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missaureus · 3 years

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EXplOration in Manila Pt. 2

My roommates finally arrived past 1AM. I was super drained but I still managed to put on my bear nail stickers while waiting for them. The moment I opened the door we were already squealing because we haven’t seen each other since my Davao vacation on January that year. We chatted randomly and eventually dozed off. We only had a few hours to be physically prepared for a hectic day ahead.

The concert proper was still at night but we scheduled to go to the mall area at 10AM to distribute freebies under Team Jongin PH. I was wearing heels and my feet were already crying. Obviously, I am not used to it and it was a poor decision. Cafes and restaurants near the arena were banning meet-ups and large groups who were giving stuff to concertgoers because it would obstruct other costumers. What would they expect in a day like this? We respect establishments and would not go out empty-stomached. But I cannot blame them. With that, we ended up being stationed in a wing way distal to the arena.

Many familiar faces were spurting inside the café. I got to introduce to them using twitter usernames. It was hilarious. I even messed up with my other internet friends who I failed to recognize right off the bat! I felt so apologetic. Probably out of exhaustion, my sugar was depleting!

Around 2PM, I had pasta and coffee as my lunch. I cannot indulge my palate that I had to share my small dish to a friend. My fight-or-flight hormone was doing its job generously that afternoon. I could not recall how much yards we had to stroll for unknown reason in and out the mall.

After giving away those packed stuff, we took some pictures in front of the arena in groups. After that, we went back to the condo to freshen up and get ready to line up. With my sequence number, around 400, I was near the end of the line. Surprisingly, almost everyone in my area was from the province, particularly Bisaya. We finally realized how the provincial assistance failed us that year. Probably the worse experience I had due to the hectic announcements for the Manila leg. At that moment, a hint of regret was circling my thoughts. Was it a right decision that I did not bite that one under the table offer? I could have experienced a barricade line. I just ignored that bleak light of what-if.

Inside the arena, around 5PM, I was probably 5 or 6 lines away from the stage. It was way farther than my ElyXiOn stop but still a good and close view. There were still foreigners in our area. There was no sign of the event to start so I finally decided to listen to my feet’s plea --- to sit on the floor. The VIP area was more compressed than the first day. Thus, I had to stand in no time to reserve my spot.

Around 6PM, the show commenced. The intensity of Filipino EXO-Ls’ heated cheer in response to the house rules was much more ear-splitting than yesterday’s. The setlist was not even rolling but one or two from our area were already dragged out, mostly foreigners. I swear, the level of security was not a joke this time!

With the same pattern of Moonlight being played, it was a hint for everyone to mentally prepare. The 1st VCR played on the big led screens. The ghastly intro was beating in a rising intensity until the EXOs finally set foot on stage. By the time Tempo played, not only the lightsticks but also the phones were raised up high to shot fancams. I was so stressed I forgot how the moshpit game should be played. I had to brace myself for over 2 hours! People in the pit were starting to make waves out of pushing and eventually I had to stop my fancam during Transformer because the bouncers were barring my view when they were trying to catch another bull-headed fan pinpointed by Filipino fans.

Due to the endless commotion, I was ushered to the side barricade and had the opportunity to step on the platform for a much elevated view. I was so afraid of stampede I did not dare to move an inch from my position. I anchored myself to the barricade. From there, I had a better view for Gravity which is a personal favorite. A choreography does wonder to a song!

Baekhyun came out with the backup dancers for UN Village after the 2nd VCR was shown. Undeniably, he appeared to be exhausted which was obvious when he let the fans sing most of the song at the end. The fans did not fail to par the energy of the song with its fanchant..

This was followed by the 3rd VCR then the powerful trio: 24/7, which played a huge part in my decision making of which ticket to buy. I was after Jongin’s position for this song. Unlike, ElyXiOn that each member had a fix spot every time they go scatter around, EXplOration was way opposite and random. All te members were so mobile throughout. Next, the general public’s favorite, Love Shot attacked. Followed by Oh La La La.

The deafening shout from the crowd was breathed out when EXO started talking for the 1st ment. They individually introduced themselves with matching hello Philippines and mabuhay greetings. Finally, Monster! This was a stage missed out last ElyXiOn. I was happy to finally witness it live. The members then scattered on the main stage for Oasis. The led screen was an art it was dancing gracefully with them. Breathtaking!

A solo stage by the leader, Junmyeon, followed. Funnily, they were now confident to rip off in an oversea show excluding Japan and China. With that, the crowd was expecting so much from Been Through. The moment Junmyeon exposed his chiseled abdominal muscles, the crowd went crazier that the shouts reached the roof the arena.

Finally, a ballad song! Jongdae entered the center stage and the light bulbs were simultaneously falling like stars. He sang Lights Out too perfectly and I commend the crowd for understating the sole assignment during this stage --- to stay silent to appreciate his vocals. The lights were already reflecting towards my tears pooling in my eyes.

The SeChan duo then took over the stage after the 4th VCR. They entered the scene with their bigass luggage as props. They were playing with What a Life and Closer to You. After that, the rest of the members joined with Falling for You.

A brown couch was dragged to the center stage for Wait stage. This ballad number was so heartwarming when the crowd sang along with the EXOs as if it was a duet. They appeared relaxed. Literally, feeling at home vibe in the living room.

The 2nd ment started. SeChan playfully pointed their microphones to the fan to let then sing some parts of What a Life. As expected from Phixos, we are remarkable to the group as the loudest crowd among all hosts. The rule will always be, we do not do fanchant, we sing the whole song haha! The leader then teased Baekhyun with his sexy choreo in UN Village. Baekhyun did it which made Chayeol crazy for it! Randomly, Jongin danced the sexy choreo of Been Through followed by Junmyeon. Out of nowhere, the crowd cheered loudly for Jongdae’s name suggesting for him to be next in line to do the steps. He was generous enough to do both choreos while singing Lights Out lol I swear they were so chaotic! After that, Sehun did it too! Chanyeol was not getting any free pass and the crowd cheered for his name next. He was crazy that I did not already care for his self-image at that moment. He did his own version of rolling hills and the crowd had gone mad for it! He eventually went near each member to grind at them lmfao! Guess what! Except for Baekhyun!!! Jongin had a secondhand embarrassment for this guy and even threatened to punch him. To end the chaos, the leader finally introduced Power as the next song. It was so fun there were also fireworks-like effects during the break dance part which was serve by the leader, supposedly it was Kai’s part but the members cheered for Junmyeon to do it this time.

At this point, I was a battery at 2% already. I almost forgot what was next in line. A Kai solo! Jongin entered the main stage with the back up dancers, he was wearing a vest with nothing underneath it and a cap! To be honest, I loved his get-up on the first day more but the experience of him much closer to me is the best! I did the fanchant, I tried religiously but his performance was jaw-dropping that I kept on losing my focus, I went silent while covering my mouth! Surprisingly, he opened the only clothing coving his upper torso that finally exposed his amazing physique! By that time, I already got unleashed, I am still sorry for that crispy FUCK on my fancam hahhahahaha!

Bad dream and Damage were performed on the main sage. I actually was not able to give my full attention to it because my phone notified I was out of storage. Out of impulsivity, I deleted all of my applications thinking that it would save me until encore stage. After that, EXO danced to the legendary title tacks in a form of a medley, Growl, Overdose and Call Me Baby.

The 6th VCR was a hint that it was about to end and I went emotional. The boys playfully performed Unfair and On the Snow. The latter song is nostalgic. It is vivid how Jongin was enjoying this stage, wearing a black shirt and pants with his cap placed backwards. SeChan were so cute during You give me yours, I'll give you mine part when Chanyeol gave the maknae a bouquet of flowers. The fans started throwing lots of stuff on stage, the floor got crowded.

During the last ment, I befriended the person in front of me who is a Chanyeol-biased. We shouted in chorus Jongin’s name while raising a gom banner but unfortunately he did not respond. We just kept on laughing! We tried it to Chanyeol while waving a banner of him and he waved backed to our area enthusiastically using the doll he picked on the floor. While the others were busily doing their individual messages, ChanKaiHo were so bust playing with the coiled spring, I swear they were kids!

During Jongdae’s part, the audience started chanting Walang uuwi! We also did this last ElyXiOn and finally this time it was already translated back to the boys! They kept on saying that they enjoyed the night so much with the fans and shamelessly said it was way better that yesterday hahaha! I had to agree. They said that they would love to come back to the Philippines for a concert and a vacation. During Sehun’s part, he secretly asked the translator how to say “Walang uuwi!” and Sehun said it back to the crowd cutely. Finally, after a year!!!

The leader finally introduced the encore song, Smile on my Face. The confetti were starting to rain and feel our faces. The harmonization was heavenly that I almost cried. To be honest, I was sad but happy at the same time. The boys then arranged themselves on the moving platform. Until the last time, Sehun kept on saying Walang Uuwi!. They faded before my eyes, it was surreal! Thank God for letting me see them twice in a row!

I looked for my friends in the pit and cried in unison! We took pictures outside the arena with some of our friends and decided to look for a place to eat. It was actually raining cats and dogs as if heavens knew how heavy my heart was that it was finally over.

We went back to the condo with my packed order hahahaha I do not know what was into me that I did not touch my food. I just quenched my thirst bottoms up with a soda full of ice! I was so silent after that hahahaha.

We slept around 2AM after consuming our fancams. The next day, we had breakfast in Naynay’s condo. Hnnng I miss her food! After that, we parted ways with my condomates and met some of my friends also before heading to the airport.

It was raining. The weather turned my departure more melancholic that it should be. But when I reached the arrival area, I was so touched my whole family came to fetch me. Thank you for supporting me and my happiness. Thank you for allowing me to have this memory when I grow old.

This is my youth.

#EXO #exoconcert #explorationinmanila #explorationinmaniladay2 #kai #chanyeol #sehun #suho #chen #baekhyun #jongin #personal

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straykats · 5 years

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hiii, ive never requested anything before so i hope i do this right, sorry in advance if i mess it up completely 😅... anyway, i was hoping i could request a long distance boyfriend fluff with felix where y/n is on her way to visit & he’s all giddy and blah blah (it’d also be super cool if you could add like a facetime call they had a few hours before y/n’s flight and maybe the scene in the airport when he picks her up) i hope you don’t mind writing this, thank you so muchhhh :)

your request was fine! it was very cute hehe

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Incoming call from lee felix…

Connecting…

Your screen shows a wall, and you let out a laugh. “Come on, ‘Lix, where are you?”

A head of hair pops into view, along with a forehead. Slowly, his eyes come into view, and then his nose and freckles, and then his whole face.

“Hi there, baby,” you smile fondly.

“I’m so excited to see you I might just jump through the screen.”

“Oh, shut up,” you mumble with a roll of your eyes, unable to keep the smile from your face. “How are you? How are the boys?”

Felix shuffles around, and the phone is suddenly very close to his face. You don’t mind the view though. It was still Felix, after all.

“You asked me that two days ago, y/n. Not much changes… BUT Jisung came down with a cold. Sucks to be him, aye?”

“Oh my, is he going to be okay?”

“First of all, that was just rude Felix, and y/n, yes, I will be!”

Your eyes widen at the familiar but unexpected voice. “Hey, ‘Lix, is he…”

Felix rolls his eyes and shoots a feign glare somewhere to the right of the screen. “Jisung, you said you’ll be quiet!”

“I never asked you to make fun of-” Jisung breaks off in a coughing fit. “Anyways, hi y/n!”

“Get better, Jisung!”

“Yeah, yeah. You lovebirds talk quietly now, yeah? This old man’s tryna sleep.”

“Old man?”

“He’s talking about himself, y/n.”

You break into laughter. You can hear Jisung mumble a few things before falling into silence.

“So, when are you landing?”

“I should land in Korea around 2pm…”

“I can’t wait to see you tomorrow… I don’t know if i can sleep at all!” He says, rubbing his eyes as he talks. “There’s a new cafe that opened by the dorms, and it has great desserts. Also, the dog cafe! You can meet that golden retriever! Oh yeah, and all the members want to spend a day with you too… There’s so much to do when you get here, y/n. I can’t wait.”

Felix falls into silence, a lovestruck smile on his face. If you weren’t so entranced by the ideas and plans he had, you might have made a joke and teased him.

Living far away from your boyfriend wasn’t the worst thing. It meant that you could both focus on your selves, and talk to each other when you were both free and able to do so. Sometimes, you thought that it wouldn’t be too different even if you were living in the same country as Felix. With tours and schedules, it wasn’t like you would be able to meet up often anyways. However, that didn’t mean there weren’t any cons. When you and him were both free, the only way to meet up was online. You called often, and playing games together was also a common occurrence. You had a lot of memories of beating him in chess.

You guys could only meet up in person once or twice a year. You often visited for Christmas and during one of the holidays (given that he wasn’t away on tour). If you were lucky, he would have a concert in your city, and you could meet him for a day.

You were on one of your school breaks now, and he had few schedules within the week. It was the perfect opportunity to go visit.

“Hey babe, stay in call with me tonight?”

“Of course, y/n. Until you fall asleep.”

And he does. You fall asleep to his breathing, and he to yours. It ends up being Jisung that ends the call, if only to prevent Felix from using too much of the internet.

You: boarding the plane now. See you soon!!

You send him a quick selfie of you and your passport before pocketing your phone and getting in line.

On the plane, you were seated next to an old lady who offered you the window seat.

“I’ve had my fair share of plane rides, dear. Enjoy the view, why don’t you?”

She was awfully kind, and had many interesting stories to tell you. You were thankful for the company, despite having only met her.

“I’m going to see my granddaughter… she’s about your age, too. Who are you off to see, darling?”

“My boyfriend,” you replied with a smile as you pass her her food. “He lives in Korea, so we don’t meet often…”

“Ah, what a lucky young man to have someone like you come visit! Say, is he studying?”

You shake your head. “He’s… he’s part of an idol group.”

The lady lets out a laugh. “My granddaughter is obsessed, I tell you. What’s his group name?”

You spend at least an hour of the flight telling her about Stray Kids and letting her hear some of their music. She even lets you take a selfie with her, which you send to Felix.

You: image attached.

You: made a friend. She said she’s going to introduce skz to her granddaughter if she doesn’t already listen to you guys.

You part ways with the old lady after helping her get her bags. She thanks you endlessly, and wishes you and Felix a happy life. You find it highly endearing, yet amusing at the same time - she made it sound like the two of you were newly weds.

You: felix, where are you

You: don’t tell me you were playing fortnite and forgot about me :(

Walking out of the arrival gate, you see many people running up to hug their family and friends. You wonder briefly if the lady’s granddaughter is somewhere in the crowd. There’s one group of people that stand out - a massive family, ranging from babies in their parents arms to grandparents. A young couple were walking towards them, and someone you presumed to be the mother runs up to hug the girl, who seems on the verge of tears. You look away from what seemed would be an intimate moment, and-

You feel him before you see him, arms wrapped around yours and squeezing you so tight you couldn’t turn around. You would have panicked, had it not been for the familiar cologne and the faintly whispered “I missed you so much” into your hair.

“Let- Let go- Let me hug you too…” You whine, but you grab Felix’s arms anyways and cradle them to your chest. “Baby, let me see your face…”

“I can’t believe you thought I would have forgotten about you,” he says, and you can almost hear the pout in his voice.

He loosens his arms and you turn around. A face mask covers the bottom half of his face, but there was no mistaking the freckles decorating his face, and the love in his eyes. Pulling down his mask, you put your forehead against his, the tip of your nose barely brushing his.

“Long time no see, ‘Lix.”

The airport seemed to fade into a blur around you, the noise of trolleys and chatter blending together. It was just you and Felix, right now, and that was all that mattered.

#lee felix x reader #lee felix #lee felix fluff #stray kids x reader #stray kids fluff #stray kids #stray kids imagines #lee felix imagines

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bapyess1r · 4 years

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PuNK

WARNINGS: cursing

Pairings: Rafe Adler x OC

Tags: @desertvvitch, @tiecladartist, @courtenbae

Chapter 1

Lyric’s POV

He was doing it again. Much like every day lately, he’d been in a verbal argument with someone over the phone during a conference. And lucky me, I got a front row seat to every single word. His office was right in front of my desk. The whole office seemed to quiet as muffled screams could be heard throughout the room. My co-worker Winter looked over from her desk to show me her gums and suck air through her teeth.

“You’re gonna have so much fun tonight!” Her voice dripped with sarcasm and I rolled my eyes. This meant there was going to be so much paperwork to do before I left. I groaned, digging my fingers into my hair and scratching at it in annoyance. I wore wigs to work because my actual hair would’ve been considered “less than favorable” in my work environment. ‘Horseshit.’ I thought. I settled for dark curls in order to remotely retain a professional image. Suddenly, it had gotten eerily quiet. He stopped shouting in his office and the air was back to normal. Or so I thought.

“LYRIC LEWIS!” I heard him snap suddenly, making my jump out of my seat a bit. I took a deep breath, eyeballing Winter as I adjusted my grey pantsuit. My blush colored heels clicked on the tiles as I rounded my desk with my hefty clipboard in hand. I pushed open his opaque glass door cautiously. I took a moment to center myself as I put my hand on the door and turned the knob.

“Yes, Mr. Adler?” I asked him calmly. Not that it would do me any good. He rested his face in his hands in irritation. To Rafe Adler, I was his rather invisible assistant. He never looked me in the face. If he did he saw right through me and never paid much attention. But he knew my voice. I didn’t mind but there’s this thing called respect…

“Ms. Lewis, please tell me there are no more idiots I have to conference with this afternoon.” He grumbled, rubbing his fingers into his bluish green eyes. As tired as he was, they looked a little gray today. I flipped through his schedule that I had written down as he leaned back into his chair. For a moment, I glanced up to look at him. Rafe was a handsome man. Stuffy but handsome. His hair was cut short on the sides as the length on top was slicked back off of his almost model-like face and when he did smile, which was very rarely, it was like a million watts. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers repeatedly at me with a growl.

“C’mon, Lyric! I don’t have all day!” He rushed me. And I flipped to today’s date. I ran my finger down the time slots to see what else was on the agenda for the day.

“Um… I believe that was all for today, sir. No more conference calls-”

“Thank God!” He sighed, dramatically. My face contorted a bit as he ran his fingers through his dark hair. “What else is there to do today?”

“You have a meeting with Chovak, sir, at 2pm. Early dinner with Samuel and Nathan Drake at 5? And then you had me put down paperwork hours from 7:30 til midnight.” I read everything off exactly as it was written. He hummed as he rummaged through the files on his desk.

“Make it 9. Dinner may take a little longer than I expect.” He said with a sigh. “That’ll be all, Ms. Lewis. Thank you.” He said as he began scribbling things on sheets of paper and tapping on his laptop. Not once did he look at me through this whole interaction. That was most days though.

“Did you need me to sit in on the meeting, sir?” I asked, pulling a pen from behind my ear and editing a time slot. I was hoping he’d say no. I still hadn’t had breakfast yet and I was starving.

“Yes.” He said simply. My expression faltered and I pursed my lips to keep from making a face. Of course I had to stay.

“Absolutely, sir. I’ll be going now.” I said with slight irritation but he didn’t seem to notice. He was already caught up in more work. I turned on my heel and just as I put a hand on the door, he called to me again.

“Oh, one more thing!” He said. I rolled my eyes and turned my head to look at him.

“What is it, sir?” I asked.

“Would you be a doll and run down to Starbucks for me?” He said.

“Of course, sir. The usual?” I asked pulling out my phone to pre-order the drink. It would be done by the time I got there.

“Yes and add a croissant.” He mumbled.

“Yes, sir. I’ll be right back.” I said with a fake smile. Not that he’d see it anyway.

I went back to my desk and sat down with a sigh of relief. “That wasn’t so bad…” I said to myself as I put in Rafe’s order. After a few seconds of mental rest, I stood again and grabbed my black trench coat off the back of my seat.

“Goin’ somewhere?” Winter asked as I slipped on my coat.

“The King wants his coffee.” I told her in an exaggerated attempt at a British accent. She chuckled and shook her head.

“Best not keep him waiting then.” She said, pushing her cropped hair over her ear as I left.

Work that night was more or less the same. The office would be absolutely empty except for Rafe and myself. He would leave his door open to tell things to me or ask me to change/cancel appointments and meetings he didn’t have time for or just honestly couldn’t be bothered with. All the lights in the building had been turned off except the desk lamps to conserve energy (Good on him) so it was rather dim. I was playing music on my speaker. A hard rock station on my radio app. I had a gig tonight and I needed to amp myself up and rush through these emails and paperwork. I kept the volume low. Low enough for only myself to hear. My earphones had broken a week ago and I hadn’t had the chance to get new ones yet.

Green Day was playing softly as I worked. My eyes were getting heavy and started to burn a little. I needed to get out of the office soon. I bopped my head to the music until I heard movement and an annoyed sigh from Rafe’s office. I looked up a brief moment and he was looking right at me. Or more like right through me. His neatly trimmed brow raised as he rested his head in his hand. I gasped a little and pushed my hair off of my face nervously.

“If you’re going to play music, turn it up. All I can hear from here is static. Don’t be selfish.” He grumbled before looking back at his work. My eyes widened at his demand. And I was sure Green Day was not on his daily ten playlist. I turned the music up but I definitely got ready to change the station. But he stopped me without even looking at me. “And don’t you dare change this song.” He said. A look of amusement played on my face as I went back to work.

‘What do you know about Green Day, Rafe Adler?’ I thought with a faint chuckle. Another hour passed and I was almost finished with a final email. I looked up a second to check on my boss’s sanity as we’d been listening to punk and hard rock for a while now. The Pixies began playing and the sight in front of me was one I’m sure he would make me swear to secrecy. He was slouched into his chair with a leg crossed over the other; his ankle resting on his knee as he wiggled his foot to the music, tapping his pen on the table rhythmically to the drums. His curved lips just gently mumbled the words to the song. His sleeves were rolled to his forearms and his tie was loosened with a couple of buttons undone. And his hair. A few strands had fallen out of place but for the moment he didn’t seem to mind. It was very rare that I saw him like this. Whenever it happened it was always a nice surprise.

I felt the corner of my lips turn a little as I signed off the email and sat back in relief. Finally. I gathered everything together and stood from my desk to head into Rafe’s office. He seemed to notice my presence from his peripheral and pointed to a spot on his desk that wasn’t covered in paper.

“Leave it there.” He said and I did as I was told.

“I wrote responses to all of your emails and sent them back to you for you to review and send out. All of your appointments and meetings are up to date, dry cleaning should be here in the morning, and….” There was something else and I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

“And… you’ll be here first thing in the morning, cafe latte with extra espresso. I told you I had a meeting with the Drake Brothers.” He added.

“Of course. There’s a meeting in the morning. I completely forgot.” I mumbled.

“I know you did. You always do…” he hummed disapprovingly, rereading a sheet of paper. I hung my head a bit in embarrassment. Not that he saw that.

“Sorry, sir.” I said as my phone vibrated in my pocket. When I looked at the screen, it had been a text from my band mate, Clay. My eyes widened reading the text in all caps.

CLAY: WHERE R U?! WE GO ON AT 11!!

My heart dropped and I checked the black watch on my wrist and groaned. It was 10:15. I had stayed at work longer than intended and now I was late for the show. And I still had to change my clothes and do my makeup. I looked up at Rafe for a moment as he smoothed his hair back into place.

“Is there anything else you need from me tonight, sir?” I asked him. Once again without even looking at me, he waved me off with a grumble. “Alright then. I’ll see you in the morning!”

“At 7:30-”

“7:30?!” I exclaimed in surprise. I was going to be absolutely dog tired. Did he really need me for that? I knew he had a tendency to have me work ridiculously hours but come on! I have a life! I had music to write, songs to record, shows to book….

“Is there a problem?” He asked in a slightly unnerving tone. I chuckled and shook my head.

“No, sir! Not a problem at all.” I lied. “7:30 sharp. I’ll be here.”

“Then that will be all, Ms. Lewis. Goodnight.” He said monotonously.

“Goodnight, sir.” I said softly, scuttling out of the room to grab my things from my desk. I turned the speaker off and just as I turned to leave, I heard him sigh tiredly. Normally, I wasn’t one to care about how my boss was doing but Rafe looked really exhausted. He was swamped with paperwork and his lunch appointment took a little longer just as he suspected. He ended up cutting into his set hours. I kind of felt bad for him. Leaving him alone with all of that. Then I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and it quickly reminded me that I had somewhere to be. I briskly ran towards the elevators so I could leave.

I did everything I could to prepare and get ready for the show. I hopped in my car, a beat up black hatchback, and turned on the car light. Adjusting my rear view mirror on me, I grabbed my makeup and began to put on more and darken it. With that I drove to the venue, hoping and praying I wouldn’t hit any traffic. My phone rang as I drove and it was my band mate again. I answered in an overwhelmed voice.

“I’m coming, Clay!” I said as I weaved in and out of New York traffic like an idiot. He sounded irritated. But so was I. If I hadn’t needed to do so much tonight, I would’ve been there sooner. I hung up the phone as I pulled into the alleyway near the venue and hopped into the backseat to change into something a little more appropriate. A black knitted dress that was as see through as it could get with a high split. Beneath it, a yellow bodysuit and fishnet tights. I exchanged my pink pumps for black stiletto boots and I struggled very hard to get into this look inside the car. The easy part was changing my retainer for my septum hoop. But when I finally got dressed, I grabbed my keys, wallet, and jacket, rolling out of the trunk of the hatchback and beginning to close it like it was no big deal. I went to adjust my hair when I remembered I still was wearing my wig. Quickly I snatched it and the wig cap off, revealing blonde locks with a tinge of pink at the tips, dressed up with silver hair rings and silver beaded charms. The side of my hair was braided back and decorated with tiny silver hair clamps. I shook out my tousled hair and tossed it in the back seat, locking my car. When I felt like I was all set, I pulled my jacket on and walked into the side of the building.

A bouncer stood there, guarding the door. I placed my hands on my hip and looked at him with a thick raised brow as his eyes scanned my body up and down. “Yo, I’m with Floral and Fading.” I told him with a bit of bass in my voice.

“How do I know you’re not just some groupie?” He asked me. To think that I looked like a groupie of my own band was quite hilarious to me. We had a pretty big following but I didn’t think we were that big yet. Not having time nor energy to deal with convincing this guy that I needed to get by him, I scoffed and called Clay. I told him I was at the venue and he came, opening the door next to the bouncer.

“Shit, Lyric! You’re cuttin’ it kinda close, my friend!” My blonde spikey haired friend said with a smile. I looked at the bouncer and he gestured to let me in. I was already walking through the door though. “You look nice!” He shouted to me above the muffled bass, wiggling his brows. He was flirting with me again. It was never anything serious and he did it clearly for jokes. I was used to it after 4 years. He was the first friend I made in New York. We started the band after discovering that we were both musicians. We grabbed a pair of brothers that played guitar and bass, Clay played drums, and I mained vocals. A couple of months later we were playing our first show at this punk club. When word got around, it became every weekend. Underground famous. And still I worked this office job every day. Running myself ragged to keep myself happy and alive.

“How long til we go on?” I asked, shrugging my jacket off.

“5 minutes! Everyone is all tuned up and ready to go, your mic is set up just how you like, and the speakers work today surprisingly! Double checked them myself!” He smiled, parting his pierced lips to give a toothy grin, rubbing his eyes, probably forgetting that he was wearing eyeliner. It only smudged a bit, making his eyes look smokey.

“Well don’t jinx us just yet. There’s still a possibility they could go out mid scream.” I chuckled. He handed me a bottle of water and I began to chug it like no tomorrow as he led me to the band’s waiting room. They were all there. Singing, laughing, smoking, warming up, drinking a beer, just having a great time. Seeing them still be excited to play here after 4 years made me happy and excited for the night’s show. I did a few quick vocal exercises and did my jumping jacks to hype myself up and before I knew it, we were ready to go on.

The club owner went out on stage to introduce us and the crowd yelled rather loudly. I looked back at the band and grinned hard. There was nothing like hearing a happy crowd. I watched them turn the stage lights red. He hyped them up as we amped ourselves and shook the nerves. Sweat was beginning to form on my forehead already but it was fine. I didn’t care. The moment I heard him call Floral and Fading, the band and myself ran up the stairs and onto the rather small stage. I pulled the mic off the stand and addressed the crowd as if I would a familiar friend. I grinned as Clay began counting off beats with the crash cymbals and the band began to play aggressively and skillfully. I moved the rhythm, headbanging and revving the crowd up as they moshed and jumped around. Then I melodically began to deliver words I had sat countless hours writing carefully in order to get my stories and messages across. And the night went on...

#uncharted #rafe adler x oc #rafe adler #poc ocs #poc oc #poc #poc imagine #uncharted fanfic #uncharted fanfiction #uncharted 4

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alethia000 · 5 years

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[Interview Transcription] 190302 [FujiNext] NICHKHUN Premium Solo Concert ‘HOME’ - Nichkhun’s Special Interview

Interviewer: Congratulations on your first solo debut and first concert.

Nichkhun: Thank you.

Interviewer: How do you feel when you hold your first solo concert, your first project?

Nichkhun: It was actually because of me that this started. I promised my fans on stage at Tokyo Dome that I would have a solo album out when my members go off to the army. That’s how it started. I think, 2018 around March, we had the first meeting about this album, how we wanted to do this album, how many countries it was going to be released in. It started from there.

Actually, at first, I didn’t really get the feel of me having a solo album. I was just like, Okay. I need to write some songs and get ready. As time went by, I started to feel that it’s coming closer to the deadline and the concerts as well.

I was so nervous. I was so worried. I was shaking all the time at the thought of me standing up there on stage by myself after all these years, after 10 years of performing with 5 other guys.

That thought really shook me to the core. Can I do this? Can I do it well? Is my performance and my concert going to be good and enjoyable? Is it going to be boring and mediocre? I didn’t want that so I had to prepare myself a lot for this concert and this album.

Interviewer: Did you tell other 2PM members and did they say anything?

Nichkhun: Yes. Well, in the process of making this album, I tried not to talk to them too much because I didn’t want to get ideas from them. I wanted to make it my own album. That’s why I wanted to call it ME. It’s just the songs that I like, the songs that I would listen to on a daily basis.

When I was making it, I didn’t think about what people would want me to sing for them. I was thinking about what I wanted to sing for the people if they wanted to listen.

I am satisfied with how it turned out. I am not saying it’s the best album out there and I am not saying it’s the best I could do. But it’s all I could do right now and I am really satisfied with the result.

Interviewer: How is your family’s reaction?

Nichkhun: My mom is really proud. That makes me even more proud of myself for being able to do that. She came to my concert every day, every time. She looked really happy. That makes me really happy. It gives me the drive, the inspiration to keep improving myself and making better music and performance. I have a great job. What can I say? = ]

Interviewer: As you were saying, the solo project shows a different side of you from when you are with 2PM. How do you want Nichkhun as a solo artist to be perceived?

Nichkhun: For many years, we have been called the Beastly Idol. It’s a good title to have. It’s very unique and only we can pull it off. But as a solo artist, the style of songs I listen to is very different from what 2PM music is. As an individual solo artist, I wanted to showcase my style of music and what I like.

That’s why during the meeting about this concert, the first thing that popped into my mind, something that I can do different from other guys in 2PM is instruments, the piano and guitar. I didn’t know how to play that well at that point but I learned for this album and this concert. So that came into my mind and I always wanted to become a musician.

I grew up in Thailand and we don’t have a lot of idol groups. We mostly have bands, jamming live music and everyone is enjoying, singing along, and dancing to rock songs. That was what I wanted to do and I am glad I got the chance to do it. The preparation for this concert… I think I have practised more than I ever practised for any concert ever.

On Lucky Charm

Nichkhun: Lucky Charm was one of the first songs that I wrote with these 2 guys called Hot Sauce. They are a composer group, a duo. I tried to make it very easy-listening. I tried to write the lyrics so that it’s not so easy to understand or interpret. I wanted it to be a song you want to listen to in the morning or right before you fall asleep.

Before Lucky Charm became the title song of this album, Lucky Charm was competing with Bridge. Because I’m 2PM, I’m supposed to be doing something fast, a little energetic. But I told my company that if I were to go with Bridge, it would be no difference between when I’m in 2PM and when I’m not in 2PM. So I said Lucky Charm would describe me the best. I would like to go with Lucky Charm.

I put a lot of ideas and thoughts in the music video. We made it happen which I am really happy about.

On playing the guitar

Nichkhun: It started off because of Lucky Charm. I wanted to be able to play Lucky Charm on the guitar and sing at the same time. This was even before I was thinking about this concert. So I was learning from one of the Hot Sauce guys. He’s the guy who played the guitar on the track.

I thought to myself that the fans have seen me play the piano so many times. It would be a little boring if I would just sit there and play the piano the whole time. I wanted to add a little more flavour to this concert. So I learned a couple more songs. I have been practising until now. I still practise every day.

When you play instruments and sing at the same time, you only have one brain and you have to think about the chords, the placement, the lyrics, the tune, the pitch of the song. So it’s a lot going at once. I have to make sure that these (raising his fingers) know the song, not this (pointing at his head).

But I’m still not there yet. (laugh) I still have to think so much when I play.

Interviewer: And you also have to think about your expression too.

Nichkhun: Yes. I can’t be like this (focusing on the piano) the whole time because they are watching me. So it’s a lot of things at once that I have to do.

That’s why this concert is not physically tiring but it’s tiring all up here (pointing his brain).

But it’s really fun. It’s fun to be able to play your own music, perform it, and sing it at the same time. Watching the fans enjoying it is one of the best feelings.

On Umbrella

Nichkhun: Umbrella was one of the last songs I wrote. I got the track from Song Jiwook hyung. He thought of me when he wrote this track and he sent it to me. As I was listening to it, I was like, Should I make this romantic? The first title that came to my mind was Candles. But that’s too much of a cliché.

So I thought I have Let It Rain for many years and no next step after that. So I said to myself, Umbrella. That’s how I started writing the lyrics after I thought about Umbrella.

It’s a form of saying Thank you, expressing my gratitude to the fans that have been with me for so many years, forever, through good times and hard times. They are always there for me. I just wanted to give them something back.

I even shot a very simple music video for it. I’m glad the fans like it because that day was like a whole day of me walking around and the camera following me. It was a very fun day. This song is very special to me. I’m sure it will be special to Hottest as well.

In Let It Rain, I was hiding under their umbrella. Now I will be the man. I will be your umbrella. I will protect you.

On Home

Nichkhun: Home, the intro song on the album, was the last song that I wrote. We were talking about the title of the tour and the title of the album. I thought let’s make it simple. I was going to call it THIS or THAT. This album can be THIS album and the next album can be THAT album. (laugh)

This album is personal and it’s about me. So why not call it ME? The word HOME has ME at the end as well. I was going to design something that showed HO and ME on the bottom. But that didn’t come out. (laugh)

On the design with the crown, the eye, and the word ME, the eye was going to be an O and I was going to put an H on the crown, so it would be HOME. But it’s just a little too much.

When I decided to call this tour HOME, that’s when I thought I need to have a track called Home which will be the opening of this tour. That’s why in the track, there’s the sound of a door opening. I was planning on doing that during the concert as well.

On live music

Nichkhun: I think music should be played live and should be listened to live. It’s more lively, energetic, and enjoyable. You can feel the vibration of each instrument in your bones when you listen to it. I really enjoy going to jazz bars or live cafes. Those places where you just sit there and watch them perform. They seem happy. I want to be that person.

This time I asked the bandmaster… He’s a bass player. Very new. Usually, it’s either piano or guitar. I asked him to rearrange some of the songs. I told him, Just make it close to the original but you can do whatever you want with it. You guys are like the main attraction of this concert. So you guys do you. Be cool. Do whatever you want to do with this music. And they did such a good job. I’m very happy. When I am on stage, I’m listening to my own music but I feel like I am a fan watching them play on stage. It’s cool.

Interviewer: They play the introduction when you come out of the door. And also when you change in between, it would have the music video on for Lucky Charm but they play a different version. I think the fans really love it.

Nichkhun: That actually was my idea. I didn’t want the music to stop. It’s a concert. People should be here for music, not for a video. And I wanted it to keep going. So I asked the band, Can you play this live? I have to change and redo my hair. And I don’t know how long it’s going to take. So can you play until I come out? (laugh) On the first day in Osaka, I came out really late. They were playing the music and looking around for me wondering, Is he going to come out? (laugh)

It’s not repetitive because it’s live. They just keep going with whatever they feel like doing. That’s why it’s special. I really enjoy that part. When I am changing, I have my in-ear in. I’m just listening to them play. People would be like, Hurry Up! Change! and I’m like, OK. Sorry. Sorry. (laugh)

Interviewer: And when you do come out, they are still playing. You hold your hand up as a signal for them to stop playing.

Nichkhun: I want this concert to be as natural as possible. Not like, OK. I’m going to perform now. Tada~! I wanted it to be like, Oh he’s here. When is he going to play? Oh he’s playing. I wanted it to be as natural as possible. I want the viewers to not be nervous or wondering when is he going to come out.

I want them to enjoy. I want them to have time to enjoy everything; the atmosphere, me on stage, or the music when I am not on stage. I want them to enjoy everything. If it’s like always after one song, dark! It’s not continuous.

I would love to try to do something that is deeper, something that is more sophisticated. But because of the skills that I have, I am not there yet. (laugh) I have a lot of good ideas but I am not able to express it out into music. Even with drawing as well, I have a lot of good ideas in my head. But when I draw, it looks like crap. (laugh) I have a lot of good ideas but I can’t make it into a thing yet.

Until then, I have to keep learning; the piano, the guitar, how to compose songs by myself, how to make tracks by myself. Right now, I am getting tracks from other composers and writers. And I am writing the melodies and the lyrics on top of that. Or in some songs, I played the piano myself or made the melodies myself and then I go to the composers and ask them, Can you make this track for me in this way?

A lot of things to be challenged. It’s going to be a busy year. I am sure I am going to have a lot of other jobs alongside in different countries. So it’s not going to be easy.

I am aiming to release another album maybe at the end of next year. We will see. I have to make it good. I don’t want to make it mediocre just because I want to release an album. I want to make an album that I am satisfied with.

Interviewer: Any new instruments?

Nichkhun: Not for now. No please. (laugh) I want to learn the drums. It looks really cool and playing it releases your stress. But not yet. Maybe later.

On asking for advice or help from other 2PM members

Nichkhun: It’s something that you can’t ask anyone for help. You have to figure it out yourself. It’s all in here. It’s not like, I just work out and everything will be fine. Or I just take some supplement and I will be fine. It’s not like that. It’s something you have to take care of it yourself. You have to solve it yourself. I get nervous every time before I go on stage or before I do a song that I’m not that comfortable with, a song that is kind of hard for me. So I didn’t really ask them for advice.

This time (in Tokyo) I have to do 3 days. I went to see JUNHO THE BEST. He did 3 days as well. He told me, Be careful. On your second day, don’t go all out. (laugh) Just go slow and then you can go all out on your last day. I was like, Okay. I got you. Because I went to see him on the last day and he was like, The second day was better because I went all out. (laugh) But he was still good. He sent me some fruits. He’s a really cute guy.

Interviewer: We want to ask you for your 3 top favourite 2PM songs. It can be any songs that were released in Korea and Japan.

Nichkhun: First, always, is Heartbeat. It was the song that was a turning point for 2PM. Second, for some reasons, I like 想像してみて (Imagine). It was the opening for our last tour (Galaxy of 2PM). Wooyoung was the one who wrote it and designed the costumes for us. It hypes you up. When you hear the drums, Oh it’s going to happen now.

Number 3 is a hard one. I like 離れていても and 一緒に過ごした時間 (Time Spent Together). I think I would have to pick 2 for this last one. They are both really meaningful to the fans as well. It describes the relationship between us 2PM, and Hottest as well. These are my top 3. But there are so many good songs.

On plans for the future

Nichkhun: Right now, I am just working towards the comeback of 2PM. That’s all I am aiming for right now. I am trying to be a better artist altogether; singing, dancing, instruments, composing, everything. I am conditioning myself for 2PM when we have a comeback. That’s all I am aiming for right now. After that, I am not sure.

When we come back as 2PM, we will probably do a tour, in Japan, in Asia, maybe in the world too if possible. But that’s all I am aiming for right now in the future. I can’t wait for it to happen.

Interviewer: And your fans too.

Nichkhun: Yes. I am sure my fans are waiting for that moment. Every time I see other idol groups on TV, I miss 2PM. Every time I am on stage or hearing a 2PM’s song, I miss 2PM. I am just waiting for that day. It’s going to come and it’s going to be epic. It’s going to be great.

Message to his fans

Nichkhun: Thank you. Thank you for always loving and supporting me; whether it’s good, whether it’s bad, whether it’s just okay. With the love that you give me, I’m not going to take it for granted. I’m going to try to improve myself always.

I’m going to be a better artist for you guys so be patient with me. These things take time. The next time I come back to sing or perform for you, you will see me as a new person, a better person. Thank you. = ]

[Transcription by Daffodil0624]

MAY BE TAKEN OUT WITH PROPER CREDITS

#2pm #nichkhun #home #me #interview #190302 FujiNext #Daffodil0624

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rosyerim · 6 years

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fwb↠ lovers!yukhei

warnings; obvi sexual stuff, some cursing, 16++!!!

listen i am a HOE for lucas

but lbr so are u

who isn’t like have you SEEN that man GOD

anywho letzgetit

lucas aka wong yukhei was one of your friends ever since u two got paired up for a presentation in college

super cocky when u approached him first

u were like

“hi so will we go to yours ?”

he was like

“( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) oh we’re goin to mine huh? that fast u must want me bad( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)“

u just rolled ur eyes and was like

“listen here u damn TREE i meant so we could work on the presentation!!”

he’s like “yea sure whatever u say babe”

so u just rolled ur eyes again and was abt to leave before he grabbed ur hand and was like im jk!! gimme ur number so we can sort out a day

so u do bc i mean who wouldnt give lucas their number

when u get home u already have a message from him

“hey it’s lucas :)”

“lemme know what day suits u, im p much free all week!”

he actually wasn’t free all week but would have cancelled any plans for u in a heartbEAT

little do u know, homeboy been lowkey crushin’ on you ever since he saw u strut into the same lecture room as him

then u tripped but thats BESIDes tHe poInT

u text back and are like

“i’m free tommorow if that suits u?”

you didn’t expect a text back so quick

you put your phone down for 00.02 seconds before

WHA-PING

its ya boi lucas double texting u

“yeah i’m free haha said i was free all week :)”

“that came off as kinda passive aggressive im sorry thats not what i meant??”

hehehe u just smile to ur self what a cutie

you set up to meet at the campus cafe the next day at like 2pm bc god knows ur ass won’t be up before 1pm

again once u put ur phone down thinking the convo was over

WHA-PING-DING

its lucas again

“so..what are u doin rn? i’m just workin out haha :)”

wong yukhei rlly out here bein all fuckboyish and shit but u bein ur good, sin free self ignore the DEVILS calling and go do ur own things around the house

ignoring the WHA-PINGS

next day rolls around

you’re at the cafe like 10 mins early because u didn’t want to b late

and woahh whose already sitting inside at the corner table w two chairs??

and two steaming cups of coffee??

yeah u guessed it lucASS

looking fine as heLL in literally just a white hoodie??

you know THIS look

that whole ass look

okay stop staring at his beautiful self and go i n s i d e

bby boy does a lil jump of surprise when u walk up he was so immersed in his phone

he was not looking up “how to get someone to like u” fucjakjks

he’s all smiley and is like

“ (✿◠‿◠) i didn’t know what drink u liked so i just got u a coffee, hope its okay(✿◠‿◠)“

ssjdhsjd ofc its okay baby!!

u just nod and say you’ll pay next time

he gets a lil blushy bc your both gone meet up again aw

so you both start working, he has ideas so do you, so you both compromise and wow u two make a great team

at some point the convo turns from school to sharing drunk stories of ur friends

a few coffees & lots of laughing later u suddenly realize its gotten rlly late bc of how dark it is outside!!

cue lucas using this as an opportunity to be all suave & gentlemanly

“wow it’s gotten late, i’ll walk you home!!”

so ur both on course to ur apartment

he tries to be that boy and put his jumper on u because he saw u shiver for 00.001 second

but ur like lol no thanks im not cold

the tips of ears go red & poor bby is embarrassed so he goes all pouty :((

then u feel bad bc homeboy was jus tryna be nice :((

so u end up wrappin yourself up in it and now hes all :))

now ur all :))) too

when u get to ur apt he kinda awkwardly shuffles outside so u invite him inside so he can “warm up” before he leaves

and whooo did u two “warm up”

he takes a seat on ur sofa & is kinda mindlessly babbling as u put on some music and bring him over a warm drink

so ur both just sittin there bbq sauce on ya titties

and then its like some sort of sudden tension arises??

he stops babbling and just stares at u

u stare back, slowly putting down ur drink

then ur leaning in oh so s l o w l y

he places his big ass hand on the side of ur face, eyes hovering from ur lips to ur eyes, asking for permission

you give him a lil nod and he s w o o p s the fuck in

his plump lips are soft, a lil chapped and the first kiss is tender, he pulls away after a few seconds

he looks at you thru half lidded eyes and oop you pulled him back to ya lips hehe

from there it escalates

he leans back onto the sofa and pulls you ontop of him, in a straddling position

one of his hands moves from your face down to your waist holding u tightly against while the other is rubbing circles on the exposed skin below your shirt

his tongue pushes past your lips, to meet yours and you thread your fingers through his hair, tugging lightly at the ends

this elicits a deep ass groan outta him and he pulls back suddenly, tilting his head up towards you

you’re slightly panting as you take note of his swollen lips and slight blush dusting his cheeks

he notices the same things about you and smirks before your face back towards him

to ur slight disappointment it’s not as heated as before, just a lil soft kiss and hes pulling away again

ur like

“<(｀^´)> why’d u stopp <(｀^´)>“

he just chuckles w his deeper than the ocean voice pinches ur cheek lightly

“because as much as i’d like to keep goin, it’s a bit too fast paced don’t you think?”

you flush again as u didn’t even think about what he was feeling and nodded, burying your face into the crook of his neck

but the hypocrisy of this bOY

the next time u two meet up to “work on the project” u end up goin to his place and oop hes got u beneath him on his bed, both of ur shirts on the floor

his mouth is set on marking your neck, collarbones while his hips are lightly grinding down on you, you feeling his bulge from beneath his tracksuit pants

you wrap you legs around him, pulling him even closer before flipping him over somehow

he’s a lil surprised as you take ur turn to pepper his neck and collarbones w love bites but he’s not complaining as u can tell from his quiet moans beneath you

you make your way lower on his body, stopping just before the waistband of his pants, looking up at him

“can i?”

u ask him first because consent is important kids

he nods so fast ur afraid his head is gona pop off

you pull his pants & underwear down and wha-ping there he is

you grasp him at the base and lucas throws his head back, almost banging it off his headboard but does he care? nope.

so after ya know, suck the soul out of him

homeboy needs a phat minute to get his breath back

but ur pulling ur top back on, ready to go bc u felt like he woulda kicked u out but nOPE

the second he catches u ready to leave, he grabs u and pulls u back down onto the bed w him

ur like??? but in a good way

he ends up peppering ur face w lots of kisses and u gigglin bc aw

but then the kisses end up getting more heated as he makes his way down ur body, ur shirt leaving u once again, as well as ur pants and oops ur underwear too??

he ends up giving back what he received :)))

after that night, you both agree to keep it casual

basically friends w benefits

lucas loves the idea

at first

like the thought of him bein’ able to text you whenever he was horny and not block him? great. gettin’ the occasional nude from you during his classes and ending up hard for an hour? not the best, but he’ll take it.

bUT the sight of you coming down off your high that he gave you while still panting his name softly??? 100000% HERE for it

wearing his shirt as you tumble around his bedroom, your neck covered in lovebites from him leaves him 97% soft and 3% sorta kinda horny

but he wants to be able to text you abt how your day was or what you’re doing for the day him or just listen to you rant!! not just when he pops a boner or you’re in the mood

he also wants to experience holding you in his arms, filled with love and not lust, kisses that are just innocent instead of heated

to wake up to your sleeping face, no matter how funny looking, in the morning instead of an cold, empty space in his bed

but lucas knows you won’t return his feelings so he does his best to hide them (read: fails miserably at hiding his feelings for you)

then you begin to notice subtle changes in his behavior

he goes from choking you out w a dark look in his eyes to caressing your cheeks w heart eyes in 000.02 seconds

he gives you his shirt to keep even after you leave his apartment and insists on driving you home

he texts you pictures of cute puppies he saw on his way to college instead of his usual boxer pics

safe to say, u knew wtf was up

but u didn’t want to sound conceited abt knowing lucas liked you, so you didn’t say anything

and you both kept up the facade of hiding your feelings for the other behind by taking your frustration out on each other, sexually

and it stays that way for a while, but lucas was becoming more agitated each night you left and vice versa

until he broke the unspoken rule

neither of you had stayed overnight at the others for fear of having to deal with the truth of your emotions in the morning

but that night as you lay beside him, breathing heavily, the thin covers barely covering your naked bodies, he slipped his hand into yours and pulled you close

and you both lay there for a while, content in each other embraces, listening to each others heartbeats

then, you shifted to move away, to leave another night of unspoken feelings for another day

but he pulled you back and whispered, “stay”

you knew what that meant, you thought it over in your head

if you stayed, you would wake up and finally face the music, finally talk about how much you’ve fallen for him

how much you want to give him kisses all over his face to make him laugh

how you want to go on cute little cafe dates and study dates and dinner dates and basically every kind of date with him

how you want to introduce him to your family as not just your friend, but your boyfriend, your lover

a few moments passed

lucas’ forehead creased slightly in worry

he placed a tender kiss on your knuckles

mumbled a soft “please”

you took a deep breath

and relaxed against him, letting your eyelids flutter shut as you let sleep overcome you

missing how lucas’ eyes literally shone as he looked down on you

“finally” he whispered against the crown of your head as he placed a kiss there, his grin almost splitting his face in half

he sent a bunch of keyboard smashes into the nct gc later bc he was so happy sjdksjd

and thats how you and wong yukhei fell in love

he also still gets butterflies every time he sees you and screams internally every time u kiss him fucjskjd <33

le fin♡

this is my first bullet scenario, hope it was okay (〃▽〃)

#nct #nct u #nct 127 #nct headcanons #nct imagines #wong yukhei #lucas #lucas headcanons #wong yukhei imagine #lucas imagines

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favouriteentertainer-blog · 5 years

Text

Chapter 3 - I’m Bein Straight Up

“I know fake love”

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

“You definitely did not wake up on time,” Hailee laughed as I strolled into the living room.

“I’m sorry,” I groaned as I tapped my phone to double check the time—it was noon and like I’d anticipated, I’d slept for 10 hours.

“All good.” She perked up, “should we go get some coffee?” She was eyeing me strangely, a small smile plastered on her face.

“Stop.” I rolled my eyes, “I don’t need you to play Cupid.” Friends meddling in love lives never worked out, it always made both parties involved feel uncomfortable. Not to mention that I was certainly not looking for a love life with Zayn.

“Oh cmon,” she huffed, “I’m not trying to play Cupid! You always go for a coffee when you wake up, what’s stopping you now?”

“Shut up,” I took a big gulp from my water bottle. I was always so parched when I woke up, it was ridiculous. “No coffee.”

“Yes coffee.” She pulled me up from the couch, “brush your teeth and get dressed.”

“Wow.” I stared at her vacantly, “you’re really something else today.” I looked down at my tattered football jersey, I wished I could stay in it all day. “But whatever,” I turned away to walk back to my room.

“I just want my coffee.” She shrugged as she walked with me, that stupidly suspicious smile hinting on her face.

—

“Okay.” I covered my mouth with my scarf, “it’s fucking freezing.” Was my nose about to fall off? It sure as hell felt like it.

“Quit your whining,” Hailee snapped. “I’m cold too.”

“Okay, well it’s not my fault Lily is taking 500 years to arrive.” I scanned the area hoping to see her little red face pop up.

Someone was limping down the path and I smiled knowingly “bloody, finally.” Hailee rubbed her hands together and I cheered internally.

“Took you long enough!” I shouted when she was close enough.

“Sorry ladies,” she smiled as she approached, “you know me and my bad knee.”

“Can’t invite you anywhere Lil,” Hailee joked.

“Shut up Amalfi.” Lily jabbed her in the ribs and I rolled my eyes.

“Can we please just go inside, I’m about to become a human ice lolly.”

“You’d be the tastiest looking ice lolly I’ve ever seen,” Lily complimented as I pushed open the cafe door.

“Thanks Lil,” I laughed as I took off my gloves—the heating inside was a relief, I felt human again.

“Okay, Lily, Kali has a crush on the waiter.” Hailee spoke in a hushed tone as she shimmied off her coat.

“What? Which waiter does she have a crush on?” Lily spoke loudly enough that Zayn perked up and smiled from behind the counter.

“Oh my god.” I groaned in pain, “shut up, both of you—oh my god, he’s heard.” I was dying inside and trying not to look over at the same time.

“Oh no,” Lily slapped her palm to her forehead, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.” She was genuine, I knew she was—Lily would never intentionally say or do anything to hurt anyone. She was so pure and so lovely, I couldn’t even be annoyed.

“That’s okay Lil, I’m sure he didn’t hear.” I wasn’t sure, but I was going to tell myself that anyway. “I’m gonna go up and order, shall I get yours as well?” I was biting the bullet, I really wanted my coffee as much as I was denying it.

“Yes please.” They both said in unison.

“Be right back.” I mustered up every bit of courage I had and walked confidently towards the register. “Hey,” I said casually as I rifled through my purse for my card.

“Hey,” Zayn smirked, “so do you really have a crush on one of the waiters?”

My head shot up immediately, “what?!” I tried to pretend like I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Let me guess,” he held his index finger to his chin and scanned the room quizzically. “It’s Lauren isn’t it?”

“Fuck off.” I said in a huff, every other waiter, or rather waitress in the place—besides him—was a woman. “No I don’t have a crush on anyone, I just broke up with my boyfriend and my friends are trying to be funny.”

“I think they’re hilarious.” He was smiling at my table, where both the idiots were trying and failing to look without making it obvious. He gave them a little wave and they both snapped their heads away. “You can tell me if you like me ya know.”

“Zayn,” I rolled my eyes, “I don’t like you, can I just order my coffees now?” Trying to lie to him was so hard—i just knew he could see right through me and i fucking hated it.

“Sure thing babe, what you after?” I knew him calling me babe was just a reflex but it still made me feel stupidly giddy.

“Three medium caps please.” I spoke bluntly as I handed him my card— I was trying to hold in the emotions that were ready to bubble out of me. If I had the ability to go red I would’ve been as vibrant as a tomato—to make matters worse, our fingertips brushed and I honestly felt like my life was flashing before my eyes.

He stared at me strangely as if he were going to say something, but seemingly decided against it. “Should be ready soon,” he handed my card back to me and I nodded in response.

“What was that?!” Hailee whispered aggressively as soon as I got back to the table.

“What was what?” I asked, I was truly hot and bothered.

“That was such a strange interaction,” she seemed confused by the whole thing. I didn’t blame her, it would’ve been extremely hard to watch as a third party.

“I really couldn’t analyse anything, but you know how bad I am with stuff like this,” Lily also gave me her two cents worth.

“It is what it is.” I shrugged, “we are very weird around each other.” It was the truth, I didn’t think Zayn and I had quite gotten used to each other. The barista called out my name, I didn’t want to have to get up and go over to the counter so I made Lily go get the coffees.

—

“Do you think—“

“Oh—“ Lily interrupted me “the hot waiter is coming this way.”

“What?!” I almost choked on my coffee, not wanting to turn around to make myself obvious.

“Hello ladies.” Zayn said suavely as he pulled up a chair at our table. “What’s wrong with your leg?” He raised an eyebrow at Lily’s brace.

“Fell off a horse.” She shrugged as if it were a very normal thing. Her family owned a farm, so when she had time she was always over there.

“Ouch, doesn’t sound fun.” He shuddered as if he could feel her pain.

“It’s not, I have to sit at home all day and—“

“What do you want Zayn?” I said exhaustedly—cutting Lily off before she could go on a tangent.

“Just wanted to meet your friends.” He smiled sheepishly. He was doing it because he knew it would annoy me.

“Okay,” I wasn’t even surprised, this was so on brand for him. He always did the weirdest shit at the weirdest of times. “This is Hailee,” I nodded over at her and she responded with a little hello, “and this is our resident cripple Lily.”

“Don’t you think cripple is a little harsh?” He let out a small laugh.

“She gave herself that name, Hailee perked up. So—“ she took a sip of her coffee, “how did you two become friends?” She was digging in.

“I watched her break up with her boyfriend.” He turned to me, a sly smile plastered on his face.

“You finally broke up with that loser?” Lily’s mouth hung open.

“Lily I told you in the group chat.” In her defence it was a one liner message that had probably gotten lost amongst Hailee and I talking.

“You know I don’t check it when there’s more than 30 messages.” She defended herself and Zayn snorted.

“That is true,” I nodded knowingly. I turned back to Zayn, “shouldn’t you be working?” I questioned him. I wished he’d get lost so I wouldn’t have to deal with the discomfort of everyone prying into my personal life.

“So did all of you hate her boyfriend?” Zayn completely ignored me and looked between the two girls.

“Yes.” They said simultaneously. I really hadn’t realised that they’d all hated Dan so much. Clearly I hadn’t been listening to their opinions—or they just hadn’t been giving them.

“He was bland, really bland.” Hailee shook her head in disappointment, “he really dulled her light you know?” She stroked my hair lovingly.

“Okay, can we not,” I groaned as I gently pushed her hand away, “and you.” I turned back to Zayn, “I asked you a question.”

“It’s 2pm Kali, some of us start work at 6am. I’m done for the day.” He leaned back in his chair, revealing the waistband of his boxers—I didn’t want to look but I definitely did, my eyes travelled up his snail trail—I wondered what the rest of his chest would look like for a split second, before I shook myself out of it.

“Then go home and sleep.” I berated him, he didn’t have to make me feel bad. I worked too.

“I can’t,” he sighed, “I’ve gotta start moving my stuff into my cousins place.”

“You’re moving in with your cousin?” Lily asked, “where does he live?” She wasn’t looking at him as she spoke, she was too busy fiddling with a packet of sugar.

“Yeah,” he shrugged, “till I find a place, it’s real temporary for now. There’s an apartment complex maybe 1k north from here” he ran his fingers through his hair and I had to mentally stop myself from clenching my jaw.

“Our part of town, maybe we’ll see you round more than we do now.” Hailee nudged me under the table and I shot her a look that said to stop. I did not need her adding fuel to the fire.

“Yeah maybe,” he smiled softly, “anyway it was nice to meet you both. I don’t know how you put up with grumpy over here but I commend you for it.”

I flipped him the bird and he reached out to ruffle my hair. “Ugh.” I let out a groan of disgust as I tried to set it all back into place—I couldn’t understand why everyone was just touching my hair. “Get out.” I showed him away, part of me was relieved he was leaving, but the other part wished he would stay.

When I took the elevator to AJ’s level I was surprised to see his apartment door was already open. I didn’t think anything of it and just headed on in, sometimes his flatmates left it open so they could take the bins down.

I was so ready to unload all my feelings into him—I knew he wouldn’t care, but it needed to be done. I had so much to say and he loved hearing about men, especially really beautiful ones.

I could hear the soft sound of music coming from inside his room as I knocked on his door. I wondered if he was in one of his moods, because I could hear Jhene Aiko and he never listened to her.

When the door flung open I was ready to launch into a tirade. “Oiiiii I’ve had the—oh my fucking god.” My stomach dropped, “you are not AJ.” I stated the obvious as my eyes met with a shirtless Zayn. All that wondering I’d been doing about his chest in the cafe had very quickly been answered. His skin was littered with tattoos, they seemed to make no sense, but something told me he’d been using his body as a diary and I heavily vibed with it. He had three shirts balanced on his arm and I assumed had been unpacking. The cogs in my head finally decided to turn—AJ was his cousin, and he was the cousin AJ had warned me about.

“Are you following me?” He asked, not bothering to step aside so that I could at least enter the damn room.

I rolled my eyes at his audacity. “Am I following you?! This is MY apartment building!” I was irrationally annoyed—mainly because he’d now invaded my safe space. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t pieced it together when he’d mentioned it at the café—I’d been too busy thinking about his perfect face.

“AJ is in the shower.” He looked past me and nodded towards the bathroom door.

“Well I’m not gonna join him in there, so let me into the damn room.” I pushed past him and flung myself onto AJ’s bed. He took a seat on the office chair and stared at me for a few seconds.

“This is really weird huh?” He asked as he put his feet up beside me. I pushed them away—I hated feet.

“You’re just popping up everywhere,” I groaned into one of the pillows. “I have seen you more than I’ve seen your damn cousin this week and he’s one of my best friends.” I didn’t know what sort of sick game the universe was playing with me but I was not enjoying it. There was no escaping him, everywhere I turned, he was there.

“You need to calm down, I’m not going to eat you—“

“Eat her?” AJ strolled into the room in his towel. “You’ve only known her for two seconds Zayn.”

“You haven’t told your best friend about me?!” Zayn pretended to gasp.

I finally lifted my head from the pillow. “There’s nothing to tell, why would I tell him about a waiter I’d just met.”

“I thought we were friends?” He stared at me quizzically.

I realised that my statement might have hurt him and quickly tried to recover. “We are, but AJ does not care about that.” I looked to AJ for some support.

“I’m so confused, but also I don’t care. It’s good that you know each other—But you can both leave the room so I can get changed, thanks.” He used his eyes to signal down at the bright yellow towel that was covering his waist.

I let out another exasperated groan and trudged towards the door.

“Out,” he urged Zayn who reluctantly followed.

“I’ve seen your willy before,” Zayn reminded him.

“Don’t get me started.” AJ warned him before shutting the door.

The two of us made our way into the lounge. He made it a point to sit next to me on the couch, despite there being one with more space right next to me.

“Why are you so weird around me?” He questioned.

“I don’t know,” the question struck me, but for once I answered truthfully. “I really don’t know.” I wanted so badly to be okay around him, but for the most part I was a mess.

“At least you’re being honest.” He made sure to point that fact out. “You lie to me half the time.”

“I lie to myself half the time.” I had no idea where our conversation was going, but words were just falling out of my mouth.

“You’re so strange,” he reminded me for the millionth time.

“So you keep saying,” I sighed. My phone buzzed from inside my jacket pocket and I rushed to pull it out to save myself from the awkward encounter.

A message from Hailee popped up asking if I wanted to watch a movie. I quickly replied saying I’d be up soon—I couldn’t tell AJ what I wanted to and he was probably on his way out anyway.

“Do you wanna come up to my flat an watch a movie?” I proposed the idea to Zayn. I decided that I was going to do my best to try and be a good friend—regardless of the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

A real smile found it’s way onto his face, “yeah sure.”

“Let me ask your cousin if he wants to join.” I pushed myself off the couch and banged on AJ’s door.

“What?” He groaned.

“Do you wanna come up and watch a movie?!” I pressed my face to his door as I spoke so he could hear me clearly.

“Nah, gonna go meet a boy.” I wasn’t surprised by his answer, I’d felt it in my bones that he was going out.

“Okay, I’m stealing your cousin, promise to return him.” I turned back to Zayn and waved for him to get up and come with me. I headed towards the apartment door before turning on my heels. “Wait,” I stared at him for a second, “you should probably put a shirt on.”

—

“Kali doesn’t like scary movies,” Hailee smirked as Zayn took a seat next to me on the couch. He had no other option, she was sprawled out along the three-seater and there was no room for him to sit. I knew for a fact she was doing it on purpose. She had been pleasantly surprised when I’d brought him up to the apartment with me—and even more surprised when she’d found out he was our best friend’s cousin. She hadn’t had time to speak to me privately, but I knew I’d be hearing about it once he was gone.

“With good reason,” I shuddered as she loaded up the conjuring. “Would you mind turning off the lights Z?” He’d gotten up to get a glass of water and I was too busy making myself comfortable with my blanket. I was fully clothed in a set of flannel pyjamas, but movies called for extra warmth—especially horror movies.

“Sure,” he, backtracked a few steps and flicked the switch before continuing on his path back to the couch. “What’s the reason?” He asked curiously, the glare of the TV casting a beautifully ominous light against his skin as he got closer.

“For what?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Not liking scary movies? Do you believe in ghosts?” He plopped himself back onto the couch and took it upon himself to steal half my blanket. He was lucky it was large enough for four people.

“100% I believe in ghosts, and I’m really fucking terrified of the dark.” I hated to admit it, it felt childish, but it wasn’t irrational. We had no idea what went on in the dark, it was far too mysterious for my liking, just like the ocean.

“I’m afraid of clowns,” he leaned over and whispered it in my ear so that only I could hear.

“I won’t lie, I also am—“ I didn’t bother to move away despite his closeness, I was uncomfortable but I was trying not to be weird—we were sharing a moment and I needed to allow that to happen.

“Are we ready for me to press play?” Hailee turned around—the two of us moved apart like lightening, but I knew in my heart there was no way she didn’t see how close we were.

“Yeah go on,” Zayn urged her, picking up his glass to take an awkward sip.

She turned away, but I could see her smiling to herself from the angle I was sitting. She normally hated people getting irrationally close during movie time—she preferred everyone focused, but something told me she was extremely happy with our proximity.

—

I could feel my heart beating in my chest as the movie ran its course. I always tried my best to be vigilant when watching horror films, because there was no escaping them, especially when my friends loved them—but I knew for a fact that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. I wished I could reach over and grab Zayn’s hand, I almost did—but he was loving it and I couldn’t interrupt. Instead, I kept them balled into fists and hid them under the blanket.

His knee brushed against mine just as a loud bang scared the shit out of me—I had to hold back a scream and managed to whither it down into a startled gasp. Zayn turned to me for a second, but then quickly turned away. I wondered if he was laughing at me on the inside, I sighed internally—I was such a loser.

I felt him move slightly and without warning he slid his hand into mine and squeezed—my poor heart began to speed up, if I didn’t know better I would’ve said that I was at risk of going into cardiac arrest. However, I held my ground, I didn’t even flinch, instead I continued to hold on for dear life—because friends could hold hands too.

We sat like that for a solid hour, our hands just entwined, not a word spoken. It was comfortable and dare I say it felt right. The movie finally ended, much to my relief and when Hailee got up to switch the light on we finally broke free from each other.

“You good?” He smiled lazily as he stretched out his back.

“Yeah,” I nodded wearily, “I don’t know why I allow myself to sit through those—on one hand I’m kinda excited, and on the other I’m absolutely shitting bricks.” I pulled the collar of my shirt up to my mouth and brought my knees to my chest, I needed to reflect about what I’d just seen on the screen.

He laughed lightly, “Yeah,” he leaned into me, “you gave my hand a workout.” He was speaking quietly enough so that Hailee, who’d scurried off into the kitchen couldn’t hear.

“Would you both like a cup of tea?” She shouted over the tap.

“Yes please—“ I never said no to a tea and I damn well needed one after the terrifying experience.

“Zayn?” She popped her head around the wall.

“I’m good thank you, I’m gonna have to get back downstairs.” He moved off of me as he pulled his phone from his pocket. “Let me see where my stupid—“ he scanned over a text and flung his head back in agony. “Here—“ he passed me the phone.

“What am I supposed to—“

“Read the message,” he prompted me.

“Not coming home tonight. Stay with Kali.” I rolled my eyes in frustration as I read the message from my stupid other half. I checked the time—if it wasn’t 1am I would’ve suggested he go down there and bang on the door till someone let him in, but it was just inappropriate at 1:45am.

“Do you mind if I crash on your couch?” He asked as I handed him back the phone.

“You can’t—“ Hailee answered for me as she set my mug down in front of me. “Our flatmate and her two friends from Italy will be home soon and they’ve got dibs on both the couches.” They were out clubbing on a Tuesday night, international students just did not know when to stop.

“Fuck—“ he muttered under his breath, “I knew I should’ve stolen his spare key.” He held his head in his hands as he contemplated what to do.

“It’s fine,” I patted him on the back, “I’ve got a blow-up mattress, but you’re gonna have to use those biceps of yours to pump it up.” I squeezed on his practically non-existent bicep. There was no way we were using the automatic pump at 1am.

“Yeah no dramas,” he turned to Hailee with an exasperated look on his face, “I don’t suppose I could get that tea?”

#favourite enteritainer #Zayn Malik #zayn malik fanfiction #zayn fanfic #zayn malik fanfic #Zayn #Zayn fic #one direction fanfiction #one direction

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ayushwanders101-blog · 5 years

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Kodaikanal: The "Mist-ical" love affair

I was in Chennai while pursuing my Degree in Psychology. While being there I have explored most of the part of the city life and weekend getaways like Pondicherry and Mahabalipuram. Though these places were satisfactory, deep down I always had this urge to visit mountains again as I use to do back at my home town Delhi.

To be honest, in the beginning, I was sceptical about mountain ranges in South India because I already was in love to the ranges of the Himalayas in North, I was a big-time advocate of those beautiful hills in Uttarakhand and Himachal region.

So… here is my story from Just A Hill Away,

NOTE: The following travel journal was planned on “A low budget” due to traveller’s personal choice, hence minimal luxury but un-compromised safety were essential elements of this trip.

The Expense of my trip will be mentioned at the end of this blog...

Prior Arrangements:

1. Pre-booked train tickets in a General compartment (As I was going towards the mountains AC was not required). Travel time was almost 9hrs.

2. Pre-booked a verified hotel (3-star) through a third-party booking website. I prefer sharing rooms as it saves expenses.

3. Minimal luggage (depending upon the weather)

Day 1: The beginning

Started my journey around the evening to the central railway station via the public transportation service of the city to catch the Palakkad express. I prefer night travel mostly as sleep-time allows me to skip some monotony of train route without getting tired.

Day 2: The arrival

Kodaikanal is a city in the hills of the Dindigul district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India

I reached Palani station (destination) by morning 7am, from the station I choose to walk around 2kms to reach the bus depot to board a direct local-bus to Kodaikanal (bus service is good but has designated time slots) there is a counter to pre-book bus seat (sometimes there can be overcrowding). The bus departed at 9am (till then I spent time listening to the music and roaming around munching snacks) and there started the beautiful scenic journey to the "Princess Hill"

(Bus Ride to Kodaikanal with Palani Temple View from the front seat)

After breaking for light snacks, it took around 2.5hrs. of scenic bus journey to reach Kodaikanal bus depot.

Time: 12.15pm

Finally, It was the time to inhale the cold mountain air and exhale all the worries. I swear mountain air has some sort of magic to dissolve all the tiredness and stress.

I headed to the hotel which I have already booked and checked-in. The hotel was beautiful with a pretty natural ambience around. I got into my room and took a hot shower first and headed for lunch in the nearby market. The market has a wide variety of pocket-friendly cafes and eateries serving most of the common India cuisine, you can also find outlets like Domino's Pizza. I like to eat local foods while travelling because of 1. its "LOCAL" 2. its budget-friendly.

Places I visited on DAY 2:

The Union Church

Lutheran Church (1932); A Gothic styled architecture

lake side shops

Evening by the Kodai lake

DAY 3: The Hike

Places I visited on DAY 3:

The Suicide Point

- This is one of the most magical views in Kodaikanal though it's boundaries are covered with large grills for safety purpose. You can try bread-omelette here and light snacks from the local shops.

The Pillar Rock

- There's a ticket for the entry and a separate ticket for carrying a camera.

The Guna Caves

- It's a beautiful place to experience a "mist shower" on the face if you go in the right season, although the caves have been restricted now to enter.

- There is an entry ticket for the venue

The Moir Point

- Requires an entry ticket

- Here you can also buy a tourist bus ticket if you are interested in going further in Kodaikanal hills.

The Pine Forest

- The forest is amazing in itself, full of pine trees; makes a good photo backdrop, will remind you of "harry potter".

- You can also enjoy horse riding here

The Fairy Falls

- Located on an isolated inner village area

- Offers a good solitude and a rich calming experience

The Liril Falls ( Liril Soap advt. was filmed here)

- This is a natural "movie studio"

- You can stop here to buy natural soaps, oils and other organic products from local shops

Upper Lake viewpoint

- Experience the whole Kodai in a snapshot from here.

The whole hiking experience was overall great but also requires a moderate level of endurance and stamina, the walk offers magical views with birds chirping sounds, small waterfalls, dogs, birds, the aroma of Eucalyptus oil etc.

Most of the spots I mentioned here had local snack points to keep you fill but they all open only after 10am.

I hiked from Kodaikanal to Moir Point, it took around 3hrs. to reach. While returning back I hitch-hiked half-way back, the roads up-hill is very decent and is well maintained, though early mornings these roads are quite empty and vacant, so one needs to also take care of one's safety, on some stretch you may even find it difficult to spot a single person. Although it appeared safe to my experience.

I reached back from the hike at around 2pm and realized it was a Sunday, which in a way is something special for Kodaikanal, there is a weekly market which sets up on the street of Kodaikanal where the merchants sell a range of things from Mobile phone to pickles and spices to "magic mushrooms" ahhmm yes!! you will be approached by the sellers, don't worry.!! but CAUTION!!

Day 4

So this was my last day in Kodai, woke up as early as I could and I had already covered most of the places, hence I decided to move on a bit slower pace and enjoy the true essence of the place as if a localite from this place. But first things first, so I confirmed by return bus timings from the Kodaikanal bus depot (it was early evening). Roamed around the whole day with my camera, documenting the life in this small town. And yes I had enough time to explore a few places which were in the vicinity.

Places I visited:

A morning walk in The Bryant Park in the cold mountain breeze

A walk-way with the breathtaking valley by your side

Boating at Kodai Lake

God bless the People who keep benches at such heavenly places

Highlights of the day:

- Bought some Home-made Chocolates and wine

- Bought organic soaps and eucalyptus oil

Snapshots from the eateries during my visit:

Andd..we seize the day with Chai

DAY 5: The Return

Reached Chennai early morning and guess what I attended the college same day :)

The total expenditure of my trip to Kodaikanal came nearly INR.3200/- for 5 days including everything.

#travelminimal #kodaikanal #budgettraveller #southindia #justahillaway #india

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grgop · 6 years

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Geneva, the French and the Međimurci

After months of residing in the darkness of inactivity here comes a fresh review of the recent trip to Switzerland. Those 3 days were without expectations and with plenty of spontaneous decisions that turned out...awesome. I even managed get my Master thesis done and sent to print hours before the trip thus not having to bring my laptop there and work at the airport. I would also use this chance to thank again our hosts for the wonderful time we spent there as well as for helping us with the stay in Geneve. Merci beaucoup...or whatever you write it. Now what was all this about, when, why and how...please start scrolling. The whole trip was planned a few months ago as one our best and closest Uni colleagues was going to get married. Since we were sitting next to each other since the day 1 of the University life (and were breaking the Erasmus Intership Exchange ice together writing the letters and creating our portfolios in the bars between the Uni lectures...) there was no way for me not to come there. Wait a bit more to see the wedding pics. The interesting story is that she had met her future husband during Erasmus internship in Paris while I was in Vienna (maybe I should apply again for the exchange?). One of the last things in life I imagined was ending up on a wedding in Switzerland and be surrounded with the French and the Međimurci. On the trip there and back again I was with a few colleagues whom we will refer to as “the Noone”. Let’s start with...

DAY 1: Travelling from Zagreb to Venice Marco Polo Airport. Getting lost in Venice. Evening arrival to Geneve

Just before our trip there were several problems that were kept in secret in order not to spread panic. Our return flight with EasyJet was cancelled due to French Airline’s strike and luckily I was online to check us in on the next one an hour later. Had we not had the second flight the same evening things would gotten nasty with the bus schedule and arriving home on Monday morning to hand in our binded Master’s thesises.

The second crisis emerged early in the morning around 3am when I realized:

a) I left the sunglasses at my barber’s desk the day earlier

b) I forgot the headphones on my desk!!

We travelled with Flixbus, direct line from Zagreb to Marco Polo Airport, at 7.30am and arrived a bit later than scheduled due to traffic problems on the Italian highway and a traffic mess at the bus station in Trieste (sorry Italians, it was another prejudice come true...).

We came to our destination around 2.30pm and had almost 5 hours free before the flight. And what should we do?

Go to Venice of course! For the price of 15 Euros you get the bus return ticket from the airport to Venice. My colleague was there for the first time and for me it was the 3rd. I honestly didn’t expect going there but ... was worth it. The plan was to drink coffee somewhere but we didn’t have time as...umm... I wanted to make a tour around and we got lost on our way back...just a bit. : -) In the end we managed to get in time back.

The overall impression of Venice?

Crowded, hot, stinky...few buildings and streets that impress you in the beginning and then you get bored and start counting nationalities and bricks in the walls. As well as the shades to hide in.

Just before the security check in I realized that I totally messed up with clothes and items in the travel bag...bringing unecessary stuff that took plenty of space. Never again listen to the others and just keep it simple. So I was forced to put my pants, part of ceremonial clothes etc. into the bags of my colleagues. :-D Just like Voldemort with the horcruxes.

Speaking of food and water supplies on your trips and specifically at the airports...there are two kinds of people in this world. Those who buy the bottled water in duty free shops... and those who drink and fill them in the restrooms (toilets). During my 3 days I only drank water from the restroom. Save money, save the nature.

Our flight was around 8pm and I spent most of it (one hour) sleeping dead tired. For those of you who’ve been following me from before you might remember I’ve already been to Switzerland but never in Geneve. (scroll down the blog for those posts).

Geneva airport? While going towards the exit you pass by numerous billboards of the Swiss watches...Rolex, Rolex, Rolex...and Rolex..and so on for the next 5 minutes. The good thing is that all the arriving guests have 80 minutes free public transport ticket so we went to the next stop (Geneve Cornavin). Our hostel (Geneve Hostel) was about 5-7 minutes by foot and close to the Geneva lake. Boys in one room, girls in another to avoid the potential problems. And unplanned weddings.

At the hostel we were also given free public transport ticket that was valid for the whole Saturday and Sunday which helped a lot. It included the train, the boats, the buses and the tram within Geneve. Since France was super close (cca 4 km) there was even a tram line leading there (about 30 minutes)...we heard you can have a cheaper lunch there and planned “to visit France” on Sunday but plans changed.

Before the sleep we searched around the hostel area for some cheap place to grab some food. Now, the word “cheap” in Switzerland is not as same as “cheap” here and the best for your psychological health is not to convert the currency. We found the Ali Kebab place right next to the hostel and ate Chicken Kebab with some salad and French fries for 17,5 Franks, a meal we split for two. This was relatively similar to some prices here so it was not that bad at all. I could have eaten though the whole plate again but my wallet couldn’t. No complaints anyway!

DAY 2: Morning tour around Geneve. Going to the ceremony. The wedding and the afterparty.

I’m a morning person and Saturday morning was no exception. Woke up early, took a shower, breakfast when there aren’t many people and already ready to go at 7.30am. I got the public transport and city landmarks map at the hostel staff and went to the lake with another early bird. Here are some impressions of the streets, people and cityscape.

Plenty of runners with bluetooth headphones, people walking with dogs, the cylists, expensive cars you see in James Bond movies, the specific architecture, plenty of hotels and banks, mostly clean sterile streets, the promenade and the boats. Pretty much international population and French language everywhere. And I don’t speak French except for few words but was interesting to be in an “alien” surroundings. The lake that is as huge as the sea yet fresh water. Ducks everywhere. What I loved was seeing the bike roads across the promenade and the streets of Geneve. More about it on Day 3. Speaking of traffic behaviour they all more or less stop when you approach the pedestrian zebra crossing and stop even 0,5 m before it if the red light turns on. On contrary, here you’d get run over even if you were sitting on your balcony.

We went back to pick up the third early bird and started our little tour around. There were several bridges in the center and you had a boat connection with other side of the lake. There is the huge wheel with cafes around the big bridge. One of the Geneve’s landmarks is the huge fountain which we reached later and had a free shower. One of the things that pleasantly surprised me was (as I had found out later) the artistic project “Happy City” where there were ca. 20 painted pianos placed around the city’s squares, parks, streets and bridges...where you do as it says “Play, I’m here for you”. So I did what they required you to do. Playing piano on Lake Geneva was another thing I never thought about ... but now I can say “new achievement unlocked”.

We walked a bit more to the inside of the other side up and down the streets, seen some churches and lots of interenational bars and restaurants. Expensive exotic cars again..and then decided it’s time to go back to hostel.

On our way back we checked out Lidl and took some emergency food to have just in case of unexpected hunger. This saved us on the next day. I also almost forgot that right now I can buy and drink Rivella.

Travelling to Gland and the Wedding.

We jumped into our suits and wedding clothes and went to the train station around 2pm. We had to arrive to Gland which is ca 20 minutes away from Geneve and there our fiancée’s family was going to pick us up and transport to the ceremony’s place. While there we got to know our French roommates and colleagues offiancé.

What I liked (and probably others) there weren’t many people as it usually is the case here. I won’t go into details here and throw emotions but here are some things. Close friends and family from both sides, that’s it. The ceremony took place at the fairy location called Le Moulin du Creux. Beautiful house with garden, creek and forest around located 100 meters from the road. Check the nice photos of it and you’ll get the idea.

We had two-three pastors, the French ones and the Croatian one. Since most of us didn’t speak nor understood French we had a translator. And it was funny because she was a Slovene translating into Serbian mostly. :)) Nevertheless, an interesting ceremony and a special moment for our now married couple!

What was also new was that after taking pictures and rushing to the tables with food and drinks we also had a game organized - seek and answer game. They hid around 30 photos around the area and we got the papers with questions in French and Croatian. For my team it was kind of a fail in the end. We were trying to learn a few useful French phrases such as J'ai soif which means “I’m thirsty” when sneaking around the table with served drinks.

The other games included a catapult and a cubic football. There was also a gigantic version of the Jenga Tower which was fun to play. We took and received as a memory the polaroid photo with our couple and later moved inside for the dinner and the rest of the show. We watched short movie clips that fiance’s family created about him and our friend. The only problem we had was that we didn’t understand anything as there were no subtitles. :-)

After few more games and meals it was time to go out on the field and light the lanterns. This was a cool thing and my first time to show up and do the thing actually, I think we all enjoyed it. I have no photos of it though but you can imagined what it looked liked having many of them flying up. Let’s hope non of them fell on the forest below. :-D

Soon followed afterparty with some dance music. Some people already had to part and leave. Finally, around 2am we also decided to leave as we didn’t want to miss our train back to Geneve. And of course we missed the first one by being 5 minutes late.

We came to the hostel around 4am and straight to bed.

DAY 3: Tour around Geneve one more time. Coffee & city bikes. Departure.

The final day is here. So far everything great! We made a deal to meet with friends from Nyon around 10.30h at the giant wheel in the center. Shower, breakfast and baggage packed and locked in the hostel. Ready to go.

We took the boat to the other side and soon met with our friends. We then wasted around an hour going to the “old center” only to find nothing interesting there. However, we saw more of the public pianos and parks. For the next half an hour we were on a quest to find a solid cafe to sit and talk about life.

We ended up below the giant wheel and had a tiny cup of coffee for 4 Franks. Naturally, we stayed for 2 hours sitting & chatting there to compensate the loss. I ran out of cash and asked the waiter where to go. After all, Geneva is the city of banks and I hadn’t seen a single ATM machine there. Before running for some cash we decided to visit the giant fountain. On our way there I stopped by the public piano which was now free of ambitious moms and their kids who just pressed random keys but had a cool photo. Actually, I was doing the same. It was funny to have the unusual audience around you.

Soon by the fountain. Time for a group photo!

Time flew by quickly and our friends had to find the bus station as they were leaving sooner than us. We went to the center in search of places to eat and after parting with them three of the original squad left. We had a few hours left before rushing to the train station and the airport. Having lunch in France? Visiting France by trams? Visiting France on bikes? Using city bikes to go around? We rushed to the nearst bike station and...all the bikes were gone. Second chance at the one across the bridge. We somehow were lazy to walk and wasted time on the boat. What happened there? Only two bikes left. I agreed to run to the other station as the rest follows me. But the guy working there couldn’t find the keys of the bike so we waster 10 minutes there filling the papers and waiting for him to come to common sense. The third and the last luck before giving up was using the tram to the Station No. 5 ... and...three bikes left, keys in the hands and off we go!

There is no better feeling than going around the new place by bike. Pure freedom and flexbility. We gave 20 Franks deposit and decided towards the north along the lake. Bike routes almost everywhere. Going between the streets was fun. No fear of the vehicles around us.

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We did cca 10 km in total in about more than hour stopping to take the pictues (the evidences). The idea was to go to France but by democracy 2:1 we gave up from that idea fearing something could go wrong and we get stuck in the middle of nowhere and miss the plane. So we returned the bikes close to our hostel, took the baggage and went to the train station. There we found a nice souvenir and chocolate shop....you can’t leave without one kitschy fridge magnet and a few Toblerones. We met the other Croats who were going back by plane to Venice and I again reorganized my bagge stuff into 2-3 bags of other people. The food from Lidl helped a bit. As well as the good old fresh water from the restroom. I slept again in the plane this time successfully hiding my cabin baggage under my seat as the plane was crowded and full of passangers because of the cancelled flight. New achievement unlocked. We had almost 3 hours to wait for the 2.15am Flixbus for Zagreb. Being dead hungry we checked the available offers at the backery there and found some snacks to survive till home. This time Flixbus didn’t have the second floor (on Friday we found the first row spots on the 2nd floor, the best view and the best way to get killed in an accident). But who cares, soon home! The route was shorter as we stopped only in Ljubljana...I woke up two times in total and the second on just at the Croatian border. The bus arrived precisely at 7.30am to Zagreb, to the most beautiful of the ugliest bus stations in the area. Finally, seeing “Mamiću cigane” grafitti around the station I can say “Welcome back home!”.

#geneva #switzerland #suisa #genf #geneve #venice #veneto #venezia #wedding #međimurje #međimurci

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boymeetsweevil · 7 years

Text

warm fuzzies

Grouping: Reader x Seokjin

Word Count: 6.2k of slice of life? fluff?

Summary: In which Jjangu AND his owner, Kim Seokjin, fall for you

Kim Seokjin is a creature of habit. This is why Jin has been taking the same route every time he walks his dog, Jjangu. This is also why he doesn’t switch routes even when the dog starts to linger outside the door of one particular cafe in the middle of the walk. Jin supposes it’s because it’s a dog cafe, that Jjangu is curious about the dogs who are the cafe’s main attraction. It isn’t until what seems like the dozenth time he feels Jjangu start to pull on the leash at the exact same spot that Jin caves and decides to see what it is exactly that’s grabbing his dog’s attention.

At first, the cafe isn’t anything extraordinary. The inside is clean with a pastel pink color scheme and lots of dark green frond plants to set a tropical vibe. Dogs of varying shapes and sizes wander amongst customers begging for treats or scratches behind the ear. Nothing seems out of the ordinary to Jin, but he still follows Jjangu, who is ignoring the cafe dogs in favor of following an invisible trail frantically with his nose pressed to the ground. Jin finds himself winding around tables, plants, other dogs, and apologizing to customers as Jjangu hunts for whatever it is that makes him stop in front of the shop nearly every day.

You’re scrubbing at a stubborn spot on a table towards the back of the cafe, cursing whichever customer it was that spilled their iced tea and left it there to turn into a sticky mess, when you feel the distinctive brush of tongue on your ankle. If you didn’t work at a dog cafe, it would be unsettling to feel a random tongue at any time. Fortunately, you learned quickly how to tune out overly-friendly dogs when you’re too busy puttering around the cafe to clean. Today, however, the licking seems so crazed that you spare a glance down at your feet.

Instead of any of the usual cafe dogs, you see an unknown, scruffy, white dog soaking the cuff of your jeans with its incessant licking. The dog gives you the creeps, especially since it’s swapped the licking for staring up into your eyes. You eye the leash hanging lax from the collar and look around for a potential owner. A few feet away you see a man hissing in the white dog’s direction. When you lock eyes, the man stops hissing and gives you a sheepish expression before walking over to you.

“Sorry,” he says, and goes to pick up the small dog. The dog proceeds to whine and wriggles in the owner’s arms, trying to go back to you.

“It’s okay, happens all the time.”

“I think my dog is in love with you,” the man blurts out before looking shocked at himself. This is new, you think.

“What makes you say that?” You try to hold back a smirk because you had been so bored and were wishing for something interesting to happen to you just half an hour ago.

“We walk by here almost every day, and he always pulls on his leash trying to come inside. I’ve never really thought much of it until I finally let him drag me in here. He went straight for you. Normally he tries to fight other dogs.” You raise your eyebrows at the statement before looking at the dog again incredulously. The dog is still staring at you like you might have the answer to whatever question dogs want answered in life.

“Well, I’m flattered.”

“Are you really?”

“No. I don’t really know what to say. Your dog is a little creepy, to be honest,” you say before remembering you’re at work and add a quick “No offense.”

“No, I get it. Sometimes he looks at me like he’s plotting my murder,” he whispers conspiratorially. You toss your head back and cackle, because it’s been only 5 minutes, but you wouldn’t put it past this dog.

“That’s awful, oh my god,” you wipe a tear threatening to spill out of the corner of your eye. “What’s their name?”

“Oh, um, I’m Jin,” he says, flustered, and sticks a large hand out stiffly.

“I was asking about your dog, but nice to meet you, Jin.” You’re mildly surprised to find that the skin of his hand is smooth when you grasp it. You wonder what type of hand cream he uses.

“Ah, sorry. His name is Jjangu.”

“Hmm,” you sniff, “He looks like a Jjangu.”

“I think so too.” Jin smiles down softly at the dog, who still hasn’t looked away from you, and you catch yourself looking at Jin’s mouth with non-cosmetic interest.

“Well, I’m still on my shift, so I have to go now, but you’re always welcome to come visit me, Jjangu.” You reach over and scratch at Jjangu’s head and ignore the almost reverent look in his eyes. “You too, Jin. We make a mean green tea here.”

From then on, Jin stops by with Jjangu most days and lets the dog follow you around while you tend to the cafe dogs and customers, much to your chagrin. Seokjin sits in the same corner booth every time and smiles as he watches you lecture the dog, marveling at the fact that Jjangu has the decency to look scolded for the first time in his life. You don’t really mind, though. Jjangu, snaggle tooth and all, is growing on you faster than you care to admit. It’s not so bad having Jin around, either. Jin is most certainly a sight for eyes used to chihuahuas and labradors, with his plush lips, big clear eyes, and broad shoulders you want to drape your arms around. And he always comes bearing cheesy jokes and buys the large pastries off the cake rack in the front of the cafe to share with you.

It’s possible, you think to yourself one day as you watch torrential downpour splash across the pavement through the window of the cafe, that you’ve become too attached to Jin and his weird little dog. You were already having a bad day to begin with, but when 2pm comes and goes showing no sign of Jin or Jjangu, you question your professional relationship to them. But only a little bit.

The next day, you’re not so surprised to hear Jjangu’s extra high whines at not having seen you in 48 hours. You are surprised, however, to see Jin standing a bit further away than usual, looking nervous. You wonder if he thinks you’re upset that he didn’t come and quickly school your features into an expression that says “I didn’t miss you that much”.

“Long time no see, Jin.” You bend down to swipe your hand along the length of Jjangu’s spine. “And hello to you, special boy.”

“Yeah, its feels like forever.” Jin looks down at his sneakers sharply. “I’ve been curious about something,” he trails off.

“Shoot.”

“Have you ever been to a dog party?”

“A dog party? Like a dog-themed party?”

“No. Like a party for a dog. Or two dogs, actually.” You catch him wincing as he listens to how inelegant he sounds. You smile, admiring the pretty blush that spreads across his cheeks.

“You would think, but I actually haven’t. Why? Are you inviting me to a dog party, Jin,” you ask with a teasing lilt.

Jin decides it would save him the most embarrassment if maybe he just nodded from now on. So he does.

“Oh,” you blink, “Is it Jjangu’s birthday or something?"

“Yeah. Well, no. Technically, it’s not his birthday until the end of the month, but my friend’s dog’s birthday is soon, so we’re throwing a joint party. I just thought maybe you’d like to come since he’s your biggest fan.” Jin realizes he’s babbling, but hopes you can’t tell. You totally can though.

“I’d love to.” Jin’s eyes widen comically when you don’t reject his offer. He had been worrying that you merely tolerated his and Jjangu’s presence because it meant you got a faithful customer out of it.

“Oh, okay. Well, I’ll text you the details,” he says and gives you a small wave before turning to the front of the cafe to leave.

“Jin,” he turns around at that sound of your call, “You forgot someone.” Jjangu sits contently next to you, one possessive paw resting on your sneaker.

“Right.” He flushes as he comes back to pick up the leash.

“You also don’t have my number yet,” you remind him before sticking your hand out expectantly. He hands you his phone and watches carefully as you type your number in.

When Jin finally leaves, with Jjangu trailing reluctantly behind, you feel a bit lighter on your feet even though your shift isn’t halfway over yet. You even catch yourself humming as you scrape an errant poop pile off the floor. Halfheartedly, you remind yourself that Jin only invited you over to a dog party, not to a human party, and definitely not on a date.

Around 8pm that same day, you receive a text from an unknown number saying “hey its jin”. The smile that appears on your face remains there for an unusual amount of time, but you purposefully don’t think about it.

The day of the party and the details in Jin’s most recent text bring you to a surprisingly nice apartment complex in the heart of the city. Jin didn’t really peg you as a guy with money, but then again, it was one of the few topics you two hadn’t covered yet. Your near-daily interactions were centered around exchanging greetings and then working together to get Jjangu to stop following you when you have to go in the back of the cafe to take inventory. Semi-intimate chats were sprinkled in between those moments. Surprisingly, your boss is calm about the whole ordeal and simply watches, mildly amused, from her spot behind the register.

When you arrive at the door, all the familiarity you’ve built up with Jin dissipates and you’re surprised by how anxious you are. It’s clear that the party is in full swing from the muffled R&B coming from the other side of the door. You briefly wonder if wearing your ‘good cashmere sweater’ is overkill, but it’s too late to worry, because you’ve already arrived and already rung the buzzer.

Jin opens the door a few seconds later and you’re worries are assuaged when you see that he’s dressed nicely too in dark jeans and an expensive-looking turtleneck. He tries to introduce you to the handful of men and women in the main room once he’s hung up your coat but a strange wheezing sound comes from below and you watch Jjangu slowly realize you’re in his territory this time. The next few minutes are funny, but also uncomfortable, as he barks with increasing volume and scampers circles around you, sniffing the entire time.

The rest of the guests laugh it off and Jin begins introducing you again to everyone as the “poor soul his dog has chosen”. It’s cryptic and just ominous enough to be the perfect ice breaker. When you meet Jimin, a friend of Jin’s, you realize his dog Star is the one sharing the party with Jjangu. Jimin is charming and cheeky in a way that has you a little dizzy, especially when he jokes that Jin’s reason for coming to the cafe so often must have something to do with him wanting to see you, not Jjangu.

A few moments later, Jin announces that all the guests have arrived and that he just took the last of the appetizers out of the oven, so the party should officially begin. You all migrate into the kitchen, where you begin chatting with the girl who is dating Jin’s friend Yoongi, and realize maybe Jimin wasn’t really joking earlier.

“We were actually all talking about you before you came in. When Jin was still cooking, earlier.” You try not to look stricken by the confession and lean in casually.

“Oh really. Did Jjangu bring me up or something?”

“No, no. Nothing like that,” she chuckles, “It’s just that Yoongi was complaining about missing his hyung, you know? I guess Yoongi used to drop by to hang out and eat whatever Jin was cooking that day. But since Jin’s been staying at the cafe, the apartment is always empty when Yoongi’s on break. Lazy little thing has to find his own lunch now.”

“I didn’t realize I was starving your boyfriend. Sorry about that.” She brushes your apology off and you feel the tell tale nudge of Jjangu’s wet nose on your ankle. You bend down to scoop him up since it’s his birthday.

When you stand back up, Yoongi’s girlfriend is speaking with someone else. You awkwardly hold the dog, who has gone nearly boneless since he made it into your arms, and accidentally make eye contact with Jin on the other side of the counter. He hasn’t been talking much since he took on the task of supplying food for both the guests and the two birthday dogs. Holding your gaze, he beckons for you to come behind the counter with him, and you do so gratefully.

“How are you holding up,” he asks as he slides a tray of still hot tray appetizers over to you.

“Do I look so uncomfortable that you have to ask me that?” You just barely succeed in shifting Jjangu around so that you can pick an appetizer off the tray with a random plastic spoon.

“Yeah, kind of.” At least he’s honest, you muse. And at least he feels bad for putting you in a semi-awkward situation.

“It’s not so bad. I just kind of feel like I’m back at the cafe, and I’m waiting for someone to give me something to do with my hands.” Jin nods at little Jjangu, who has fallen asleep with his snout tucked into the crook of your elbow.

“Looks like he tried to help you with that.” You snort and try not to jostle the sleeping dog too much.

“I guess. So, I just heard you’ve been forced to abandon Yoongi because of the whole Jjangu thing.” Jin smiles brightly, and his squeaky laugh tinkles in the air around you. He passes the snack tray back and forth amongst the guests while he speaks.

“That’s half true.”

“I actually feel bad, then. You shouldn’t feel obligated to stay and sit at the cafe. Plus, I’m sure that can add up. Financially.”

“Let’s just say money’s not really an issue,” he gives you a look through his peripheral vision to gauge your reaction. You simply nod, checking out the comfortable city apartment. “As for the cafe, I don’t mind walking there. Plus, I don’t think Jjangu would forgive me if we stopped seeing you now.”

“Well, if you’re only coming to see me, I could always…” You stop yourself when you realize the possible implications of what you are about to propose.

“You could always what?” Jin cocks his head and smirks like he knows what you’re going to say. He thinks he does know. He’s very okay with the idea, but he wants to hear you say it.

“I could always come see you--him when my shift ends,” you supply before adding quickly, “That way you could still see Yoongi if you were inclined and you would have more time in the day and Jjangu still gets what he wants.” Cheeks hot, you hide your face from Jin’s gaze by nuzzling a cheek on the top of Jjangu’s head. The fur there smells clean despite his unruly appearance.

“I’m definitely willing to try that out. But if Jjangu stages a rebellion, it’s on you to stop it.”

“And I would. I value the greater good. If I have to put myself on the line, so be it.”

The party continues somewhat smoothly. Wine and beer flows during the rest of the evening and you’re a little drunk when a guy named Hibo (Hobi?) stands next to you and lights the two candles on the bone shaped cupcakes in the center of the table in the dining room. He has the prettiest teeth you’ve ever seen and you tell him, a little wobbly on your feet. He smiles slowly and leans in to say something but Jjangu barks shrilly from the other side of the table where Jin is holding him and watching with a smug expression. Hobi (Hibo?) raises an amused eyebrow, but actually backs off, and you fight the urge to drunkenly lecture the dog like you would a naughty toddler.

Everyone gets quiet and pulls out their phones suddenly and you’re about to ask what’s going on when Jin, also a little tipsy, begins to sing Happy Birthday to Jjangu and Star. His voice is pretty and you wrinkle your brows in concentration, trying to remember if he ever mentioned singing as one of his many talents when he came to visit you at work. You clap when everyone else claps, signaling the end of the song, but you don’t take your eyes off of Jin as you watch him try to get Jjangu to eat a cupcake so Yoongi can snap a photo. He catches you staring when he makes eye contact with you and stretches his hand out across the marble countertop. Numbly, you take the offered cupcake and wiggle it at Jjangu. The puppy hops excitedly out of the chair and scampers across the table to sit politely in front of you. Yoongi laughs at the footage he captures, but Jin flutters over nervously and mumbles about how unsanitary the situation is.

“Sorry, Jin.” You don’t look back at him though, not really sorry, as you hold the cupcake steady for Jjangu.

In the back of your head, you’re mildly impressed at the dog’s attempt to eat cleanly from your hand, but you’re more focused on the feeling of Jin’s torso pressing against your back. In his drunkenness, Jin decides it would be a good idea to grab Jjangu off the table while you’ve got him literally eating out of the palm of your hand. But he miscalculates and he ends up awkwardly caging you in between his front and the side of the table in his attempt to scoop up the dog, his arms acting as walls making you unable to move out the way.

You notice that the setup makes it hard for him to grasp Jjangu, and he almost drops him, but you manage to aid him by bringing the dog into your arms. The result is a slightly drunk Jin clutching a slightly drunk you. Meanwhile Jjangu wags his tail at the proximity of his two favorite people. It takes an uncomfortably long time to disentangle because both of you are suffering from decreased hand-eye coordination. You’re both stupid enough to think that the remedy to the awkwardness is more alcohol.

Once the party winds down and you’re able to leave without causing a scene you’re pretty grateful. Jjangu and Star lie sleeping on their sides like cows on the floor behind Jin’s large sofa, tummies round with treats and tuckered out from being such busy hosts. You slip your shoes on after you toss back the last of your beer, knowing that you’ll need the alcohol blanket as you walk to the subway. The door doesn’t budge when you go to open it and you’re puzzled until you realized Jin’s large hand is keeping it closed. You turn and find him squinting at you.

“Can I help you, sir?” You hiccup a little and it ruins the glare you’re trying giving him. You just want to go home, damnit.

“Don’t forget your promise. Me and Jjangu want to see you here, bright eyed and bushy tailed,” he yanks a little on the hem of your shirt and you ignore the heavy feeling it gives you in the pit of your stomach, “Right after your shift. M’kay?”

You nod, not trusting yourself not to hiccup in his face, and he stumbles away to talk to Jimin who is lingering on the couch even after the majority of the guests left.

Lucky for you, you’re not hungover the morning after the party, so you go about your normal Saturday routine. However, you don’t have to go to work on Sundays either. This leaves you with the whole day to ruminate over the party. You like to think you’re not oblivious, that you’re pretty good with social cues. But this doesn’t stop you from spending the day wondering if you’re not just projecting your own attraction onto Jin.

He’s into me, you think resolutely as you brush your teeth that morning.

What if he’s just a really overzealous dog owner, you wonder as you go for a run.

No one would be so nervous about inviting someone to a dog’s birthday party if they didn’t have a crush, you nod to yourself as you scrub your back in the shower.

Maybe he just misses having someone to cook for, you reason dejectedly as you pay some bills that evening.

So why doesn’t he just tell Yoongi to start coming over again, you mutter to yourself while violently stir frying some vegetables.

Why are you like this, you ask yourself as yourself in bed, silently bracing yourself for Monday.

Time is acting strangely as you go through the motions of your shift. The first half of your shift zips by because there are more customers than normal and you’re too busy to overthink anything. Soon, though, you catch yourself looking at the front door around 2 pm and quickly berate yourself for having such a Pavlovian response towards Jin and his dog. It’s not like every time they came they brought your favorite food. You just talked. Although, you wouldn’t call it just talking.

In the many visits Jin made to the cafe, you learned all sorts of things about each other. You learned he had an older brother, and that they both lived near their parents to help them when they needed it. You learned Jin was getting his Masters in film at a university in the next town over, but he also was also working flexible hours at his father’s firm. In turn, you told him about your goal to get your MBA and how Jjangu wasn’t the first dog to stalk you. By your count, you’ve known Jin and his dog for more than 2 months. You don’t really know what to do with this information, but you try to think of all the possible implications because your shift starts to drag.

When your shift ends, you wish you had packed a change of clothes, but all you can do is fix your hair and remove your apron. You zone out on the ride to Jin’s apartment complex, barely managing to keep your nerves at bay. Being in the business industry means you can’t be scared of meeting new people or of going to new places. So it’s definitely not good for you to be this nervous going to a place you’ve already visited before.

However, the anxiety diminishes to mere butterflies in your stomach when Jin opens the door to his apartment. Jjangu is doing that weird wheezing thing again, so you humor him and squat down so he can run into your arms. Picking him up, you walk with him into the kitchen area to see what Jin is doing. The countertop has some used bowls and measuring utensils lying out on it and it’s not until your stomach growls at the smell of food cooking that you remember you had to skip lunch and you’re hungry.

“I’m glad you brought your appetite. I’ve been wrestling with this recipe for a while and I think I’ve finally gotten all the kinks out of it. Its you don’t tell me it’s perfect, I’ll cry.”

“K-kinks are okay,” you say stiltedly. Even with Jjangu in your arms, you still feel out of place.

“I guess you don’t mind when things are a little kinky, then?” You nearly choke on your tongue and when you look up at Jin’s face, you’re expecting to see a good-natured grin, but all you see is a dark, inquisitive look. He’s testing you.

“A little kinky is good. It shows character.” Jin tilts his head at you before a small smile spreads slowly on his face. You pass the test.

“Then while we’re still on the topic of food,” you grin at his teasing and take the long handled wooden spoon that holds steaming broth he passes you, “Tell me what you think of this.”

While you’re not usually a soup person, you really like Jin’s soup. The flavor is complex and robust, leaving a pleasant memory on your tongue, and there’s enough spice leave your lips tingling a little. It’s good and you tell him so, enjoying the sight of him subtly puffing out his chest when he hears that he did well. He adds a few more ingredients and puts on the lid before walking out of the kitchen gesturing for you to come sit with him on the sofa. Jjangu jumps out of your arms and runs in front of you to sit between you and Jin, and you wonder vaguely if this dog is trying to cock-block you.

The two of you sit in companionable silence. There’s soft music coming from the stereo system and the large picture window on the opposite wall shows the rainy cityscape. You’re instantly even more glad you’re in Jin’s apartment and not walking out of the subway station to your own apartment in the rain.

“So,” Jin clears his throat, “I’ve been doing some thinking and I--” The sound of someone ringing the buzzer outside interrupts him. Jin groans while Jjangu stands in your lap and barks at whoever is behind the door.

A few moments later a man who looks a little like Jin enters the living room, with a pissed off looking Jin trailing behind. The slightly older man looks a little surprised to see you. He sits in the love seat across from you and waves.

“Hi, I’m Jin’s older brother. You are?” You introduce yourself, excited to meet another member of the Kim family.

“Oh, I’ve heard about you. You work at that dog cafe down by the shopping district, right? I think I remember Jin saying that.”

“Yeah, I do. I met Jin through Jjangu there,” you joke. You sneak a peek at Jin and are surprised to see him pouting at the other end of the couch.

“No kidding? Jjangu is actually the reason I came here today. I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything, by the way.” He sends a sly grin at Jin.

“Well, you were. We were kind of about to talk about something important.” You raise your eyebrows in surprise but don’t say anything because you want to see how the conversation will continue. He chuckles at Jin’s pouty demeanor.

“I’ll be quick about it then. Mom’s ankle has been fully healed for a month, so she doesn’t need you to walk him anymore. She also wants me to tell you to stop hogging him since she can spend time with him now.”

Jin stiffens and turns to look at you immediately, embarrassed. He nods before murmuring that he’ll gather Jjangu’s things and leaves the room. Jin’s brother waits a beat until he’s sure Jin won’t hear what he’s about to say before turning to you.

“Sorry for making you witness that. When my mom slipped and fell a while ago, she hurt her ankle and couldn’t walk with the dog like she normally does. So, Jin volunteered since he has more free time than I do. I guess once you guys met, he realized he had an in with you if he kept walking the dog and he probably told my mom she needed her rest. That’s probably how he got away with stealing the dog for so long. Wow, this makes it sound like he’s using Jjangu. And he kind of is, I guess. Don’t get me wrong though, he loves Jjangu, but he was definitely using him a little.” You bite your lip to keep from laughing at his bluntness. He doesn’t notice and continues.

“Honestly, it’s not even that big a deal since he was probably just going to ask you out tonight and its not like he can’t still do that now. But it would be really nice if you helped patch up his ego once I leave. Jin’s a bit stubborn and a huge perfectionist. He’s probably been planning this for a really long time and I’m sure that if my mom didn’t miss her dog so much, she wouldn’t have sent me here.” He quickly pulls away from you when he hears Jin entering the room again.

“Here’s all his stuff,” Jin drops a small duffle bag a childish huff, ”He might need another walk since he didn’t get his usual one today, but I’m sure you don’t mind some quality time with the dog since I’ve been ‘hogging’ him this whole time.” You want to laugh at Jin’s aggressive use of air-quotes, but refrain when you remember he’s nursing a bruised ego at the moment. Jjangu realizes his time with you is nearly over and kneads the fabric covering your thighs forlornly.

“It’s okay, special boy, you can still come see me at work.” He seems to understand your words and you look at him suspiciously and wonder, yet again, if he’s not just a little man in a costume.

You give Jin’s older brother a nod and he gives you a conspicuous wink before shutting the door behind him, leaving Jin flabbergasted and angrier than before. He stomps back to his spot next to you on the couch and rants, mostly to himself.

“What the hell was that? A wink? He’s so cheesy, it’s like he’s the younger sibling, sometimes. I mean, who just barges in on people like that. He should have called first, then he would have known I had company over. And why does he think that it’s cool to--” He cuts himself off to look down at your hand as it rests over his own. You hold it hand in yours and bring it up to rest lightly on the side of your face.

“Don’t mind me,” you say cheekily. You smile at his stuttering when he tries to remain cool and remember what he was saying before you stunned him.

“I-I wasn’t really saying anything, I was just mad he ruined this date.”

“Is this a date?” Your tone is coy as you reach out with your free hand to smooth out the non-existent wrinkles in his shirt around his broad shoulders. He gently extricates his fingers from yours and moves them to the back of your neck at the same time that you wrap your arms around his.

The first things you notice when Jin kisses you are that his lips are incredibly soft and that he smells good enough to eat. You kiss lazily on the couch for a long while, eventually maneuvering each other slowly until you’re seated in his lap and can press him into the back of the couch. His hands migrate from your shoulder blades, down your back, to squeeze themselves into the tops of your jean pockets. Kim Seokjin is an ass man. Go figure.

You reluctantly break the kiss by threading your fingers through his thick and dark hair and tugging lightly. He tries to move to the side of your jaw but you stop him.

“Jin, do you smell that?” He looks dazed and more fucked out than he should for only having gotten to first base. But you reason that it's because this thing between the two of you has been in the works for a long time.

“Hmm?” You feel regretful about having to move off of his lap.

“I think your soup is burning,” you frown sympathetically and watch his eyes grow to the size of saucers. He runs to the kitchen while you follow after him leisurely. You watch from behind his shoulder curiously as he tests the broth before taking it off the burner.

“Don’t worry,” he grins and his cheeks puff out adorably, “The soup is saved. Thanks to you.” His arms snake around your waist again and he shuffles you both back until you can lean against the brushed steel surface of his fridge.

“I didn’t do anything, I just used my nose,” you breezily at the feeling of his warm breath on your neck.

“Well, if we had it my way, this soup would be ruined. Because we’d still be over there for a long time.” Suddenly you feel a familiar stirring in your stomach.

“Jin, I’m hungry.” His eyes take on a mischievous glint.

“Me too,” he mumbles in your ear and walks the tips of his fingers underneath your work shirt.

“No, I’m actually hungry. I’ve been waiting for this soup for, like, 40 minutes.”

“Oh, shit, sorry,” he pulls away and twists to open a nearby cabinet, but keeps a hand rubbing your hip the whole time. “Here, I’ll get you a bowl.”

“Thank you. After though...” He looks down at you hopefully. “Show me your room?”

An hour later finds you waking up from a nap. You blink bleary eyes and stretch your pleasantly sore limbs, taking in the surroundings. You turn to face Jin, who is still sleeping beside you. Propping yourself up on an elbow, you wonder how someone can sleep so beautifully. He looks serene with smooth features and messy bangs. He breathes deeply, one well-muscled arm thrown over his head and the sheets pulled up to slope over one bare shoulder.

You reach out and tease him in his sleep, tickling his cheeks and nose and stifling laughter when he scrunches his face. You relent but soon you realize it’s too quiet. You rack your brain for an explanation and remember that its because Jjangu is gone. Your ankles begin to feel neglected and you feel bad, knowing the little dog will probably wonder why he had to leave you so suddenly. In that moment, you decide that the two of you should try to solve this new Jjangu-related dilemma, so you gently brush his hair out of his face until he starts to stir.

“Wha’sit?” He blinks up at you tiredly and reaches out cuddle you to him. You let yourself be dragged across the bed and maneuvered so his head is pillowed in your lap.

“I’m worried about Jjangu. You think your mom will want to walk all the way over to the café just to let him see me every day?” Jin sits up and his expression slowly changes from sleepy to alert as he realizes the hell Jjangu will raise until he gets to see you again.

“Don’t worry,” he says as he pulls his phone from where it was buried underneath the covers and dials his mother’s number. You wrap a wandering hand around his bare bicep and watch. “Hello, Mom? It’s Jinnie. I have to talk to you about Jjangu. It’s a long story,” he sighs.

You listen to about 20 minutes of Jin’s dramatic story about how both he and Jjangu became enamored with you, but Mama Kim isn’t buying it. Finally, you can’t take it anymore and silently gesture for him to hand you the phone. He does so, eying you suspiciously. You turn on your customer service voice and work your magic.

Like a true business mogul, you get her to settle for Jin walking Jjangu every other day as long as you come to dinner with Jin tomorrow, and every Tuesday night after that.

“Thank you, Mrs. Kim. I look forward to meeting you. Yes, I’ll take good care of Jin. Mhm. Yes. Have a good evening.” You end the call and turn to give Jin a satisfied smirk. “That’s how you get things done, Sweetcheeks.” Jin stares at you with stars in his eyes.

“Amazing. Truly amazing,” he murmurs and wraps his arm around you to nose at the spot right below the hinge of your jaw.

“You’re too easily impressed,” you grin as he rolls you on top of him.

“Maybe…you’re just impressive,” he argues. The witty comeback you had prepared leaves your mind immediately as you feel him push down the neckline of the T-shirt you borrowed from him to mouth at your shoulder.

“You know,” you sigh, “I need to go home at some point today.”

“Do you have to?” His hands smooth down your back to knead at your butt again and you pray that you never get used to the feeling. You huff and move his hands just to see him pout.

“Yeah, I do, actually.” You end up spending the night.

The next morning you wake to the feeling of pressure on your chest. You crack one eye open and stare directly up Jjangu’s snout. He wags his tail when he sees that you’re awake and barks a happy little wake up song. Jin pokes his head through the threshold of the bedroom while holding a pan full of steaming eggs.

“Good morning, Sunshine. Let me know when you’re ready and we’ll drive you to work,” he chirps.

You groan and roll out of bed, wondering if you can handle two puppies when just one was already such a handful.

#bangtan bookclub #bttnetwork #sonyeondan.net #bts scenarios #bts reactions #bts imagines #kim seokjin imagines #kim seokjin reactions #bangtan

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parkjmini · 7 years

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kpop tag

ive been tagged by my beautiful bub @citruscake !! thank you for tagging me in such a fun lil tag !! i dont really express which groups i stan or what im into besides park jimin, so i figured i should expose a little more to myself??

Ultimate bias? park jimin ((it use to be kwon jiyong for the longest time b4 i officially changed it to my bub and im telling u it was very hard for me to make that decision bc i have a tendency to be rly devoted to a certain person for a long time))

Ultimate Bias Wrecker? i dont really have one tbh

Favourite Kpop song(s)? uh i got a few hold up

babe - hyuna gashina - sunmi dna/pied piper/dimples/house of cards/lost/i like it ((pt2 as well)/coffee - bts sting - stellar one love/amen/perfect girl/the whole the clan pt2.5 album - monsta x teenager/something good/my home/dont care/i keep looking/sign - got7 fool - bigbang the entire no.5 album/majority of gentlemen’s game - 2PM solo/yacht/mommae - jay park im good - henry that xx/divina commedia - gdragon JELLY - HOTSHOT IS SO GOOD 10029/10 WOULD RECOMMEND trauma/check it/highlight - seventeen arrived - jessi oasis/hug me - crush bermuda triangle/artist - zico

this is just a shorter list of some of my ult favs and newer favs !!

First Kpop Song? my first kpop kpop song would be haru haru ((i think)) by bigbang

Favourite Kpop Album/Single? 2PM: no.5 BTS: her / blood sweat tears GOT7: departure / fly MONSTA X: the clan pt2.5 / All In or Beautiful

Favourite Kpop Ship? ot7 got7 lol like lets be real here theyre my bias group and my lil family

Hard Stan or Soft Stan? dependent on the group honestly nvm im hard af fuck my previous thought

Favourite Kpop company? i dont have one they all suck

Backstory of how you got into Kpop?

2009: so i bought a new ipod nano right it was like b4 mp4 players were in mobile devices and i have an older cousin shes like older by 4 yrs and i was 9 at the time and i wasnt as tech savvy as a 12 yr old would be so i asked if she could download songs for me and i didnt really request any songs, she just gave me some of her songs from her own playlist and what do u kno let me hear your voice by bigbang was one of them !! being super like curious as to what i was listening to i searched them up and i fell in love w gd in that mv like WOW his BLOND got me right in my 9 yr old heart and i started to listen to their other songs which i really loved and i loved a lot of taeyang’s solo songs like look only at me and wedding dress that was my shit and i ended up watching a few wonder girls/2ne1 mvs

2013: i faded out of kpop and didnt really know what was happening anymore in that realm and i was watching bubzbeauty and her background music was an instrumental of cafe by bigbang (which is SUCH a BOP) and i really liked it so i searched it up bc i knew she was a fan of bb as well and i was like oh hey its bigbang i wonder how theyve been and at the time their recent song was like FANTASTIC BABY so u could imagine how turned off i was by them LOLOL but i couldnt get over how much i liked cafe and then some of their other songs and im tellin u jiyong SNATCHED my heart AGAIN after like an idle 4 years HE DID THAT !! and bb/2ne1/mostly yg artist was the only groups i listened to bc i didnt really think to venture out of them bc bb was my rock i loved bigbang and i didnt want to leave then i got my friends into kpop and one of them actually showed me bts bc she didnt rlly care abt group hopping and so bts was my second boy group that i got into and now im here in 2017 still listening to kpop !!1!!

now that im done rambling lol, i tag my cuties @kyunggii , @kapparel , @thiccjm , @xkatanax , @peachiejihoonie , @sunnysidewrites , and @famfamella ((you guys dont have to do this bc i know its long and sorry if im being annoying by tagging u in all these tag games ))-: ))

#personal #tag game #kpop #why do i talk so much #me #but like really did i even need to say that much

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idkyeol · 7 years

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Chubby Girls can't Date Idols 1 (Minseok)

New Series.

Minseok x Reader. Appearances by OT9 & Other SM Artists.

TW: Fat Shaming.

Word Count: 2K

“You’re moving where?!” your mother yelled. You rolled your eyes repeating yourself again. “I’m moving to South Korea. I got a job at a really good company. Did you think this wouldn’t happen? I minored in the Korean language, Mom.” Before your mom could say anything else, your dad jumped in. “I am so proud of you for following your dreams, sweetheart.” He hugged you and whispered to you that he would take care of your mom.

So here were. Bags packed and on your way to Seoul. A 13 hour flight and you would be living your dream. You had finished school with a degree in social media with a minor in the Korean language. You were scared shitless, but swallowed down the nerves as you boarded your flight. You had spent so many years studying the culture for this career and you were confident it would all work out. But nothing prepared you for stares and comments, most people assuming you didn’t know Korean. After your exhausting flight, you made it to your hotel. You would be staying here until your apartment was ready. The next day would be your first day at SM.

The next morning you got and ready. Making your way to work, you knew people were staring. You knew why. You were almost the complete opposite of the tiny, cute Korean girls and floated around you. You weren’t super tall, but you were curvy, all over. You owned. But this was normal in the states. So at first the comments threw you off. Walking into the SM office you’re sized up by the receptionist, before she says “I wonder what this whale is doing here.” Before she stood up, smiled, and attempted to address you in broken English. You raised your hand for her to stop and spoke in Korean. “This whale is here for her first day as the new social media manager.” You smiled as her faced dropped. She made a phone and you sat down. You had interviewed and spoke to everyone over Skype, so as soon as you saw a face you recognized you jumped up, greeting her. “Hi Amber!” she smiled and hugged you. Your test for the job was to work with Amber on her web series, so you guys had become pretty close over the last couple of months. “How was your flight?” she asks. You tell her everything, right up to now. Including the receptionist, knowing she can't speak english. Amber grows visibly tense. “I am so sorry. People in Korea are pretty blunt.” You laughed, “Oh I know now. Especially because I made her aware that I speak Korean.” This caused her to laugh out loud. “Follow me, I'll take you to the boss man so you can get settled,”

The first few hours of your day was spent filling out paperwork. When it was time for you to have lunch, Amber offered to go with you. The both of you made it down to the cafe. You saw a couple of boys you recognized from the music videos you had to watch. As you’re sitting down, you hear a group of girls behind you commenting on your weight and appearance. Amber grits her teeth but you assure her that you don’t mind. Which was true. They were small-minded and you weren’t going to let that ruin your day. As the last girl spoke, you heard someone start yelling at her. Everyone turns and looks. You don’t recognize him but you listen to what he’s saying. “How dare you talk about her like that. Especially you Soohee, You weren’t exactly the skinniest person when you first became a trainee. You need to show more respect for your noona.” The girl looks around at everyone watching her. Before she can flee the situation you hear the man yell again. “You need to apologize to her now.” The girl rolls her eyes and gets up to leave. “I don’t have to say anything to anyone.” She attempts to get to the door and is grabbed by the arm by another man, who pulls her back over to you. He says as calmly as he can. “Apologize now, our you’re done being a trainee at SM. You know better than to talk bad about your superiors.” She rolls her eyes again, which doesn't go unnoticed by either man. The one holding her arm pulls her away. “Okay you’re done. We’re going to Sooman now.” You and Amber are speechless as the other girls apologize. Before you can thank him, the mystery man is gone.

As your walking back to your office, you talk with Amber. “That was crazy intense.” She laughed, “Well yeah, I was going to report her. If you break rules in front your superior or senior band members without a good reason, your trainee contract is terminated.” You hug Amber goodbye and go back to your office. Right around 2pm you’re a manager’s office. He proceeds to explain that your first assignment is going to be for EXO. You’re tasks are to help them write out thank yous in English as well as starting working with them on what they want social media wise for their comeback. You make your way to their practice room where they’re waiting for you. You knock and are told to come in. They all gather around and you begin. You’re a little starstruck and forget to speak in Korean. “Hi guys! I’m the new social media manager.” You wait for a response before you hear one of the guys in the back translate. Then the boys erupt into chatter. You hear one sentence that throws you off. “Minseok-Hyung! You’re right. She is cute.” You feel your cheeks heat up. The boy who translated came over and said “You speak Korean don’t you.” You nod your head and you’re rewarded with a gorgeous heart-shaped smile. Then you start talking in Korean and all the boys shut up and look at you. That’s when you notice him. Your mystery man from the cafe. He looks like a deer in headlights. You smile and thank him for standing up for you.

After the meeting is over, you leave so the boys can have dance practice. You start making your way down the hall when you hear it. “Wow, I didn’t realize that EXO had to work with someone so fat.” You heard a door behind you shut but didn’t see who was watching. You spoke up. “Well they had to do something. EXO was complaining about all of their other managers were bitches.” The girl’s jaw drops and you hear someone laugh. You look over and see Xiumin. The girl runs off. Then he speaks up. “That was good, considering she was our old social media manager.” Your hand flies up to cover your mouth. He senses your fear. “Don’t worry. I saw the whole thing. I got your back.” Then he smiled. The cheesiest, gummiest grin you ever saw and your heart jumped. “Well thank you for that Xiumin.” Before you can leave he yells. “Call me Minseok, please noona.” You whip your head around. “How do you know if I’m older than you or not?” He tenses up and start stuttering. You chuckle. “Minseok, I am your noona, relax.” He smiles and you walk away. Your first day over, but couldn’t have been better.

The next morning you had to immediately report to EXO. It was time to start getting down to business. You walk in and all of the boys smile. You were still have trouble with their names. One of the boys ran up and handed you coffee. “This is for you noona. We didn't know what you likes so Minseok hyung got you his favorite, iced Americano.” You smiled. “Well good job, because this is my favorite too....” You trailed off hoping the boy would tell you his name. He laughed and pointed to himself, “I’m Baekhyun. But you can call me baek if it’s easier to remember” You smiled and jokingly said. “I should just have you guys wear name tags.” The door burst open and the leader of the group came in. “Here ya go guys, Name tags so our noona can learn our names.” This causes everyone ins the room to burst into laughter. When lunch time rolled around you were getting ready to leave when Chanyeol spoke up. “Don’t leave! We ordered lunch for all of us. So we could bond.” This caused a roar of laughter to rip through the room. “God Chanyeol, you’re making us sound lame!” Chen exclaimed. As you sat and ate with the boys you told them about everything that’s been going on since you got here. All of them looked really upset until Minseok spoke up. “Yeah but she totally put that bitch, Yoona in her place yesterday.” They laughed. You explained to them that you have pretty tough skin and have no problem calling people out. The rest of the day was spent helping all the boys with their personal social media accounts. Even the members who had them, but hide them. You made sure their accounts were locked down so no one could find them. Which was a task because none of them knew how internet security worked. Some of them had already been found and had to delete their accounts.

And that’s how EXO became your brothers. They made sure no one talked bad and if they heard anyone they were quick to defend you and smash the person. After you hit your 3 month mark, you were considered permanent. When that day came, the boys decided to surprise you. After work was done, they invited you back to the dorm to have dinner. This was your first time visiting them. Most of the time a few of the boys ended up at your apartment. It was almost like having 8 roommates. At this point, you stilled hadn’t met Yixing. He was super busy working on his movie and shows in China. Only coming out for concerts, which hasn’t happened until now. As everyone piles into the dorm you hear someone yell. “You guys are finally home!” Yixing runs in and hugs all the boys. When he gets to you he smiles with a puzzled look on his face. Baekhyun starts to explain who you are. “This is our new social manager! I told you about her Xing.” He smiles and hugs you. “Yes! of course. I’m so glad to finally meet you.” The rest of the night goes by with no issues. After dinner, Junmyeon hands you a present. You look at the boys confused as you open it. It was a contract. As you read through you gasped and felt the tears come up. Jongin jumps up and hugs you. “You’re ours forever now!” The contract was your new permanent SM contract stating that starting the next day you exclusively worked with EXO. Which meant, spending every waking minute with them.

As you’re hugging all the boys you see yixing talking to Minseok but cant hear what he says. “So Minseok, how is your little crush on our managers going?” Minseok slaps his arm causing Yixing to laugh out loud. When you got to Minseok you hugged him and thanked him. He lingered in the hug a little, which didn't go unnoticed by you. After the commotion died down, you helped clean up. Once you realized how late it was you said your goodbyes. Before you could leave Sehun spoke up. “Noona, did I leave my black Nike hoody at your house?” You think for a minute. “I think so! Walk me home?” you respond. What you didn’t notice was that Minseok was about to ask you if he could walk you home. Sehun walked towards the door and you followed. Looking back to see a sad Minseok with Yixing comforting him. You became confused, but quickly shook it away when Sehun yelled for you.

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flossinginthesunshine · 7 years

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From Chapati to Sticky Rice

People who have spent considerable time in India have repeated to us time and time again the same line, “India will change you.” And to neither of our surprises, this turned out to be the case. Here are few examples:

We learned quickly that every day would be a challenge, and that nothing can be taken for granted in India. Getting from A-B, finding a restaurant, finding a pharmacy, finding a bathroom, heck even walking next to each other in a crowd can be tough in Delhi. Travelling here forces you to maintain a calm and composed state of mind even in the most trying of situations. Given that timetables and stated schedules are meaningless, letting yourself get flustered at the first hiccup can be a trip ruiner.

True Statement: If you can travel in India, you can travel anywhere in the world.

We experienced sensory overload pretty much every day. I’ve never been in a place that had so many smells, sights and sounds ricocheting off each other at all hours. While we continuously felt overwhelmed by this, we soon learned to appreciate the vibrancy of the everyday chaotic routine of India.

Living healthy is incredibly easy to do when you put yourself in a healthy environment. For two months we didn’t eat meat, rarely drank alcohol and didn’t consume dairy. Restaurants aren’t marketed as “vegan” or “farm to table”... they just are. We found ourselves sleeping incredibly well, practicing yoga nearly every day and reading more than we ever had in our lives. There is a reason that India is the yoga and meditation capital of the world… it is the perfect cure for the everyday chaos of living in such a country. Our New Year's resolutions are to continue this healthy lifestyle as we continue our travels and re-enter the “real world” in April.

India constantly reminded us that the best way to get our questions answered was by talking to other people. Finding information online, if it exists at all, is often outdated and incorrect. The blogs we were reading tended to be 3-4 years old, and many of the restaurants/attractions we went out looking for had inaccurate pins on Google Maps. Instead of burying our heads in our iPhones, we were reminded of the old fashioned way of asking for help. Human-to-human interaction, to no surprise, was our lifeline when we were lost or confused (which was often). Locals were more than willing to point us in the right direction after we showed them a restaurant/guest house on on phone, and a few times they even walked us where we needed to go (without asking for anything in return) just to make sure we didn’t get lost.

Most important of all: trust your gut. If you don’t like a guesthouse, leave. If you don’t trust a taxi driver, look for another. If a menu looks questionable, the food is probably also questionable & you should keep searching. Letting your gut and intuition guide the way is the only way to survive long term travel in India. Decisions should be made from the heart and from the gut, not because a guidebook says something or Trip Advisor suggests it. The best way to experience India is through an open mind and flexible schedule. Things will go wrong, and your ability to roll with it will make or break your trip.

When we get asked about out two months in India we speak in incredibly fond and honest terms. We say “It’s crazy. You should go. You need to go. If you are able to slow down & let things happen how they may, travelling in India will simultaneously astonish you, startle you, and ultimately, change you.”

See you later India!

And just like that… exactly two months from the day we landed in Ft. Cochin, India, we hit the road for Chiang Mai, Thailand! Our 21 hour travel day looked something like this:

Alarm goes off at at 2:30, 2:35 & 2:40am in Delhi 3am taxi from Delhi guesthouse to Delhi airport 6am flight from Delhi to Calcutta 4 hour layover in Calcutta 2pm flight from Calcutta to Bangkok 8pm flight Bangkok to Chiang Mai 20 minute taxi from airport to guesthouse Bed at 11pm

^^ That is a cricket :)

From the moment we were dropped off in front of our guesthouse in Chiang Mai, we were struck by the silence that surrounded us. People weren’t honking their horns, dogs weren’t barking, construction wasn’t being done on every corner… we could even walk side by side without the fear of being run off the road. Compared to Delhi, Chiang Mai felt more like Disney World than the second biggest city in Thailand. It was refreshingly eerie.

Chiang Mai is the capital of Northern Thailand, and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. The charming “Old City” is a one-mile by one-mile grid, surrounded by a picturesque moat dating back to 1292. Buildings don’t rise above three stories, and there are cafes on every corner with reliably fast wifi. The developed, yet chilled out vibe of the city is what makes it one of the most frequented destinations for digital nomads and expats to settle in.

We spent our days exploring the city by pedal bike, and our nights eating street food at the market and listening to live jazz at a bar down the road from our guesthouse.

I ran a few times while in India, specifically in Goa, but gave up after being chased by dogs on more than one occasion. In Thailand I was able to run again, with the boundaries of the Old City creating a perfect four mile running path.

One afternoon we ventured into to the beautiful countryside for a traditional Thai cooking course. We arrived at an organic farm 30 minutes from Chaing Mai, and promptly went to work pounding green curry paste, stir-frying pad thai and chopping ingredients for papaya salad. After these dishes were cooked and eaten, we escaped to a set of hammocks overlooking rice paddies to sleep off our meal. An hour later, we were awoken by the chef to begin cooking our second round of food: fresh spring rolls and mango sticky rice. It was a successfully glutenous day.

7-Eleven's are on every corner in Thailand and are the perfect place to escape the heat (the AC is always on full blast). You can find everything from soy chocolate milk to fresh mango, and even pay for bus tickets at the checkout counter. Even the most run down 7-Eleven in Thailand is more helpful than most of our hostels were in India.

Almost equal to the number of 7-Elevens in Chiang Mai are the number of Thai massage parlors. In an effort to discern the quality establishments from the ones looking to prey on backpackers, we followed the suggestion of our guesthouse owners and went to their favorite place. A Thai massage is more in line with a 60 minute full body stretch session than a traditional western relaxation massage, which is why they get mixed reviews from travelers. The masseuse takes full advantage of their feet, legs, elbows and forearms in their attempt to stretch and contort our bodies into once thought impossible positions… and we loved it. At $6 USD for a full hour, it is no surprise that I returned a few days later for a follow up.

One afternoon we took out 40-year-old rented bikes and ventured to the only public park in the Old City. To our delight, the park was in pristine condition and full of westerners doing acro yoga, tai chi, and slacklining. We spent the next few hours doing yoga, reiki, reading, napping and admiring the acrobatics going on around us.

I’ve been getting beard trims throughout our time abroad, but the time had come for a proper haircut. We asked our guesthouse for a recommendation, and after showing us on the map where the nearest place is, they warned us not to go after 5pm because that’s when the barbers start drinking. It was 7pm... and we decided to give it a go anyway. When we showed up the whole family was having a big feast outside the parlor, complete with several bottles of alcohol scattered on the tables. They greeted us with big smiles and welcoming “Sawadees” (hello in Thai), and we asked, “Haircut?” A woman who looked like she hadn’t been drinking (too much) jumped up and led us inside. She threw a towel over my shoulders, we exchanged less than 10 words about what I wanted, and she started clipping away. Twenty minutes later, I had a fresh haircut and beard trim. If she had been drinking, she hid it well.

Once a quiet and somewhat remote town in Northern Thailand, Pai is now properly on the backpacker trail in SE Asia and can easily be accessed from Chiang Mai by a 4 hour minivan ride than includes 762 turns (they sell shirts in Pai say “I survived the 762 turns to Pai”). Once you make it through the harrowing journey, you are greeted by a delightful town full of vegan restaurants, reggae bars & backpacker bungalows. Pai tends to get a bad rap from old timers and long term travellers because of how rapidly it has changed over the last 10 years, but to us it was an oasis. The resort -- yes we stayed at a “resort” -- where we spent the week was 12 dollars a night for a private bungalow, which included a fabulous free yoga class each morning along with free breakfast.

We hiked one afternoon with our new friends from Auckland to a waterfall just outside of town. Per a few blogs online, we learned that a dog often serves as a tour guide on this particular hike. 15-minutes into the hike, a gorgeous pup strolls out of the woods and joins our ranks. For the next three hours Winston (as we named him) guided us through two dozen river crossings and patiently waited as we took photos at the waterfall. When we were ready to turn around and head home, Winston once again took the lead and showed us the way. Thanks for everything, Winston!

In Pai we went to the 12th Annual Pai Reggae Music Festival. Their were ads all over town highlighting the event, saying the festival was on Saturday and Sunday, started at mid-day and was located on the grounds of a specific hotel just outside of town. We popped the hotel name in Google Maps, saw it was a few mile walk from our place, and opted out of taking a taxi. After a 2.5 mile walk in the hills we made it to the festival!

Just kidding. Google Maps was wrong. We were nowhere near the reggae fest. We headed back into town, and ended up teaming up with other lost souls who were also searching for this mystical festival.

After another 2 miles, we finally made it! It was 4pm, and we soon learned that the festival didn’t start until 7pm. Our first question to ticket counter… “Why does your poster say mid-day?” Their response was, “Great question.”

We headed to the nearest restaurant to grab a beer, and found out that the entire restaurant was full of festival goers who also showed up too early and were now killing time playing cards, drinking beer and swapping travel tales.

We returned at 7pm with a whole crew of new friends, and boogied until midnight. Who doesn’t love Thai men singing in English with a Rasta accent? We sure did.

Camryn found a picture on Instagram a few weeks ago of a gorgeous sunrise in an obscure corner of Northeast Thailand that we hadn’t read about in any of our guide books. We asked a few people if they had heard of this magical place called Phu Chi Fa, and no one recognized the name. Immediately, we were intrigued. After two weeks in Chiang Mai and Pai, we were craving an off-the-beaten-track adventure. We got it, no doubt.

After a quick Google search, we read a few blog posts from travellers (dating back 4-5 years) saying that this town was their favorite in all of Thailand and not be missed. Details on getting there were hard to come by, as some said they took a bus there… others said the bus was no longer running and were forced to rent a motorcycle... some hired a private taxi. We chanced it on faith, and showed up at the bus station in Chiang Rai looking wide eyed for a sign saying Phu Chi Fa. And we found it :)

After a casual 3 hour bus ride, we were dropped off in front of a police station in a tiny village that only exists so people can visit the Phu Chi Fa mountain at sunrise. We read online that English is not spoken here, so we were all prepped and ready to use our hand signals and phone calculator to aid in bargaining. After a 15-minute walk down the only street, we found a gem of a guesthouse. We dropped our bags, ate a forgettable meal at a roadside restaurant by pointing at pictures of food on the wall, and went to bed early. Tomorrow’s adventure would come in only a few hours.

Our phone alarms greeted us at 3:30, 3:35, 3:40 and 3:45 am. We were out the door at 4am heading back to the police station to catch a songthaew (like a pickup truck with benches in the back) to take us halfway up the mountain. We were dropped within a 30 minute hike up to the top of Phu Chi Fa mountain, which we eagerly scampered up by headlamp with all of our warm clothes on.

We were one of the first to the top, however within the hour nearly 300 Thai tourists joined us. Not another westerner in sight, to our delight.

Trying to describe the sunrise would do its beauty a disservice, so I’ll just leave you with the pictures.

After a few hours enjoying the sunrise, we were back in front of the police station eating banana pancakes waiting for our bus to depart at 9am. Our next destination was Chiang Khong, a city on the border between Thailand and Laos. We arrived at our guesthouse in Chiang Khong and expected our $6USD a night room to be somewhat of a dump, and planned on heading into Laos the next morning. To our surprise, we were greeted by a gorgeous pool and fast wi-fi. Needless to say, we stayed two nights and spent a full day relaxing poolside. Treat yourself, right?

You’ll hear all about Laos in our next post by Cam. Thanks for reading!

Best, JJ

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lauren-nabors · 4 years

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COVID-19 Journal. Day 5

Day 5 of “shit got real” here - it’s Saturday, March 21. to update on a few things that happened this past week, first...

this past Sunday was when we felt the “shift” happen in our area. everything felt fine on Friday and really even on Saturday. Sunday morning almost all area churches (and across the country) had canceled in-person services and everything went online. we realized we could pop into a Redeemer (nyc) livestream service so we did that as we set on our couch and ate eggs. that afternoon we met up with some friends at hotel vandivort for a cocktail. we didn’t know when it would be that we couldn’t grab a drink with someone in person anymore. by Sunday night we had three confirmed cases and the government's “coronavirus task force” as well as the CDC announced that there would be a national press conference the following afternoon with new guidelines. they had already made announcements about canceling gatherings with 50 people or more. on Sunday the CDC also recommended for social distancing purposes that restaurants move their tables in the dining room to 6′ feet apart.

on Monday morning, clif and i went to both restaurants and we removed a bunch of tables and chairs. everything felt different. we were very slow. we had maybe three or four groups of people in our dining room for breakfast. the day went on and things began to feel more eerie. it was raining incredibly hard all day. at 2pm the press conference was held. I listened to it on NPR in the car as I drove down Fremont from Sunshine to Independence. the president announced that groups of 10 was the max and urged all American’s to stay at home, stay away from bars and restaurants and do their part to “flatten the curve.”

clif and i quickly got our managers together, about an hour after this was announced, to make a decision about how to move forward. we decided to move to carry-out & curbside delivery only. we made this decision before it was mandated, but we felt it was the right one to do our part for social distancing, as well as would allow us to cut our labor significantly in hopes of not losing too much money. turns out we were about 24 hours ahead of the game because by the next evening the city of Springfield mandated that bars and restaurants only be take-out and that all dining rooms needed to close immediately.

our staff adapted quickly. i am proud of how we stayed flexible, no one got too hung up on any details, and we all just did what we needed to do. we offered curbside delivery as well as let guests come inside to pick up orders or order and take it to go. we felt it was important that customers still be able to see our bread and bakery items. we went down to about 6 employees on the day shift and 3-4 on the night shift. everything felt surreal with the dining room closed. we started playing music loudly and slicing bread in the dining room next to the communal table. we left some of the lights off in the dining room and realized pretty quickly there weren’t all that many dishes to wash but the phones started ringing way more frequently. we kept adjusting as we needed. by the end of the week i think we had it pretty well figured out.

this hasn’t been easy. clif and i have worked every single day and probably will continue to. in order to keep labor costs low, we need to make up the difference. plus, we’ve had a ton of wholesale bread deliveries. that’s been the silver lining of all of this... because people started hoarding groceries (and there’s a nation-wide toilet paper shortage...don’t get me started) bread was scarce on the shelves in all grocery stores. national vendors like the Sara Lee’s and other commodity bread brands that fill up grocery store shelves couldn’t keep the nation stocked. so grocery stores started reaching out to us. we had two Price Choppers that we baked for, but we picked up 6 more in town. and all the Mama Jean’s (4 locations) that we previously baked just for their cafe’s put us on their shelves too. our bread orders skyrocketed. in the midst of this pandemic when restaurants are struggling and people aren’t going out, we had the biggest bake day to date of 672 loaves. jackie and clif and our bakers have had their hands full. the bakers began complaining toward the end of the week and had bad attitudes. clif and i wanted to kill them -- ungrateful little brats -- but we took a few deep breaths and hopefully over the weekend they’ll get some rest and some perspective. who knows how long they’ll have work and a fully loaded pay-check? i guess hindsight is 20-20, even though all you need to do is turn on the news to see that things are going to get worse before they get better.

as far as our emotional state, this has been one of those situations where action trumped our thinking/feeling. we sprang into action and adrenaline kept us going all week. plus, we’ve worked everyday and haven’t had a moment to stop and soak this all in. emotions got shoved aside for the last 7 days. it will be interesting to see how this does begin to seep out and affect us in the way we think, feel and act. i read something today from a therapist who said “this is trauma.” trauma is unexpected, it’s unpredictable, it’s scary... all of which the whole country has been experiencing for the last few weeks.

our friends and community have been super supportive. honestly the best part of this week has been seeing everyone come together. our customers have been so kind and just appreciative that we’re still open and still baking bread. our staff has been in good spirits for the most part. our landlords at our independence st. location sent clif and i a text on Thursday, completely unprompted by us. they said they’ve been thinking about how they can support us because we’re important to them and to the community, and so they decided to waive our rent for april and may and asked us to take that money allocated for rent and pay our employees with it. it brought both of us to tears. God is good and He provides. this wasn’t even something we were expecting and we certainly didn’t think it would happen so soon. we thought eventually, if things got worse, we’d have to go to them and ask for some relief. what a humbling place that would’ve put us, but the Lord allowed this to happen before it even got to that point. praise HIM! our bank confirmed that they will defer all our loans for two months, meaning the payment will just get tacked on to the back end and no extra interest will be charged on that. how awesome! so basically, at least for april and may, we feel confident we can pay our staff, as long as we can continue to operate. obviously if we get mandated to shut down entirely and we have no money coming in we won’t be able to pay anyone. even ourselves. that’s terrifying. i fear the economic repercussions of this will be far beyond what we can imagine right now...

that’s all for now. i’ll definitely keep updating because this has already proven to be an historical time for our country and world. i want to remember (even if I won’t want to remember for a while) and to document some of the things we experienced and felt during all of this.

just a few photos below:

saturday morning, march 21st, end of first week of quarantine

getting take out from our neighbor’s at Craft Sushi and trying to do our part to “support local” while others do so much to support us. see Lenny in the driver’s seat?

the Sunshine Staff, Thursday, March 19th

cleaning checklists and timers going off every 15, 30 and hour -- keeping to this religiously to keep a clean and sanitized restaurant

new record amidst coronavirus insanity!

beautiful loaves of marbled rye, baked on St. Patrick’s day, which was day 1 of the quarantine

#covid19 #coronavirus

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mikeyd1986 · 5 years

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MIKEY’S PERSONAL BLOG 140, January 2019

On Saturday afternoon, my parents and I checked into the Bellevue On The Lakes motel, located between the North Arm and Cunningham Arm of Lakes Entrance. We’ve actually stayed here before but this time we thought we’d try booking one of the apartments with a back end view of the lakes. As usual, the long three hour drive had made me sleepy and restless so I didn’t feel like doing much when we got here. https://www.bellevuelakes.com.au/

We did go for a walk down to the local ALDI store to buy some groceries plus relaxed outside on the front patio area. It’s a very spacious accommodation with a living area, sofas and large flat screen TV, glass dining table, a kitchen, bathroom, master bedroom and spare bedroom with a trundle bunk bed. There’s also a swimming pool and BBQ area located on site plus the Albert & Co - Coffee Food Catering restaurant, where we’ve actually booked for dinner tonight. https://www.bellevuelakes.com.au/facilities-home

On Sunday morning, we had a bit of a rocky start (literally) with one of the rear tires going flat on Rod’s car. Luckily we had a spare in the back and was able to change it over. We also discovered that someone (most likely one of the kids) who stayed overnight at Bellevue must have deliberately let air out of the tire as there was no sign of piercing or slashing. We briefly drove down to Paynesville to visit the Paynesville Community Craft Centre then had some lunch at The Fig Cafe.

There’s something really calming about watching the waves go in and out anywhere in East Gippsland. The scent was a mixture of strong brine, seaweed and salt water as a moderately cool breeze blows across my skin. Later that Sunday afternoon, we visited the Nyerimilang Park which is located about 10km North-West of Lakes Entrance. It resides on a cliff-top which overlooks many of the Gippsland Lakes and surrounding islands. https://nyerimilang.com.au/proddetail.php?prod=where-to-find-nyerimilang-park-nungurner

The heritage park contains a variety of bush walking tracks plus lots of plant and bird life. Then there is the Nyrimerlang Park Homestead which was originally built by Frank Stuart 1894 which would be his family home for fishing and shooting near the Gippsland Lakes. During the 1920’s, the homestead was passed on to his son Frank Stuart Jnr who extended the property, developed the gardens and hired a few housemaids and a gardener. https://nyerimilang.com.au/proddetail.php?prod=history-of-the-homestead

On Monday lunchtime, we visited the Lakes Entrance Mechanics Hall where they had an exhibition on to learn about dolphins, sponsored by the Marine Mammal Foundation. We discovered that there are only about 65 dolphins remaining around the Gippsland Lakes area each distinguished by the unique shape of their fin. It also talked about their diets, communication using echolocation and similarities in anatomy and bone structure compared to humans. https://www.lakesentrance.com/2-uncategorised/40-burrunan-dolphins?buttons=1&detail=0&tmpl=component

On Monday afternoon, we went on a short trip down to the Main Beach Lakes Entrance located over the Footbridge. I decided to bring out the beach shelter that I bought recently and set it up down near the red-and-yellow flag. I was very relaxing listening to the sound of the waves crashing down on the sand. I only dipped my feet in the water as it wasn’t hot enough to go in completely. https://www.lakesentrance.com/explore/beaches/item/main-beach

On Tuesday morning, my parents and I visited the Cells Cafe in Bairnsdale (located on Nicholson Street, close to Kmart). This is a regular attraction for us as Cells is run by Noweyung who provide disability and employment support services. The cafe staff are all local people who have disabilities and many different strengths and capabilities. They always provide excellent customer service, great food and are in a very friendly, relaxed environment. http://noweyung.org.au/the-cells-cafe/

On Tuesday afternoon, we dropped into Dahlsens Mitre 10 Bairnsdale and had lunch at the New Leaf Cafe. Considering it was lunchtime, the whole cafe was buzzing and packed with people so we were really lucky to get a vacant table. We decided to order some mixed sandwiches as well as cappuccinos. This is a very big Mitre 10 store with a garden and trade center, a variety of gifts, ornaments, decorations, outdoor furniture and bunches of flowers. http://newleafdahlsens.com.au/

On Wednesday lunchtime, we stopped at The Barn at Kalimna - Cafe 4.9 for lunch which is located on the outskirts of Lakes Entrance. The cafe is found inside a large barn-shaped dwelling with stunning views of the hilly landscape that is Kalimna West. We decided to sit on the opposite side underneath the market umbrella. I ordered the summer burger which contained crispy deep-fried chicken, pineapple, coleslaw, herb fries and a garden salad. https://the-barn-at-kalimna.business.site/

On Wednesday afternoon, my parents and I went on a lovely cruise aboard the Thunderbird boat from Peels Lake Cruises in Lakes Entrance. Departing at 2pm, we went on a two and a half hour cruise which covers Lake King and Lake Victoria via Metung, Raymond Island and Paynesville. We spotted lots of marine and birdlife including seals, pelicans, black swans, ibises, cormorants and herons. We also saw plenty of lakeside properties with their own private jetties and boats. https://www.lakesentrance.com/cruises/charter-cruise/item/peels-cruises

We stayed on the top deck for most of the duration until the strong winds and sun got a bit too intense for us and we moved inside near the captain’s cabin. My skin turns to burn very easily when it’s fully exposed to the sun so you best believe that I was putting plenty of sunscreen on the back of my neck, face, arms, thighs and shins. But for the most part, it was pretty relaxing and informative learning about the geography of the Gippsland Lakes. https://www.victorianplaces.com.au/gippsland-lakes

On Thursday morning, we went down to Lakes Squash and Movie Theatre and saw the movie Instant Family. It’s only a single regularly sized movie theatre but it does have air conditioning and less advertisements that a typical cinema does. This comedy drama directed by Sean Anders focuses on the issues of the fostering and adoption agency as well as the trials and tribulations involved with becoming foster parents. *START OF SPOILERS*

Couple Ellie (Rose Byrne) and Pete (Mark Wahlberg) spend most of the lives renovating houses. They are constantly egged on by Ellie’s sister Kim (Allyn Rachel) and brother in law Russ (Tom Segura) and get labelled as being perfectionists. That is until Ellie wonders about the idea of having kids. One night, Ellie spends time on the internet searching for child adoption and fostering and eventually convinces Pete that they should attend an information session about it.

There they meet social workers Karen (Octavia Spencer) and Sharon (Tig Notaro) who give them a “no bullshit” run down of the process involved in adopting and fostering a child. At the Open Day, Pete and Ellie really struggled to find the “right child” for them and against all odds, find a connection with a young teenage girl named Lizzie (Isabela Moner). But they’re in for an unexpected surprise as she comes along with younger brother Juan (Gustavo Quiro) and younger sister Lita (Julianna Gamiz).

The family are initially really reluctant and judgemental when Ellie and Pete deliver the news about adopting three children but they are adamant to prove them wrong. Through various support group meetings and several accidents, temper tantrums and outbursts of anger, the couple eventually work out that parenting is not as easy as it seems on the surface. The fact that it’s also a blended family with mixed nationalities makes things difficult, forcing them to learn Spanish.

Lizzie is very outspoken, dominating and impulsive. She is the oldest and at 10 years old, was forced to step up as a maternal role model to her younger siblings when her own mother was absent and abusing drugs. Juan is very shy, reserved and anxious. He doesn’t think before he acts and often gets into lots of accidents. He places the blame on himself a lot. And Lita is the youngest child. Very loud, bratty and misbehaves a lot but is also easily excited and demands lots of attention.

To add a further complication to the mix, their biological mother gets released from prison and then it becomes a family court issue as to whether the kids continue living with Ellie and Pete or are forced back into custody with their mom. This is a well written and directed family film that strikes the right balance between humourous and emotional moments, even touching on a few political issues like gay couples and their legal rights. *END OF SPOILERS* https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7401588/?ref_=nv_sr_1

I spent some of Thursday night watching the Australian Open Men’s semi-finals match between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Rafael Nadal. Whilst it was a fairly easy win for Nadal winning in straight sets, I was still very proud of Tsitsipas’ efforts during this match and his overall performance throughout the tournament. It’s sad that Tsitsipas was really hard on himself after the loss to Nadal but I believe that he will bounce back from this. https://wwos.nine.com.au/videos/tennis/tsitsipas-dumbfounded-after-nadal-thrashing/cjramhpy2001t0hrptyhb63xv

Stefanos Tsitsipas is an extremely humble, down to earth young talented tennis player. I honestly wish that we had more Australian tennis players like him. The only ones who hold a candle are Ash Barty and Alex De Minaur. It's good to see that he doesn't let his ego, level of fame and attention from the media destroy his sense of self unlike players like Serena Williams and Nick Kyrogios who act like spoiled, self centered brats! I can see a big future ahead for Tsitsipas!

On Friday morning, we decided to have breakfast at The Barn at Kalimna - Cafe 4.9. It was predicted to be a scorching 44 degrees in Melbourne today with hot gusty winds and a total fire ban throughout the state. It was already rising up to 33 degrees by mid-morning and so I could only stand in the direct sun for a few minutes before it really got to me physically. As I’ve said before, I really don’t cope well in extreme heat but luckily a cool change is on the way this afternoon which should bring the temperature down to the mid-20’s again. https://www.9news.com.au/national/2019/01/25/05/50/victoria-sizzles-as-it-waits-for-an-afternoon-reprieve-as-heat-scorches-most-of-the-country

On Friday night, I went to my HIIT + Circuit small group fitness class at CinFull Fitness. Due to the extreme heat today, I could sense that most people’s moods were pretty low and just feeling physically drained. Thankfully it was only around 26 degrees tonight and Cinamon decided to make it a low intensity circuit. We did 3 rounds of 45 seconds each exercise plus 5 overhead med ball squats.

First we worked on the lower body: Dumbbell Lunge pulses (10 each leg), Dumbbell hip thrusts, Lifted Heel Power Lifts. Then we worked on the upper body: Dumbbell flies and Dumbbell overhead presses, T-Bar Rows, Bench Presses and Bicep Curls. T-Bar Rows are something that I haven’t done before and it was a little awkward and confusing to do at first but eventually I got it.

Lastly, we did a short core workout which involved V-Ups, Med Ball Sit-ups, Bicycle Crunches, Scissor Leg Crunches and a Plank Hold. We were all in hysterical laughter by the end of it mostly because of how ridiculous these movements looked and how much we all secretly hate doing core workouts. But it’s also what makes going to these classes a lot of fun.

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