe, comfortable, and powerful at the same time," you let your thoughts out loud to him.

You swallow air to not let the tears get in the way of you speaking your heart out to him, "The best thing is, with you, I feel more reassured and that's something that rarely happens."

The way he's looking at you now is the most beautiful view you've ever seen and you want to imprint it in the back of your head. You also want to bottle this precious moment so you can treasure it for life.

Chan has been quiet for a moment then he lets out a sigh, "I feel like I've won the lottery," he says.

This has been a long journey but you're grateful that you come out of it together, stronger and on top of that, in love more than ever.

Both of your watches chime at the same time and you glance to confirm that it's green.

"Oh?!" You look at him with a surprised face.

Chan smiles and crawls over to you, "Thank you, Lana!" He shouts.

The kiss feels special and it's ultimately because this kiss marks the beginning of your relationship, the first one of many, and hopefully, the start of a long-lasting relationship.

-

YOU: I'm the... [squeals] I'm the happiest girl in the world [gleefully smiles]

-

Everyone else is already sleeping when the two of you decide to sneak out to have one final swimming lesson.

Again, it's not a lesson and you both promise to not spend any money. You're doing it as tonight is the last night of the retreat.

Nothing is going to change even when the show is over but it doesn't stop you from feeling sentimental about it.

"It's going to be weird not waking up next to you," you sadly say as Chan hugs you from the back.

He rests his head on your shoulder with his hands wrapped around your waist, "You'll be coming home with me, remember?"

You nod but what you actually meant is how the outside world would be different than here. We have the stupid rules here but everything is much simpler and happier here, you're afraid of losing it all once you step out of this retreat.

"I'm just glad we won back the money," you say, shifting it to a much brighter topic.

"Or else we wouldn't have money for our flights home," Chan jokes.

Your shared waves of laughter are making ripples on the surface of the pool water.

"Who is going to win the money though?" You ask in genuine curiosity.

Chan shrugs in response to your question, "Definitely not us," he says.

Considering that the two of you are the big spenders in the retreat, you wouldn't even dare to think that there's the possibility of winning the prize money too.

To be able to come home with a man you are deeply in love with is already a big win for you.

-

YOU: I don't care about the money. I got what I want, I got my man [smiles]

-

"Good morning, friends!" Lola cheerily greets everyone the second the lights turned on.

Staying up until late last night causing him to feel sleepy, he keeps sleeping with his head buried in the pillow. He can feel you slipping your hands around him to spoon him from behind.

"Morning, Channie baby," you softly call him by his Korean name.

He told you about it last night, the name only his family and his close friends are allowed to call him with that name.

You are, of course, more than allowed to call him that. It feels strange to hear it at first but he likes the sound of it, especially the affectionate tone you're using.

He takes your hand and kisses it, putting it close to his chest as he tries to get a few more minutes of sleep. The sound of the melodic chime is enough to make him refrain from going back to sleep.

"Good morning, everyone!" Lana greets, sounding exceptionally kind even though she speaks in the same robotic voice.

"Morning, Lana darling!" Claire replies with a cracked voice.

"Welcome to the last day of the retreat," she announces.

Everyone sadly groans which is quite shocking compared to the first day of the retreat, now everyone is not wanting to leave.

His head snaps at you and it reminds him to soak up every minute left in this retreat with you.

"I will be announcing who the finalists are shortly," Lana further announces.

Everyone's ears perk up at the announcement, finalists in 'plural', which means there is more than one candidate to win the prize money.

Everyone else is secretly guessing who's going to win it but with his bad record, Chan chooses to sit back and wishes everyone the best of luck.

"It's the last day!" Luke remarks, still in disbelief of it.

"Let's make it the best one!" Dani adds as she yawns into her hand.

"And let's spend the whole money today," Chan jokes even though he's slurring his words.

"Funny, Aussie boy!" Jace says as he tosses a cushion at him.

-

CHRIS: I fully trust that Lana will choose the right person to win the money and I'm okay that I'm not it, Lana, I have no hard feelings [laughs]

-

"It's the last day so I'm going to wear the tiniest bikini."

Chan hears what you're saying since he's in the dressing room to take something out of his closet.

"Oh my, Gosh!" He responds to what you're saying.

You're chuckling and look at him as he stands across the room, "I'm putting another test on you."

He walks over to your chair and puts his hand around your neck, that way he can angle your head as he pleases. He attacks one side of your face with small kisses.

"Stop being so cute," Claire says as she hollowed her cheeks to apply some colors to them.

"Yeah, stop it before you spend some money," Alicia playfully adds.

Chan lets you go because he needs to go to the bathroom to style his hair, he finds Jace in there, putting his long blond hair into a small bun.

"Who do you think is going to win?" He asks.

It's the third time someone asked him the same question and he'll remain diplomatic about his answer, "Whoever wins I'll be happy for them."

Jace respects his answer and does not further press him to give a name but Chan gets curious about his answer.

"Who do you think?" He turns the table to him.

Jace sits on the edge of the tub and watches as Chan combs his hair in front of the mirror on the sink.

"I think it's you, Aussie boy."

Chan snorts in response, he figures that Jace wants to entertain him with his answer.

"Hey, the one who made a lot of mistakes is the one that is most improved," he defends his answer, proving that he's actually serious about his answer.

"Yeah, nah, I don't think it's me, mate," he refuses his answer to entertain the idea that he has a chance to win it.

"That's just my opinion," Jace says with a nonchalant shrug.

-

CHRIS: If it were up to me, I think everybody would win here but it's not, it's up to Lana. [Shrugs]

-

It's the time in the cabana again.

You're sad that it's going to be over soon but God! You're so glad that soon you'll not be hearing that melodic chime again. It's like hearing a soundtrack to a horror movie.

"Hello, everyone!"

"Hey, Lana," you reply, suppressing your anxious groan coming out of your mouth.

"I have been collecting data since you arrived and have now conducted my final analysis," Lana informs.

You can't tell what everyone is feeling right now, it's a mix of anticipation, anxiety or relief, sadness or happiness, everything is there.

"As you are aware, there was a prize fund of $200,000 allocated to aid your development."

You wince at the mention of the word 'was' and it brings back your not-so-finest moments in your head.

"The prize fund stands at $100,000."

"Whoo!" Lola whoops, "That's a lot of money, baby!"

"And it was very hard to gain," Chan playfully comments, sending everyone into laughter.

"Like literally," he adds.

You cover his mouth with your hand to stop him from embarrassing himself more and let Lana continue.

"There are three places in the final."

Now everyone is assessing each other for their possibilities to win the money. You're definitely not going to make the cut with how much you spent in the retreat.

-

YOU: It's clearly not going to be us. We're the antagonists in this show [chuckles]

-

"Following my rules alone isn't enough to win. The finalists are those who have shown personal growth during their time at the retreat."

Oh, wait? Personal growth?

If we're talking about personal growth, everyone can see how much Chan has grown since the first day of the retreat. People would think that it's a biased opinion but you believe that Lana sees it, or you hope so.

"The first finalist is..."

You're secretly praying that Chan's name gets called, it's not much about winning, he deserves to be in the final with the journey he's been through in this retreat.

"Pierre and Alicia."

It's kind of expected and everyone is clapping for them because they deserve it. You watch as they're hugging each other and looking so cute it makes you cooing adorably.

"The second finalist is..."

You continue to pray in your heart for one name to be called by Lana, you even have your hands clasped together and close your eyes as you deeply wish for it.

"Jace and Lola."

Again, everyone is clapping because they're genuinely made for each other, they complement each other in a way like no other.

"The third and final finalist is..."

For the last time, you wish and pray as hard as you can in your heart. You never wished for something this badly so for the first time in your life, please let—

"Chris."

Your mouth hangs open in response while he pulls you into a hug. You're at a loss for words for a moment until he pulls away from the hug.

You get teary as you see him standing up to take his place on the final, feeling so proud of him and the man he has become.

"Pierre and Alicia, Jace and Lola, Chris, one of you will walk away with $100,000."

Chan offers his hand at you so you can hold it while he's standing up in front of you. You can't fight the tears that are already pooling in your eyes.

"And the decision will be made by the remaining guests."

"Oh, my God!" You quietly gasp while dabbing the tears in the corner of your eyes.

"Will the shortlisted guests please leave the cabana while the voting takes place," Lana orders.

Chan bends down to hug you since he has to leave. He presses a long kiss on your cheek and caresses your cheek, "I'll see you soon, yeah?"

You nod with a smile, "Okay."

-

YOU: Oh, I don't care if people think that I am being biased but I saw his growth, every day in this retreat. My vote is going to Chris.

-

The dressing room is crowded because everyone is getting ready for the last party in the retreat. Everyone is wearing white per the dress code announced by the staff.

Chan pulls you to the bedroom to have some alone time before he gets to be separated from you because the finalists have their special entrance to the party.

He sits down at the end of the shared bed and then pulls you down onto his lap.

"I can't believe that I'm one of the finalists, it's... mad!" He says in disbelief.

You put your hands around his neck and look at him, "You deserve it, baby."

He takes a deep breath as though he was swimming in deep water. He then runs his hand in your hair and affectionately brushes your hair.

"Whatever happens, I'm happy, I'm winning," he says.

You nod.

"I'm going home with a girlfriend," he shyly says with his dimpled smile.

That gets you flustered as well and it seems like it has just sunk in you that you're dating him now, "oh, shoot, I have a boyfriend now," you say with a shocked laugh.

He hugs you as you both laugh at the sudden realization, he buries his head in your neck to drink in the scent that gives him a sense of comfort.

He allows his hands to trace down your sides and adores every curve of it, "Mmh... You look stunning tonight," he praises.

"Spin for me," he demands.

You get off his lap and elegantly raise your hands above your waist before spinning around on your feet to show him the whole look.

"Do you like it?" You ask.

"Oh, love it!" He answers with a dramatic, overwhelmed eye roll.

You sit on his lap again and let him rest his head on your chest, on the soft mounds of your clothed breasts. There are only hours left until the retreat ends but his hands are already getting impatient as they're teasing the zipper of your dress.

"Can't wait to take this off of you tonight," he murmurs with his lips grazing your cleavage as he speaks.

You're lowly humming in response and cradle his head close to your chest, "Anything you want," you tell him.

Those words are sending his mind wandering off and away from his head. He's not thinking about the money at all, all he can think about are the things he wants to do to you.

"You can do anything you want later," you say again with your fingers softly scratching the back of his hair.

"Now that's a real prize," he says with an enthusiastic smile.

-

CHRIS: Winning or not, I'm leaving in love [smiles]

-

You sit next to Claire and Nick as the rest of the guests are waiting for the finalists to come and join the party.

"It's sad, isn't it?" Dani says with a sad smile from the other bench.

"It's coming to an end, yeah," Claire shares with a pout.

You've been meaning to not feel sentimental about it but now everyone is feeling the same way, you can't help but have your say about it.

"It's bittersweet, you guys," you say.

Everyone is nodding in agreement and Luke initiates a toast to start the last party in the retreat. The talk continues with everyone sharing their memories here, happy, sad, or funny ones, also everything in between.

Mac has to abruptly stop talking as the finalists are about to enter.

A round of applause welcomes all five of them. First is Pierre and Alicia, and following behind them are Jace and Lola. Last but not least is your number one man, Chan.

You scoot on the bench to make space for Chan to sit on and welcome him with a hug.

"Missed you," you murmur even though you have only been separated from each other for less than an hour.

He caressingly kisses your cheek and puts his arm around you, you reckon he needs the comfort from how nervous he looks right now.

"Got all my fingers crossed for you," you whisper to him.

"Yeah?"

"Uh-huh!" You answer without a beat and grin at him.

You hold his face by the jaw and place a kiss right on his dimple, hurriedly wiping the lipstick mark with your thumb after.

The melodic chime comes from the cone and it's going to be the last you hear of her, Lana.

"During your time at the retreat, I have observed you all commit to the process, acknowledge your failures, and show significant change."

You nod and smile, "Thank you, Lana!" You sincerely say from the bottom of your heart.

"The time has now come to announce the winner of the $100,000 prize."

You put your heads together and hold each other's hands on his lap, letting go of everything all at once, and no matter what happens, you are happy with each other.

"Pierre and Alicia, Jace and Lola, Chris, please stand!" Lana orders.

-

YOU: At the end of the day, I'm leaving as a changed person and I'm in a relationship with a man I love. And that's something I have never imagined in a million years. [Brightly smiles]

-

Chan isn't that optimistic he would win the money.

Yet he feels so nervous Chan has to take a deep breath before getting up from his seat without letting go of your hand.

"You got it, baby," you mutter to him with a squeeze on his hand.

He peers over his shoulder to look at you and flashes you a grateful smile.

"Your fellow retreat guests have voted," Lana continues with the announcement.

Chan looks at the other finalists, at Jace and Lola, and the other way, at Pierre and Alicia. He never thought he would be considered as one of the finalists, he's still in denial about it.

"The person in third place is..."

His heart is beating faster and faster he starts to wonder if he's going to have a cardiac arrest.

"Jace and Lola," Lana announces.

Chan's head snaps in the direction of Jace and Lola who are embracing and congratulating each other despite they do not win the money.

-

CHRIS: I'm on the top two... [deeply inhales] not expecting this at all. If I win, it wouldn't be my own because she played a big part in my growth in the retreat.

-

Lana doesn't give him time to relax as she continues to the next announcement.

"Pierre and Alicia, Chris, one of you has been chosen to check out of the retreat with the prize fund."

He squeezes your hand in his hand hard enough that his knuckles turn white. He needs it, he needs something to hold on to.

"The winner who will be leaving with $100,000 is..."

Who doesn't want that much money? But honestly, it's not going to be a loss if he didn't win it. It's been one hell of a journey and an emotional one, he made friendships and experiences of a lifetime here.

"Pierre and Alicia."

He did end up not winning the money but he doesn't feel like losing at all. He's reeling from it and only aware of himself when you hug him so tightly.

-

CHRIS: Couldn't be happier for Pierre and Alicia.

YOU: [Nods] Yep, they definitely deserved it.

-

"Congrats, you two!" Chan takes his turn to congratulate the winning couple.

"So happy for you, man!" He says as he gives Pierre a big hug.

The celebration continues with them popping open bottles of champagne and spraying everyone with it. You hide behind Chan as Pierre is aiming the bottle at both you and him.

"You're dripping!" You exclaim, seeing his face sticky and wet with white wine.

You help by wiping it with the back of your hand while he brushes his hair to the back.

Chan looks around and sees that everyone is having fun and happy, there's nothing he wishes more than his. It's a memory he'll treasure for life.

Everyone settles back to their seats as Lana has one announcement left.

"Your time at the retreat is over and therefore, the rules no longer apply."

Chan is turning to you but you're looking the other way, you walk over to the other side and he sees that you're coming over to someone.

Chan and Luke can only laugh as you share another kiss after the retreat ends with Dani.

Luke has to pull Dani away from you to not let the kiss continue while Chan pulls you from behind.

"Okay, that was hot," He says with an impressed smile.

He puts his arms around you and pulls you close, "But it's my turn now."

You giggle at him and waste no time to kiss him, opening your mouth to let him kiss you deeper, relishing the craving he has for the taste of your lips.

-

CHRIS: We never thought we'd get this far.

YOU: [Nods] Yeah.

CHRIS: [Looks at you] I'm proud of you.

YOU: [Shyly smiles] And I'm so proud of you!

-

The sounds of the fireworks going off startle you and you both turn around to see them lighting up the sky in bright, colorful sparks.

He's hugging you from behind as everyone else is also watching the wondrous view. His heart feels full yet he wants more of it, he knows that the only way he can get more of it is by sharing it.

Chan brings his mouth close to your ear and says, "I love you."

You turn around to look at him with a confused look on your face, "I'm sorry what?"

It's the explosive sounds of the fireworks and the music playing that make it hard for you to hear what he said the first time.

He raises his voice a little louder and says again, "I love you."

"What?" You raise your voice even louder than him against the constant explosion in the distance.

Chan laughs because it reminds him of the first day you met. He can tell you're not pretending to not hear it this time, he tries again by pressing his mouth close to your ear with his hands cupping around his mouth, "I love you!"

You coo at him in response and turn around to face him, "I love you too."

He captures your lips in one long, lingering kiss and lets out everything in him, freely and intensely. He's not afraid to let go now because he knows that's the only way to love you fully.

And no one can stop him, not now, not ever.

-

CHRIS: No more Lana. No more rules.

YOU: [Looks at Chris] And that means...?

CHRIS: Get in here!

YOU: [Kisses Chan] [Moans]

CHRIS: [Let go of the kiss] [Looks at the camera] Can I go now? Cause she needs to be f—

-

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[woniverse-writes]

"MOTH TO A FLAME (part 2)"

Bada Lee x Fem!Reader

part 1.5 ⟵ part 2 ⟶ part 3

series masterlist

summary: y/n l/n is the youngest team member of Jam Republic, competing in the second season of Street Woman Fighter. she’s got the sweetest smile and the most vibrant personality, but she also may or may not be the biggest hothead on the show when it comes to defending her teammates. apparently that’s attractive to Bada Lee.

word count: 12.8k (i'm so sorry)

warnings: swearing, suggestive at times, both Bada and reader are highkey obsessed with each other, Redlic, reader is described as younger and small a lot, Bada is kinda confusing with her feelings, sometimes isn't very accurate to swf's actual plot, also this isn't proofread so... sorry for any mistakes lol- lemme know if I missed anything!

After heading back to their rooms, each team celebrates finishing the first mission. some are more excited than others, based on their ranking. Like Jam Republic for example, whose first thought is to shake some ass for their victory. Kirsten and y/n keep posing and dancing toward the camera, blowing kissing, and having fun again.

“I can’t believe we just did that” Audrey sighs out, flopping back on the couch. Y/n piles on top of her, causing the slightly older girl to dramatically huff out a breath as to tease Y/n for plopping on her. The younger adjusts quickly and stares at her friend with a glare that holds no real malice, but is simply another teasing moment between the two. Audrey laughs and squeezes Y/n’s face.

“Oh, angry bunny!” she shakes the girl's head from side to side, still holding her face. The younger whines out loudly in protest, quickly pulling herself away and running to the other side of the room. The other members laugh in admiration of their youngest members.

“I hate it when you do that!” Y/n continues to whine but she also laughs along with her crew.

“Oh, but if Bada did it it’d be fine, right?” Ling provokes, and all heads whip in her direction. She has a knowing smirk and all the members burst out laughing with wide eyes as their youngest stands there shocked beyond words.

“That- that’s not- that is absolutely NOT true.” Y/n tries to suppress her nervous smile, but her bright red face and inability to cohesively string a sentence along doesn’t help her case.

“Right… yeah okay we believe you…” Emma crosses her arms and relaxes, letting out the last of her chuckles. Y/n throws her hands up and nods about to move on before it all goes downhill again.

“Puppy” Emma finished off her previous statement, sending her teammates into an even more intense frenzy of screams and chaos.

“ENOUGH” y/n’s screaming and covering her face in embarrassment, falling to the floor and curling up in a ball. They’re all laughing so hard their faces are red, and some even have tears streaming down their faces. Kirsten is trying really hard to be a responsible leader and get them to pull themselves together, but every time she looks over and meets y/n’s panicked puppy eyes she can’t help but start laughing again.

“Okay, okay, we need to take a lap and pull ourselves together” Kirsten manages to get out as everyone has calmed down for the most part. Shortly after, an announcement appears on the screen and the host is back, beginning to explain the next mission.

After it’s explained how the competition is going to work, and each team has picked its members, the lineups are revealed. The rookie class is revealed first and every team just about loses their minds when they see y/n is put in rookie.

“Ugh, I knew she was gonna be here, but I was just really hoping somehow she wouldn’t” Redy whines into her hands, receiving a comforting shoulder pat from Harimu. When Bebe sees the lineup, they’re just as worked up seeing y/n as a rookie.

"How is this even fair???" Tatter whines in despair, throwing her head back and running her hands down her face.

"Oh girl… You better get to work NOW" Lusher adds in, leaning back in her seat, side-eying the blonde.

"Maybe she's not good at choreographing…" Bada tries to ease Tatters’s mind, but as everyone  turns to look at her, they can all tell even Bada doesn't believe her own words by the way she sinks into her seat

"You can't be serious right now." Tatter scoffs, covering her face and groaning.

"Yeah I'm sorry, I don't know what you want me to say- I can't think of a single bad thing to say about that girl." 

"Yeah, we know" Bada's mouth drops open slightly at the jab from Cheche, who has a slight smirk on her face. To be completely honest, Bada didn’t know what to expect. It made the most sense to put y/n in the rookie class, as she’s the youngest in her crew and has danced less years than some of the others. BUT- she also has a ton of experience in different settings and styles, making her a versatile performer. Knowing her background, Bada can’t help but worry for her teammate as well as the others who have to go up against her.

The rest of the lineups are revealed and everyone gets working on choreography. Y/n is really excited yet focused as she works on her routine. The vibe of the song suits her style well and she feels confident that her choreography will at least be one of the top choices. She brings attention to every beat by articulating her movements and adjusting the strength of each one in accordance with the strength of the beat. The girl feels good about it, feeling her interpretation was executed well, but she wants to express the lyrics directly more. Having some basic knowledge of the Korean language was definitely helpful in times like this. 

When it’s time to present the choreographies, y/n is one of the last to show hers, and everyone is blown away. Most of them weren’t expecting her to directly interpret the lyrics as well as incorporate the beats. Her combination of straightforward articulation and usage of lyricism, on top of her naturally flawless musicality really drew everyone in and caused her to stand out. When it came time to decide the choreography that everyone wanted to do, almost everyone thought y/n’s was the best… but that meant nothing in this competition. 

"Y/n, I thought your choreography was amazing, and I'd love to dance it…" Redy starts, but a timid smile appears on her face. Y/n begins to smile gratefully before hearing the rest of Redy’s statement.

"After the competition… I think you'd be uneatable and no one else would stand a chance if we did this choreography. I'm sorry." She nods her head in apology, and y/n nods hers in understanding.

The time comes for them to all make their final decisions and Rena is the only one to vote for y/n, who happens to be the only one to vote for Rena as well. After Capri’s choreography was chosen, they all quickly conversed about when they would be back to start learning it, then went their separate ways. Along the way, y/n was stopped by Rena.

“They must be really scared of you” the Tsuba Kill member declares with a joking lilt in her voice as she walks up to match pace with the younger girl/ Y/n turns her head to look and Rena before grinning a little.

“I could say the same about you. We both got dropped for the same reason.” Y/n replies disappointed but not surprised. Rena ‘tsks’ and tilts her head, laughing off her annoyance.

“Ehhh, what can you do?” she shrugs before continuing, “We’ll just have to work even harder to prove why we’re the only ones suited for the main dancer position, right?” the older girl challenges raising an eyebrow at y/n. The younger girl raises her eyebrows in response, then sticks her hand out to Rena.

“I think we’re gonna make a good team.” She smiles and jokes slightly. Rena giggles and shakes her hand before they go to their individual rooms.

Yeah so Tatter comes back from the meeting and everyone can immediately sense her stress, so she explains how everything went down.

"I really loved y/n's choreography, but I knew she'd look best doing it, so I couldn't bring myself to vote for her" Tatter sits back and sighs, running her hands down her face. All of Bebe nods and hums in understanding. Not even Bada tries to counter the fact that y/n would look best doing her choreo, because it’s true, and she couldn’t bring herself to lie about that. 

“It’s okay, you made the right decision. It’s better for you to have chosen something you were confident in learning and executing, rather than something you wouldn't have been able to achieve in the short period of time we have.” the leader calmly reassures her member and pats her head, smoothing out her hair.

When y/n returns to Jam Republic’s hideout, she’s not as visibly as upset as she was before talking with Rena. 

“How’d it go??” Kirsten asked with wide eyes, seated and ready to listen. Latrice tuned in but continued to work on her own choreography. Y/n sighed and closed her eyes for a second.

“I did really well” she started with her eyes still closed. Kirsten straightens her stature and throws her hands up in excitement.

“That’s great!! And you must've done REALLY well for you to be able to say that yourself-” she praises her youngest dancer, excited to see her recognizing her own talent, but then Kirsten takes notice of the lack of excitement on the other end. Her face drops slightly and she lets out a sigh

“But…” Kirsten urges, and y/n takes a deep breath

“But they all thought I did too well… they all loved my choreo and wanted to learn it, but not for the competition. None of them want to compete because they think I’ll look the best doing it, and no one else will stand a chance.” she explains and looks even more disappointed than before. Kirsten clicks her tongue and stands to give her a hug. Latreice stops working on her piece and also comes to embrace the girl.

“That’s such a stupid reason not to vote for your choreography. They should be picking based on which one is the best, and if they recognized yours as the best but still didn’t pick it, it’s because they’re intimidated…” Kirsten begins to explain, tucking a piece of hair behind y/n's ear, and then petting her hair affectionately.

“Exactly, so now you just need to go out there and show them exactly why they should still be intimidated. Because no matter who’s choreography gets chosen, you’re gonna eat it up.” Latrice finishes, gently rubbing the younger girl's back. Y/n exhales and nods.

The next day of practice goes well and y/n feels confident with Capri’s choreography. It was easy, but she knew how to accentuate and execute each move to suit her style best. When they all finish learning their respective dances, the teams meet back the next day to battle for the main dancer position. They have a few minutes before they actually start shooting, so most dancers are getting some last-minute practice in or discussing with their team. Both Jam Republic and Bebe are working non-stop to perfect the pieces they’re about to compete. When y/n pauses to grab water, Bada sees this as an opportunity to quickly catch up, and maybe even an opportunity to psych her out a little in favor of Tatter. Did Bada feel bad thinking this way? Of course she did, but she held no ill intent, she just knew y/n would be amazing no matter what, so maybe just a little bit more pressure and it’d cause her nerves to hinder her a bit. Because at the end of the day, this was still a competition, and Bada was dedicated to winning.

The Bebe leader sauntered over to a focused y/n with a cool expression. The younger girl stood with her hands on her hips, head back and eyes closed as she caught her breath. Bada didn’t want to startle her necessarily, but we all know how she loves to tease. The older girl tugged on y/n’s beanie, pulling it down over her eyes, causing her to yelp in surprise and stand up straight, quickly pulling the hat off her own head. Her wide eyes meet Bada’s, who’s busy giggling at her shocked expression- but when she processes everything, her hands are back on her hips and she tilts her head with what’s supposed to be a stern expression.

“Hey.” is all y/n says and it has Bada dying laughing. Both of their respective teams are now subtly watching the interaction. 

“You should probably put your hate back on” Bada raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms as she recommends the younger girl. Y/n fakes pouts and crosses her arms as well.

“And why should I? Hm?” she questions raising her own eyebrows. Bad pokes the inside of her cheek with her tongue and grins, pleasantly surprised at y/n’s lack of obvious nerves. She notices the girl’s slight blush, but that’s her only present giveaway.

“Because your hair is a mess” she states calmly but still teasing, and ruffles the short girl’s hair, messing it up even more. Y/n whines and moves her head back so it’s out of Bada’s reach. She pouts and tries to fix her hair by running her fingers through it.

“You’re so mean to me!” she pouts trying not to smile or laugh, the blush on her face becoming much more intense as Bada continues to laugh at her. y/n finally gives up on trying to fix her hair and turns to fully face Bada again.

“Fix it.” she demands, looking up at Bada, still pouting. It’s the older girl’s turn to be shocked, as her eyes widen immensely and her face goes red in an instant.

“Eh?” she tilts her head and giggles, only slightly confused. 

“You made my hair a mess, so you fix it.” The small dancer just continues to talk with a pout, still trying not to smile, waiting for Bada to do something. The older dancer hesitates slightly before sighing and pretending to be annoyed at the demands, before starting to run her fingers through y/n’s hair. The second Bada’s hand makes contact with y/n’s head, the pout from the younger of the two immediately dissipates into a gentle smile. She’s staring up into Bada’s eyes, who happens to be avoiding eye contact, opting to focus on smoothing out y/n’s hair. 

“There, you should be good.” Bada nods, still not meeting y/n’s eyes, causing a small pout to return to the younger’s face. She just takes the beanie that y/n is still holding and positions it neatly on her head, tucking her hair so it sits comfortably but still looks nice. Meanwhile, anyone who happens to look over right now would how lovestruck y/n is by the older dancer. Her eyes glitter and she’s trying so hard to suppress the biggest smile ever that she has to bite her lip- which in turn causes Bada to have to focus even harder on anything besides the girl in front of her. When she finally does glance down to meet y/n’s eyes, Bada’s breath catches in her throat, not expecting the look she was getting from the younger girl. 

“Alright, get out of here. Go back to practicing.” Bada turns y/ns by her shoulders and shoves her slightly back in the direction of her team. Y/n just laughs, feeling so at peace with Bada, not realizing the effect she has on her.

“You’re the one who came over here to bother me!” the younger of the two exclaims, still laughing and watching Bada retreat backward, still keeping an eye on her. The older waves a hand dismissively and shakes her head.

“No wayyyyy, that’s not what happened.” She elongates and smiles charmingly, still trying to tease and get a rise out of y/n. 

“Yeah?” y/n raises an eyebrow and Bada can’t help but think how attractive she looks when she’s confident. She’s only ever been shy around her up until a few minutes ago, and Bada can’t tell which she likes more yet. She shakes her head at the younger girl and continues back to her team’s area with a smile and blush painting her face. Bada was expecting to get y/n worked up before she had to go on in hopes of getting her nervous enough to slightly underperform, but she’s pretty sure that totally backfired, because now Bada herself is the one feeling flustered, and Y/n seems more confident than she did before. Once reaching her team, Bada doesn’t even go back to practicing right away, she just sits down and takes a large drink of water.

Y/n puts her earbuds back in and goes back to practicing with agrin on her face after watching Bada sit down.

“So she’s not even gonna debrief with us what just happened?” Emma questions from her seat near Latrice and Kirsten. Ling, the biggest y/n-targeter, glances at the girl again to see her marking the routine but with full facials and can tell her adrenaline is pumping even more now. She turns back to Emma and chuckles

“She’s on a different level right now- I don’t think we can disturb her even if we tried” Ling just laughed and stretched her arms above her head.

“It’s like Bada’s attention gives her energy” Audrey notes smiling at how focused her friend is on executing the routine diligently 

“Bada could probably spit in her face and tell her she’s the worst dancer she’s ever seen and y/n would just be like “I have to be better for her”.” Emma mocks in a dainty voice causing the others to laugh. 

“Oh leave her alone, there’s nothing wrong with having a little crush.” Kirsten, ever the motherly type, gently comments to the rest of the team. She herself glances at y/n to see her taking another short sip of her water, eyes still sparkling, but also fiery with determination.

As the time arrives for the rookie class to compete for the main dancer title, all of the teams are hyping up their rookie. y/n is being shaken around by her members in an attempt to hype her up, which is very effective until she steals a glance in Bada’s direction to see her pressing her forehead to Tatter’s. 

"haha that was cute- I'm killing myself" Y/n fake laughs and the look in her eyes says “I’m fucking dying inside”. Her teammates panic for a second and whip around back to face her direction, then follow her line of sight. Emma tries to cover up her laugh with a cough.

"Don't worry y/n, I gotchu-" Audrey jokes around, aggressively grabbing y/n by the face and planting a fat kiss on her cheeks, making sure to cause an annoyingly loud 'smooch' sound. y/n yelps in surprise but then laughs and shoves her away, not even bothering to wipe away the lipstick stain on her cheek

Bada doesn't see the interaction but notices the lipstick print on y/n's cheek when she steps into the center, and suddenly feels bitterly confused. Now she can't even focus on the competition in front of her because she's so stuck on trying to figure out which Jam member's lipstick matches the one of y/n's cheek. After she realizes how obsessive she's being, Bada tries to solely focus on watching everyone perform

"Let's go, Tatter!" she's screaming and cheering for her teammate, but her eyes are mostly focused on the girl next to her. y/n dances the choreography as if it's her own, showing her truest self as a performer. Bada feels like it’s truly amazing watching her dance because it’s almost like the music lives inside y/n with the way she hits every beat and accent flawlessly and effortlessly. Every move she makes looks natural- like this is too easy for her. 

It comes down to the final four being her, Capri, Tatter, and Rena. They rematch and Bada is just happy Tatter made it that far- of course, she hopes the blonde is able to secure the main dancer title, but she’s pretty positive y/n’s had it secured since she learned the choreography. Watching the rematch only confirms Bada’s thoughts, y/n somehow executing the piece even more excellently than the first time. She cheers, albeit slightly resigned, already knowing the outcome. 

The judges converse for quite some time and then finally face the dancers.

“We’ve chosen this member as the main dancer based on the quality of their movement and their ability to flawlessly interpret the song’s vibe” Monika prefaces the reveal with their reasoning.

“Main dancer for the rookie class is…” Mike Song starts back up

“Jam Republic’s Y/n.” Her tense figure relaxes as she sighs and the rest of her crew comes running up to surround her in a hug. She’s grinning and giggling slightly as the mic is passed over for her to say a few words about getting the position. She can barely even bring the mic up to speak into it, as her members are still hugging her tightly.

“This really is an amazing opportunity, and I’m extremely grateful. I’ll continue to improve the performance and show everyone an even better version. Thank you.” she bows politely (or attempts to, still secured in place with the loving arms of her members). The other teams applaud her again and Jam Republic walks back to their seats, y/n is in the back of the bundle. As they walk past Bebe, Bada confidently shouts out

“Y/n-ie congratulations, you were amazing!” and the small girl whips around, confused puppy dog eyes quickly scanning and finding Bada in the audience near her. She smiles the brightest smile ever seen and her breathing quickens a little bit.

“Thank you, so much” she replies a bit breathlessly, bowing and then not even trying to suppress her girlish giggles when she turns away from the older girl. 

“Wow… she even got a recognized by Bada… y/n really is THAT good, huh…” Yeni Cho gushes, jealous of the praise and recognition the youngest competitor is getting. 

“Did Bada just compliment you?” Kirsten murmurs the question once y/n gets closer to her. The younger of the two just giggles again and shrugs her shoulders, trying to suppress her smile.

“I guess she did…” 

__________________

Next was the sub-leader battle, which let’s just say, did not go well for y/n. She was still riding her high from getting crowned main dancer, and she was so excited to watch Latrice perform after watching her choreography, but she was still mildly annoyed at the others for doubting her members. The judges ask about the process and hardships and Redlic begins to speak. She expresses an irritation towards Latrice’s apparent lack of professionalism, causing all of Jam Republic to prickle slightly, especially their designated hothead, y/n. She was able to control her distaste for a bit, but then Redlic started talking out of her ass again and y/n couldn't help but roll her eyes and scoff in irritation.

"I'm so fucking sick of her attitude" and Kirsten's eyes get so wide, she immediately turns to her and covers her mouth

"You really need to start remembering you're on camera," she says seriously but laughs a little. y/n doesn't even look pissed at this point- she's got this annoyed, almost disgusted look on her face.

"your girl is pissed off again"

Bada immediately turns to look for y/n, and Tatter throws her hands up in defeat. y/n keeps listening to Redlic complain, now with an exhausted glare, waiting for her to shut the fuck up

"I'm so tired of her shit-" she starts with arms crossed, "maybe if she was better she wouldn’t have to rely on making excuses as to why she couldn't pick up the choreo." y/n speaks evenly and surprisingly calm, but one look at her face tells everyone that her comment was a genuine dig intended to knock the blonde dancer down a peg. Members from both Bebe and 1 Million hear her, as they are the two teams sitting on the outside of Jam Republic, and can’t help but either laugh in shock or sit there with scared wide eyes.

“Waaaah y/n is so scary!” Redy exclaims hiding slightly behind Lia Kim, giggling nervously.

When it comes time for them to finally dance, y/n is already on her feet ready to cheer Latrice on louder than anyone has ever cheered. Although she’s ready to cheer, y/n still looks cold and scary with her arms crossed and the tired glare beaming in her eyes. The music starts and y/n is already screaming.

“Let’s go Latrice! It’s yours! TAKE IT!!!” her screams even had Bada raising her eyebrows in shock at the volume and continuous energy coming out of the small girl. She suppresses a smile and goes back to watching Lusher dance alongside Latrice. Once the music stopped, y/n was critiquing openly in an instant.

"She tried too hard to make it sexy, it ended up looking cheap" she states, cold eyes trained on Redlic.

"damn, you are RUTHLESS" Audrey comments, laughing at her friend's easy to activate temper.

The judges converse once again, and they seem to make a decision quicker than when y/n had competed.

“The dancer chosen to fill the main dancer position is Jam Republic’s Latrice.” they announce and y/n shoots up in the air like a rocket, screaming her lungs out. The relief she feels after hearing the news is very evident on her face. As the judges gave their opinions and reasoning behind their decision y/n felt herself finally feeling satisfied, a proud smile overtaking her features. Her peace is disturbed very quickly though by Redlic, who expresses how she thinks the decision was unfair, and that Latrice was only picked for her physique. 

Y/n had never felt more enraged at that moment.

“Is she fucking serious?” she outwardly and quite loudly questions, causing everyone to look at her, and Kirsten to put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a look as to say “watch yourself”. Redlic meets the girl's eyes and immediately regrets everything. Y/n has never looked more dangerous, poking the inside of her cheek with her tongue. She’s got this angry, evil smirk- and she laughs when Redlic turns around and goes “sorry” while hanging her head.

“Yeah, that’s what I fucking thought” Y/n crosses her arms and leans back in her seat, face still hot with anger, and eye trained on Redlic as she walks back to her seat. Kirsten sighs and massages her forehead, stressed because 1) why the fuck did one of her dancers just get talked about like that in the grand year of 2023, and 2) she doesn’t know how she’s gonna deal with little-miss-attitude-problem. Even after putting her rage aside for a moment to congratulate and celebrate Latrice, y/n is back to glaring at Redlic, unable to pay attention to anything else, until it’s time for the leader lineup to compete.

The leaders all step away from their crews and into the fight zone, preparing to battle. Audrey, wanting to cause some mischief and tease her friends some more, turns to y/n with a look that can’t mean anything good.

“So who do you want to be the main dancer y/n? Are you still our team member or has Bebe won you over?” the short-haired girl ponders sarcastically.

"What kind of question even is that? Of course Kirsten- she's my mom, Bada is just my girlfriend." y/n answers sounding fully serious, but obviously joking when she shares the second half of her response. Emma ‘tsks’ and looks over at the two of them with a strange look.

"Why do you always have to say stuff that's gonna get you canceled when there are cameras around" the oldest of the three asks jokingly, causing the youngest’s jaw to drop in confusion.

"Why would I get canceled??"- "BECAUSE YOU AREN'T DATING HER????" Emma and y/n go back and forth just like siblings. Audrey laughs at the chaos she caused, Ling sighs- disappointed but not surprised with the banter, and Latrice minds her own business- focusing on Kirsten and the competition.

"I just wish for one day of peace where y/n isn't saying weird shit and being delusional-" "DID YOU SEE THE WAY SHE LOOKED AT ME BRO???"

yeah…

It’s officially time for the leaders to battle and, y/n is sat, ready to go. Bada and Kirsten are in separate groups, much to y/n’s satisfaction, as she can freely watch both without having to worry about missing the other. y/n tries to control her awe while watching Bada, but she gets a little too excited and ends up outwardly cheering- and she panics and laughs when Audrey playfully side-eyes her. She sits back down and tries to suppress her excitement, but Bada is just too good to be real. It’s not a style that y/n would be able to pull off unless she was 100% confident in knowing the choreography, but watching Bada do it so effortlessly made her want to learn it too. When she does the final ‘lighter’ pose at the end, Bada comes back to reality and can feel eyes on her, which makes sense since everyone was watching, but she still shifts her eyes slightly to meet with y/n’s. Y/n, who is holding her breath, covering the lower half of her face (hiding a blush). Y/n, whose eyes widen about three sizes when she realizes Bada is staring at her. The girl fumbles for a second but then moves her hands away from her face to give Bada a double ‘thumbs up’ and frantically nods in approval, revealing a blush in the meantime. Bada just smirks and turns to exit the floor in order to make room for the next group.

When she's watching Kirsten though- it's a shock how y/n hasn't passed out yet with how much she's screaming and cheering. Bada’s eyes are going back and forth between Kirsten and y/n. She’s surprisingly able to focus more on the leader’s dancing, rather than the younger member’s cheering. Either way, she’s irritated. If y/n were on her team, would she cheer for her like that?  Does she truly think Kirsten is better than her, or is it just because they’re on the same team? Bada’s head is full of questions, but she forces herself to push them aside for right now, putting her full focus back on the competition.

When they rematch the first time, y/n controls her emotions even less. Again, Bada and Kirsten are in different groups, allowing y/n to enjoy both of their performances. Then when they rematch the third time, all her restraint is out the door. She’s screaming and cheering as loud as ever, and everyone just assumes it’s for Kirsten- which most of it is! But occasionally y/n will react to something Bada had done, and nobody even questions it.

The two finish dancing together and everyone can admit that they’re untouchable.

“Can’t they just both be the main dancers?” Y/n groans and whines in anticipation as the judges take their good ‘ol time deciding the main dancer. When Bada is announced as the winner, y/n claps respectfully with a disappointed but somewhat satisfied smile. Of course she’s extremely happy for her, but it’s still a loss for her team. So the young girl stands up and claps slightly more enthusiastically, just happy to have been able to witness such an insane performance.

Bada is feeling unexplainably proud. She falls to the ground and thanks the judges. Kirsten did such an amazing job and Bada truly felt honored to have been able to dance with her. She really did have a better understanding now why y/n admired her so much. 

Then Bada kisses Kirsten on the cheek, and the young girl stops smiling and clapping altogether- she just kind of freezes, her mouth slightly hung open. With her body still frozen mid-clap, y/n just slowly turns her head to Emma who's already looking at her with an amused smirk, trying not to burst out laughing at her younger teammate's jealousy.

“Why is it everyone BUT ME???” y/n snaps out of her frozen frame and dramatically crumples to the ground.

___________________

On the day of the video shoot, everyone is getting their hair and makeup done. Bada is sitting away from the rest of the leaders when she feels her phone buzz. She picks it up to see a text from y/n, and when she opens it, she's met with a selfie of her and Tatter. It's the two of them making scrunched-up faces and pouting playfully at the camera. They're both holding onto a ribbon-tied strand of the other's hair, pretending to tug on it. Bada smiles subconsciously and hearts the message, saving the picture. She then aims her camera at the mirror snapping her own selfie and sending it. She’s honestly really glad y/n set that because the two hadn’t texted since Bada first got her number a few days ago. 

Y/n’s phone pings twice and she opens it, only to slam it back down. It wasn’t even that serious but Bada looked way too good in that picture for y/n to think rationally. On top of that- she didn’t really want her stylist to accidentally peek over her shoulder and see that she was texting Bada. So she waited for the stylist to walk away for a second, before opening her phone again to heart the message and reply with ‘stooop, you look so good😩’. She hesitated for a second before ultimately deciding to save the picture to her camera roll, smiling then placing her phone back down on the counter as her stylists came back. 

Bada opens her phone again, smiling at the message. She types out ‘call me on your break’ but decides to change it to ‘text me when you guys get a break? I wanna talk to you<3’ then presses send. Y/n receives the message and turns her brightness down to make it harder for anyone else to see. She bites her lip to suppress her smile and replies ‘ofc!!’ with a heart emoji.

The shoots begin and everything is going moderately smooth until it's announced that people have the opportunity to switch parts, but only the main dancer can make that decision. y/n groans and throws her head back while covering her eyes. She starts laughing in disbelief and looks around at the other rookie members

"Let's just have fun, please. Obviously- work hard and strive for your best, but just have fun when you dance cuz that'll make all the difference to me" was what she told everyone when she was asked how she felt about it. 

The rookies were all laughing and having a blast, especially Redy, y/n, and Rena- the other two shared the center with y/n a lot, although they often alternated with Tatter and Gooseul. Gooseul, trying to get on y/n's good side, always comes to find her on breaks and takes lots of selfies with her, making sure to compliment every aspect of the girl. Redy, who actually has taken quite a liking to y/n feels a little defensive and worms her way into any conversation Gooseul tries to have with the main dancer. So now Gooseul and Y/n selfies are Gooseul, y/n, and Redy selfies, which eventually just become Y/n and Redy selfies.

Now THIS catches Tatter's attention- and Tatter is making a move to start conversation with y/n- asking her about certain moves and how she wants the quality of a specific section to be portrayed. She has to stay on y/n's good side because 1) she knows this girl is ruthless and will easily tear her apart if she needs to, and 2) Bada would probably die of heartbreak if Tatter and y/n didn't end up on good terms.

The go on a quick break and y/n thinks about texting Bada, but she worries she won’t have much time to talk. Instead she just reviews the notes she made for the shoot regarding what she wanted to do with the concept. 

“I wish we could do an outfit change” y/n express with a slight pout.

“You’re the director- you can make the call do have an outfit change,” the staff tells her. They had prepared multiple outfits in case some hadn’t ended up blending well with the others, so it wasn’t a problem.

“REALLY???” She gets so excited and runs to tell the other girls her idea. y/n explains how she wants them to do the final chorus in different outfits that are a bit more girly and cunty to bring the vibe together more, to which they enthusiastically agree. Y/n keeps sharing her ideas, and making changes to better the final product, and surprisingly no one is complaining about it- or ar least not to her face.

“I want the second verse to be all small groups or duos” She shares her next idea, which everyone agrees with in a heartbeat cuz they all want more screen time. She organizes it so that Yeni Cho and Buckey take the first chunk of the second verse, and Rena and Capri take the latter half; leaving Tatter, Redy, and Gooseul with the build-up to the chorus; and y/n coming back in as the center for the chorus.

As they practice the blocking for this part, y/n works with the groups one-on-one and the others continue to practice, except for Yeni and Buckey who are trying to figure out a way to make their screen time last longer.

Ultimately Yeni and Buckey try to get y/n to make their part longer, but she politely declines saying she choreographed each part for a specific reason and it wouldn't make sense with the music to elongate their part-

“Try not to worry please because the camera angles will capture you- I promise you’ll have other opportunities to be seen” And they’re obviously not happy. Yeni kind of just resigns in defeat after trying and failing to get more screen time, but Buckey’s attitude is a little less cooperative now. As they continue the shoot, Buckey’s not really being a team player because she’s trying too hard to stand out, and causing it to look messy. Y/n keeps monitoring and asking to redo shots because Buckey isn’t blending well with everyone

“Buckey please try to blend better- maybe relax your movements a little here-“ she starts but it cut off by Buckey

“Why would I want to blend in with everyone?” She questions irritated. Y/n’s eyes just widen in gentle confusion, because why is she suddenly upset?

“Well you need to blend but not necessarily blend IN- you stand out too much right now” the main dancer tries to explain calmly and evenly while still genuinely trying  to appease Buckey’s stress

“Y/n I think I look fine, You have to realize I’m competing to win too, so I have to do what I can to catch the judges' attention” It’s silent among the girls as they all stand baffled by mannequeen’s dancer. They turn their glances towards y/n who’s standing firmly with her arms crossed, looking eerily calm, her eyes starting to have the daring glare that only appears when y/n is so angry that even she knows it’d be bad for her to speak before thinking.

“Buckey I want everyone to stand out, but as of right now, you’re only doing so in a negative way. I understand you want to catch the judges’ attention, but this is the wrong way to do it…” she takes a deep breath

“And if you continue with this current attitude, you’ll end up placing last by the judges and be voted worst dancer.” Y/n’s firm statement sent a chill down everyone’s spine. She cracked her jaw and then let out a heavy sigh

“Let’s get back to the shoot.” she directs loud and clear and turns around to head back towards the set. Everyone glances around at each other, then discreetly at Buckey, before following y/n

"She's so scary when she's upset" Gooseul whines in a whisper

"Yeah and that's exactly why you shouldn't make her upset-" Redy whispers back

"just don't do stupid shit around her and you won't make her upset- y/n seems to be really chill unless you cross a line with her, which makes sense." Tatter joins the conversation with the other two who nod and hum in agreement.

After the slight incident, the rest of the shoot went really well. Buckey got it together but still had a sour attitude, yet everyone looked amazing. Y/n felt really proud of them and honestly wished to work with them all again. They wrapped up the shoot by filming the final chorus in their new outfits, in which they all made sure to take plenty of selfies in. When they finally finished everything, all the girls went to their dressing rooms to take off their makeup and put on their regular clothes. Y/n had been so focused on directing the video, that she totally forgot to text Bada on her break.

She whipped out her phone and typed a quick ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t text you when I had a break- I was so focused on perfecting the project that I didn’t even have my phone on me’, feeling stupid for already screwing things up. Bada didn’t respond for about 45 minutes because the leaders were still shooting, and when they finished up they had all done the same as the rookies and immediately washed off their makeup and put on comfy clothes. When Bada saw the message, she felt bad for leaving y/n on delivered but quickly rationalized that she couldn't have helped it. 

‘It’s totally fine! I completely understand- we actually just finished filming so that’s why I wasn’t able to respond right away.’ The older girl replies to her text, and receives an almost instantaneous response of ‘oh okay! How was it??’ and they discuss how each of their days went. The two continue talking for the rest of their way back from their shooting sites, and even after they’ve both showered and changed into their pajamas. 

‘I’m honestly obsessed with the outfits we had today’ y/n texts. ‘Oooh do you have pics?’ Bada replies. ‘Of course I do! But…’ ‘...but what?’ y/n debates on whether or not she actually wants to send Bada all the cute pictures Redy took of her, but she ultimately decides against it for now.

‘But I want you to see them tomorrow and be surprised 😋’ the younger girl finally responds, feeling like teasing a little bit. Bada smiles at her phone but acts annoyed over text- ‘Ugh you can’t be serious’ she replies then adds on ‘Not even one picture? :(‘And of course y/n can’t help how fast her heart beats and how much of a loser she is for Bada, so she gives in.

‘Fine, you can see ONE picture, and it’s not even gonna be my full outfit cuz I still want you to be surprised- so just makeup and the top half!’ the young girl offers, to which Bada likes the message and hits her with a ‘yes, of course, I promise I'll still be surprised’, just excited to see her again. Y/n giggles and sends her one of the mirror selfies she took after changing into her second look. Bada was absolutely speechless- the girl had her hair in two high pigtails with a few wispy pieces left out and had in blue contacts with pink makeup- pink eyeshadow, strawberry gloss, rosy blush, and of course glitter. Along with her makeup, y/n’s entire outfit (from what Bada could see) was pink and glittery- she truly looked like a Barbie. What really secured Bada’s astonishment was her expression- y/n’s plump and glossy lips were ever so slightly parted and her eyes (accentuated by her makeup making her look more cat-like than the usual puppy-eyes-girls that Bada was used to) holding a sultry, seductive stare. Bada didn’t hesitate at all to save the photo and expose herself by immediately sending it to the Bebe group chat with the text ‘I can’t do this anymore’, to which Lusher responded with ‘my gf is so fine🤭’ and the leader’s immediate response was ‘muting the group chat now and blocking your ass’. 

She was about to continue her argument with Lusher until she got another text from y/n. ‘Uhm okay yeah just beg me for a fit pic and then leave me on read, okay🙄 jk lol’ and Bada panics for a second realizing she did in fact open her first message and not respond. ‘Sorry! I’m gonna be totally honest I was literally left speechless and didn’t know what to say’ and when y/n read this, she laughed slightly in disbelief ‘ohhh okay, suuuuure’ she types out and presses send with a relaxed smile overtaking her face. The feeling y/n has whenever talking to Bada, whether it be in person or over text, is just so indescribable that she doesn’t even wanna think about what that could mean for her. Bada reacts to the message with the ‘haha’ button and continues to try and defend herself. She and y/n joke around some more before talking about how excited they are to see each other’s videos, then saying goodnight and falling asleep shortly after.

The next day all the main dancers are called in to help edit their videos. Y/n and Bada pass by each other exchanging quick ‘good-mornings’ and shy smiles before heading their separate ways with blushes already painting both of their faces. 

A few hours of editing go by and they all go on break, getting up and walking around to get some air. As Bada walks out of her designated office space that she’s been working in all day, y/n comes bounding up to her with a gentle yet vibrant smile.

“Hey!” she stops in front of her and stares up at Bada with bright eyes. The older of the two suppresses a giggle but smiles endearingly never the less.

“Hi, y/n” Bada greets her in a soft, some could say “loving” tone, with that same gentle, endeared smile that seems to have become her default when seeing the small girl.

“Sooo I was wondering…” y/n starts by elongating the first word of her sentence and looking around, dramatically avoiding eye contact, causing Bada’s smile to grow at the girl’s silly attitude.

“Would you maybe wanna get lunch after this? Or- I guess dinner depending on when we get out- either way, it's whatever… but… yeah!” she tries to finish confidently but gets tripped up once she realizes he doesn’t know exactly when they’d both be free during the day. The smile on her face, when she concludes sharing her idea, makes Bada feel so terrible knowing she has to decline. The older immediately sighs and her face drops, causing y/n’s to do the same and Bada feels even more guilty seeing her sad, wide puppy eyes.

“I’m so sorry y/n-ie, but the rest of the team and I made plans to go out to eat tonight since we haven’t had much time to actually talk to each other with filming and all…” Bada explains and it genuinely pains her to have to decline y/n. The smaller girl just furrows her brows and shakes her head quickly dismissing Bada’s apology.

“You don’t have to apologize at all! It’s totally fine, really I promise!” y/n smiles reassuringly, even though she’s a little crushed. Bada still has this regretful look in her eyes and the younger girl giggles when Bada’s frown turns into a full-on pout.

“I promise you, we will go out soon. The two of us.” she assures, looking into y/n’s eyes. The girl couldn’t look more in love than she does when staring into the older girl’s eyes. y/n just keeps smiling and the feeling of warmth and happiness is so intense even she herself is sure her eyes are sparkling. 

“Promise?” y/n asks softly, trying to suppress the giant grin that she knows would be taking over her face if she wasn’t trying as hard as she was now. Bada has a similar look on her face- a gentle smile and soft eyes.

“I promise.” she confirms with a nod. There’s a short pause as the two just look into each other’s eyes before y/n breaks eye contact. She looks down and finally stops suppressing her smile, letting herself giggle a little bit before looking back up and trying to retrain herself again.

“Okay.” she replies softly and nods, then turns to walk back to her office space. She looks over her shoulder to glance at Bada, then turns around fully to walk backward while talking to her again

“You should probably get back to editing your video so you can go enjoy free time with your team” the younger teases a little with a smile. And Bada’s slightly knocked out of her lovestruck stare, scoffing and rolling her eyes playfully.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever- and you should be doing the same thing” she starts walking in the same direction, as both of their respective spaces are on the same side of the building.

“Actually, I have all night. I don't have plans, remember?” y/n teases again, raising her eyebrows at the Bebe leader, causing her to throw her head back and groan. The smaller of the two laughed quietly watching the other.

“I’m sorry- I feel awful, I really do want to go out with you!” and even though y/n knows she didn’t mean it in that specific context, her heart still picks up the pace and she flushes a little, once again suppressing a grin.

“I’m totally messing with you… ya know- like how you like to mess with me” as they reach y/n’s office space she finishes her teasing by coolly crossing her arms over her chest and leaning on the door frame, looking at Bada once again. Bada makes eye contact with her and holds her breath for a second. She sighs and then chuckles softly.

“Yeah… I guess I do like to tease you…” she avoids eye contact, standing with her hands in her pockets, but still smiles knowingly. Right as she’s about to leave she flicks the brim of y/n’s cap then pulls it back down over her eyes,

“But I guess we’re even now” She shrugs and and walks off after teasing the younger girl, leaving her to groan and laugh in annoyance.

___________________

After editing and such, the day ends for the main dancers and they prepare for the following day, which is when each video will be shown to the rest of the dancers. When they all arrive at the studio that day, everyone is excited and chattering. After a while of setting, everything is ready and it’s time to watch each group’s music video.

The rookies go first, and y/n feels like electricity is shooting through with how excited, yet nervous she is to see the final product on a big screen. When y/n appears for the first time- everyone is once again in shock at how different she looks. The professional hair and makeup, along with the outfit she had on, turned her into a totally different person. The charismatic, alluring girl on the screen was definitely not the same as the excited baby girl who was currently hiding behind her teammates, shyly peaking over their shoulders to watch the video

The video is playing about 30 seconds in, everyone is losing their shit. Why? Because Rena, Tatter, and y/n are already a powerful trio that no one knew they need, but on top of that- them shaking ass on each other like their lives depended on it in the first 30 seconds of choreography was just too much to handle for some people. 

Some people being Bada Lee- who was so baffled that after she screamed probably the most fangirl-esque scream ever, she didn't know what to do with herself. Her jaw just dropped to the floor, and her eyes slightly glazed over as she hyper-fixated on the screen in front of her. She only came back to reality when y/n was no longer on the screen for the moment, and Redy and Gooseul took over briefly. When y/n repapered, she was doing partner work with Tatter, and Bada's excited smile and cheers made a comeback

"Ugh, I love my girls" she gushes, staring ahead affectionately at the screen. Bada is just so blown away by the music video as a whole. She’s mainly focused on y/n and Tatter, very appreciative and thankful to see how much screen time her teammate got. But besides that, Bada can’t help but mentally praise y/n for directive skills. The set and concept suit every member so well, and when the bridge arrives Bada can feel something the tension rising, and anticipates whatever creative decision y/n made.

As the final chorus arrives, the camera transitions from just y/n in her main outfit to the whole group in their matching pink outfits, per y/n’s request. Everyone flips again, surprised by the full outfit change and slight alterations in set design. 

Bada screamed and clapped, totally forgetting that this was the outfit y/n was talking about yesterday, still just as surprised, as she promised. She couldn't help but feel a little guilty though, as now she found it absolutely impossible to focus on anyone else in the video, even her own teammate, since y/n’s full outfit was revealed. Bada’s face got red and her eyes slightly glazed over again as her face went serious trying to erase the thoughts of y/n dancing confidently in a tight top and mini skirt, with her thigh highs and ribbons. 

The video ended and the studio was filled with applause and screams from everyone, including the judges who all stood and cheered just as loud as the rest of the girls. 

Bebe’s leader sits there with her jaw dropped and her hands on her head, just absolutely astonished by the final product of the rookies’ video. The rest of her team is still cheering and clapping, and once Tatter notices Bada’s frozen figure, she starts laughing and playfully shakes her by her shoulder out of excitement. Bada turns slowly, smiling lightly, still in a daze

“Tatter, you might have to start planning my funeral” she informs her jokingly in a soft tone, but in all honesty, Bada feels dizzy still.

After everyone settles, middle-class and sub-leader-class videos are played, both getting similar reactions to the rookies’. Once both have been viewed and gotten their respective reactions and attention, the leaders’ video is the last to be played.

“Why am I actually so nervous…” Bada anxiously laughs and sighs rubbing her hands together. Tatter leans her head on her shoulder and glances up at the leader

“Because you want y/n to like it.” the blonde states matter-of-factly, not moving her head off Bada’s shoulder, but turning her attention back to the screen where the video is about to play. Bada huffs out a laugh and nudges her slightly, just enough to disrupt her peace, but not too much to knock her off.

“I want everyone to like it.” Bada clarifies, even though everyone knows how much more she seems to value the Jam Rrepublic dancer’s opinion these days compared to other dancers.

The video starts and the cheers for Bada start from the second she appears. When she takes off her helmet and shakes out her hair, everyone is going feral, obviously including y/n. 

“A MOTORCYCLE???? SHE HAS A MOTORCYCLE?????” The girl is screaming and then she pretends to faint onto Audrey who just laughs and shakes her out of excitement and adrenaline. y/n’s next cause of heart failure is when Bada holds up the lighter and then blows out the flame before everyone starts dancing. 

"Kirsten I love you so much, but I think I might have to leave with Bada after all this" “Y/n it’s been 40 SECONDS- please have some decorum…” Emma, ever the y/n-delusion-destroyer, sighs out, shaking her head, but still managing to laugh. It’s no use, Emma, this girl is red in the face already, and definitely not thinking tv-appropriate things.

Variations of the same situation continue to happen throughout the viewing of the video, except y/n gets even more excited when Kirsten and Bada appear at the same time, sharing the spotlight. The video ends and y/n just stands up and claps while shaking her head in astonishment.

“I’m never gonna move on from this…” She sounds worn out and by the way she was screaming and freaking out, it made sense.

Since all of the videos had been viewed, it was time for each main dancer to pick the worst dancer from their mission crew. They end up going from bottom rank, therefore starting with the rookie class. Y/n’s mood has totally changed, and now as she walks to the center of the fight zone, her bright smile and confident aura nowhere to be seen.

"I really didn't want to pick anyone as the worst dancer, because I sincerely enjoyed working with each and every one of them…" She starts holding the mic with both hands (Bada's beginning to think this is a nervous habit of hers)

"Even when there were some issues, I was still very proud of everyone and felt very lucky to be able to create such an amazing project with these people…" y/n bites her lip and looks up, blinking fast, feeling tears start to build up. The mood in the studio was completely different than it was only a few moments ago.

"Ah poor y/n, she really did have such a good time with everyone" Rena expresses, frowning along with her team, nodding her head in pity.

"Oh no, this must be so hard for her" Sayaka sympathizes, pouting in understanding of the young dancer's distress. Other teams shared similar looks and small conversations. Y/n took a deep breath and held the air in her cheeks, causing them to puff.

"AWW I'M GONNA CRY WITH HER-" Mannequeen's Yoonji expresses as she feels for the girl in the middle of the dance floor

"Oh my god- how can she still be so cute even when she's crying" Yeni Cho comments with an endeared smile directed at y/n's small stature settled in front of them all, cheeks still puffed up. The young dancer finally lets out a big sigh and lowers her head for a second, letting a tear fall

"DON'T CRY BABY- IT'S OKAY!!" Lusher shouts over her teammates' heads trying to reassure her friend, and giving her a big comforting smile and a thumbs up when y/n meets he eyes. Y/n laughs a little, wiping her tears and then tucking a piece of hair behind her ear before clearing her throat.

"I'm sorry- ultimately I made my decision based on the fact that there were some points when professionalism was sacrificed for the sake of wanting to gain attention, which in turn put the quality of the project at risk… and for that reason…" she lets out a shaky breath, tears building up quickly again.

"I choose Mannequeen's Buckey as the worst dancer" she finishes in a choked voice. Holding the mic away from her in one hand now y/n hangs her head and covers her mouth with her other hand as she cries silently. She heads back over to her team, sniffling and they all immediately hug her, causing her to burst into full-on sobs

"This is so much harder than I thought it was gonna be." She looks up again, trying to get the tears to stop flowing. From across the room, team Bebe is just about as worried as Jam Republic, seeing as y/n is practically an honorary member now.

"This is the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen." Bada stares directly at y/n's distressed frame and feels herself sink into her seat, the sadness of the whole situation getting to her. Or rather- the sadness of y/n is getting to her. Bada feels her own tears beginning to prick in her eyes.

"I know… poor princess" Tatter shares the same expression of sympathy as the rest of her crew, wishing she could just go and give the girl a big squeeze and tell her she did a good job.

"It's sad, but at least it wasn't you" Lusher points out, still just as somber as her teammates. They all nod and Bada's focus is only on y/n until the next class is announced. She doesn't pay attention as the main dancers for the middle class go up, too focused on making sure y/n is able to calm down. The Bebe leader made a mental note to go right to her when they went on break to make sure she was okay.

When it’s Bada is picking the worst dancer for leader class, y/n seems more nervous than Kirsten

"I think she might pick me" Kirsten calmly admits

"Don't say that, I'll cry. If she picks you… I don't think I'll be able to recover from that heartbreak" y/n expresses in a daze, genuinely starting to worry about the results. Then Bada declares Mina as the worst dancer, causing everyone to let out a sigh of relief, except deep n dap of course. 

y/n's eyes are trained on Bada with a worried look mixed into her signature puppy eyes. Once she sees a tear roll down her face, y/n has to turn away or else she knew she'd start crying again too. She could already feel the pressure building in her eyes and heart. She hugs her leader and looks up at her for a second, silently communicating how proud she is of her, before leaning her head on her shoulder. Kirsten hugs the younger girl back and rests her head on top of y/n's, letting out a sigh.

"I hate when people cry, but it makes me especially upset seeing Bada cry" y/n whispers, a tear escaping down her face, while still clinging to Kirsten, who pets her hair and nods.

"That's because you're an angel, y/n. you care so much about the people in your life, and can't stand when they're sad…" her leader declares gently.

"You also are pretty much in love with Bada, so she's been subconsciously added to your mental list of people whose emotions you pick up." She finishes with a little bit of teasing in hopes of brightening the young girl's mood. Luckily it works, as y/n glances up at Kirsten once again, with a playful pout before huffing in faux-annoyance and letting her head fall somewhat aggressively back onto the leader's shoulder causing her to let out a gentle laugh

All the main dancers have picked the worst dancer, meaning it’s time for the final mission ranking. y/n is so excited that Bebe goes from sixth to third- once they're announced, she shoots up out of her seat with wide eyes and jaw dropped, her hands go straight to the sides of her head as she stands there in excited shock. When everyone's individual scores are shown, and it's revealed that Bada got a perfect score, y/n isn't shocked at all- in fact she expected it and was satisfied with the result

"waaaaah…as expected of Bada Lee…" she expresses proudly, staring up at the screen in admiration.

"She's so much more than a dancer, like- she's just absolutely insane… wow" This is the calmest y/n has ever been when talking about Bada, and her teammates almost feel like her lack of panic is somehow worse than the girl's usual blush and frantic expression. They all just look at her and while some smile along with her, others chuckle at the girl's proud lovestruck expression.

"We've officially lost her…" Emma jokes, shaking her head, purses her lips, and then lets out a sigh

"Please take care of our y/n, Bebe" Audrey joins in, wiping a fake tear from her eyes

Other teams are announced and once the girls realize Jam Republic made it into the top two they all start lowkey freaking out. they are announced as the first-place team and all celebrate respectfully making sure to hug each other. Their scores were revealed and the cheers got even louder. y/n had gotten a perfect, same as Latrice and Bada. 

The girl just about collapses to the ground in a ball, covering her mouth in shock. Bebe applauds and cheers loudly, especially Lusher and Tatter-

"LET'S GO Y/NNNNNN!!!" the blonde screams alongside Lusher, both happy to see their new friend succeed. The younger smiles brightly, now standing again with the mic held in both hands as she expresses her gratitude, with beautiful sparking eyes

"I'm honestly a little shocked with myself, because of how many great dancers I had the opportunity to perform alongside with." she begins, looking around the room at each of them. Her smile somehow gets even bigger

"Thank you so much for making this such a wonderful experience, and I'll work harder to show you an even better version of myself, as well as Jam Republic. Thank you" she finishes elegantly and bows before handing the mic to Latrice.

"Wow… she really is a princess." Bada mumbles, dazedly gazing at y/n with what could only be explained as the same lovestruck look the young girl had earlier. The leader smiles softly in adoration at Jam Republic's youngest member. And Bada's members don't even tease her, they just smile and Tatter pats her on the shoulder, as they all agree- Y/n is definitely a princess

The small but mighty member of Jam Republic sits elegantly admiring as Latrice gives her speech. No one could deny that when y/n wasn't performing (or being pissed off) she looked like an actual angel- a beautiful angel fairy princess that definitely doesn't seem like the type to have such a temper as she actually does

Once everyone finishes their speeches, the next mission is announced- Kpop choreography mission

Everyone freaks out and starts excitedly chattering. But mostly, everyone is talking about the songs, or more specifically who’s already choreographed/danced to them. A lot of the teams start mentioning Bada, especially seeing next level as one of the song options

But then they do the same with y/n mentioning her since she danced center for "Not Shy" and "Kick It" at k-con, as well as choreographing a cover for “Eve, Psyche, and the Bluebirds Wife”, and went viral all three times. 

Everyone is a bit worried about competing against Bada and y/n specifically, even if they won’t admit it. Some are still underestimating the teams, saying how Bebe is only Bada and her students- and how Jam Republic is less skilled because they have less experience in kpop style dance. None of them wants to recognize that the rest of Bebe is just as talented and charismatic as Bada, and that Jam Republic is able to adapt and adjust quicker than any other team.

"y/n's known for her dance covers, but she's the only member of her team with experience in this setting…" Yoonji comments looking in the direction of the pink team.

"She's gonna have to carry the members" Funky Y added

"We're getting a lot of side-eyes" Ling points out her observation, and y/n surprisingly responds pretty calm

"Probably because they're all expecting us to do badly since we don't have much experience with the style" the youngest member responds maturely, nodding and observing the room

"Well you have plenty of experience, and we're all fast learners, so I'm not really worried" Kirsten coolly states, giving her members a confident smile

The dancers are given a break and teams begin to separate and head back to their rooms to decide which company they want to go for. Y/n starts to hop down the bleachers and stretch her arms above her head.

“This is just too much right now” y/n whines, pouting while she stretches. Her members look at her with adoration

“You’re such a cat…” Latrice comments, causing y/n’s pout to turn confused and the others to giggle

“No, she’s definitely more of a puppy” Kirsten counters ruffling her hair causing the pouting girl to whine at the older members’ teasing. She’s never gonna live that down.

From across the room, Bebe is discussing a strategy already, not paying any mind to the fact that they’re on a break right now. That is until y/n comes bounding over, with her signature smile.

“Congratulations Team Bebe!!” she cheers and throws her arms up in the arms. All of their serious faces immediately soften and Lusher hops off the bleachers to throw her arms around the younger girl

“My baby! You’ve cried so much today, are you okay?” she asks and frowns while holding the smaller girl's face in between her hands to dramatically look into her eyes and make sure she’s okay. Y/n laughs and lets the sub-leader pat her head and coddle her.

“I’m okay! I’m just very emotional…” she finishes softly, almost a little shy. Bada, not even caring about everyone else being around right now, holds her hand out. once y/n grabs it, the older pulls her towards her seat and sits her down next to her. Bada puts her arm around y/n’s shoulder and pulls the small girl in even closer, resting her head on top of y/n’s. All of Bebe is shocked, as well as y/n herself. Lusher and y/n share a wide-eyed look, causing Tatter to burst out laughing. 

Shortly after, Audrey and Kirsten make their way over as well. Audrey sneakily has her phone out and snaps a candid picture of y/n and bad that she’ll be showing the girl later. Bada makes eye contact with Kirsten and doesn’t even bother to lift her head off y/n’s all the way

“Do you need her back now?” Bada asks with a slight pout in her voice, but it’s so subtle they almost didn’t catch it. Kirsten smiles and Audrey giggles behind her hand.

“No we just wanted to come join the party.” the Jam leader explains shrugging her shoulder. Kyma is the first to enthusiastically agree, having gotten along with Audrey pretty well when they worked together on the middle-class mission.

“WAIT- that actually just reminded me that I never showed you the pictures I took the other day!” Y/n excitedly recalls, sitting straight up as she stares at her best friend and leader with wide eyes. She unlocks her phone and opens her camera roll, scrolling through he pictures and showing her teammates. Bada just stares at the side of her head, with her own puppy eyes now, hoping y/n will show her too and she won’t have to ask.

“I can finally show you know” It’s like y/n was reading Bada’s mind or something, because right as she was about to complain about y/n not showing her the picture, the younger girl turned her full attention to her and started scrolling from the beginning.

The pictures had Bada mesmerized- y/n looked fucking amazing. Some were cute, while others were sexy and Bada couldn’t help but think about making some of them her wallpaper, but then she realized how strange that would be. 

One of the pictures caught her attention in a not-so-good way though. it was a mirror selfie of y/n and redy- y/n was leaning on the table and redy was posing directly behind her, holding onto y/n’s hips, both of them sticking their tongues out and looking cute and sexy. Bada tried not to be jealous and rationalize that it was just a normal thing for girls to pose like that with their friends. Was she upset because it was Redy and not her? Or was it specifically the position you were in? Was it both?? Bada didn’t know, but she also didn’t seem to realize it was bothering her so much- as she unexpectedly commented out loud on it

“We should recreate this one” she swipes back to the picture that was pissing her off. Y/n couldn’t even hide her shock if she tried. And since none of the others could see her phone, they had no idea which one Bada was talking about- and were only left to imagine what it could be after seeing Bada’s teasing smirk and y/n’s astonished, very red face.

y/n laughed out in shock and just closed her eyes, nodding her head. She opened her eyes again and Bada was still smirking, leaning back on her hands.

“Sure… sure we can recreate it” y/n massages her forehead and sighs trying to regain a normal pace of breathing, as well as her natural skin tone instead of burning red. Bada’s smirk shifts more into a teasing smile and she leans forward to throw her arm around y/n again

“But for real- send me the ones of just you…” The older girl starts focusing on the phone in y/n’s hand. 

“You look extra pretty in them, and I wanna stare at you some more” Bada shifts her gaze to look y/n the eyes with a darker look that she’s only ever received two other times. At this point Audrey and Kirsten have begun to converse with the other Bebe members, leaving y/n and Bada in their own little world. Their faces were so close, y/n felt like she was holding her breath.

“Okay…” she whispers and nods slightly, not wanting to disrupt the peace, even though the situation made her feel far from peaceful. She looked back at her phone and started selecting which pictures to send to Bada, whose arm was still wrapped comfortably around her shoulder. She leaned her head on the shorter girl again and began to tell her which pictures she wanted. y/n giggled a little at how serious and demanding Bada was being over some selfies.

After all the pictures were selected, Kirsten and Audrey finished up their conversations with the other members and began to descend the bleachers. Once they reached the bottom, they looked and y/n and she lifted her gaze to meet Kirsten’s

“Time to get working?” the youngest questions. 

“Unfortunately, yes. But don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time afterward.” The Jam Republic leader reassures, and y/n stands up and stretches. She turns back to wave at the Bebe crew members then looks at Bada. She smiles a different smile than the one she had towards the rest of the members- this one being shy but knowing.

“I’ll talk to you later!” she tilts her head waiting for Bada’s response. The tall girl nods with a smile and leans back on her hands again to look up at the girl standing in front of her.

“Maybe we’ll be seeing each other sooner than we thought- we might pick the same songs and get to compete against each other” Bada tilts her, raises her eyebrows slightly, and smirks at the idea. Y/n’s face says it all, as that idea actually sounds quite terrifying to her.

“Please don’t manifest that” She laughs but is very serious, causing the other girl to laugh as well, knowing she also wouldn’t be able to survive competing against y/n.

The trio from Jam Republic meets up with the rest of them and heads up to their room, ready to start discussing the next mission. Audrey and y/n are at the back of the group as they walk down the hall, a bit of space between them and the older members.

“So…” Audrey starts with a knowing smile- y/n’s eyes widen, nervous for what she’s about to say

“Oh no… what now?” y/n variously laughs and Audrey chuckles 

“You and Bada??” “I KNEW THAT’S WHAT YOU WERE GONNA SAY”

notes: i really did NOT think this part was gonna be as long as it was. also-it's 2 am here and i'm falling asleep writing this but i had to get it posted, so i'm sorry of the end is kinda shitty lol

taglist (open): @tinybada @angel-hyuckie @violetinferno @jesuschrist2006 @1luvkarina @uwulyn @justandloyal2961 @deadgirlwalking3 @heeheemich @squidvoldyvoid @vivzyo @ouhaika @jksjx @ocyeanicc @idontknownemore

[ferrstappen]

the second time we broke up l Lando Norris series

a/n: HELLO, I really like this concept and hope you enjoy it enough so I can come up with a third and final part that I have in mind <3 thank you for your messages, sorry for the delay on the requests, but I promise I'll get through them and announce the 1k celebration! <3

PART ONE HERE

pairing: Lando Norris x female!reader

words: 3.7k

warnings: teeny tiny allusions to sex, wear words.

genre: angst and some fluff <3

summary: there were reasons to try again, but maybe not enough.

You mourned the relationship, your first relationship, the classic way: crying, ice cream, sad love songs, getting drunk, bashing him with your friends who trash talked him with you, more crying, trying to get back up, realizing your worth. 

Learning to live with no Lando, your dorky friend and loving boyfriend. 

On the other hand, Lando was angry. He didn’t let himself cry, feel sad, be sorry for himself, be apologetic. He was resentful. Did you feel superior to him? How could you do better than him, a Formula 1 driver? 

Maybe it was his bruised ego talking, acknowledging you actually could do better than an immature F1 driver who couldn’t give you stability, the comfort you deserved, the attention he couldn’t (or didn’t want to) reciprocate.

He simply let go, detached himself from the situation and simply forgot about it; rolled his eyes whenever friends from home brought you up at the same time he was getting acquainted with other people. Lando Norris was just realizing the world was his and had to take advantage of it; he was wanted, he was desired, and he let it go to his head while walking the streets of Monaco, letting his eyes trace the silhouette of women who dedicated him a flirty smile.

He spent more time discovering Monaco’s night life, going out with other drivers and their social circles, leaving the club with a stunning woman by his side, gaining the experiences he lacked because everything he got to know was you. 

This went on for the entire break, he rapidly left the family home after Christmas under the excuse of clearing his head, feeling comfortable in his new home, new country.

It all lasted until the season was supposed to start, but it didn’t.

In the blink of an eye, he was cloistered; no more night life, expensive champagne, exotic cocktails, waking up with a different figure every morning before gently letting them know it was time to leave. 

For the first time he was realizing the hotel room was empty; one suitcase, one phone charger. The bathroom only had the miniature hotel goodies, there wasn’t a shampoo bar, some Lush shower gel (that he always used), no hair left in the tub, YLS perfume on the counter. 

The next day he noticed Charles had a new girlfriend, Charlotte he heard, and he saw a bit of you in her; she was shy, educated, wealthy family, an outfit that could’ve resembled yours whenever you blessed the McLaren garage with your presence, and she was also carrying her laptop in order to get some reading done while supporting her boyfriend.

That was the moment Lando noticed you were missing.

He didn’t know what to do at first, what are you supposed to do to regain contact with your ex-girlfriend with whom you didn’t have the friendliest of break ups? It’d only been a couple of months, but he was aware he was different and of course you would be as well. 

He tried to subtly ask Max whenever he flew over to Monaco (pretty much every weekend). His best friend only fed him small details here and there, knowing exactly the intentions of his friend, even if he tried to act all nonchalant and recounting his experiences with girls here and there.

But there was only so much Max could take.

“Mate, what’s the thing with (y/n)? Why do you keep asking me about her?” Max asked, Lando caught unprepared for the question (or outburst) of his friend. 

“What do you mean? Of course I want to know about her, she’s still my friend,”

Max rolled his eyes. “Mate, you’ve rolled your eyes during the last month whenever someone brought her up, behaving like a child throwing a tantrum and now you’re all interested?” Max questioned his best friend, trying to use an understanding tone so Lando wouldn’t shut down. “I can’t help you unless you tell me, mate.”

Lando took a deep breath. 

How was he supposed to tell him he missed you?

No, that was too simple, too ordinary, I miss you couldn’t begin to express the turmoil of feelings wanting to burst out of his lips after being muted and ignored for so long.

He enjoyed silence, but he missed your quiet humming. 

He had fun meeting new girls, but he craved your body under, on top, against his own, like two pieces of a perfect puzzle knowing what the other needed. 

He got annoyed sometimes when you asked him to keep his voice down while streaming, but he missed the scattered papers, books, class notes on the living room table, eyes closed and hair scattered over the table.

He hated his closet, full of hoodies, not one trench coat, denim or leather jacket, thick sweater. 

He despised his kitchen, only watching his trainer approved food, no ice cream, hidden Maltesers as to not tempt him, bland orange Jaffa Cakes he’d always laugh and call you a grandma for having them. 

He missed your careless figure, only a bra and thong or boy shorts roaming from the bathroom to the bedroom over and over again, always missing a t-shirt, a skin tint, a brush, a hair pin. 

He hated himself for forgetting to call his mum, being used to you reminding him to FaceTime her.

And so he told Max everything; the void on his chest, the shivers in his arms, the empty side of the bed, the rose scented shower gel, the tingling on the palm of his hand, the exhaustion of trying to find you in other people when he knew there was no one like you, the desperation of thinking of you with someone else, the fear of not living the future he made up in his head.

Of course, after he let it out of his chest his best friend was staring at him as if he grew an extra head. Why didn’t you say this before? Lando answered he hadn’t realized, he wasn’t aware of his feelings, eyebrows rising when Max snorted; half mocking, half shocked at Lando’s cluelessness. 

“Mate, you have to be honest with yourself if you even want a fighting chance,” Max knew if he didn’t tell Lando, he’d never be aware or liable of his actions. “Mate, she’s fine now, but it was such a low point, her parents didn’t want me to see her at first because I’m your best mate,”

Lando threw his head back in surprise, squinting, asking Max whatever he meant, because he was well aware of his feelings and what he longed for.  

I cannot be the one to break it to you, mate. Those were Max’s words, and Lando was getting annoyed. 

“Fuck’s sake, Max. what do you want me to say? That I’m sorry? She’s the one who broke up with me!” Lando exclaimed with a raised voice.

Max groaned, an annoyed, i-can’t-believe-i-have-to-be-the-one-who-tell-you-this groan. 

It’s your fucking ego, Lando. It got so fucking big don’t even know how a body as small as yours could handle that incredible vision of yourself when you couldn’t bring yourself to go back home and have some pints together, you didn’t care on calling for our birthdays, we got some fucking McLaren merch you told someone to send us, nothing. Max felt as if he was slowly emptying his chest. 

Lando was shaking his head, the events he was hearing weren’t veridic, Max created a scenario that never happened. 

Max continued, ignoring Lando’s denial.

And we are your friends, (y/n) was your girlfriend. Mate, you forgot about her and she didn’t even have to tell any of us because she was making excuses for you. Of course you were busy, mate, but so was her and you couldn’t care less. Bob, I’m telling you this because you are my best mate, but please hold yourself accountable. Yes, she was the one who announce the break up, but it wasn’t because she wanted to.

Taken aback, trying to come up with a response, Lando realized his walls were crumbling, his heart was aching, his brain was making the connections, bringing back the actions he knew were wrong.

Fuck you, mate. I’m still putting on a good word and try to come up with something, but fuck you, Bob.

Nothing a hug, a pint and Call of Duty couldn’t repair. 

Three weeks went by where Max prepared the field for his friend, making sure every friend was on board, slowly settling ideas on their friends.

We all have free next weekend?

It’s been long since we’ve all hung out together.

We’ve all been studying and working so hard, we deserve to have a little break. 

Do any of you have any ideas?

Lando told me we are all welcome at McLaren for Barcelona, two more weeks. 

That’s when Max’s efforts and intentions were clearer. Lando wanted to make amends or bring back the group? Did he need something? Probably not, it still didn’t make sense. 

Your friends agreed with very little hesitancy, probably assuming if Max was proposing the idea chances were you were in the loop of sharing a space with Lando, especially after the circumstances. 

After everyone left you asked Max why would he put you in that position, knowing being back on the paddock would be full of awkward interactions for you, asking whether or not you were back with Lando, your name being thrown around on social media, strangers paying just a little more attention at you in classes, righ after you’d gotten over it. 

But were you truly over it? The situation, yes. The wave died, only focusing on your well-being, learning to be without him. 

Now, were you over him? Of course not. You missed his teary laugh, his messy curls in the morning, the glint in his eyes when he saw you get off the plane with your bag, the flutter on your stomach whenever he smiled at you, unafraid of letting you know how much he loved you. 

It was two weeks, but felt just like a couple of minutes, boarding a crowded British Airways flight to Barcelona, using the excuse of having too much to study in order to not pay much attention to what was going on, Apple Music choosing the worst song choices for your state of mind.

But God, you couldn’t have cared less about someone who loved you more

I’d say you broke my heart, but you broke much more than that

Now, I don’t want your sympathy I just want myself back

This was a terrible idea, your thoughts of getting up and announcing you didn’t feel so good so the plane couldn’t leave the ground. You weren’t ready to face Lando and all the feelings it’d bring back. 

And don’t you think I loved you too much to be used and discarded?

Don’t you think I loved you too much to think I deserve nothing?

Ugh, and fuck this song as well. That’s the last thought on your mind before angrily opening a Maltesers family sized bag, preparing your nostrils to feel his perfume again, your hand to touch the soft fabric of his hoodies, your check for the courteous and familiar peck on the cheek. 

The hotel was the same, papaya t-shirts walking all directions before going to the track, with some people not knowing you, others trying to hide their surprise before saying their heys. 

And the rest was a blur, completely. 

He saw you, you saw him. 

Lando put on his best façade, a relaxed expression on his face, usual smile, normal stance. Neither you nor Lando lingered on the first hug, make eye contact after the greeting cheek contact, announcing you’d all go out on Sunday, Carlos would bring some friends and whatever. 

Max expressed his frustration to Lando, noticing he didn’t do anything to even get close to you, with the driver telling his best friend he was paralyzed, his mind betraying him and not letting him think straight; your perfume too familiar, too starved of your touch, too drunk on your voice. But he tried his best, supported by his friends, Carlos patting his back before directing him towards you, using the excuse of you catching up with Isa.

Isa ad her boyfriend quickly fell into a quiet conversation, trying their best to give Lando and you the space required while both of you updated each other on whatever happened since you last saw each other. 

And you were weak. 

Weak for the veins showing on his arms, the grip of his hands on the bottle, the light stubble on his chin, Lando throwing a joke on the only reason behind the light hairs even seeing the light of day was because you weren’t with him because, being honest, you would’ve told him to get rid of it. 

Maybe you wouldn’t fix things, but maybe you could get something from this trip. At least waking up next to him, stepping inside your bubble one more time. 

Crazy stuff how body and soul connect, completely silencing your reasonable head screaming to get away from him, trying to remind you of the tears, the disappointment, the crushed self-esteem, the sleepless nights seeing him with girls who didn’t always look like you. Body on the other hand… was ready to throw it all overboard just to touch his lips again, caress the soft skin, draw the freckles and moles decorating the beautiful canvas called Lando.

That’s why you agreed to leave with him, but little did you know Lando’s thoughts never mimicked yours. He just wanted to walk you to your assigned hotel room, asking if you could talk; maybe now, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a couple of weeks, but he needed to inform you he’d be waiting for the conversation, the uncomfortable heart-to-heart. 

And it happened.

He recounted the facts from his point of view: overwhelming welcome to the historic team, his name thrown around all over, everybody trying to get a bit of him, and in the attempt to please everyone, he neglected you and your history, disrespected the shared love and admiration, destroyed the strong pillars of your entire relationship. 

You chronicled every phase of your process: the denial, anger, adoration, sadness disappointed. How the situation decimated the vision you had of yourself, trying to understand why your heart ached for him still. 

He wasn’t afraid this time to let a few tears run down his beautiful eyes, quick to erase them and hide the quiver on his voice, to tell you he was willing to fight because after not having you, at the short age of twenty, he was sure you were his person, his meant to be. 

You let him kiss you softly; not rushing, not letting your hands wonder over known but forbidden places. With the only purpose of trying to keep up, inform each other of the feelings, the love, adoration and need.

It was like the break up never happened, you were flying and walking next to him during the next GP, kissing his helmet for good luck. You’d never deny the awkward moments when he crossed paths with a regular paddock girl with whom he shared a short time with, but you were able to understand.

The love only grew. 

This time, more mature and secure, no longer with books scattered and messy buns after days and nights of studying, you packed everything and moved to Monaco with him, taking his words to heart: you were his person, his meant to be. 

Then years passed, and what you thought was a more mature relationship, more secure, crumbled down with one simple DM telling you a model was exchanging messages with Lando and were partying together a couple of weeks ago, a little too close.

You never questioned his late nights, inconvenient meetings, new projects. Never once doubted him and his love for you. 

Now you are twenty three.

This break up was different. You were adults; more mature, with more to lose. 

This time he was crying and you were angry; angry as you stared at the kitchen you had carefully chosen the right cutlery, the right shade of beige, the perfect vase. You had jumped, even when he gave you no reason at all to do it, your love for him was that great, sacrificing everything you could think of.

For it to end up like this. 

He was crying. Not that fake crying with soft whimpers and sniffling. No, he was crying. 

Lando was aware of the weight of his mistake, his brain knew the outcome, but his heart was trying to hold on for dear life, working to get a reaction out of you, doing everything in his power to show the desperation trying to crawl off his skin.

How could you? How can you be so selfish, when did you become this sorry excuse of a man who couldn’t tell me to my face you were seeing someone else, you chose to humiliate me. How can you care so little about me that you keep breaking me? What did I do to you to put me in this position? The painful thoughts and reality shaking you and letting  

I am not seeing someone else! Baby, you flinched, yes we were exchanging messages and whatever but it meant nothing. You know a lot of influencers and fucking whatever message me all the time. 

Yes, Lando, and you answer to each one of them. That’s what you told him while rolling your tearful eyes.

I know it was right there, borderline, I didn’t do anything, we just exchanged some messages, she was flirty and yes, I kind of followed along but she always knew I am in a committed relationship.

“Are you trying to make things worse?” That was your honest question, catching his desperation but devastated by the situation. 

She found me. I was hanging with Max and Kelly and she found me, I don’t know how. I held her waist for like ten seconds and then she tried to kiss me and I backed away. Kelly even told her to go away, she even spoke in Portuguese, she can tell you that! 

Stil you some how are not aware of your actions, Lando. Please tell me how you still are the same boy I fell in love you years ago, but not in a good way! you’re immature. Again, once again I’m here, in this fucking position, how am I supposed to get over this? I do not have the strength to get back up from this because you’ve somehow taken everything. 

That was the catharsis, the implosion of your insides, breaking everything it came in contact with. 

At least, this time you were not staying with things to tell him. This time you were letting him carry the burden of fucking things up.

“I gave up England, I gave up festivities with my family because you were tired, created this whole new life because it was convenient for you, your career, your everything and the last, the only thing I asked from you was respect, because it’s not enough for you to love me, you have to respect me and you keep showing me you don’t and it’s heartbreaking because I don’t know how, after all these years…”

The silence was unbearable, your pain was deafening. Lando’s helplessness palpable. 

“I don’t know what to do for you to see everything I do, everything I sacrifice. For you to realize that I’m great, that I am not just a pretty girl for you to show around sometimes. I’m intelligent, I know that I am good,” Now you were choking, the sobs were excruciating even if your words didn’t make sense for Lando, but the feelings were strong your head was spinning.

“Why can’t you see that? Why do you put me in this position, humiliated once again when you are supposed to love me, respect me, cherish me…”

More silence. More desperation. More tearing. 

“Or maybe I don’t deserve that?” You quietly asked him. Because maybe you were the problem, the factor why things failed. Maybe you really were not enough, the image of yourself not real, your love not that important, your presence not very needed.

Lando shook his head and said no, of course not, to please don’t say that. 

“Maybe I have this image of myself and it’s not the truth, because I feel worthless, Lando. All I’ve ever wanted is to be enough for you, to be the person you come home to, and I don’t know why I failed again.”

He cried and denied everything, completely taking the blame, assuming the consequences but trying the last desperate resorts. 

One month later, he was with the girl on a yacht.

Two months later, you saw them entering Lando’s parents house, iron gates opening and letting you catch a glimpse from across the street of your parents’ home.

That was the last time you saw Lando Norris.

At least for now. 

[mayabruhbruh]

What do you think of the possibility of Will and Chance happening? I feel like it would be really poor writing tbh but I feel like they will give Will a different love interest because they’ll try to make all of the audience „happy“ But that would just truly not align with the writing so far I feel like.

Love your analyses btw<3

THANK YOUU! That's so kind :) And great ask! This is definitely a topic that the ST fandom needs to discuss.

The default question when people have little to no hope in Byler is, well, who the hell is Will going to end up with? Because it’s become increasingly evident that they’re trying to set him up for a romance. The “im not gonna fall in love”, the “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls”, even the gif shown above. It all can be interpreted to mean that Will is going to find his person soon.

So... to be completely honest, I had no idea who Chance was until this ask popped up and I had to look him up💀. It’s been a while since I’ve been on here, so I’m a little rusty on the deep lore lmao. So, in the off chance that others might also be confused, here’s a (rare) gif of him I found.

I think that’s him with the Hawkins cap on the right. Correct me if I’m wrong.

I’m not sure where the rumors that this guy was going to become a bigger part of the show came from, but that seems highly unlikely to me. I feel like they would have either hinted at it in the fourth season (like how they’re giving Patrick here quite a sizeable role so that he’ll be memorable to us later when he gets vecnafied) or they would have announced him as a more prominent character already like how they did for s5 with Holly, that one new kid character, and also how they did Amybeth for s4. Idk, maybe it’s unreasonable to think they would have to do that, but it feels quite too out-of-the-blue. Especially for a character that would take on the role of becoming our central character’s love interest, which is a BIG DEAL. Especially if it’s queer lol.

Secondly, I firmly believe that it would be a disservice to Will’s own desires to meet someone new.

Will said this explicitly in the van scene, and as of now, we’re still under the impression that Mike is his person. Forget about Mike’s issues and feelings for a second, and think about what Will is saying here. He feels like a mistake for being different, but Mike makes him feel like he’s not a mistake at all, that he’s better for being different. Mike gives him courage to fight on. Fuck. Tbh, it makes me wonder how long he’d felt this way. As a byler, you might be inclined to think his feelings have been on for forever, but narratively, he could have easily just realized his own feelings very recently, most likely sometime between season 3 and 4. It doesn’t mean the feelings weren’t there before, but realistically neither Will nor the general audience were aware of it before now.

Moving on.

Has anyone heard of the rule of Chekhov’s gun? It’s an incredibly clever and widely-used tool in screenwriting and storytelling in general that helps to clue the watchers in for what’s to come next.

Think of Lucas’ wrist rocket in season 1. When they introduced it as a flimsy-looking, no-good weapon that he’d put too much pride in at first, it gives us a good laugh and we move on. But really, it very meticulously set us up to subconsciously anticipate to see it again later. That’s what Chekhov’s gun is all about. Set-ups, foreshadowing, hidden treasures.

Another great example would be the painting reveal of s4. Obviously, after finding out that Will was painting something, bylers immediately figured it was for Mike and BEGGED and HOPED and PLEADED that we’d be able to finally see it, but to the general audience it was just another something that they’d have to pick apart and realize was actually of importance as the season progressed. (It’s also a good way of showing that the writers are fully capable of engrossing the entire fan base and general audience in his and Mike’s story. Just knowing Will had painted something and that it was for Mike created this sense of PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IT IS AND WJATS GOING ON and whatnot that watchers are simply so susceptible to it’s insane.)

Okay, back to the van scene. Will’s confession.

Now, I’m not saying that the writers intentionally used this foreshadowing tool for us to find and understand immediately. There are plenty, plenty of instances where writers use Chekhov’s gun principle and it flies over peoples heads purposefully. What I’m trying to say is that, thematically and narratively, they would never have introduced Wills feelings for Mike if not for it to have importance to the story, or for nothing to happen with it at all. It’s a set up. And a maddeningly good one, at that. Because queer stories already do tend to fly over people’s heads, and also because there’s the added drama between Mike and Eleven that makes it seem quite impossible for any of these feelings to be addressed in the midst of such emotional chaos. But whatever. I think I’m rambling.

Basically, whether they end up together or not, whether Mike reciprocates these feelings, Will is forever established to be in love with Mike. The confession was simply too grand and emotional and earnest for him to just switch up abruptly next season when he meets someone new that he might have a better chance with. Even if there were to be a whole new arc for him where he learns to let go of Mike or something crappy like that, it would be terrible writing on their end and poor use of a well-set-up Chekhov’s gun reference. It would be like introducing the gun in the display case in scene one, then two scenes later just tucking it away into a storage closet for the remainder of the story. Like… what?

And plus, it’s HIGHLY unlikely that Will would end up with that sort of storyline next season when he’s literally WITH Mike for presumably a majority of the time (based on the set pics so far).

So that’s my debunking of the Chance rumors :) and I didn’t even get to mention how incompatible they’d be just naturally as characters. Chance, a Jason-following jock that hates Dungeons and Dragons, fantasy and nerdy things, and willingly assisted in beating up the Hellfire Club when they were trying to find Eddie. What about that at all screams Will’s type? And if you’re thinking “unconventional couple enemies to lovers”, just don’t. This isn’t a rom-com, especially for a queer plot line lol. I think it’s safe to say there’s no “chance”😉 that they will ever happen. And either way, it’d be a bummer if they did. Cus it would just be Will defeatedly settling for someone that isn’t Mike.

UGH! It makes me sad that the one thing that is firmly being teased by the writers (Will’s love playing a major role in the plot to come) is constantly being questioned and framed as different questions. “Will Mike reciprocate?” “Does this mean Mike and Eleven break up?” “Who will end up with who?” SHHH Frankly, to me this is already a win. It’s become obvious that Will having feelings for him will come up again soon, and the rest of the evidence that accounts for Mike’s end already speaks for itself, so I prefer to just sit back and watch it all unfold.

Again, thanks so much for the ask!! This was so fun to dissect and feel free to keep sending questions into my inbox. It might take me a second to post my response but I’m determined to get through all of them. Love you guys!! <3

[bamf-jaskier]

Cavill is not a martyr

I have been seeing so many posts and comments along the lines of “Henry Cavill left the Witcher because they were inaccurate to the books and he had enough of all the changes”

And this thought process, especially if you mention the recent DeMayo writer’s interview, is just a flawed thought process.

Just a quick blurb on DeMayo, as I said here his comments are probably a cry for attention from a fanbase he knows how to rile up and I would take what he says with a grain of truth salt. And Cavill has already filmed season 3 and I can assure you that a random writer he probably has already met making these comments didn’t send Cavill over the edge and have him march into the office an rage quit. Recasting and deciding on a new actor and getting out of contract is a lengthy process that has likely been going on for months. If anything it’s more likely DeMayo knew about Cavill leaving and then made his comments than the other way around.

So Henry Cavill announced he was leaving the Witcher just a few days after announcing he was returning to Superman.

In fact, he was quoted as saying this about his recent cameo as Superman in the new Black Adam movie:

"It was a very powerful moment for me. I wasn't sure how I would feel… whether it would be something very emotionally connective because I put the Man of Steel suit back on," Cavill said. "I chose that one in particular because of the nostalgia attached to the suit. It was important for me to be standing there and enjoying that moment. That is one of the top moments in my career. It feels great to have the opportunity to wear it again."

"The character means so much to me. It's been five years now. I never gave up hope," Cavill said of the half-decade he spent waiting for news about playing Superman again. "It's amazing to be here now talking about it again. There is such a bright future ahead for the character. I'm so excited to tell a story with an enormously joyful Superman."

And that 5 year mark is important. Because it is no coincidence that on September in 2018 it was reported that Cavill will no longer be playing Superman in the DCEU just days after it was announced he would be taking on the role of Geralt in The Witcher.

In fact, it was stated:

the Witcher commitment came after the Warners impasse, suggesting a change in the studio’s strategy.

Meaning he signed onto the Witcher because he stopped being Superman. So what we are seeing right now with Cavill announcing he is returning as Superman and then announcing he is leaving The Witcher is an exact reverse of the situation in 2018.

Cavill loves playing Superman and not only is it a project he is passionate about, but he also nets in a massive paycheck.

Even back in 2018 when Cavill left the role of Superman there was talk that he left because of contract disputes:

Cavill's original contract was for four movies, so a contract extension would naturally need to be arranged before Warner Bros. could move ahead with another standalone Superman movie. According to Revenge of the Fans, Cavill's team wanted to leverage a better deal out of the contract extension - including more movies, more money, and possibly even a producer role. From Warner Bros.' perspective, however, there isn't exactly a burning need to get another Superman movie made.

Then in August of 2022 reports began to come out from comi-con that Henry Cavill was looking to return to the role of Superman but wanted more money for the role.

And considering Cavill was paid a truly insane amount for 2013′s Man of Steel -- an estimated $14 million and a $20 million for 2017′s Justice League I have to wonder what wildly high amount he will be paid to return as Superman now in 2022 when he is a bigger star than ever before.

And his Witcher paycheck does not compare to that Superman money -- with him making 500k an episode in season 1 and $1 million an episode in season 2. Even if he was just making as much money as Justice League, and he is likely making much more to return, that is still well over double the amount of money to play Superman vs playing Geralt.

And at the end of the day, The Witcher is a show with very specific scheduling requirements and set locations. Blood Origin and Season 2 lost actors because of the scheduling conflicts. And that is not at all unusual for the industry.

And for set locations The Witcher is mostly filmed in Mafan Film Studio in Hungary as well as various locations around the country as well as Arborfield Film Studios in the UK and other locations there such as North Yorkshire & The Lake District. And with fewer COVID restrictions the production team is likely to want to go around Europe again for S4 and S5.

Meanwhile it’s hard to know where the new DCEU movies will be filmed but Man of Steel was filmed around Vancouver, British Columbia and Illinois in the US. Justice League was filmed around Scotland and London. Black Adam was filmed in Atlanta Georgia in the US. 

All this to say filming DCEU movies and The Witcher are two very time intensive processes that require film locations that could be on opposite sides of the world. And in addition Cavill is starring in the new Highlander Reboot and in the Enola Holmes movies. Being a TV actor takes a lot of time for not as much money and acclaim. Cavill is seemingly going back to just being a film actor instead of a tv actor which considering his busy schedule makes a lot of sense.

So it’s pretty clear why he would leave The Witcher to return to Superman and his other films roles:

1) Far higher paycheck to play Superman

2) He loves both the characters but Superman is very meaningful for his career and he has stated he has always wanted to return to the role

3) Scheduling conflicts and very different filming locations and the prestige of film vs tv

Trying to spread the narrative of “Cavill is a martyr in the battle against the inaccuracies of the tv show” is based on nothing but your own confirmation bias. And it honestly says a lot about the type of person you are that you jump to find a symbol to represent the victimization of your hatred of the show.

You can dislike the show but the tinhatting and conspiracy theories I have seen flying around are quite frankly embarrassing and this is a needed reality check.

At the end of the day Henry Cavill is a high-level movie star who makes choices based on his career and what he wants to do. Your parasocial relationship with the man is entirely in your own head and I recommend trying to get out. 

[crowleysgirl56]

Something that I’ve been thinking about for a good 6 months now, ever since Good Omens season 3 was green lit, and that was the three sentence description of the plot that Neil gave in his official announcement interview:

The plans for Armageddon are going wrong. Only Crowley and Aziraphale working together can hope to put it right. And they aren’t talking.

It really makes me think about the book sequel he and Terry had discussed and what was going to be included in that story.

Season 2 was thought to be that story. But then Neil confirmed after the season aired that it was in fact a bridging season that he wrote deliberately in order to get us to season 3, which would be based on the story that he and Terry plotted together in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

Neil also famously never gives anything about his stories away, always excited to tell us to ‘wait and see’. The fact we get this much of a description is quite exciting.

At first glance it doesn’t seem like anything we didn’t already know:

The plot involves Armageddon: Metatron told us as much when he mentioned the second coming at the end of season 2.

Crowley and Aziraphale need to work together: they have always done so before, so this time shouldn’t be any different.

Crowley and Aziraphale aren’t talking: very evident from where we left off.

But did you notice something else? Something hiding in plain sight? The plans are going wrong. And they hope to put it right. So what are these plans? Why are they going wrong? Who made them go wrong? What exactly does going wrong mean? What does putting them right mean? Also, notice how Neil doesn’t say Crowley and Aziraphale need to work together to stop it. Interesting choice of words right?

Now let’s think about the book sequel for a second. For a moment, let’s pretend that the TV series doesn’t exist (*shakes everyone by the shoulders* HEY, STOP SCREAMING! CALM DOWN! The show STILL exists! Just go with me for a second here, and you can go back to remembering the show in a moment! It’s OKAY! *pats everyone until the screaming subsides*). The Good Omens novel is structured with flashback sequences of Aziraphale and Crowley together over time as the story of the Anti-Christ and the Non-Ageddon unfolds. What if the three sentence description of season 3 that Neil gave was the actual tagline of the book sequel? Like, this is literally what he and Terry came up with? Something happened between Aziraphale and Crowley between the end of book 1 and the beginning of book 2, and the second book is telling us the story of the second coming, whilst at the same time providing us flashback scenes of exactly what happened between A&C? That part of the book is the mystery of why these ineffable husbands who spent the last 6000 years together were suddenly no longer talking.

Can you imagine reading that blurb and thinking “WWWHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAATTTT?”

Whether the intended sequel involved the story of a memory wiped Gabriel is up for debate. But I understand why Neil devoted an entire season to telling this story, because I don’t think there would have been room to do the second coming storyline and devote enough time to exploring the relationship breakdown at the same time in just 6 episodes.

And if my theories are correct, this is why I don’t think we will get any further flashback sequences in season 3. If we’re really lucky, maybe we’ll get a 1941 part 3 flashback, and a “what happened when they went back to Crowley’s apartment and body swapped” flashback (I’ve drafted some wildest dream posts on these, so look out for them coming in the near future). But unless they’re relevant for the plot, I think we’re out of flashbacks. This next season is likely going to be focusing specifically on the second coming, the consequences, and answering the question what does putting it right mean?!

This is obviously all opinion and conjecture and I could be completely wrong. I just like putting my thoughts down and sharing with others. So if you want to discuss comment or reblog! Let me know your theories! (And as always, please don’t tag Neil)

[nalyra-dreaming]

IWTV s2... an (emotional) recap

Between the spoilers dropping before the last three episodes and the content of the episodes themselves we really have gone through the emotional wringer.

I think I have rewritten this three times over, because my feelings kept changing.

I had hoped for more, I got more than I wished for, I wanted something else, they hit the nerve precisely...

And now with the season 3 announcement:))))

Maximum emotional carnage - indeed.

Everything ... up to that NOLA visit in episode 8 and the actual ending... is not the truth. Let that sink in.

The trial: scripted (and Lestat breaking out of it for the important bits)

Claudia's turning: So much... more raw.

Claudia's death: brutal. That final look between her and Lestat was one of the most painful things to witness.

Her diaries (pages): mostly unused. I am a bit unnerved bc of that wasted Merrick reveal and aftermath implementation tbh. Louis is not freed up after it, but... he should have been, imho. Though, that said, with Dubai likely a stand-in for Trinity Gate... maybe the arc fits after all - BUT I still think they could have done more with her diaries. I get why they wanted to escape the “white savior trap“ but this way Louis did not get that power-up that will ultimately bring him to where it frees him. But who knows... maybe they will implement a version of it all still.

The broadcasting and Loustat's relationship in general: Armand putting a fantasy retelling into Louis' brain. Holy shit.

Flashbacks to 1790: Self-indulgent fanfiction.

Dubai: Stepford Wives via mind gift. 💀

Daniel: Supposedly(*) turned out of spite. I absolutely get why DM fans are besides themselves with this and the comments after.

The story itself: More or less ending exactly where the first book puts us. I do NOT know why they kept that title a secret, it's not hinting at anything other than that simple fact, imho. :)

So.

You know, them using the movie "Gaslight" for the poster reference makes more and more sense now, because that is how I feel a bit at least: gaslit. Just a little bit.

Because... Nice reunion that you had there... too bad it will turn out to be the contested NOLA one, I would bet real money on it. 😅

......

Sarcasm aside, this is a brilliant show. But I am NOT looking forward to another two years of bullshit accusations (by some) because they were mostly/only spelled things out in the episode insiders, and only broke things up in the last episode. Or of people confusing the meta and social commentary level with the in-universe one.

Which, by the way, I'm happy that they went there. And I am relieved that they spelled things out in the episode insiders. Truly. But as experience has shown after season ONE... implied manipulations, episode insiders and interviews, and cast/crew/writer statements don't mean jack shit to some people.

So yeah, where does this leave us?

This was a dark season. I think I'm not totally wrong when I say that most of us did not get what we wanted from it, neither DM, nor Loumand, nor Loustat. Or Claudeleine.

"Locked together in hatred" comes to mind, though "hatred" is obviously (way) too strong a word. (But that quote fits so nicely 😏🤓)

We DID get some of what we wanted. But for a show which built so heavily on other books... to follow the first book then so closely?? I don't know, it leaves me a bit unsatisfied(**). It feels as if they just shut the book, to be done with it, you know?

I still enjoyed the season, there were brilliant parts in it. But it feels... bloodless. Sexless. Empty of affection. Harrowing. Which is, of course, the point.

This... is a depressing, hinting at suicide-through-vampires note.

Which won't happen, of course.

Because here we get to (**), which is of course ™️ them announcing s3 just prior to the last episode;))) And thereby making some things clear by that fact alone :)) 🙌🙌🙌

I said it before, I expect them to revisit... again. Given that this will be in what, 1,5 to 2 years from now? Well. Hopefully still in 2025. And I hope the arc they spun over these three seasons will be done then. And we can move forward.

I do hope this show will get 10 seasons. But for the first time since it aired I wished we'd already be ahead, in season 4 or something. 😅 Because this heap of loose endings is... taxing^^. Though definitely coming very softened as a blow now with the s3 renewal that’s for sure^^

Can't wait to hear your thoughts, if you want to share them. But these are mine. For now.

I'm sure there will be a lot of details, and analysis and meta to follow, and I'm looking forward to it. 🥰🙌

S1 and s2 were a tale... I mean we knew. But I would have preferred a bit more... truth.^^

Because that Magnus‘ tower scene?! No way. The metaphorical push off the tower??? No way, sorry Rolin but if they let that stay… that’s not giving agency that’s removing Lestat‘s suffering for their weird “toxic masculinity arc“ that Sam hinted at and which was - IN THE BOOK!!! - a misjudgment of Akasha.

AND it is removing Lestat‘s suffering to give more nuance to other characters. -.-

Given Hannah‘s episode 5 comments I hope they do not make a misjudgment of his character there. The red flags are there though, especially after the recent interviews, have been ever since that DV drop, and I have people come to me via DMs now to tell me they’re leaving the fandom bc they’re scared of another GoT…. which I get.

I… still have some faith. I know Rolin tends to put his foot into his mouth at times, he is a troll, and for all her takes on ep5 Hannah also wrote other brilliant scenes.

And we have Sam and Jacob as trump cards.

I‘m determined to enjoy this - this is what we‘ll get. I waited 30 years. I won’t go anywhere. I will enjoy what they give us.

I won‘t like all their decisions. That I am aware of.

BUT I will enjoy it, going in open-eyed, nonetheless.

(*) okay that is obviously bullshit, Armand would not turn him out of spite. Which is another hint I guess. But I talked about that in asks^^ At length 😅

[crismakesstuff]

im so excited for invincible s2b now that it has an official release date… and that release date is march 14th

Let me talk about why that has me worried for the future of the show

‼️also no hate to any other shows mentioned‼️

I want to start with these two images :

invincible compared to the boys and now hazbin hotel has BARELY gotten any offical advertising on this level. The boys also got ads in times square for the promotion of s3 and the spin-off gen v im pretty sure but I could be wrong.

Don’t get me wrong I am rly happy to see an animated show get promotion at that level and I think more streaming services should do the same but why is it that invincible, a show on its SECOND SEASON gets nothing? The official invincible accounts have to do most of the heavy lifting themselves with generating hype on their twt,insta and tiktok. People complain that the accounts often make “an announcement for the announcement” but they have too! They literally have no other option! It sucks to see invincible show signs of a show thats clearly being tampered with by executive fuckery that has led so many other animated shows to an early grave.

Also I NEED people to realize that invincible’s release schedule NOT THE FAULT OF THE CREW

I see people regularly being rude and borderline aggressive to crew members online (which ive seen happen in other fandoms too) but the amount of people that were bitching and whining about the hiatus saying things like “this is why we shouldn’t let animators have good working conditions” and people agreeing with those takes were INSANE. The crew have no control over when the show drops or not, that is a decision left up to executives.

Now why could this delay be happening ?

a little bit ago amazon made this announcement to its customers:

this very well lines up with what many people began to speculate online as to why invincible had such a weird release schedule for season 2. They release the first half and get people hooked on the first 4 episodes ending on a massive cliffhanger and then release the second half after ads are introduced in hopes of making more money bc ppl don’t want ads in the middle of their shows.

Even then many people (myself included) think that it would’ve ultimately been better for the sake of the shows own hype to just wait to release them in March back to back all 8 episodes. Because the midseason break just kneecapped the hype the show had built up so hard and now many people are reasonably frustrated.

Because there was no clarity on when the show would be back. Most people assumed it would be a month long break for the holidays which shows have done for a long time. And then fake leaks came out that the show would come back in early January, and then the invincible accounts were virtually silent, and people were saying the break was intentional for fans to (recover) for ep 4. It was all over the place

What should fans do going forward?

Best thing you can do is stream the show legally if you can! TALK about invincible, don’t let the hype die out. Get this shit on trending ! Boost any official posts online showing that there is still a demand for this show! If you can, buy merch! Read the comics legally ! LET AMAZON KNOW WE STILL CARE ABOUT THIS SHOW!

again no hate to the other shows here bc ive watched all of them! I just want invincible to get some of that love too because this show is so amazing and you can tell how much love the crew has put into it <3

[ymaohoh]

Masterlist

So I've fallen right into the deep end of the HellCheer fandom. Ride or die. I'm in love with Chrissy Cunningham and Eddie Munson. The fans are fucking talented too, alright? I've been binging fics and the artwork but there's certain troupes/ideas/prompts that keep rattling away in my brainbox. I'm going to note them here for if (or when) I maybe write something for the two...but (public service announcement) if anyone knows a fic out there which can scratch these little itches please link me up.

Updated: 18.04.24

My Completed Fics

Chrissy starts dating. Eddie's not thrilled - Dating Chrissy - oneshot

Eddie wants to buy something nice for Chrissy. Candles are romantic, right? He ventures on a quest to the mall - Yankee Candle Baby - oneshot.

Chrissy is such a Brat with Eddie and Jason watches it (while hiding). Jason's POV - Chrissy Cunningham is a Brat - oneshot - mature

What if Chrissy ran from Eddie after her vision? What if it pushed them apart? They later share a joint and things get much much worse. My take on 'Chrissy lives' but it takes a little while for them to get back on the same page - Chrissy Runs Away - Chapter 3/3.

Eddie and Chrissy have unprotected sex against a brick wall after his gig because they can't wait - “We could always just…do it anyway?" - oneshot - mature

Eddie and Chrissy die but they're summoned again for the final fight Ft. time travel and angst - my hope for season 5 - Howl - oneshot

Gender Swap AU where Ellie Munson saves Chris Cunningham - a play on 'Chrissy Lives' - Rule 63' - oneshot

Ongoing

Vecna keeps Chrissy in hell - 'and she's a bride of the fucking devil' - 2/2 chapters.

My Mess of Drabbles

Eddie dies and Chrissy is waiting for him - end of passion play, crumbling away - short drabble only

Chrissy the Vampire Slayer AU

Labyrinth AU

X-Files AU

Pirates AU

Stardust AU

Jason joins the good side AU

Photocheer moodboard (Chrissy x Jonathan)

Headcannon Prompts

Max's relationship with Hellcheer

Dustin's relationship with Hellcheer

Chrissy and Wayne Munson's (beautiful) relationship

Chrissy and The Party headcanons

Favourite Fanfictions Masterlist

Need a new fic? Not sure where to start? Check out these INCREDIBLE Hellcheer fanfictions

In need of/ Prompts

Chrissy gets her first tattoo. A cliche at this point no? I'm torn between her getting this done without Eddie knowing as a surprise, or if I want him right there holding her hand.

Eddy eyeing her up in the school cafeteria or class. Basically Eddy simping over Chrissy.

Anything with Eddie and Chrissy reuniting after death / or in the upside-down (manifesting the second).

Chrissy and Eddie getting high together. Maybe a dash of 'will I remember any of this tomorrow?' as they confess their feelings and frustrations.

Eddie loves Chrissy in a sundress. The more feminine, girly, and flouncy the better. He wants to get his hands under it.

He also loves her in a Hellfire top. Anything really that marks her subtly as his.

Other character POV's watching them flirt. Sweet sweet music to my...eyes?

He loves it when she wears one of his rings. She has plenty of her own jewelry (and it's all real gold/expensive/fit for a princess) but it doesn't mean anything really. Her eyes light up at his rings, though.

Together they create a D&D character for her to practice with. They discuss what type she's most likely to be (Eddie's a bard right?). I'm feeling Chrissy might also have that bard energy (she's THE hype girl, right?) or a healer? They definitely get distracted though and don't actually finish it.

He is a rambler. He talks when he's nervous - and Chrissy finds it easy to keep up.

Chrissy tells the jocks to leave the Hellfire club alone in the school corridor. She gets annoyed when she hears them referring to the kids as 'freaks'. Eddie adores the fire and nerve he sees in her eyes because it only really ever comes out when she's in protective mode (bonus points 1) if she tells Jason to fuck off 2) she walks away with the Hellfire club after).

Chrissy is the only one who gets him to study (and pass). He knows he has a reason to now, you know? They've got plans and he isn't wasting time.

Eddie has doubts about Chrissy really truly loving him - she's way out of his league, after all, so she makes sure to create visual reminders. She takes their photo together and tacks it up in her locker for all to see.

Eddie loves fucking Chrissy in her cheerleading uniform. She loves fucking him when he's backstage. They will want to mark their place in each other's bizarre worlds.

Eddie worries about his future with Chrissy (what's his dumbass supposed to do while she excels at college?) but he likes the way his last name suits her.

Eddie is ONLY soft for Chrissy. A scene where he's trying to be big and scary for the club and she unknowingly fractures this image by doing something oh so achingly cute. Maybe she giggles or squee's during a D&D session? It takes him ages to drag himself back into his DM role.

I'll be adding to this , fo' sure.

Is there an official name for this dynamic? Unpopular baddass x sunshine princess?

All aboard the ship. Ahoy ahoy.