#hes so pretty and hanging around Cherry gives him an extra good image

[reki-of-the-valley]

Why do I feel Langa modeled in his youth as a little extra cash grab and got pretty popular but quit that world before he could "make something out of himself"?

[d-noona]

AERO

Chaper 6: The Search

"If I'd just gotten my ass kicked by a size three. I might be inclined to mind my own business." - Im Jaebeom

At his computer console, Jaebeom fast-forwards through a video surveillance tape from the previous day, freezing on Seven as she approaches the adjacent building with a delivery. He blows up the image until Seven's face fills the screen, her eyes looking right into the surveillance camera, right at him. He studies the picture for a long contemplative moment.

Ruben enters the room and looks over his boss and studies the photo his boss seems to be engrossed at "Glad you're getting your money's worth outta that tape. Had to grease the guard a hundred for it."

But with this Jaebeom doesn't hear him. He's utterly lost in the image of the young woman on the screen. Ruben teases him "You trying to ID the perp or a new girlfriend?"

Jaebeom snaps out of it and responds "If I'd just gotten my ass kicked by a size three. I might be inclined to mind my own business."

With this Jaebeom gets up from his seat, grabs his wallet and a 9mm out of his drawer. Heads straight out of his apartment to his SUV and drives off for the day.

Jaebeom arrives at JYPE X-press, he enters and looks around at the motley assortment of messengers, then crosses to the dispatch counter where JYP barks out an order to his not so merry men. "Pick-up at four-eleven going to Gangnam" He tosses out the package to Mark who catches the parcel with ease accompanied by the boys Youngjae and Jackson with deliveries on each of her hands.

Jaebeom approaches the boss "I'm looking for a lady who works here"

Not giving the young man the time of day Jyp arranges the packages for the next deliveries and responds "Ladies would be elsewhere."

With this Jaebeom flashes the picture of Seven which was lifted from the surveillance video. He slides it up to the stubby man "Know where I can find her?"

The man scans and surveys the photo and smirks at Jaebeom.

"You don't want to. Listen brother, she may be easy on the eyes but she's trouble trust me." Then Jyp leaves the station with packages on his arm and calls out for his messengers "Hot run two-oh-two Sansome" the old man kept passing on the packages to his workers with Jaebeom trailing behind him not giving him the peace he needed for work.

"I need to talk to her" says Jaebeom. He feels the patience leaving his body as the old man continues to ignore him. Jaebeom then has had enough, he pulls out an envelope with large sums of money and extends it to him.

"How about you give me her name and address?"

Jyp eyes the money and pockets it. "Seven something. I got no clue where she stays. But she normally hangs out after work with a bunch of these losers at a place called The Crash."

Jaebeom tilts his head and purses his lips. He salutes the man and leaves the building. Putting the coordinates of the place on his GPS. The GPS advises him that it's ready to go, he drives off the night headed to look for the beautiful thief.

As Jaebeom enters the bar, he sees Seven and a friend playing a game of eight ball. He purposely observed her from afar at first. She was wearing nothing but simple black sleeveless shirt, black pants, black gloves and black rubber boots. She had no make-up on yet her skin is tanned and flawless. Her eyes were intense and brown as she concentrates on beating her friend at a game. Black hair flowing beautifully from her back as it sways showing markings on her skin. Tattoos as he scans her carefully. She has a tattoo of an angel on her back with cherry blossom edging on both her left and right shoulder. From a front another tattoo catches his attention on her upper left chest just right below her collar bone. Some sort of an ECG reading.

She seems to be having fun tonight...

As Jaebeom surveys her. There's something about the way she smiles. Her body is relaxed but her eyes are weary, as if she was hiding a secret from everyone else. Jaebeom decides to approach Seven while she was speaking to her friend. Whilst walking towards her Seven looks up and sees him approaching.

"So this guy walks into a bar and says..." as Seven intensely gazing upon Jaebeom's eyes without blinking, he swore when a flash of light from the bar swept by her it looked as if he was staring in to a cat's eye.

He smiled at her and responded "We didn't get a chance to finish our conversation the other night." Without taking her off Jaebeom, he felt compelled to stare into her eyes as well.

Seven unmoving speaks at her friend who seems confused "Summer, say hi to my good friend..." the man cuts her off "Im Jaebeom" he says as he hands his hand to shake the hand of Seven's friend.

Summer being an ever loyal friend just looked at Jaebeom and gave him a brief respond "Hey."

But Seven and Jaebeom just stood there still looking at each other. Sensing that it's time to make herself scarce, Summer looks at her watch "Xena's on", then she splits.

"Sorry about your window" as Seven breaks her gaze upon the handsome man. Jaebeom does the same "Can we go somewhere and talk?" the two then heads out of the bar.

The two walk in silence for a moment, an easy affinity between them. After a moment Seven slightly gave Jaebeom a glance "So...How'd you find me?"

Jaebeom stared at her features ever so softly there was something about her that's enchanting him to no end. Obnoxiously he gave her a smile "It wasn't that hard."

She stops dead at her tracks, eyeing the man who was standing before her "Am I supposed to be flattered by all the attention?" As she snickers at him and walks a bit faster making Jaebeom speed up his pace.

"Well, now you know who I am, where I live. I figured I better find out who I'm dealing with in case you were looking to hurt me." He answers her earnestly.

They continued conversing whilst walking through a forgotten and condemned park. Surrounding them are old rusted rides all long forgotten. Seven sits on one of the old swings as Jaebeom followed the urge to push her slightly. She then turns to her side only seeing the Jaebeom's peripherals.

"So? Now you tracked me. What do you think?" as she continues to just sit by the swing.

Jaebeom moves to her side sitting on the empty space on her right. He looks at her "Hmmm...Too early to tell."

Seven giggles at him, catching the man by surprise. It's hard to think that this girl sitting beside him giggling over nothing actually took down Ruben and broke his window.

She then continues on "How does Mrs. Informant Net like being married to a guy on everyone's hit list?" she asks with a very innocent but serious look on her face. Flustered by her straightforward question he blushes, then she laughs at him obviously catching the man off guard.

"Aww, he blushes, how adorable. For someone who does cyber hacking I must say this is a surprise." As she continues to laugh on her own.

"Janna is not my wife." He replies to her.

"Girlfriend?" she quirks up an eyebrow on him.

"No. Janna Reid is the wife of James Reid. Her husband was murdered. She's one of my sources." As he intently looks at Seven's face to see if he can catch any type of emotion. To his dismay she never changed facade and stood up from where she was sitting as she continued to walk around the park.

"Tell me Im Jaebeom, what's your shot in all this? Being a famous underground pirate slash cyber journalist can't be much of a pay day."

He follows her as she walks around "Fortunately, my needs are met in that department" he says.

"So what, you just like the sound of your own voice?" Seven mocks him.

Jaebeom smiled in amusement. "Look around at all this Seven. This place was built by people till the pandemic and bomb happened on 2020. They blinked and overnight the government, the police, everything intended to protect the people had been turned against them."

Seven stops and turns at Jaebeom "You miss the good old days. Even though there were still poor people who died from diseases when they didn't have to...and rich people spent obscene amounts of money redecorating their houses to match the cat. Those good old days?"

Jaebeom sighs "Well at least people had a choice, even if they took it for granted. And now they obviously don't."

Nonchalantly the girl continues to walk "So what are you gonna do about it?"

"Something..." As Jaebeom answers, they continued to walk in silence for a beat.

Then to break the silence Jaebeom decides to speak up again. "That was a pretty extraordinary display of athleticism the other night. In fact, a little too extra ordinary. You wanna tell me how?" But he looks up at her and she's gone.

Jaebeom was left all alone on an empty park, looking for Seven who seems to have vanished in to thin air. 

At his computer console, Jaebeom fast-forwards through a video surveillance tape from the previous day, freezing on Seven as she approaches the adjacent building with a delivery. He blows up the image until Seven's face fills the screen, her eyes looking right into the surveillance camera, right at him. He studies the picture for a long contemplative moment.

Ruben enters the room and looks over his boss and studies the photo his boss seems to be engrossed at "Glad you're getting your money's worth outta that tape. Had to grease the guard a hundred for it."

But with this Jaebeom doesn't hear him. He's utterly lost in the image of the young woman on the screen. Ruben teases him "You trying to ID the perp or a new girlfriend?"

Jaebeom snaps out of it and responds "If I'd just gotten my ass kicked by a size three. I might be inclined to mind my own business."

With this Jaebeom gets up from his seat, grabs his wallet and a 9mm out of his drawer. Heads straight out of his apartment to his SUV and drives off for the day.

Jaebeom arrives at JYPE X-press, he enters and looks around at the motley assortment of messengers, then crosses to the dispatch counter where JYP barks out an order to his not so merry men. "Pick-up at four-eleven going to Gangnam" He tosses out the package to Mark who catches the parcel with ease accompanied by the boys Youngjae and Jackson with deliveries on each of her hands.

Jaebeom approaches the boss "I'm looking for a lady who works here"

Not giving the young man the time of day Jyp arranges the packages for the next deliveries and responds "Ladies would be elsewhere."

With this Jaebeom flashes the picture of Seven which was lifted from the surveillance video. He slides it up to the stubby man "Know where I can find her?"

The man scans and surveys the photo and smirks at Jaebeom.

"You don't want to. Listen brother, she may be easy on the eyes but she's trouble trust me." Then Jyp leaves the station with packages on his arm and calls out for his messengers "Hot run two-oh-two Sansome" the old man kept passing on the packages to his workers with Jaebeom trailing behind him not giving him the peace he needed for work.

"I need to talk to her" says Jaebeom. He feels the patience leaving his body as the old man continues to ignore him. Jaebeom then has had enough, he pulls out an envelope with large sums of money and extends it to him.

"How about you give me her name and address?"

Jyp eyes the money and pockets it. "Seven something. I got no clue where she stays. But she normally hangs out after work with a bunch of these losers at a place called The Crash."

Jaebeom tilts his head and purses his lips. He salutes the man and leaves the building. Putting the coordinates of the place on his GPS. The GPS advises him that it's ready to go, he drives off the night headed to look for the beautiful thief.

As Jaebeom enters the bar, he sees Seven and a friend playing a game of eight ball. He purposely observed her from afar at first. She was wearing nothing but simple black sleeveless shirt, black pants, black gloves and black rubber boots. She had no make-up on yet her skin is tanned and flawless. Her eyes were intense and brown as she concentrates on beating her friend at a game. Black hair flowing beautifully from her back as it sways showing markings on her skin. Tattoos as he scans her carefully. She has a tattoo of an angel on her back with cherry blossom edging on both her left and right shoulder. From a front another tattoo catches his attention on her upper left chest just right below her collar bone. Some sort of an ECG reading.

She seems to be having fun tonight...

As Jaebeom surveys her. There's something about the way she smiles. Her body is relaxed but her eyes are weary, as if she was hiding a secret from everyone else. Jaebeom decides to approach Seven while she was speaking to her friend. Whilst walking towards her Seven looks up and sees him approaching.

"So this guy walks into a bar and says..." as Seven intensely gazing upon Jaebeom's eyes without blinking, he swore when a flash of light from the bar swept by her it looked as if he was staring in to a cat's eye.

He smiled at her and responded "We didn't get a chance to finish our conversation the other night." Without taking her off Jaebeom, he felt compelled to stare into her eyes as well.

Seven unmoving speaks at her friend who seems confused "Summer, say hi to my good friend..." the man cuts her off "Im Jaebeom" he says as he hands his hand to shake the hand of Seven's friend.

Summer being an ever loyal friend just looked at Jaebeom and gave him a brief respond "Hey."

But Seven and Jaebeom just stood there still looking at each other. Sensing that it's time to make herself scarce, Summer looks at her watch "Xena's on", then she splits.

"Sorry about your window" as Seven breaks her gaze upon the handsome man. Jaebeom does the same "Can we go somewhere and talk?" the two then heads out of the bar.

The two walk in silence for a moment, an easy affinity between them. After a moment Seven slightly gave Jaebeom a glance "So...How'd you find me?"

Jaebeom stared at her features ever so softly there was something about her that's enchanting him to no end. Obnoxiously he gave her a smile "It wasn't that hard."

She stops dead at her tracks, eyeing the man who was standing before her "Am I supposed to be flattered by all the attention?" As she snickers at him and walks a bit faster making Jaebeom speed up his pace.

"Well, now you know who I am, where I live. I figured I better find out who I'm dealing with in case you were looking to hurt me." He answers her earnestly.

They continued conversing whilst walking through a forgotten and condemned park. Surrounding them are old rusted rides all long forgotten. Seven sits on one of the old swings as Jaebeom followed the urge to push her slightly. She then turns to her side only seeing the Jaebeom's peripherals.

"So? Now you tracked me. What do you think?" as she continues to just sit by the swing.

Jaebeom moves to her side sitting on the empty space on her right. He looks at her "Hmmm...Too early to tell."

Seven giggles at him, catching the man by surprise. It's hard to think that this girl sitting beside him giggling over nothing actually took down Ruben and broke his window.

She then continues on "How does Mrs. Informant Net like being married to a guy on everyone's hit list?" she asks with a very innocent but serious look on her face. Flustered by her straightforward question he blushes, then she laughs at him obviously catching the man off guard.

"Aww, he blushes, how adorable. For someone who does cyber hacking I must say this is a surprise." As she continues to laugh on her own.

"Janna is not my wife." He replies to her.

"Girlfriend?" she quirks up an eyebrow on him.

"No. Janna Reid is the wife of James Reid. Her husband was murdered. She's one of my sources." As he intently looks at Seven's face to see if he can catch any type of emotion. To his dismay she never changed facade and stood up from where she was sitting as she continued to walk around the park.

"Tell me Im Jaebeom, what's your shot in all this? Being a famous underground pirate slash cyber journalist can't be much of a pay day."

He follows her as she walks around "Fortunately, my needs are met in that department" he says.

"So what, you just like the sound of your own voice?" Seven mocks him.

Jaebeom smiled in amusement. "Look around at all this Seven. This place was built by people till the pandemic and bomb happened on 2020. They blinked and overnight the government, the police, everything intended to protect the people had been turned against them."

Seven stops and turns at Jaebeom "You miss the good old days. Even though there were still poor people who died from diseases when they didn't have to...and rich people spent obscene amounts of money redecorating their houses to match the cat. Those good old days?"

Jaebeom sighs "Well at least people had a choice, even if they took it for granted. And now they obviously don't."

Nonchalantly the girl continues to walk "So what are you gonna do about it?"

"Something..." As Jaebeom answers, they continued to walk in silence for a beat.

Then to break the silence Jaebeom decides to speak up again. "That was a pretty extraordinary display of athleticism the other night. In fact, a little too extra ordinary. You wanna tell me how?" But he looks up at her and she's gone.

Jaebeom was left all alone on an empty park, looking for Seven who seems to have vanished in to thin air. 

[sherryaptx4869]

Making it through love

It’s GinTae month!

Behold, a very short compilation of GinTae moments from the Gintama manga, anime and movie. Try as I might, I cannot do justice for the pair by words because to borrow a line from Westlife’s Home, “the words are cold and flat, and they deserve more than that.” So I looked for pictures detailing in a nutshell why GinTae (aside from OkiKagu) is my OTP. Since they have a lot like really a lot! of moments (aka they know each other heart by heart), I just chose from my pile of screenshots to accurately depict the prompt given which is kind of hard because the prompts blur and overlap with each other. Take these with a grain of salt, because the context of the episode where I took it from might not exactly be as romantic as I want it to be. Remember, this is fan-made. Fanon is not canon. But I wonder about that in this case because the Easter egg hints came directly from the creator of the series himself haha I’m also proud to say that no fan arts are included here to drive my point home that Gintoki and Tae are as canon as we can get from Sorachi very close to being married officially.

This is just the tip of the GinTae iceberg that will sink other ships. This does not capture the entirety of GinTae moments in the manga, anime, movie, OVA, live-action movie and even the audio CDs. Treat this as a preview of many GinTae moments.

For now, I hope you have fun with this one as much as I did when I was scouring my hoard of Gintama images. This is dedicated to all the GinTae fans. If you don’t like this content, just ignore then scram. Credits go to Sorachi-sensei and to the production of the anime where I took the screenshots from.

First Meeting: Watch out! Your soulmate might just appear from behind you while riding your scooter!

Realization: If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question (as manifested by Gintoki and Tae time and time again from the start of the series up to this point).

The Reveal: Put a ring on it! It must be great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.

Date: Put your best foot forward!

Reminder: Booze and sweet stuff for both the lady and the gent.

New to the Family: A pretty serious relationship with someone long-term requires an introduction to the family. And whoah! There’s a whole spectrum of shenanigans they get into.

Jealousy: (Play Nick Jonas’s Jealous for the feels haha) It’s not Gin-san’s fault that the ladies hover. But it is Tae’s every right to be hellish because she’s (*whispers*) jealous the wife.

As for Gin-san… he’s making his fist and his dirty tricks do the talking to protect the woman he cared about. (Look at Kagura’s unimpressed face (and Shinpachi’s shrieking) haha, I bet the paragon of adult wisdom she considered to be Gintoki just crumbled to dust.)

Laughter:  Sometimes your silver samurai turns out to be just an idiot perm-haired samurai.

First Kiss: Exactly what it sounds like— but no, there are no kisses in the anime. Paging Hattori Zenzo, please tell us since you saw the whole exchange

Thirdwheeling: Come with us, they said. It would be fun they said. Tag yourself, am I being extra?

Flustered: The sweetness of strawberry parfait oozing out of the Smeggy Samurai’s words and gestures makes him sappy with Pony-chan whose cheeks are tinted with blush yihee *heart*

Rest: Gin-san resting before he gets tired lols. But hey, it’s usually the Kodokan Dojo, the Shimura’s residence where Gintoki lounges about. We also see Tae checking up on the Yorozuya trio regularly as well as to pay her respects to Gintoki’s mom figure- Otose.

Shopping: GinTae shopping for clothes together. Two years later, it is also while shopping for clothes that Tae through a series of unfortunate events brought home Gin-san (and Hijikata) wearing undies on his face.

Food: It’s not only love that is shared, also carbs.

Cherry blossom viewing (Hanami): The Sakata family wringing the beauty out of life. They seize the day over bento boxes (courtesy of Mom Tae) and sake-filled glasses (courtesy of Dadtoki). Of course, the day is completed with a showdown with their frienemy the Shinsengumi. And to cap the day off, look at the reverence and fondness the three are giving to Gin-san.

Rainy Day: Rainy days won’t keep our Queen of Kabuki-cho from hanging out with her family. Mom Tae even had a bento prepared. How thoughtful and sweet!

Super Powers: Plagiarize your way to success. In real life, don’t! It’s a crime. Here is Dragon Ball x Bleach x One Piece = DragonBleaPiece. Yeah, only in Gintama!

Holding Hands: When your hand finds the hand it was meant to hold, don’t let go. (I was singing Heart by Heart performed by Demi Lovato on this part so you’ll find a lot of references to the song <3)

Spellbound: We don’t need any spells for GinTae to be together. See here they even act silly together. Also in an AU, Gin the bully is controlled kept in check by class-president Tae. In the Love Potion arc, no amount of love potion can dope Gin-san to forget that the hand he is supposed to hold is Tae’s.

Surprise Gift: Tae is up to something… Surprisingly enough (or maybe not), it is her infamous Dark Matter that makes one hate surprises when they are presented the honor of eating Tae’s magnum opus.

Dispute: 

Yagyuu arc, Gintoki: It’s like Tae doesn’t hear a word I say. Her mind is somewhere far away. Like she doesn’t even care.

Benizakura arc, Tae: I know this whole city thinks it needs you but not as much as I (and Shinpachi and Kagura) do.

Gin-san went out anyways, and Tae let him.

(Btw, collage is not mine. CTTO. I’m sorry I forgot from whom I took the photo from)

Angst: Gintoki (disguising as Takasugi) is in a predicament. He doesn’t want Tae to find out he is back in Edo after two years of wandering about. No, not yet. Certainly not in those clothes (or the lack thereof).

Rescue: It’s not always the damsel that is in distress. Sometimes, gotta rescue the perm-hair and his friend the long-hair.  Oh the things we do for love!

Tragedy: This was when Kagura faked her illness that led to her “dying” (as orchestrated by the Sadist Prince Okita) and after the Liberation war. Meantime, it is best to grab what wonderful moments you find lying around.

Support: Behind a man’s downfall or success is a woman. Tae’s are the only eyes that can see into and through Gintoki and vice versa. They read each other like a book. They support each other in any way that they can. They even got each other’s hearts backs.

Cliche: They’re unaware of how cliché they’re being when it comes to their romantic feelings. Everyone can see that they have this thing going on, only they can’t see it. Talk about dense. Go on, don’t be shy just say it out loud.

Memories: Let’s intrude on our favourite kind of gathering – walking down memory lane with Tae and Gin-san. Pretend they are looking over a photo album to see how far they’ve come. Looking on are Madao Hasegawa-san and Catherine.

The Power of Two: GinTae accomplishing a goal that neither of them would’ve been capable of doing alone. Just look at the picture, I have nothing more to say haha

“I love you”s: Can Gin-san be more roundabout in saying those words to Tae so they can live together as man and wife. Probably go ask the other half of your sadist duo aka Okita Sogo how to propose/ say you love her the unconventional way. (I’m referring to how Okita proposed to Kagura. Oh well, that’s for another post)

Different Ways of Saying “I love you”: I’m stumped. I don’t know what to say. Every one of their interaction is gold. Just show how you feel and make it real. And to Sorachi-sensei, one good way to hide something is in plain sight. People often forget to look at something right in front of them. Kudos!

And I end this lengthy post to that last panel with Tae saying she understands Gin. The way he’s complicated is simple. Isn’t that sweet? Might I add, Gin-san being a sweet-talker and sappy is really cringe worthy haha.  Tae and Gin-san found a way to find each other thanks to Shinpachi boy. From then on, it’s like she’s been in his life forever with the way she understands his heart by heart. Anego and Danna making it through love. The gods have spoken.

[abrokenpromise3]

Norman inhaled deeply, letting the fumes of nicotine lingered and consumed his lungs, before sliding down the brand new car window and flicked the cigs butt outside carelessly. He blew smoke lazily out of his red dark plump mouth, in a long frustrated sigh. Brilliant eyes, so green with flecks of gold when sunray sometimes crossed over them, were trained to the road, sharp face was looking all serious but his focus was else where.

'Fuck this!.' He was screaming inside but never once he showed what was contained. No one really knew, ever knew his lonely perpetual battles. Not even bothered to roll up the tempered glass, he let his strong left hand hanging outside, tapping the air melodiously like his fingers were dancing on piano tiles, following the rhythm from the faint sound of radio and his right hand gripped tightly on the steering wheel. Like any other day, he was struggling.

He parked his car just outside a convenience store by the road, sighing for the hundredth time today, a habit he had became accustomed to lately before putting off his sleek 488 Pista engine. A vibrate came from his dark jeans's pocket and he didn't have to check to know it was from Josephine, it was her or any other slut, he didn't really care at this point and lost count by now. They were all not important.

'Don't forget tonight babe..'

Read a text from Josephine. The said text came with a sultry photo of her in a provocative red thong he paid the other day. He needed to play his character. She was a senior and a pretty Jamaican girl but she wasn't what he wanted. He chuckled in an exhale way feeling remorseful before scrolling down other text messages, some were from his previous one night stands he didn't recall names, and few were from guys he knew from school and snobby rich kids he came to know here and there.

'Bowlin tonight bro with El. You comin?' That was from Nathan, his best buddy since forever. He followed her around like a lost puppy.

He was quick to reply.

'Sorry man. Josephine has been bugging me for a while now. Can't really turn her down this time.'

Not a minute passed he received a reply from Nathan.

'She got boobs. But she's slut. Quit playin around. U need to settle down like me. Lol'

'Fuck off El.' He sent, knowing all too well.

Another text popped up but he ignored it, shoving his phone back into the front pocket of his jeans. Running his fingers through his wavy raven black hair, he closed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth slightly, before slowly breathing in and out again like he was about to perform yoga any minute. He wasn't. He was just accumulating all the inner strength he had to not throwing up at the moment. Yeah. That was what he felt of his pity ass, revolting. He pushed open the car door, hand gripping the handle and closed it quite harshly before making his way to a building with chipped red paint all over and a sign Dooria hanging loosely atop, a not so fancy convenient store around the neighborhood.

A blond girl behind the counter kept glancing his way and he didn't fail to notice. He was hot, he was told. While the bald guy beside her, he was something else, he looked as dead as a trout, like he had been held down in this place long enough to care if it burnt down. Tossing off his true self elsewhere in the imaginary trashbin, he took the needed item to the cash register, throwing a flirtious smile at the sweet looking blondie, switching to character of a typical hot jock, a card he had been playing for a while now.

''Hey there.'' His voice dropped an octave lower.

The bald guy yawned looking outside the shop window like he didn't see him standing there.

''Hey.'' While the girl with a Selena tagged on upper left side of her tight uniform that brought up her curves chuckled sweetly. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking all shy. Her lips were cherry red.

''Never see you before?'' Norman asked with a half smile tugging at his lips, handing her a small box while leaning one arm on the counter, the other fishing out his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans, sometimes turning to the bald guy. He was more entertained at how unconcerned the guy looked, like he didn't give a damn about the world nor even faking smiles to the customers.

''I'm new here.'' She answered while ringing the item. Her face flushed seeing the bold XXL on the box the big boy gave, not too innocent not to know.

''That'd be 8.50$.'' She announced while handing back the box to him, hands slightly touching in the action. Trying to be a little bit seductive, cashier girl named Selena bent over so her cleavage was showing.

''Selena. Sweet name.'' Norman read out the tag with his deep voice, stealing glances at the big braless breasts to play his part.

''Well thanks. And you're?''

''Norman.'' He brightened his smile and handed some 10$. The girl took them and returned the change but not before purposely running one finger on his large palm suggestively.

''So Norman, do you care for a drink or anything sometimes?'' The girl suggested. She didn't want to miss the chance to know the hot muscular guy who was purchasing one of the biggest sizes of condoms they had from the shelves, unaware that he was still a minor to her early 20s. Norman didn't really look like one because of his big frame.

''Why not babe. Give me your number. I'll call you.'' He said coolly while digging out his expensive looking phone.

The sound of the doorbell rang when Norman was typing in some digits Selena gave, not even trying to hide her excitement, her squeals were annoying to his ears but he ignored it.

''Is this halal?''

A man's voice boomed beside him all of the sudden, making him jumped slightly of shock, not realizing of another company.

He looked to his right to see a black haired boy was asking the bored looking bald guy, pointing at some hot dogs they sold there.

A heat suddenly rushed up to his face. His heart began to beat faster. 'Fuck he's hot'.

''What?'' The bald guy asked, looking blank as if not hearing the first time.

The new guy just shrugged and said a 'never mind' nonchalantly.

Looking amused as Norman was with the bald guy, he now was fixing his soft hazel eyes on him, looking up to meet his striking green ones. Norman was seeing sparkles, literally, and his stomach decided to make a funny twist inside and his heart accelerated. He could hear it pumping loudly.

With a lazy lopsided smile, the guy who was pretty much not less than 6 inches shorter than him gave a quick nod of head.

''Sup.'' His voice was manly but more of a softer tone than his deep voice.

It was like any normal teenage boy saying hi. But it was different. It was beautiful, and different.

''Yeah.'' Norman replied barely audible, a very faint stutter was present. Still awestruck, his eyes were mildly raking the guys's pan asian, kind of Mexican face. Big doe eyes with thick long lashes, and mouth naturally puckered, bothered him even more.

Since the stare was longer than necessary, the other guy felt, kind of weird and arched his brow a bit, looking up and down and thought, 'what the hell with this boy. But damn he is good looking.' Thick brows with deep set of green eyes and contrasting raven hair, beardless sharp jaw, strong features, tanned skin with defined muscles that could even be seen through the boy's long sleeve black shirt hugging his sturdy body. He was strikingly handsome, like a cover boy in a magazine or some sort. He looked almost like a giant, standing at almost 6'4, more or less.

Damn. A hot giant. Fuck. I'm checking out a boy. What's wrong with me. He questioned himself and wondered how he could describe a random guy's features, in a random store, just with a quick glance. He was normally not observant. Well, he was today. Anuar thought.

''So..'' Selena broke whatever telepathic connection between them at the moment. Norman reluctantly turned to the girl, forcing his smile.

''Can I have yours too?'' She laughed again a bit exaggerated and showing him her phone in a pink cover.

Anuar who was watching them only came to realization that the bigger boy was being a typical jock trying to get lame laid especially when he noticed the paid blue box that he was holding. He sure got a big junk down there. Lucky bastard. He shook his head faintly shooing away any unwanted images.

''Yeah 'course.'' Norman took the phone and quickly punched in his numbers and handed it back to her. He winked at her for extra effect, and directed his gaze back to the smaller boy and said 'later' with a playful smile forming at his lips. Not really sure himself that he was bidding his bye to the girl or to the boy next to him because he was also feeling confused of the foreign feeling that was suddenly creeping inside his heart - not that he was never secretly checking other boys out but this one was different. That lean fit boy, though with right amount of muscles showing from his white round collar shirt, standing not more than his chin level and sexy pretty face, he was not the hottest. He had seen better but there was a vibe the boy conveyed that attracted him. He couldn't really place it.

While Norman slowly walked out of the store, still calculating his next action, Anuar took some items and paid for them. Norman hesitated whether to just leave or approach the beautiful boy, in a friendly manner - not to scare him off with his gayness, obviously. He then decided to just wait outside near the entrance, but still leaving spaces for customers to pass by while scrolling down his phone to ease down his nervousness by acting cool. Fact was, he wasn't cool at all. He was feeling stupidly nervous which was also something new to him. He was always the manly guy, was always as bold and confident.

Anuar pushed the shop's door open and took notice of Norman who was standing there like a glorious statue. Norman turned to him, but he froze, not really knew what exactly he was supposed to do. Anuar just gave a genuine full smile, showing a deep dimple on his left rosy cheek that really caught Norman off guide, his heart did skip a bit, and Anuar rushed outside, simply marching passed Norman mindlessly towards his mom's car with his paid groceries in plastic bag. Norman who was standing there like a deer caught in headlight, only managed to ogle the insanely nice round fit ass of the smaller boy in his blue jeans and the way it swayed, quite miss the chance when he already closed the passenger's door and they drove off.

''Shit!'' Norman swore under his breath. He felt mad of himself for suddenly becoming cold feet. 'What the hell is wrong with me! Damn it.' He pondered as he probably missed the only chance to get to know the sweet looking boy.

As he ignited his car, he look down at the box he was holding on his lap. Suddenly feeling defeated, drained. He never really enjoyed it with girls. He always just went with closed eyes and pretended he was fucking boys' asses. Girls said that it was hot he treated them like that, like they were their plaything. They always said how great and amazing he was in bed and that he fucked hard like beast. Yeah he did because they were all his fuck meats he used to anger out all of his sexual frustrations.

He was never one to be intimidated by others nor cared what their damn opinions were, but he was more worried of losing his family, if he ever came out, that was.

~

[itsworn]

Replacing the Nose on Your C1 Corvette

When I was a kid I was pretty good at just about everything I tried. But there was one thing I excelled at: taking things apart.

Oh come on, you know you did it, too. There was something satisfying about sitting on the garage floor with parts strewn about you. That feeling you get when you wonder if you can put it all back together again, man, what a rush.

I don’t get that sort of opportunity now that I’m middle aged. So I was extra excited just before I left Street Rods by Denny. Screw unbolting thrift-store bicycles; cutting C1 Corvettes is where it’s at! Joking aside, tearing apart a Corvette, pretty much any Corvette, is fairly intimidating. But after watching Josh Sanders and Doug Isbell carve that ’59 apart gave me hope for the future that this car would, in fact, go back together.

Assembly is actually simple. As revealed in the first entry, assembly is basically a seemingly endless loop of mocking the part on the body, pinpointing the interference, removing the part to correct those issues, and mocking the part again to check the fit. Unless you make a jig for a cherry-picker, it’s really a two-person job. But doing the work on this end makes the last part of the job, actually bonding the nose to the car, almost shockingly easy.

Just understand that an accurate fit is absolutely critical. The panel-bonding adhesive has a relatively short pot life, so once you mix it you have to get crackin’. And there’s no time left for fixing issues during the bonding process. It’s a get-in-and-get-out kinda job that’s best served with at least three people, preferably four. It’s the most stressful part of the job, but it’s also the fastest; like 15 minutes from start to finish, a timeline dictated by the nature of the panel-bonding adhesive. In fact, it’s a good idea to do this on a cool morning, as the Street Rods by Denny crew did. Chemical reactions depend on temperature and lower temperatures delay cure time.

What adhesive you use is fairly subjective. Many authorities—including Jerry Geiszler from Corvette Image and Darrold Elhard, Denny’s Corvette guru—recommend using a polyester-based adhesive. There are epoxy-based adhesives that are actually stronger than polyester-based materials; however, the polyester-based material has a secondary benefit: it can double as a filler to build up a surface if a panel falls a touch too short. Which is a rule rather than an exception when working with handbuilt vehicles, as we noted in the first installment.

Polyester-based fillers are made with the same resins used in the rest of the body (resin usually with milled glass fibers). So they have similar expansion rates as the body panels. That means they’re more likely to shrink and swell with the bonded materials.

You’ll rarely hear them talked about, but there are actually two subcategories of polyester resins: Orthophthalic (commonly called Ortho) and Isophthalic (commonly called Iso).

Darrold swears by a Bondo-branded material that 3M refers to as resin jelly. He’s used it for decades and maintains that it does everything he needs and hasn’t failed him. It has an Ortho base. Jerry has a little more scientific approach. He worked with a manufacturer to come up with a similar adhesive/filler that has an Iso base.

Most manufacturers like 3M/Bondo use the Ortho formulation because it’s strong and relatively inexpensive as resins go. But Iso sacrifices a little bit of budget for a fair bit more strength. Case in point, Ortho’s tensile strength is around 8,000 psi whereas Iso’s tensile comes in a little more than 37 percent stronger at 11,000 psi. And that’s not the end of it, either; Iso resins tend to be tougher—as in able to bend or endure shock loads more without fracturing.

Ortho resins tend to be rather brittle by comparison. Simply for its greater strength and durability, Iso is the resin of choice for mold-makers, hence the nickname tooling resin. Yes, Iso-formulated materials cost a little more and, no, they’re not always available at your local auto-body supply house. But depending on your value system, long-term performance may outweigh price and availability.

After watching this car go back together I’m here to tell you that, for once, assembly is a lot more fun than disassembly. Yes it’s a lot of work. But equipped with the right tools, the space, the time, and the patience, there’s no reason why even a well-trained amateur can’t successfully swap the nose on a C1 Corvette. Vette

1. Bonding begins with a nose that fits perfectly and has plenty of fixture points to stabilize its individual components. If the car doesn’t look like it’s ready for body and paint, it’s not ready for bonding. Everything must fit.

2. All trimmed up, the mounting points around the body look pristine, much how they looked 60 years ago. This is the goal; what’s here right now will stay here for the life of the car, so work carefully.

3. Josh Sanders and Doug Isbell went about double-checking mounting points and ensuring that every piece was in place. Once the body goes together there’s little chance of getting missing brackets in place.

4. There are a number of sub-assemblies, like this cowl bracket, that get sandwiched between the nose and body. But this bracket interfered with the cowl vent so Josh held it out of the way with some bungee cords. Once the nose goes on, the cords come off and the bracket snaps in place.

5. And naturally everything goes on the nose, like this cowl vent and its linkage.

6. Keeping the bonding agent off of some parts is every bit as important as getting it on others. After all, it’s tough to open a door if it’s glued to the jamb! Go around and mask components that risk getting an unintended swipe of adhesive.

7. Even though the nose fit perfectly, the crew test-ran the fitting sequence several times to reveal any potential hang-ups. They got it down to specific steps to ensure the nose goes on without grazing any of the panel adhesive.

8. The crew used two, 2-pound, 8-ounce cans of fresh adhesive to attach the nose. A good deal of the adhesive will squeeze out of the seams but it’s quite necessary in areas where the inner structure doesn’t quite meet the nose.

9. Darrold and Josh scooped almost all of the adhesive on mixing boards and mixed based on the instructions. Reserve a little bit for attaching brackets and such that go on after the nose.

10. Josh, Doug, Darrold and Denny laid on the bonding agent at approximately 1/4-inch thick. Sometimes the fit is quite loose and it’s better to have excess squeeze out than not have enough to achieve a full bond. There’s no going back to put in more once it cures.

11. The crew hoisted the nose on one last time, each person tending to their respective area. Resist the urge to rush; you have time to work thoughtfully.

12. Once the nose dropped in place, the crew attached it with the fixtures and panel fasteners that held it in place during the fitting process.

13. Fitting the nose displaces all of the excess bonding agent. Do yourself a giant favor and feather out the excess before it cures. It bears mention that it pays dividends to pay attention and study the various spots before you tear the car apart. That way you can reproduce the factory look.

14. Once he pulled out the gross excess, Josh clamped the various panels together. The little bit of adhesive that oozes out doesn’t pose any threat.

15. With the nose firmly attached, the various substructures can go in. Cool working temperatures extends the working time, so if you act swiftly you can avoid having to mix any more adhesive. Otherwise, use the adhesive you reserved earlier.

Tip: The Worrywart’s Guide to Finishing Seams and Edges

You may recall from the fitting article that the fenders stopped about half an inch short of the doorjamb edges. Jerry Geiszler and Darrold Elhard assure us that it’s safe to extend panels and build edges with fiberglass-reinforced panel-bonding adhesive. Even the factory did it.

But it does have one potential shortcoming: resins shrink as they cure, and because the edge of a fiberglass panel is so thin and offers very little surface area, it’s possible for the adhesive to pull away from the panel edge. That can cause a witness mark, which is basically a hairline crack that prints through the paint.

There are ways of preventing this from happening. The one we’re sharing is a variation of a technique taught to me by my fiberglass mentor, a commercial-composites guy named JB Donaldson.

In a nutshell, we build up the edge with the bonding agent as if we were going to finish the job that way. But then we grind the panel and bonding agent down to a taper. We don’t need to go too far up the panel—usually an inch will do. Then we bury the seam between the panel and the bonding agent by laminating fiberglass mat with the resin of your choice then sanding the surface flat.

The newly laminated area buries the seam between the edge of the panel and the exposed adhesive, thereby eliminating the chance that the adhesive will pull away from the panel as it shrinks. And because the tapered area gives the freshly laminated fiberglass tons of surface area to bond, it can’t pull away from the panel. If that doesn’t make sense, the photos surely will.

Is this excessive? Probably. However, given the cost of labor and materials nowadays, any opportunity to eliminate potential issues is a real-world insurance policy worth buying into. At least it is to JB and me.

Start by building up the edge and fill the holes with adhesive.

Then grind the surface back down so it tapers to the edge. Don’t be afraid to grind back a ways if the surface allows—an inch usually suffices, though.

Now laminate some 2-ounce chopped-strand mat over the ground area. Build up the laminate higher than the panel to avoid having to use any filler on the edge. If you want to go the extra mile, grind back the material at the top of the jamb and laminate over it as well.

This technique also applies to burying seams between panels and filling holes. Just grind a shallow valley where the panels meet (or a crater around the hole), build up the valley with mat and resin and then sand after the resin kicks.

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