#just being genre aware many characters are gonna be tall.

[lazycranberrydoodles]

oooooh you want to read my huaxuan hookup fic sooooo bad

bonus :P

[hamliet]

What Does It Mean to Save?

I keep seeing it said that Deku, Ochaco, and Shouto will “save” Shigaraki, Himiko, and Dabi, but that there will be no redemption and/or no survival for them. I’m truly not trying to vague these posts and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but literary criticism is fundamentally responsive so I’m writing this anyways.

I personally think that’s not BNHA’s definition of saving nor of redemption. So here, have a deep dive into literary tropes related to redemption, genre, and character arcs as they pertain to BNHA and the question of: what does it mean to save Shigaraki, Touya, and Himiko?

Before we begin, let me say that while we might be personally uncomfortable with redemption (there’s a redemption arc in BNHA I am personally quite uncomfortable with), that doesn’t inherently mean the narrative won’t go there. The key principle I’m operating on here is BNHA’s message that heroes save people. It’s held up as the highest ideal. 

So let’s talk redemption in BNHA-verse. With this guy, whose redemption arc I dislike in principle but accept as part of the story so don’t come for me stans and/or antis. I’m analyzing because it shows us what redemption means in BNHA-verse, whether or not that is satisfying to you personally as it fits/does not fit with your own morality/philosophy.

If Endeavor can be redeemed and live, and he’s Bakugou’s negative foil, I highly doubt Shigaraki and Deku as well as Touya and Shouto and Ochaco and Himiko will be any different. Why? Because Enji is an adult character. The others--well, Himiko’s age we don’t know, but we do know that Shigaraki and Dabi are technically adults. But does the story consider them adults?

(It doesn’t.)

Child-coded characters are generally more likely to survive a redemption, which I’ll explain more later. First I have to define what I mean by child-coding, because I DO NOT mean this in the way it’s often (mis)used in fandom wank. Child-coding is a real thing, but it is not done to infantilize and it has nothing to do with shipping.

Child coding frames the character as a child for a few narrative purposes to convey a story’s theme or purpose. For example, if it’s a coming of age story coding a character as a child even if they legally are not emphasizes their journey to an understanding of self-actualization, or a true understanding of self with self-awareness and an understanding of self-value. An example of an adult coded as a child is The Kite Runner, wherein Amir is a legal adult for half the story, even married for fifteen years so we’re talking 30s-40s, but he does not truly become an adult until he returns to his homeland and takes responsibility for a childhood sin. In Attack on Titan, the main characters are now nineteen, but are still struggling to take responsibility as adults and have only started doing so now that their mentors/parental figures have started dying.

Along those lines, in any kind of story, you can code a character as a child of someone, regardless of biological relationship, to convey the type of relationship they have (usually a mentor one). For an example of this, see Bungo Stray Dogs’ Dazai and Akutagawa. Despite their two year age difference, Dazai recruited him to the mafia, abandoned him, and Akutagawa desperately seeks his approval. Usually in these stories a character will “overcome” their parental figure. This can be done through overcoming their need for the parental figure’s approval in stories where the parental figure is kindly (such as in Harry Potter, when in the final book Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave the Weasleys to find the Horcruxes despite Mrs. Weasley’s please) or through like, killing/stopping/leaving the parental figure when they are abusive (see fairy tales like Rapunzel and Cinderella). The parental link to self-actualization is because it is childlike (and a part of actual psychology that is reflected in literature) to see yourself as a part of your parent; self-actualized person would see yourself as a distinct person from your parent, but also acknowledge the ways in which they’ve shaped you.

So, how do you code a character as a child? BNHA isn’t subtle about it, because Horikoshi seldom is subtle about anything. The villain trio are all coded as children.

Shigaraki Tomura:

Who cannot achieve self-actualization so long as AFO has access to his body, as he’s literally trying to possess him. He’s trying, but it’s not gonna work because Shigaraki can’t keep AFO and become an adult at the same time. It’s a choice the narrative is setting up: your dream of destroying, or your freedom? (To get the latter, he’ll probably have to destroy AFO).

Todoroki Touya, who is repeatedly emphasized as a small child when compared to his siblings, and yes, I know he’s now tall. Specifically he’s spotlighted as the child of Endeavor:

And he’s the least self-actualized one in a lot of ways, contradicting himself constantly. I’m not Endeavor, DUH! But these are Endeavor’s flames! He’s gonna have to choose one or the other, because the tragic irony is that the more he takes out his rage on those around him, the more like Endeavor he becomes.

And Toga Himiko (who might well literally be a legal child), who is actually the most self-actualized one thus far, because she rejects Curious’s child insistence (Curious holds her in a Pieta pose, based on Michelangelo’s statue wherein Mary holds a deceased Christ):

She’s still got, like, a way to go though:

Because Himiko also wants to be like the people she loves to the point where she loses her own identity in them, which is er, not self-actualization. So she’ll have to choose whether or not she really wants to be like the people she loves or whether she wants to live her own way, which she herself tells us how that would end (death):

Deku said it himself: it’s good to focus on what someone is doing now. And look, I have issues with this statement and how it’s framed. I’ve talked about it at length and it was doomed to fail because Shouto himself told us long ago that it was annoying to hear a righteous speech by a stranger when you hadn’t gone through the same, plus Endeavor kinda failed by choosing being a hero over a dad here. But, the principle is that if the past doesn’t preclude Endeavor from seeking a better self, why would it preclude three characters coded as children, one of whom is literally somewhat the product of Endeavor’s sins? BNHA doesn’t think the past keeps someone from a better future. 

So what about Dabi’s counterpoint, which is indeed valid? Well, redemption doesn’t mean the past forgets, either. It’s complicated and nuanced, and we can debate how well Horikoshi strikes this nuance (it’s got its flaws), and admittedly I don’t know how this will go down in the future. But it is asking Endeavor: how do you redeem yourself to the people you’ve hurt? And we have Endeavor asking this question to Touya’s shrine. I mean, the foreshadowing is obvious. Endeavor has to redeem himself by trying to save Touya. However, it will still probably come down to Shouto to save Touya.

For our three villains, it’s a little harder to predict... well, sort of. For Shigaraki it’s extremely obvious: he has to help take down AFO. Dabi probably has to do something to help his family (siblings probably), but it’s vague. Toga needs help and not condemnation, but presumably she’ll help Ochaco with something.

So, is this redemption? I’d define it as redemption in the eyes of the narrative. To address what makes a redemption is another essay unto itself, but if we bring in the oft-compared Star Wars example: did Darth Vader get a redemption? Did Ben Solo? Everyone says yes to both. However, only Luke witnesses Vader’s redemption, and only Rey Ben Solo’s. So the rest of the galaxy? Doesn’t think so. When I say they’ll be redeemed, I’m defining it as their role in the eyes of the narrative, not whether or not society will accept them or even whether their victims will forgive them (of note, in canonical novels, Leia never forgave Darth Vader despite learning he was her father and obviously knowing Luke’s account of his redemption was true).

So, redemption in a narrative doesn’t mean all of society has to forgive and accept them. Dabi has still like, murdered 30 people--many of whom were thugs, but he himself acknowledges they didn’t deserve to die. Additionally, he himself also acknowledges that the families left behind--their feelings matter:

But why does that mean they have to die? Why even does it mean they have to languish in prison forever? (If there’s even a safe prison at the end of BNHA which I kinda have doubts about.) Heroes have also killed: see Hawks as Exhibit A. In fact, some people want revenge on the heroes precisely because they arrested or killed their loved ones (jail isn’t held up as a rehabilitative place in BNHA’s world. In most countries it isn’t in real life, either, but again that’s for another essay). So why don’t the League’s feelings on Twice’s death matter just as much as the feelings of unnamed and unseen (and thereby less important narratively) characters?

Additionally, regarding death... the villains routinely get called on their death wishes. Himiko’s determination to decide how/when she dies is called out because this is right  before Twice overcomes his trauma to save her, and the next arc they appear in is when Twice dies trying to save her again. Dabi’s suicide wish keeps him from getting close to others, and it keeps getting thwarted. Shigaraki’s obsession with destruction and death is clearly not a good thing, and his rejection of his family’s desire for them to join him in death this past arc is growth.

In other words: what Dabi said and what Snatch said about families and how they feel matter for the villains too. The villains are their own weird found family (Dabi as the deadbeat prodigal brother of both his families). Their deaths--Magne’s and Twice’s thus far, and I’m not ruling out further deaths in the future--affect the others. People’s feelings on losing loved ones matter. The villains are people, as Himiko said herself this arc:

Their feelings about each other matter:

How would Touya dying affect the Todorokis? At least they saved him spiritually, I guess, but that’s absolutely lame narratively, and if you have Enji eventually do a sacrifice to save Dabi (pretty likely, even if I personally think Enji will survive said sacrifice) then what’s the point of Dabi dying? How would Himiko dying affect society? As a martyr like Curious wanted her to be, even a redeemed one? A tragic warning story? What even is the point of Ochaco saving her if that’s the case? If Shigaraki dies, well, who would mourn besides Deku? How would Shigaraki dying affect the surviving members of the league? He just couldn’t be saved physically? 

It’s not impossible some of this happens, but it doesn’t seem like great writing, especially with panels like, oh, these that show us BNHA’s perspective on death:

Sacrificing something is a type of death that occurs in stories; this should happen in a redemption arc, which is why I’ve been saying Enji needs to sacrifice his hero reputation to help save Touya and even then it’ll still be Shouto imo who does the saving. But physical death?

If you want further analysis of the latter two panels and how they relate to the ending, see here.

We already have another villain who will definitely die redemptively (Kurogiri--an adult coded character--because he’s already, like, dead), and Spinner and Mr. Compress aren’t coded as kids so I hold them with anxiety towards the end. But again, this isn’t me being ageist or saying this is the way things ought to be in fiction or real life: it’s me looking at writing tropes and saying that child-coded characters tend to survive their redemptions. See: Zuko. Why? Because the death of children or child-coded characters is a tragedy. When a child-coded character dies redemptively it doesn’t feel like a happy ending and if framed as such, it’s often criticized for bad writing (see: Ben Solo). Curious even called this out in her fight with Himiko. I would hope Horikoshi doesn’t end the story being like yeah Curious was right that’s the best use of Himiko’s/Dabi’s/Shigaraki’s arcs:

Additionally, as for the believability of a character getting a new chance after so much destruction and murder... well, it’s kinda a thing in shonen and even in seinen? For better or for worse, it’s a thing. We have Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z and Kaneki Ken in Tokyo Ghoul (Kaneki, by the way, is absolutely an inspiration for Shigaraki). We can debate how well-written these redemptions are (I personally have been quite critical of Kaneki’s despite wanting it to happen narratively), but it can be done. BNHA’s Japan especially isn’t as harsh a world as Tokyo Ghoul’s Japan, so it would make even more sense for something like Kaneki’s ending.

The reality is that the cycle of revenge via hurting people and then leaving hurting families and loved ones has to stop somewhere. Someone has to be the bigger person and step up and be like “naw.” That’s heroic. That’s brave. That’s sacrificial itself. Justice itself doesn’t really exist in its purest form without mercy.

There’s another genre-reason I don’t see death or jail as likely (I could see, like, maybe a mental health ward like Rei’s? But it’s too soon to speculate).

If saving is considered a good thing for the story, if it’s truly the highest ideal, then saving someone should be rewarded by the narrative. The characters who save should have a positive result to show us this a good thing.

This is why it doesn’t work for the heroes’ end journey to be accepting that some people cannot be saved. The notion of just accepting that you cannot do something, you cannot save everyone, you cannot, cannot, cannot, is called out as a flaw of society. Determination, on the other hand, is rewarded.

We see it with Deku as well as with Mirio.

So, what if they save them and the redeemed characters then go on to sacrifice themselves in their redemption and die (come to the same end)? If saving changes absolutely nothing for the saved person, if it’s too late for the saved from themselves to change and/or do anything that matters besides die, then the narrative theme of saving as important is left unemphasized at best and undermined at worst. Simple intrinsic knowledge that the kids “did the right thing” doesn’t cut it for a story with so much focus on physical saving when the kids are already doing the right thing; moral struggles about whether to choose to be good aren’t really Deku, Ochaco, or Shouto’s arcs. It works for Aizawa’s arc with Kurogiri, but not for the kiddos. If BNHA was more of a philosophical/spiritual text, that would indeed make sense, but it is not. Genre-wise, BNHA is a fantastical superhero optimistic story, not a gritty real-world set drama.

[sweethq]

♡ how you become friends // headcanon

𑁍 Characters: Iwaizumi Hajime, Kageyama Tobio, Kozume Kenma, Ushijima Wakatoshi

»»—Trigger warning(s): none—-««

➶ Genre: hmmm fluff?

-ˏˋ A/N: I’m eventually going to do one of these for all of the boys I write for so feel free to request who you want to see next! ˊˎ-

even though iwa seems like a big tough guy on the outside, we all know that he’s a softy and such a kind person

soooooo if he ever sees anyone being mistreated, he’s gonna want to put a stop to it

you didn’t have very many friends at school, none, actually

girls at school would always torment you for no reason, calling you a freak, an outcast

you didn’t really understand why they felt the need to be mean to you, but you learned that things were never going to change and that trying to stop it would make things worse

it was typical for them to make it a point to ruin your day in any way possible

whether it was steal your lunch money, trip you while you’re walking to your desk, or ruining your homework, they didn’t have a problem with doing it

things like this have been happening for a while, but iwaizumi never saw these events happen until one day when your paths happened to cross

it was in between periods when the same group of girls shoved you into a nearby locker, making you drop your textbooks and papers all over the floor

iwaizumi turned at the crashing sound, seeing you on the floor quickly trying to gather your belongings, the group of girls snickering as they walk away from your shaking figure

he started to make his way over to you, wanting to know if you were okay

before he could reach you, the bell rang signaling the start of next period

you grabbed your belongings and hurried off to class, not giving iwa the chance to approach you

the only reassuring thing about the torment is that they limited it to only once a day

unfortunately for you, they were feeling especially mean today

you had just bought your lunch and sat at an empty table, silently excited to eat your meal as you weren’t able to have one yesterday (they stole your money again :/)

but before you could take a single bite, they approached you once more

“you bought me lunch? how sweet!”

proceeded to take the food that sat in front of you before walking away, leaving you with an empty table and an empty stomach

iwaizumi also noticed this event, he had been keeping a close eye on you all lunch period to make sure that nothing else would happen, but it did

he quickly made his way over to your table, soon hating the sight of your frowning face

when he sat down in front of you, you both just stared at each other i mean, i would if that big chunk of man was sitting across from me hhh

“are you okay? i saw what those girls did, are they always that mean to you?”

you just gave a small nod, wondering why the vice captain of the volleyball club was suddenly so interested in you

“here, we can share my lunch.” he handed half of his sandwich to you

“n-no, that’s okay!!! i’m not hungry..”

deadass rolls his eyes at you haha

“yes you are. eat it. oh, and if they ever bother you again, just let me know. i have no problem with telling them off.”

ha the way you meet kageyama is the best

it was like any other day, you had just inserted the money into the vending machine to grab yourself your daily box of milk

because you need your ~ c a l c i u m ~

however, you were not aware that this routine also belonged to another, and that other person happened to be standing right behind you, watching you purchase the last milk carton

you grabbed the milk from the vending machine and took a step to the side so that the person waiting behind you could take their turn

you noticed that the boy didn’t step closer to the vending machine but rather stayed glued to his spot

you shrugged and continued to detach the straw from the box and insert it at the top

as you were about to take your first sip, the boy spoke

“w-wait”

he was staring at you, eyes wide and meeting your confused ones

“uh, can i help you?”

“can i have that?” he was pointing at the milk carton that you held in your hand

you looked at the boy before asking him why he couldn’t just buy one himself

you even showed him the other milk cartons in the vending machine window after he tried to argue that you took the last one

“but i don’t want those ones”

“why not?”

“they... they don’t have an animal on the box…..”

you lOst it

you couldn’t breathe knowing that this tall, intimidating boy just told you that he only wanted to drink milk out of the boxes that had cartoon animals drawn on them

it was easily one of the most hilarious things you had ever experienced thus far

you decided to give him the milk that you had just purchased, not wanting the boy to have a permanent pout on his face

“okay, you can have this one. but, you have to buy me two tomorrow”

unlike the others, you actually met kenma when you guys were kids

you had just moved into a new neighborhood so your mom wanted to greet your neighbors and made you go with her

honestly, you didn’t really mind

i mean, all a seven year old wants is to make new friends, and this was a great way to do that

kenma lived in the house across from yours, which happened to be the last house you decided to visit

you were kinda bummed because the other three houses you had already went to didn’t have any kids your age; they were either too young, too old, or nonexistent

after your mom knocked on the door, a woman around the same age as your mom appeared

your eyes lit up when you noticed a boy your age sitting in front of the TV playing a video game

the lady, who you assumed was his mom, saw your bright expression and called the boy over to say hi

he slowly walked up to the three of you, his golden eyes peering through his long black hair

he stuck to his mother’s side like glue, his small hand firmly clutching the bottom of her blouse

“hi, i’m y/n! what’s your name?”

he just stared at you lmao

you were not going to give up. nope. you were gonna make a friend today if it killed you

“do you like video games? i like them too. whatcha playin?”

“dO YOU WANT TO COME IN AND PLAY WITH ME?”

to this day, this is the most emotion you have ever seen him display ha

it was like a fricken switch was flipped lol

poor boy didn’t have any friends to play video games with

so he was more than happy to invite this strange kid into his house just so he had a playmate

and ever since that day, you and kenma have been the closest of friends

you are NOT a morning person

so it’s no surprise that the first place you go in the morning is to the coffee shop down the block for your daily pick-me-up before school

you’ve had this routine for so long that all of the workers know you and have your order already made by the time you walk through the door

and likewise, you always have the exact amount of money ready to hand to one of the workers

everything was the same as all of the other days, except one thing

you had stayed up all night working on your studies and thinking about all of the problems that were occurring in your personal life wow its as if i’m writing this about myself

that said, you were 1000% more tired than you usually were

so tired that after you paid and picked up your iced coffee from the counter, you decided that it was a good idea to close your eyes for a couple of seconds while you were walking out the door

wHatS tHe wORsT tHiNg tHaT cOUld hAppEN

yeah so to your surprise, you end up running into a rather large figure

by ‘large figure’ i mean absolutely ginormous

and by ‘running into’ i mean completely knocking into them and pouring your drink all over their chest

you continuously apologized to the person in front of you, not even bothering to look up at them

but when you did, oh boy

that was one way to wake yourself up

ushijima wakatoshi stood in front of you with a blank stare on his face, his shirt soaked with coffee

if there was ever a time where you wanted to crawl into a corner and cry, this would be it

you had seen him around school and new that he was the captain of the volleyball club

you also knew how hard he can spike a volleyball and that he was notorious for being extremely intimidating

you were hoping that he wasn’t picturing your head as a volleyball

you were more than confused when he asked you if you were okay

you just stared at him like he was crazy

i just ran into you and got coffee all over your uniform but you ask me if im okay?? tf

even offers to buy you another coffee??????????

you start to believe that he wasn’t as bad or scary that people made him out to be

he’s just a giant teddy bear who wants friends uwu

[alistonjdrake]

June’s World Building Cheat Sheet Part Eight: I Didn’t Vote For You

*At least I think it’s part eight and it’s actually been five months since my last relevant post!

I’m kind of ashamed this didn’t occur to me when I was writing my first group of world building posts. It’s something I think about constantly in the genre I write and something I’ve definitely noticed other people struggle with because to some it’s not something that seems immediately apparent or like it needs to be fleshed out. 

What am I talking about?

When I first started sharing my fantasy stories online one of the most popular plots for other people in, near, and around my social circle was the story of the rebellion. Whether it’s the rebel princess or the dashing fugitive someone in these stories was always rebelling. I can understand why. Revolution is a pretty compelling story. However it was never clear what they were rebelling for, what they were rebelling against (besides a vague “monarchy” or something similar), and most importantly what they were going to do/reform if they won. 

That’s right people, buckle in we’re taking a deep dive into politics.

What is a Political Ideology?

In part five of this series I did go over creating political divides a little but that was mostly focused on a much larger scope (like nation vs nation). And while nation vs nation can still apply here we’re gonna be looking more at creating parties and ideology. So first, let’s borrow from wikipedia and answer this header question. 

In social studies, a political ideology is a certain set of ethical ideals, principles, doctrines, myths or symbols of a social movement, institution, class or large group that explains how society should work and offers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order.

Okay I know that may sound like a tall order so let’s break that down.

So what are politics? Politics are the activities associated with the governance of a country. So think of some of the things mentioned in my previous political post like ensuring clean water or sanitation needs (if that becomes a government responsibility in your setting). Now I know in that post I mentioned disagreements and what people would argue over and when forming a political party that is exactly how you should think about it. Take one of those governing activities and think of ways people would either debate or completely disagree over how or why it should be done. 

I tend to work backwards when it comes to this. To put it simply, and in terms of my own writing, Valera came before the Rusnaks. 

In my setting the “Rusnaks” are a defined ideology and party that exists throughout the continents, named after the man credited for either creating it or popularizing it for the masses. But the character Valera who first shows up in the stories is what I used to create the ideology before I gave it a backstory and more defined characteristics. It was easy to do it this way for me because Valera, at his core, was meant to be the complete opposite of the “norm” presented in the rest of the setting. As most of the characters are nobility, he was not. Most of the characters came from a very privileged background, he did not. Most of the characters were either allied with or had appreciation to faith and the church, he did not. 

When creating a rebel (or a rebellion to back them) it’s not enough to say they simply don’t like the monarchy. Why? What are their specific grievances with the current system in place? Much ideology sometimes comes in the space of a need that isn’t being fulfilled. What does this group plan to accomplish and if they are successful, how do they hope to change the system they dislike?  

On the other side, the opposing system should also be fleshed out, especially in settings when the government is said to be supremely powerful and oppressive and yet readers are never really told what the people in power want. Political parties have an agenda. They have a goal in mind. It’s good to say there’s an disagreement present but it’s not really a fleshed out argument if neither side seems to know what they’ll do if they win. 

Take it in pieces. Nothing that isn’t relevant should very grace the page but if your story has anything to do with politics like mine, there are probably certain issues the characters are aware of and may want to address. Use those issues that are already affecting the plot to expand on the ideologies that may be present/influencing the world they live in. 

A member of the royal family in my book is always aware and wary of growing support of Rusnak parties since one of their goals is to get rid of monarchy. A local lord might pay more attention to his charitable works and support of the public if he knows a local group is growing loud over class injustice. 

Agree to Disagree 

So I’ve started to touch on these points a little but I’m just gonna hammer them in some more. This, for the most part, is what I look at when grouping together political stances in my settings to create an ideology or party. Now, in the case that this party exists as a reaction to a system that’s in place my first question is usually:

What is their problem with this?

In fairness, this is not always the most basic question to answer but yeah, what is it? They live in a dystopian world or they’re fantasy peasants who don’t like their liege. Okay, but what specifically? What are their grievances? Is it a lack of representation for a certain group in the governing party (i.e voting rights or elected positions)? Is it the distribution of wealth (or lack thereof)? Are they mad because their local government hasn’t fixed the main road in a while? Is it not the government as a whole but just who is currently in charge of it?

What is their proposed solution?

You have a problem, now how do they want to fix it? Usually my problem with so many rebellion stories is the solution is “they want to get rid of the monarchy” and okay, then what? What do they want to replace it with? because multiple groups can stem from that vague statement and have completely different ideas of what they should do in the aftermath. 

What influenced them?

It had to stem from somewhere. As a collective did they wake up one day and suddenly realize they had different ideas than other people? Did they read a book they agreed with? Did another movement suddenly spark the growth and spread of people to sprout different ideologies (let us go back to the Enlightenment)? Did the advancement of society allow for the birth of a new class or different types of people joining an old one (and thus their needs changed)?

Hopefully by now you have a basic outline. At every point, it’s fun (and probably helpful for the setting) to think about why someone would oppose this when creating a group. Personally I think it’s very easy to make one group abundantly right and the other very wrong (usually in the case of dystopian governments) but it’s important to remember as readers we’re supposed to believe these groups gained popularity. That something about it as charming enough to get people on board and they supported it. What about it drew people in that no one has rebelled before or that other fractions have been largely unpopular or unsuccessful. 

To tie a bow on it, if you think about politics in your setting as problem solving it should become easier to come up with different ideas as to how to solve that problem. Those solutions can serve as the basis for the different ideologies or political parties present either among your characters or just in the background to give that world that lovely, June-approved, lived in feel. 

[thefanficmonster]

Close Call

John (The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope) x Reader (Female)

Warnings: SPOILERS, Swearing, Near-death scene

Genre: Fluff

Summary: Colleagues John and Y/N are stranded in the ghost town of Little Hope with four of their students. Will the two manage to save their group from the horrors the town has to provide for them? Will they both live long enough to see the next day and maybe finally come clean to one another?

Requested by @artlovingbre  Hello dear! Sorry to be posting your amazing request so late, hope it makes the wait worth it. I love John, he’s such a comfort character and he needs to be protected at all costs haha. Please enjoy the read! Love, Vy ❤

“Are you alright?“ Shiny eyes shed a concerned gaze on him while a warm hand hold his cheek, adjusting his head to a specific angle. “Try to open your eyes, John.“ She speaks in a soft voice, guiding him back to consciousness.

His eyelids lift ever so slightly, his foggy vision not doing the woman crouched in front of his slumped body justice. He can see the worry mixed with light fear on her features. Something about the look in her eyes tells him she’s seen something that mortified her.  John’s gaze clears up when he focuses on that exact element of her gaze, the one suggesting she’s not doing as well as she’d like others to think. He almost chuckles to himself at how signature of a Y/N move that is.

Y/N Y/L/N, the Business and Management professor who has recently been transferred into their college. In her early thirties, she’s only had about ten years of teaching experience but she has easily become the most liked and professor on campus. Her attitude and her teaching are basically a formula for success one can’t deny. She’s earned herself this job with a lot of work, having come from a much smaller and less-known college where she taught a class of roughly twenty people, she had to teach many other classes as well, considering she also possesses great knowledge in Economics and English Literature. She’s continued to do so, being a substitute professor whenever an English Lit or ECON one couldn’t make it, while also tutoring on the side. She has worked hard to make it in the world of knowledge and John finds her incredibly inspiring.

He met her when he was looking for a professor to cover for him while he got through the final preparations of the school trip he was planning for a group of his students. She would’ve volunteered immediately, he’s definitely certain of that, but this time around he was actually directed to her by a fellow colleague. Seeing her for the first time felt like he was witnessing a phenomenon he’s heard many people talk about but no one was sure it existed. He had heard whispers about her all over campus, she was rather popular - she had come to the college and brought a breath of fresh air with her, getting the students wondering and making assumptions about her. She carried herself with such powerful confidence, it got everyone thinking she’d be a strict, no-nonsense, stuck-up professor who asked for too much while not giving the students enough.

Needless to say, they couldn’t have been more wrong.

John has never connected to a person so quickly and easily before. The new professor was certainly something the school needed but no one could suspect it’d be someone of her rank. Even he felt he was below her and he has been teaching for twice as long as she has. There’s something so appealing about her, makes him want to never stop talking to her - if circumstances allowed for such a thing, he’s certain neither of them would run out of things to say. They have plenty in common, a lot of stories to share and a lot of advice to give one another despite him being the more experienced professor.

“What the hell was that?“ He mutters, sitting up in a more upright position.

Y/N scoffs, “You tell me. That man, he looked just like you. And....there’s no explanation for this, is there?”

They’ve just witnessed John’s double’s execution. It was a real torture to be exposed to such a horrifying scene. The death in and of itself was disturbing, but one can only imagine how the entire situation is messing with their heads - especially Y/N’s. She’s a person of logic, she likes being in the know and fully understanding issues and problems. She can’t just accept this illogical occurrence that has been happening to them all night. It’s tiring her out and driving her mad. Matters are a lot worse when you don’t know why they are the way they are or how they came to be. Knowing she functions based on this principle, John can’t help but feel bad for not being able to help her. Hell, she’s doing all the helping around here, he’s the one who blacked out when they returned from that hellish trip back in time.

Their students are surrounding them, all looking on with worry and confusion as to what they saw. These trips back in time have become common in the past our or two, they no longer question it when it happens, instead they focus on what they see.

“None as of now, but...“ He starts speaking, looking for words of comfort which are cut short when a sudden noise comes from somewhere nearby, amongst the tall grass and bushes.

It sounds like a fast movement, quickly accompanied by a growl-like sound that is enough to freeze the two in their spot while their students each took a step back, getting further away from the possible danger up ahead. John and Y/N get up hand in hand, eyes glued onto the now visibly rustling grass from which emerges a gruesome creature straight from hell. It’s not their first run-in with a monstrosity like this one - they faced the chain-bound one going after Angela; the floating, long-tongued one with it’s target on Taylor and the spear bearing one in pursuit of Daniel.

This one is his. It’s finally his turn to spin the wheel of fortune and see how likely he is to survive. 

His thoughts are racing, he can hear the thumping of blood in his ears. This is either gonna be his demise or a story to tell, the two options so far from one another, so surreal. They remind him how fragile his life is. How little it would take for him to be wiped off the face of the Earth, but how much effort he’d have to put in to save himself and the people he’s responsible of. Among them, a person he hasn’t been fully truthful with this whole time...

“GO IN THE HOUSE! NOW!“ Y/N’s voice grounds him, pulls him back to reality. She shakes his arm, yanking his attention to her, “John, we gotta move!“

The thought of one of these things even daring to get close to Y/N mortifies and angers him. He doesn’t want to run from these creatures, demons or whatever the fuck they may be. He’s done choosing flight.

“I’m sick and tired of allowing them the upper hand.“ He exclaims in frustration, looking around for something to use as a weapon. “Y/N, go inside. I’ll meet you there shortly.“

His words are insanity to her. She can’t even imagine leaving him behind as he’s suggesting, but she knows arguing would be futile. Instead, she backs away without as much as a word.

The demon starts approaching, this one’s movements a lot faster and more rapid in comparison to the rest they’d faced. John is aware he’ll need to stay razor sharp to even have a chance of survival, not that there’s much for him to do against an overpowered demon moving at that speed while all he has is the old sledgehammer he finds laying nearby.

He manages to get one good swing in, pushing the thing away, earning himself some time to put distance between him and the demon, but before he is able to do so, the thing is already charging at him and has him toppling to the ground, promising to seal his fate right here and now.

A sudden hit is delivered to the demon’s head with incredible force, giving John the freedom to stand up and look to see who his savior is as they go in for another swing with what looks to be a metal pipe.

It’s Y/N.

“Take that, you piece of shit!“ She yells, delivering another blow to the head. 

John runs to her side, guiding her away by the arm now that the demon is far enough away. Adrenaline is pumping through the both of them, keeping them on their feet despite the shaking of their knees. They attempt to make a run for the house, but Y/N’s movements are hindered by the chain that wraps around her calf, yanking her back and onto the ground.

John wastes no time rushing to her aid, using the sledgehammer to free her from Angela’s demon’s grasp and pulls her to her feet.  This time, the run to the house is successful. They make it inside, mildly harmed, out of breath and with rapid heartbeats. And with their lives, of course. Surprisingly, they made it in with all their limbs and their lives. That has to count for something.

“You suck at following instructions, don’t you?“ John asks Y/N after they briefly catch their breath.

She chuckles, holding the wrist she sprained when manning the heavy metal pipe as a weapon, “No, I just protect the people I care about. You should know what that’s like.” She bumps his shoulder with her, sending him a warm smile.

He sure knows what it’s like.

                                                               *  *  *

It’s all over. They are safe, back on campus. Shaken up, bruised and traumatized but alive and safe from any physical harm. For the mental torment they will be helped by professionals, friends and family. What matters is that they’re alive.

“Hey, um, I never got to thank you for saving my life back there.“ John hesitantly approaches Y/N once each student is picked up by someone from the school parking lot, presumably to be taken to a hospital. The two of them can’t go anywhere before they take responsibility for what happened.

Y/N grins at him, her tired eyes shining in the late morning sunshine. “I couldn’t leave my favorite colleague to die now, could I?” She laughs, placing a hand on his shoulder, “And thank you for saving my life.”

He returns her smile, covering her hand with his, “Couldn’t let you die on your first school trip, could I?”

She laughs again, shaking her head in what appears to be disappointment, “First and last. I bet I’m getting fired for this.” She looks down at her shoes, digging them into the pavement.

“Hey.“ He gives her hand a squeeze, grasping her attention  causing her to look up at him and meet his warm gaze, “I won’t let that happen. I promise.“

Y/N sighs and nods, exhaustion radiating off of her, “Alright, I trust you. Let’s just get it over with, shall we?” She tilts her head towards the entrance of the school.

Ok John, now or never. Just spit it out

“Um, Y/N?“ He says her name questioningly, causing her to turn to fully face him, “Would you maybe want to head to lunch afterwards? I completely understand if you’d prefer to be alone, but if you want some company...“ He trails off, rubbing the back of his neck, nervous as all hell. That’s really telling, considering they just escaped hell.

He resists the urge to close his eyes and cringe at how hesitant and awkward he sounds. Where is that bold side of him that wanted to fight a demon earlier?

“Sure, John. I’d love nothing more. Lord knows company is just what I need right now. I’d hate to be alone, I think I might lose it.“ Her response accompanied with a slightly shy chuckle sends an overwhelming wave of relief crashing down onto him, allowing him a sigh.

Sometimes, as John would learn, going through hell may be worth it when you consider the aftermath.

A chance with Y/N is his aftermath, and it just about makes the hell of Little Hope worth it. He’s yet to find out for certain though.

@sparrow-gg  @megandaisy9

[alwayschoosechocolate]

Disney movies and Mario Cart (jjk&myg)

After you started dating Yoongi, you’d accidentally neglected your best friend a bit. But tonight it was all about him and despite how many years it had been since college, quality-time with Jungkook somehow still entailed drinking games and stupid challenges.

Characters: NonIdol!AU, Bestfriend!Jungkook, Boyfriend!Yoongi x reader

Genre: Crack, fluff, drinking games (drink responsibly guys!), nudity (though nothing sexual), best friend shenanigans with Jungkook sprinkled with some boyfriend fluff with Yoongi.

Word count: 2200

A/N: Felt like a bit of crack is just what we need these days.

You can find my masterlist here

“So what are we doing today? Movie? K-drama? Video-game?”, you inquired as you plopped down on the couch and handed Jungkook one of the beers you’d just pulled out of the fridge.

It had been ages since the two of you had hung out alone. With 6 housemates and a busy work schedule paired with your 3 roommates and an equally busy life, finding time to just hang out like you used to do in college was proving very difficult.

Not to mention how much harder it had gotten, when you started dating his housemate. You had been terrified to tell Jungkook, afraid of how he would react, but it turned out he actually loved the idea.

“I never liked any of the other assholes you dated. At least this time, I know I can trust the guy you’re with,” he had shrugged, seemingly not even bothered enough to look from his video-game, leaving Yoongi and you standing sheepishly next to the TV.

Or you had been standing sheepishly.

Yoongi simply nodded at the younger with a subtle “okay”, before he grabbed your hand and led you back to his room for the nap you had promised him.

Despite Jungkook being okay with the dating, you were aware of how much time you’d spent with Yoongi instead of him. For a few months now all your free moments had been shared with Yoongi instead of Jungkook, and you felt kinda bad for how you had abandoned your best friend.

Thus this night.

You’d instructed Yoongi to take out the rest of the housemates so you and Kookie could have the house to yourself. You’d stocked up their kitchen with snacks and filled the fridge with beer. You’d been practically giddy happy the entire week leading up, popping into Jungkook’s room several times during the week to remind him to keep his Saturday evening free for you. Eventually he’d gotten so annoyed that he threw a shoe at you.

Nevertheless, he had waltzed into the living room with a huge grin when the others left. Not that you had doubted if he was looking forward to hanging out with you, but it had been nice to see him excited as well.

“We both know it doesn’t matter,” he laughed with a hair flip so he wouldn’t get beer in his long locks when he opened the beer and took his first sip. “We always end up doing the same anyway.”

“Then I have an idea until then,” you grinned mischievously as you grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked him closer to you by the hair, laughing when you heard him yelp at the sting. “Why don’t I take a scissor to this hair? Preferably really poorly. You really are getting too cocky, guk. I think I need to take you down a peg or two.”

“Aish, get off me,” he scoffed with a smug laugh as he applied pressure to the trigger point on your hand, immediately making your grip on his hair falter enough for him to pull away from you. “You just don’t like sharing me with anyone else.”

“As your best friend, I think I’m entitled to think so. Now where are those scissors?”

“You are not touching my hair, Y/n,” he whined with a laugh, swatting away your hands which were already going for his hair again. “Just drop it!”

“Alright, then you think of something,” you challenged with a laugh, taking a swig of your beer as you watched his face scrunch up in thought. “Don’t think too hard. You might burn out the last of your brain-cells,” you teased, earning you an annoyed shove and a loud laugh.

“Let’s just watch a movie while we eat and then we can play a video game or something afterwards?”, he suggested with a playful twinkle in his eyes as he pulled out his phone, delivery app already open on the screen.

Two pizzas later and a lot of beers, your movie-watching had, true to tradition, turned into a drinking game.

When you choose your favorite Disney movie you’d been sure he wouldn’t be able to turn it into drinking.

But leave it to Jungkook to combine Tarzan with the hardest version of a drinking game you’d yet to survive.

“Son of man, look to the sky. Lift your spirit, set it free. Someday you’ll walk tall with pride. Son of Man, a man in time you’ll be,” you screamed at the top of your lungs, completely off-key and with tears streaming down your face.

“You gotta finish your drink if a song makes you cry,” Jungkook cackled with alcohol-rosy cheeks as he grinned triumphantly at you, earning a scoff in return though you finished your fifth beer diligently.

“This isn’t fair! You know I always cry to this movie,” you pouted as you reached for a new beer, just in time to drink when Tarzan tree-surfed on the screen, touching your bottle to Kookies beforehand.

“I do. Which is why I choose that rule.”

“Fine! Then I’m choosing the next game,” you laughed mischievously, getting a cocked eyebrow in mistrust from the man next to you when he saw your evil grin. “I challenge you to Mario Cart!”

“Really? We haven’t played that since college,” he snorted at your excitement, though there was no way he would back down from a challenge.

“Yes, really! But not just Mario Cart,” you grinned knowingly, laughing at his confused look which suddenly lit up in realization, causing him to turn to you wide-eyed with a smug chuckle.

“Oh, that kind of Mario Cart? You sure Yoongi wouldn’t get annoyed at you for playing that with me?”, he challenged with a confident smirk.

“Considering you’ll be the one losing anyway, I don’t see why he should mind,” you hummed, mirroring his smirk which grew to a grin at your words.

“Alright Y/l/n. Bring it on!”

“What are you guys doing?", Namjoon laughed as he entered the living room a few hours later spotting you and Jungkook on the couch both only in your underwear.

"Are you really playing Strip Mario Cart? I haven’t seen you play that in ages," Taehyung chuckled as he eyed the two of you from the doorway, making Jungkook furrow his eyebrows in annoyance when he caught his friends eyes travelling your body.

"Ya!", he shrieked, clumsily throwing his body on yours trying to cover you up. "Don't look at my best friend like that!"

"They've seen me in a bathing suit countless of times. Calm your testicles, Jeon," you groaned, as you pushed his body off you, making him huff as he hit the floor and Namjoon and Taehyung cackle, before they both walked out with a headshake.

Giggling drunkenly, you picked up the controller once more.

"Come on, guk," you exclaimed, wiggling your eyebrows at him. "You've got one last chance to keep your clothes on."

"Ah, and I will win this time!", he shrieked from his position on the floor as he picked up his controller again.

"Yeah, that would be a first," Jimin huffed out in a laugh as he strolled into the room and sat down on the couch, earning a smirk from you and a scowl from Jungkook.

“You ready, Jeon?”, you shrieked as you started a new game on the screen, getting nothing but a nod back from the boy on the floor.

Sliding off the couch to join him on the floor, you shoved him playfully just as the race started, making him whine out protests of cheating through out the game, as you laughed triumphantly next to him.

"Yes!! Take it off, Jeon," you taunted, as you did a little victory dance around the living room a few minutes later, watching Jungkook try to shimmy out of his boxers without exposing too much skin as he hid his crotch behind a pillow.

"Hi babe," you grinned at Yoongi as he walked into the room, nearly choking on his drink at the sight of Jungkook completely naked and you only in your underwear.

“Okay, you take it from here,” Jimin chuckled as he got up from the couch to walk out. “I don’t know how to handle either of them when they’re like this.”

Laughing at Jimin’s words, Yoongi turned back to the scene in front of him with an amused smile as his eyes fell on you.

"Hi button," he chuckled, placing a soft kiss against your hair before sitting down on the couch behind you. "Why aren't you wearing any clothes?"

"We're playing Strip Mario Cart," you giggled proudly, as you turned back to the screen. "When I win this round, I win the game," you bragged, grinning at Yoongi who just shook his head at you.

"IF you win this round," Jungkook corrected you with a huff, as he repositioned the pillow so he could sit down without flashing anyone.

"Sure, as if you winning at this point is still a possibility," you taunted, making him pout at you which only looked utterly ridiculous with his toned chest on display.

Putting down the controller a short while later, you watched Jungkook hang his head in shame as you celebrated your victory by jumping into your boyfriend’s lap.

"What do you think, Yoonie?", you smirked confidently at him, earning a lazy smile in return. "You're up for challenging me? It'll be easy. I'm only wearing two items," you said, gesturing to your underwear and bra, giggling as Yoongi pinched the bare skin on your hip.

“I’m not gonna play you, kid,” he stated softly as he circled his arms around you, getting goosebumps at the feeling of your warm skin against his when he pulled you closer in his embrace.

“Why not? Are you afraid of losing? I know you’re bad, babe, but there is no way you’re that bad,” you sniggered drunkenly as you made yourself small in his embrace and snuggled up to his chest.

Humming against your neck and jaw, he feigned considering it as he pressed kisses and soft licks against your skin. Feeling you turn to putty in his hands, he couldn’t help the cocky smile appearing on his lips.

"I'm pretty sure, I don't need to best you in a game to get you out of your clothes, button," he grinned against your earlobe as he nibbled teasingly.

“Oh come on, guys. You know the rules,” Jin’s voice cut through the living room as he threw the two of you an annoyed glare. “No sex in the shared areas. Nobody wants to see your bare ass, Yoongi.”

“As opposed to Kookies?”, Yoongi snickered, gesturing towards the boy who had fallen asleep on the floor on his stomach, leaving his ass uncovered in the air as he snored away.

“Well that one is on Y/n,” Jin laughed at their youngest, before sending you a poor try at an accusing look. “You’re the one who got him this drunk.”

Laughing at your best friend’s predicament, you pushed yourself off your boyfriend’s lap and grabbed the blanket from the couch before spreading it out over his naked form on the floor with a chuckle.

“There we go,” you stated, sending Jin a proud smile only to see him huff out a laugh on his way out of the living room, before he shouted a goodnight back to you.

Looking back at Jungkook’s sleeping form again, you couldn’t help the fond smile on your lips as you took in his peaceful features. He always seemed at least 10 years younger when he was sleeping.

Feeling a pair of arms snake around you waist, you instinctively leaned back against his chest and pulled his arms tighter around your form.

“I take it tonight was a success?”, Yoongi mumbled against your neck, pressing small kisses to your skin in-between his words.

“Definitely,” you hummed in response, letting your head fall back on his shoulder with a sigh as you felt the alcohol buzzing through your veins.

"Wanna go to bed?”

Nodding sleepily, you heard him chuckle in response as he gently led you to his room.

Pulling one of his t-shirts over your head and flopping down on his bed, you made grabby hands towards your boyfriend across the room only to have him answer with a fond headshake.

“Go brush your teeth, button. I’ll be right back.”

Slipping out of his room, he missed the pout you were sporting as you got up from the bed again with a huff to brush your teeth. When you slipped under the covers again a few minutes later, he still wasn’t back and though you put on a fair fight, sleep was pulling heavily at your eyelids.

Seconds away from drifting off, you finally felt your boyfriend’s arms around you as he slipped in bed beside you.

“Where did you go?”, you whined, shuddering slightly when the cold air hit your bare legs, before he pulled the covers over you again.

“I had to take Kookie to bed. That kid is a lot heavier than he looks,” he chuckled against your warm skin, grinning fondly when he felt you entangle your legs with his.

“I could have helped you with that,” you mumbled groggily.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think it was necessary for you to see his dick. I know you guys are close, but still,” he snickered earning a drowsy laugh from you, though he wasn’t sure you’d actually heard what he said since it was immediately followed by a soft snore.

Chuckling soundlessly, he pulled you closer in his embrace as he shook his head lightly at the thought of finding you only in your underwear because of a game of Mario Cart with Jungkook. 

“How am I ever gonna keep up with you, button?”, he mumbled as he pressed a kiss to the top of your head. 

[indieks]

Two Nights, One Da(y)te 🌒 Lee Jooheon | 1.5/2

🔥 Pairing : Lee Jooheon x Reader

🔥 Genre : Soulmate!AU, Angst, Fluff, Suggestive (light)

🔥 Word count : 25.3k

🔥 Synopsis : He should have been just another Tinder match you would have swiped off your life just like you swiped your thumb on your screen that night, hadn’t it been for the deep connection that bonds you to him. He is your soulmate, you are a girl he can’t help but get attracted to. You are seeking for the perfect relationship, he is trying to stay away from love. Would the few times you come across each other be enough for your opposite hearts to face the same direction?

Part 1 /\ Part 1.5 /\ Part 2

🔥 A/N : I don’t know where I should begin... I’m so relieved to finally be able to publish the sequel of this story, but I’m so sorry at the same time for being this late. My past year (I can’t believe it’s already been a year) has been hectic and busy, my studies being the most intensive and time-solliciting ever. But I’ve managed to type a few words here and there, to finally come up with this part ; and no, it isn’t the ending one like I had planned to, because I had so many things to tell that it would’ve been too long, so I had to cut it into two!

Anyway, I just wanted to thank every single one of you who’ll take the time to read this, especially if there are some of you who were still waiting... I’ve missed Tumblr and I hope you’ll like it!

Disclaimer : the few new named characters I’ve introduced are purely fictional, I’ll just let your imagination be!

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"You're dozing off, again" a low voice finally snaked its way into his closed eardrums that had muted any possible sound buzzing around him, letting his messy thoughts rule over his focus and his awareness of where he actually was.

Jooheon snapped his head towards the left to peak at his interlocutor, being met by his bartender colleague's sad smile, Wonwoo, who shook him lightly as he had landed a friendly hand on his shoulder.

"You should take a break" he then suggested to the reddish-haired boy who looked back at him like a deer caught in the headlights.

"W-What? No, I'm fine, I'm sorry I just… Got a lot on my mind lately" Jooheon then brushed his offer off with a forced smile of his and a gentle nod to ask for his understanding and forgiveness.

"Hyung, I've been taking over your third customer because you've left the counter to take a bottle of vodka like five minutes ago yet never came back" Wonwoo chuckled, releasing the tensed muscles of the man next to him from his grasp.

"Five? No kidding? Wow shit I'm so sorry" Jooheon apologized again before sighing, his now squinted eyes meeting his own reflection in the glasses that were plastered behind the rows of bottles at the back of their bar.

The night club's neon-lights painted his face in warm colors, contrasting with how pale and  expressionless it had been for weeks now. He looked miserable in spite of the fancy hairstyle he had put effort in and his attempt to feel confident by opening his shirt a little bit too much for the ladies – in vain, as his mind wasn't even here to actually catch them lurking.

"It's okay hyung, I can see you're going through hardships lately. So if you need to take a small break, go ahead, you'll pay me back later" his tall friend reassured him before turning back to their counter where a crowd of thirsty people was already asking for his services.

Jooheon's knuckles that had indeed been around the bottle of alcohol he had indeed intended to bring back to the front weren't fed with blood anymore as his clench tightened around it. He was confused as hell, hell he thought he had already been living in all this time but which seemed to have darkened and deepened with discomfort ever since he had sent that very message to you and you had had the last word.

He could almost recite your answer by heart aloud, as he had come to read and reread it, the words planting swords of doubt, regret, and want in his body. And if he had managed to push it aside most of the time by busying himself with work at the club or on some music, it only took one glimpse of your face flashing randomly through his head from time to time, for him to get blocked into a quicksand of thoughts about you, about his feelings, about his choices, and his mind would be on full stop just like it had now.

But five minutes straight… Wow, that was a record.

You [00:44 a.m.] : I'm alone at my place, so now I have nothing to distract me anymore… I shall finally muster up my courage after hours of thinking about what to actually say. I don't know if I'm mad, upset, frustrated. Maybe a mix of them three. I'm sorry if I'm bothering you with a heavy block of words but I'll just let it all out. I spent a wonderful night with you last time. And as I told you back then, I like you, and I'm sorry. I like you and I can't do anything about it, I'm almost bothered by it myself, because you kind of warned me about your issues. Maybe I was the only one feeling this way, but that night was really special to me, and that independently of the fact that you're my ideal. Special enough for me to stop thinking about what should come next, which is sooo unlike me. And I thought I had somehow convinced you to do just the same, appreciating that thing between us. Between us, yes, as in from me to you, but also from you to me, because I felt like it wasn't one-sided. I shall thank you for trying to explain yourself again and your decision, but I'm having a hard time understanding why everything that had apparently made you come to me suddenly disappeared, or why it wasn't enough again for you to let things unwrap on their own and see where we would end up. See, I told you, I'm not enough, not even for my soulmate haha ! Anyway, I'll have to respect your decision because I can't do anything about it, right?"

Everything had gone well that night. Jooheon hadn't felt the time run out through his fingers wrapped around your waist, molding perfectly against your skin as if they had been supposed to land just there. Everything had gone so well, that he had thought he would finally be able to overcome his insecurities, as the way you had freed him from his knots of thoughts and his heavy shell had definitely showcased how special you were, reason why he had made a move first the afternoon following your leave and started a conversation.

However, the time with you and the messages you had exchanged had only been a suspension of the weight crushing his heart, and not its eradication. Because soon, the ghosts of Jooheon's lack of trust in himself had come back floating around him ; he had then realized he still felt betrayed too much to finally draw his sword and fight them, and chase the light you had shone on him.

Yet, why turning away from you was continuously bugging him even after three weeks of cutting ties? He missed your daily chatting, he missed your reassuring presence, and he somehow missed your touch and your lips. With just an encounter, a night next to him, and some text messages 'til the morning light, you had lodged a bullet right at his heart and the wound was spreading your print through his whole body. And now, it was as if he had run away, but with his eyes looking back at you all the while ; with the strings pulling at his bloody organ held by your hands ; with his mind paused back in that past night with you, unable to make him sort what was supposedly waiting for him onwards.

He had made this choice with the conviction that he still needed some time alone to go ahead with his life and mostly sort it out, but right now, what was left in front of him was only a battlefield of endless question marks, blocking his vision of where he should land his next footsteps away from the crossroad where his path had met yours.

Shit, he was regretting.

"Why did you change your mind, all of a sudden?" Kihyun asked him as Jooheon had ended up taking a short break with the encouragement of his colleague, and he had joined his group of friends who were sitting down at one of the fancy tables in the club.

They had been avoiding the subject for a while now as they knew how sensitive the bartender could be ; however, as the latter showed them how uneasy he felt about his decision himself to the point it had now impeached him from working correctly, Kihyun hadn't been able to hold it in any longer.

"What do you mean" Jooheon mumbled nonchalantly as he poured himself a glass of soda from one of the bottles of soft drinks they had spared.

"You told us that everything had went well that Friday night. I hadn't seen you smile like that when receiving a text for ages. So what happened, Jooheon-ah?" the boy specified, a worried expression clear on his face as his brows were furrowed and his little eyes were shining.

"In other words : why did you pee on yourself?" Changkyun tackled his friend intently, so that he'd gain a reaction from the zombie he had been all over again as if they were back when she had left him – and maybe, as a bonus, a spontaneous answer.

Bingo.

"Would you leave me alone, please? I feel like my head's gonna explode from all the overthinking about this already, so no need to add your questions to it, thanks!" Jooheon barked back at them, gulping down a huge sip from his glass before smashing it down on the table with a trembling hand.

The beverage was refreshing, but what he needed right now, were the flames of liquor to burn his insides so that he wouldn't feel them twisting anymore.

"Hey, we're trying to help here, calm down" Hoseok, one of the players of his ex-football team, warned with a hurt frown.

"Wanna know what I think?" Minhyuk spoke up, and he got an eye-roll in return.

"Actually, not that much…?" Jooheon tiredly inquired, because he knew what was about to come out of the blonde's mouth.

"I know you like the back of my hand Jooheon-ah, and what I'm sure of, is that you simply chickened out because you like the girl. And right now, you're having a headache, because you're just admitting it to yourself yet you don't know if you do want to take the proper actions that go with it, or not. I told you, that your heart doesn't give a damn about what's settled in your head" Minhyuk ignored his answer and looked him in the eye, unphased by the angry glare the fiery-haired boy shot right at him. "And while you're at it with your overthinking, just ask yourself the right questions : Did I enjoy the time I spent with her? Yes or no. Would I like it if I see her again? Yes or no. Do I wish to talk to her? Yes or no. Did I like kissing her? Would I like it if it happens ever again? Yes or no. If everything's a yes, then let me answer for you : maybe putting an end to it wasn't the best of choices, no."

"Leave me alone with your psychanalysis" Jooheon barely replied through gritted teeth, hating how that friend of his always managed to nibble right at the sensitive spot.

"We're just seeing that you're not… As okay with your decision as you've been when you had stories with no tomorrow up 'til now. And I think it's a shame that you're letting your doubts take the best of you like that, because Y/N really is a great girl and I swear she's really into you-" Kihyun started, but he got interrupted by Jooheon standing up roughly.

"I've had enough."

"Jooheon-ah, wait" Hyunwoo, the eldest of the group, got up on his feet as well in an attempt to prevent him from leaving.

"Aren't you supposed to be the ones to understand me and cut me some slack the most? You know how fucked up my mind is, you know how hard it is for me to find a solution to that blocking, you know ALL OF THAT! I've listened to you, I've tried to let myself go, but I just can't, okay?! See in what it resulted! I hurt a nice person, and I'm going crazy because I don't know why I can't make it work out this time as well!" he burst out and once he did, his eyes grew wide as a wave of guilt crashed against his head walls.

He regretted having taken his buried frustration at them. Hyunwoo took that opportunity to grab him by the nape as the boy's head had dropped in shame, before he presented under his nose the rest of the glass he hadn't finished but with a hint of whiskey he had poured in it, a gesture of comfort Jooheon had needed instead of the lecturing and review of his love-life.

"This time it's definitely different, you like her, and maybe that's why you're even more scared. But we just think this could actually be the way out of it, your attraction to her. If only you had hung to that a little bit more… Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to anger or hurt you" Minhyuk stepped towards his buddy, giving him a brief hug, before he left to get himself a strong drink at the bar.

If only Jooheon was brave enough to hold onto the rope you had caught him with, yes. If only the fight with his mind was that simple, yes. If only he hadn't already forfeited, yes…

*

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*

"You're dozing off, again" Jiwoo whispered from her seat facing you, her two eyes peeking at you over the thin panel between your two desks, and you blinked rapidly to bring yourself back to reality.

That poor, lonely, empty, reality you had been breathing in for three weeks now but that was suffocating you, as all the words you wished to tell him and all the ones you regretted having said were stuffed at the back of your throat.

So that was how it was supposed to feel, having bathed in the perfect world of soulmates only to drown in loneliness then harshly dry if it ever came to an end? You felt totally, inevitably, unbearably lifeless, your soul being trapped into the wonderful moment you had spent in his company but that you had a hard time labelling as a simple "good memory" now that everything was over. It was as if his lips on yours had taken all of your willpower to remain careful when it came to love, as you felt now tenfold worse than after your past breakups.

All of your usual imagination and enthusiasm had been swept away by your emotions that got the best of you, as Jooheon had stepped on the last thing that had implicitly kept you going with your life confidently after your previous heartbreaks : hope. You had hoped to find happiness in him, you had hoped that his smiles at you, his wish for you to stay, his sweet and deep kiss in the morning, his hands lingering around your frame as you had told him you had to go, his messages popping up on your screen afterwards, were the signs that you may have found some arms to engulf you ; but he had proven you wrong with his change of mind, or maybe, to your despair, his change of heart.

Once again, the power of feelings hadn't been enough for you to keep him by your side, for him to come to you fearlessly, for the both of you to enjoy the ride and see where it would take you, blindly. And because the law was a witch that had casted an awful spell on you, you got to experience the weighing sensation of melancholy as you couldn't help but think of him.

A raindrop would make you think of him, as the shape of his mouth made it seem as if he had a small one always hanging from his lower lip. The sound of a car passing by, as it reminded you of the numerous taxis you had tried to stop before you had decided to take yourselves home by feet. The dimples of one of your colleagues, as his were the cutest you had ever seen. The scent of beer or dumplings, as it was the first – and last – late night snack you had shared with him. The orange and red lights at a stop, as the strands of his hair were tinted between those very two colors.

Anything in your daily sight of banalities managed to link itself to a memory of Lee Jooheon, and every time, it was another sigh leaving your mouth. Funnily though, it somehow helped you to understand how hard it could be for him to move on from his ex and let his heart beat for anyone but her, as for now, you felt like you couldn't give yours to anyone but him, and that until a long long time.

He was your ideal type of man, and unfortunately, he had also made your heart flutter. He matched your dreams and the reality of your feelings, and it hurt, pretty badly. The bittersweet taste of what you barely could call a relationship dried your mouth that only craved for his to grace it all over again with sweet kisses and caresses of his tongue inside of its walls.

"Stop checking your messages" Jiwoo guessed as she spotted how your eyes were lingering down on something on your desk, and you almost whined as your lips formed a pout.

"Remember what the cards told me last week? That he probably would text me…" you retorted shamelessly.

"This application is bullshit and you know it, and it told you that he might think of sending you something, not that he would actually do it in the end" your colleague countered in a sigh.

"You remember quite well for someone who's so sceptic about astrology and so on…" you chuckled and she tsk-ed at you.

"It was funny because we were drunk" she admitted with a shrug, before regaining a stern composure. "More seriously, Y/N, I'm sorry to tell you this but it's been three weeks already… I know he's your ideal, but it doesn't mean he's the absolute perfect man you need for real, y'know? Life goes on, and as you've always told me, true love always wins! I'm just sad to see you still like this!"

You addressed her a smile as you saw how hard she was trying to reason you, but the you who had been so reasonable those past months, was long gone and replaced by a desperate girl in need for a romantic-comedy-like unfolding to happen in her life. In the movies, he would actually send you the message ; he would have been thinking of you in his bed until late late night ; he would have realized that he…

That he liked you. If he ever did.

Your heavy eyelids that supported a lazy gaze fluttered tiredly as you turned your head to the window showcasing a lining of buildings warmed up by the setting sun that hadn't fought with any cloud during the day, as if it was laughing at your gloomy state.

"Yes I'll send it to you next morning" a sweet but clear voice caught your attention from the other side of the room, and your heart did a small jump as you shifted in your seat to catch a sight of Yoo Kihyun entering the open space with a phone stuck between his ear and his shoulder, and his eyes suddenly fell on you, his face then breaking into the most welcoming of smiles.

You adored him. He was a hard working senior who was straight in his shoes, never failing at his tasks, always ready to help, always giving his opinion in the subtlest of ways, always supporting your projects ; he was kind of your mentor at work, while Jiwoo was your right arm, and if usually meeting with him every day was pure happiness, now you couldn't help but get strangled by the hands of questions about Jooheon every time Kihyun would look at you or talk to you. He was the most vivid yet most embarrassing of remaining links between you and your ideal, and for three weeks you had had to bite your lip so that you wouldn't blurt your wonderings to him out of nowhere.

How was he doing? Had he talked about you? Had he forgotten about you? Were you crazy to hope and wait for anything to happen, deep down?

The after-effects of the spell were definitely chewing on the lucid part of your brain.

"Don't distance yourself from me because of Lee Jooheon" the cause of your stomach's knots to tighten at work quietly told you as you were waiting for your coffee to be spilled by the machine near the blocks of desks.

"W-What?" you stuttered, surprised by his so-on-point remark. "I-I'm not, I’m not Kihyun, what does make you say that? It's fine between us!"

The latter chuckled, his eyes disappearing as his mouth curled up, and you would've bet that he could cook some eggs on your two cheeks that were steaming from the mortification he had put you in.

"You know you can talk to me about it, if you need to… I can see that it's been running on your mind" he offered in a soothing tone, and you both went to sit on the comfortable sofas located in what was supposed to be the rest area. "But please, don't be embarrassed with me!"

"How can I not be? He's your friend before anything else, and you are the first spectator of how ridiculous I'm being nowadays… I don't want to put you into a tricky position. It was one night, and it's over" you convinced yourself before sipping on your hot energizing drink, and Kihyun landed his face in the palm of his left hand, a fond smile spreading on his traits just for you to see.

"You're not as convincing when you talk about yourself as when you're selling our projects" he joked, and you faked a kick in his legs extended before yours. "You don't have to try to look all strong in front of me Y/N, I'm actually dating my own ideal and I know how devastating it feels if they ever turn away from you."

There was a glimpse of sadness in his eyes you had never seen before as Kihyun was either smiling, either completely unreadable at work, his face expressions only shifting from concentrated traits to joyful ones when he heard good news. But sadness? Never had you ever spotted him break in front of you in the few months you had spent together, and God knew how late you had stayed together in the building to finish your work, how drunk you had both been, how tired the job could make you.

"You weren't hers, as well?" you questioned before you could think of how intrusive this could sound.

"I am, but we took a break for a few months because the emotions and sensations were… Too much for her and for me to handle. We were quite passionate from the very beginning, so much that it could have torn us apart" he explained.

You nodded understandingly, your fingernails tapping an unknown beat on the small plastic cup in your cold hands.

"Now everything's fine, but just so you know that I've been through it, dreading the ideal one, so I get how you feel" he added, insisting on the last word with his eyes looking at you intently, as if they were also bearing the weight of it.

"Well at least you stopped dreading her because you were meant to be together anyway! Jooheon and I aren't as lucky, I just hope it won't take too long for me to move on" you smiled enviously at him before coating your lips with some hot coffee to mask how quickly the corners of your mouth had fallen down.

"You know, what's funny…" Kihyun trailed, passing his hand through his thick mop of brown hair that was graciously welcoming the last rays of sun seeping through the bay windows.

He bit back a chuckle when he caught how your eyes lightened up at the suspense he had voluntarily seamed between the both of you, finding you cute, and confirming his already steady opinion : Jooheon and you would be perfect together, if only…

"What's funny, is that Jooheon is supposed to be my friend first, so I should support him and respect his choices, but this time, I'm definitely on your side" he confessed, his eyes turning into crescents as his mouth supported a warm smile once more.

"Oh yes? And why's that?" you asked him with a dubitative expression as you leaned back into the comfy chair. "Glad to learn that you and I are not friends though…"

Kihyun's phone suddenly rang, and he held the screen towards you so that you could read the name of one of your collaborators, actually being the one you were going to work with on the next event.

"They have your personal number? Woooow you're so chic" you whispered with a faked astonished expression as he stood up quickly, chuckling at your remark.

"Let's talk about it around drinks tonight, I feel like going to the bar instead of finishing what I have to do" he smiled before exiting the relaxing room in pressed strides, and you could hear him getting back to his work-tone as he seriously said "Yes sir it's me, Yoo Kihyun".

Little did you know he was literally going to replace his blood by alcohol once night had fallen, and that you would follow him with just a few drinks late.

*

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*

You were sitting at your favorite bar, that was located only three blocks away from your workplace. All of your team could never get enough of its cozy ambiance, with the dangling little garlands and lanterns hanging from the ceiling, the numerous tropical plants placed between the row of tables, and the exotic landscapes sketches or Maya-like sculptures fixed on the wooden walls, giving the overall feeling of having found shelter in the middle of a sublime jungle.

It had started as another classical end of day, Kihyun and you enjoying some delicious appetizers and tricky cocktails that were as tasty as threatening for your sanity, all the while talking about futile things and sharing funny stories. However, sooner than you would have imagined, you weren't clinking your half-empty glass with your favorite partner when you agreed on things anymore, because it had been already ten minutes since he was ranting about life and love with a jaded expression on his sharp traits.

He wasn't even looking at you, his lost eyes fixed on a wooden stick which used to support candies he had now planted in the glass in front of him, and he turned it again and again into the rest of his drink mixed with water from the cooling ice cubes.

"You know, when you date your ideal, you almost forget how it actually feels to love at first. I swear, the sensations you get almost turn into a drug, something you can never get enough of! You immediately love the person without even knowing him or her, and you're in such a bliss, in such an awe, that you can't even distinguish what your real emotions are anymore. It took me a break with my girlfriend to look back on what I feel, what I love in her, and to miss her but because my heart felt empty, not my entire self."

He sighed loudly before taking a sip from his striped straw, and seeing how he frowned and tilted his head, you knew he had more to say, which was so unlike him. It seemed as if your own situation with Jooheon affected him as well ; as if it had opened the doors to some secret yet deep thoughts that had been bugging his mind.

"When you're in a one-sided situation like yours, I feel like there's a lot to it. I think that it's also a perfect combination in its own way, because there's the power of soulmates, facing the one of true feelings. Two paths come across and merge into one : the one of the heart, and the one of fate, this is complementary" he then explained as his digits lightly traced the two lines in the palm of his left hand, and strangely, his words seemed to have cooled down the atmosphere around you as you felt chills run down your skin all of a sudden.

"I used to agree with you and believe in love more than in the soulmate-thing, but… You can't deny that nothing can beat the perfection of the romance between two individuals that were both bond by fate. It means they're made for each other, it's beautiful" you inquired, and unlike you whose heart now felt heavy in your itchy chest, Kihyun looked like he relaxed in his chair as it was his turn to speak again.

"But what sticks two soulmates together is also love, just like any other couple. What we actually feel might be stronger, but not purer. If I didn't love my girlfriend and if she didn't love me, our short break would have resulted in a break-up, for sure. That's the part of reality in this world of dreams and expectations. I wish Jooheon would understand that…" he breathed out as his gaze finally landed on you, an exasperated expression veiling his white face.

"Oh no, don't tell me he's back at it again" a rather high-toned voice spoke from behind you and your colleague's reddening cheeks spread into a contented smile, so you turned around in your seat to be met with five familiar figures, their sight making your heart drop down to your heels.

Before you had even recovered from the tornado of emotions this situation was putting you through, the boys you couldn't help but label as "Jooheon's friends" dragged some more chairs and tables to join Kihyun and you. To each beat of your weakened heart, one thought kept on ringing in your mind : every single boy sitting next to you, in front of you, across from you, knew Lee Jooheon better than you did even though the law made you feel otherwise. But what was harder to process, was they surely were aware of the things that had happened between the both of you, making you rot in embarrassment.

"What, what, what? I'm back at what, huh? You know you all agree, Jooheon doesn't realize how lucky he is! What he trusted in is right in front of our eyes, Y/N, who aspires to believe in love more than anything! He's not her ideal for nothing, it's because they would be perfect together, am I wrong?"

You swore that the weight of awkwardness and how the atmosphere had thickened were crushing you in your wooden chair, and all you did was agitating your head from the left to the right repeatedly while shooting him a pleading look so that he would stop playing the justiciary.

"Hey, you're lucky too you punk! Sorry Y/N, he tends to turn really sentimental once he's drunk… Anyway, we're here to save you from hell" the one you remembered as being named Hoseok smiled kindly at you, however it didn't chase your wish to disappear away.

"What are you saying, you're here because I texted you to come" Kihyun snorted with a sulky face.

He hadn't asked for your advice or assent before taking this questionable initiative, but you had noted from the mischievous smile he had sported on the way earlier that he had been exceptionally excited to go out, making you wonder if he had been up to something.

And he clearly had.

"I thought it would be nice for you to hang with some new people, to clear your mind a little" he then addressed you, and every single one of you – except for him– rolled your eyes at his stupid idea.

Clear your mind? While being surrounded by six faces that only reminded you of the one that was missing? Seriously?

What a nice idea he had had, bringing another set of pieces to the puzzle picturing Jooheon in your dizzy head, bringing dozens of questions burning the tip of your tongue, bringing discomfort as you were hanging with an important part of his life when he had chased you out of it.

"I texted the sad boy too, so that he realizes what he's missing, I can't leave him alone being all dumb like that" Kihyun then proudly announced, and you darted two big round eyes at him, your heart beating faster than it had since the night you had spent with the very sad boy he was talking about, as for three weeks it had been unmoved.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" you shouted along with the rest of the boys, your pupils then exchanging panicked-angry-incredulous glances.

"I'm leaving" you then precipitated yourself, your suddenly trembling hands gathering your things on the table and putting them back into your leather bag.

"Yoo Kihyun seriously what's wrong with you…" the tall one, Hyungwon, pestered him with a clenched jaw as he looked at you who were ready to stand all at once.

"He will be here in less than a minute, just stay and trust me Y/N, please" Kihyun begged and it triggered you.

"Why would you do that? It's just embarrassing for the both of us! I am respecting his decision, and so should you! Thank you for worrying about me, but don't interfere anymore, please!" your tone would have gotten close to the one of yelling, hadn't it been for your voice cracking as it was the prey of your fear to meet Jooheon's eyes again, to read discomfort and resent in them instead of the memory of their tenderness you cherished.

Just as you were about to finally get up, having put your fluffy puffer coat on as well as your beanie to confront the icy weather, the peal of small bells signaling the opening of the main door resounded over the music and the boys' voices telling you how sorry they were ; and you knew. You knew it was him who had just entered, because your body automatically reacted the second you dared to throw a look over your shoulder quickly, your eyes only perceiving a reddish mop of hair and a bright yellow padded jacket. Your hand was scorching and shining around the handle of your bag, and you cursed under your breath at the pain and at Kihyun who bit back a smile of victory.

He really could become sly and clueless at the same time once he was drunk, how come you had forgotten about that?

"Y/N, wait-" the latter tried to hold you back as you pushed your chair that screeched against the ground, but you walked past the table, your hurried strides supported by your trembling legs taking you towards some other exit at the opposite side of the room.

Your heavy heart had turned light, floating under your chest as a feather would do in some spring breeze, however the two drinks you had consumed and the trap your friend had pushed you right in made you overall feel sick, your stomach burning. Some fresh air was even more welcomed, yet you hadn't even taken that much steps when the most pleasant voice you would ever hear infiltered your buzzing eardrums :

"Y/N" Jooheon called you out calmly, and your feet immediately stumbled as you came to a full stop.

Shit.

You didn't want to look at him, you didn't want to see his face again, you didn't want to feel yourself sucked into the hole of sweltering feelings for him once more now that you had told yourself that your dreams wouldn't come true ; however you did, slowly turning on your heels, and you inevitably got consumed by the flames of whatever his presence did to you.

He looked utterly handsome even though he was doing nothing, just standing there and breathing. His hair was down, falling messily on his forehead, with a few strands kissing his eyelids ; still, it didn't occult the power his pupils could hold. His sharp eyes never failed to get the best of you, absorbing your willpower to leave and pinning your two feet to the ground, as contrary to what you had dreaded, there wasn't anything near embarrassment shining in them. They were simply gazing at you, two black orbs full of stars hooked on his sculpted-like face, and they didn't quaver when they met your unsure, humid ones.

"Let's talk outside for a minute" he invited out of the blue, and you blinked obliviously but your head nodded independently of your command.

You then waited for him to move closer behind you before exiting the bar, without saying a word, your throat strained and your mouth itching with the desire of kissing him right here, right now. Once you had landed a few steps outside, it took you a lot of courage to turn around again and face the cause of your happiness and sorrow, the sweet-and-sour mixture twisting your stomach where butterflies still were doing their usual job of messing with you.

"Hi" you tried with a small smile, shoving your hands inside your pockets so that you wouldn't lose your fingers.

Jooheon wished the fog that came out of his mouth as he breathed out had conveyed all of his messy thoughts to you, so that you could feel how torn you had left him for three weeks, so that you would help him sort things out, so that you would absorb them just like you had that Friday night, as he didn't even know what he was supposed to say to you right now ; he had just wished to see your face, selfishly, even if it was only for a short and bittersweet moment.

"How have you been doing?" he then asked randomly, the words falling from his plump lips he then bit in regret.

Your world was spinning twice faster now that it was revolving around Jooheon as its center of gravity again ; you could only see and hear him, your senses all gathered to focus on his person. Nevertheless, if three weeks ago the enchantment casted upon you had made you feel happy, this time, your encounter was crackling further your heart he had closed his doors to.

"Fine, and you?" you lied, so bad, yet you didn't want him to feel worse than you knew he already was, as even if you were distraught because you had failed in a relationship once more, you couldn't ignore the fact that Jooheon was suffering from his disappointment more than anything.

Your heart understood him through its aching, reason why your voice's tone had been sweet despite you, warming Jooheon's own bloody organ in the matter of a millisecond, warmth that spread inside his limbs and made him insensitive to the actual freezing weather. Some snowflakes had started to fall and were finding home in the free strands of your hair, and his burning left hand was weirdly craving to caress the white gown they were creating over your head until it'd disappear.

"Pretty fine too" his low voice vibrated through his chest, and another cloud of steam formed between your two faces, giving you the time to collect your expression so that he wouldn't notice how flustered you were.

"Anything you wished to tell me? Or else I'll get going I have a bus to catch in… 10 minutes" you insinuated that he had called you out for something precisely, and when his eyes fell down to the snowy pavement, you crumpled the insides of your pockets as the longer he was standing in front of you, the harder it was to fight the urge to assault him with questions and… Kisses?

The silence was weighty, and when Jooheon's pupils leveled up to yours once again, he noticed the thin line of water that was forming at the crease of your eyelids, killing him on the spot. Just like her, the sight of him was making you sad and uneasy, and he hated himself for that. Still what he despised more, was that he was putting you through the same thing that had eaten him alive the past months. He wished you had never met him and had simply fallen in love with some random guy, not being helplessly attracted to him because of a stupid law.

"I wanted to apologize on behalf of my friends, I can see you were quite embarrassed… They truly can be dumbasses sometimes, so sorry" he found the excuse on the spot, his improvisation impressing himself.

"Oh it's okay, they already apologized. It was Kihyun, he thought he was… Doing something good, I guess? He just doesn't get our situation" you brushed off as your brows had furrowed due to his surprising revelation.

"And I guess I wanted to check if you were okay" he suddenly admitted in a low yet steady tone that shook you to the core.

"Well you must know how it is, you've been through it" you sounded harsher than wanted, however, you couldn't blame your inner self for getting more and more sensitive while facing him.

You were right. Jooheon was more of a punition to you than anything else ; he knew it because he had lived in this empty feeling up 'til now. But couldn't he try to make you feel any better?

"Look, I'll take that as an opportunity to tell you face to face that I truly am sorry for what I did to you so… Yeah I'm sorry Y/N. I really wish you'll find someone good for you, you deserve it-"

"Jooheon, I told you I got you" you cut him, and the whisper of his name coming out of your freezing lips tranquilized its owner instantly. "Don't misunderstand what Kihyun just planned, I wasn't aware that you were coming either. I'm sorry but… Hearing you apologize and inducing that everything's over another time… Makes it kind of weird, I'm embarrassed right now."

You had become upset, as you had felt some kind of disappointment fall over you all of a sudden. Upset for having expected something to change with the time passing by ; for having felt the spark of excitement replacing your anger towards your colleague as soon as Jooheon had called your name ; for receiving his words like a good slap all over again when you had been supposed to let go and accept the reality of rejection three weeks ago already. Why did you keep on hoping?

You could already hear Jiwoo's voice scolding you with an "I told you!".

"Oh- I'm-"

"Don't" you smiled sadly. "Remember when she said sorry to you, did it make you feel any better?"

Jooheon's face contorted in displeasure and regret, and he passed a tensed left hand through his fluid hair, the locks enlightened by his shimmering red scar caressing them, and he cursed himself with thousands of insults inside his head. What had he been thinking?

"Someone told me that if your ideal leaves you, it means that you're not good for anyone else. So hearing you wishing me to find someone else… Kind of reminds me of this" you chuckled while looking away.

"Shit Y/N I'm so sor-… I didn't mean it that way, I just thought that apologizing to you face to face rather than behind a screen was at least more appropriate, because I know how it is to go through this so I was hoping to… Shit I don't know anymore" his words fell precipitately out of his mouth, and another wave of threatening tears accrued at the corner of your eyes.

"You don't have to feel guilty, okay? You should try to make yourself more comfortable with your choice, or else… Or else I'm gonna think that something's going on when there's not" you pursued with the same nervous laugh, your eyes dropping to your shoes as you nibbled at your lower lip. "So please… Don't worry, and don't be too harsh on yourself."

It had been as if you had read his inner emotions like they were scribbled on his face, finding what he couldn't point out in his mind then formulate, and soothing him with words to counter those insecurities. You never failed to find the right buttons to push at, and to his despair, you skimmed the one of his doubts, making his heart throb at the idea of taking risks that flashed through his mind.

"How come you're worrying about me when I'm the one who hurt you" he wondered aloud, before gasping as he heard his own voice that had betrayed him.

Because you cared for him. Because you could feel his pain now that he was near, your heart constricted under your ribcage the more you could read the guilt in his eyes that were begging for any sign of your forgiveness. Because apparently, the law left you no choice but to empathize with him no matter what he did, even if it included leaving you behind.

"I guess you know the answer since you experienced it too" you simply managed to answer before you would break into a sob. "I'll get going."

Something felt off in the way your exchange ended, Jooheon was even less at ease to part ways. He had apologized, to ensure that you would hear the sincerity of his excuses and to see you accept them ; but didn't it look like he had been looking for his inner peace rather than yours?

He could recognize himself in your reaction, as it had been the one he had adopted back when she had repeated the word "sorry" to him. However, he had been unable to hear the authenticity in her excuses as, just like you, all that remained was that you and him were being left behind no matter how guilty the one who was bidding goodbye felt.

But Jooheon didn't want you to experiment that loneliness, nor wanted the bright you to ostracize itself from everyday pleasures that would have brought a smile on your face before him ; so as your eyes were turning away from him as well as your figure, he spoke up :

"Why don't you stay?"

You faced him again and the unquavering look he conveyed to you made your heart jump up to your throat, yet ready to drop down at any second.

"What?"

"I said… Why don't you stay?" he reiterated, then gulped down his anticipation that had burned his rushed tongue.

You batted your eyelashes involuntarily as the incredulity galloped its way through your brain once you had processed his words.

"W-Why would I? Why would you want me to?"

"Because the guys are funny and nice, and because I liked it when we hanged together, it was cool" he simply stated, his brows going up on his forehead as he showcased a shrug.

"Is this a way for you to tell me we should be friends…?" you then asked ; however you weren't sure of how you would react if he ever came to say "yes".

"It is my way to tell you you shouldn't leave because of my stupid ass when you could spend a good evening with some dorks to make you laugh" he retorted.

His eyes were shining with expectation and maybe mischief, a cocktail that sparked some excitement in you and tickled your limbs to the point you almost returned him a warm smile as you could see how bad he was trying to make up for what he did – or thought he did – to you.

"At least you acknowledge the fact that you're stupid" you managed to joke, earning a shy chuckle from him. "Thanks but no, actually I'm pretty tired and I'm glad I escaped this situation with Kihyun because I would have had a short night, when tomorrow we need to finish some project…"

Jooheon's hand caressed his nape slowly as he nodded in understanding, and this time he was the one feeling the ache of disappointment when he probably shouldn't. Indeed, it was easier to let go behind a mobile phone's screen ; but now that this wall of fake-confidence wasn't there to help playing the cool ones, Jooheon felt like you could see how torn he was when you were supposed to believe that he was okay with his own decision.

"Alright…" his words trailed as well as his gaze on you, to the point you shivered as if you had been naked under the snow falling above your two dizzy heads.

You had found the courage to turn away a second time, when a last thought popped up in your mind, thought your tongue felt obliged to convey to him who had remained in his spot, watching you take a few steps away on the pavement.

"Oh and Jooheon" you spoke up with a small smile over your shoulder. "Just start practicing football again already. I saw you at the futsal on Kihyun's Instagram stories two days ago and you looked… Really happy. I think… That's actually the first step you need to take, y'know, to feel better with yourself, then maybe with life in general?"

These had been the only images and news you had had of him during the past three weeks, and you just had remembered how he had glowed with serenity and simple joy as he had been filmed kicking the ball with his friends. This was the Jooheon you wished for him to be, this was the bright version of him you thought deserved to be on full-time display, this was the self-love you wished he could give himself when you couldn't do it for him anymore.

"Thanks Y/N you're… Literally a good person like it's crazy."

But not good enough, once again, you thought.

"Comforting the guy who did you wrong and so on…" he breathed out.

You cared for him, so much that you hadn't been able to leave him on that awkward note, so much that your quavering heart felt at ease to see his lips draw a shy smile as he seemingly had been touched by your kind advice.

"Bye, then" you almost whispered to end up this conversation that could turn up to something too emotional in no time.

Another goodbye, less sour yet not that sweet as you both parted ways not as lovers, neither as friends, just as two hurt people who couldn't speak their hearts and minds up but only feel how confused they were. And if you were entangled invisibly to each other by the red string of fate, you still had to separate ways another time, and you finally turned your back on him. It was as if you were walking against the current, your whole soul pulled back to him who was looking at that beautiful silhouette he should let go of without regrets, his umpteenth sigh still not conveying his doubts to you.

*

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**

*  

Kihyun was looking at you from the corner of his half-closed eyes, and you were hesitating between smashing his head or simply laugh at his evidently dull state.

"I-I'm sorry…" he finally blurted out in a hushed voice, and the chuckle that had lurked deep inside your throat escaped despite you.

"About what? Your conspiracy that got me cornered and facing your friend in an embarrassing way, or the fact that you're a zombie on the day when you're supposed to be helping our team by being productive?"

You were waiting with your back against the wall in front of the meeting room, your files safely guarded under your crossed arms that covered your chest trembling due to stress. Your mind had to be at its best condition all day long so that at the end of this brainstorming, your Project manager would be satisfied and no more worried about one of the next huge events you had been offered to organize.

"I guess both, I messed up pretty badly…" Kihyun regretted as he pinched his nose bridge and you couldn't prevent your eyes from rolling up before they dropped on his pale figure.

"Oh yes you did, you moron" you sighed. "I hope your performing brain will help us as usual, or else if I die by the hands of the manager, you're dying with me."

Your team partner laughed tiredly before nodding, his briefcase held tight in his hand that was shivering as well, because of the little night he had spent and the anticipation getting on his nerves. While New Year's Eve was right around the corner, your team had already been picturing itself in the next decade. You had been assigned to draft an event destined to celebrate the merge of two small but successful companies – a Korean and a Chinese one. They had contacted you so you'd make them dream in the early spring of 2020, and the burden was real as the more time passed by, the more you were building a reputation, and the less you could allow yourselves to do any mistake.

The few instructions you had been given were that the clients were seeking for something fancy enough, and that they wished to invite all their employees so that they could get to know each other and learn to work together on good terms for the future. And those exact good terms, mainly depended on the successful night you would offer them as well as the few sponsors and investors who had been put on the guest list, so that they would never be able to forget about it but mostly be convinced to stick to a firm that treated them well.

Thankfully for you – and hungover Kihyun –, the meeting went well as you had been more prepared than you thought you would be in the midst of the confusion that plagued over your brain. So prepared, that the third idea you had come up with of renting a boat earned the votes and the trust of your Project Manager who complimented you on this plan you had worked hard on ever since the end of the National Federation of Football's party.

You finally looked back on how you had devoted yourself to work in order to forget about your heartache, and thanked your determined spirit as it had definitely paid off. This event truly had been your loophole to escape, only for a few hours within a day though, from your sickening thoughts about your love life.

"Oh right, about the staff we will need on the boat, I heard from the Korean firm that they have special recommendations they want to discuss with us about before we actually call our partners" Himchan informed you. "There are some people they worked with for previous events and who they trust so they'd like to have them on that night as well.

*

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*

Three months-and-a-bit later.

 You should have taken a closer look at the pile of folders containing the-said wanted workers your project manager had then handed to you that morning instead of leaving it on your desk to welcome some dust, because you would have been less appalled on the D-Day, as you were about to face your big clients.

Kihyun, Jiwoo and you quietly sat in the largest and fanciest of rooms in your building, organizing your ideas and files before the grand meeting. Like every single time even if you should have gotten used to it, your heart was ravaging your ribcage with great kicks of its own, and you felt hot as if you were in August under the sun of Madrid, and not in mid-March. Finally, the main door opened and Himchan entered with a reassuring smile pulling his traits, shortly followed by the two communication managers of the companies as well as their respective secretaries, a young woman and man.

You had exchanged a lot of e-mails and phone calls with the assistants during the past weeks, so you could say that you were pretty excited to finally get to talk to them without the barrier of a digital screen. The girl had been full of energy and had always asked if you needed help, reminding you of yourself in a way, while the male secretary had been quite formal but you had perceived a real kindness between the lines.

Yet, as soon as your eyes met the ones of the latter who translated the Chinese greeting of his chief for your knowledge, your left palm was set on fire, with the famous pleasuring pain that itched your skin and illuminated your… Heart-line.

You gave him a shy smile as you guessed he felt it too, the situation quite embarrassing when you were meeting at your workplace with all the eyes to see and a huge deal to conclude, however you observed with excitement the quick changing of expression on his face, his pupils suddenly darkening and pinning you to your chair, his lips parting slightly before he bit the lower one for a short moment, and his cheeks and ears reddening in no time.

Don't tell me…

He finally greeted you with a polite bow before taking place in the seat exactly facing yours, and you could read in his rushed attitude that he was flustered. While your team manager was delivering his speech, the guy started translating in real-time, mumbling the words while bending closely to his boss, who nodded and smiled as he progressively understood he was welcomed and thanked for having put his trust in your company.

You used his busy state as an opportunity to have a longer look at the figure of a new compatible man with you, and you could say you were quite flattered as the first word that came to mind to describe him was-

"Handsome. He's freaking handsome. You've been mailing this handsome guy, wow, your luck is real Y/N" Jiwoo whispered to your attention, quietly enough so you'd be the only one to hear that cringy remark and you nodded absent-mindedly, a smirk making its way to the corners of your mouth.

That handsome man was compatible with you, how lucky you were, indeed. He had chestnut blonde hair, slicked back and parted neatly with probably some wax, and his facial features were dangerously close to perfect. An angular nose, almond shaped eyes, thick and straight eyebrows, a peachy appealing mouth which covered an aligned dentition he finally showcased as he beamed at you once he had worded his name :

"Good morning, my name is Qian Jie, nice to meet you all."

"And I'm Jeon Jiwoo" your colleague pressed while passing a hand in her hair, and you had to sew your lips so that you wouldn't cackle before her childish behavior.

"I'm Y/L/N Y/N, nice to finally meet you too."

His eyes fell on your face once again and you were sure this time he was blushing, either because his grey turtleneck under his dark anthracite costume was too hot now that he wasn't braving the wind outside ; either because, just like you a month ago, he was staring at…

His ideal.

It was your turn to blush at this absurd idea and you shook your head from the left to the right to reason yourself ; the world was little, but this just couldn't be.

"I'm Jang Sora, I'm glad to meet you all as well, and to see you again, Kihyun" a feminine voice resounded in your ears and you finally paid attention to the woman secretary who was smiling at you then at your colleague who suddenly looked flustered.

"I'd never imagined we'd meet again under these circumstances" Kihyun nodded.

"You two know each other?" your manager asked enthusiastically.

The dark-haired girl chuckled, eyes with a single eyelid shining as if they had taken a ray of sun outside to illuminate them in a light brown, then she spoke up again :

"Yes, we happened to hang together a while ago, friends of friends!"

Kihyun was hanging his head low, and you could decipher how he forced a smile as he obviously was swimming under a sea of discomfort. Who was she to put the unwavering Yoo Kihyun in such a state? She definitely looked charismatic, young but surely experimented, just like what she had showed you through mails and voice calls as she started leading the discussion by relaying accurate and precise questions while her chief only came in to speak in the name of his own boss : what he liked, disliked, wanted, feared. They embodied a powerful business duet that got you talking to them with precautions and staying on your toes to be sure you were convincing enough and show them you hadn't been idle all this time.

On the other hand, your compatible match was still translating everything, would it be what you said or what his manager said, but what disturbed you more than his handsomeness and your burning hand was the fact that he kept on kissing your silhouette with his eyes. The few times you dared to support his gaze, you came across an unreadable expression, between warm and intense, something that gave you the chills as you were thrilled to be the one receiving such attention in a long time.

"About the workers, we sent you their profiles, did you receive them?" Sora asked while combing her bangs with a quick hand move, and you took the pile in your hands with a smile.

"They're right here, but we haven't contacted them yet as we wanted to confirm the place with you above all! Is there any priority between them, so that we know who to call first?" you looked her in the eyes and she nodded vigorously, accepting the files you slid on the table to her side.

"Let's see… Yes, there's those three, and… this one. They've worked with us for a few events and were well appreciated, we would like it if they were to be here again. They knew our directors' preferences in each area so they might be useful to you and the other staff you'd hire!"

Out of seven recommendations, she pushed four of them back to you fully opened, and when your eyes caught the sight of a familiar ID photography as if it was the only thing filling the white page resuming the professional experience, you almost gasped.

Lee Jooheon.

With a solemn face and short black hair, the boy of your dreams was watching you from his laid-down position, his sharp eyes, as diminished as they were in the small picture, still catching your breath and provoking exhilarating sensations in your body. The attention of your teammates diverted towards you as quickly as a finger snap, and you did your best to bottle your flustered state deep down in your twisted stomach as you had to remain professional and not let your personal matters mingle with your work ones. You couldn't object even if you wanted to ; but it burned your tongue and made your ears ring as the same thought kept banging in your head : Why? How? Why? How? WHY?

Somehow, you heard Kihyun shifting in his chair before the opened file of your ideal disappeared in his hands, and when you leveled up your pupils, you could read in the look Sora was giving your colleague that she particularly cared for this candidate.

"I'll contact this one" he informed as he lowered the papers for his eyes to shoot question marks at his interlocutor, who nodded in consideration.

_______

You knew the world was small, as in this very room, had been sitting a man compatible with you when he should have been just a business partner.

However, you didn't know yours would keep on spinning around Lee Jooheon for so long after that last encounter at the bar three months ago, or else you would have prepared yourself for this kind of coincidence to happen anytime. Or else, this situation wouldn't have felt as if Sora had taken a knife and rammed it over your wound all over again. Or else, you wouldn't have been that devastated right after the end of the meeting, completely forgetting about Jie as you were pacing round and round in the rest area, for Kihyun to watch.

Because while everyone in the room had been sharing his or her advice until they were satisfied with the terms of the negotiations, your mind had been half occupied by the task of making the link the between the care in Sora's eyes, the discomfort between her and your colleague, and the re-apparition of your soulmate. And the conclusion you had come to find was…

"That's her, right?" you barked at Kihyun who jolted in surprise at your little burst out. "That's his ex!"

"Lower your voice, they're still here!" he warned you. "And yes, she is" he then shrugged.

"You saw her name in the contracts, right? Why didn't you tell me?! This is so embarrassing!" you ruffled your hair and threw an accusing look at him.

How come the law, or maybe life in general, were so determined to mess up with you? Did they wish to see the vise tighten itself around you to the point it would feel like you definitely couldn't escape from this? Were you between the hands of a sadist pulling at the strings that would ridicule you the most?

"So what if she's his ex? What does it change? You would have refused to take part in the project? We are working here!" your colleague and friend answered, his tone inducing that he was a bit annoyed.

Yet, he marked a point and you grumbled in defeat, his face now showing he was completely unphased by your anger – angering you even more.

"This is so embarrassing Kihyun, I don't know where to hide myself right now" you then moaned while rubbing your blushing face with your panicked hands.

"Because you don't have to hide! I repeat : what if she's his ex?" Kihyun emphasized, less and less sure that he could follow your train of thoughts.

"What are you going to do with him?" you ignored his question because, well, you didn't have an answer to it.

The sigh that left his thin lips was so displeasing to hear.

"I'm gonna call him and propose him the offer, just like I am supposed to do" he explained in a calm tone, hoping it would help you to calm down too.

Your eyes came across his and even more than his sigh, his stern expression wasn't to your liking, at all. First his trap at the bar, now this secret information that could have helped you digest the whole thing better ; he might be the one wanting you to have a heart attack, in the end.

Your new year's resolution had been to move on from Lee Jooheon and to stop considering love as a priority for a while, and you had been doing quite fine up 'til now. Why? Because you hadn't seen his face ever since that night on the sidewalk, or more exactly, you had avoided it or anything that could remind you of him like some kind of bacteria. Posts of Kihyun on social medias? Muted, as well as his voice when he made the mistake to pronounce his name – one killing stare and that was it. The club he worked at? Banned from your options to have a funny night. The TV corner talking about football and his great return? You knew exactly its time slot depending on the day now. And positive thoughts? Always welcomed, as well as the flirting with some guys on dating apps or at your friends' parties. He had been doing well without you in the meantime, retrieving his old life, so why shouldn't you?

"Stop looking at me like that" you hissed through gritted teeth, wishing to smack Kihyun's confident expression out of his face.

"Like what? Like I'm hearing some bullshit coming out of your mouth? Sorry but that's actually the case so I can't help it" he then smiled cockily, and strangely enough, your cheeks tickled as he made you want to laugh at yourself as well.

You knew you were overreacting, but you couldn't help it. Why did it suddenly feel like the carefree attitude you had adopted was as fragile as a house of cards, ready to get whisked away by what you only saw as a storm coming right at you?

If every single effort you had put in forgetting about Lee Jooheon had paid off, then why were you panicking? The thought that maybe you had been more of an impostor than you'd like to admit was turning your blood cold.

"You're going to hide it from him too? And the fact that she actually recommended him?" you asked your partner while regaining your composure.

"So that's what's actually bugging you, I see…" Kihyun nodded, the smirk still present on his pale face.

"Of course it is!" your lingering care for him spoke for itself. "It means she's still interested in him, and if they meet again… If they meet again…"

You didn't want to imagine it. As much as you certainly didn't wish to see him at all, you needed even less to witness him shattering in front of his ex when she had already turned him into a mess. Or worse, to watch their romance bloom all over again if you ever had read her eyes rightly, and to feel uncomfortable, if not hurt.

"I don't want to see it, no thanks." you told yourself aloud, and to your surprise, Kihyun got what you meant with only those few words.

"You won't see it. You know why? Because the man she works for, the manager we saw earlier, is her ideal, and they're actually dating, she left Jooheon for this guy. She just has affection and surely pity for him. I'm sure she wants to see him again just to be sure he's doing fine because she cares about him in a way."

"Then did you think of him? Did you think of how hurt he'd be to see them together?" you pointed out his negligence that seemed to keep on revealing itself ever since his questionable choice back at the bar.

Kihyun chuckled at your worries and crossed his arms, looking at you tenderly this time.

"You sound pretty concerned for someone who's proclaimed herself as, I quote, "careless about boys" just a few days ago for the umpteenth time..."

"I-I'm just empathic, unlike you it seems" you scoffed with a shrug.

"I am always thinking of my brothers first. And what I am thinking nowadays about him, is that you resolve trauma by trauma. Trust me, Y/N, I was wrong at the bar last time, but right now, I know what I'm doing."

Every single pore of his skin, every single inch of his posture were screaming that he actually did know what he was doing, his confidence emanating from him like a glowing and powerful aura, so much that it chased the cloud of panic you had been struggling in away.

"You always have the last word, huh?" you sighed before it faded into a smile.

"That's why we always conclude contracts, I'm the best at convincing. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a phone call to make…" he crooned as he walked away with Jooheon's number and nickname displaying on his phone's screen, and you caressed your flushed cheeks before sighing again, the anticipation pressuring your lungs.

Suddenly – but not so surprisingly…– you wished to meet him again. Your shell had indeed been made of glass, as your inner voice was already whining that you wanted him to be there on that night. And bitterly, you realized that you had moved on, yes, but not far enough ; you had let go, yes, but not of everything.

You felt so upset to see that you had definitely been convincing yourself half-heartedly. But well, that colleague and supposedly friend of yours was definitely not helping.

"Y/N, you forgot your stuff in the room" Himchan informed you as he walked past the rest area, followed by the very ex and her actual boyfriend you bowed to.

You sprinted towards the meeting room, hoping it would be empty so that you could groan loudly once and for all to evacuate the weight of distress crashing your ribcage. She was so pretty, so well-mannered, so determined, so professional, so feminine, that it made you feel like a naked worm who just deserved to be left alone in the dirt, and nowhere near the blooming flower she was. You were no competition for her, and she was the perfection Jooheon deserved according to the law ; how come you had expected anything?

Some unwelcomed tears came to play with your eyelids, as if your body was laughing at you by trying to make you properly pitiful. Three months had gone by, but your stomach still twisted at the sight of his picture? REALLY?

"Excuse me, Miss Y/L/N?" a voice as soft as velvet smoothed your eardrums that had been buzzing for the last two minutes, and you looked back to thank with your eyes the one who had prevented you from becoming deaf and suffering from a harsh headache.

And that very person happened to be the one whose way of ending your sentences and picturing your ideas as if you had drawn them yourself in his mind had petrified you in the same meeting room earlier, and now just his gaze did in the corridor as he smiled broadly before approaching your shaken figure.

Jie truly was handsome and beyond chic, making him intimidating but not in a negative way, just one that made you respect and admire him without even knowing him inside-out. He could be compared to the handsome main character in a manga before whom the girl – and the reader as well – was losing the strength in her limbs.

"I wished to ask you earlier but you disappeared quite quickly… Would you like to meet tomorrow night for a team gathering, with your colleagues? We've been working together for a while now but we haven't been able to talk properly without a working context, I thought it would be nice for our teams to get to know each other in a friendly manner" he offered, to your great surprise.

The idea was not so bad, and you knew that when it came to going out for a drink, your teammates were always the first ones to respond positively.

"Oh yes, that's a great initiative! Thanks for proposing!" you smiled, and realized that you felt more at ease ever since he was facing you, as if the air around you was fresh and clean, not thick and overpowering.

He seemed to relax as he heard your answer, then he took in a sharp breath before asking :

"Then… Can I have your personal number? I only have the one from your office… So that I can tell you the time and address?"

Bold move. Had he been anyone else, you would have not seen anything else than a professional and nice proposition ; however, something in your guts was telling you there was more to it. From the way his eyes were always so dark and sparkly when they crossed your stare, from the way he smiled confidently but his cheeks were flushed, from the way he had dared to stand so close to you… You could recognize your own flirty behavior from the night at the club when you had met Jooheon, and as scared as you were to admit it, you were 97% sure that you were his ideal one.

The question was : was it fate that you had crossed paths? And if yes, should you give it a try? This man had no choice but to like you and wish to stay by your side, or at least the chances were slimmer for him to leave like every man before him had, however… However, why did you feel like you were cheating on Jooheon as you grasped his phone between your shy fingers to type your number, when the guy was supposed to be nothing but a souvenir you should free yourself of?

Jie happily took the device back and shoved it into his blazer's pocket, and after one last long glance at your traits, he left to look for his boss. Unbeknownst to you who had still read the other signs, his heart was pounding under his chest and his head was busy thinking of you until the next day when you were about to meet again.

*

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* 

Qian Jie [11:15 a.m.] : Hello Y/N, this is Jie. I hope you had a great morning. I'm texting you to send the address and time as agreed. Here is the map with the location. Let's say we should meet at 8.30 p.m., is that okay with you? 😊

You were the last one to show up at the fancy dining bar, which was already full of university students, co-workers, friends on a hangout or even loners, all sitting around barbecue plates grilling fresh meat and vegetables. The scent of alcohol and food stimulated your buds and your mouth watered as you wandered between the tables, looking for familiar faces.

And the familiar face you finally spotted was the one of a blonde man smiling while grilling some piece of what you guessed was beef, and as if he had sensed you coming, Jie immediately leveled up his eyes to meet yours. Your left hand heated up in no time, but less than your cheeks as you could clearly read in his stare that he was finding you… Pretty. His pupils scanned your silhouette quickly from head to toes, before he came right back at your face and his cheekbones reddened a bit as he finally gave you the biggest of smiles.

He pressed himself to move his things that had been displayed on the seat next to him, and he then silently motioned you to come and take the place he had just arranged. Had he done it on purpose? Probably. Did you find it cute? Maybe. Noticing his agitated and excited state, everyone at the table finally turned around or stopped looking at their phones to acknowledge you, and your colleagues all exclaimed :

"Y/N! Finally!"

"What took you so long?" Jiwoo, who was sitting at the far end of the table – and consequently at the opposite of the seat you were supposed to take at Jie's side – asked you with a sly smile, as during the day, you had finally confessed to her who you thought that handsome man was to you, or more accurately, who you were to him.

You had been quite embarrassed to tell her as you knew she had found him pretty attractive, but Jiwoo never ceased to surprise you with her cheerful state which never betrayed an ounce of jealousy. Surprised you as well, because if she was then sitting far away from Jie, she seemed to have found another target in the teammates from Sora's company. Indeed, each secretary had brought their coworkers responsible of the communication about the event or supposed to help you, your group then occupying at least three tables.

What had taken you so long, had been firstly the tasks you had wished to finish before leaving the building, and also your hard time choosing your outfit. In a way, you had wished to look pretty, but it wasn't exactly because of Jie's presence ; it was more because you were utterly conscious of Sora's. You had dreaded all day long to meet her – and her boyfriend – again, as you felt intimidated and embarrassed to be working with Jooheon's ex. That very ex whom he couldn't get over, and who, in a way, had deprived you of a relationship you had been dreaming of for so long.

You had then opted for a corduroy camel dress with large straps, wore over an oversized shirt, as well as comfortable boots and your favorite jacket. You considered you were right at the middle between casual and feminine ; at least, you felt pretty enough to finally take a seat next to Jie whose masculine yet fresh cologne hit you more than the smell of meat.

"Forgive me, I had to finish up a few things, the company's closed for three days in a row so I won't be able to work" you explained to Jiwoo and the rest of your team after everyone at the table had introduced themselves, and Kihyun chuckled at your remark.

"I hope you're going to take a break for the week-end and not think of work" he then inquired as he poured you some beer.

"You have a long week-end? How lucky of you!" Sora suddenly exclaimed with her hands clasping, making her boyf-… Her boss, laugh before his lips touched his glass.

God, it was painted all over his face ; he just loved her. His eyes were bearing an enamored spark as they landed on her, his long lashes giving them something so tender you felt chills on your arms just by watching.

You secretly wished someone – Lee Jooheon – would look at you like that. Oh but, Lee Jooheon had probably looked at her like that back in their days. Lucky her.

Before you could slap yourself to get out of your pitiful thoughts and way too envious state so that you could actually enjoy your night, Jie's smooth voice resounded in your eardrums :

"You want some?" he asked while holding a piece of meat between the pliers in his left hand, and you finally saw it.

Shining so brightly, looking more vivid than the heating charcoal under the barbecue plate in front of him, his life-line was lightened for you to see. You had been right : you were his ideal. You couldn't do anything except for nodding as this revelation and his two dark eyes boring into yours caught you off guard.

Was that him actually looking at you lovingly, like that, as you had just wished?

"Let me make you a wrap then" he smiled as he turned away from you to work on his preparation.

Your eyes dropped on his veiny forearms that were revealed as he had rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt to his elbows, before they dared to spy his profile. It was neat, as if sculpted in marble, as if borrowed from a manhwa. His hair looked wet on purpose and were combed back with the same hairstyle as the day before, yet a few strands were falling before his forehead, probably having lost the battle against the breeze outside. Was it because you felt lonely that you suddenly found him really attractive? Probably, because your heartbeat hadn't changed. However, at the thought that you were the girl of this man's fantasies, waves of heat came crashing against your skin and you bit your lip.

Was it a coincidence that he showed up now, or a sign that your heart should give a chance for another man to take it?

As Jie handed the piece of meat and lettuce neatly folded to you, you felt in his eyes that he was conveying a bit of his emotions at the same time, as something really sweltering was sparkling in them and lit up a tiny flame down your stomach. That man was so elegant and charming, and he dreamed to be with someone like you.

But that elegance and charm weren't the only great things you could list to describe him. As the dinner went on, you did your best to turn a blind eye on Sora's presence at the table and ended up chatting with Jie and his colleagues, whom you discovered were all good at Korean or English, and pretty nice. But Jie was always the nicest, the gentlest, the smartest, the fiercest of them all, at least in your eyes as you stared at him shamelessly.

He had dimples, just like Jooheon, but you quickly came to the conclusion that it was the only thing the two men had in common, probably explaining why the little light Jie's eyes had turned on inside you had soon been eaten by the remaining feelings Jooheon apparently still put you through just at the thought of him.

Jie was reserved, calm, hard-working. You came to understand that he was at least two years older than you, making you somehow shy and impressed. And you could read, in the eyes of his co-workers that gradually were turning red because of the soju you were sharing, that they all had a huge respect and admiration for him.

He was the perfect businessman every team would wish to work with : a good listener and an opportunity giver as he always asked about the quiet ones' opinions ; a responsible and wary person as he warned a teammate about how he should stop drinking because he had to meet his wife back home ; a polite mediator when he sensed that someone's remark could offend others, starting to calmly show to that person how rude he or she had been, or explaining his or her words so that everyone felt equally understood and not attacked.

And even though he didn't look like it, he was a funny guy. A timid one, but his jokes and his lovely smiles never failed to spread the happiness on the rest of the table's faces. He looked icy on the outside, having the silhouette of the serious secretary tightly gripped in his suit and shoes ; however, with how he remembered everyone's preferences when cooking the meat – including yours –, you could see that he was very warm.

On top of that, you truly felt how the law had made you a match to him, as he always seemed to complete your trail of thoughts, opening your eyes to another view you hadn't seen yet ; as he sensed when you didn't wish to drink anymore, stopping his teammates when they insisted to pour you a glass ; as he looked like he was eager to hear anything coming from your mouth, generously complimenting you for what you had achieved but without ever crossing the line where it would be too much.

Qian Jie was undeniably a sweet, sweet man, a man who embodied the perfect groom every mom would wish for her daughter to join at the end of the aisle ; nevertheless, objective perfection wasn't yours, and so the law was telling you.

Because, sadly for him, you couldn't help but compare his traits to your own ideal once you had drunk and eaten enough to do it without feeling your stomach knot.

It wasn't that Jooheon couldn't fit with the words warm, calm, or caring ; it just wasn't the same. Jooheon was more mischievous, more spontaneous and care-free when it came to talk about life stuff. On the few Instagram stories Kihyun had shared, you had seen him lose his temper during the futsal, or laugh and shout like a dork when he scored a goal. During the time you had spent chit-chatting with him at the bar or texting him afterwards, you had been attracted to his mysterious side, but his bubbly one had drawn you to him even more. It was that very spark that you liked, that insouciant charm he had, which certainly had been distraught by Sora but still managed to manifest itself from behind the walls Jooheon had built.

Just like his hair, Jooheon was fire, when Jie was water. The first one was full of passionate feelings to express, so much that he was about to break, so much that he was impulsive just like he had been that night with you ; when the latter seemed to prefer the smoothest of ways, always putting much thought in his actions and wordings, even in a situation where he had alcohol thickening his blood and was supposedly struck by the powers of the law.

You then wondered : what was the law's message to you? How come your ideal was fire, when you were supposed to suit water? Was it that you should trouble Jie's flow of life and make it more exciting and wilder, or that you should've canalized the flames so that Jooheon wouldn't burn himself anymore?

______

"Let's play a game! Girls versus boys, c'mon!" Changmin, the guy from your team who was the same age as yours, suddenly shouted, with his rosy cheeks inducing that he had swallowed a lot of booze.

You all agreed cheerfully and started exchanging seats, and in all the haste you accidentally ended up next to Sora, realizing then that you were going to get paired with her. She smiled at you immediately, and you wished she had been less beautiful, less kind, less lovely as she started a conversation with you while the boys were still struggling to understand the game's rules. Just as Jie and Jooheon were a world apart from each other, you felt diminished next to her, crumbling under the pile of differences you were spotting between the both of you.

You compared yourself again and again, as she shared with you her story about how she managed to climb up the ladder in her company at such a young age, as she envied your imagination but had the audacity and business-logic you lacked in, as she was so damn adorable that you could understand why Jooheon's heart hadn't turned to you at once. And if you couldn't see any flaws in him plausibly because the law was blinding you, this time you had your eyes fully opened as you watched and beamed at her, yet you couldn't pinpoint any flaws in her as well. You then imagined how hard it must be to fall out of love with someone like her, and how hard Jooheon must believe that he would never find better .

"Hello? Oh hey Jooheon!" Kihyun suddenly shouted over the ambient noise and his eyes instantly narrowed at you, a sickening smile twisting the corners of that filthy mouth of his.

You looked back at him as your body tensed up ; your ears did their best to catch the slightest word from this conversation ; your hands crumpled the napkin on your lap ; and your heart simply stopped beating as it had ascended up to your throat.

"Really? You're not kidding? You're taking the job?!" he exclaimed loud enough for you to hear. "Aaaaah you thought well my son, I can't wait to be your boss! You should be nice to me or I'll reduce your pay… Anyway good choice mate! Where I am? I'm out drinking and eating with Y/N and other colleagues!"

The way he insisted on your name punched an iron fist into your chest, which grabbed your bloody organ and pulled it down your throat to your stomach. Sora was right next to you and you could bet that she was listening too. What was he doing, putting on a show, all the while staring at you?!

I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, you cursed him through squinted eyes, and when you turned your attention back to your game partner, she was looking at you with surprisingly fond eyes.

However, she didn't say a word and simply grabbed your hands gently as Changmin told you to do so, and the game began, with a lot of laughter, too much mistakes and shouts, and thankfully, it stole your time to realize that you definitely were going to meet him again under those weird circumstances. Changmin sounded like he was full of crazy ideas tonight, as he shouted again, with his high-pitched voice :

"Let's go to the Golden Tiger! We're regulars there, we'll have some discounts! I like all of you so I want to treat you all with the company card!"

You suddenly felt as if you were going under a high fever, chills sliding down your skin while your head started spinning. Why that club, out of all the others? There were plenty of party sites in Seoul, why would he think of the one Jooheon works in? There were too much of coincidences in a short time, too much for you at least.

"I think I'll go home" you shyly muttered after a few seconds of zoning out and you stood up clumsily, hoping to escape as you knew your coworkers could turn into sharp traps clenching your ankle and preventing you to flee the scene.

You obviously knew that going down there was going to result in you losing your reason as you were completely disturbed by the love triangle you were tangled in. You would end up doing crazy things to evacuate all your stress, such as such as going to Jooheon's counter and bawl your eyes out before him because you felt empty and way too emotional after having spent the night with his ex. With that very ex to watch and him only paying attention to her and not to your ridiculous state, on top of that. This scenario was close to the one of a nightmare, and it was definitely a no-no.

You spanned the bench you had been seating on and everyone followed your lead, thinking you were pressed to go clubbing when you actually just couldn't stay in place and wished to run away as fast as you could. Once outside, your heels were bouncing slightly on the pavement, as you clutched your phone against your heart while the rest of the group was busy paying for your food, going to the restroom or trying to light a cigarette in spite of the breeze. Then, as you were about to bid them goodbye, Sora's voice was suddenly heard delivering the same excuse as yours, but with an alibi no one could question :

"I think we'll go home, that mister obviously can't follow" she struggled to say with a smile as she had the arm of her boyfriend hooked around her neck, his legs apparently giving up on him and making him completely lean on her, with his head down.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jiwoo threw darts at you with her eyes as she could guess from your moving figure that you were impatiently waiting for the moment to slip away.

"I'm-"

"Y/N, can I have a word with you for a second?" Sora suddenly called you out behind your back as she tossed her boss's body over to one of their colleagues who whined at how heavy he was.

Cold sweat ran down your spine and you gulped, your body always suffering from high tension whenever your eyes met hers.

"What is it?" you asked her after having taken a few steps away with her at your side, your tongue heavy and your cheeks completely flushed.

Even though the fresh air was stimulating your senses, they were quite altered by the effects of alcohol. You hadn't drunk that much, yet you had barely managed to stuff something to eat down your throat, too immersed into Jie's doings next to you, when you hadn't been thinking about Jooheon.

Through your half-closed eyelids, you could still see that the young woman was somehow hesitant, swaying from one foot to another and her fingers fiddling with each other. She bit her lip as she looked up at you, before grabbing your shoulders.

"Look… I'm sorry but I can't help saying what's been on my mind… I think… You know me" she started with a smile, and your tension suddenly went up to its limit, making you dizzier than you already were. "Or should I say, you know Jooheon, and through him… You know who I was to him. I read it in your eyes on the day of the meeting, and I read it on your face tonight, when he called."

You felt so ashamed that you wished a black hole could suck you up in an instant far away from her grasp and her eyes still looking at you caringly.

"I just wanted to tell you that you don't have to feel uncomfortable with me around! We are working together and he'll be there on the ship. To be honest, I wished Jooheon could meet someone after me who made him realize I wasn't the best for him, and if that's you- Oh my god sorry this sounds weird" she pressed her words. "I just think you're such a cool girl, Y/N. I haven't seen Kihyun trying so obviously hard in a while, he wouldn't if he didn't think you were too! I hope you two last long!"

_______

"What's going on between them?" Kihyun asked as his eyes fell on his friend's ex and you, the concern clear in his voice as he had just stepped out of the dining bar.

"I don't know, but Y/N wants to leave" Jiwoo grumbled before shivering as a whirlwind shrouded her body and messed with her light blonde hair.

"Ah…" your colleague sighed before taking his phone out to answer to his last message.

Kihyun [11:30 p.m.] : Dude, we're going to your club, is there a free table for the twelve of us?

My kid Jooheon [11:36 p.m.] : TWELVE?

My kid Jooheon [11:36 p.m.] : I'll see what I can do, but you better pay the bill tonight not like the last time, I'll never be nice to you again

My kid Jooheon [11:36 p.m.] : AND STOP TEXTING ME WHEN I'M AT WORK FFS

Kihyun [11:38 p.m.] : Well you're answering anyways, thanks I love yooooou

My kid Jooheon [11:39 p.m.] : Y/N's coming?

Kihyun [11:45 p.m.] : Oh, weird question isn't it, you never ask abt her

Kihyun [11:45 p.m.] : But I don't think so man

My kid Jooheon [11:46 p.m.] : Ah… I hope that's not because of me, I don't want her to miss a great night like she did last time at the bar

Kihyun [11:46 p.m.] : You're still thinking of this? Shit I guess I really messed up that time wow

[Unread message] Jooheon [11:46 p.m.] : Oh really no kidding

Kihyun [11:48 p.m.] : She's a bit drunk right now so I just think she's tired

Kihyun was lying, because he was well aware of your reasons without you wording it to him ; however, he couldn't make his friend feel worse than he already was.

My kid Jooheon [11:49 p.m.] : Someone's taking her home, right?

Kihyun [11:49 p.m.] : I don't know, she's about to leave now

My kid Jooheon [11:50 p.m.] : Ok…

My kid Jooheon [11:50 p.m.] : I know it's awkward of me to ask but… Just don't let her walk home alone, please

______

"I got rejected" you had managed to reply to Sora in the meantime.

Her rant had killed you on the spot, her kindness completely fired up with alcohol and drifting to something close to indiscretion without her wanting it to. You knew her words weren't meant to hurt you, but it still did.

She was so desperate to have Jooheon moving on, to lessen the burden on her shoulders, the weight of the pain she had caused obviously still tormenting her. Just like him trying with you, she was seeking for a way to his happiness on his behalf, but in your eyes, it was mainly in order to make up for her guilt.

"Y/N!" Kihyun suddenly ran up the pavement to you, pushing discretely his phone in his pocket as he wished to keep his last conversation a complete secret and try to execute his "mission".

"Yes?" you threw a jaded stare at him.

You didn't have the strength to deal with two people wishing for a relationship between Jooheon and you  to happen when you knew better than them that the latter didn't want to see it bloom to begin with. You were too tired to prove them wrong and fight against their concerns that were anything but touching at this point. Your lower lip started to tremble as you gave Kihyun a pleading, defeated look ; you were on the verge of breaking into a set of tears as you wished for nothing except for you to be safe and sound in your apartment, falling asleep so that this long night would be put to an end and another day would come quicker. A day where you'd be back to your strong-self dealing amazingly with her feelings and her everyday life without romance like she had promised herself to do.

"Y/N, let's go" Jie suddenly told you from his position a few feet away, saving you from hell as if he had heard your secret prayers, as if he was the only one to get the distress you were drowning in. "I'm not going to the club either, so I shall come with you. C'mon, I'll take you home."

The second your stare came across his and his reassuring tone caressed your eardrums, some salty, hot, tickling water definitely accrued at the crease of your eyelids. That kind man down there had fulfilled your needs without you even asking for it. He would certainly work for your happiness, and he was probably already fond of you and could be for a long time if you'd just let him ; still, the warm smile he addressed you wasn't enough to falter the misery the name "Jooheon" had pushed you in all over again. Nothing could ever make up for it, no one could fill up the void in your heart, except for Jooheon himself. However, he wouldn't. And to realize that, after three months of persuasion, was eating you alive.

       Kihyun [11:55 p.m.] : She's leaving now, with a man from the company we'll be working for…

*

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***

**

*

You couldn't clearly picture the way back home with Jie when you woke up the next morning with your head wheezing painfully, and you never tried to recall it afterwards as you spent your long weekend reconciliating with the fighting spirit you had sported 'til the past two days. You just knew you had walked for a while and felt a hint of his touch on your shoulders as he had covered them with his coat. You could picture yourself hopping in a taxi, yet you couldn't remember if you had talked, fallen asleep, or maybe cried in front of him ; neither did you know how you had managed to enter your flat and find your way to bed.

Qian Jie [10:06 a.m.] : Are you alright?

This lone message had put a smile on your dry lips, and your heavy fingers had managed to type a "yes, thank you for asking and taking me home yesterday" even though the room had seemed to be turning around your body, not helping to focus. You hadn't drunk that much to the point of enduring a blackout and such a harsh hangover, but you could guess that it simply were your brain and body that refused to cooperate after they had been plunged into the swamp of your negative emotions all over again.

However, you took the signs into account and instead of burying your emotions deep down as the tsunami they turned into once triggered wasn't welcomed, you accepted the fact that you were damned to like Lee Jooheon for a longer while. You hadn't been able to force your feelings out no matter how hard you had tried, then only being nicer to yourself could lift the weight of misery off your shoulders and help you not to falter at the sound of his name next time.

Meanwhile, you allowed yourself to chat with Jie sometimes for work, sometimes casually as he managed to push the conversation over event-related things. Of course you liked talking to him, as your mind was somehow destined to clink with his more than with the rest of men in this world, and obviously Jie seemed to be falling for you as you deciphered the sweet tone in his voice every time he would call you to check on – futile – things. And if his feelings were still one-sided for now, you gave your heart a break by stopping the overthinking and just enjoying your little excitement ; maybe you'd turn the page too before you'd know it…?

However, the day you had to see Jooheon's face again came sooner than you had expected, because right after you had come back to work, your team manager had had the wonderful idea to plan a briefing reunion between your team and the staff you had hired for the food making, the service, the animation or the music, were they independent workers or specialized companies which would then send a representant. You would explain what you expected from them, what was the theme, what were the rules, what would be the organization, all of this around a small buffet.

Himchan had thought that it would be a more humane and clearer way than communicating by mail or phone, and if you couldn't deny, your nervous heart didn't thank him on the D-Day while you were waiting in your company's hall to greet the convoked people. Of course, Jooheon wouldn't be represented as he had been especially recommended ; so of course, instead of having the information relayed to him by someone else, he was going to hear it from your mouth directly, your very mouth that still itched at the thought of your kiss ; and of course, Kihyun had ensured you with a smirk that his friend had confirmed his presence. How professional of him. What confused you above it all, was that you couldn't decipher the reason why he would still accept this job, when he was back in the football game…

______

The clock was ticking on the watch enclosing his left wrist, and Jooheon found himself unable to walk through the glass doors of the huge building without having the fear that his heart would burst like a firework. Once again, his body was strangely stimulated by some flashes of thoughts he had of you every once in a while, and that never missed to make him feel edgy. Had he really made the right choice, wouldn't his mind had let go of the memories just like ashes evaporating in the air by now?

He hated how indiscreet his eyes had been these past months, lurking at Kihyun's phone's screen whenever he was sliding through his feed on Instagram, hoping he'd get to see a picture of you smiling and being – at least apparently – well. Because he, had been doing pretty well. Much better, to be precise.

Just like you had suggested him to, he had finally gathered the sufficient courage to confront his second biggest fear, football, as he couldn't stand the feeling of being such a loser and scaredy-cat anymore. Stopping to live like that had somehow been his way to cope with what he had done to you. He had then met with his coach after a long time of ignoring his calls, who had gladly welcomed him and re-offered his help to train him all over again, as well as his teammates who were happy to get their brother back in the family.

And as he had finally felt alive on the track field after a long time of wandering like a lost soul between his home and the club, his thankful heart and mind had only been craving to tell you how right you had been. In the end, without even being by his side anymore, you still had been the wind pushing him across the paths of challenges but happiness as well, would it be that night or right now, and Jooheon could never forget how this quick passage of yours had marked him for life. You had tamed the fire within him, reason why the ashes were still around…

His sharp eyes had barely caught the sight of you chatting with Kihyun and whom he guessed were other colleagues behind the windows, that his stomach twisted itself just like his mother used to twist their drenched laundry.

"Lee Jooheon, we need to go, they're waiting" a dismayed voice called him out.

His agent was standing in front of the doors, his expression clearly inducing how impatient and upset he was starting to feel before his childish behavior.

"Why'd you come anyway? It's embarrassing, I don’t need you for personal affairs like these" the younger boy grumbled while pushing his hands into the pockets of his black trousers.

"The coach told me to see for myself how much of an important meeting you were attending for you to miss a training day" the man smiled sarcastically.

"Ah-a! I regret going back to him, I didn't know he'd be that clingy and wouldn't trust me ever again!" Jooheon scoffed, earning some time.

"It's not that he doesn't trust you, he's just scared that he'll lose you anytime, you're still his precious gem you know, the future of his club, the son he had lost for a while, his-"

"Oh no stop it please, this is cringy" Jooheon frowned while covering his ears, even if he still heard the laugh of his agent which drastically stopped as he pushed the door open.

"Come on. Let's go" he ordered with a straight face.

"I really didn't miss you, not once" the footballer sighed.

This man, Mr. Seo, a father of two kids and a devoted husband, had always been there for him, even when he had cut ties with everyone. He had kept on sending diet food and side dishes to his place after the injury, just like had been doing back when Jooheon was training under his protection, with encouraging notes telling him to take his time but to come back. Unfortunately for him, Jooheon had only felt more guilty and unworthy at the sight of these pure displays of affection he couldn't pay back, instead of getting cheered up.

Your stares met as soon as Jooheon made his entry, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl themselves up to offer you a shy smile, his suffering stomach immediately untying so that it would welcome the fluttering sensation of sparks tingling its walls. Yet you didn't smile back, or more accurately, not at him but at someone coming from behind him as your eyes quickly left his. They indeed followed a man who strode past Jooheon's manager, wearing a dark brown suit and with a neat hairstyle, his blonde hair color seeming to be the one of his birth and not the result of bleaching the locks a few times. The man came to stand next to you, and as Jooheon was concentrating to distinguish your voice over the lots of blabbering around him in the hall, Kihyun called him out :

"Lee Jooheon! Oh hello Mr. Seo! Finally, I was about to call you!" his friend smiled, obviously having said it loud enough so that everyone would admire the latecomer.

All the faces turned to him as they heard the familiar name, belonging to a "football player who has made his comeback to the infamous club in Seoul and is preparing all over again to enter the national team in the near future". Or so the medias were saying, in such a dramatical way. As much as he hated being the center of attention, his coach had been going out and about his "great return" as well as his teammates on their social accounts – they were proud, but way too proud. Jooheon hissed discretely, noticing embarrassingly that a girl from the group was already gazing at him quite intently, but what embarrassed him the most was his brain that told him he would have liked to catch your attention instead.

However, you were still discussing with the suited man whose head was quite close to yours, showing him something on sheets you were arranging for him and nodding back at him, before you cleared your throat :

"Welcome everyone, and thank you for coming. Please follow us to the first floor where our team manager is waiting for you" you announced.

"Wow she's young" Jooheon heard a man whisper.

"And pretty hot" another muttered back before they giggled together.

The sparks in Jooheon's body suddenly lit up a flame that was about to blow up into a raging fire if he ever heard another comment coming from their dirty mouths. He hadn't known he would be that sensitive to see you again today, and if he had, he would have gladly stayed in bed this early morning. Everything was wrong about the way he was feeling right now, about how he was craving for your attention, about how he was nervous to be around you, when you seemed to be so calm – with that man standing at your side and smiling at you and you smiling back at him and him letting you enter the lift first as a true gentleman even if his hand on your back was a tad too much.

It was as if the situation was pushing him into a corner of discomfort the more he had your silhouette, which was lovely more than pretty hot, in his sight, that very silhouette he had refused to hold in his arms exclusively. He could feel the excitement bubbling within his limbs, sign that you still were like a shot of happiness to him, but what were those upsetting side-effects?

______

You stepped into a large room where the guests each chose a seat while you took place next to Himchan who was ready to give his speech. Jie sat at the front row, on your left, prepared to take notes so that he could relay the organization to his boss ; and thankfully, Sora had sent a colleague, putting the strangling reunion of your love triangle with Jooheon off to the scary date of the event.

"Good morning everyone! I'm Kim Himchan, the manager in charge of this project and this is Yoo Kihyun, Y/L/N Y/N and Jeon Jiwoo, my people, my team" your boss started with a clap of his hands.

Jooheon was sitting at the far back of the room, his right foot landed over his left knee, his hands with tangled fingers across his leg, his black turtleneck top under his camel trucker jacket catching your eye, but less than the fact that he had shortened his hair and the color had faded since the last time you met, signs that a long time had passed. Yet, his handsomeness never failed to feed your eyes, but when they met his dark pupils, your blood turned icy. He looked like the distant, rebellious kid at the back of the class that pinned the teachers down in their place with their piercing gaze.

You wondered if Jie was feeling the same way every time he met you, and if that was the case, you pitied him ; you were quite lucky to come across Jooheon only once in a while, as he shook your senses enough for you to feel disturbed even once you had parted, and you hated it.

Though this time, something had changed in him, but you couldn't pinpoint exactly what. Something in his look was turning your body stiff, just like it had the first time at the club ; it had been the only one time you had seen him shining with confidence and easiness, and right now, it seemed as if the usual gloominess that had inhabited him afterwards had… Gone. Had you guessed it right, had football really relieved him? Or was it something else? Either way, you didn't receive nor share his sadness this time as something different was emanating from him.

The more the clock on the wall was reading the seconds passing by, the more your hand was starting to hurt like hell, and the less you could focus on the meeting. You ignored if the explanation of the pain was lingering in the pure fact that the two lines were solicited at the same time, or simply that your body was overreacting under your systematical, uncontrollable desire to have Jooheon for you, and to have him lean on you.

The two pair of eyes of the men bound to you by destiny were focused on your being, unashamedly, inevitably, obviously staring at you and you only, and you were thrilled to read some kind of intensity in Jooheon's pupils each time you came to catch their sight. Mechanically, your thumb had started to slide along your palm in order to soothe the scorching sensation you thought you were the only one to suffer from, until you perceived your ideal's fingers doing exactly the same, with his palm turned to the ceiling for you to see.

You then got captured in a glimpse of time and space where nobody could tell, except for the both of you, that you were letting yourselves getting consumed into the sweet pain and under each other's stares. Suddenly, when Jie shifted in his seat and grasped your attention, his shy smile at you turned the sweet pain into an excruciating one, as if someone was planting a knife into your hand again and again.

It told how much you were torn between your need for your one-sided love to be accepted, and the will you had developed to walk down the possible way out of it.

"And that's about it! Any questions, before we get our claws on the appetizing buffet behind you?" Himchan concluded just before you'd scream out of pain, and as nobody rose a hand, you used the mass movement towards the back of the room as an opportunity to run discretely to the toilets.

The cold water flowing on your palm made you sigh in relief, and you closed your eyes for a moment, but ended up opening them in a haste as the picture of Jooheon staring at you had appeared in the black space veiling your pupils. What was wrong with him? When you had imagined he'd be nothing more than formal with you as three months had passed without him regretting anything, in fact he had almost been scanning you naked with his insisting look at your face. You slowly regained your composure as the pain dispelled, and finally walked out of the restroom, only to be met by one of the guests, a man in his mid-thirties, in the corridor.

"Oh sir? Did you lose yourself?" you asked him as he had been standing with his back against the wall.

He stood up properly with a smug look on his traits that instantly put you in a cagey position as something disturbing was glowing from his body, like a bad feeling, and he took long strides until he was properly facing you.

"Actually no… It might sound weird, but I followed you here because I wanted to have a short private talk with you, Miss Y/L/N" he said with a smile that wasn't warming at all.

"R-really? You must have some points to share? Tell me so I could relay them to my sup-"

"You're really professional, I like you even more…" he acknowledged in a low-tone, and this time, you were definitely embarrassed.

Was he hitting on you, right now? There was nobody in the corridor as the restrooms were quite far from the meeting rooms, and you weren't sure of how this would end as you'd have to turn his eventual confession down.

"I just wanted a bit of privacy, to ask you out for dinner, tomorrow night. Just you and me."

"I'm sorry but I'll have to refuse, sir." you smiled awkwardly with an enchanting tone to chase away the tension building between the both of you. "Thank you for proposing, but-"

"Oh please, you can't refuse, it's my treat! I know a bunch of luxurious restaurants that women adore, you won't regret it!" he insisted, grabbing his phone in the pocket of his costume's vest and presenting it to you. "Here! Why refuse, my pretty lady, hm? That senior is ready to do anything for you."

He looked so arrogant, obviously thinking girls who were young were also dupe and would gladly give themselves to him, but he had been wrong about you. You almost rolled your eyes at his stubborn behavior, as if using his status and pet names – that were out of place – would make you change your mind.

"I'm really sorry, I can't accept your offer, sir. Should we go back to-"

"Why are you refusing?" he suddenly groaned, combing his hair nervously. "Don't you know how good of an opportunity this is for your company? We could be great partners afterwards! You shouldn't be that difficult and just give me a night, huh? C'mon, I told you you wouldn't regret it!"

Your heartbeat was now the one of some kind of fanfare turning hectic, as you felt anger fueling through your veins at his threat, but also the premises of panic because the two of you were alone.

"I don't think us going out on a date tomorrow has anything to do with my career or my company, sir" you tried to answer in the politest of tones before biting your tongue so that insults wouldn't proliferate out of your lips.

"Hey, you little- You should know better than to talk back to your elders and just accept the good deeds they do for you, shouldn't you?"

"I think I have the right to refuse, sir. I'm sorry."

"You're very stubborn as I can see… What a shame, hm?"

The man suddenly grabbed your right arm, freezing you in your heels, his eyes opened wide and his brows furrowed in pent-up frustration as you didn't comply to his far from legitim authority. And just as he had been about to lecture you some more, a hand caught his and firmly removed it from your limb.

"You heard her, right? She refused, you disgusting pervert" Jooheon interfered in a tensed, stern tone as he stepped before you, before his jaw clenched tightly.

The surprise of his sudden appearance and your frozen state quickly faded away as his citrus perfume invaded your space ; and like an enchantment, it lifted the atmosphere up, relaxed your limbs and untied the knot twisting your stomach in fear, making you feel at ease and secure.

"W-What?" the man stuttered, looking impressed by the young man's serious face and his apparent strength as he had squeezed his hand without pity.

"I filmed everything before interfering, and I'll report this to your employer, you can be sure of it. Also, I can make it buzz in a few hours, don't you know who I am? Huh? I can bring you down in a minute" he pursued as he took a step further. "I can't believe you're proudly saying you're a senior when you act like an ignorant pervert. So maybe I, a junior, should teach you how life is. Nothing will ever give you the right to think women should oblige when you say so. You're nobody. No-bo-dy. You don't have any right to tell a woman she's disrespectful when you don't respect her in the first place. Do you get what I'm saying, sir? Or should I make it clearer? You don't have any right to lay your dirty hands on a woman unless she agrees for you to do so, you hear me? You don't have any right to intimidate her or even talk to her to begin with, you scumbag, you filthy dirty scumbag I swear you should be taught to be a man"

Jooheon had approached the businessman a bit more, his right index pointing at his chest but never touching him, his physical presence enough to crush anyone else's self-assurance into dozens of pieces. His unphased expression and threatening behavior impressed you, as well as his sharp tone, mostly because you were their trigger. Something had definitely changed in him. Something that was straightening his back and glowed through every pore of his fair skin, telling you he was now standing with a confidence you hadn't known of.

He looked like a man that finally was comfortable enough in his own shoes, but as you could decipher the invisible flames of fury irradiating all around his body and spotted his left fist tightening, you grabbed his wrist so that he wouldn't take it further. Jooheon turned back to your fingers wrapped around his watch, then to you.

"I won't do anything, only if you forgive him" your ideal then addressed you in a calm tone, before he unblocked your sight of the man for you to kill him with a disgusted stare.

"Don't get that angry, young boy, I-I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry" the latter couldn't talk properly anymore, shame reddening his prominent cheeks.

Jooheon's eyes were gazing at you with a sweetness reminding you of that morning when he had held you close in his kitchen, and you cursed secretly at him for having appeared next to you when you were at your weakest, as his ambiguous behavior made your heart flutter even more. It conveyed the same light of false hopes you had tried to turn a blind eye to, and it was dangerously circling you.

"He's not the one you should apologize to" a familiar voice suddenly cut in the conversation, and Jie appeared from the end of the corridor with a face as strict as Jooheon's. "I witnessed everything as well and looked up for your company's contact information. I won't let this go. This isn't making business, this isn't profitable for your company or hers, this is harassment, and you should be ashamed of it."

Jooheon's brows quirked in surprise as he looked at the plus-one who had put an end to his somehow intimate moment with you, only to be met with the darkest stare he'd ever received in his whole life. Dark, but also… Thankful? Your eyes were going back and forth between the two saviors, as you felt that an electric vibe was circulating from a pair of eyes to another. The pain in your hand burned your flesh all over again as you did so, and the second you winced, Jooheon and Jie's attention focused on you, completely forgetting about the third party who let out a long sigh before hanging his head low, evidently having a hard time swallowing his pride to apologize to you.

"I'm sorry, miss. Forgive me."

"I hope you will stop thinking that your position should make women appreciate you and beg for a night with you. I will stay nice for now because the event is coming soon and we can't replace you in such a short time. But I hope that your attitude doesn't reflect your company's values, I'll ask about it myself. Just know that it would be shameless of you to dare come out in front of me ever again, and if you do so, the video will be out" you managed to warn him even though your voice was trembling due to your need to moan your suffering out. "Let's go back to the room"

You didn't know where your confidence to lecture an older man had come from when he had been pretty intimidating before and you had been quite scared for yourself ; surely Jooheon's and Jie's overpowering auras, like those of two knights in shining armors, had made you feel protected and supported.

"You're coming with me" Jie surprisingly took your hand in his and without further explanations, leaded the walk down the corridor, leaving the pervert behind the both of you ruminating his own frustration and fright to get reported anytime, but also Jooheon whose lips got sealed the second your skins weren't in contact anymore.

His eyes fell down on your hand intertwined in his, an unreadable expression veiling his traits before they went up to your face as you looked back at him while walking away, still flustered by his intervention, and torn to have your hand in another man's.

______

"Where are you taking me? And why hold my hand?" you asked Jie as you followed behind him.

You didn't have the guts to tear your hands apart on your own, the serious look on his face preventing you to do so.

"Where can I find ice?" Jie asked you back as he kept on pacing straight in the hallway.

"Ice? Ah that's right, we forgot to put some on the tables for the drinks! We can go to the rest area, we have a fridge there" you informed him, your heart beating fast. "It's the door on the right, over there…"

Once you had entered the empty room, Jie finally freed your palm to close the door behind the both of you, then he pressed himself towards the fridge. You silently observed him as he put some ice cubes in a towel he had found on the vending machine's handle, before he told you to sit on one of the sofas.

"What? Why?"

"I know your left hand is hurting, you were rubbing it a while ago and I can feel it too, it hurts pretty badly, doesn't it?" he answered in the most natural of ways, and your heart begun the fanfare all over again.

He was so considerate, from the way he had noticed your pain, to how he had also stepped up to a senior only to defend you. For the first time since your encounter, and even though your feelings belonged to someone else, you couldn't deny that it had reached out to you, almost in a romantic way.

"O-Oh… Thank you…"

"I'm sorry I followed you to the toilets, but I was pretty worried about you" he then told you straightforwardly.

It looked like he was having a lots of arrows to shoot at you on this day.

"Actually I went to the toilets to put some water on it, but ice is way better" you sighed in relief as he was massaging your palm with the ballot of ice he had quickly made, and the mixture of the warmth of his hand supporting yours and the cold of the fabric was the most soothing of sensations.

His brows were furrowed as he was concentrating on keeping his gestures delicate, and you took this opportunity to close your eyes briefly. Some pictures of the previous incident flashed through your mind, and you gazed back at Jie to admire his sharp traits that never failed to fascinate you. How come your thoughts were monopolized by Jooheon's face and questions about him, when this man right here was ready to give you what you needed? The law was so unfair to the both of you.

"Thank you, for also coming to my rescue earlier, that man was pretty creepy" you said before biting your lip, as he probably hadn't been able to prevent himself to do so.

"I'm just glad I followed you there, my instincts definitely never betray me" he smiled purely as his eyes finally looked at you, catching you in the act of analyzing every single inch of his skin. "Oh and about tomorrow night… What will you be doing?"

"Tomorrow night? Nothing, I only told him no because I didn't want to go" you chuckled.

"Oh well… I was willing to ask you out on a date anyway, so I might just do it now. Would you mind going out to eat with me instead, tomorrow night?"

His eyes conveyed an intensity that flushed your cheeks and suspended time for a second, in this room only lightened by the few rays of sun penetrating through the small window and enlightening in gold his light strands of hair. You could have sworn your heart had finally given up some beats to this man worthy of everything, but its main rhythm was obviously stimulated by another man that was somewhere behind this door.

The way to a possible happiness without him was paved right before you for your eyes to see, and probably to a new beginning with a decent man ; however, you knew from your past relapse at the sight of Jooheon's picture, and from the way he had overshadowed Jie earlier would it be in the room or in the corridor, that you weren't quite ready to date or love anyone else but him.

"Can I give you my answer later?" you still smiled.

It would be the perfect occasion to be truthful with him and put an end to his false hopes just like Jooheon had done with you, before it would be too late, before he would end up as miserable as you had been for weeks. The temptation to just give in the easy way had been powerful as his care for you was heart-fluttering, but less than your feelings for Jooheon, and you couldn't deceive Jie or yourself anymore.

"Sure, Y/N" he gently nodded before going back to his ministrations without saying another word.

______

Jooheon had witnessed the incident from the very beginning. Indeed, he had seen you step out of the room hurriedly and not too long after, one of the men he had heard talking dirtily about you earlier in the main hall had followed you. Just like Jie, his guts had told him that nothing good would happen out of an eventual encounter, and they had taken his feet through the huge and numerous hallways of the building, the red vest of the pervert always in his sight.

He had then waited quietly at the corner of a crossover, observing the man as he had paced around in front of the women's restroom's door before stationing himself against the wall. Jooheon's heart had been bumping against his ribcage, while his hands had enclosed into tight fists, the tension getting higher in this silent corridor. When you had finally stepped out, he had caught his breath not to miss any single word of your conversation, and had brandished his handphone to record the scene in case you'd need it.

The second the man had dropped his first dirty move on you, Jooheon's anticipation had turned into anger, his veins popping out of his neck, hands and even temples. And right at the moment when he had decided he'd had enough of this disgusting scene playing under his two eyes, he had spotted the blonde man in his brown suit walking down the hallway facing his, approaching the scene. That was when a thought had popped up in his mind fueled with rage : he had promised himself not to be a coward anymore. And that very thought, had urged his body towards yours, as if attracted to you like a magnet, and made him intervene before his twisted brain could tell him to hide like the runaway he was.

Jooheon had rarely seen that red in his whole life, as he had felt on the verge to crush the man down until he had been crawling and begging for your forgiveness, but mostly, the sensation of being strong, important in your eyes had excited him somehow.

Nevertheless, it hadn't lasted long. When the blonde man had finally interrupted him in his rare time of following his heart, when he had looked at him without blinking, Jooheon's confidence had lost to his doubts, again. The sadness lingering in your last text message, the memory of your teary eyes three months ago, the echo of your voice begging him to stop acting as if there was a way for a "you" to happen struck him like a thunderbolt. Maybe this man, would make you happy when he had failed to.

That millisecond of torment had been enough for this very man to be the one taking your hand then your body away from that dirty stranger, without thinking or hesitating, and to leave him as the defeated man he still seemed to be. He thought he had changed, but once more, what had only been left, was the price of his regrets or, like his friend Minhyuk had accurately induced, the price of his feelings he had wrongfully subsided. Right in this corridor, Lee Jooheon had been a bit too late to realize that he liked you too, as his lingering anger had transformed into frustration and jealousy.

Regrets, regrets, regrets. Jooheon was getting tired of this bugging feeling. So tired that he'd do anything to not welcome them anymore. And as his eyes had fallen on his empty left hand, his vivid heart-line scorching his skin couldn't have seemed more meaningful to him.

The key to the end of this long labyrinth he had been wandering in with his eyes closed, hoping to find an issue while avoiding the new experiences in front of him, was in fact residing in one thing : his heart, that had given him the most impulsive, spontaneous of directives in a while, but the most ecstatic of feelings once he had been close to you.

His heart, calling for him to fall off the cliff he had been hanging on for too long, and to finally give in to the euphoria of love, for himself and for you.

*

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"I'll send them off manager, don't worry!" you exclaimed to Himchan's attention as you walked out of the building and stood a few meters away from the entrance to shake hands with everyone and thank them.

The subtle breeze comforted you after the disturbing episode in the hallway, but it couldn't calm the drum solo your bloody organ was still playing as you knew you'd come to face Jooheon again. You hadn't had the chance to approach him after you had been back to the meeting room, as Jie had stood by your side all the while, his eyes telling you that he had been worried that you'd collapse at any moment, once the pressure had completely fallen down.

Your heels were stamping the pavement as you were thinking of what to say, but also wondering if you could ask the questions Jooheon had the talent to outnumber with additional ones every time you met, leaving them preys to your unending interpretation.

The man of your dreams was the last one to step out, his agent leaving the two of you on the forecourt after bidding politely his goodbyes, and before you could open your mouth to thank him properly for having protected you, Jooheon asked you :

"Are you alright?"

"I guess, thanks to you. Thank you for intervening, really" you said truthfully, and when your eyes dived into his crescent ones, your body vibrated with the familiar yet dangerous tsunami of feelings you had bottled up.

Jooheon shared that same trembling feeling as he, too, had kept many things inside for a long while, and as he was letting them out one after the other, he couldn't fight the smile curling his lips at your sight and answer.

"Good then, I'm glad to hear that" he sighed his thoughts out, before licking his lower lip. "I have a thing to be thankful for you as well."

"Me? What is it?" you questioned him with doubt lacing your voice.

"I've been practicing football again, and I wouldn't have hadn't it been for you. You might not realize it, but I wanted to thank you anyways because it has helped me a lot" he confessed.

His deep and serious tone made you scoff the embarrassment out of your body, before swinging slightly back and forth to vivify your limbs as they could melt under his stare at any moment. You felt nervous to be left alone with that new version of him, his quiet strength overhanging you.

"What does that even mean, I didn't do anything special…" you grumbled. "Anyway, I'm glad to hear that as well."

He chuckled at your reaction, and started counting the seconds passing by, his brain urging itself to find what to say so that you wouldn't part ways already.

"Can I ask you a question?" you unexpectedly spoke up another time, relieving him as you granted him a bit more time.

"Sure, go ahead" Jooheon shrugged, his palms growing sweaty because of the anticipation.

"Why did you take the job? You don't need it anymore, I mean you're back in the club" you interrogated frankly, an apparent unphased look dressing your face.

You had taken acting classes back in school, so you knew how to pretend. When you could sometimes share his emotions or read him like an open book because he was your soulmate, you had decided to take an advantage of this unbalanced situation by displaying a bit of nonchalance and distancing, so that you wouldn't falter before him as easily as in front of his resumé.

"Hmmm…" he hummed as he certainly hadn't expected this question to come out. "Should I be honest or-"

"I can tell if you lie, you know" you reminded him while waving your left hand at him with the red mark shining brightly.

"That's true… Well, let's say that my guts told me to do so" Jooheon managed to mumble while diverting his eyes from your face as it could drive him into betraying his deepest intentions.

Even though he had found pure bliss in acting recklessly earlier, his body moving and his tongue untying without warning, now that there was only the two of you he was hyperaware of his every move, scared to ruin his chance to try putting the pieces of an "us" together, or at least sow its seeds.

"Your guts…?"

You tilted your head, unsure of what it meant. Another swirl of wind flew around you and brought his scent right into your nostrils again, his presence getting more and more overwhelming.

"Yeah, my guts" Jooheon reiterated as his eyes lowered back on you with the same intensity as in the hallway, catching the legs of time that stopped running along with your breath.

He could see that you were drowning under a sea of confusion as his behavior swayed between assertive and careful of being too forward, confusing him all the same as he was hesitating about what to actually do. Hiding his feelings and himself wasn't an option anymore ; but why couldn't all of his fiery honesty just form the right words that would translate what he actually felt about you?

"Fine, see you soon then" you abruptly concluded, upset by his vague answer that was way worse than silence, and you extended your hand to send him off just like you had done with the rest of the group.

Jooheon gladly took it, but he didn't let go after a short shake ; in fact, he pulled at it in a swift move once he had sensed that you were about to question his actions, bringing you pretty close to him.

"You said you could tell when I lied…" the words trailed out of his mouth as he looked down at you with sparkly and squinted eyes. "Well, I kinda lied."

"What do you-"

Your voice suddenly got muted as the orange-haired boy snaked his way around your neck and waist with his arms, lightly squeezing your body into a hug before his head landed on your shoulder, his neck kissing your lips. You gasped, but your hands were unable to push him away, whether it be you giving in to his touch as you loved it just like you loved him, or the law tying them down to your body as it had finally gotten what it existed for : you being close to your soulmate.

"Sorry, that's what my guts told me to do as well" his voice vibrated through his chest against yours and resonated in your headwalls. " I think I missed you, Y/N. I'm too ashamed to say it straight to your face, but my guts… No, my heart is making me crave to do all sort of things today, and for the first time in a while, I know I won't regret it."

At this confession, his fingers dug a bit deeper into the fabric of your blazer. You could feel his heart beating fast against your torso, giving credit to his messy declaration that left you breathless. Your own vital organ was throbbing at the erosion of thoughts buzzing through your mind, from you stealing a kiss from him to smacking his face for being this late ; but the chills on your skin were slowly inducing that you were somehow thrilled to believe that something was actually happening. After all your efforts. After three months. After only a short reunion in the morning.

"I thought of you pretty often, as reconciliating with football was a way for me to stop living like a coward waiting for things to get better without working on it at some point" he acknowledged. "And I thought it was strange that I couldn't move on, so I wanted to see you again to sort things out, and that's the answer I've got… I just couldn't part ways another time without being honest with myself and with you, for once. I just needed you to know, that I missed you."

"Why do you want me to know that" you finally answered in a monotone, your voice muffled by his body against yours, and Jooheon adjusted his arms around your frame so that you could properly speak.

Your breath on the material of his clothes still sprawled ticklish sensations all over his skin like ants going down his limbs, and he almost hissed at the flustering sensation.

"Because I'm tired of thinking about you with regrets filling my mind" he finally straightened himself to gaze properly at you in the eyes, his arms still resting loosely on your body. "I know I told you not to wait for me, I hope you didn't… And I don't know who that man is to you… But I'll have to try my best to listen to this raging dude if I want to be proud of myself one day"

He patted the left part of his chest, releasing your shoulders from his hold, and it immediately felt cold. You had missed him too; your colleagues could testify. And for a long while, you had wished for this moment to happen, him coming back to get you with eyes full of regrets and apologies as he'd have realized that he liked you back and that it was worth the try.

The overwhelming sensations you went through at the listening of his speech suddenly spilled through the edge of your fingers that hurried themselves up his shoulders, to his neck, before they reached his face, and pulled him into a kiss. A long, insistent, needy press of your lips against his ; the only way to put an end to his confusing rent and to your panicked thoughts plaguing your mind.

You had been dying to kiss him since the first time you had met him in the club, and after your last one, just while thinking of him ; now that you were doing it again, it seemed that you'd never get enough of him, never enough to fill in the void he had left up 'til now.

When his lips started moving against yours to kiss you back again and again with the same need, upgrading to another rhythm, Jooheon felt like he was getting dangerously closer and closer to abandoning himself to his euphoria again, so he forced himself to pull back, leaving you with your eyes closed.

"I like you, Y/N" he breathed out. "I like you, but I want to take it easy. I've hurt you."

You finally grasped what had happened, what your body had decided to do on its own, how your bottled feelings for him or maybe the powers of the law had taken over your faculty to think rationally or even control yourself ; and that was when Kihyun's words from three months ago resounded with the most power into your eardrums.

"You know, when you date your ideal, you almost forget how it actually feels to love at first. I swear, the sensations you get almost turn into a drug, something you can never get enough of! You immediately love the person without even knowing him or her, and you're in such a bliss, in such an awe, that you can't even distinguish what your real emotions are anymore. It took me a break with my girlfriend to look back on what I feel, what I love in her, and to miss her but because my heart felt empty, not my entire self."

Burning with your desire for him, craving for his touch when he had barely hugged you, kissing him with a despair you hadn't been able to contain, wishing for it to never stop and only seeing and feeling him ; all the emotions crashing down on your being were too much to handle at once, so much that you got scared of yourself.

All along, you had been sure that you liked – no, loved him, and that the empty feeling you had gone under painfully could be explained by the power of love before the one of the law. However, right now, you couldn't decipher where the origin of your rushed, needy actions and of your emotions lingered : was it really from your heart that pounded in your chest as its fluttering was finally reciprocated? Or from the law that had made you fall for Jooheon in the first place and now stimulated your body to the point that it felt like you weren't mastering it anymore, because it was satisfying its purpose?

You were suddenly terrified of what Jooheon actually made you feel, instead of enjoying the bliss they all had talked about ; when his feelings were genuine as he wasn't tied to you by the law, the intensity of your excitement shone the confusion Kihyun had talked to you about in your blurred spirit. You needed to tame and sort these new emotions out, before you'd get pervasive and lose yourself and him a second time.

"I-I'm sorry" you only managed to stammer as you pushed his hands away from you, before taking a step back, then another one.

"Y/N, wait let's-"

"You needed time, now I need mine" you cut him as you were getting closer and closer to the building. "I was only wishing for this to happen, but… I-I don't know what I'm feeling right now I need to go"

"Wait just stay let's talk it out I have so much to-"

"I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me but I just can't be with you any longer" you finally sobbed your frustration out and without looking at him, your eyes glued to the pavement where you had searched for your sanity in vain, you turned around and disappeared behind the glass doors.

Jooheon clutched a hand at his heart beating way too loud for him to think clearly, the palm of his left one burning after your passionate kiss. And for the second time, he had to watch you walk away without having the chance to hold you back into another moment where the blooming of an "us" was waiting for the both of you to water it at the same time.

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A/N : thank you again for having read it up ‘til now, I’m doing my best to continue writing the ending part through my schedule!

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 5

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary:  Fire alarms make a good reason to talk to your flatmate.

A/N: New chapter! This isn't the longest but we get some important hints about Leo's past. I wanted to involve fire into his story somehow and, well, this is what happened.

Thanks to Cris for betaing and a huge shoutout to smoustart on ig for making this awesome piece of art for this fic! 

Please enjoy and leave a comment if you like this fic because that can literally make my day and it sure as heck makes me more motivated to continue it!

Characters in this ch: Leo, Calypso

Words: 1400+

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort 

Warnings: none

previous chapter / next chapter / AO3

...

"Damn that fire alarm!" Calypso growled to herself as the device made the beeping sound again. "I can't focus when it's doing that."

She had been working on her latest literature assignment ("write a detailed character analysis on one of the characters in Odyssey") when the fire alarm had started making a sound that Calypso suspected meant it was running out of battery. Unfortunately, she didn't have tools of her own so she had no idea how she'd manage to change them before the sound would drive her mad. She didn't want to give up so easily, though, so she took one of her hair pins and climbed on a chair, attempting to unscrew the fire alarm with the pin. However, she had no success. The pin was too thick and the alarm was a bit too high for her, so she had to stand on her toes to reach it in the first place. That's why, when she heard a door open, she nearly lost her balance because she got startled by the sudden sound.

"Wow, wow! Woman! What are you doing?" her flatmate yelped when he rushed to give her his hand so she wouldn't fall from the chair.

Calypso was embarrassed that he had seen that scene unfold, so she let go of his hand immediately once she was standing steadily on the floor and said a bit more rudely than what she had meant: "What does it look like? Trying to change the battery, of course."

"No offense, Sunshine, but were you really trying to open it with a hair pin?" Leo asked, amusement clear in his voice. "Like, sure, hair pins can be used for many things but I'm pretty sure there are better tools for that."

Calypso squinted at him. "First of all, don't call me Sunshine. Second of all, Mister Mechanic, I don't carry tools around everywhere unlike some people. So please get yours and change those damn batteries."

Leo was no longer affected by Calypso's tone. He was secretly happy that for once he'd be good for something.

“Gladly, Sunshine,” he replied cheerfully, emphasizing the Sunshine part. He was already wearing his toolbelt with a screwdriver peeking from it and he seemed unfazed when their fingers touched for a moment as Calypso handed him the batteries she had been planning to use.

“By the way, you’re buying the next batteries in case these will stop working too before either of us has moved out,” Calypso noted as she watched Leo picking the suitable tool for opening the fire alarm.

“That’s fair enough,” Leo said, still smiling as he focused on his mission. Calypso was slightly surprised by his calmness. She was fully aware that she was not acting like her usual self in his company, and at first it seemed to have irritated Leo, but now? He didn’t seem to care. He had taken an entirely new approach and she didn’t know what to think of it.

Leo climbed on the chair (not having issues reaching the alarm since he was about 10 centimeters taller than Calypso) and started unscrewing the lid. When he got it done, he gave the lid for Calypso to hold while he put the new batteries in. Standing in such a close proximity, Calypso noticed the scars on Leo’s olive colored arms that were left uncovered by his T-shirt. She wanted to ask about them but she didn’t know how he’d feel about it so the only thing that came out of her mouth was an “ummm…”

“Yeah? Were you gonna say something?” Leo asked nonchalantly while still switching the batteries.

“Never mind. It’s. It’s none of my business.” Calypso shrugged.

“What is?” Leo kept insisting.

“I was…” Calypso felt her cheeks getting hot. “…just wondering where you got those scars.”

Now Leo’s smile finally faded. He shook his head. “A fire. Long time ago. That’s all.” It meant she wasn’t allowed to ask more questions about that, and she got the hint.

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, what happened, happened.” He sighed, climbing down the chair. “But now that we’re getting serious, can I ask you a question? Why do you act like that? Like you hate me? I’m trying my hardest to think of what I really did wrong but I can’t think of anything other than me just being generally annoying. Most people get past that in about two weeks. But I can’t get a grip of you.”

“It’s complicated.” Calypso said, similar kind of sadness in her eyes as what she’d seen in Leo’s after her question. Then she realized that maybe they did have something in common: secrets about their past they didn’t want to share. “I… I don’t think I actually hate you. It has… something to do with my past. I don’t have a lot of good experiences with people, and… that’s why I’m quite cautious when I meet someone new these days. I admit that when I first saw you, I was… prejudiced. But as I’ve gotten to know you a bit better, I’ve noticed… some of the thoughts I had of you were probably wrong.”

Leo couldn’t help but snort at that confession. “Oh, then what were you expecting? Some tall, handsome, strong, heroic guy who actually prefers spending his time with people rather than with his machines?”

“That’s not it. You gave me a kind of obnoxious picture of yourself during our first conversation. And then your dog broke my desk… I guess that was the final straw. But you did fix it. And you helped me to change the batteries too,” she pointed at the fire alarm. “And I think I understand your machine craziness. You need a distraction, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Leo admitted, starting unconsciously fiddling with his toolbox again. “Doing something with my hands always helps me when I feel anxious or… whatever.”

Calypso could relate to that. “I’m the same. I mean, I’m not as good with tools as you are, but I take care of my flowers, sew, knit, draw… that kind of stuff.”

“I see.” Leo nodded. “Hey, is it just me or did we just have our first proper conversation? Just wait till Jason and Piper are gonna hear about this!”

“What?” Calypso asked, confused about what Leo’s friends had to do with that.

“Oh, sorry.” Leo looked embarrassed, realizing he had said too much. “I probably shouldn’t have said that. But, um, the thing is, I… kinda made a deal with my friends that I would talk to you. Because they thought I was acting stupid. But I swear, this wasn’t planned, I heard the fire alarm too and I didn’t know you were already trying to take care of it. So I was 100 per cent honest about everything I said. Leo Valdez doesn’t lie.”

Calypso raised her eyebrow, but this time there was actually no maliciousness in her voice when she asked: “Oh, so you were talking about me to your friends? I wonder what you said.”

Leo’s face turned as hot as a tomato: “Not-nothing bad! Just that we weren’t off to a good start, but…”

“Relax,” Calypso stopped him, a hint of smile on her face. “You don’t have to tell me more.”

“Huh? You’re not mad?” Leo’s eyebrows disappeared behind his long, curly fringe.

“Nah. I have to admit I may have mentioned you to someone at the uni as well. Turns out she had heard of you too,” Calypso giggled at Leo’s surprised expression. The surprise didn’t last long, though, because it turned into a grin as Leo said:

“That’s the Valdez effect for you! Of course all the ladies have heard of me, I’m irresistible!”

“Right now you’re being pretty resistible, though.” Calypso rolled her eyes, but her mouth twitched with amusement.

“Huh? You’re not feeling my charm?”

“No! Absolutely not!” she said coldly, resting her hands on her hips.

Leo pretended to feel upset by her comment. “Just wait, I will win you over!”

“Oh, we’ll see about that,” Calypso stuck her tongue out. “Hey, if you are done with your weirdness now, I’d like to test if the fire alarm works.”

“What?”

Before Leo had time to say more, Calypso pulled out matches from her pocket, climbed on the chair and took one stick out of the box. Before she managed to light it, though, Leo yelped, his face unnaturally pale: “No, don’t!”

“What’s wrong?” Calypso asked, turning to see him.

“It’s just… I hate the sound it makes, wait till I’m in my room,” he said but Calypso had a feeling that wasn’t the truth. She tried to think what could have possibly triggered him, and came up with only one possible solution: he was afraid of fire.

[leggomylino]

Dark Rising☽✮☾Act One

☽✮☾ Dark Rising Masterlist ☽✮☾  

Genre: Horror/Thriller, Drama, Romance, Comedy

Pairing: NCT’s Johnny Suh x fem!reader (x ???)

Word count: 5.9k

Warning(s): mentions of blood, yandere-esqe themes, cuts/injuries, soul stealing and kidnapping. Possibly more in the future depending on what the original authors decide. They write for ot9 and so do I.

A/N: Main Masterlist in BIO! | This is a spinoff series to the SKZ fanfiction Twisted Karnival, by @gaiyofanfiction​. It can be read alone, but you are encouraged to read the original story first. At the authors’ request, I will take this down if asked to do so. I do not own Twisted Karnival or Stray Kids, or Johnny Suh, or any characters used in this. All credit goes where credit is due. The events that happen in this story are not canon in the original story, this is simply a work of fandom and appreciation, and thus will tie into canon events as closely as possible in respect to the original works. All that being said… Thank you. <3

IMPORTANT -> (** This story picks up after the events of Twisted Karnival, Chapter 6. While this can be read as a stand-alone fic, better understanding can be found upon first reading through T.K. Ch. 6. Please support the series! ♫)

~  ☽✮☾ ~

A cross necklace, and a whistle. That’s all you had to defend yourself.

The sky was dark outside the main tent, the walkways bare and lifeless. A cold breeze swept up from the South, adding to the chills that threatened to tear you down where you stood like a hazardously put-together Jenga tower. One wrong tug, one sudden misstep, and you would be a heap at their disposal...they being the nine demonic beings encircling an unfortunate young girl who couldn’t be far from your age.

You were watching now from the back of the tent, through a small flap that had been open to allow air to circulate after the events that had taken place. It wasn’t nearly large enough for a person to fit through, about the size of one’s head, with a slit of velvet and silk curtain separating the back passage from the main stage. You’d lucked out, really, that one of the younger demons had come tromping by complaining about the humidity and had opened it for your eyes to witness.

Though in some ways, you really wish you hadn’t. You felt like you were going to be sick, seeing this poor girl bruised and crying, blood seeping down her arms and through the rips in her jeans.

“Hey, come on. It’s going to be okay. This is why you’re here.”

A hand fell lightly on your shoulder from the man beside you. You looked to him with clouded eyes and doubt in your heart, before turning back to the scene unraveling before you, whilst your fingers toyed with the chain and pendant around your neck.

You weren’t sure where it had come from or why you were here. But apparently that’s what this man, Johnny, was for.

Let’s back up a bit. Okay, picture this: You were just a regular girl minding your business, walking out from your part-time job to go straight home like the good student you liked to think you were, the only thing on your mind the leftover BLT waiting for you in the fridge, when you’d come across a crowd buying (or rather, receiving free) tickets from two dangerously handsome (and somewhat scary looking) strangers. Life had been peachy before all of this; sure, a little stressful balancing a life that consisted of school, a job, and a small almost non-existent social life, but hey, it wasn’t bad. 

That’s when he’d first showed up.

“Suspicious, isn’t it?” He’d asked, staring into the crowd with his hands in his deep dark trench-coat pockets. He’d completely snuck up on you, appearing out of nowhere to your right and effectively scaring the daylights out of you. And you’ll admit, you let out a noise that wasn’t exactly...ladylike. Something between a “bwarf!” and a screech. It’d managed to turn a few heads nearby, but Johnny, who you hadn’t known was his name just yet, only pressed his lips together to keep from laughing. “It’s nice to meet you too,” he said, training his eyes back on the growing crowd. His face went from lighthearted-borderline amusement to vacant and dim.

“Do you see all these people here?”

You stared at him a moment before following his gaze, a frown encasing your lips. Who did this guy think he was, first scaring the daylights out of you and now trying to strike up a conversation and keep you from that delicious leftover BLT calling your name? “Uh...yeah…” Slowly, you turned your head back up to face him, brow arched. “...I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“Nah. But I can fix that.” He held out his hand without taking his eyes off the wavering crowds of innocent bystanders, a faint smile taking over for the hair of a second as he introduced himself. “Call me Johnny. It’s a pleasure.”

“......” You stared at his outstretched hand for an awkward moment too long before hesitantly grabbing it, shaking it once, twice, before becoming...pleasantly aware of how incredibly soft and warm his skin was, and the comforting pulse that radiated through your whole body. It soothed each ache and pain from the day’s toil like an iron over a smooth silk sheet. Every wrinkle and crease had vanished.

Woah...it’s like...I feel like a totally new person...where did all this energy come from?

...Observing him in awe, you’d almost forgotten to give him your name in return, gaping up at him as you were like a fish out of water. “...U-Uh...I’m--”

“Y/n,” he stated, matter-of-fact. Your eyes went wide. 

What the heck? “...How did you know…?”

“Shhh,” he kneeled down to be at eye-level, for he was an incredibly tall individual. A typical dark, mysterious, handsome stranger all the girls in high school dream of encountering, except he couldn’t possibly be a bad or dangerous guy...in fact, you couldn’t help but want to cling to him. It was crazy, but just being within eyesight was enough to make you feel safe. Which was odd...and crazy. Definitely crazy. It didn’t make any rational sense whatsoever. Which is why you found your body taking the smallest of nudges and half-steps closer to his side, to this man you knew nothing about save for his name and the fact that he made you feel nearly invincible by some nameless sorcery.

When he leaned down, his cheek was practically against yours. Despite feeling safe, you began to sweat.

Johnny pointed far out into the crowd, where the two gothic-looking boys in strange but attractive attire were shouting and waving flyers around, passing out tickets in between, some yellow, others black. Each of them looked charming and genuine beyond belief. Heck, you wanted to buy a ticket from them too; and maybe a lunch date.

You held up a hand to point as well, trying to remain as discreet as possible. “Those guys?”

Johnny nodded, lowering your arm slowly and moving to stand behind you. You would have been weirded out and panicking had you not felt so unusually calm and comforted by his presence. Seriously, something is up with this guy. I don’t know anything about him and yet...ugh, it’s like I’ve known him my whole life. Talk about cringe...

He placed his hands over your eyes, and you closed them on instinct. You didn’t have time to question, and again, you found that you couldn’t, anyway. Somehow, something deep inside told you to trust him. “Now,” he continued, “when I count to three and let go, you’re going to see something that isn’t so pretty. But don’t be alarmed, they can’t hurt you. I promise that nothing you see can hurt you. This is really important, so I’m going to repeat it again, because the last human I said these words to nearly had a heart attack because they didn’t listen: I promise, nothing you see can physically hurt you. Understand?”

You began to squirm, growing more impatient by the second, what with your stomach growling and all. “Yeah, yeah, I got it already! I’m waiting!” ...That BLT wasn’t gonna eat itself, y’know? But really, at the same time, you weren’t entirely sure you wanted him to let go. 

But then he reached a final count. And he did let go, slowly as not to startle you and give you time to adjust.

What you saw was a thing of nightmares.

The sky had grown dark, blood red shrieking at you from behind pitch black clouds. A scream caught in your throat; you were too speechless to move, or speak, or do anything but stare in absolute horror.

The people around you had all become vessels. They were still human, but...different. Rather than solid beings, they’d become hollow and see-through, as if they were made of mist or steam. Everyone had a light at their core, which instinct told you was…

...Their spirit. It’s pulsing with energy and life.

Some were dull and barely hanging onto life. Others were bright and vibrant, bursting with color and joy. Many were somewhere in between, balanced and average, each telling a new story, a different tale; a little girl worried about starting kindergarten, a man who was down on his luck and endlessly searching for a new job. A woman who’d just gotten engaged, a teenager wondering if he should risk punishment bringing the stray cat in his bag home. Everyone had a different story, varying concerns, sadness and joys.

But there was one in particular that was a conundrum. It wasn’t necessarily good, or bad, or anything like the others: what it was was pure and vivid beyond belief. It was almost blinding, but...there was a film around it, choking out the light. A ball of white light encased in a mist of thick, gray fog. The demons were eyeing it like a rare delicacy they’d been deprived of for years…

And it was emanating from a young girl, who couldn’t be any younger than you.

And then you’d gasped, because that’s when you realized what they were. Demons. Monsters. Vile creatures targeting humankind. There were two of them-- the well-dressed boys from before. But they’d changed now, those innocent young men long gone, left behind to shadows and ancient rust. Their true appearance...or whatever this was...was too terrible to describe. It was worse than any horror movie you’d been forced into seeing.

The thing that made it worse was that it wasn’t a horror movie. This was real.

The scream in your throat had long dissipated into empty gapping and heavy realization, and it was at this point Johnny must have decided he wasn’t very good at first impressions other than the whole making-you-feel-safe-with-a-simple-handshake-and-being-within-eyesight, because the next thing you knew he’d spun you around to face him, a sympathetic smile on his face.

“Sorry you had to see that so soon. But we’re running out of time and I know how brave you really are. I thought it’d be easier if we tackled the first milestone a little early, crash course style.”

What…?

But then he’d swiveled you back around, and everything was back to normal. The crowds, the noise, the gothic-themed advertisements. The blood-painted sky, the dark clouds, the vessels and auras and demonic dark blobs that you couldn’t get past describing-- they’d all gone, and two cheerfully sly salesmen remained, making it rain tickets and creatively crafted flyers left and right.

“What...What was that?!” You demanded, anxiety blooming late in your chest. Screw feeling safe, that was still terrifying as heck! Surely you’d fallen asleep at work and were just overtired...right? Right…? 

Maybe this was all just a dream. You’d fallen asleep at your desk again, and any minute now your coworker Chenle would be batting you with a rolled-up newspaper or gently shaking you awake if he knew you’d really had a hard day, or-- er-- and-- 

“Th-The lights and the shadowy blobs and- and all the noise just disappeared, it was so quiet, and those two--” You shivered, taking a step back and bumping into Johnny, who held you firm. “Those two...they’re...they were…”

You were beginning to hyperventilate. The man behind you sighed. “I know.” He gave your shoulders a slight squeeze, and you felt that soothing impression run over you once more, helping your breaths to relax, your pulse slowing to a steady, normal thump. “It’s exactly as you saw it. Each sphere of light is someone’s spirit encased in their aura.”

“Their...aura?” The frick was he talking about?!

“Yeah. Like I said, we’re pressed for time here, so try to keep up. A lot of people think they’re one in the same, but they’re not. Your aura is tied into your emotions, both on the surface and buried in your subconscious. It’s the bridge that connects the two. They can be manipulated at will by many factors…” His eyes landed heavily on the two demonic creatures disguised as charming young stagehands now maneuvering their way through the crowd to pass out tickets faster and with more demand than voluntary. “...But it is seperate from the spirit. Your spirit is your lifesource. It’s who you are and what defines you. Auras can easily change, but the spirit is something that takes a lot more elbow grease and determination to turn.”

“......” You hadn’t been sure what to do. What to say. You were practically speechless.

So instead you tilted your head back and asked the only thing on your mind. 

“Johnny…who are you?”

He’d only looked down on you with another guarded smile. “You’re about to find out. First, I have a job for you.”

“What? Job?” You frowned. “I’m sorry but, hold on a sec.” You pushed yourself away, but not too far, wanting just the right amount of distance from Tuxedo Mask and the Dark Kingdom not far off. “Listen, I don’t even know you, you just appeared out of nowhere and started showing me all this weird and scary stuff, and preaching to me about heavy topics, and now you want me to perform some...job?” ...You shuddered at the way it’d come out, how it all sounded. Perish the thought.

Johnny, however, remained as calm and nearly stoic as he had been this entire time, puffing his straying locks away from his face and shoving slender fingers into his coat pockets like some cool P.I. Detective...or quite possibly, Tuxedo Mask. Which is how you were slowly beginning to see him. “Perform...ironic.” His eyes flicked over to the girl with the white as snow soul, then back over to the young men (who you were just about dang near positive weren’t really men at this point), making their rounds through the continuously enlarging masses. 

The square was steadily growing more and more crowded, forcing you to close the small amount of distance you’d managed to create between you and Johnny. Suddenly one of them, who had secretly been eyeing Snow White this whole time, took off and seemingly disappeared a moment before popping back up right in front of her, engaging her and her friend in conversation. 

Meanwhile, Johnny gestured almost bluntly toward the other one, a boy with cherry red hair and fox-like features. “I want you to get yourself a ticket to the carnival.”

“You want...wha?”

It took you a minute to register those words, standing there staring off into space. But before you knew it, a spontaneous gust of gentle wind was literally pushing you into the crowd you’d previously been trying to get around and away from, thus ending the fleeting hope of sitting at home with that delicious, delectable, slowly aging BLT.

“Don’t worry, I’m with you,” the wind whispered...yeah, whispered. It spoke to you, in Johnny’s voice. You weren’t sure if that was meant to comfort you or just...creep you out that much more…not to mention you were apparently the only one that heard it.

...But you guessed you felt a little better knowing Johnny was secretly beside you-- if that really was him-- ...Wait, Johnny…?

The gust of wind that’d stolen Johnny’s voice dropped you off in a small opening a few feet away from a dark red-haired boy with a sly grin and some of the most charming dimples you’d ever seen on such an equally attractive boy, but...no, no. You weren’t going to get swept up in that. Not when you knew the truth. Something was very wrong with this picture, other than the fact this boy was actually a demon of some sort, and you suddenly (by some influence not entirely of your own) had a need to get to the bottom of it.

In the name of the Moon™, I’m onto you.

Your mouth opened. Then closed. Then opened, slightly, taking a step forward.

A new wave of ecstatic carnival-enthusiasts cut you off, swarming the young boy and begging him for tickets, lowkey sending you flying. Ouch. You crossed your arms, a huff of impatience leaving your chest--

And then it was like you blinked, and they were gone, and suddenly the boy was before you. Grinning like the Cheshire Cat. What the…?

But for a wavering moment, just one short second, you could have sworn that something passed over him. Something that had been foreign to him for many years, and had just then, for the slightest of moments, climbed back up to the surface and gotten its first breath of air in what had to be a very long time.

It was fear. Uncertainty. Caution. Insecurity...and it rippled over him like a small pebble dropped into a forgotten spring.

But it had faded and crawled back into its cradle just as quickly as it had come. “...Hello there~” the boy greeted, and the moment he spoke you felt a xylophone being played against your spine. His chords were sweet as honey, playing a siren’s tune. It made the hairs on your neck stand firm. “Are you curious about the carnival as well?”

“......” You’d time-lapsed backwards into gaping-fish mode. All your instincts were screaming at you to run away, scram, scat, get out of there and as far away from this boy, from his accomplice, from everything that had to do with the word carnival as possible, but instead, this happened:

“Um, yeah. Just one, please.”

~ ☽✮☾ ~

...And that’s how you’d ended up here, in a twisted back walkway of the infamous and appropriately titled Twisted Karnival, with what you’d soon found out to be your temporarily self-appointed guardian angel, Johnny, at your side. Because get this: he really was an angel. No, really. Wings and all. He apparently didn’t care to show them much, though…more on that later, it was besides the point. You were here, now, with Johnny, in a demon-run carnival that was all a scam to steal people’s souls for who knows what, and apparently, as Johnny had told you when you finally had managed to make it home and finish off that deliciously awaiting BLT, it was up to you to stop them.

That’s right: you. Y-o-u. A human girl that had absolutely NO connection to ANY of this shenanigans until now and would much rather be laughing at the corny overexaggerated jokes of your favorite night time sitcom but were instead standing in what was literally hell on earth.

Your eyes glanced down to the pendant nuzzled between your fingers. A gift from Johnny that he’d basically thrown at you on the way over and almost poked your eye out. Apparently, it was supposed to protect you, and so far it hadn’t done a bad job, you’d admit: “As long as you have it on you,” he’d said as the two of you skulked about the festival grounds, “They won’t be able to see you from a specified distance. The higher ranking the demon, the less effective it is. But get within three feet of any of them, and it’s game over.”

“What about you?” You’d asked, worriedly tossing glances left and right. This carnival was definitely haunted, or infested with some kind of bad juju.

He’d only smiled in return. (He did a lot of smiling for a guy so seemingly serious.)

“Don’t worry about me. They can only see me if I let them...or if I run out of juice. But don’t worry about that right now. Focus on the mission.”

...Sigh. So here you were, at last, staring into an evil tent at an evil ritual happening on evil grounds. Fun.

“Johnny,” you mumbled, gazing sadly back into the dim-auraed tent. “This necklace...you said three feet, right?”

“Yeah.” He glanced at you, then back into the tent as well. “But I told you not to worry too much about it. Even if they do spot you, they won’t be able to touch you so long as you have it touching some part of your body. ...That’s really important, okay? Your pocket won’t work, a small part of it has to make contact with your skin. I’ll say it one more time, for good measure--”

“Don’t. I heard you the first time…”

Geez. Don’t worry, don’t worry. He sure did say that a lot.

“I got it already, just get to the point on what it is that I have to do with any of this. You never explained why it has to be me or why I’m here. Also, shouldn’t we be helping her right now?!”

“...No. Listen to me, be careful to never take that necklace off--”

“What do you mean no?! Are you kidding me right now?!?”

“Shhh!” He pulled the two of you down for the count of twenty rapidly-pacing heartbeats, then slowly back up when he’d deemed the coast to be clear.

Be careful, be careful… Ugh. Your questioning brow gave away your deposition as your thoughts trailed off, peering annoyed and worriedly back at nine handsome men surrounding a helpless injured young woman. “...Why would I do a dumb thing like that?” you asked, countering the previous topic. “Are you kidding me? I don’t have a death wish--”

“That’s not what I’m saying.” His face grew sad and melancholy despite the gentle smile he wore for you. At least 80% of the past few hours, anyway. “Demons are crafty. They’re clever. Though they can’t remove it themselves, they’ll find ways to convince you to do it, to expose yourself to them from the inside. They’ll get in your head and manipulate your heart. It happens all the time…it’s what they’re good at.” He scoffed a bit, nodding to the youngest boy in the circle. “That’s what happened to him.”

“What? Wait, the blob-- I mean, boy...who gave me a ticket?”

You pondered curiously at the red-headed kid with fox-like features. You didn’t know his name, so you’d decided to dub him as Cherry Boy for now. Creative, yes.

“Yeah.” Johnny shifted his weight to one side, inclining his head just slightly. “Not all demons are born demons. A lot of them were once human, or...something else.”

A heavier sadness filled his eyes, a painful memory taking place beyond them. You didn’t like the way he’d said “something else”... You started to reach out for his hand, yet decided against it. You still didn’t know him that well. 

You’d try to pry the truth out of him, gently. “Like...what?” you pressed softly.

He took a hefty breath, taking his time to single out two more of the demons you’d soon have the joy of getting to know. All in good time. “That one…and that one, over there.”

“Wait...the...tiger guy? And Freckles?” Your lips pursed. “What about them? They weren’t human?”

Johnny shook his head. “They, uh…” There was an uncomfortably long pause. His next words were so quiet, you really had to strain your ears to hear them, despite the fact he was right beside you: “...fell.”

“...Fell?”

It rolled off your tongue like a stone. Johnny began to sweat. “...From grace. They fell from grace.” He rubbed the back of his neck with equal discomfort. “It’s not something I enjoy talking about. Basically, they were tricked and dragged down to earth and…” he swallowed. “Well, one was dragged, but he’d made the mistake of giving his consent beforehand. He was fooled into a false contact. The other, he was simply fooled into coming down willingly, by use of twisted words. When the song played...it was over.”

Song? There was music? … 

…A swaying sickness of dread rushed past along the seasonal breeze. “So...you...knew them…?”

There was no answer for a long time. Johnny cleared his throat to break the uncomfortable silence, once the situation inside was beginning to look grim. Like it hadn’t already. 

“...Sort of. We were never close, being in different factions and all.”

“Factions?”

“Never mind that. You ask too many questions.” He nodded once more. “Look.”

You turned your head to peek back inside at one of the many sights you wished you could avoid and forget about entirely. (But alas, there was no way that was happening.) The girl with the white soul was now screaming in agony, and the strings that had previously been attached to her by the boys (...men? Demons?) were glowing red, then a bright, crystal blue…

And then you just knew. It was impossible to miss.

She was gone. 

The ringleader of the troupe, who the others had called Chan, paced closer to the girl, tucking a finger beneath her chin and lifting her drooping head gently, with such twistedly sickening love and care that was the largest paradox of the century-- how could it be both so loving, yet so dark?-- and dragged it carefully upward, caressing her face. His voice was as soft as silk.

“My little puppet, are you okay?”

You wanted to throw up and pass out right then and there, but Johnny held you firm again, sending his soothing pulses of comfort and security to steady you (and honestly, what a great power to have). You didn’t like it when the leader spoke. It was too...something. Just too much; it reminded you of fairytales like Snow White and Red Riding Hood, where a witch or a wolf or whoever would speak so sweetly, so kindly, and yet tear the other characters apart, ripping the rug out from under them and dragging up their virtues from the inside out. Just as Johnny had said. You could see how anyone could get lost in the distorted forest it was so easily...

A twisted grin appeared on the face of the Snow-White girl, a cacophony of psychotic laughter leaving her rose-tinted lips.

“Yes, Master Chan. I am perfectly fine.”

You shuddered at those words. It was all you could take. 

You didn’t know what came over you next, but there were suddenly twenty-seven different emotions flooding through your veins, hyping you up and tearing you down all at once. And you’d already had your time of the month last week, so that definitely wasn’t it. 

Was this it? Were you finally transforming into the Sailor Guardian Johnny had made you out to be? You wanted nothing more than to run in there, tell all those demonic freakshows what they could do with their fancy clothes and beautiful but terrifying faces, and make a 180 to the nearest hospital with the girl in tow. 

...You also wanted to turn around and run for the hills alone, with Johnny perhaps, never stepping foot on demonic carnival soil ever again. And, you also kinda wanted to puke; which you almost did, again, but thankfully Johnny whipped up some more of whatever calming magic he’d been pumping you full of almost the entire time you were here, and that chased off the sickness for another while. The two of you stepped away from the tent, Johnny assisting you to fresh (only-partially tainted) air.

“...S-So, let me get this straight…” You shook all the goosebumps out, holding your head high and proud now that you had a bit more distance between certain death and crazytown. “You want me-- me-- a normal [high school/college] girl, to go in there and...what, take down the demons? Are you serious? Is this really happening? What the heck am I supposed to do, threaten to call the police? Throw a sucker punch and hope it lands and I don’t get killed or possessed?! ...Don’t they write fantasy books and fanfiction about this kind of crap?” You sighed. “There’s no way I can--”

“Hush,” Johnny instructed, looking a bit nervously toward the terrifying mass inside. You were speaking too loudly again. “You can and you will. I didn’t just choose you at random, all of this was planned by a greater power upstairs.”

“Greater…?” ...You squinted your eyes in suspicion. “Are you talking about--”

“Most likely, yes, that’d be the one,” he winked. “Actually, my boss sent me. I sorta picked you out last minute, but you have a pure heart, and your soul is good too. You have what it takes, as long as you keep your guard up and follow my instructions, we can and will take these guys out.” He gave a thumbs up. “Sound good?”

Sound good?! ...Oh, yes. Risking my life in an insane zero-chance scenario sounds right up my alley, bro man! Sign me up!

You let out a frustrated groan, beginning to pull and mess with your hair, and Johnny once again shushed you and peered around in a tizzy. “But...I don’t even know what to do!” You put your foot down. “I can’t fight! And I...I don’t wanna hurt anyone.”

That last part had come out pretty weak. Johnny scoffed. “You don’t wanna hurt demons?” He rolled his eyes, scratching his head. “That’s a bit surprising.”

You scowled. He just chuckled and sighed. 

“Relax. You’re not totally obliterating them.” He smiled, and the next words he spoke actually brought music to your ears...sort of. Good music. 

“You’re going to save them.”

“I’m...huh?!”

“Look.” He leaned against a smaller tent behind him, making himself rather comfortable for the case scenario, and your mind suddenly wandered back to that girl inside the main tent. Was this really the time to be having an idle-- semi-kinda-serious-- chat? “I’m sorry I can’t be with you the entire time. Unfortunately that would get in the way of a lot of character development. But I’ll always be nearby.”

“Character...who...wha? ...” Your hands covered your face a moment, to which you sighed heavily into before holding them out before you. “Johnny, okay, hold on--” 

“Here,” he said, tossing something shiny into the air. You caught it unexpectedly, nearly dropping it a few times as it almost slipped through careless fingers. You stared at it hard and skeptically.

“What...is this?”

It was some kind of...whistle? “Blow into that when you need help, and I’ll come to you. But only if it’s a real emergency; it’s not a toy, yeah?”

“......” You beheld him with dumbfounded incredibility, face remaining stoic in blank confusion. “...So it’s like...a dog whistle?” You blinked. “You’re my dog now?”

“Ahem,” He coughed, clearing his throat. “...I’d prefer if you didn’t call it that, but, ...yeah, I guess. Essentially. I guess that’s an accurate analogy.”

“...No way.” The whistle went flying over your shoulder as you turned your back, beginning to take the first few much needed steps out of looney-toon central toward the safety of home. In the direction you thought was homebound. “This is insane. I can’t do it. I’m going to a payphone or home or someplace I can get a signal and calling 911--”

...But of course, a six foot wall had to ruin your dramatic and much needed escape. “Hold on…” Tuxedo Mask sighed. “Look, I won’t stop you again if you really want to go, okay? But if you do, these guys are going to continue running around rampat and steal away thousands of more innocent lives. And that girl will never be the same ever again.”

The scowl you sent him actually made him flinch a bit, though he held his ground nonetheless. “Then why don’t you and all the other angels and heavenly powers do something about it!?”

“SHHH!” Covering your mouth, he looked left, then right before releasing you, gritting his teeth in anger. “...Because...dang it, we can’t, okay?” 

...He can’t?

“Why not?”

“......” He ran a troubled hand through his neatly groomed hair. “...I mean, we can, but...we’re not allowed to influence freewill or get involved without human intervention. That’s you. It’s complicated, okay? Just...please.”

...W h a t ?

You didn’t understand any of this. He was giving you the most heartbreaking gaze anyone had ever managed to pull off on the face of the planet; like he’d just witnessed you step on a litter of puppies, or you’d taken his heart and stomped all over it and then backed over it with a steamroller, declaring that boys had cooties and you didn’t want to be infected.

“Please think about it. There’s not much time.”

“.............”

“.............”

You sighed. A long time had passed, but...every second you wasted thinking about it was a second closer to someone else’s demise, to that girl’s apparent destruction. If it wasn’t too late already.

It’s not your problem, y/n, it’s not your problem…

...Except now, it was. You’d already gotten involved just by being here, and witnessing what you had. Your conscience would never let you live that down, were you to walk away, even if it was to get the police or the fire department or an ambulance. Not if you had the power to do something about it.

 And what were any of them going to do about it, anyway? These were demons you were dealing with, not stereotypical robbers or serial killers. And even if you were just a girl...

Curse it all. DANG IT!! 😫

“...” You gulped. “...You swear you’ll protect me if I need you? And you’re not going to abandon me?”

He smiled. Yet again. “I try not to swear, but...you have my word.” He placed a hand over his heart, bowing slightly as an old-fashioned gentleman would. It was cheesy, but you couldn’t help admiring his indication and be just a bit flattered.

“And you promise I can really do this? ...Like, you...really need me for this?”

The angel’s eyes sparkled softly beneath the eerily pale moonlit atmosphere. That blood red sky hanging somewhere beneath a sheet of stars and night. “That, I can promise.” He stood up straight, readjusting his thick coat. “Boss called, said you were the one. Or, at least, you would do. I called before confronting you, to make sure.”

You scoffed, rolling your eyes. “You mean before magically materializing beside me and scaring me half to death?”

The accursed man laughed. “Yeah, before that.”

“Hnnn…” Your eyes closed. Thought for a moment.

Then you held out your palm. “...Fine, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ll help. Just call me Buffy the...Demon Slayer,” you joked, smirking at your own dumb humor. “Sailor...Y/n? ...Ugh, just give me the stupid whistle.”

Tuxedo Mask smirked again, holding it up for you. But as soon as he placed it in your hand, something...odd happened. Other than all the chaos and oddities that had been occurring for the past however-many hours or so.

A soft, hollow “boom” echoed in the surrounding atmosphere, and you found yourself looking around wildly for any means of nuclear warfare, cringing into the rising darkness. “What the heck was that?!”

“Calm down. That was meant for you. No one else could hear it,” your new guidance counselor explained. Something almost sinister washed over him for one so...holy. “It means that the game has officially begun.”

“Game?!” You practically screeched. “I thought this was serious! What do you mean, game?”

Johnny continued to smirk. “Oh, it’s serious alright.” He adjusted his coat again, turning his back to you. “We need to get you somewhere safe for the night. DON’T worry about that girl, she’s going to be fine...for now. Eventually,” he’d cut you off. “You can start whenever, but you’re probably going to want at least an hour to adjust and come up with a strategy.”

“What?! Hold it, I still have questions I--”

A stray finger waved to you over his fleeting shoulder. “Follow me. Stay close now.”

You just stood there, gaping like a fish again. A reoccurring theme to this story, you'll soon find out. “Johnny...Johnny!”

...You’d had no choice but to follow him; and so the game had officially begun.

Boom. Game on. ✩

~ ☽✮☾ ~

[youngwings-writes]

Infinitely Ordinary

Lee Felix x OC

Summary: "𝕀 𝕣𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣 𝕨𝕙𝕖𝕟 𝕀 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕕 𝕙𝕠𝕨 𝕥𝕠 𝕤𝕝𝕠𝕨 𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟"

Busy. Busy worrying, working, just trying to survive. That was the daily life of Jordan Johnson. The world never seemed to slow down; not for her...not for anyone. Finally deciding to take matters into her own hands and get some much needed R&R, she jets off on a trip to South Korea. While there, she unexpectedly meets her soulmate. Will they be able to find happiness together, or will his status get in the way?

Genre: Fluff

Length: 1.5k

Chapter 3: Dream Boy

Buckle up kiddos, the story is gonna pick up in this chapter! We also may or may not be meeting a certain someone this chapter ;) Now, let's get into it!!

So maybe lying down on my bed after an insanely long flight wasn't my brightest idea. I was so sure the day I landed would also be spent exploring, but my body had other plans for me. After flopping uncerimoniously on the bed in my hotel room, the exhaustion caught up to me and lulled me to sleep. For 14 hours.

When I finally woke up from my unintentional hibernation, it was 6 AM.

Lovely.

With my body refusing to go back to sleep, I dragged myself out of bed and began getting ready for the day.

Knowing how early it was definitely put my mind at ease and let me take my time in the shower. I let the hot water cascade down my back as I hummed a little tune to myself. Most of my shower was spent taking in the warmth if I'm being entirely honest. Oh the perks of not having to pay a water bill.

When the water started to run lukewarm, I turned off the faucet and got out. I made my way to my bags that I had left near the door the day before. Grabbing one and heaving it up onto the bed, I ruffled through my clothes and chose an outfit: frayed black shorts, a cropped maroon and white striped shirt, and some Dr. Martens.

Returning to the bathroom, I got dressed, did my hair, and brushed my teeth. Giving myself a once-over, I gave myself a small smile and nod in satisfaction.

Sitting down on the bed, I grabbed my phone off the nightstand. The screen read 7:45 AM along with a few notifications. I responded to the few texts I had received from close friends and family assuring them that I arrived safely. I then quickly checked the other random notification that were primarily from social media. Satisfied with the lack of notifications, I turned my phone off, unplugged it, grabbed my backpack, and made my way out the door.

While there were many places I wanted to visit in Seoul, my stomach decided that breakfast was a necessity before I visited any of them. Unlike my hometown, there were many cafes around, so finding one using navigation and calling a cab was unnecessary. Instead, I opted to just walk around for a bit until I found a cafe that seemed interesting to me.

It didn't take long for me to find a cafe that I wanted to go to. The moment I stepped into the cafe, I was greeted a hoard of dogs. There were so many different breeds scattered about the building.

Coffee, pasteries, and dogs. I was in heaven.

I quickly paid the server my entrance fee and was lead to a table in the far right corner.

Placing a menu on the table in front of me, my server smiled and bowed politely before making their way back up to the counter. I picked up the menu, scanning through the various snacks and beverages. While there were some decent cafes back home, I don't think I had ever seen one with such an extensive menu.

And the dogs; you can't forget the dogs.

Picking something to drink and something to snack on took me much longer than I had originally anticipated. It also may or may not have ended up being more than just one drink and one snack...only sorry to my bank account on that one.

Waiting for my order to come out, I took a good look around the cafe. Everything about it was so different from the cafes I went to back home. Most of the ones I had been to before had a very rustic or very modern design. This cafe was definitely modern and minimalistic, but it was also very homey. The entire vibe of it made me very relaxed.

Mindlessly petting one of the lovely pups next to me, I began fiddling with my phone. Social media was always a good distraction from my unbearable impatience regarding food. Plus, it gave me the time to message some friends and family to tell them I'm safe and out having a good time.

I was soon brought out of my trance by a gentle buzz emitting from the coaster coaster I was given; my order was finally ready. I made my way to the counter and swapped my buzzer for a tray with way more sugar than I needed on it. I could almost cry just looking at everything I bought.

Sitting back down in my corner, I gently placed the tray on the table. I first made sure to photograph everything I had ordered. Typically I wouldn't do this when I went out for food or drinks, but I wanted to make sure I had memories to look back on from this trip. After all of my items had been properly documented, I went straight for the Oreo roll cake and Cookies N Cream milkshake.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for sweets.

I was so engrossed in all the sugary snacks and beverages in front of me that I didn't hear the bell above the door ring. The presence of another customer vaguely registered when he began ordering. I was still very much focused on what was in front of me, the patron's deep Korean becoming background noise. It wasn't until the man took a seat at the adjacent table that I was actually aware there was another person in the cafe.

From what I could tell, the man wasn't terribly tall or short, was roughly the same age as me, and oddly familiar. I couldn't clearly see his face because he was bent over in his seat petting a Golden Retriever, but something about him screamed that I knew him.

Ignoring the itching in the back of my mind, I focused on my food again. I was once again completely enchanted by the copious amounts of sugar... or at least I was until the man's buzzer went off and he made his way past me to get his order. It was in that moment that I got a decent glance at his face.

Freckles. Lots of freckles.

Holy shit. It's Lee Felix.

My heart was racing, pounding so loud I'm sure others could hear it. My cheeks were definitely the color of strawberries, my pale skin never failing to show internal emotions. My right forearm burned.

Wait, why is my forearm burning?

Feeling beyond flustered at the fact that my ultimate bias is sitting less than 10 feet away from me, I tried to distract myself. First I acted like there was something really interesting on my phone; that didn't work for long. I turned my attention to my forearm instead, which had now turned from a burning to just being oddly warm.

My eyes widened.

There, on my previously empty skin, was a tattoo of a sun.

No. Fucking. Way.

It seemed I wasn't the only one experiencing this sensation, as when I looked up I locked eyes with the freckly boy.

I froze.

Sitting there doing nothing obviously wasn't going to do either of us any good. I think Felix realized I wasn'tt going to make the first move, so he slowly got up and made his way towards me. Gently, he grabbed my arm, examining the new ink. I glanced at the arm grasping mine.

There was a crescent moon.

Taking a deep breath, I looked up to meet his eyes once again. His gaze was warm yet firm, doing nothing to calm the butterflies running rampant in my stomach.

"Well shit," I breathed out before I could stop myself. I quickly slapped my hand over my mouth, cursing myself for being so stupid.

Apparently my thoughtlessness was enough to lighten the situation a bit, Felix letting out a little chuckle.

"I'm so sorry! My mind is running a mile a minute right now. I'm not sure what I was expecting to happen today, but this definitely wasn't it," I say, letting out a nervous laugh.

"Don't worry, you're totally fine! I can definitely say this isn't something I expected either," he smiled at me.

I finally found the courage to move, standing on wobbly legs. I hope I didn't look as unsteady as I felt. I swear if someone breathed on me I would collapse. Nonetheless, I powered through and leaned back on the table slightly for support.

"I'm Jordan," I mustered, sticking out my hand and offering a shy smile.

"Felix," he replied while reciprocating my actions.

Dropping hands, things grew slightly awkward once again.

"So... I guess we're soulmates?"

A/N:    AAANNNDDD that's where I'm gonna leave this chapter :) Our two main characters have finally met, so things should start picking up here soon! Thanks again for reading!! See you guys in the next chapter :) ~youngwings-writes

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[voidcat]

– Fresh Start p.2 / Pestering

Fandom: Haikyuu!!

Genre: fluff

Word Count: 1.1k

Characters: Hinata Shoyo, you

Summary: Ever since your confrontation with Hinata, his words don’t leave you alone. And him pestering you for not playing from time to time at the most unexpected moments doesn’t help either. 

first part

Ever since that day something changed within you. Your view towards anything you do was improved by hundred. And it was all thanks to the one and only Hinata Shoyo.

This also meant that you’ve started to tag along with him to practice, been to some of his matches and helped Yachi around. Seeing them all play with such compassion and meaning was like entering a brand new world. Your hands would itch with the need to grab a ball yourself and play. Sometimes the ball would go to your direction during a practice match and it’d take everything in you to stop yourself from running there and receive it. 

The team seemed to be aware of that too, they would offer to play with you sometimes before cooling down or ask you to throw the ball at Kageyama so he could set. It was nice to be able to hit the ball with your fingers, to receive once in a while and to run around, sure, but watching them play at their full performance... Now that was something entirely different and more thrilling.

Your teacher had just handed out your examined assignments, your grades written over the paper. You weren’t sure what to feel. You had passed and the grade wasn’t so low, but it wasn’t exactly high enough for your and your parent’s tastes either. Beginning your day with such happiness, its source unknown to you; only for it to get buried with a snap, just like that.

Hinata noticed the drastic change in your mood so first thing he did at break was to approach your desk. “Do you know what I do whenever I’m down?” You just looked at him, signaling him to proceed. “I close my eyes and try to remember one of the spikes I’d done with my eyes open. I can see the surprise and distress in the rival team’s faces again, hear how the ball goes through the hair like ‘Wooosh!’ and hits the ground with such force.”

I guess it makes sense, you think, to remember one of your happier moments for a cheer-up. But then Hinata continues: “Oh, right. Sorry I forgot, you can’t do spikes. I guess this wasn’t the best idea to give.” The wide grin on his face tells enough that he’s joking and knowing him long enough, you don’t need to see his face to know that he’s joking. Yet you won’t get let the little shrimp get away with calling you out in such a way and so you don’t speak to him until the next day. It is one of the longest days he has, trying as many ways as he can to make it up to you and to apologize. Needless to say, seeing him so miserable is a delight to Tsukki and he even pays for your meatbun after the practice.

Oh how naive of you to think that would be the only time. You realize what a powerful card you’ve granted Hinata with your shameful, in his eyes at least, history of volleyball. Having the upperhand at one thing against you is such a joyful thing, one he doesn’t use often, to keep the dramatic effect from wearing off.

You two are just walking one day, still trying to decide how to spend the day. As you keep talking and defending why going to a cafe is better than seeing a movie for that day, you trip your feet over one of the tiles. You regain your posture before you can fall, with the help of Hinata grabbing your right arm. That’s when he drops the bomb: “Maybe your walking would be more balanced and your steps more solid on he ground if you were still playing.” You just stare at him, your mouth hanging open for a full minute.

It doesn’t end with that of course. Whenever Shoyo gets a chance, he strikes. You make him pay afterwards and he seems so regretful but it doesn’t matter the next time arise.

You could be going through old photos and feeling sad that you don’t have the same muscle tissue you once had 2 years ago and he replies: “Well if you eat all these carbs and chocolate and don’t do any exercise or a sport, like volleyball; it’s only expected not to have as much muscle in your body.” At that you hit his head with the photo album, a little smile on your lips. Because somehow his stupid remarks always manage to make you smile, or make you laugh. Hence the turning your head away and refusing to look at him or hitting him, so he won’t see how he succeeds with his words.

It has been a short while since your exams and the teachers are announcing your grades. This time it’s more dreadful than usual. Your motivation had been lacking lately and being lost at what you want in life, you weren’t prepared enough. Some of the grades are as bad as you feared expected them to be. You try to keep your mind clear of negative thoughts but the situation at hand makes this difficult. And as always Shoyo senses your worries and is right besides you to comfort. “Do not feel bad for what’s in front of you right now but keep planning for what is to come. It’s just like... When you’re in a match and the opponent blockers are so tall and strong. They keep blocking you and you are at a loss for any trick to use against them, feeling more helpless than ever. Then at one point, time seems to slow down, you can see them as clear as day, the ground behind them is inviting as ever, you can spot all the empty and defenseless areas. And as time keeps on hold, waiting, you aim and hit the ball to the space between their limbs. The victory that spike gives is the most successful you can ever feel, you know. It brings hope to you and your team, getting you hyped up to do it again.” His voice softens as he tells all these, probably from memory. His eyes are filled with a burning fire of hope and ‘you can do it’. 

And then he says the dreaded words, hitting his forehead with the palm of his head: “Ah, why am I even telling all these things to you when it’s clear how meaningless they must sound? After all, you didn’t even spike properly, let alone against blockers.”

Before he can do one of his trademark grins that always follow these remarks or even process what is happening, you get up from your seat like lightning bolt. Grabbing your bag with one hand and Shoyo’s with the other, just like he did all these months ago, you drag him out of the classroom.

“W-wait! Where are you taking me??” You can hear the worry in his highpitched  voice. You can’t help but roll your eyes at that, your lips curving into a smirk.

“To the gym, dumbass. You’re gonna show me how to spike.”

[surteic]

On The Run

Summary: Hydra returns after its final destruction years ago and wants their Winter Soldier back. Meanwhile Bucky and Loki have started forming a tight bond between the two of them and with Hydra being aware of their little project’s new friend, they won’t miss the chance to get their hands on a god too. ATTENTION! This is going to be a sort of Thor:Ragnarok AU! (actually, this will be an MCU!AU pls don’t ask me what that means)

Pairing: Bucky x Loki Genre: idk how to rate this but nothing major, kinda humour Warnings: violence (a bit) Words: 1.868

A/N:  Please keep in mind that my native language is not English, so there might be mistakes when it comes to grammar and vocabulary. I haven’t seen the movies in English either but I’m trying my best to get their characters right. I hope it turned out somewhat good lmao if not then I am terribly sorry.

Chapter-Index

…

[Gifs are not mine]

...

Chapter 1

Somewhere in an underground Hydra base, USA:

“Any news on where the Winter Soldier is, right now?”  the general asked, facing the big screen in front of him. His arms crossed over his chest. An analyst, probably a soldier as well, turned around in his chair, grabbing his tablet and walking over to the general whose hate filled eyes pierced through the other man’s. Starting to get nervous as the general raised his chin, threatening, he turned the screen to the older man.

“We located him at the Avengers Compound, Upstate New York.” The soldier answered, scared of how his boss would react to the news that the winter soldier was once again united with his oldest friend, Steve Rogers. And apart from that, probably had his memory back after all. Years, decades of torturing him and forming his mind wasted thanks to a man in spandex. Did he still have that filthy suit? After all it had been years since the fall of Hydra, but they were on the rise again. And they would pay.

“Is captain Rogers with him?” the general asked, finally finished with his inner monologue. “No, sir. The captain and a few others are currently on a mission.” “And they leave the winter soldier behind.” He smiled devilish, grabbing the tablet with his gloved hand. The black leather making a soft squeaking noise every time his hand moved. With a stern face, he looked up again, his smile fading. “Bring me the soldier. We need our weapon back. He belongs to us.”

Pure shock and horror was written all over the soldiers faced as the room suddenly went silent. Gazes were exchanged, panic filled the room. “But, sir. The winter soldier has formed some sort of friendship with Thor’s brother! He’s a god we don’t know anything about.” But suddenly the younger man’s voice changed. He became quiet, trying not to cause a scene. “Sir, this will be a suicide mission.” But the general was not impressed at all. Closing his leather coat and turning to leave, he yelled. “I said get me the soldier! And bring me the god too. With him on our side, the Avengers will fall. As they should have years ago.” Then he vanished, leaving his frightened subjects behind.

..

Avengers Compound, Upstate New York: “Bucky, I’ve told you before, this is not going to work.” Loki sighed as he watched his friend trying to hack into Stark and Banner’s lab. “Well, it isn’t going to work if you just stand there. Give me a hand and stop complaining.” Bucky was frustrated. He’d tried everything to get into the lab. Every code he could think of, he searched Stark’s room, his belonging, everything, but without success. There was nothing. He turned around, his long hair falling in his face. “Help me please?” he said provocative, a fake smile plastering his face.

“I will not help you and anger Stark. I’ve had enough trouble with him in the past and I’d rather stay out of that.” Bucky stood up from his bend down position and put the strands of hair from his face. He looked at the god with a frown. “And what? Tony tried to kill me once! If it wasn’t for Steve, I’d be dead! So, get over here and do a lil’ magic trick so that I can see what he’s been working on, since he wants to keep it a secret.” Defeated Loki let his arms hang down beside him.

“Okay, fine. I’m going to help you, but it was your idea and if Stark ever gets aware of that we broke into his lab, I will-“before he could even finish Bucky interrupted. “Yeah, okay. I get it, you’re gonna be a snitch. Now do something!”  

With a snap, they disappeared, the place they’ve been standing on covered in smoke.

When Bucky opened his eyes, it all happened in a blink of an eye, he had a look around. “The lab!” he yelled excited. “Why are you so surprised? You said you wanted in Stark’s lab and now we’re here. You humans are pathetic.” Ignoring the god’s statement, he went to the desk standing in the middle of the room, covered in high tech things. Bucky didn’t know what any of those things were, but they were fascinating. He’d always had a weakness for technology, even back in the day when he and Steve went to the Stark Expo in 1943. He’d wanted to check out more of the technic stuff that was standing in the lab, but his actions were cut off by an alarm going off. He put everything down and gazed at Loki.

“What’s that?” he asked, sprinting to the door, before he remembered. Ah, yes. It’s locked. “I think it’s the alarm.” Loki answered before a green light wrapped around him and his casual clothing turned into his battle armour. Bucky gave him a weird glance. “Really? You had to change first?” but Loki didn’t answer. He shrugged the soldier’s statement off and looked through the big windows that faced the wide grass area where they’d usually train. The floor, along with the glass, started vibrating; a loud noise, similar to one of a helicopter could be heard from outside.

“What is happening?” Loki was confused. As much as he was aware of everyone was on a mission or had the day off. Stark really threw a big party and let everyone sleep off their hangover, unbelievable.

“I don’t know. We need weapons. Where’s your gun?” Bucky asked as he grabbed the nearest thing he could find in Tony’s lab. The god used his magic skills and let two small knives appear, one in each of his hands. “You really wanna fight with butter knives?” Bucky laughed as he pushed some buttons on the weapon he had found, he assumed it was some sort of a gun. Whilst Loki had changed his small knives into bigger blades, Bucky still did not know how the weapon worked. “Do you even know what you’re doing?” Loki asked worried. “I’ll find out.” Sceptically Loki raised his eyebrows.

Minute by minute the noise started to get louder and louder. It wasn’t until in all black and blue covered people with helmets shot through the window. “Get down!” Bucky yelled as he turned over a table and hid behind it; Loki doing the same. Shooting back Bucky took a glance at their counterparts.

“Shit.” He panicked. “What is it?” Loki asked, getting ready to sprint at the other men and putting his knives in their chests. “You’re not going to run over there, are you mad?! You won’t stand a chance against their guns. Now stay behind that damned table or let some guns appear, Loki.” “This really isn’t the time to argue with me about my choice of weapons, Bucky. Now tell me why they had you so shocked, before we die.”

Putting more bullets in the Hydra soldiers both stood up, making their way to the window. The scene was a mess. Shards of glass everywhere, Stark’s inventions shot and destroyed the lab equalled a battlefield. Well, it kind of was.   “There are too many, I can’t keep them all under control!” Bucky yelled, using his metal arm to punch the remaining soldiers in their faces before bringing them to fall. He jerkily turned around, looking for his partner. Bucky could clearly see that he was out of breath as well. They were just too many.

“Do something, Loki!” he yelled, fighting every man that he came across. “What exactly do you want me to do? I am trying my best!” came as an answer right before a blue lightning struck through the room, taking more than half the soldiers down. Breathing heavily, he nodded, pointing with his gun at the god.

“That. That was what I was talking about. Great job.” He laughed. But Loki was less amused. He shook his head and waited for the trouble to come. “That wasn’t me.”

With a final blue lightning and a shield flying threw the crashed windows, every Hydra agent was defeated or driven back. “Brotherrrrr!” yelled a deep and enraged voice, as a tall man with blond hair was carried inside by his flying hammer. The moment his feet hit the ground, a man, hidden behind steel and a bearded brown-haired patriot, along with other people followed. The helmet of the robot-like looking person suddenly disappeared, revealing an angry black-haired man.

“You two! What have you done to my lab?! Everything is destroyed!” Stark yelled, trying to see if any computer he had in there would still be working. To his misfortune nothing worked. He sighed angrily, approaching the couple and pointing threating at their faces. “You better pray that Friday still  has all the copies or I’ll have your asses.”

“Tony.” Came a soft voice from behind the angry tin-man but he wouldn’t have any of this. “No, Rogers! They are troublemakers! They are not only getting themselves in danger but us as well! I can’t believe I even agreed to let them stay here.” “Our jobs include taking risks, Tony. We’re in danger every day we’re on a mission.” The captain tried to explain but it only made Tony angrier. “That’s the point, Steve! When we’re on missions! Not at home, where everyone should be safe! What would have happened if Peter was here?”

“Hey!” yelled Bucky, trying to calm everyone down and getting control of what was happening right now. After all there where bigger issues to discuss than them being a danger to everyone, as usual. The room went silent as his voice pierced through the destroyed room but Bucky’s focus only applied to Steve. He’d understand.

“Those soldiers, Steve. Hydra’s back.” He gulped, throwing away his weapon.

“What?” Steve remarked, praying to be misinformed.

“Hydra is back. I don’t know what they want but the symbol, Steve.” The soldier pointed to where one agent lay and turned him around, revealing the Hydra sign imbedded on his chest.

“They’re here to get back their most powerful weapon.” Stark said as he looked down the window.

“How do you know?” Bruce asked as he tried to see what Tony saw but failed as the fear of heights took over his body and he backed off.

Pointing to the ground he rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe because of the metal arm that’s sticking out of my lawn? Wild guess.” Squinting his eyes, he took a better look at the arm. “Is that a note? Who even writes notes anymore? Is Hydra living in the 20th century? Looks like they downgraded.” using his suit he jumped from the building and got both the note and the metal arm. Holding the tiny piece of paper right in front of his face he read: “The Avengers will fall once the soldier and the god are ours. There will be no mercy.”

Not even showing his concern and keeping his poker face as usual, Stark sighed, handing the note to Steve and looking at both Loki and Bucky he said, “Looks like they’re after both of you. Congratulations on your adoption.”

TBC

...

Masterlist

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Taglist: @starscreamloki​

[vanaera]

The Tale of the Gingerbread Man and the Mistletoe

Synopsis | Being his bestfriend for more than ten years, you have filled Jungkook’s life with stories that colored his world with joy and wonder. This time, he lets himself be the one to tell you stories, eventhough it seems that a different synopsis is coming into place in the warmth of his room in this Christmas Eve.

(aka The Prince and His Rose Christmas  Special; football player!jk + childhood friend!you/ best friends to lovers!au)

Genre | Fluff, so much fluff you’re gonna have diabetes. Welcome to the TPAHR Universe.

Wordcount | 5k

Read more football!jk drabbles in The Prince and His Rose

               Jeon Jungkook likes to believe that in an alternate universe, there’s a version of him that would have easily ended up with you. He already knew of it when he turned twenty, when your name he’s known and uttered for more than ten years with too much fondness and familiarity suddenly weighed more than they used to in his head and in his heart for the very first time. And for the next days he found himself falling deeper in love with you, his tongue always stumbling on each letter, drunk from their candied-cherry sweetness that kept him simultaneously high on the clouds and at the pit bottom of the cool image he’s built over the years. Jeon Jungkook, the MVP and center forward of your university football team and computer science extraordinaire is helplessly, sappily, fucking in love with you, his bestfriend for fourteen years and writer wonder of his batch. 

              After eight years of telling people "No, we're not dating. We're just friends," it wasn't easy to admit years later that he will actually go against his own words and he will in fact, take all the risks just to get to the other side of the friend zone. It was easy to tell apart these explosions of feelings in his heart from the ones he’d felt before for any person, however such knowledge is not enough to balance the gravitational pull you had on him with his own force of attraction upon you. Because aside from his late start to make a move on his pursuit for your affection, which didn't actually turn well at the very beginning (because his annoying self turns his supposed amorous compliments into nonsensical criticisms until he started writing you love letters he leaves in your locker under the pen name Little Prince), you are fucking oblivious.

               Maybe if his mind does not blank out on him too much when your eyes met his, he would have probably uttered nice words and done things that would help him fall more into you and you into him.

               Jungkook shakes these thoughts as his elbows dig into the white sheets on the comforter he has laid on the floor, pulling himself to sit up and take a glance on the bed beside him.

               The amber sunlight of the afternoon paints your skin in ethereal gold, your parted lips in rose pink, and your tresses spread on his pillow in deeper brown, a stark contrast to the whiteness of the duvet. You stir in your sleep, limbs laid outstretched, and your head turns to his way, granting Jungkook every angle of your beauty. Jungkook smiles. You're so beautiful...breathtakingly beautiful in every possible way.

               He’s not granted everyday to be able to see you like this so Jungkook makes use of every second of the calm minutes of the afternoon haze, admiring every bit of you. His eyes graze your asymmetrical eyes that always see the good in everyone, your fairly high sloped nose you always took pride of, your plush full lips he’s always wanted to taste, your semi-broad shoulders that complements his when he goes for surprise bear hugs, your cute, small fingers that contrast his massively long ones – every flaw and attribute he’s come to learn to love.  You’re not perfect and he admits he has seen better physical qualities in others. However, he’s never seen someone like you–someone who’s filled with so many good qualities and imperfections at the same time yet still manages to be perfect just the way you are–not for anyone, not for him, not to satisfy his ideal woman he’s conjured in his mind–just perfectly you. You who inspire him to do better, to dream more, and work harder, his bestfriend for so many years, the only person he can be completely himself.

               Jungkook leans toward you, reaching out to brush your fringe when you stir again, body fully facing him now. He watches your lashes flutter, eyes peeling open to look back at him, brown eyes warm and soft. Jungkook's hand hangs in mid-air. He settles them on your palm that lays open on his bed, intertwining them together.

               You pull your pink lips into a smile. "What are you looking at, Jungkookie?"

               "Nothing," Jungkook mumbles. "Just," he looks to his side then reconnects your gazes, now sporting a shit-eating grin, "looking at you with that drool on your face."

               "Oh, really?" you return, starting to sit up.

               "Oh hell, yes," Jungkook's grin widens and before you pulled yourself up enough to be a few inches higher than where he sat, he squeezes your hand, playfully tight but not much for you to wince, something he always does when he tries to ruin your friendship handshakes back then just to annoy you.

               Jungkook’s already running to his kitchen by the time you’re on your toes and screaming at him, slipper in hand and feet pounding on the floor with your laughter filling the room.

               When the semester ends and the Holiday break starts, you and Jungkook always travel back to your hometown to celebrate Christmas with your families. Unfortunately this time, the both of you can't adhere to the family tradition. The drama club was scheduled to have the Nutcracker play on the night of the 23rd in your university's theater for St. Anne Orphanage's early Christmas treat for the children, and since you're one of the play writers and Jungkook's part of the lighting team, you two had to stay and schedule your trip back home in another day to have the 24th your rest day.  Jungkook thinks, on the other hand, that such happening was fortunate, a blessing undeniably un-disguised, a Christmas miracle he never wished for. Your roommate has packed a week ago to go home to the province, and given the circumstance that you hated being alone and Jungkook's your only close friend who'll be with you in the Christmas Eve, it was no question that you'll set camp in his room when his own roommate, Park Jimin, has also left for the holidays. He could spend the Christmas Eve with just you and him, with fuzzy colored socks on your feet, hot chocolate in mugs warm on your cold hands, and under the starry blanket of yours that have been both your comfort for years now.

               "And it could be the time you can, you know - tell her what you feel with the romantic mood of Christmas and all," were Taehyung's words yesterday to which he laughed. He doesn't know if he would actually take his chance or not because as much as he wants to pour his love for you right here, right now, the risk of rejection is possibly high when you're not even aware yet he's actually courting you and such tragedy is unbecoming for a supposed festive occasion.  

               Yesterday night was hectic so the two of you planned to slow everything down in the 24th. After sleeping in and waking up to have late breakfast, the both of you spent the remainder of the morning re-watching Love Actually and playing the Overcooked 2 video game that had you seated on the floor between his legs like always, back comfortably molded against his warm chest as you kept yelling at each other on what you’re supposed to do. You cooked his favorite beef lasagna for lunch and when the afternoon came, the both of you took a nap to prepare for your all-nighters to celebrate Christmas at exactly twelve o’clock. It’s domestic as hell and hurts Jungkook’s heart with so many feels that he has to routinely calm his burning tomato-red cheeks and ears whenever you come too close or let your stare linger for a while. But what’s he gonna do? Say no? Oh fucking no way, he’s going to fucking relish everything. Life’s given him such a very nice opportunity to spend a very special day with you and he’s going to make the best out of it.

               Especially now, when it’s ten and the evening sky has deepened into blackish indigo. His room was illuminated by his white fluorescent lights and the colorful blues, reds, and greens of the small Christmas tree you helped him set up last November beside his couch. The both of you were now sitting on his sofa after finishing two more romantic comedies on his floor, with mugs of hot choco warming your hands, your starry blanket draped over your shoulders, as you brew another story with him.

               “So I came up with this Jupiter King yesterday,” you said, tugging your blanket overhead. Letting your finger graze among the stars you marked to be the kingdom of the Obsidian Knights, the tall tower of the two Emerald Sisters, the Cloud Emporium, until it stops on a massive coral star embedded on the north. “Here!” you flash him a smile before focusing back on your new character. “He’s one of the most powerful rulers I set up here and he’s got this huge garden filled with plants that produces stars instead of flowers.  So he’s like, the Father of Everything here or some sort.”

               Jungkook hums, leaning his head over your right shoulder as he looks up at the northernmost star on your blanket. “Sounds good. What will be his story, then?”

               You look at him, biting your lip. “I’m thinking of putting him in The Prince and His Rose, like…some kind of origin to set some grounds between the worlds of the Golden Prince and his Rose.” You pause for a while and Jungkook looks at you waiting. You close your eyes before placing your mug on his small coffee table. You turn to him then, an expression between indifference and disappointment is etched into a downcast of a frown. It would have looked seriously bad if your lips were not jut out in a pout and your starry blanket hovering your heads like E.T. wannabes. “Okay–fuck,” you breathe, “I honestly don’t know what to do with him yet and it really frustrates me. I had this idea like a month ago and then finals came and passed by and wiped everything off my head–all the stuff I studied for and even my creative juices, so I’m here, like a useless being trying to talk it with you and see if any inspiration will rush in my brain.”

               “It’s okay. Is talking about it with me helping now?” Jungkook tries not to let his cheeks redden more or else the dark indigo hue of the sky of your blanket won’t be able to hide it anymore.

               “No,” you mutter. “I really don’t like feeling like this. Look, I even got so grumpy yesterday with the performance of Nayeon and Jun in the rehearsals.”

               Jungkook chuckles, the image of you wearing the meanest scowl he’s seen on you as you trudge up to the director and point at the lacking skills of the actors flashes again in his mind. You don’t really scowl and frown that bad on the usual basis that’s why it’s kinda funny seeing the rest of the cast cower a little, surprised of your sudden outburst. “They deserve it though. They’re slacking off during the final rehearsals. Even I can see it up on the Light Control Room. Namjoon hyung even wanted to put the large ass spotlight on their faces to wake them up.”

               You laugh at that, chuckles tinkling like faerie bells in Jungkook’s ears. “Yeah, it’s funny. I don’t really like slackers but I don’t know–I think it’s not exactly the slacking off that pissed me so bad yesterday–you get this feeling when you’re just not acting like yourself and it kinda frustrates you? That’s that.”

               Jungkook pats your head to place it on his right shoulder and you instantly oblige. "Chill, mate.” After hearing another cold breeze sweep outside, he adds with a grin, “Oh yeah, pun intended."

               You gave him a pointed look.

               Jungkook laughs. "Okay, maybe it's going like this 'cause your forcing ideas to come to you. You always know it does you no good and makes your story far beyond at par to your plans. Why do you do it anyway?"

               "I don't know," you mumble. "I just feel like wasting my holidays when I could have produced something that would have been approved by an editor– ”

               Jungkook taps the tip of your nose. "Hey, what do we say about pressuring yourself?"

               You breathe out and say in unison with him: "One step, one punch, one round at a time."

               "From Creed, said by Rocky!" Jungkook grins and you smile at the telltale signs of his fanboy mode on his glowing face.

               "You know, it would have been a great mood if you like, didn't utter where you got that advice from."

               "Hey, I gotta give credits. Rocky is awesome."

               You smirk at him, "Honestly, when you first said that quote to me two years ago, I actually though it came from you and I was so impressed by that one line you didn't manage to make unintelligible. Of course it is good because it actually didn't come from you–”

               "Hey! I'm trying to boost your morale here, why the hell are you dissing me?! Jungkook half-guffaws and half-screams, a feat impossible until now, and before you can laugh at him and say sorry, he tackles you down with a loud "Yah!" attacking your weak sides in heaps of tickles and laughter.

               "Oh my god, Kook, AHHahaHaHah, stop-AHaHaH"

               "No, I'm not done yet, Little Ms. Writer," Jungkook pokes your side and boops your nose giving you another round of giggling feat.

               When the chuckles eventually die down and the wriggling blanketed mess of the both of you calms down, Jungkook finds himself lying on the floor next to you, smiling, gaze interlocked with yours. The blanket is still draped over the both of your heads, tangled between your arms and legs in the tickle fest. It's weird that he finds it comfortable in a blanket cocoon with you on his floor. Maybe it's because of your unadulterated child-like laughter and joy he's never seen on you for quite a while, or maybe it's because of the starry night sky of the blanket that have suddenly enveloped the two of you into a world of your own or maybe–it's just you so anywhere you are with him will of course, will be fine for him. He doesn’t really know, so he supposes it’s because of all the three.

               Jungkook could feel his heart beat reaching a crescendo. He clears his throat and places his eyes on the stars instead. "Taking a break would actually help you and your writing, you know? How about…let me tell you a story this time? I got a perfect one in my head right now. Would you like that?"

               "Okay,” you chirp beside him. He could already feel a smile growing again on your face and he himself, smiles at that, chest warm. His plan for this Christmas Eve is off to a good start, then.

               “So once upon a time, there’s this gingerbread man who came out too early from his mold to be considered complete. He’s undercooked and half of his body is missing those decorative icing and candies. Then –”

               “Wait, it already had its icing when he’s being cooked?”

               Jungkook gives you a bored look. “In this universe it is. For his self-confidence. Okay, woman, let me continue.”

               When you hum in approval, he continues. “So this half-complete gingerbread man, unbeknownst to his maker, made his way down the oven and toward the door of the wooden hut. Too excited to see the open world, he rushed out of the house and into the cold.”

               “That’s dangerous,” you note.

               He nods in agreement. “Yeah, this gingerbread man is stupid so of course, he doesn’t know that.” You laugh at that and he grins.

               “The gingerbread man travels in the deep snow, and he enjoys the first minutes of the white world. He played with snowmen, rolled and messed around with snow angels, and ran to other houses to nab their candy canes they had in front of their porch for the caroling kids to munch on. It’s only when he notices he’s about to enter another village did he see a huge ass crack making its way down his right leg. In panic, he runs toward the nearest wizard he’s been told by his snowmen friends and–“ Jungkook suddenly pauses and you look at your side.

               “And? Hey, why did you stop? What are you doing?”

               Jungkook grumbles. “Wait, my pajamas got stuck between my butt cheeks, it’s annoying–okay there, I’m fine again.”  He pats his back and looks at your disgusted face. “Hey, don’t act like you don’t do that, too.”

               “I do, but I don’t announce it so openly as you did!”

               “Okay, my bad,” Jungkook smirks. “So yeah, the stupid ginger bread man meets the wizard, a century old, massive pretzel. The wizard tells him that the cracks on his leg were caused by forgetting his true self and the Gingerbread man looked at him bewildered and said,” Jungkook breaths and says in a whiny, squeaky voice he knows will annoy you, “‘What true self? I’m a gingerbread man, what’s more to that?’”

               “Jungkook, that voice over is annoying and stupid and you know that.”

               “I don’t care. Anyway, the wizard does not give a fuck and just says ambiguously, ‘Only true love will fix your problem.  The mistletoe will be your sign.’”

               You chuckle, “Wow, true love is always the way, what did I expect? The mistletoe though is original but…really weird.”

               “This is a weird story, so expect everything is really weird. Anyway, the gingerbread man wanders around the village, confused, and proceeds to just deal with other gingerbread women to look for true love only to come short with nonsense flings here and there – ”

               “Wait up!” you interrupt him again, flabbergasted at the uncalled turn of events. “This is a love story?!”

               Jungkook smiles, feeling a cold sweat run down his back. “Umm, kinda yeah? Why are you questioning it just now? You know me, I’m a trash for love stories so what do you expect?”

               “Okay, fine. I’m not complaining. Just weirded out by what’s happening.”

               “I told you this is a weird story.”

               “Fine, fine. Continue.”

               “One night, the gingerbread dude dreams of going back home to his maker. His maker almost cries at the sight of him and welcomes him back home again with a warm hug. At the touch, he gets a vision of the maker’s father, when the maker is still yet a little girl, who first planned his structure and composition. The father kneaded the dough and formed him on the mold. However, the father wasn’t able to put him in the oven because electricity in the village went out during the cricket plague.” Jungkook looks at you again and raises his eyebrows. He doesn’t need to ask more about your troubled expression when you already answer his unsaid question with a cock of your brow.

               “Okay, everything is not making sense, but okay, go on.”

               “So five years have passed and the father wanted to give up and just throw him away, however his maker pleaded no and promised she’ll make this gingerbread man something the father will be proud of.  The maker grew and took care of the gingerbread man’s raw form, making sure it’s well warmed up. She even put mistletoes on their ceiling and windows after noticing that the gingerbread man, sat atop on the tray, grows warmer at the sight of the plant. Another year passes until the plague ceases and when the electricity was back up again, she immediately placed him on the oven pan and waited for his growth. That’s when the gingerbread man realized what the wizard meant what true love is. He immediately set out, and ran back up the hills, never stopping eventhough the cracks have spread through his other leg and right arm. When he knocked against the door, it immediately opened to reveal his maker, sitting lonely on the floor. Hesitant, he made his way fast to the girl and reached for her hand, making himself known to his maker. At the sight of him, his maker’s eyes glow and a smile as wide as the crescent of the moon grows on her face. The gingerbread man is home again. The cracks immediately healed, and he suddenly became cooked just right without putting him in the oven, you get what I mean? Like complete again, with all the icing and stuff. There. The end.”

               Jungkook turns to you, sporting that shit-eating grin you always found endearing and annoying at the same time. “So…you like it?” he asks.

               You tilt your head, keeping your gaze on him. “Hmm…It’s nice…but weird. I appreciate your story-telling skills though I could say, I’m definitely better than you.”

               “HEY!”

               You guffawed at his appalled face. You grab his arm by your side and lean your head on his shoulder, a feat you usually do back when you’re five and sucking up to him. “Okay, I liked it, I appreciate it. By the way, how did you even come up with that…artistic storyline?”

               Jungkook leans his head against yours. “I actually took it from my first animation in college, a project for my major.”

               “What? How come I’ve never seen it yet?”

               “Because my skills are crappy back then so I saved you the horrific details and decided to tell you the plot instead, but you know what,” he looks at you, “I told you that to prepare you for my gift. Merry Christmas, Y/N.”

               Right then, your alarm clock rings and signals it’s exactly, twelve o’clock. It’s Christmas day. Jungkook smiles. His plan for your Christmas Eve has been smooth. Immediately, Jungkook grabs the blanket to put it on his couch, the indigo and colored stars no longer in your vision as you both lay on your backs, looking at his own ceiling. It was white, just like the first moment you’ve seen it when you went here in first year, however this night, it was no longer just white. Painted red rose patterns surrounded his ceiling, almost mimicking a rose garden painting on Cathedral ceilings. All of their thorny stems lead to the middle, right next to the bolted screw of his light fixture where a mistletoe was taped, leaves rich green and berries vibrant red.  

               “Oh my god, Jungkook, it’s beautiful!” you gasp, lips parting in awe and Jungkook momentarily forgets what he’s supposed to do next. Fuck, you’re so beautiful and so, so enthralled by what he did, he can fucking die a happy man right here, right now.

               “I–you mi-missed our friend’s trip in St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Malta last August after you took a break after your collapsing thing in the Drama Club. Of course, I can’t imitate the painting itself so I just did it with roses, y’know? Your favorites?” you chuckle at that and Jungkook’s smile widens, now mimicking the crescent of the moon himself. “Plus, you told me back then you’ve never seen red berries on mistletoes before so I climbed on the tree behind our dorm yesterday to grab one.”

               You turn your body towards him, completely on your side facing him now and Jungkook forgets to breathe. “Jungkook–I–this is beautiful. So, so beautiful, god, why didn’t you tell me your gift would be this-this-extra.”

               “Extra?”

               “Extra-spectacular,” you clear, “I-I didn’t even bring my gift for you like, it’so, so pretty and of course, you’ve spent hours painting that and here I am lying next to you with nothing to give to you.”

               “It’s okay,” Jungkook hums, letting his hand run through your hair, carding through your strands just like how you love it. “You said you’d bring it anyway–by the way where did you even leave your gift?”

               “In our home. I had it ready by November and my dumb self forgot that we won’t be able to come home soon because of the play.”

               “Stop calling yourself dumb.”

               “Okay. Merry Christmas, too,  Jungkook.”

               Jungkook lets his smile bloom further on his face, almost permanent on his skin as he watches you turn  to ogle the ceiling again. All of the sensations of cramped backs and stiffed necks he endured painting the rose garden on top of the foldable ladder he borrowed from Yoongi is worth it when he gets to see you like this–glowing and happy...just because of what he did. You always manage to shake up his world and sweep him off his feet with stories you’ve made only for the two of you. All the years he’s been with you, he always dreamt of returning the favor. However, instead for platonic intentions of twelve-year old Jungkook to impress you back then, the Jungkook now yearns to have at least touched a corner of your heart. He spends the next minutes admiring you as you continue to chat about the details he put in the painting, drinking the image of you lying beside him and enjoying his gift so much you can’t tear your eyes away from it.

               As if in coincidence with his plan, the bursts of fire crackers and fireworks suddenly intervene in your moment and Jungkook and you, at the sound, quickly stand up and rush to his window.

               Yellow flickers start at the bottom of the scenery and shoots up fast in the sky, breaking into a beautiful umbrella bloom of golden sparkling stars. Reds and blues follow suit, accompanying the remains of the yellows in a blooming garden of vibrant sparks that illuminated the dark skyline. “Shings!” and “zings!” continuously followed in a cycle of blooming and fading fireworks and before  Jungkook knows it, he’s already turning his head to your side, eyes glowing and mouth in an open grin.

               “Woah, Jungkook, you saw that?  It’s a fountain of reds and oranges, god, it’s so beautiful!”

               You’re beautiful. And before he thinks of what he’s supposed to do next, his lips already move to the songs of the birds in his heart that have already started their numbers the moment he wake up this morning having you next to him.

               "I love you, Y/N"

               “Huh, what did you say?

               Jungkook's breath stops in his throat, body freezing up. Fuck, what’s he supposed to do holy shit–

               "Hey, what did you say? I didn't catch it. Tell me, what is it."

               Jungkook learns how to breathe again. "No-nothing. Just you getting sappy over fireworks."

               "Oh dumbface, as if you don’t do that too.”

               Jungkook laughs and sets his elbows back on his window sill and you lean your head against his shoulder again.

               Taehyung is right. Christmas do inflicts some romance in the atmosphere.

               “Come to think of it, it’s the very first time we spent Christmas with just one another.”

               “Yeah.”

               Maybe in another universe, a version of him already gathered the guts to repeat what he said to you earlier and another you would have probably returned his sentiments. Maybe in another universe, he would have been bold enough to use this perfect moment to lean in on you and graze his lips on yours in a soft kiss. Maybe in another universe, you would return his feelings in a heartbeat, no hesitation at all. Maybe he would have really easily ended up with you in that universe.

               Jungkook suddenly feels soft lips land on his cheek, a soft peck resounding in his ears, along with the fireworks outside and the pinnacle tempo of the birds in his heart.

               “What? ” you chuckle, playfully hitting his shoulder when he keeps his stare on you. “You taped a mistletoe in your ceiling, right? I gotta fulfill the tradition to ensure another good year to come to us.”

               “Right,” Jungkook laughs and pulls you closer to his side. “I can’t believe you just outright planted a kiss on my cheeks after calling my face stupid for years.”

               “Because it is!”

               Jungkook nods, the smile on his face reaching his eyes like you. “Gotta admit this Christmas Eve is really something, huh?”

               “Yeah…wanna spend it again with me next year?”

               “Yes, and the next years to come.”

               You settled deeper in his hug and Jungkook sighs in satisfaction. Pursuing you in his universe may not be easy but he’ll make the best out of it. His certain that with time, he'll be ready to express his true feelings for you –when you’ll be able to understand the weight of his feelings, when your gravitational pulls on each other will near equilibrium, when masses and volumes will be on par and finally enable him to pour years worth of love on you and the both of you without worrying about discrepancies that will collapse the world you share with him.

               He may not easily end up with you, but at least for now, he’s got you by his side. And that’s all he needs.

“Eventhough I’m really enthralled by your painting, I can’t help but wonder what your RA thought of our shenanigan after he found us painting the ceiling white again.”

“Seokjin’s my RA and he didn’t really mind. Told me it was cool and all.”

“Oh. Okay, nothing to worry!”

“Why are you so enthusiastic about that?”

“Well, that means I can have you parade the all-pink cardigan and jumper ensemble I gifted you like you said you will without worrying about your RA’s opinions.”

“Ugh, why do you always give me pink things?”

“Because you rarely wear that color! And also, it really looks good on you!”

“The-they do? Really?”

“Yeah! Now go help me clip this polaroid of your rose garden painting on my rope frame.”

“Aye Aye Ma’am!”

 A/N | Hey Hons! I know this is really late but I promised you a Christmas Special of these dorks so here it is! I’m sorry for the long inactivity in this universe so here I made it up to you guys with a longer wordcount! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing this! Happy Holidays Hons!

All Rights Reserved © Vanaera. No reposts, modifications, and translations of content are allowed without direct permission.

[kpopchangedme]

The Intervention | Choi Youngjae

To his best friends’ total amazement, you decide to drastically intervene when a shy man is being played by a mean client at your bar

|| M.List || GOT7 ||

Protagonists: Choi Youngjae & You (Ft. Jackson, Jaebum & Mark.)

Word Count: 3.6k

Genre: SFW – Strangers – Humour – Making out – Romance –  **WARNING: SEXY SHY YOUNGJAE AHEAD** – One Shot

Lys’ note: CHOI YOUNGJAE IS HOT. FIGHT ME.

Your eyes followed the young man with interest and you cringed when he knocked a waitress with his elbow, nearly sending all the content of her tray on the floor. Thankfully your staff's awesome and his three friends sitting at the bar in front of you all sighed simultaneously, glad nothing bad happened. You had been observing their circus for a while, highly entertained by their whole team dynamic.

“I told him the secret was to be chill...” The handsome built one grimaced, also staring at the scene. “This isn’t chill.”

“Sorry to inform you of that Jackson, but I think that’s about as chill as he can get…” The second one shrugged, sipping at his pint of beer. He wasn’t as invested and kept his eyes on his phone instead of living the moment. He was a pretty man with electric purple hair, the kind that all hometown girls go crazy for, with soft and almost too symmetrical features. “How many shots did he have?”

“Two… And a pint.” The darker and last one leaned his back against the bar, not tearing his eyes away from his helpless friend. You could also easily figure him out; tall, straight eyes, bewitching cologne, very handsome, probably rich and falsely cocky.

“That’s clearly not enough shots…” The man named Jackson shook his head from side to side, sending his brown locks flying around, he sounded sorry. He looked the kindest of the bunch, he was the one who hyped up his shy friend, reassured him before unfortunately sending him to the slaughterhouse.

“He needs help,” The texting-guy pointed to the scene just as the girl was sitting back, glancing away from their pitiful friend, “Jaebum?”

“Already on it.” The dark blueberry-haired one turned to the bar, waving you to come over. “Can we get four shots of something strong for that table over there?”

“Four Whiskeys incoming…” He nearly dropped his credit card when you blinked his way and it boosted your confidence. There's nothing quite as gratifying as having an obvious effect on a gorgeous man like that. “Should I make it six? From what I gathered, your friend will probably spill at least two.” Jackson chuckled, and you tore your gaze away to grin at him dangerously while the one named Jaebum remained silent, suddenly intimidated. “What’s the sad story?” You poured the shots and pointed your chin to the scene, the poor boy was still trying to make conversation, wiping his probably sweaty palms on his pants repeatedly.

“Youngjae was born like that…” The phone-addicted guy’s tone was gloomy, but you still laughed. “You should see his older brother, it’s even worse.”

“He’s actually very gifted…” You defended their friend and smiled, looking at his circus on the other side of the lounge. He was now talking and moving his hands around like he was chasing a fly or something.

He was handsome, perhaps a bit younger than his friends, but his face was rounder and cuter. His dark brown hair was parted messily on his forehead, but it still looked neat and calculated. His soft features, evident shyness and clumsy actions screamed good guy type. He was an interesting mix of boyish charm and manliness, that’s why you listened when his friends hyped him to start flirting.

Sadly, your years running this place were enough experience to know he had absolutely no chance of getting that girl. She was a regular, Michelle, often looking for hot hook-ups and cute shy boys never won with her kind.

“He should learn how to use that face, it’s a shame.” You sighed, sorry.

“What face?” Jackson tilted his head, instantly captivated and his blue-haired friend shifted on his stool. 

“The kind that makes me want to bring him back home and shield him from the world forever… He looks vulnerable and sensitive, so I’d build a fort with my bedsheets to protect and keep him a secret.” You shrugged like it was no big deal, aware that the three men were hanging on your every word. “He has a face that you date, cook for and go back to bed with every weeknight.”

The guys' jaws dropped, and you laughed, throwing your head back. A simple move of your wrist was enough for a waitress to come to take the filled shooters away, she clearly knew who they were meant for.

“It’s definitely not wild hook-up material face, I’m pretty good at figuring these things out by now!”

“And who might you be, dearest physiognomy expert?” Jackson asked, leaning in and clearly trying to flirt. Underneath the bar, Jaebum kicked his tibia without any subtlety, claiming dibs.

“Y/n, you’re standing in my bar.”

“Mmm… I must admit this does bestow you authority somehow…” He nodded, ignoring his friend and you laughed, entertained. This Jackson seemed like a fun character, his eyes studied yours, curious. “So, what’s my face telling you?”

“Your face is trustworthy and warm,” The one-without-a-name cooed at your reply, but your gaze went back to your waitress carrying the shooters, unperturbed, “you look responsible, the type of guy I’d introduced to my parents.”

Jackson smiled widely and turned to Jaebum like he just won the lotto. “JB, my face says all that! I’m that good!”

“Yes and no…” You smiled, bursting his bubble and sliding back the card on the bar to its owner without charging it. The shots were on you this time, that shy boy needed them. “You seem like a perfect guy, but–”

“–But what?” Jackson laughed nervously and Jaebum stayed silent, probably mentally cursing him for not getting his cues to stop flirting. “I’ve never once slept with a guy because I wanted to introduce him to my parents.” Their third friend bursted out laughing at Jackson’s rout, while Jaebum let out an audible breath of relief.

“What about mine?” The purple-haired one had stopped staring at his phone and he asked his question leaning in, holding your gaze for the first time, testing you.

“You have a girlfriend and you're a keeper. Why do you even ask?”

Both other men gasped, impressed by your skills and he simply grinned, sitting back.

“You’re good. What gave it away?”

You narrowed your eyes at the cursed table when their friend’s shooters arrived.

“You’re the only one who hasn’t directly peered at my boobs in the last three minutes.” They seemed to have forgotten all about their cute hopeless friend, but you hadn’t.

“Awesome!” He laughed once more at your reply. “Could you call my girlfriend and repeat those exact words to her, just so she’ll stop freaking out?”

“Mark, focus on Youngjae!” Jackson cut him off, merciless. He was already over your smooth rejection and back to his matchmaking plans.

Their silly friend was currently letting the girl’ entourage take his shooters away, they didn’t even have the decency of letting him offer them first. It would be fine any other night, but you knew they were just using him to freely get drunk, Michelle had no interest in him and you felt kind of involved now.

“I think your friend needs more help.” That Youngjae looked like an easy target to take advantage of and it made you sad.

“Why? The shooters are ice breakers…” Jaebum turned to you again, eyes roaming your features hungrily.

He clearly didn’t have a girlfriend to text, nor a face to introduce to your parents. He had one to lock in your room away, to press between your thighs. He was the type you were used to, the type you’d be in bed with several days, ordering take out and drinking beer while watching dumb movies on Netflix. The type you already knew by heart, and that you would either hurt or get hurt by.

“What’s my face like?” He asked, grinning with all the fake confidence alcohol could allow him to muster. You gulped, seeing clear through his attitude and trying to make a sensible choice.

“I don’t feel like telling you.”

“What?!” His brows shoot up at that and the other two pressed on, begging for more.

You ignored them when Michelle touched their awkward friend’s chest, it made you see red. Talking to the poor boy was one thing but leading him on for fun without even considering his feelings was straight up nasty. You hated women like that.

“Youngjae, that’s his name, right?”

“Yes!” Jackson, the only other one really interested, replied before anyone else could. “WOW! Look at that, she’s all over the lucky bastard!” Jaebum and Mark also turned to see, skeptical.

“She’s building him up, but she’s about to reject him.” All their heads snapped back at you. “I see her often, she’s not even interested. Michelle’s a seducer who loves a challenge and he’s acting way too easy for her right now.”

“Well, he’s already hooked.” Jackson grimaced, unsure if you were being serious.

“She’s toying with him”, you insisted.

“Jeez, he’s gonna be crazy mad you sent him there Jackson…” Mark mumbled but his gaze fell back to his phone and something told you he wasn’t going to be the one minding.

You sighed watching the girl picked up her purse with her left hand while her right still traced invisible patterns on the beaming man’s chest. You always disliked her and for an obscure reason, you wanted to protect him, you weren’t kidding earlier. He had a face that pulled that string in you.

“I’m gonna go save him.”

“What!?” Jaebum frowned, confused.

Before the boys could ask anything, you were gone from behind the counter. You felt the trio’ eyes following as you made your way to their helpless friend at the back of the lounge.

“Woah, what can she do that we haven’t tried already?” Jackson naively chuckled above the music and this time even Mark was observing the scene expectedly. You slowed down when you reached the table, puffing your cheeks to gather a bit of courage.

That Youngjae guy lacked confidence and she needed to believe he was harder to get or at least covetable.

Gently, you tapped his shoulder with your index and middle finger trying to get his attention. The solution was simple, she needed to see you as competition, feel threatened. Unfortunately, his eyes remained glued on the seductive girl and you rolled yours back, she clearly had him in her pocket.

___

“He’s not looking!” At the bar, Jackson squealed, worried.

“Youngjae’s a fool.” Jaebum was grinning awkwardly, wondering what the barmaid's genius plan was.

“Hey, isn’t the barmaid way hotter than that girl? I hadn’t noticed.” Mark winced over his phone when Jaebum elbowed his ribs, he saw her first. “Don’t worry, they’re both out of Youngjae’s league anyway.”

“Hey, a lil’ support would be appreciated.” Jackson glared at his friends. “Once Youngjae gets the hang of this, he’ll be able to get any girl he wants!”

Mark and Jaebum exchanged a heavy look.

“Of course.” The purple-haired man said, sardonic. “He’s the Alpha male.”

“Better”, Jackson nodded, pleased.

___

You loudly cleared your throat and the young man moved his chair a little closer to the girl as if to make space for you between the tables. Youngjae didn’t even peek, just assumed you wanted to walk by. You cleared your throat forcefully once more, hoping the clueless man would look up like most people would, but he didn’t. He kept trying to talk to the indifferent girl, not realizing you were waiting for him to notice you.

Somehow, his accidental unawareness vexed you and that was it. It’s like something clicked in your mind and you decided the gentle way wouldn’t be enough. Clearly, you’d have to do something a little bit more drastic.

It was the first time you were doing something like this, but it was exciting, like you were doing a good deed, for the greater good. That Youngjae guy was a hottie, he just needed to feel like one, needed a confidence boost, since he wasn’t the type to fake it ‘till you make it like his friend Jaebum. You were going to be that boost, give him the self-assurance he missed.

You had tried to catch his attention to play out your schemed, but you could just go for it too. With no hesitation, you reached for his cheek, turning his face upwards.

You didn’t wait for the young man to realise what was happening.

___

“What the actual fu–”

“She’s kissing him!” Jackson yelled excitedly, cutting Mark’s swear off. “I didn’t think she fancied him too!”

“Are we in a parallel universe where Youngjae gets the girls and JB goes home alone?” Mark joked, highly doubtful.

“Shut up.” The one in question warned, hardly remembering to close his mouth, stunned by the show in front of them.

“Why? You can’t handle a little healthy competition for once?”

___

Unaware he was making his friend envious, Youngjae stiffened but didn’t pulled back, probably too shocked. You pressed closer, wrapping your arms around his neck and sat on his knees without removing your mouth from his. Your back hit the table, causing the empty shooter glasses to cling and roll away, but you didn’t mind.

Finally, his lips started to move, and he tilted his head, reacting to your kiss several seconds later. You used the opportunity to push harder, hands ruffling his hair with feigned passion. His cheek smelled like mahogany aftershave and he tasted salty of alcohol; that kiss didn’t feel half bad. You intended to put on a show and it seemed to be working because, behind you, Michelle loudly scoffed insulted by your interruption.

You were about to pull back, satisfied, when one of the boy’s hand found the small of your back and the other cupped your face.

___

 “Oh my god,” Jackson loudly screamed, “Youngjae’s kissing her back!”

“Two shots might be enough after all, look at him go!” Mark laughed, abashed.

Meanwhile, Jaebum turned away, ordering another pint and round of shooters to a waitress who was also staring at the scene, completely out of it. He was going to need a lot of booze if Youngjae managed to get the girl he wanted for himself.

What a crazy time to be alive!

___

Just like you would’ve guessed, shy-boy’s kiss was sweet. His lips opened against yours, moist and strong. He didn’t even try to use his tongue, although to be honest, you wouldn’t have complained. He continued to kiss you simply and you pressed your chest against him, forgetting what you were there for, to begin with. His hands encouraged you, like they had a will of their own, caressing your back up and down. Youngjae certainly didn’t feel so timid from this close and if he was a bit slow at first, his newfound audacity was making up for it. He kept kissing you hungrily and you gave back just as much, not having to fake anything in the end; not the wandering hands, pants or back and forth. You had always hated public make out sessions, but you made an exception and you had to admit it was worth it.

Finally done, he pulled away, blinking like dazzled by the lights of the dim-lit lounge. When you met his soft brown eyes, after all that craziness, your mind was blank.

“Hi.” He said, saving the day, and his mouth remained open, the crack hardly noticeable, but you stared at it a second too long.

“Hi.” You breathe out, caught up in your own game.

His hands were still on your body, one on your thigh and the other in your back. It felt highly intimate, natural. You remembered you had no clue who that man under you actually was and that’s what brought you back down on Earth. That, and the girl who cleared her throat aggressively behind you, demanding his immediate attention.

“Who are y–”

He started but you cut him off in a panic, leaning in to whisper only for him; “I’m the intervention.”

Your nose brushed his ear at that and you pulled back, noticing its dark shade of red. The man that just shamelessly made out with a stranger was now blushing like crazy under you. You smiled, he was too precious.

“Excuse you?!” The woman in your back finally lost it and Youngjae stretched his neck, evidently having forgotten all about Michelle. You turned to look at her, innocently fixing your lipstick with your thumb in the process. She was practically scowling, you immediately knew your mission was a success.

She was jealous and suddenly wanted him.

“Hey, Mich.” Her face twitched when her name left your mouth like a cuss word and you turned back to the young man. You were still sitting side saddle on his knees, forearms resting on his shoulders. “Youngjae, you said you came tonight to see me.” You pouted and paused dramatically, glancing over your shoulder, ignoring his confusion. “I got bored waiting for you.”

The poor guy had turned to stone and you wondered how the hell he was able to kiss you back seconds ago. It’s like he was a completely different person, possessed. Right now, back to himself, he was barely able to hold your gaze, frozen still. You rounded your eyes with intent, conscious the girl behind couldn’t see the silent exchange. Youngjae took a short inhale to answer, but you cut him off, knowing he was still clueless and that he’d ruin his chances.

“I’ll be with Jaebum, Mark and Jackson at the bar.” He only seemed more confused when you named all his friends and you got up.

That boy truly was clueless, perhaps you should’ve let him get rejected.  

He suddenly grabbed your wrist to keep you from leaving and you looked at his hand like something foreign. Youngjae then peeked at the bar to see your spectators, he released you, mouth opening in awe. You bit your lips to refrain from laughing at his illumination on who you were. It was like a literal lightbulb lit up above his head.

“I’ll let you finish…” You sneaked a last dirty look Michelle’s way, just to tick her off. You wanted to act the part until the end. “... Whatever you were doing here.”

Then you were gone. You didn’t wait to see her reaction, you knew her type well enough to be assured of your success. When you slipped behind your bar, two waitresses and Jackson cheered. You had to actively hush them to keep from blowing the cover.

“Wow y/n!” Chloe, one of your employees, laughed, slapping your ass playfully with a cloth. “That was an unusual sight! The boss sexually harassing a customer!”

“Just a friendly intervention.” You rolled your eyes, hoping your blush wasn’t too noticeable. “Now, could you go take care of your end of the bar?” She obeyed with a knowing smile and you puffed your cheeks before facing the three men again.

“I thought you said you would save him.”

Jaebum took a sip of his beer, avoiding your eyes and you smirked to yourself. Clearly, his ego was bruised. Yeah, he would’ve been fine for a little while, but your little stunt avoided one of you two an inevitable heartbreak.

“I think she did…” Jackson pointed at the table where Michelle was now typing her info on their friend’s phone.

She was laughing and leaning into him, non-verbal entirely different from before. Youngjae didn’t seem half as interested though, and he kept glancing at the bar for you. When he caught your gaze, you turned away, abnormally timid.

“How did that even work?!” Jackson considered you anew, eyes glowing. “Teach me Sensei!”

Mark snorted, “She said the girl needed a challenge, so she made sure to make Youngjae appear desirable.”

“I made him into a player.” You shrugged, acting like this was something you did regularly and like you weren’t even affected by it.

After all, Jackson was right earlier when he said the key to flirting was playing chill.

“That’s some reverse psychology voodoo shit!” The bubbly man tilted his head, pouting. “Admit it… You just couldn’t help throwing yourself at Youngjae because of his animal magnetism.”

Mark choked on his beer, unable to tell if his friend was being serious or not. His phone was now surprisingly gone, abandoned in his back pocket to enjoy the rest of the night.

“Jackson, don’t embarrass y/n.” The blue-haired man finally opened his mouth again, feigning indifference by glancing around the lounge for a woman to talk to. “She just took a bullet for the team.”

“I didn’t though.” You smirked mysteriously, wiping off the hem of a glass and the three friends’ heads turned to you, astounded.

Over their shoulders, Youngjae fumblingly got up, almost knocking another one of your waitresses in the process. He simpered, embarrassed and started to make his way back to the bar, almost trotting. As he got closer, he locked eyes with you and then looked away too intimidated to hold your stare.

You most definitely weren’t chill; your cheeks were flushed, and your heart wanted to jump out of your chest. The men were still waiting for you to elaborate and you obliged, smiling like a dumb smitten teenager as you told the truth.

“That kiss was truly magical.”

|| M.List || GOT7 ||

[darkarfs]

Street Hunter

A film so mired in obscurity it doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. One of several films I own that never even got a bootleg DVD release, and you can probably only watch it if you find a Portuguese subtitled version on Dailymotion, or own the VHS and requisite VCR. Before we dive into this film, I should mention that the only reason I own this movie in the first place is that, around 2010-2011 (a simpler time, really) I became stone-cold obsessed with the career of one Reb Brown. Reb, for the MST3K set, played David Ryder in the South African railing-kill-fest that was Space Mutiny. You know, that guy. Tall, beefy, had all the acting range of an airhorn, looked kind of like a retired football player? He's actually had a storied, odd career, one that traverses a lot of genres and a lot of roles. Mostly, he did Italian knock-offs of movies like Terminator, Predator, Rambo, that sort of thing. A lot, and I mean a LOT of war movies, mostly ones taking place during Vietnam. But then he was also in things like Uncommon Valor with Gene Hackman, the Howling 2: Stirba Werewolf Bitch with Christopher Lee and Sybil Danning, and was actually the first ever Captain America, even before that really goofy one with Matt Salinger in 1990. And for some reason, I was more than entertained by watching him do what he does, and what he tends to do more often than not is...well, yell and fire machine guns into the jungle. He does that...a LOT. And he's in this film! But first, if I may reflect for just a moment. As soon as I put this into the VCR, it gave me the sneak previews of other movies made by the same distributor. I'm not a nostalgia sucker, I don't agree with things being better in the old days. But I genuinely, truly miss these. The previews on DVDs are always for the big blockbuster releases, but the ones on VHS? Who fucking KNEW what you were getting! The previews on B-movie VHS tapes are often how I found the next movie I was gonna watch! Turns out, tho, that the first preview was for the aforementioned 1990 Captain America with Matt Salinger. The 2nd was for a movie I really wanna check out now, though, and it's a ream of unconnected nonsense called the House of Usher, with Oliver Reed! This was before bad movies became that self-aware kind of bad. As a friend of mine once said; anyone can knowingly shit their pants, that's not funny. A person *not realizing* they shit their pants...that's comedy. The hero's name is Logan Blade, a name up there with Snake Plissken and John Matrix for "most action-hero name of all time." Not played by Reb (he's actually the weird, semi-warped villain in this piece), but instead by the late Steve James, who usually ended up playing the hero's sidekick in a lot of movies like this one. And you'd probably recognize ol' Frank Vincent, aka the White-Haired Guy with the Black Eyebrows in Every Movie About the Mafia. The movie starts with a bunch of heavily-armed garbage men raiding a gravesite to steal a mountain of cocaine from a guy’s casket. And they’re led by...John Leguizamo?? Yeahp. That’s him.

The guys kick over a tombstone that is 100% made of styrofoam...(one guy’s foot is all it takes, and I wish I could gif it, because it bounces)

and then are suddenly flanked by a bunch of Italian mobsters. Turns out Leguizamo’s gang are Colombian drug lords, and they’re here to steal the mob’s cocaine from this grave. The Italians have them surrounded, until Luigi’s group is flanked by 7 more dudes, led by...

Ah! There’s my dude. He immediately shouts and he and the goons shoot them all dead. THEN Logan Blade shows up, and I gotta admit, he looks like a seriously legit, badass dude.

You know, you’re kind of destined to become a renegade cop or bounty hunter with a name like Logan Blade. You don’t run into many wedding photographers with that name. He takes out all of Luigi’s goons and takes him in alive, and then maybe the weirdest, most sincerely funny thing about this film to me.

An 80s action movie where the police chief and the renegade bounty hunter...get along great! Like, uncharacteristically well! “Dammit, Blade! The mayor’s been all over my ass about those 6 bodies you left in the cemetery! You’re making my WHOLE department look great! You keep this up, and I’ll promote your ass to lieutenant so fast it’ll make your head spin!” Then we meet Blade’s friend, an avuncular grey-haired guy who may as well say “I’ve reunited with with my wife after 3 years and the guys at the precinct are throwing me a giant retirement party tomorrow” for how quickly and seamlessly he telegraphs the fact that he’s next to die. He calls Blade “paranoid” and insists that he “worries too much.” Gets shot in the next scene, and frees Leguizamo’s character (named Angel, should have mentioned that.) Reb cautions Angel that he should “always follow orders.” Y’see, Reb his basically a mercenary who stone-facedly pines for the days of the greatest generals, your Alexander the Great, your Genghis Khan, your Napoleon. He even tells Angel that “you should be as Philotas was to me, Alexander the Great.” (Alexander the Great had Philotas falsely accused of an assassination attempt and then had him beat to death with fucking rocks. Your references won’t get past me, movie!) Then we get to maybe my favorite scene in the entire movie. The Diablo gang send a crew of 3 guys to assassinate Blade’s girlfriend, which will either make him surrender in terror, or drive him into an insane murder fury.  Now, I have real issues with this in films, when someone kills the girl to get to the guy. Happens in all the big action films where the good guy is muscling in on the rival gangs or the mob or whoever. She’s being held by one guy, and defiantly spits in his friends’ face. My face fell the first time. “Oh, no.” I thought.

He goes to slash her face with a switchblade...

...she ducks, and he accidentally slits the other guy’s throat. She then takes out the one guy with a candle holder, and the third...well, thank God she was using a cast-iron pan to cook...something...when they show up. She throws the hot food in his face and then bashes his head in with the pan. ...my man Reb has not trained these men well.  But it turns out, a cop was on the mafia’s take! (This guy was in one scene, eating a donut, not a single line. You’d never have guessed a man you’d assumed an extra would be working for Don Hermano!)

So they take his girlfriend, and then Blade gives chase...

...in what looks like a 1979 Ford Econoline. Not exactly great for catching bad guys.

...unless he had a fucking HYPERDRIVE installed. What?! Yeah, okay, I’m on board! Blade closes in on the corrupt cop and Reb, who are...where else? A warehouse on the outside of town. Blade brings his dog, a nameless Doberman (he never calls it anything but “boy”) to help the fact that he’s outnumbered. Reb then tells one of the bad guys to “shoot that mutt!” I again braced myself to be disappointed and sad. The bad guy fires three shots and misses with all three as the dog runs away. He turns to Reb. “Sorry, jefe,” he says.

Reb immediately shoots him in the head. Got a genuine laugh out of me. A thing used by the villain 3 times in Sudden Death as a punchline just made me sad. Here, actual laugh. Dunno how these things work, but I imagine it’s a matter of tone. There’s some weird, “what we saw in ‘Nam” undercurrent through the whole movie. It’s what hardened Blade and made him a bounty hunter, but also what made Reb the general-worshipping lunatic merc he ends up being. It’s not but touched on, but I guess it’s as good a theme as any for a hero and a villain in one of these movies. The problem I have with this now...is that the movie ends really anticlimactically. Blade disposes of the goombas and the diablos in basically one fell swoop, and then challenges Reb to a one-on-one fight. He handily whoops Reb’s ass (a little disappointing, seeing how all he does is talk a great big heaping game about how the generals inspired his military tactics and how he fights) and then...leaves. No, really. Blade wins the fight and then leaves Reb behind. Reb goes to find him, but it turns out Blade has, for no reason, a block of C-4. Dunn where he got it. Reb trips over it, and it literally makes a squib-like “PUFF!”

and he falls through what amounts to a perfect square hole he was standing on. Blade essentially set up a trap door for him, and then Reb just stepped on it.  Blade punches Angel, restrains him, and then...the movie just kind of ends.

A movie with a lot of promise, but with an ending I couldn’t help but find flat. But they used by boy Reb real well, and that’s got to account for something. 

[gay4eraser]

For big baby boy Brad! 1-10, because childhood is important, 12,13, 15, 18, 21, 26, 31, 42, and 49!

my braddy boi!!!! thanks bb!!!! a note that Brad is somewhat a co-created character between me and blop at this point

Bnha Brad Boi content under readmore!!! 

1. What’s their full name? Why was that chosen? Does it mean anything?

Brad Bartholomew Jenkins. His name was literally chosen as a placeholder name and then we just Liked it and he stayed a Brad

2. Do they have any titles? How did they get them? 

Does Zookeeper count??? In bnha universe he was a zookeeper who was eventually hired on in All Might’s Lost&Found Shelter and Educational Center to take care of exotic animals, since he can communicate with them. 

3. Did they have a good childhood? What are fond memories they have of it? What’s a bad memory? 

Brad had a very distant childhood. His family was huge and not very well off, and he had to grow up fast to help take care of a lot of siblings and cousins. He does have a lot of good memories though! ...mostly of being the one delegated to taking care of all the family pets, which while kind of bad overall, he considered a huge plus. 

4. What is their relationship with their parents? What’s a good and bad memory with them? Did they know both parents? 

Brad knew both parents but they were often tired, overworked, and rarely saw him. They didn’t really understand their son’s quirk and how it worked and so everyone in the family thought his quirk was weird and made him go a bit crazy. 

Brad has fond memories of family gatherings, full of people, never being alone. He has fond memories of never EVER being alone because being surrounded by people was just as nice as being surrounded by animals, and he was always with one or the other. 

5. Do they have any siblings? What’s their names? What is their relationship with them? Has their relationship changed since they were kids to adults? 

He has lots of siblings! All of which I have not named in the slightest. Brad is the oldest and he’s always been a loner type simply because people find it weird that he considers animals perfectly acceptable company. He also took a job ASAP to help support his family so his siblings never saw much of him. They all think he’s kind of stuck up. 

6. What were they like at school? Did they enjoy it? Did they finish? What level of higher education did they reach? What subjects did they enjoy? Which did they hate? 

Brad loves the sciences! He’s pretty good at them too, though he’s very absent minded in school unless it’s a special interest like his animals. His school tried to get him to join sports so many times he doesn’t much care for sports anymore 

Have I mentioned he grows up to be 7′2″ 

In high school he hit 6 feet tall and kept going up from there 

He’s also really, really bad at math. 

7. Did they have lots of friends as a child? Did they keep any of their childhood friends into adulthood? 

Brad had a ton of friends as a kid! As weird as he is, he makes friends pretty easily. None of them were super close, but that was fine enough for him, he certainly didn’t care lol. He didn’t have time for friends really outside of work but everyone there loves the shit out of him and he has an extremely friendly and open demeanor. A lot of old friends honestly just went to the zoo to say hi to him.

When he moved to Japan a lot of people were really sad to see him go, though he was generally unaware of it 

8. Did they have pets as a child? Do they have pets as an adult? Do they like animals? 

Brad doesn’t consider them pets he considers them his best friends, thank you 

9. Do animals like them? Do they get on well with animals? 

His entire quirk revolves around animals, calming animals down, and slowly influencing the intelligence of animals. He Loves Them So Much. He will talk about them or TO them for fucking hours on end and infodumps about them at the slightest opportunity. He’ll destroy you if you try to spread false information about animals.

10. Do they like children? Do children like them? Do they have or want any children? What would they be like as a parent? Or as a godparent/babysitter/ect? 

Ehhhhh Brad’s too.. earnest for most children. He also tends to lose his temper with them easily. Animals need to be treated with kindness and respect and if a child taps on the fucking glass ONE MORE TIME- 

He’s nearly lost it towards kids several times and only timely intervention by coworkers has saved his job. Kids can be kind and innocent, and he loves those kinds of kids, but he has No tolerance for shitty kids. Kids who respect him and his animals however, he’s a great babysitter for, as long as the kids are fairly self-sufficient and don’t mind being forgotten in favor of the cockroach exhibit needing to be fed again. 

12. What is their favourite food? 

Boi loves himself some granola bars, he’ll chow down all day. In general snack and convenience food he loves

13. What is their least favourite food?

He can’t eat anything that resembles the animal it came from. Whole roasted chickens? He’ll cry over

15. Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking?

He can put sandwiches together and basic foods, but he’s not too good on cooking. Mostly just good enough to not starve. Everyone appreciates his efforts

18. What’s their favourite genre of: books, music, tv shows, films, video games and anything else

Get him a documentary and a laptop for fact checking and this boy is set for Hours of entertainment. He also religiously follows animal birthing livestreams and has vines of cute animals doing silly things on a playlist. He also watches terrifying shows like Eaten Alive and will chatter happily about the parasites transferred through eating infected, improperly cooked fish during dinner and make his sigfigs hurl 

Also survivalist shows, anything in nature really. He’s not huge on video games because his hands are too big and it makes him a bit clumsy. He’s cried during every sad dog movie that ever existed. 

21. Do they have a temper? Are they patient? What are they like when they do lose their temper?

Like mentioned earlier he has No tolerance for stupidity towards his animals, but otherwise he’s very easy going and generally just super chill. It’s hard to get a rise out of him. 

When he does get angry he unconsciously squares his huge ass shoulders and tenses up and straightens up alllll the way and that’s usually when his gentle giant aesthetic falls away and people suddenly realize. This guy. Lifts animals bigger than them. Without breaking a sweat. He’s stronk from sheer daily working like a bear. 

He’s very, very terrifying when he’s angry but all he’s gonna do is lecture you furiously and physically pick you up and remove you from wherever your offense is. (The worst he’s ever done is physically THROWING Asshat from his zoo) 

26. How do they act when they’re happy? Do they sing? Dance? Hum? Or do they hide their emotions?

Brad chatters excitedly yet peacefully when he’s happy! To people, to animals, to himself, doesn’t matter, he’ll talk out loud to anyone. 

31. Do they drink? What are they like drunk? What are they like hungover? How do they act when other people are drunk or hungover? Kind or teasing?

Brad doesn’t much drink? He’s into biology, so he’s Very Aware that alcohol is technically just poisoning your body. Also, he’s slightly afraid because when he gets tipsy (the most he’s ever gotten) he gets clumsy and hella  uncoordinated, which is dangerous when ur so big. He doesn’t wanna hurt anyone

42. What are their goals? What would they sacrifice anything for? What is their secret ambition?

Brad’s a simple guy, give him an animal and a job with them and he’s Solid. Doesn’t have any goal other than to keep supporting his family. He sends them checks whenever possible. 

49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them?

Brad’s TERRIBLY sentimental but he doesn’t have the space for all the stuff he wants to have. He also is something of a minimalist otherwise so while he loves the value in items he’s probably not going to keep it. He DOES have a wall covered in Important Pictures printed out and taped on! Most are of animals.