#like... i think what would help me a TON in japanese would be a book/course

[rigelmejo]

chinese reading notes:

my reading skill is funny (to me) because like. if reading sort of focusing on individual words, like when i read knowing i’m going to look words up (so reading intensively), it feels like i don’t know as much as compared with

when i’m reading extensively, particularly when i play audio (so i can’t stop or pause), when i comprehend things JUST FINE that if i read slower with word lookup i’d be ‘stumbling’.

i think part of this odd contradiction with reading skill, is when i read extensively like i must when audio is playing, i just take the context+hanzi i know+unknown-hanzi-radicals and then make a guess of any unknowns which is usually perfectly close to the real meaning. i have to make the guess instantly so i just rely on what i recognize. Like when i heard “effervescent” or “macabre” something in an english audiobook, i STILL as an adult am not sure on the exact definition, but based on how i heard it in the audiobook or when reading i can guess what it means good enough. 

So like. When I’m reading chinese extensively, which listening alongside audio requires of me, i do the same process in my brain. i see the equivalent of “luminescent” and like with english i just guess based on what i’ve got instantly and move on. Which is a good skill frankly to be able to also do in chinese as in my other reading languages. But, when I slow myself down and MAKE myself look up words, i suddenly am no longer seeing sentences as a ‘whole’ and start using word lookup for lots of individual words i could have figured out from context. On the upside, this word lookup is likely helping increase my mental information of said words. On the downside, it slows me down a lot, and perhaps i should go back to my old rule of “only 5-10 word lookups per chapter” so i don’t pause so much unless its a word i actually could use direct full definition help for.

I’ve been reading dmbj 1, and of course intensively reading it with Readibu (like most things this month). And for the first 3 chapters i’d say that was useful, as dmbj has some genre-specific unknown words (miners lamp, shovels, tomb, bury, engraving, scroll, mummy etc) that were useful to know the Specific Definition for and then repeatedly look up and drill initially so I’d know them quickly. But now that I’m at chapter 11? I noticed that when I extensively read it with the audio playing, i got through the chapter faster and had no problem following the plot. Whereas I know when I extensively read chapter 10 i stopped a bunch to look up words, and now i know i was probably mostly looking up words i’m now familiar enough to grasp in context i was just leaning on word-lookup as a crutch. 

Will i keep leaning on the crutch? Not sure. Like srs flashcards, or Listening Reading Method (when doing both steps 2 and 3), i think repeatedly looking up unknown and ‘foggy’ words as i read does do the repetitive-definition exposure that tends to get words learned quickly. So while repeated-word-lookup of words i’d learn eventually anyway through context slows down reading speed, it does probably allow me to pick up these words Faster than picking the words up only through extensive reading. (On the flipside though, if you’re also doing a lot of reading, a decent amount of extensive reading really really HELPS ones ability to comprehend full sentences whether u know what’s in them or not, so some extensive reading is always good).

I am trying to do a balance right now of extensive to intensive, so that I’m at least Sometimes picking up words the same way i did in english reading. I’m currently extensively reading 梦幻小公主 1, which is perfect for this. It feels a LOT like reading in middle school in english felt for me - lots of words i know, and lots of new fantasy/description words i don’t know but can guess really easily. I also needed to add some fantasy reading anyway - eventually i need to grasp horror (i already have a good vocab for this), crime (decent vocab but i need more police/legal vocab), supernatural (i already have good vocab), fantasy/xianxia (i know basic terms but need more), wuxia (i know basic but need more), and business (need a lot more) genre vocabulary. I’m also extensively reading 镇魂 while listening to the audiobook (who knows how long i’ll stick to it/if i’ll finish ToT), which is a good ‘harder’ novel for me to do other extensive reading in. 

completely unrelated:

nothing like seeing japanese again to remind me how utterly grateful i am for how hanzi work. i learned during studying chinese that i’m actually quite an auditory learner. as in, i tend to remember sounds well and sounds help me remember things, audio learning materials seem to work well for me etc. So with hanzi, usually hanzi only have 1 pronunciation (or a couple in some particular cases which at least for the de/di have to do with grammar function), and that pronunciation usually is tied to a radical in the hanzi. Now that I’ve learned the basic hanzi and gotten farther, i realize how i learn a VAST majority of new hanzi is “oh those radicals! its pronounced X! now i’ll listen to the audio real quick, remember X=this word meaning, and the water radical hints its moisture cool got it!” I remember 搂， 握， 提，抬， 拉 this way - hand radical so it has to do with hand-related verb movements, the other half is the pinyin so i just remember oh lou=X meaning if i see it with a hand radical. Idk if i’m explaining well, but basically sound is a huge way i remember hanzi and their meaning. I see new hanzi and for me the radical/portion related to sound IS the sound ‘spelling’ to me. So its kind of like how i recognize english words but a bit different? like i see “lumi” in english and know that spelling means “light”. Well for hanzi i see the pronunciation portion and know okay i remember that spelling+hand radical = X word. So for me hanzi start looking like word-pieces, which are just as easy to start recognizing as they were in english.

Meanwhile, with japanese, the kanji are truly my weakest point to remember. Remembering the meanings is NOT hard, because so many meanings vaguely transfer from hanzi to kanji or are close enough i can relate the new japanese meaning to the kanji fairly easily. What is hard, is the pronunciation. So many kanji have several pronunciations, and i am used to relating a portion of pronunciation to the radical/portion of the character. with kanji i can’t do that, i might see the same ‘sound’ radical in 3 kanji but they aren’t pronounced the same! And of course i’ll see a SINGLE kanji, and on it’s own it will have a few pronunciations. i never realized my hurdle back when i started japanese years ago wasn’t actually kanji meaning remembering. My hurdle was actually “brain likes to associate ONE sound to one symbol” and kanji do not do that. 

In my brain hanzi are a bit like english in that a portion of it (the sound portion) just is ‘spelling/pronunciation’ in my mind, and then the other portion is a hint of wtf the sound means (which in a way is nicer than english which does not always hint wtf the word means within the word). Kanji don’t seem to have any inherent “this is the pronunciation obviously” component, and i think for me that confuses the hell out of me. Which is even further complicated by the fact kanji change pronunciation representation depending on both words, and conjugations attached at the end. 

Anyway, as a result of my brain getting hung up on kanji pronunciation: my japanese reading-only skills are evolving fairly well (thanks hanzi-near-cognate transfer ToT), and my listening-only skills improve fairly expectedly (yay). But the combination of being able to know the pronunciation of what i read? Is VERY limited to only words i know well through listening. Because i need to know the word SO well that i remember the pronunciation and just match it up to the “symbol kanji-conjugated hiragana” reading chunk. Hence my study has been heavily leaning toward listening to japanese for the past year. Because the stronger my listening foundation, the better my kanji pronunciation. But without the listening foundation in a word, the kanji words keep fucking confusing me - their meaning is easy enough to remember, but their pronunciation (and therefore the specific word they represent) is so hard for me to figure out.  

[im-a-chunky-potato]

Hi fellow cello player :DD

Idk any good writing prompts, but if you wanna share any Nikolai headcanon's you have (+ any other doa members you wanna do) I think that'd be cool. I like seeing other people's hc's.

Hi! Ooh I have a ton of headcannons but I'll just show you my favorites. (This will still be pretty long though)

Nikolai:

I have this one headcannon about how he'll purposely misteach fyodor Japanese. It's nothing awful, just small things like changing friend to dear and other cute nicknames to satisfy himself (This is to kind of make fun of the dear dazai line)

He's banned from every pet store and zoo he's ever been too. He just goes on a rant about freedom and sets all of the animals free. (Of course this doesn't stop him though)

He's talented at nearly everything if he puts actual effort into it. Specifically cooking and possibly singing (?) besides other things. I like to think he helped choose out sigma's outfit too.

Sigma!

This is mostly just me being strange with this headcannon, but I like to think that in the book he is described using they/them pronouns. So him choosing his pronouns is part of his own choice and all of that jazz.

Give him stress toys and he'll be calm for hours. (Please he needs them so bad)

It's a habit of his now to ask if any food or drink given to him is poisoned. You can thank Nikolai for that.

Fyodor!

I don't have too many headcannons for him, but I do think he needs either blue light glasses or his eyes are always in extreme pain.

Actually... he's just always suffering in general. Whether it's migrains or his anemia kicking in he's always in some sort of pain.

Hes the kind of person to forget something if it's not part of his goals. He forgets to eat, shower, etc. So he's like Dazai in a way, except he's not self destructive on purpose.

You can tell I like seeing him suffer haha. On a happier note, he's teaching Nikolai how to play the violin or viola. He wonders what it'd be like to play with him someday. what kind of melody would they make? Would they be able to keep up with each other? Possibly even bond?.

Sorry for this being a ton to read.I'm completely up for sharing more though, or if you want I can expand on these ideas a bit. (I just really like talking about them heh)

Have a nice day wherever you are!

[kitakataramen]

Hi!! Just stumbled into your blog and I love it 🥺 may I ask since when and how you were able to go to Japan? (If you're comfortable answering of course!) Plus, how is life in Japan for a N4? Do you find it difficult to live in or do you get the grasp of things pretty quickly?

I know it's something personal and that may change from individual to individual but I just wanted to know your experience if you're willing to share! I'd like to move to Japan and I have a lot of questions and curiosity about it. Every time I see someone on Tumblr living there I ask tons of questions 😅 sorry! Have a great day!! またねぇ～

Hi there, thanks for the message! Glad to hear you're enjoying my blog!

Great questions! So as for coming to Japan, the main ways to get here are through study abroad and working holiday programs. These are great if you are at university age. However, I didn't come to Japan until after I graduated university, so I actually came here as an English teacher! There are many companies and programs you can apply with to get a teaching position, with the best one being the JET program.

I came over with Interac, and I believe there are some other programs you can do. You'll need an undergraduate degree of some kind in order to be eligible, and a TESOL certificate will really help your chances.

If you're planning on living in Japan then it's advisable to start studying Japanese as soon as possible! I didn't and it really made things difficult because I was dispatched to a rural area in Tohoku where almost nobody can speak English- that said, it is possible to get by using basic Japanese and gestures at first, so don't let fluency (or lack thereof) stop you from coming! You will pick up the language out of necessity, believe me 😂

N4(ish) level is good for most interactions like eating out, shopping, having casual conversations, etc. I would like to point out that the JLPT levels are only one method of assessment for where your ability is, so don't get too caught up in that as a measurement. For example, I'm saying I'm at N4 because I've studied N5 and N4 books, but once I got to Japan I also started studying Japanese the way Japanese children do using children's books and kanji drills. Japanese kids learn kanji and vocab in a totally different order than the JLPT presents it in, so I know a lot of kanji from all over the different JLPT levels. Right now I usually study using 3rd and 4th grade elementary books. I just picked up some 4th grade level novels (some of my favourites, including The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Anne of Green Gables) from a second-hand shop- they're great because they use relatively simple sentences and the kanji have furigana readings next to them. So yeah, while I say I'm around JLPT N4 level, I don't think that's really an accurate measurement of my skills. You can use those levels to give you some guidance on what to study and it's possible you may want the certificate to put on your resume, but I've never done a JLPT exam because I hate tests. My advice is to learn Japanese in a way that works for you, by doing something you enjoy in Japanese (reading, cooking, YouTube, music, games, etc.)

[thedomestickitchen]

san fransisco rice and other hot messes

San Fransisco rice Hello there, carby, starchy side dish. Who ever thought of combining pasta and rice? It's kind of like combining soup and stew. But; manohman it sure is tasty. I made this the other week when we were "rowing" our Five In A Row book of Grandfather's Journey. In the book, the chronicles of an old Japanese man are recorded as he spends lots of time in San Fransisco and Japan.  The unit study also has a cookbook to go along with each book, so I decided to make the "San Fransisco Rice" recipe. Yes, it's like Rice-A-Roni™, aka "The San Fransisco Treat"... but: Sans the flavor packet and sodium. And, I have to say: I like this one better, and it makes a ton. Yum. But: back to the book- it's a beautiful story, with watercolor illustrations, and it's very "real" not your typical children's book. The same author wrote another book, "Tea with Milk" which actually has a love story intertwined in it about how his parents met. It's refreshing, and sweet. I highly recommend them both. Anyway... remember my post about "Enlarging Our Tent"? We did it again. We have taken in another newborn, this time a preemie. Of course, I didn't know anything except that there was a 10 day old that was being discharged ... and: we said "yes"-and: hours later a social services worker is at our house with the tinyiest baby, and ... once more we are in newborn baby land. Ahh the snuggles, smells and tummy time. So, this is our fifth placement. #1 is still with us, #2 went to live with grandmother, #3 went to a more specialized home, #4 went to live with dad... and here we are number 5. Of course this doesn't include all the temprary respites, I think we are over ten including those. Wow. If someone would have told me two years ago what my life would looks like now- I would have laughed and said "no way!" And, now: here we are- and I wouldn't change a thing. Even admist the terrible toddler tantrums, the biting, the running, the screaming... even in the hot mess fostering can sometimes be, all is well with my soul. There is a peace that comes from God that gets you through the tatrums, sleepless nights, thrown food, uncertainty and anxiety,poopy diaper explosions,  homevisits, therapy visits, parent visits, doctor visits....you just do it. It's a roller coaster, but there is no other ride I'd want to be on. And, here I am on the baby train. I wish I could show photos, but I cannot. Consider this a novel and paint your own image of a blissful hot mess. :) I'm happy. It's been a long time. After the loss of my father, I was struggling. Sure, I have had tons of happy moments, adventures, and fun days... but there was always a hollow longing in my soul that I wasn't doing something. I knew I wanted to impact kids, guide them, and help lead them in the right path. I was a group leader for pre teens for a year at church, later I became director of Children's Ministry at a small church, I was an assistant at a local school... but there was a calling for more. The idea of fostering never really crossed my mind until it was showing up everywhere I turned. I began to ask questions, my daughter began to talk about it, we went to an informational meeting, signed up for classes, got background checked, home visits, and then.... Here we are. Embracing the hectic, happy, hot mess of fostering. So: what's your hot mess? I don't think of the term "hot mess" as a negative thing. Most of the time hot messes comeout of good intentions, and are things we learn from, and can laugh at. Take this San Fransisco rice, for example. The recipe calls for vermicelli pasta broken into 2" segments. Well, I did that part. Then I forgot my broken pasta was in a small bowl on the counter. I grabbed it hastily to put it away, forgettting about the small haystack of  dry pasta it held. Dry pasta all over the floor. That's a mess, and luckily it wasn't hot. So, I call my dogs... to get all four to come without shouting each individual name, I simply say: ""uh-oh!" which, in dog talk means: "Something edible has fallen on the floor" They come, scampering in, excited to find a tasty morsel or two. They found the haystack of dry pasta and, clearly were not interested. At all. So, I grab my cordless sweeper vac.... it proceeds to spin and spit the pasta peices even further. Meanwhile, a baby is crying and my dogs are underfoot, clearly disapointed in the results of the said "uh-oh". Out had to come the broom and dustpan, and thank goodness for those old timey house cleaning aids.... I really loved my broom and dustpan during the hurricane. It was all I could do to keep the house somewhat normal with spaghetti model extension cords running all over the floor. So, it turns out I don't have mush of a hot mess story to go along with the recipe, but I have my life...my hot mess of a happy life. Go embrace your hot mess.

san fransisco rice and other hot messes

- 4 oz uncooked long grain rice - 4 oz uncooked vermicelli pasta (broken into 2" pieces) - 3 TBS butter - 4 TBS sesame seeds - 2 TBS chopped green onion (scallion) - 1 1/2 cup chicken stock - 1 TBS soy sauce - Heat butter in a large frying pan over med-high heat and toast the rice and pasta, and sesame seeds , stirring often until golden. - Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil, cover and cook on medium low for 20-25 minutes , or until rice and pasta are tender. - Toss with soy sauce, and green onions. - Serves 4-6

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[d-criss-news]

20 Questions With Darren Criss: How Acting Has Helped Him Make New Music

While Darren Criss has graced our TV screens with a range of characters, from high schooler Blaine Anderson on Glee to serial killer Andrew Cunanan on The Assassination of Gianni Versace, he was last spotted just being himself, on our For You Page on TikTok. “I’m walking to rehearsal with a guitar on my back with a Trader Joe’s bag ... I did not bring an umbrella because I forgot that it was raining. I’m rocking that NYC musician life,” the Glee alum explained in the hilarious clip posted three days ago.

While Criss’ acting work has earned him acclaim and stardom, he leaned into making music during the pandemic. On Aug. 20, he dropped a new EP, Masquerade, featuring five new tracks that Criss says were inspired by the different characters Criss has embraced throughout his career. After Criss wrote songs for his musical comedy web series Royalties and Apple TV+’s animated sitcom Central Park before the pandemic struck the United States, he then used those experiences as a precursor to his new EP. As Criss continues to promote his new music, he answered 20 of Billboard's questions – giving us a peek into how his new EP came together, and how growing up in San Fransisco shaped him as an actor, singer and all-around artist.

1. What inspired your latest project, Masquerade?

Although I would have preferred that it come at a far less grim cost, I finally had the time. Before the pandemic, I had written 10 new songs for my show Royalties -- along with an original song for Disney and another for Apple’s Central Park. These were all assignments in which I was writing for a certain scenario and character. Go figure. It was the most music I had ever written in a calendar year. This really emboldened me to rethink how I made my own music— to start putting a focus on “character creation” in my songs, rather than personal reflection. The latter was not proving to be as productive. The alchemy of having this time and having set a new intention with my own songwriting and producing made me put on a few of my favorite masques and throw myself a Masquerade.

2. How do you think your background as an actor complements your music?

They are one and the same to me. I treat acting roles like musical pieces— dialogue is like scoring a melody; there’s pace, dynamics, cadence, tone. Physical characterization is like producing -- zeroing in on the bass line, deciding on the kick pattern. Vocal characterization is like choosing the right sonic experience, choosing the most effective snare sound, and mixing the high end or low end. It goes without saying that it works in the complete opposite direction. Making each song is taking on a different role literally and employing the use of different masques to maximize the effectiveness of the particular story being told.

3. On Instagram  you wrote that “Masquerade is a small collection of the variety of musical masques that have always inspired me.” Which track do you identify with most in your real life?

Everybody absorbs songs differently. Some key into the lyrics, some into the melody, some the production, some into vocal performance. When I listen to songs, I consider all of their value on totally different scales. So it’s hard to say if there’s any track I “identify” with more than any others, since I -- by nature -- identify with all of them. I think I just identify with certain aspects more than others. If it helps for a more interesting answer, I will say I enjoy the slightly more classical, playful -- dare I say -- more Broadway-leaning wordplay of “Walk of Shame,” but that’s just talking about lyricism. I enjoy the attitude of “F*kn Around,” the batsh--t musicality of “I Can’t Dance,” the relentless grooves of “Let’s” and “For A Night Like This.” All have different ingredients I really enjoy having an excuse to dive into.

4. What’s the first piece of music that you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

Beatles audio cassettes: “Help” and “Hard Day’s Night.” I just listened on repeat on a tape-playing Walkman until my brother and I got a stereo for our room with a CD player in it, which was  when I just bought the same two albums again, but this time as compact discs.

5. What was the first concert you saw?It’s hard to say, because my parents took us to a lot of classical concerts when we were small. But I guess this question usually refers to what was the first concert you went to on your own volition, and that my friend, was definitely Warped Tour ’01. My brother and I went on our own— two teenagers going to their first music festival, in the golden age of that particular genre and culture. It was f--king incredible.

6. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid?

My dad was in private banking and advised really, really wealthy people on how to handle their money. My mom was, by choice, a stay-at-home mom, but in reality, she was my dad’s consigliere. They discussed absolutely everything together. They were a real team, and I saw that every single day in the house. They both had a background in finance (That’s how they met in the first place.) and were incredibly skilled at all the hardcore adulting things that I absolutely suck at. They were total finance wizards together. So of course, instead of becoming an accountant, I picked up playing the guitar and ran as far I could with it. Luckily, they were all about it.

7. What was your favorite homecooked meal growing up?

My dad was an incredible chef. For special occasions, I’d request his crab cakes. They were unreal. I’ve never had a crab cake anywhere in the world that was good as my dad’s.

8. Who made you realize you could be an artist full-time?

I don’t know if I’ve actually realized that yet.

9. What’s at the top of your professional bucket list?

The specifics change every day, but the core idea at the top is to continue being consistently inconsistent with my choices, and to keep getting audiences to constantly reconsider their consideration of me. But I mean, sure, what performer doesn’t want to play Coachella? What songwriter doesn’t want to have Adele sing one of their songs? What actor doesn’t want to be in a Wes Anderson film?

10.  How did your hometown/city shape who you are?

San Francisco. I mean, come on. I was really lucky. The older I get, the more grateful I am for just being born and raised there. It’s an incredibly diverse, culturally rich, colorful, inclusive, vibrant city. By the time I was born, it had served as a beacon for millions of creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to gather and thrive. I grew up around that. The combination of that with having parents, who were unbelievably supportive of the arts themselves, laid an incredibly fortunate foundation to consider the life of an artist as a legitimately viable option. It’s a foundation that I am supremely aware is not the case for millions of young artists around the world. I was absurdly lucky.

11.  What’s the last song you listened to?

I mean probably one of mine, but not by choice. I know, lame. But I’m promoting a new EP, what’d you expect? But if you wanna know what I’ve been listening to, as far as new s--t is concerned: a lot of Lizzy McAlpine, Remi Wolf, and Charlie Burg.

12.  If you could see any artist in concert, dead or alive, who would it be?

The Beatles is an obvious "yeah, duh." Sammy Davis, Mel Tormé, or of course, Nat King Cole. I would’ve loved to see Howard Ashman give a lecture on his creative process and his body of work.

13. What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen happen in the crowd of one of your sets?

I feel like just having a crowd at all, at any one of my sets, is pretty wild enough.

14. What’s your karaoke go-to?

The real answer to this I’ll write into a book one day, because I have a lot to say about karaoke etiquette. I have two options here: I can either name a song that I like to sing for me, for fun, or I can name a song that really gets the group going. The answer depends on what kind of karaoke night we’re dealing with here. So I will say, after I’ve selected a ton of songs that services a decent enough party vibe for everyone else, then I would do one for me, and that would be the Beatles’ “Oh! Darling.”

15. What’s one thing your most devoted fans don’t know about you?

What I have up my sleeve.

16. What TV show did you binge-watch over the past year?

Dave is a stroke of genius. There are episodes that I believe are bona fide masterpieces. Also, My Brilliant Friend is a masterclass in cinematic television.

17. What movie, or song, always makes you cry?

It’s A Wonderful Life.

18. What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

Get used to sharing everything about yourself and your life now, or more astutely, to the idea that you don’t necessarily get to control how your life is shared. I know it’s not really your thing, but you’re gonna have to get used to it, so start building up those calluses now. And don’t worry, all the stuff you love now will be cool again in your mid-thirties, so keep some of those clothes because you’ll be a full-blown fashion icon if you just keep wearing exactly what you’re wearing. Oh nd also, put money into Apple and Facebook.

19.  What new hobby did you take on in the last year?

I’ve always been a linguaphile. My idea of leisure time is getting to study or review other languages. This past year, I took the time to finally dive into learning how to read, write, and speak Japanese. Other than making music, it was one of the biggest components of my 2020-2021.

20. What do you hope to accomplish or experience by the end of 2021?

I hope I get to play live shows again.

[yumeka36]

I purchased a copy of the new post-Frozen 2 book, “Elsa and the Enchanted Forest” (a.k.a, “Olaf’s Unicorn” in French). It cracks me up that Elsa is that much more marketable in Japan that they had to completely change the title when ”Olaf’s Unicorn” makes much more sense for this story, lol...but I digress. For a book aimed at very little kids, it’s actually a pretty cute story, plus it has a ton of original and gorgeous illustrations! It’s also the first post-movie book to focus on Elsa in the forest rather than Anna and co. in Arendelle, which is a nice change (though it doesn’t provide much lore-wise, not that I expect it to, lol). Of course I love seeing all of Frohana together, but there’s something wholesome about Elsa, Olaf, and Sven frolicking around in the pretty forest. I think this is the first Frozen story that’s only focused on them, which is kind of refreshing.

I decided to spoil you guys by providing both HD scans AND a full translation ;) The book is actually quite small (literally the size of a CD case. I almost thought that’s what it was when I opened the package!) and is bound in a way that makes it easy to scan. Plus, it’s obviously aimed at very young children, even younger than the previous books I scanned, and thus is written in very easy Japanese. This made it quick to translate - I only had to look up a few words! (I majored in Japanese in college, but I have gotten a little rusty over the years).

Enjoy! And as usual, feel free to use the scans, but credit to me would be nice ;)

The unicorn is a gallant creature with a horn on its forehead. The moment Olaf first heard about this legendary creature, he was smitten. "Hey, Sven. Don't you want to meet a unicorn?"

"But where is it? If I were a unicorn, where would I live…? I know, an enchanted forest! Let's go, Sven!" Elsa suddenly appeared, delighting Olaf and Sven. Then she said after hearing their story, "I'll help you search for the unicorn."

-I know there’s only been a few post-movie books/comics that show the forest, but so far, not even a cameo of the Northuldra. It’s like it’s only Elsa, the spirits, and reindeer/other animals that live there. The Northuldra wouldn’t fit with this story in particular, but still...I have to wonder if the authors of these stories simply have no need or desire to show them in these relatively few stories, or if it’s a specific restriction by heads at Disney.

Alright, let's go! Naturally, Olaf led the way. The three of them passed in front of the earth spirits: the earth giants. Olaf's eyes sparkled. "I have an idea!" The earth giants listened to Olaf's request and let everyone ride in their large palms. Then they lifted them slowly…

-Rare image of earth giants smiling :)

Higher! Higher! They were able to look far over the forest. "Look! That cloud looks like a unicorn!" Unfortunately, they weren't able to find a real unicorn.

-Rare image of earth giants smiling #2 :) Also, Elsa looks so pretty in all these pictures~

When the three of them descended the cliffs, a stream of leaves whooshed…it was the wind spirit, Gale. Gale entwined the sticks on Olaf's head into one, creating a horn. Elsa smiled. "Gale wants to join us!" Everyone ran off with Gale.

When they left the forest, there was a sunny field. Olaf instinctively lowered his voice. "I feel like it's here. It was in the book. Unicorns love flowers and insects!" It looked like there was someone over in the shaking grass. Olaf carefully took a peek…

It was Bruni, the fire spirit. Bruni joined their group and immediately made a big discovery. He found someone's footprints! "Bruni, these are definitely unicorn footprints!" Olaf and the others quickly followed the footprints…

-I’m not the biggest Bruni fan, but he looks freakin’ adorable in that picture on the left!

Sven was there. He left the others so he could eat some grass because he was hungry. At that moment, Olaf had another good idea. "Hey, if we were together with a unicorn, the real unicorn would feel safe and come out, right?" Elsa giggled and used her magic to put a horn of ice on Sven's forehead.

-Why does it look like Sven’s being punished here, lol?

Something caught Olaf's eye while walking together with Sven (who was looking like a unicorn) besides a large river. A horse was reflected in the water. On its forehead, was a single horn! But when he turned around, it was the water spirit, Nokk. The thing that looked like a horn was the branch of a tree behind him.

Olaf let out a sigh and Elsa said happily, "Let's go to the Dark Sea!" Nokk and Sven ran off like the wind. Olaf regained his cheerfulness. "Everyone, thank you for your help. We weren't able to find a unicorn, but I…" At that moment, Elsa shouted, "Olaf, look!"

-Rare image of Nokk smiling :)

When he turned to look…Is that a bright, shining horn approaching! He was impressed when he saw it do a big jump. "Wow, a narwhal! Hey, did you know? Narwhals are called the 'unicorns of the sea.' Isn't that great? We were able to meet a unicorn!"

-Rare image of Nokk smiling #2 :) Also my Frozen theorist brain says that the Dark Sea was constantly raging in order to keep Ahtohallan hidden, but it’s calm now because a fifth spirit is currently protecting Ahtohallan instead. Hence, animals like the narwhal can now swim in it.

That night, Anna and Kristoff were thoroughly surprised by Olaf's adventure tale of finding a legendary creature. As for Sven, who had been continuously running around all day…half of it was already a dream.

[shinonometrash]

How are you learning Japanese? Are you self teaching or taking classes? If you're self teaching what are you using? I want to learn but I'm not sure where to start and classes are both expensive and not available to me

Hi Anon! I personally believe that college/school Japanese courses are trash and it's much better to self study! This is gonna be a kinda long post, so I hope it's helpful!

The first thing you need to do (if you haven't already), is learn hiragana and katakana. There's tons of resources out there for learning those, but I personally like these videos. Once you've learned those, you can start learning a lot more things!!

For grammar, I've got a few different recommendations. 1. To get an actual grasp and core understanding of the way that Japanese functions, I highly highly highly recommend watching these videos by Cure Dolly. She breaks things down to the basics so that you understand how Japanese grammar functions, instead of just teaching you that ___ phrase/grammar structure = ___ english structure. So you actually understand how things piece together and work, which helps SO SO SO much. As a warning, the doll in the videos is a bit jarring at first and she talks really slow, so I usually play the videos on 2x speed and I promise you'll get used to the doll after a little bit. It's definitely worth it. 2. If there's specific grammar concepts you're unclear about and want to learn more about, you can check out the youtube channels Japanese Ammo with Misa and Miku Real Japanese. 3. I'm not a big fan of textbooks, but if you do want to use some, I like Soumatome. It's technically a JLPT prep book, but it gives you the bare bones of things without all the excess textbook junk that isn't actually helpful. I know Genki is a super super popular textbook series, but personally I've found more use for it as something to prop my computer up with rather than actually learn Japanese from...

For kanji and vocabulary (yes, you DO have to learn kanji, but once you start learning you'll realize they're not as scary/annoying as they first seem, and sometimes they're actually very helpful!):

1. I very very strongly recommend WaniKani. It does cost money (I think like $9 a month?), but only after the first three levels. It's on a spaced repetition system, so you can't binge a ton and then end up just forgetting it later. So, the first three levels takes about 2~ish weeks, which should give you plenty of time to figure out if it works well for you! Plus, not only does it teach you the kanji, but it teaches you a ton of vocabulary with those kanji! After a few months of that, you'll be surprised at how many words you've picked up. After about six months of that, I was able to dive into reading some otome stories of the stories I've read in English already. It was still super difficult, mind you, and I didn't understand a ton of it, but I could get enough bits and pieces to put together what was happening. 2. Another decent program is iKnow! which is an app on iPhone and I think Android as well. This does cost as well, though, I believe it's like $11 a month? They've also got a Mandarin Chinese course, which you would also have access to if you were to get the subscription! 3. Seriously, don't worry about being able to handwrite kanji. It's a waste of time unless you just personally like to write kanji because they're pretty and stuff. Daily life we've got smartphones and computers, so you really don't need to be able to handwrite any.

Private tutoring sessions. This probably sounds expensive, but it's actually not! Like, compared to college courses and stuff, it's incredibly cheap. I use iTalki where I can find native speakers to tutor me in whatever language I want to learn. If you want to check it out, here's my referral link. Right now I have like four tutors that are just for conversation practice, one who helps with grammar and conversation practice, and one helping me prepare for the JLPT! I also have two different Mandarin tutors, although I've only been meeting with one lately. You get to look through the list of different tutors and choose whoever you think seems best for you (and fits your budget), and then scheduling is up to you! You want to only have classes once a week? That's cool! Once a month? Also fine. Five times a week? As long as the tutor has the openings in their schedule, that works too! Don't like the tutor? You can always find another! It takes a lot of pressure off, in my opinion, cause if you get busy you can take a few weeks off or whatever, which you can't do with a school course and if you hate the teacher you aren't stuck with them for the whole class. In addition, not being graded makes things SOOO much better when it comes to learning a language. The fear of making mistakes is reduced dramatically.

Just get as much daily exposure to Japanese as possible, whether it be listening to music, watching dramas, etc etc. I set my phone to Japanese and then I primarily listen to music in Japanese, and then I also read otome stories in Japanese on a daily basis. Music though is one of my favorite ways to learn a foreign language. It's an easy way to pick up words and grammar without really thinking too much about it, because you'll naturally start singing along which helps pronunciation a ton! Vocaloid songs are pretty neat because there's such varied topics you can learn a tonnnn of stuff. I usually look for covers of the Vocaloid songs, though, since it's easier to understand. Deco*27 is my favorite vocaloid artist for sure. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve learned most of my Japanese from just listening to music and reading otome stories, haha. 

It's also important to figure out why you want to learn Japanese and what your goal is. Do you just want to be able to watch anime and understand without subtitles? Do you want to be able to read stories? Do you want to be able to write stories? Hold conversations in real life? Depending on what you want, you can focus more on the certain areas that apply! If you only ever want to be able to understand stories, then you don't need to place as much attention/worry about your conversation skills as much as if you want to be able to get a job in Japan, you know?

Alright I think that's everything I have for now? I hope this helped! If you have any questions, or just want to practice your Japanese, my inbox and direct messages are always open!!

[misdre]

misi's beyblade AUs masterpost

i like making AUs, i have many of them, here's a post of them from oldest to newest. (at least approximately) (the ones that got no art of them have photos from unsplash. i just enjoy setting the mood)

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Magical boy AU takao is an ordinary middle schooler who one day gets dragoon the magical spinning top from a cute little azure dragon, seiryuu, and transforms into a magical boy to protect the world from evil for some cosmic reasons that i haven't come up with yet. the rest of the characters have similar powers from their holy beasts and takao needs to gather up his team to fight the evil and. you get the drill is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 is there a fic of it? no note: i originally created this just because i like designing the outfits so i haven't planned the story much (this used to be my main focus but then 4kingdoms happened GJSDHGHSDG) i'd want to though, i'll get back to it eventually...at some point...... one of the charm points of this AU is that the holy beasts are these digimon-like animals that hang out with the characters and each have their own personalities.

Fairy tale monster AU takao and gramps live in a cabin in the middle of a forest full of monsters and takao decides one day to venture out to look for a silver-haired boy he once saw, he meets up with the other BBA characters one by one in the grim woods. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: my oldest halloween fic. the characters are all these different cute spooky creatures and it's intended to sound like a fairy tale.

One day, he determined that the time was ripe: Takao decided to leave for an adventure. For his grandfather was old, it was not at all unusual for him to lay down to bed before sundown. Once the hut had fallen in drowsy silence, Takao packed his one and only bag with what little he felt he needed, took his cap and jacket, and stepped over the doorsill. He had left the safe warmth of the hut behind.

Royal fantasyverse AU (the tale of four kingdoms) takes place in a fantasy universe with four kingdoms (east, west, south & north) created by the four holy beasts, in an era where each kingdom happens to be ruled by an exceptionally young king due to their respective circumstances. when the four meet for the first time, a snowball of events is set in motion that's going to affect all four kingdoms. is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 is there a fic of it? yes 1 / 2 note: like a period drama with magic and gay and tons of worldbuilding. probably has way too many mysteries for the boys to solve because i have no self control when it comes to creating twists. this is The one AU that i have crammed every usable canon character into, i need enough people to inhabit four fucking countries

After creating the four lands, the holy beasts created people to inhabit them. Because the beasts were celestial beings and couldn't but guard people and the world they lived in from far above, they needed human vessels to lead the four nations. Thus they created four kings who would rule over other people using the four beast’s powers. The four kings were neither human nor gods, but something between – they were messengers, or icons, of the four holy beasts.

Omegaverse AU a canon divergence AU (i guess??) where genders are replaced by A/B/O and everyone being either canine or feline. max is a late bloomer canine and finds out he's the only alpha of the BBA boys thanks to a certain feline omega. is there art of it? not really but i do have dog boy max and cat boy rei art (which are a bit too cute for this kinkfest. i mean they're obviously aged up for the real thing.) 1 / 2 is there a fic of it? it's been in the works for like, five years but i always shy away from finishing it note: it's omegaverse, it's exactly what you'd expect. the smut is so filthy i've been too embarrassed to even post it. hiromi is also an alpha by the way

Coffee shop AU highschooler rei goes on a venture to hit on a local Hot University Teacher and coffee shop owner judy in a cafe owned by her, ends up receiving a bunch of flirty cups of latte from barista max working there. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: i mean, rei being into blonde MILFs is pretty much canon

Now that Rei looked at the boy more carefully, he realised his hair was just as fair and eyes just as blue as he knew Judy Mizuhara's to be. Maybe they were related? It wasn't that strange if Judy had hired a relative's kid to help out at the shop, right? He certainly looked American, but he had spoken Japanese. And then, all of a sudden, the boy turned to look back to him. Startled, Rei blinked his own golden brown eyes and shifted them back to his now empty cup. God, it was rude to stare at someone, wasn't it? He'd been too deep in thought to even notice doing it. Not that the boy had looked judgmental – he only seemed to wear a smile.

Soulmate AU max keeps having dreams with peculiar scenarios about a boy named rei. one day he borrows a book on soulmates from hiromi and finds a chapter talking about meeting your soulmate in the realm of dreams. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: i don't even care for soulmate AUs, this was my own dare to myself to find a single soulmate trope that interested in me enough to write a thing of it.

Max was walking through a crowded airport, carrying a heavy backpack with him. He had never been to this airport in his life, but somehow he knew exactly where he was, and where he was supposed to go. And he was in a hurry, and Rei had at some point emerged from the crowd, as usual, keeping up with him without bumping into any of the people that should have blocked his way. “I'm sorry, this is probably my fault,” Rei said. “I haven't even travelled in ages anymore, but these dreams just keep coming back to haunt me.”

Chess player AU rei is a young chinese chess champion participating in the world junior championships, ends up falling for the american chess prodigy max somehow in the process and is determined to get to play against him again. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: so this is one of the weirder ones i've done. it was inspired simply by me having a very vivid mental image of a scene of them playing dramatic chess together. this is probably my most underrated AU even by myself, i think the writing is pretty solid for such a short story of a topic i know practically nothing about

As a child, Rei had initially been taught to play xiàngqí, a Chinese game much more popular back in his home country; but chess with its refined, uniquely shaped pieces was love at first sight for the young Rei. He was a fast thinker and had amazing concentration skills once he set his mind on something, and he also had an outstanding memory, making it easy to memorise game patterns he once saw and then use them for his advantage. This all granted him natural talent in chess. But despite his skill, he had a bad habit of easily losing his temper and becoming indecisive once his focus wavered. Also, he was just a tad bit too sentimental. These traits often became his worst enemy in important matches, much worse than the actual opposing player. Keep your cool. Focus. Play well.

Flower shop + fake dating AU yuriy doesn't really know anything about flowers but is working part-time in a flower shop for the easy cash. he keeps getting a pair of weird customers who ask about flower language for hypothetical situations. is there art of it? not by myself and i don’t have a link to the fanart made of it unfortunately is there a fic of it? yes note: did i write this for valentine's day? i feel like i maybe did. this is my only AU (and fic in general) so far that's about a non-BBA character as the main lmao

“So, I need some advice for a particular situation,” the customer then began, idly tapping the counter with his hand. “I mean, not a real situation, of course – hypothetically speaking, if someone was just pretending to be going out with another person, but they weren't really going but it just needed to seem that way to everyone else, what kinda flowers would get the message through?” Possibly an idiot, Yuriy concluded his analysis. “So you need suitable flowers for a date,” he stated, shooting his eyes at his notes about common flower-usage.

Classical music AU (the heart that i love) max is a piano prodigy attending a classical music college that holds annual music competitions for the students. he's got some haters for being the son of a world-known pianist who's one of the teachers, but he also ends up having a budding romance with rei the mysterious chinese violinist. is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 is there a fic of it? yes note: the origin of this was my "max and mao are besties" college AU. then it got mixed in with my thirst for classical instruments and max being bullied.

Max isn’t exactly a synesthet, but he has always been able to see music as pictures – as entire sceneries, as great adventures. This tendency of his emerges especially strong whenever he’s learning to play a new piece on the piano; as he moves along the melody, the scenery is also being built around him like a jigsaw puzzle, creating a complete picture piece by piece; and once he has mastered the song, he’s able to freely traverse and immerse himself in the world inside that puzzle. Some pieces have a more relaxed or soothing scenery than others, some are exciting and thrilling – even deliciously sinister in the way that a good horror film can be. Setting himself down in front of a piano is always an invitation to a world of his choice.

Bakeneko AU after moving to a small rural town in japan, max hits his head and starts seeing things, such as a weird white cat following him around. after a while, he's convinced that he's being haunted. is there art of it? yes is there a fic of it? yes note: another halloween AU, a more surreal one where max is human and rei is. well. not

Max kept walking, his eyes still on the narrow road. He hadn't noticed while deep in thought, but it really was quiet that evening. The sun had nearly set by now, leaving the sky striped with the dusk of the approaching nightfall. There was no wind to rustle the treetops, no birds chirping, nothing. Only the sound of Max's own footsteps on the pavement, and the matching sound that followed. Followed. What if someone actually was following him? A sudden, violent chill struck down Max's spine, causing his hair to stand on end. He stopped. After a short delay, the steps also stopped.

Genderbend AU a canon divergence AU where everyone's a different gender from canon (duh). starts off as an alternate version of the g-revolution world championships where the girls meet for the first time and befriend each other. rei is a professional model in addition to being a blader in the baihus, and max from the PPB is delighted to be able to battle her. she has no idea that rei has fallen for her at first sight, though. is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 is there a fic of it? it's... in the works. note: i created this because i wanted to design attractive girls, what about it. absolutely partial to maxine's huge badonkadonks.

It wasn’t like Rei hadn’t already taken notice of her before, given that they were participating in the same world championship tournament, but the real turning point was the first time they stood on the opposing sides of a bey stadium. It was the day when the match-up roster signalled the match between the Chinese team and the American team, the Baihus versus the PPB All Starz; and despite both teams consisting of five players, it came down to, to Rei’s immense joy, the tag team of Rai and herself against the two most interesting US players, Rikki Anderson and Mizuhara Maxine.

Vampire & merboy AU rei is a starved vampire just about to end his own life when he meets merboy max at a forest lake. is there art of it? of max yes is there a fic of it? yes note: yet another halloween monster AU, this time they are both monsters though. this one’s a pretty grim one i have to admit

Rei succumbed into deep thought, considering his few options, when something grabbed his unsuspecting hand. Something yanked him forward in one mad splash and forced not only the rest of his arm but also his shoulders and head underwater. Half a second later Rei, so badly startled that he’d come close to slipping into insanity, found himself staring at a pair of bright blue eyes only inches away from his own face. His other hand and lower body still firmly on land, Rei pulled himself back with strength that he didn’t even know his weak body still contained. As he did, he also pulled up whatever was clutching his hand, which turned out to be another hand – a white hand with elongated, dirty fingers, so sharp at the tips that they looked like daggers.

Mafia AU max is the boss of the BBA mafia family, rei is a hitman and max's right hand man, the rest have various roles in the organisation. salima, mariam and some other girls (at least) are reporters doing investigative journalism on organised crime who get interested in covering the story of a group of russian elite detectives doing a thorough investigation of the BBA. is there art of it? of rei and max yes 1 / 2 / 3 is there a fic of it? it's in the works but it's just a gratuitous reimax smut note: this is a story i wish existed but this kind of police investigation action thing is so not my genre of expertise. that's why i'm just doing a PWP of my boys and the rest exists on conceptual level

“Did you know,” Salima said, perfectly peppy about it, “that there are secret underground auctions for stolen artwork that’s sold in the black market? Not just online auctions in the dark web but actual, physical events held somewhere in the city! Isn’t that so intriguing? Can you imagine how an event like that would look like, Max?” Max can – in fact, he doesn’t need to imagine. But he’d rather not think about it; the memories bring the familiar taste of bile in his mouth and make his gut curdle with a mixture of disgust and very particular guilt. The mere thought of it makes him set his coffee aside and bring a hand between his tightly shut eyes.

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the next thing i come up with? who knows............

[gamer-logic]

Since my state, Georgia, is having the annual Peaches to Beaches event which is two days of statewide yard sales, I thought it would be interesting to show how America, the states, and any other countries wanting to participate both 1p and 2p would be during this event. So here you go!

Georgia is happily selling fresh produce like boiled peanuts and Vidalia onions and peach-based deserts. Her homemade peach cobbler and ice cream are to die for!

Antonio (Spain) also sells many fresh tomatoes, olives, and other vegetables. He doesn't understand why no one wants his Olive Juice though.

Hawaii and Alaska make a killing selling lemonade at their stand with a free complimentary handmade flower crown with every purchase. While using their sheer cuteness to attract everyone including one of those sweet biker gangs. It's really surreal to see a huge gang of buff, tattooed, tough-looking guys in leather wearing flower crowns and drinking lemonade. Allen's also there to supervise and ward of creep. Also, to provide people more 'incentive' to buy their lemonade.

Texas breaks out the Texas BBQ and is in a Barbecuing turf war with Jett (Australia). They draw huge crowds for the five-alarm chili as well and hold a competition who can eat the most without burning out their tongues and/or passing out.

Florida sells some of the weirdest stuff you'll ever see. "Want a full-scale model of a gator made entirely out of bottle caps? Only ten bucks! Want a portrait of Florida Man painted with orange juice? 15 bucks!"

Nevada also tries to sell weird and sketchy stuff to scam everyone. "This piece is the genuine article folks! One napkin gently used by Elvis Presley himself! Just 500 bucks! Also, gets into a haggling war with Lars (Netherlands). Somewhere Alfred's dad instincts go off and he reminds himself to ground Nevada.

California, Oregon, and Washington collaborate and California sells anything vegan or made with avocadoes and the autographs of Hollywood stars, Oregon sells his old tye-dyed shirts and records, they also made him sell his old groovy hippy bus from the sixties he'd never got rid of no one knew they had. Oregon can be a bit of a hoarder, so they had to tie him to a chair and gag him because he wouldn't surrender the bus without a fight. Washington also tries to sell and drink cups of coffee, but in the hot Southern heat, this doesn't end well.

Louisiana sells anything Cajun-style from frog legs to fresh gumbo, to beignets. Also has a full collection of Mardi Gras masks and shrunken voodoo heads on sale for two bucks a pop.

Gilbert (Prussia) gets tricked by Nevada and gets a ton of stupid things he doesn't need. Ludwig (Germany) tries unsuccessfully to keep him on a metaphorical leash.

Ludwig always checks the quality of things he sees and buys dog toys and supplies for Blackie, Berlitz, and Astor. Later, he actually buys a kiddie leash for Gilbert.

All the while Lutz (2p! Germany) is asleep in a lawn chair with his hat on his face after drinking like six cold beers from this really good booth. All the while, Klaus (2p! Prussia) finds an antique Teutonic Knights flag from a vendor whose family was from Germany.

Vash (Switzerland) buys antique guns from Alabama and Roderich (Austria) also checks out some of Tennessee's guitars. He's horrified upon seeing Alabama's banjo and washboard.

Mathew (Canada) and Emma (Belgium) combine their powers and tag team to sell the best pancakes and waffles on earth with genuine Canadian maple syrup.

New York sells tons of baseball memorabilia and collectibles. Allen, trying to save his bad-boy image, tries to be discreet when buying some while taking Hawaii and Alaska around to get something with their lemonade money. James also gets some hockey memorabilia with Michigan and Minnesota who also got snow cones.

Alaska and Hawaii see a giant deluxe dollhouse but are almost in tears when they don't have enough money. But they end up getting it for free because no one can resist their weaponized puppy dog eyes. Also, no one can resist a growling Allen. Using the leftover money, they buy cute little rainbow umbrella hats for everyone and have Allen wear one who begrudgingly accepts it.

James, walking by with an armful hockey gear and flannel shirts, bursts out laughing when he sees this. In revenge, Allen forces him to wear one too and help him carry the dollhouse, much to Hawaii and Alaska's delight! "I said go my way puck head!" "No, it's my way, you vegan loving hoser!" A passing Francis (France)' is in stylish horror when they also make him and a nonchalant Luis (2p! France), holding a case of vintage wines, wear them too. Hawaii and Alaska go around giving umbrella hats to everyone including a sleeping Lutz they pass by.

Loving (Romano) practically has to supervise Feliciano (Italy) and keep him from buying anything too stupid on impulse or get scammed. They still end up with stacks upon stacks of cookbooks, kitchen wear, and a Mona Lisa made entirely out of Macaroni. They also get umbrella hats.

Flavio (2p! Romano) browses through clothing racks to get ideas for his vintage line. Also checks out the handmade fabrics like quilts. "Such craftsmanship! This pattern is so unique and chic! I simply must have it! What's your price Bella?" The nice old woman selling the quilt just smiles, "Oh just about five dollars young man." "Perfect!" Flavio hands the quilts off to Andreas (2p! Spain) who's practically buried underneath the fabric. Luciano (2p! Italy) facepalms while holding a new knife set in its case. "Oooh! Look at those adorable hats I just have to have one." Cue three more umbrella hats and a humiliated Luciano. "Just kill me now..."

Katyusha (Ukraine), Elizaveta (Hungary), Lillie (Liechtenstein), Natalya, (Belarus), Katya( 2p! Ukraine) and Anastasia (2p! Belarus), and Michelle (Seychelles) explore with armfuls of clothes, new ribbons, and a gun case for Switzerland (Lillie), cast iron frying pans (Elizaveta, watch out Prussia!), farm tools (Katyusha), Jewelry and unmentionables (Katya), dresses (Anastasia), an assortment of switchblades (Natalya), and one of those singing fish on a plague (Michelle). It's definitely an interesting group.

Kiku (Japan) and Kuro (2p! Japan) find a nerd booth selling comics, manga, and Japanese weapons like katanas. Kuro test swings a blade and tries to slice the table so hard it breaks the blade, "Hmmm, not sharp enough for me, got anything else?" He throws it on the pile of broken blades he's already tested. Kiku stockpiles on limited-edition manga and he and the vendor end up getting into a huge, heated by Kiku standards, debate on who's waifu is best. Further down, Alfred reads every Marvel/DC comic while keeping an ear out on every state's location. He checks on Texas via his glasses and notices he's beating Australia in the chili contest. "That's my boy!"

Wisconsin wearing a cheese head sells anything cheese-based. He's got cheddar, goat cheese, string cheese, cheese spray, gorgonzola, grilled cheese, cheese curds, Mac n' Cheese, cheese sculptures of all world monuments, you name it he's got it! He also starts a war with Iowa's corn dishes and Idaho's potato dishes. They eventually end up flinging cheese, potatoes, and corn after they start dissing each other's foods. "Take this cheese brain!" "Nice aim, I-da-ho!" "I told you not to call me that!" "I'm gonna go children of the corn on y'all's behinds!" Poor Nebraska is stuck in the middle.

Alfred (America) hears the commotion and using his parent radar, immediately knows who it is and reminds himself to ground Iowa, Wisconsin, and Idaho later along with Nevada who, though still grounded for sure, makes him feel a little proud of since he managed to out haggle Netherlands.

New Mexico and Arizona also sell Native American handicrafts along with things like dreamcatchers and giant inflatable aliens. While Delaware, being the boring stick in the mud that he is, walks by with a framed and complete U.S. quarter collection from a vendor.

Kansas sells out of every sunflower she had courtesy of Ivan (Russia). Ivan and her the team up to buy out every sunflower seed from here to kingdom come. Viktor (2p! Russia) buys all the vodka he can find and a new shovel while Xiao (2p! China) tries giving people tattoos for 10 bucks a pop.

He tries to convince Yao (China) to get a hello kitty one to match the giant plushie he's holding, with the encouragement of Leon (Hong Kong) and Yong Soo (South Korea) who all collectively agree he needs to quit being such a grandpa. They also like calling him an antique-like the items on sale. " Aiyah! I'm not that old, aru!" "Yeah, you are Sensei." "Don't deny it! Da Ze!" Respect your elders!" "Tattoos originated in Korea da ze!" He totally is that old.

Oliver (2p! England) holds a bake sale and has people lined up for blocks to get some. Arthur (England), after having his scones shut down after it poisoned some unlucky squirrels, fries selling authentic magical items like unicorn hair or pixie dust. Everyone thinks he's a little crazy but he did sell a good bit of old magic books he needed to get out of his house, after making sure no one could actually use them of course.

The Nordics also went perusing for antique and handmade furniture when Mathias (Denmark) spots two full sets of Viking costumes and tries to get Lukas (Norway) to try them on with him. Lukas wasn't amused.

Berwald (Sweden) and Tino (Finland) also find a great handmade table to get after inspecting the workmanship and a full Lego set for Peter (Sealand), now if only Mathias would stop squealing like a little kid at the full piece lego death star. Emil (Iceland) keeps thinking he's the mature one until he spots a mini top hat and cane for Mr. Puffin.

In the end, everyone ends up wearing umbrella hats courtesy of Hawaii and Alaska, loving all the strange things they bought or counting the profits they made. Alfred (America) is proud of his kids and visits everyone one of their stands. He ends up looking pretty funny with an umbrella hat (HW, AK), a washboard, (AL),a picture of Florida Man, (FL), a balloon alien (NM, AZ), a tye dye shirt (CA, WA, OR), hockey stick shaped glasses (MN, MI), a giant stack of comics with a replica Thor hammer and Captain America shield on his back, all in a shopping cart (NV), and a giant turkey leg in his hand (Tx). Unsurprisingly, it was a tie between Oliver, Texas, and Australia for who earned the most with their food. Georgia just smiled as this was another great year for her state and people!

[rigelmejo]

Comprehensible Input Study Plans

If anyone would like to go on a Comprehensible Input/Automatic Language Acquisition/Direct Method journey with me, I have got a list of resources for you! This list is basically going to be: if I was studying a language primarily through comprehensible input, this is the resources I would try in roughly this order.

Japanese:

1. Glossika Japanese Old audio course. Teaches approximately 2000-3000 words (the course has around 3000 sentences but I think some sentences have no new words). Course seems to be a few hundred hours (150-300 hours I'm going to estimate), and lets say 300-600 hours if you repeat audio files to re-listen and study. This is "audio flashcards" materials so sentences are given in japanese then english then japanese. They are "comprehensible input" in that you can completely understand the sentences, but they do teach using english. Also, Glossika courses are easier if you have some basic grammar knowledge first as the course does not explain word order, verb endings, conjugations, particles etc.

2. Comprehensible Japanese youtube channel. If you are a total beginner, I would recommend this resource first and go through a LOT of the material. Then use something like Glossika Japanese old audio courses, some japanese anki sentences deck's audio files, some textbook with a few thousand word's audio files, to study 2000-3000 common words.

3. ***While doing step 1 and 2, I would recommend beginning study of the writing system. Look up some app for "learn hiragana and katakana mnemonics" and study for a few weeks until you're roughly familiar with hiragana and katakana, as afterward you will read them so much you'll learn them more firmly. Look up japanese kanji radicals and read through a table, it should take a few hours or less. Understand that all kanji are built with those radicals (so maybe think of radicals as letters and kanji as the 'word' piece). Learn that kana (hiragana and katakana) stand for syllables, and have no meaning besides sound. Anything can be spelled with kana. Hiragana are usually for japanese words, particles, and conjugation. Katakana are usually for foreign words. Kanji are symbols that stand for a word (or a piece of a word like "airport" is air-port, 2 kanji may build a word). Kanji have various pronunciations depending on the word they are building. Hiragana often attach to the end of kanji words to spell out the conjugations. Look up "mnemonics" if you've never used them before so you can learn how to use them: they are stories you make up to help remember the pronunciation, meaning, or 'radical building blocks' of a new word. For studying kanji there are many options, I personally recommend finding one that includes mnemonics. As a total beginner I recommend: Learn Japanese Today by Len Walsh. It is easy to read in a couple weeks, it's mnemonics/explanations include pronunciation and meaning, it's a good introduction and you can find it free in a ton of libraries/e-libraries. I also recommend the books on japaneseaudiolessons.com if you want mnemonics provided for meaning AND pronunciations, and reading practice, but be aware they are in depth and dense reads. Many people will recommend Heisig Remember the Kanji... and I recommend it with one caveat: do NOT wait to continue your studies until you finish Heisig. If you use Heisig's book, keep studying japanese with other materials at the same time. I wasted 2 years on Heisig's books because they didn't include any actual pronunciations or vocabulary, so I waited to learn real words. You should start learning new words ASAP. I personally recommend you look up what mnemonics are, look up kanji radicals and practice making up some stories to remember them, then start learning real words and making up mnemonics to remember the new kanji words as you learn them (or going to kanji.koohi.com and using someone else's mnemonics story to remember). Mejo's bare minimum advice: read an explanation on radicals (2 hours), read an article explaining japan's writing system (2 hours), cram through a hiragana katakana free mnemonics app with quizzes for 2 weeks, look up mnemonics for kanji and learn how to make the mnemonic stories yourself, cram through Read Japanese Today for 2 weeks, proceed to learn kanji as part of words normally. If you are struggling a lot with remembering kanji words or written words in general, I recommend you check out the "SRS" section further down.

4. Look up a pronunciation guide, on youtube or any site with audio. Listen to it, should take a few hours. This is just to help you get used to the syllables and features you'll hear. You may want to hear some explanations of pitch tone at this point. I'll be real with you: I'm intermediate and still don't really understand pitch tone much. So I figure the sooner you hear about it, the more time you'll have to start figuring it out than I did. My obviously amateur advice (but it worked for me): do your best to pronounce new words the way they sound in japanese (sort of the way English puts stress on words "BLACKbird, old-FASHioned, underSTAND"). Try your best to pronounce as you hear the word, and move on. If you notice later you're making errors, correct them then. As a beginner, do not PAUSE your learning out of fear you will make mistakes or miss something. I feel that can be one of the biggest hurdles in learning a language: dwelling on how to perfectly do something before moving on, and so you never move on, and never learn more. It's better to move forward and learn new things everyday then to HALT all progress out of fear you're doing something imperfectly. So yeah... be aware of features like pitch tone, but also understand it's okay if it takes you a while to hear it, to understand what it means, to correct your mistakes. And this applies to anything in language learning.

5. Japanese Graded Readers: you can search the web for graded readers of various levels. I would recommend starting with the free Tofugu graded readers (they can be found here). The Tofugu books are very easy to start, make sense from context, and can help you feel much more comfortable reading in japanese. If you would like a more textbook approach, I like the following two books: Reading Japanese by Eleanor Harz Jorden and Hamako Ito Chaplin (this book goes slow and very in depth if you want a lot of beginner reading practice), A Japanese Reader: Graded Lessons for Mastering the Written Language (Tuttle Language Library) by Roy Andrew Miller (this book goes fast and it's dense but it will prepare you for reading newspapers and literature). White Rabbit Press has some graded readers. Satori Reader app I highly recommend from early-beginner to intermediate but not ready for real novels yet.

6. Immersion with material for native speakers! Get yourself a translator app downloaded on your phone (I like imabi and while it's subpar I like Google Translate to quickly speak in new words when I'm watching anime). Get an on screen reader OCR translation app if you plan to read a lot of manga (I use Ichigo Manga Translator because it's free). Bilingualmanga.net is a good place to start if you want to read manga, they provide english translations of the japanese and you can copy/paste the japanese text into translator apps. Animelon.com has dual subtitles and click-word lookup if you like watching anime. Parallel translations of books app by Kursx is great for reading novels (it has Text To Speech, click translations of words, parallel translations of sentences) you will need to import txt/epub files if you use this app (annas-archive.org is a good place to find those). If you already have a favorite eReader app (I use Moon+ Reader) then know that most reader apps already have built in click-translation features and text to speech audio. If you use Kindle, kindle has click translations (and if you use Android Talkback accessibility tool it will text-to-speech read kindle books aloud). Amazon Kindle app is probably the easiest place to purchase japanese ebooks and manga. I highly recommend when you start immersion: start with easier materials where you understand the main idea of scenes without word lookups or with minimal keyword lookups. So materials you've seen/read before, slice of life daily stuff where most words are common etc. Also I recommend always watching/reading in japanese primarily before turning on things like dual subtitles or parallel translations: basically at least TRY to understand the japanese before leaning on another language. You want to get used to being primarily in japanese.

7. ***A note on SRS: I go through this more down below in the Chinese section, so please skip down to that. In short: SRS can be a great way to push through that "beginner hump" where you feel you will never learn the language, ASAP. At least, if you can get yourself to reliably do 30 minutes+ per day of SRS regularly. My suggestion for you if you're struggling to go from study materials, to immersion in content for native speakers? Pick SOME SRS study resource for japanese that teaches 2000 words or more. Start it and focus on studying new materials, review OPTIONAL only if you completed 1 or more new sections per day (so study at least 20+ new words per day before doing reviews, cut reviews if you have limited study time). If you're a crammer like me, do 50-200 new words/sentences per day and only review if you have time after that. It should take you approximately 4 weeks on a cram schedule (so 1-2 hours of study per day) to study 2000 words. After that, you can do reviews for another 1-2 months if you want of the 2000 words OR you can jump directly into immersion at that point. That plan will get you from upper-beginner (you know 500-1000 words from comprehensible input, graded readers, audio flashcards, but immersion feels exhausting and you can't understand anything) who just CANNOT handle any immersion, to able to study from immersion primarily, in about 1-3 months. Yes it's 1-3 months of studying 1+ hour a day in flashcards... so you need to be able to concentrate on getting through flashcards. But it will push you over the hump. This is what I did after 2 years of japanese study where I knew 500-1000 words and felt hopeless as an "eternal beginner": I crammed through 2000 cards of Nukemarine's Lets Learn Japanese memrise decks for 3 months. Then I tried to read manga and lookup words: to my surprise I could actually follow a manga plot main idea by just looking up some keywords! I tried playing Kingdom Hearts: and likewise realized I could now play with just some keyword lookups here and there every 3-5 minutes (given I was already familiar with the english version of the game). It made immersion possible for me to do. Once immersion was possible, I continued reviews by immersing and seeing words I'd studied before, and continued learning by guessing new words from context in immersion and looking up words every 5ish minutes or when they looked like key words for main idea understanding. I personally recommend Nukemarine's Lets Learn Japanese SRS decks, as I feel getting through parts 1-6 will make immersion possible (that's what i did) and then the other parts are well structured to help you get the words needed to read novels/watch more complex shows. Nukemarine's decks also has combine sentences, audio and text, new vocabulary, kanji, and grammar points. So if you only have 1 resource you use? It covers the key areas. If you like another SRS course more, use that instead. The main thing is find something teaching AT LEAST 2000 words and get through studying NEW words quickly. Part of the eternal "beginner hump" is people thinking japanese is hard, and taking years studying 300 kanji or 500 words, when the sooner they increase vocabulary the sooner immersion material will become accessible.

(Fun little things: Genki textbooks cover vocabulary immensely slowly in my opinion and I wish each book had at least 2000 words, since they're meant to cover 1 year in college each and typical language introduction books for OTHER languages usually cover 2000 words at minimum... which is doubly annoying because with few cognates, you need more basic vocabulary in japanese to start reading/watching compared to a language like French where with 500 common words and cognates to rely on you can start reading nonfiction...which is what I did. Whereas I NEEDED at least 1000 japanese vocabulary words to start reading anything in japanese. Be aware that a lot of japanese learner material is paced slower than some other languages - like french and spanish - because the writer thinks it's more difficult. the problem is... the lower amount of content per chapter/lesson means less learned per minute... and then japanese is going to take thousands of hours more to learn than a similar language to yours already, so slow learning material is extra frustrating to me. When you run into learning material that presents information slowly? Either find a different learning material, or push through it faster than the learning material recommends. Since Genki 1 and 2 only teach 1700 total... I'd suggest getting through both textbooks in under a year, at least studying their vocabulary sections in under a year. Or get a 2000+ word anki deck and get through it in 3 months lol. A typical Teach Yourself introduction book teaches 2000 words, and certainly expects the student to learn those words at least vaguely in under a year. So personally... I think it's a good idea to push yourself to learn at least that many words in japanese ASAP. If you're a beginner, aim for 1 year (and if it takes longer for some reason that's okay). If you've been studying japanese for years, like I was, and still stuck in the beginner rut? Cram 2000 common words NOW. Go find a word list, an SRS anki deck, get glossika japanese audio files, Something, and get vaguely familiar with a few thousand common words now. Aim to get through the words in 4 months or less, then start immersing (or start intermediate level textbooks/courses if you prefer studying that way, or both).

Chinese:

1. Go through a pronunciation guide (2 weeks or less) like the dongchinese one here. Anything with audio. Look up tone explanation guides on youtube, including on tone sandhi, and then look up a few tone trainer quizzes online and do them every once in a while. All of pronunciation beginner study may take 1 month or less. You're getting used to hearing tones, recognizing tones, recognizing language features, and getting used to pinyin pronunciation.

2. Look up how the chinese writing system works. This may take a few hours to a week. Read a few articles that explain hanzi, that explain and show a table of the radicals and how they combine to build hanzi, how often a hanzi is built of a pronunciation component and meaning component from radicals. The main thing is to learn that hanzi usually are pronounced one way, are a piece of a word (or whole word), and a limited amount of radicals build hanzi (sort of like letters build to make a word). Understanding radicals build hanzi will help you break down new hanzi you see into recognizable radical components. Look up mnemonics if you've never used them before: they are stories you make up to help remember a word or hanzi's meaning, pronunciation, and radicals. Mnemonics can be useful later when learning hanzi, so it's important to know how to make them yourself if you want to use mnemonics later.

3. Hanzi study: you will do this alongside whatever else you do early on. You can use anki flashcard decks for studying hanzi (I recommend searching "chinese hanzi mnemonics anki deck" or "chinese hanzi mnemonics memrise" or whatever app you use with "mnemonics"). I personally mostly relied on a book which had pre-made mnemonics for 800 hanzi, and it gave me a solid foundation. (My FAVORITE chinese study book, it indirectly is also how kanji in japanese got eons easier for me, I love it intensely more than Heisig lol: Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters: (HSK Levels 1 -3) A Revolutionary New Way to Learn and Remember the 800 Most Basic Chinese Characters). I simply read through the book for 2 months. After that I just learned new words regularly (through comprehensible input, graded readers, SRS decks of common words/sentences), and made up my own mnemonic stories when I had a hard time remembering a new hanzi. I recommend that if possible you find a hanzi resource that provides pronunciation, meaning, and example words. And that the resource includes mnemonics if they help you remember things better. I recommend using an SRS program if you like using SRS apps, and if that study method works well for you. You will likely be studying hanzi or words with a focus on remembering their hanzi for at least 6 months, possibly 1-2 years, so it's okay to take 1-2 months to search for resources and then decide on using something you really like using. I also recommend getting a hanzi resource that teaches AT LEAST 2000 hanzi, ideally all hanzi on the HSK (but the HSK recently changed so just do the best you can), and at minimum you're going to want to learn around 1000 hanzi (roughly the amount on HSK 4 which is when immersion starts to feel possible). The exception: the book I heavily relied on only taught 800 hanzi, but it gave me a strategy to further study new hanzi as I encountered them later in words... so that book in combination with any vocabulary resource and you should smoothly be able to learn over 1000 hanzi in the first 6 months. I learned about 2000 hanzi in the first 6 months using that book for 800, and then Ben Whatley 1000 Common Chinese Words and Ben Whatley 2000 Common Chinese Words in memrise. It personally helped me to learn a majority of hanzi in the context of words. The memrise decks I spent 4 weeks cramming through, then continued reviewing the words by running into them during immersion. Alternatives: Chinese Spoonfed Anki deck has words in sentences, theres a LOT of anki decks specifically for learning hanzi with mnemonics and I think all are fine if they have audio pronunciation and meaning (and ideally example words).

4. ***Optional: read through a grammar guide summary. This is not part of comprehensible input method, but I did it and it helped me so I figured I'd mention it. I simply read through all the lessons on this site (without doing the exercises) and it took me about 3 weeks.

5. Start Comprehensible Input learning materials. You can start immediately, or after 1-2 months of preparing with the materials above. Comprehensible Chinese is a good youtube channel to start with.

6. Graded Readers. These can be started soon after starting to learn new words with comprehensible input lessons (like Comprehensible Chinese youtube). Mandarin Companion graded readers start at only 50 words so a total beginner could start there, then just gradually read the higher level graded readers until you are reading the highest unique word count graded readers Mandarin Companion has. After that, I recommend downloading Pleco app (***which you will use a lot for other things too), and browsing the graded readers offered for sale on Pleco. They're often 2 dollars for individual stories to 20 dollars for collections of stories/long stories, and reading them in Pleco you have click-translations, text to speech, extensive dictionary entries, and mtl parallel text translations of passages. Some of the graded readers you can buy on Pleco go up to 2000+ unique words, after which you are certainly ready to move to immersion with novels for native speakers. If you want to move to immersion ASAP, I would recommend using graded readers that go up to 800-1500 unique words (I used Mandarin Companion 800 word graded readers and Sinolingua 1500 word graded readers) then going to Heavenly Companion's site (*more details later) and starting with novels for native speakers that start at 1000-1500 unique words.

7. Aim for trying to learn 3000 common words (you can aim for at least 1000 if you're desperate to move on to immersion). Glossika Chinese old course audio is an audio flashcard option to learn 2000-3000 words (audio flashcards teach with chinese sentences then english translation so you can comprehend what is said). The sentences are around 300 hours, then more hourse depending on how much you re-listen to study. Chinese Spoonfed Anki audio files are another good option (have around 7000 sentences, 19 hours, I imagine the sentences teach at least 4000 words). You could use these kinds of resources as a supplement to Comprehensible Input youtube videos and Graded Readers, to keep growing your vocabulary and reviewing things you've learned. (You may have noticed at this point, I'm offering 3 lesson options: videos on youtube, audio flashcards, and graded readers. Depending on the study activity you like best, you may find yourself relying more heavily on one of these 3 and that's fine. Just aim to keep increasing your vocabulary no matter what you rely more on - so if you use youtube videos be aware you may need supplemental vocabulary exposure, and aim to get some listening AND reading practice - so if you use audio flashcards primarily then try to get some transcripts and read along occasionally or anki/memrise companion flashcards to read or turn on chinese subtitles on Comprehensible Chinese when you do occassionally do a video instead of audio flashcards. If you read graded readers mostly, try to listen along to the audiobook or text-to-speech sometimes so you get some listening practice).

8. ***Optional: SRS. Spaced Repetition Study. I did not use SRS much, but I did cram study this way for around 4 weeks in the first 6 months of studying chinese, because it really helped me get vague recognition of 2000 common words in written form ASAP. If you can focus on flashcards/flashcard apps for 30 minutes to 1 hour regularly, this is possibly the fastest way to get vaguely familiar with new vocabulary so you can make immersion doable and easier ASAP. For japanese and chinese in particular, SRS may be the route to go if you feel you "cannot get over the beginner hump." If you are not using graded readers much, you may need some kind of SRS study to get reading practice in and review of written form of words. (You can actually do SRS study with paper flashcards you make or a printed out wordlist you read through or a wordlist website you have open on the computer, all SRS really is amounts to studying the least amount of repetitions you'd need to review information right before you forget it... something like study today, then tomorrow, then in 3 days, then in 1 week, then in 2 weeks, then in a month, then in 2 months, then in 4 months etc). I recommend Chinese Spoonfed Anki deck for chinese since it's got thousands of words, grammar examples, audio, text, and it's a solid foundation to jump to immersion from. I used "2000 common HSK words" deck on memrise, it had no sentences, just audio and text, it worked fine for me and took 1 month to cram through. This is my advice for people who want to get over the endless "beginner hump" or who like me want to immerse ASAP and get past learner materials. It can also be found up in the japanese section. Cram! If you've done hundreds of hours listening to Comprehensible Chinese, audio flashcards, and reading graded readers, but still find immersion too hard or still find you have not learned over 1000 words? Or find you're really struggling with hanzi recognition? Look up an SRS app like anki or memrise, look up an SRS course (again I'd say just use anything with 2000+ words and audio and text, like Chinese Spoonfed anki deck). Do the SRS app 1-2 hours a day for 2 weeks, prioritizing studying 50-200 new words per day. Only do reviews if you have time at the end, after getting through your 50-200 new words goal daily. At the end of 2 weeks you'll het through 1000 words, then spend 2 weeks getting through the backlog of reviews. Then for 2 weeks go through 50-200 new words daily again, 1-2 hours per day, skip reviews unless you have time. After those 2 weeks you'll have gotten through all 2000 words. Take another 2 weeks to do reviews now if you wish (or just skip it). It will take approximately 1-3 months to get through 2000 common words and have a vague familiarity with them. At that point, you can start immersing and stop SRS app usage (unless you like SRS apps, in which case you might want to transition to 10-30 minutes daily with 5-20 new words daily and no more so you don't get overwhelmed). This is how I get vague familiarity with a few thousand common words ASAP. Once there's vague familiarity, when you immerse you might look up those words and 'review' them a few more times by looking them up until they stick in your memory, but they won't be totally unfamiliar. And you will NEED them to understand the immersion content, so your brain will try to remember them quickly since they're needed daily and used daily in immersion. The SRS apps also work well for drilling hanzi when you're trying to learn the first 1000 common hanzi or so. If you find nothing else is helping you get vaguely familiar with hanzi recognition, try an SRS app of 2000+ common hanzi with mnemonics for a couple months.

(***A small warning: a lot of apps "use SRS for their study cards" but how fast you go through new words depends on the app. If you're trying to get vague familiarity with a lot of words quickly, either pick an app that doesn't take you more than 1 hour to get through 50+ words, OR honestly pick a regular word list or a bare bones Anki deck where you know you can easily read through 100 words in 1 hour). One thing that slowed me down a LOT is apps where I'd see 20 new words an hour... I could watch literally any show as a beginner and get exposed to 20 new words in less time. I try to avoid picking resources that slow down my exposure to stuff to learn.

9. Immersion time! If you're extremely tolerant of ambiguity and/or like looking words up, you can immerse as SOON as you can follow the main idea of a scene with just the help of looking up 1-2 keywords for meaning per scene (or without looking up anything). Think about how you felt when reading your first Graded Reader: it probably had more words than you actually knew yet, so it felt HARD, but you could at least follow the main idea of what was going on. And if you couldn't follow the main idea, you could get by on just looking up 1-5 unknown words per page to understand the main idea. And by the end of the graded reader, you didn't need to look up any words to grasp the main idea. If it was a rather easy graded reader, you might even have understood almost everything including most details without any word lookups by the end of the book. That's the feeling you want to get with your immersion materials, at least ideally. And after a few months of immersion, once you've learned more words and gotten comfortable "understanding what you already studied" then some easier immersion materials should feel like a graded reader used to feel. The first few months of immersion I'd recommend picking easier material: shows/books with few unique words (ideally less unique words than you know so if you know 2000 words then picking a kid's book with 1000 unique words), shows you've seen before in your native language (so you can guess what the words mean because you know what happens in those scenes), books based on shows you've seen, books for kids, reading summaries before watching/reading something (so you have prior context to guess what words mean because you know what should be happening). At first, you will have to learn how to "understand what you already studied" so you'll be practicing understanding words you know at speaking speed, in the grammar of actual sentences, reading words you maybe haven't read much, listening to words you maybe haven't listened to much, getting used to accents and emotion and background noise, getting used to understanding stuff you've studied QUICKLY because its all so much quicker than in learning materials. It will feel hard, stick with it for a few months, and eventually you can tolerate immersing for longer time periods and get better at immediately understanding stuff you already studied. At that point, you can gradually start picking more difficult and challenging immersion material.

***If you find immersion INTENSELY difficult and you can NOT understand the main idea, even when you look up key words, or you notice you need to look up like 20 key words per 5 minutes to even guess the main idea? Even after a few months of trying to immerse and see if it gets easier? You may benefit from going to study more words. If you don't like ambiguity and get frustrated by only vaguely understanding things, you'll probably be the kind of person who prefers to study more words BEFORE immersing. I would recommend a. cram studying 2000-3000 words in some SRS app or audio flashcard course like glossika (and if you have time and energy you may even wish to cram study 5000-7000 words... but if it's been over 5 months, you may just be avoiding immersion and hoping Ever More Vocabulary will make it easier... it won't at a certain point. You have to practice immersion eventually for immersion to get easier). b. Reading a LOT of graded readers. Graded readers will feel the most like immersion, because they force you to read a LOT all in the target language. Read increasingly difficult graded readers, so for chinese this is where you'd read 5+ 2000 word graded readers. Practice reading graded readers without relying on word lookups and attempt to grasp the meaning from context, so you can practice skills you'll need in immersion in an easier enviornment. Try to read graded readers through multiple times, attempting to read FASTER the second and third times, to practice comprehending things you have learned faster... this skill is needed for immersion, and practicing it now will make immersion easier. Listen to audiobooks/text to speech OF graded readers, and listen repeatedly until you comprehend most of what you hear. Graded readers in particular will help you both increase vocabulary AND develop the skills you'll be using and relying on a lot in immersion like: learning new words from context, parsing sentences, following audio at spoken speed (if reading along to an audiobook), getting a feel for how difficult a material is to you and if you personally can comprehend enough to learn new words from context alone or if you personally need to look up some key words (and how to identify key words for understanding quickly then move on), being engaged with only the target language for several minutes to an hour without much of another language to rely on.

For chinese, I recommend the Heavenly Path site to find immersion materials if you don't know where to start. You can start with their stuff recommended "Newcomer" with immersion materials that are around unique word counts of 1000, so they should be the most easy to transition into after doing some graded readers and studying 1000-3000 words. In particular I recommed starting with 秃秃大王 if you can read an 800 unique word Mandarin Companion graded reader, or a 1000-2000 unique word sinolingua graded reader. It is excellent for a beginner, it's not too long so you'll be able to finish it in a few days to a month (I think it took me 3 weeks of 30 minutes per day). After 秃秃大王, the other Newcomer recommendations should feel doable to you, and then from there just progressively pick slightly harder novels with slightly higher unique word counts when you're no longer running into as many new words as you wish to. Apps like Pleco (in free version you can copy-paste text into it's Clipboard Reader section, in paid you can import files) and Readibu (copy-paste in a website page to read the webnovel in the app, or find webnovels in Readibu's recommendations) let you read webnovels and click-translate words. Pleco has a ton of other features (and is a great free dictionary app so I suggest downloading it). Parallel translations of books app by Kursx is another good app for reading chinese novels, you'll need to import the novel files though. All reader apps have click-translate and text to speech tools like Moon+ Reader, Kindle, Kybook Reader, so if you have a favorite eReader app you can probably just open chinese epubs or txt files in your preferred app. I use Microsoft Edge for nothing else, but its Read Along tool has the most natural sounding text to speech I've ever heard, if you want to listen to text as you read. All web browsers have click-translate tools (sometimes you need Google Translate installed as an app on your phone, then just hold down any word/sentence you want a translation of when on a web browser and you'll have a Translate option). So honestly, any web browser and webnovel link and you'll be all set to read with click-translations and text to speech. If you like manhua, Bilibili Comics app has english and chinese versions of comics so you can read manhua in chinese, then read the english versions if you want to look up a particular word or check your understanding of the plot. If you like shows, youtube has a ton of free cdramas, often with chinese subtitles, so you can pause shows to see words and then go to a translation app of your choice (Pleco, DeepL, BaiduTranslate, Google Translate) and look up words. LingoTube is a free app where you can open youtube videos and get dual subtitles, audio line replay, click-translations of words.

[impala1967dwinchester]

Jensen Ackles: Dinner Date

*Not my gif* 

Pairing: Jensen Ackles X Reader/ Y/n 

Pov: Jensen 

Warnings: Fluff, dinner date, Jensen being cute, was totally thinking of “your man” by Josh Turner while writing this. 

Summary: What happens when Jensen plans an amazing dinner date for the two of you. Will it go to plan, or will Japanese take out be a better choice.  

Word Count: 1,692

Masterlist

Tag list: @akshi8278​

Two weeks ago, Y/n had told me that she needed a night out with me. Actually, it was more like ‘I need a night out with my hubby, hubby!’ So, when she said that I automatically got on the phone with the restaurant I had purposed to her at. A nice chic, but simple restaurant the girl on the phone sounded young and she answered with ‘Hello this is Gisila how can I help you today?’ ‘I’d like to reserve a table in the back of the restaurant for a week from now.’ I spoke.

There were a few minutes of silence and then a response came from my phone. ‘Sure, how many people, time, and last name?’ The young girl asked. ‘Two people, 6:45, and last name Is Ackles’ I answered ‘Okay Mr. Ackles your reservation is all in order. Have a wonderful rest of your day.’ And then click the call was over.  

“Baby, we have reservation for 6:45 in a week at the restaurant I proposed at.” I said across the kitchen island. “Aww, really Ackles. I’m so ready for you and me time.” Y/n said grabbing my hand from the other side of the island. “So am I dear. Now let’s go watch that new movie you’ve been begging me to watch with you.” I said grabbing the bowl of popcorn that Y/n had just popped.  

We walked into the living room; our TV already to press play. This was rare for either of us to be home, and be able to enjoy our company. Y/n was also in the acting business, but she was working on a show that was filmed in Florida, so we often spent most of our time away from each other. Whenever we did get time together, it was nice to spend it not talking about work, acting, but instead spending it doing things that we loved to do.  

Y/n grabbed her enormous white blanket covering the both of us up, and leaned her head into my shoulder. Placing the bowl of popcorn in my lap, looking over at her I asked, “Are you comfortable yet, babe?” “Yes, Yes I am.” She answered shoveling a hand full of popcorn into her mouth. So, I grabbed the remote and pressed play on the TV, and just like always only about 45 minutes into the movie Y/n was sound asleep with her hand draped into the bowl.  

My shoulder damp from her drool, I carefully moved her hand out of the popcorn bowl, placing it on the end table. I then moved her, so I could re-position on her couch and paused the movie before grabbing her and pacing her on my chest. There were many nights were we both fell asleep like this; it was easier than trying to wake her up and drag her upstairs. I had learned that early into our relationship, she liked her sleep, so don’t bother her once she’s asleep.  

A week later  

After the week we both had I know that the both of us were more than happy that we had a reservation set up. Y/n had gotten home from a shopping trip, which this time had gone smoothly not a ton of people noticing who she was. As she walked through the front door, she dropped all but 2 bags. Myself standing in the kitchen, I moved just enough to catch a glimpse of Y/n running upstairs.  

“I’m home, and we have a date remember. So, you should get ready.” Y/n yelled as she walked up the stairs. While Y/n was out shopping I had gone through most of my clothes trying to pick out a nice outfit, unpacking everything from my side of the closet. Trying my hardest to somehow sort through all of the clothes. After only what seemed like hours sorting through everything, I finally had all the clothes in order.  

At that point it was going to much easier to be able to choose what I wanted to wear. I started digging and found a nice un-crimped white shirt, and found a nice pair of black dress pants. Now all I had to do was wait for Y/n to come home and tell me what color tie to wear. And of course, one of my more structured jackets was in the downstairs closet waiting for me.  

It was still early enough in the day where Y/n had enough time to get ready the right way. Another thing I had learned quickly about Y/n she did not like being informed about an event only a few hours before. A main reason why we always made reservations, and she’d then plan according to what would fit around that particular event.  

With what I’d say was 3 hours before we would have to be at our reservations, I slipped into our bedroom. Catching out of the corner of my ear the dress that Y/n had purchase on her shopping trip. A beautiful purple slimming dress that came no less down to her knee caps. I was still in my day attire, so I slipped out of my joggers, my white t-shirt, and into the shower with Y/n.

Unlike the character I played on TV, I wasn’t much of a ladies' man. I had found the love of my life, and she was all I really needed. As I slipped into the shower with her, she said “I was wondering how long it would take for you to get in here with me.” As she massaged the shampoo into her head.  

“Darling, you know you like to see me in the shower with you.” I said sliding my hands down her hips. “Ross! I do love having you in the shower with me, but you know that this” She said pointing down to where my hands were. “we’ll never make it to the reservations.” She spoke.  

So, I removed my hands and switched places with her, washing my body quickly, along with my hair. Kissing her on the lips, and murmuring “love you, dear.” Getting out of the shower. I wrapped the towel around my waist, walking to where my clothes were laid out. Still having time before Y/n would leave the bathroom, I just put on my boxers, and dress pants.  

Walking over to my cabinet, I fished through the varying ties I had collected over the years. I had taken out about 4 varying ties, making sure that two were complimenting Y/n’s dress while the others were questionable at best. After constantly moving the four ties I had figured that it was either going to go with the green or yellow tie.  

Standing there looking like an idiot, Y/n said “Go with the green.” smiling. Throwing the yellow tie into the pile of no’s “Are you sure?” I asked questing if it would really look good together. “Yes, Jensen it will look great, you should probably get dressed some more now.” Y/n said shutting the door of the bathroom.  

Finally, a few hours later, Y/n came downstairs looking just as beautiful as the first day I had met her. She had paired her dress with a pair of black heels, everything was so sleek. The click of her heels banged off the walls as she walked down the stairs. “Hey beautiful.” I said as she walked to the front door, picking her pocketbook up on the way. “Hey handsome. Are you ready to go?” She said smiling. “Yes, do you need a jacket?” I asked.  

Seeing the short sleeves of the dress, “No, I’ll just use yours.” She said winking as she walked out the front door. As I locked our front door, Y/n made her way into the car. The drive to the restaurant was nice, and actually the roads weren’t heavily traffie'd that I assumed that they’d be.  

When we arrived to the restaurant, I left the car running and made my way in, and made it to the front desk before the large group of people came in behind me. “Ma’am I have a reservation for 2 under the name Ackles.” I said “okay Sir... Um what was the reservations under?” The young lady said. “Ackles, Alpha, Charlie, Kilo, Lima, Echo, Sierra.” I said spelling it phonetically. The young lady, scrolled and searched her computer for a second before telling me some very bad news.  

“I'm sorry Mr. Ackles, but you don’t have a reservation here.” Trying hard to not show how upset I was I asked “Do you have any open tables? It’s just a party of two.” “I’m sorry, we’ve been booked for the past week.” The young lady said. “It’s fine, dear. Have a good rest of your night.” I said walking out.  

I know that I was going to feel bad for ruining our date night. As I climbed into the car, Y/n read my face asking me.  “They don’t have a table for us, do they?” I looked over at her, and loosened my tie, “yes I’m sorry dear. How about we order some food instead, watch a movie on the couch maybe snuggle.”  

“That’s okay dear, and yeah I’d like that very much.” So that’s what we did, Y/n called the closet Japanese's restaurant. “Yes, Ma’am this is Fen, what would you like to order?” After a few minutes of deciding on the what both Y/n and I wanted, Y/n answered “A plate of sushi, and one plate of tempura. Thank you, Fen.” She spoke.  

Picking it up on our way home, Y/n held it in her lap, and my hand stayed on her thigh for the rest of the trip home, we played music as we drove. Just taking a minute to relax and reflect on maybe we don’t always have to go out for dinner.  

When we arrived home, Y/n asked “Do you mind if we eat in our fancy clothes, seeing as I put so much effort into mine?” “Of course, honey, I’ll go get silverware, and you can choose the movie.” I spoke. As I walked into the kitchen I yelled. “And I put a lot of time into my outfit too, dork.”  

Completed: 02/17/2021

[freeseafirefly]

Ob[li]vious (RinHaru fanfic)

Since I'm back to the fandom after a 7-years-hiatus (not that i ever stopped loving these idiots) and have just learned some exiting things like a new movie coming out on the date Harurinralia episode aired, RinHaru advertizing Tokyo Olympics merch etc, you can imagine what an emotional mess I am rn. Also, i've rewatched the anime and read some things i haven't yet read (like Season 1 novel), and all the feels are so fresh as if i'm back to 2014 T_T Thank you, Free!, for being my time machine. Thank you, RinHaru fandom, for being strong over the years, I love you all sfm T_T

Anyway, there's probably tons of RinHaru Olympics fanfiction (gonna catch up on it), but I couldn't help it once my head started imagining this. It's nothing much, no plot and non-native engrish, but i want to contribute something to this fandom, too. Also, it's probably a parallel universe cause it's Sydney Olympics. Idk. I just wanted it all in one :)

Read on AO3 or under the cut

“Haru…!” Rin chokes out as he claps his hand against the wall and watches the familiar slender shape cleave the air over his head, all in one heartbeat that seems like eternity.

It’s the same as in elementary school. The same as in the second grade of high school. As in a number of dreams Rin had over the years. The same, yet much, much louder.

...The crowds on the stadium lose their minds as Haru slices his way through to the end of the pool, a ferocious underwater lightning that seems to warp space and time themselves, and the moment he touches the wall the world goes white with noise.

Shining.

It’s the shining of the Olympic Gold.

Rin drifts back to reality, at least some limited version of it, to the feeling of Haru's body crushing against his in a stormy hug, and they're both screaming, God knows what, just as the rest of their relay team and the Olympic Sydney and probably the whole freaking world right now.

And Rin can almost process it, flashing before his eyes in an almost coherent sequence of images: years of ups and downs—Haru—their best team—his father’s proud shadow—Haru’s laughter—Japanese flags everywhere— But for an endless moment, the spinning world freezes, and it’s only him and Haru. Alone. They’re together in this place of dreams, right on the spot where Haru broke out of his shell and found his passion, eyes shining and wings unfurled; and Rin can barely breathe as he squeezes him in return, something irrepressible exploding in his chest. And Haru laughs , all tears and sweat and dripping water that leave a salty taste on Rin’s lips because at this moment, it seems only natural to press a kiss to the side of Haru’s neck and then breathe out: “We did it, Haru! We fucking did it...!”

He doesn't think about how gay it must look, and he doesn't have the time to, actually, because the next moment the world picks up full speed, and it's not just him and Haru but their whole team in a jumbled heap of dorks going nuts on the poolside because they have the fucking right.

~

The locker room is a mess, too. They sing and shout something jolly and off-key and victorious, kiss their gold medals, drink non-alcoholic beer because some of the guys still have races tomorrow, but Rin is still drunk and he can’t quite feel the ground under his feet. They have to sober up a bit for some government officials to congratulate them on the phone with high words about the honor of Japan and the historical achievement; then for the press to ask them some obligatory, obvious things. What do you mean what I’m feeling right now? I am HAPPY! What? Me kissing Haru? Of course I would kiss him all over again because WE FUCKING DID IT! Hey, Haru! But Haruka is not by his side as he’s probably answering some stupid questions, too, and Rin just laughs, blows kisses into the camera I LOVE YOU ALL! and rushes back to hook himself into the jumping circle of his precious teammates, coaches and staff, and sing the hymn once again.

~

The emotional burnout afterward is real. They walk down the street in deafening silence, he and Haru, just two ordinary guys in their everyday clothes as if they weren't THE BEST IN THE WORLD mere minutes ago. Hell, they still are. Rin can barely keep in the giggles that are bubbling in his chest. He feels like they’re some galactic heroes in disguise. It’s freaking awesome.

Haru is silent, though, probably still not quite back to it, or maybe he’s just being Haru again. Rin leaves him be.

Sydney fusses around them, colorful and bright, all dressed in olympic yet still the same familiar Sydney that once broke his bones and watched him drown with these bright cold eyes. Yet Rin loves Sydney. Look at me now, he thinks proudly. Look at me.

But Sydney doesn’t care to look, too busy in its daily routine, too large. They could’ve just taken a taxi to the station, but somehow, without sparing a word, they both decided it’s a walk. Sometimes Rin wonders if they’ve already reached that level of synchrony where they just don’t need words. It’s been years, after all. Mostly spent apart, but still. It’s not so hard to read Haru when you know him through. Not hard at all.

Yet now, he keeps dead-silent, and keeps not looking at Rin, and Rin begins to feel uncomfortable.

Is it that kiss, after all…?

Rin tries to think back, through his most recent memories which are a mashup of the wildest moments of his life, back to that moment. And his body immediately flushes with heat from the vividness of it.

...Haru’s skin is silky and smooth, and his wet hair are soft between Rin's fingers. Haru’s hands are squeezing Rin so tight there must be bruises on his back. Haru’s taste is… Haru-like. Rin can still sense it on his lips. He sucked it in too hungrily, absolutely in a non platonic way. At the mere thought, a sweet wave washes through his body from head to toe, making his every nerve buzz. Rin chokes on a breath and stumbles.

“Fuck,” he murmurs.

Haru flinches slightly but still doesn’t look his way.

The reality begins to sink in. Rin is an idiot.

~

It does look gay. Totally.

Rin sees the photos on their train ride—mostly the screenshots various people mailed him—when he jams a cap over his hair and fishes his phone out of his pocket, absently going through his inbox. All the messages are a crazy mess of emoji and caps YOU DID IT WERE SO PROUD OF YOU and they all end up mentioning that kiss. Rin curses under his breath and switches his phone off.

Shit.

And of course, of course where they have to be heading now is that exact same room in that same freaking hotel because Haru called Rin on the night before their flight and said he must book it.

That was a joke, moron! Rin palmed his feverish face, for once relieved they're talking on the phone, no video.

Yeah, I figured, Haruka said, and Rin registered—or imagined?—notes of sadness in his voice. But I thought it's a nice idea for a good luck tradition…

How is it a good luck tradition if we can't stay there before the tournament? Rin moaned, because obviously, they would be living and training with the national team in the Olympic village, what is this airhead even thinking?

Then we'll stay there afterward, Haru said matter-of-factly. It's the intention that matters. Book it.

It won't be available anyway, Rin sighed with exasperation.

Do it, Rin.

And just like that, Rin succumbed and went on to book the damn room, his face hot and his heart jumping and missing beats. Because it’s one thing when it's a mistake, and it’s a whole other freaking thing to do that on purpose, clicking all the OK buttons under the "1 double bed" "ensuite bathroom" shit and the pictures of the said bed and the said bathroom behind the glass.

And of course, of course it just ought to be available for that exact date. Holy fuck.

~

There would be times when Rin would seriously consider confessing. He would even go through the most romantic places in his head and compose the most perfect, totally non cliched lines. In his imagination, it would all be sakura petals and city lightscapes, breathtaking views, fancy restaurants with the best mackerel dishes and—if he let his imagination wander off further—private pools and night beaches. He knew it obviously wasn’t a good idea, but he also knew he would jump into it someday. Probably. When they’ve achieved their dream and he’s desperate enough and—

And what? Haru—suddenly—likes him back?

Rin knew Haru liked him, probably even loved him, but not in that way. Obviously not in that way.

...But now, just like that, everything is out in the open, and there’s no meaning in confessions anymore. Rin clenches his sweaty hands as panic begins to engulf him, slowly like a tide.

They walk the last stretch past the quay, and somehow it feels so nostalgic as though they used to live here, not spent a couple of nights some years ago. The city skyline across the water is drowning in the purplish haze of the evening as the night draws closer. So does their destination. Rin feels nausea tugging at his insides.

His voice is a crack as he finally braces himself and says, “There on the poolside... Sorry. I lost it.”

It does not rip through the thick silence between them. Somehow, makes it even heavier.

...This is not how Rin pictured their post-victory evening. In his thoughts, it would be a blur of merry partying involving blissful laughter and bright sparkles in Haru’s eyes, as well as touching words of eternal friendship, team spirit and camaraderie; and the most intimate feeling of love finally intertwined with the joy of the achieved dream would be only for Rin to bask in, drown in, his deepest secret. It was never supposed to confuse and burden Haru. It was never supposed to come out for the whole world to behold.

Now, it must be all over the news. A spur-of-the-moment Olympic coming out... The Japanese Team lets passion speak after the dramatic victory... The Pride Flag rises high in the Olympic Sydney... Rin hisses under his breath.

He's fucking ruined it.

“It won't happen again. Ever,” he finds it important to add. Like it somehow can turn back the tide, fix things and make Haru—along with the rest of the world—just forget.

“Eh?” Haru's voice comes barely audible through the thick beats of pulse in Rin's ears, and the sound of his steps halts.

Haru...halts.

Rin flinches and turns around.

“Ever... Again...” Haruka's lips move without producing a sound. He still doesn’t look at Rin. The bangs fall over his eyes like a shadow.

Rin is confused.

...until something rings alert in his memory. It was one of Rei's talks while Rin was teaching him swimming on the evenings. “...He had been out of it ever since that loss to you. And in the Regionals, it's like he finally collapsed. ‘Will I never swim with Rin again...?’ He seemed devastated.”

Rin was... shaken once again by Rei's revelation. "I won. It means I don't have to swim with you ever again. Ever." He never knew his words had affected Haru that much back then.

It was another grain of hope, another detail Rin attached to his imaginary “signs puzzle”, too eager and incautious. He knew it was a bad idea, he fucking knew it right from the start, and today it finally overflowed, breaking through the barrier of his self-control.

“Ever. Again.” Haru repeats in a firmer voice, his lips twitching in a scoff. And when he raises his head at last, his eyes are a flash of blue blazing Rin’s heart: “Are you chickening out now?”

Rin gulps. Heat flushes the back of his neck. “I’m not...! It’s my fault, ok. You don’t have to comment on it to the press. Just tell them they can go to hell. I’ll do the explaining.” It’s my fault. You shouldn’t be dragged through that shit. You can’t let it affect you, Haru…

“Rin.” He still can’t read through the calmness of Haru’s voice, and maybe even Makoto wouldn’t. “It is you who cares about these things. I never did.”

...and Rin feels all the air being squeezed out of his lungs. He’s back to that horrible, devastating moment in the dark changing room when Haru yelled at him almost the exact same words, “What future? What dreams? It’s you who cares about these things! I’m not like you...!”

Rin forces air back into his lungs. Now, Haru seems rather steady. It is Rin’s voice that trembles as he says, “Like hell you don’t care… wasn’t it you who stopped in the middle of the pool once because of all the pressure?”

“It wasn’t because of the pressure,” Haru denies right away. "It was because I couldn’t understand why I must feel pressured. I just wanted to swim. Not to please the public.”

“You mean… This thing now doesn’t bother you either?”

“Why must it?”

Rin chuckles as he exhales, “Right. You’re the guy who would undress in the middle of a shop to dive into an aquarium, after all…”

Rin's knees almost give out with relief. He’s been an idiot to fear that Haru may leave this path—the path he’d once chosen and never wavered since then—just because of some stupid public scrutiny. And no, Haru's also wrong, because this shit doesn't really bother Rin on itself—but only as far as it affects Haru.

Haruka just nods seriously, his eyes—deadly focused blue lasers—never leaving Rin’s. “If this issue is settled, let’s talk about the important stuff. You kissed me, Rin.”

“I-I thought we’ve just been talking about it,” Rin says in a small voice, panic returning and hitting him like a wave. Right. Publicity is one thing; but what happened between them still stands, and it can't be brushed away just like that. “Haru… I’m sorry. I was carried away by all the feels. It's nothing. It’s not like I… want anything, you know…” he trails off.

Breathe, Rin. Just breathe.

“So, you are chickening out. Even with the gold medal on your chest.”

“I’ve said that I’m not!” Rin clenches his fists in desperation. "God, what do you want me to say now? The obvious? Wanna laugh at my misery...?” No, Haru wouldn’t laugh, he would feel guilty and sad, like that winter when they were 13, and it’s even worse. “Want it to ruin everything we’ve achieved together...?”

“Ruin?” Haru closes the distance between them in a few firm steps like he means it, and halts only when they’re inches apart. Are they being too loud...? Right, they’re still on the quay… Rin backs off until his ass bumps against the railing. But Haru probably wants to push him into the water because he closes those last inches, too, and presses their foreheads together. “Ruin...like this?” his breath soughs across Rin’s parted lips, “—or maybe like this?” And then it’s not just air, but a touch, too. Hot, angry, gentle, wet, greedy— short. Too short. “You’re such a drama queen, Rin.”

...Passers-by continue walking past them as if the world hasn’t just shaken and ground to a halt. Nobody even looks their way. Ok, this is Sydney, not Iwatobi, not like it’s too big of a deal here, two guys standing like this on the quay and— wait, what…?!

“Haru… Do you… too…”

“Obviously. I do.”

“Since when…?”

“Since forever. I thought you knew.”

“Me? Knew…?” Rin barely recovers enough to peel his hands off the metal and clasp them on Haru’s forearms lest he disappears, and everything is another dream, and Rin is the biggest idiot again. “How on earth? Why couldn’t you just say anything?”

“...wasn’t sure you feel the same,” Haru grumbles.

“Oh? Wasn’t it obvious ?” Rin asks in a mocking voice.

“It kinda was.” Haru is still agonizingly close, just enough a distance to look into each other’s eyes, yet he keeps glancing down at Rin’s lips, and each of these glances releases a jar of butterflies in Rin’s stomach. “You’ve been staring at me with these lovestruck eyes since elementary. But it also could have been that you’re just an idiot, so.”

Rin digs his nails into his skin, outraged but too messed up to come up with a witty response in a second, since another second Haru adds, his voice soft and suddenly not so confident anymore: “Anyway... I was afraid to screw up everything, and before the Olympics, too.”

“Now who is the drama queen?” Rin whispers, tentatively sliding his hands up Haru’s arms, sensing goosebumps popping up under his fingertips.

“It’s still you,” Haru smiles and kisses the tear off Rin’s eyelashes.

~

I want to add the hotel part, of course, once i finish it. So, let me know what you think about it so far! Love you all <3

[pinky-the-elephant-room]

Shoot your shot

♡ AN: I got around to writing for Haikyuu! again and this time it’s for Oikawa, can you believe I hated this man so much that I ranted to my friend about him for a hour? Now I’m writing a smut for him the growth we love to see it~ I’m an anime only person and I know some spoilers so ignore any inconsistencies you might see because this is an anime only canon fic. 

♡ Oikawa x Brazilian Fem Reader : Playing beach volleyball is a cinch no problem right? But the sight of you in a bikini is too much to bear and having a hard on while playing volleyball is hardly convenient. So when Oikawa sees you in nothing but a towel in the locker room he decides to finally make his move on you. 

♡ Warning: Explicit shower smut with 27 year old Oikawa, voyeurism, semi public sex, and maybe a daddy kink at the end? Read at your own discretion. 

✯ ✯ -------------------------  ✯ ✯ 

➢ Portuguese translation

⇢ Y/N, você está aqui? - Y/N, are you in here?  

⇢ Sim, ainda estou aqui - Yes, I’m still here.

⇢ Fode me o meu amor - Fuck me, my love. 

“Yoohoo! Lucas, how you been?” Oikawa said, stretching out his o’s.

His Argentinean teammate said something, but the reception was terrible.

“Hold on! Let me take this outside.” He stepped out of his air-conditioned flat out into the humid air.

The voice garbled a few more sentences before it became clearer. “C-can you hear me now?”

Oikawa grinned hearing the familiar voice. “Yeah! What’s up?”

Though, he will always cherish his memories with his former team in Japan. Oikawa was now connecting with his national team as well as creating bonds and chemistry on par with his friends back home.

“Alright, amigo, I just did you a huge favor. You’re going to love me and I’m demanding more of that milk bread from you.”

He felt the familiar irritation every time someone claimed his milk bread. Oikawa only shared his milk bread with his teammate because he never tasted the magnificence of the treat. He almost suffered a heart attack when Lucas asked what was so good about bread.

“No promises, but I’m listening,” Oikawa replied as he looked over the night sky of Bueno Aires, it felt gratifying to know that a Japanese boy from a small town now lived in one of the biggest cities in Argentina.

“You remember telling me to help out with your little crush on Y/N, right?”

He rolled his eyes and pouted, “I don’t recall asking for your help! I just asked if she was single. That’s two different things!”

Oikawa remembered when he first saw Y/N at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, he had been ecstatic to go home despite representing another country. It was his debut performance on a world stage. So, he walked around Tokyo for a while before heading back to his hotel to prepare for his match. When Oikawa turned on his T.V., he noticed it was the Women’s volleyball finals between Brazil and the U.S. It seemed like the Japanese women didn’t make it. He watched for a few minutes absentmindedly before he got distracted by player 24 from Brazil. She was the ace and was quite short, but it seemed like the average height for the female players. She was quite good, stealing point after point from their opponents. But that wasn’t what caught his attention. But rather her amusing victory dance each time she gained a point for her team. Y/N would obnoxiously dance in front of the net making her opponents furious.

Oikawa grinned childishly; he knew she was doing it on purpose as the U.S. team started making amateur errors as the gap between the two teams widened. It was a good strategy, one that he himself used on opponents that irritated him like his former kouhai, Kageyama. But his involved taunting, not twerking in front of his opponents. He didn’t think he would look half as good as she did.

From there, it was mere curiosity as to who the player was. She was quite pretty with her long curly hair and golden skin. He didn’t think he would meet her the very next day as she chatted with Lucas in Portuguese. He had no idea his Spanish speaking teammate even knew Portuguese. She had glanced over to him and introduced herself in rich accented English.

“Hello, I’m Y/N L/N. Nice to meet you.” She held out her hand.

He shook it, marveling at the softness despite the calluses he felt on her palm.

When she left to go find her team, Oikawa turned to Lucas and asked in a casual voice, “soooo… are you two together or something?”

Lucas just grinned at him and shook his head.

“Nah, she’s my how you say… my tomodachi.”

From there Lucas had taken it upon himself to get the two together, which didn’t work well after the Olympics were over as he returned to Bueno Aires and she to Brazil.  

“So, anyway I told her that you would do it in place of me! Isn’t that great?” Oikawa snapped out of his thoughts as Lucas continued.

“Wait what? Repeat that last part.”

He heard an aggravated sigh from the phone.

“Y/N participates in a beach volleyball competition every summer for charity. Her usual partner is gone, and she asked me, but I told her that I hurt my ankle. So, I volunteered you for the job!”

Oikawa blinked as the words registered in his mind.

“B-but I’ve never played professional beach volleyball before.”

Sure, he’s played some matches for fun every now and then. But surely a legitimate competition is different than screwing around with a beach ball.

“Ehh, it’s the same sport just with different rules. But don’t let that get in your way. This is your chance!”

Since he came back from Tokyo, Oikawa did sort of miss her and he hadn’t connected with any of the girls he met since.

“Alright fine. Let’s do this. How hard can it be?”

From there Lucas gave Y/N’s number to him. He immediately texted her and they figured out a schedule to practice together a few months before the actual tournament. Thankfully with the Olympics over, he no longer had to be in Argentina for the rigorous team practices and was free to go to Brazil as he pleased. So, a few weeks later he reached the coastal city Ubatuba in Brazil, ready to finally take a crack at beach volleyball.

Oikawa was munching away on his toast when he heard a knock in his hotel room. He quickly downed his breakfast smoothie and made his way to look through the peephole to see Y/N standing outside waiting patiently. He unlocked the door and let her in.

“Hey. How was your flight?” She asked as she kissed his cheek in greeting.

Oikawa felt his face get warm and tried not to get too excited over the fact that she had kissed him. He knew it was part of the friendly culture, but he couldn’t help the flutters that erupted from the gesture.

“Not too bad. Only two hours long.”

“Hope you’re ready to practice today. My friends and I have a court set up at Praia de Santa Rita. It’s a private beach we reserved and afterwards there are tons of restaurants we can go to for dinner,” Y/N said as she looked around the fancy hotel he had booked. He smirked at her reaction of course he deserved nothing but the best.

The two of them stepped out of the hotel and his eyes widened at the sight of her large jeep. Y/N jumped in and waved him inside. He carefully maneuvered himself in, hopefully, she wouldn’t drive too crazily.

“Put on your seat belt, you’ll need it!” Y/N screamed gleefully, and she revved up her jeep before pulling out of the parking lot. Oikawa’s nails dug into the seat’s handles while he held on tightly as she swerved around the tight corners without slowing down. His face continued to pale as she kept driving before finally pulling next to a beach. He carefully let himself out and his legs felt like jelly.

Oikawa gasped out, “y/n, please don’t ever drive again for everyone’s safety.”

He only heard the remnants of her door slamming and her giggles while she walked away. Oikawa followed her coming onto a rest area.

“Ok, this is where the restrooms and locker rooms are. So, get changed if you need to and then just follow the signs down to the beach,” she told him before heading inside herself with a small bag in her hand. He himself had brought along a change of clothes some shorts and a tank top with some sunscreen. Oikawa learned the hard way how important sunscreen was under the intense sun here when he turned into a lobster. After getting changed he found himself on the warm sand with the hot sun beating on his head. There was a volleyball net set up in the middle of the sand and there was a small group there getting warmed up as they spiked the ball from one side to the other.

“Hey! Good you’re here now we can get started,” a voice called from behind him. He turned around to see Y/N dressed in a small violet bikini which left little to the imagination. Her toned body and caramel skin caused his own body to burn with undisguised want.

“Are you playing in that?” He yelped.

Y/N looked down at her bikini confused, not seeing anything wrong with it.

“Yeah? What else would I wear? I mean sand gets everywhere. I can’t exactly wear a volleyball uniform on the beach,” she said with teasingly.

The flush on his cheek became brighter and he couldn’t exactly blame this on the hot sun either.

“So, what do you know about professional beach volleyball, Toru?”

His face immediately blossomed with a smile. He still wasn’t used to people openly calling him by his first name without honorifics despite being out of Japan for a few years now. But with Y/N it sounded natural and perfect coming out of her mouth. Though she didn’t exactly pronounce his name correctly, she rolled the rs too much. Oikawa never tried to correct her because he found her pronunciation absolutely sensual.

“Aren’t the rules mostly the same?”

Y/N shook her head. “Not exactly. A beach volleyball court is smaller and instead of six players, there are only two. Meaning only me and you are going to protect the entire court. There are no setters, liberos, or blockers. The two players usually divide it into two sides, protecting the left and the right. Beach volleyball games are usually faster, and it's usually played to 21 points instead of 25.”

Oikawa now understood why Lucas had readily volunteered him to become her partner. It would require time and dedication to become decent at the game which he was all too ready to bestow on her.

“Is that all?” he asked looking down at her.

Suddenly, he heard loud yells as the ball headed towards their area and he instinctively grabbed it before it hit either of them. But as soon as he touched it, the ball felt weird. It was lighter and bigger than the average volleyball.

“Oh, and the volleyball is different as you can see.”

Y/N patted his back and said, “come on. Let’s start.”

There were two other girls on one side of the court while he and Y/N occupied the other. She passed off the ball to him for his serve. Y/N went to stand in the top left while he served from the right baseline. He was just about to toss up the ball when he noticed something incredible.

Oikawa bit his lip to contain his groan, the sight was pure torture. It wasn’t fair to him and really any man. Y/N was standing in front of him with her knees bent, ready to receive any serve coming her way. There wasn’t anything wrong with her stance, in fact, if she was wearing her volleyball uniform, she would be doing her job like any other volleyball player professional or otherwise. However, in her bikini the forbidden scene made him feel like the worst type of peeping tom. But he couldn’t help it as he messed with the ball in his hand. Her position was perfect for him to saddle up behind her and press his cock against her clothed cunt. Her round ass cheeks were entirely exposed as the bikini bottoms were stretched against her body and the vaginal lips were apparent even against the dark purple fabric.

Which genius made it a thing to play volleyball in bikinis? Whoever it was Oikawa wanted to strangle and thank them from the bottom of his heart all at the same time.

He jerked his face away from Y/N’s body and tossed the ball in the air only to completely miss. The ball just tumbled a few feet from his person. Y/N turned around to give him a concerned look and gave him a thumbs up.

“It’s ok!” she yelled out before focusing back on her opponents.  “Keep going!”

‘Don’t look. Don’t look. D-O-N-T! LOOK! Ah fuck it,’ he thought as his eyes went right back to her ass. Honestly, he thought about possible sex with Y/N multiple times, but they were always fantasies with her on the bottom or on top riding him. But never from behind, clearly, he didn’t know what he was missing. His breath hitched when she bent down just a little further before righting herself again. He could probably call for an impromptu break and take her to the side for a private conversation. Maybe finally have that kiss they’ve both been craving for a long time before pushing her against a wall or a tree. He could hike her legs around him and fuck her until her voice was hoarse from screaming his name while her cunt creamed on his cock.

“Come on, Toru! Let’s go!” Y/N yelled as she effectively ruined his daydreams.

Ok, he had to focus now. Absolutely. The ball was once again in the air and he hit it with his palm only for it to hit the net. ….

Was it possible to bury only the face in the sand? He might have a need for that in just a few minutes.

Just as he was about to serve again his eyes wandered right back to Y/N’s backside, but this time she turned around at the same time to meet his eyes. His eyes widened and he quickly faced the front once more.

“Time out!” he heard Y/N say.

Y/N quickly walked towards Oikawa and stared him down.

“Have you been staring at my ass this entire time?”

He swallowed and coolly responded with a “no.”

“I’m not stupid, Toru! Is this going to be a problem for you?” she asked with her arms crossed and stern.

There was no point in lying, she already caught him red-handed so instead, he shrugged.

“It’s not my fault the view’s just too good. I’m only a man,” he said with a low voice.

“Y-you!” She seemed flabbergasted and amused at the same time. Y/N let out a snort and chuckled a few times before snatching the ball from his hands.

“Just go block for now. I’ll serve.” Y/N pointed to the same spot she herself was standing at. Oikawa being entirely shameless just ran his fingers through his hair and winked at Y/N before taking his spot at the front. The two women that were their opponents seemed to be hysterically giggling as well, guess he wasn’t as subtle as he thought he was. So, Oikawa just waved at them good-naturedly and readied himself for a rally.

It looked like Y/N wasn’t as distracted as him because she served without any problems and the game continued. It was much more difficult than he initially thought. While indoor volleyball was a team effort and everyone had to do their part, now Oikawa was responsible for everything. He was running around diving for the ball like a libero and even doing his own spikes as Y/N set a toss perfectly for him. Before he knew it, the game cycled through 6 sets faster than he was used to. That was another thing he noticed beach volleyball’s sets were much faster paced. Usually, he would take his time to dissect and figure out the opponent’s weaknesses before setting up tosses for his team. Now he had no time for that as he dived and ran after the lighter ball. Not only that he had to consider the weather, but the winds were also messing up his shots. Each time he aimed for the tight corners they would get blown out of bounds. Beach volleyball wasn’t harder necessarily, but it was definitely a challenge to learn.

After a couple more sets, Y/N called for a break. She handed him a cold-water bottle from the cooler while she drank some Gatorade.

“So, how long have you been playing beach volleyball?” he asked after swallowing the refreshing water.

“As long as I’ve been playing volleyball. It’s part of the Brazilian team’s routine. Playing beach volleyball actually makes you a better, well-rounded player,” she said as she put the tightened the Gatorade’s lid on and put it back in the cooler.

Y/N stepped closer to him and leaned into his face.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you staring at my ass. I can’t have you missing your serves during the tournament,” She snickered, he felt her hot breath against his ears, causing shivers to erupt across his body.

Oikawa just leaned in even closer, deliberately eyeing her lips for a moment before staring back in her eyes.

“And what exactly do you plan on doing if I don’t stop?”

Instead of getting flustered and putting space in-between them, she instead stepped even closer to him and blinked innocently at him, her eyes dilating and enrapturing him.

“Behave and if you’re a good boy. I’ll reward you, promise,” she muttered just low enough for him to barely hear.

Y/N pecked his cheek and she lingered there for a moment, he could bask in her closeness and smell the remnants of the shampoo from her long hair.

“Y/N! Come on let’s play again,” her friend shouted from halfway across the court.

“Looks like time’s up. I’ll let you serve this time,” Y/N giggled and ran back to start the game again.

Oikawa felt embarrassment choking him on the inside and vowed not to mess up too badly again. He made his way back to the court and grabbed the ball, he deliberately didn’t look at Y/N as she once stood at the front to block. This time he hit one of his more powerful serves and found that most of the power didn’t transfer over to the ball, but he was able to slightly control the ball better this time. The rally continued on until the sun had turned orange and was about to set. Eventually, the group decided on another date they could meet up and practice again for the tournament.

When everything was packed up and put away, he and Y/N made their trek back up the beach to the resting area again.

“Hey, since we won’t be able to practice until next Saturday again. What say me and you practice by ourselves?”

Y/N looked up from her phone and nodded affirmatively.

“Sounds like a good idea. Practice matches once a week probably won’t help unless we get some practice of our own.”

Oikawa bit his lip, hesitating for a minute before asking her.

“Also, since I’m here, you mind showing me around? This is the first time I’ve been to Brazil.”

Y/N again nodded but with more enthusiasm this time as she regaled about tales of the amazing tourist spots and restaurants they could explore in their free time. The two of them went inside the rest area and he went into the men’s locker room to take a quick shower before changing into his clothes.  Just as he stripped down and stepped into the shower, he heard a crash and scream coming from the hallway. He turned off the water and tugged a fluffy towel around his waist before walking to track down whatever made the sound. When he walked out to an empty building, he heard Y/N’s voice distinctly cursing coming from the women’s locker room.

“Y/N? You alright?” Oikawa called out, he waited for a few minutes to hear her reply and when she didn’t respond he stepped inside. He peeked inside carefully just in case there were women walking around. He heard some clutter falling onto the floor a few feet away so following the noise he found Y/N in a towel trying to pick up her items.

“You ok?” he asked concerned. Y/N startled and lost her balance, tumbling onto the locker room’s floor.

“Toru, what are you doing in here? This is a woman’s locker room.”

“I know I thought I heard a woman screaming and then I heard your voice, so I came to check if you were ok.”

She sighed and pushed her dripping wet hair from her face. “Yeah, I’m ok I slipped in the shower, and then I realized I brought my phone into the shower, so I came to put it away, only to drop everything inside of my bag.”

Oikawa was about to bend down and help. “Here let me help.”

Y/N held up her hand and replied, “it’s ok I got it.” She gathered all her items and put it all away along with her phone.

Just as she was about to get up, the water that had been dripping from her body and hair gathered on the floor and made the tiles slick. Her foot slipped and she was about to hit the ground hard when Oikawa grabbed her in time before she could. However, Y/N lost her hold on the towel around her body and it exposed her chest and curves to his naked eyes. He quickly turned his head away while keeping a secure grip on her.

“Ahh! Don’t look!” she screamed and slapped her hands over her breasts. “Did you see anything?”

Oikawa swallowed and wished he could tell her no, but he sort of caught a glimpse at the body he had been craving to touch and feast his eyes on since he met her. So, he should opt to keep quiet.

“It’s ok, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before!” Except he panicked and opened his mouth.

“What does that even mean you jerk!” He could feel her try to pull away from his arms.

“Wait that came out wrong, I swear!”

Oikawa turned back around and felt blindsided by Y/N’s beauty. She was soaked to the bone, but never did she look more beautiful to him than in that moment.

“You’re so….” He trailed off. She looked at him a little confused and quit trying to pull away.

“So what?”

He leaned in and caressed her cheek. Oikawa didn’t finish his sentence and instead just connected their two lips. As he sensually captured her lips, Y/N eagerly responded back to him as if she had been desperately waiting for this just like he was. Keeping one hand on her chin to angle her face, his other hand traveled down to her naked bosom. He reverently caressed and tweaked her dusky peaks while expertly maneuvering the kiss. Y/N whimpered with want when his tongue brushed up against hers. He smirked at her reactions as her breathing started getting more erratic and her cute noises became louder and louder. They only broke apart when he heard people approaching the locker rooms.

Just as Oikawa was about to move away from Y/N, she grabbed his hand.

“The far-left shower at the end,” she jerked her head towards it.

He smiled with excitement knowing that she wanted to continue as much as he did. Grabbing and picking her up like she weighed nothing, he hurried to the shower and tugged the shower curtain shut.

Just in time too as he could hear women laughing and talking in Portuguese.

“Y/N, você está aqui?” a woman called out.

Y/N for her part looked startled at being addressed and pushed away Oikawa’s hands that were still playing with her chest.

“Sim, ainda estou aqui,” Y/N responded in a clear voice. She shot a warning look to Oikawa as his hands found themselves back on her hips and making their way back up. He only cheekily smirked at her and returned to pawing at her cleavage.  She waited for a few minutes to hear her friend’s footsteps retreating before pulling Oikawa closer and aggressively kissing him. He tugged the towel around his waist off and hiked Y/N’s silky legs around him.

He carefully maneuvered to turn the shower’s knob and set her against the wall while a jet of hot water poured over them. And Oikawa went right back to devouring her mouth and grinding against her hot cunt. As soon as his cock made contact with her tingling clit, Y/N’s body spasmed and she tried to tug him closer. Her ankles interlocked at his waist and she tried to thrust below to encourage him to enter her. But he only chuckled at her excitement and continued to slowly slide back and forth. Y/N forgetting for a moment where she was exactly, enraged by his teasing smacked his thigh loudly enough to echo in the locker room.  Oikawa let out a low grunt and thrust full throttle into her. Her eyes widened at the sudden entry and she couldn’t even contemplate the fullness before he withdrew quickly once again.

“Fode me o meu amor,” Y/N begged.

Oh, that just wasn’t playing fair. He didn’t know what she said but her breathless voice and her needy eyes made him helpless.

 As if he could no longer bear to be apart without the drenched enclosed intimacy, he reentered without warning. Oikawa fucked her with the same hell-bent concentration he played volleyball with. She covered her mouth with her hand to contain the moans, that only muffled the noises rather than stopping them completely. The faster pace caused Y/N to skid up and down on the shower walls. She tried to find purchase against the tiles, but the hot water droplets caused her to loosen the grip. His breathing got heavier and uneven, why was it he could handle hours of volleyball, but the vise grip of her cunt made him want to spill inside of her like an immature adolescent?  He removed her hand covering her moist lips and thoroughly kissed her. He swallowed her moans and they stood in the shower making love for god knows how long. His hand found her engorged clit and his middle finger started pressing slow circle while his thumb and point finger started pinching it in time to his thrusts. Just as she was about to cum, Y/N buried her face in his neck. She bit down hard on his shoulder trying to contain the shrieks she wanted to let out. It wasn’t long before her spiral started to pull him as well, the constriction creating a perfecting suction to swallow his juices. He placed a hand on the wall to stabilize himself just before he pulled out of her and came all over her thighs. The water soon washed away all the evidence of their tryst as it flowed down the drain.

“Does the hot water feel that good?” Y/N’s friend called out. Soon of the other ladies started giggling and laughing along. “We’re leaving! See ya, Y/N!”

The two of them didn’t move from their spot until they heard the sounds of lockers being shut and the ladies’ voices being fading further and further away.

“I think they knew…” Y/N gasped a little embarrassed and horrified.

On the other hand, Oikawa kept smiling like a goof. “I love beach volleyball now! It’s my favorite kind.”

She let out a frustrated groan. “Just get out of my way. I need to get dressed before I prune even more.”

“Maybe next time you should call me papi,” he hollered out as Y/N started to dry herself and got dressed.

“There won’t be a next time if you don’t get your butt dressed soon or I’ll leave you behind.”

Y/n when she was all dressed up and ready to go, waited for him outside of the resting area. He came out joyfully whistling away and ready to leave. Oikawa slung his arm over Y/N’s shoulder and pulled her close. He was finally taking the chance to get closer to her like he always wanted.

“You’re going to be a handful, aren’t you?” she asked tickled with his antics.

He leaned in and pecked her forehead. “You know it,” Oikawa said with a wink.

[princesskokichi]

shuichi, keebo, fuyuhiko, kiyotaka, and izuru asking their crush to call them by their first name

ahh, i had so much fun writing this ! 

yes, i know keebo doesn’t have a last name.

don’t judge me

he babie - mod kokichi

[ S H U I C H I ]

- this !!! he was going to do this today !

- he talked to each one of his best friends individually to see what they would say

- and they all agreed with him that s / o was totally into him !!

- which is so good but,,

- how would he tell you ?

- would he write it out in a note and give it to you ? profess it loudly ? tell you in a quiet way ?

- he pondered this for the longest time

- in the end, he decided to do something subtle about the change in the relationship

- well, not really subtle, but it was the best choice that he could think of that almost couldn't end in failure.

- he got so excited that he could hardly wait !! so he decided that he was going to do his thing tomorrow !

- during the lunch break at school, you were sitting with him as usual

- kaede had been absent that day, and she usually helped you with your math homework

- maki and kaito decided they were going to pick up snacks from the vending machines, so it was just the two of you

- s / o : "saihara-kun, can you help me with my math homework today ? i don't exactly understand it,, "

- he fluctuated in his resolve for a moment, almost wanting to drop the subject all together and just help you with your math

- but he wouldn't allow himself to give up that easily, or else he had 03 friends who would personally seek the end of him

- shuichi : " hey, i can but, can you do me a favor ? "

- s / o : " i can do everything but help you with your math homework, saihara-kun. "

- shuichi : " can you, uh, can you,, canyoucallmebymyfirstname ? with, uhm,, without honorifics,"

- he spoke really fast, his words conjoined together and it went over your head for a moment

- s / o :  " h-huh ? why would i do that ? "

- shuichi : " well, we're close aren't we ? ah, nevermind, it's okay. forget i said anything. "

- you stayed silent for a little while, and shuichi was really starting to rethink his entire approach to this situation

- maki and kaito came back, munching on foods

- maki : " so ? how is everything. "

- s / o : " shuichi is going to teach me my math homework. "

- he visibly lost 05 years off his lifespan, but in a good way

- shuichi : " is it okay if i come visit you at your place today to tutor you, s / o ? "

[ K E E B O ]

( i changed it up a little for his, i hope that's okay ,, )

- he was always constantly learning about the world around him

- in school, he got really surprised to see the use of honorifics and last names

- in fact, he once called his teacher by their first name without honorifics and got detention for two days for that

- after that little mistake, he took it upon himself to learn what he didn't know about the japanese culture and their understanding of names

- while he believed the word of the internet and all of his sources, he felt like this kind of thing was better to consult a person who grew up in this society would be

- so he asked you, one of his best friends, about it

- you explained to him that first names were reserved for people you were close with

- and that honorifics showed respect for those of higher positions, age, or others

- he had asked a ton of questions that night, pretty amazed at how much knowledge you possessed on the subject and how well you presented it

- after that, he would come to you whenever he had a question about the japanese society that he didn't understand

- which was pretty often tbh he's an inquisitive boy

- after a few months of talking to you almost daily, he started to feel weird, like his circuits were heating up

- even though he knew it was irrational, he wanted to spend as much time as possible with you

- he wanted,, to be closer to you

- he consulted miu with this question, purely because she was the ult inventor after all

- she told him that he was catching feelings

-,,in miu's own way, but it was understandable

- he was a little surprised afterwords

- he was,, romantically attracted to you ? that's surprising

- he had to tell you, in a way he knew you would appreciate

- he texted you to meet him at the park immediately after his meeting with miu, and waited there for you to arrive

- when he saw you, he jumped out of the bench he was sitting at

- keebo : " s / o ! i have come to a startling conclusion, and i want you to listen to me for a moment. "

- you flushed up, telling yourself that he just forgot how last names work in japan.

- s / o : " ah, i'm listening senpai. "

- keebo : " i want to call you by your first name instead of l / n-san. if you,, if you want. "

- oh, he didn't just forget,,

- s / o : " that's pretty bold, senpai. and a little unexpected. "

- his gaze was unfaltering, watching you with expectation as he gathered his next sentence.

- keebo : " will you accept this change ? "

- s / o : " yeah. yeah, i do, keebo. "

[ F U Y U H I K O ]

- he really didn't give a shit about respect or anything like that

- of course, he never really used last names, either

- most of the times, he just called a person a curse word to refer to them

- well, that is most of the time

- and then you came by into his life, and he forgot all about that act of his

- he was never prim and proper, but he was respectful to you, which meant a lot coming from a guy who likes his persona of an asshole

- mainly, he followed your lead

- if you would call him a nickname, he had a nickname for you

- if you called him by his last name, he would call you by your last name

- but the thing is, you never went past the respectful way of referring to him

- so all of these nicknames and playful things he had prepared to call you were completely useless

- unless  you decided you wanted to be closer than just respectful friends

- if he did it, he felt like he was just going to sound like his usual asshole self and you wouldn't think much of it

- or worse

- you'd think less of him, and that's something he does not want

- so he waited

- and waited

- and waited

- until he literally could not wait anymore

- he paced back and forth in his bedroom, peko barely paying attention to him as she read her book

- fuyuhiko : " how do i show that bi-i, uh, l / n-san,, , that i want to be more than just typical friends with them ? "

- peko : " have you tried asking them ? "

- fuyuhiko : " asking them what ? "

- peko : " to call you by your first name and not your family name. have you tried that ? "

- fuyuhiko : " ,, peko, you are a genius ! "

- peko : " i know i am. "

- even though he was getting frustrated with the situation, it still took him nearly a week to get the courage to ask you

- and even then, it was only because it was the heat of the moment

- you'd been playing with him the entire day, poking his cheek or his shoulder and whispering " kuzuryu-kun, pay attention to meee "

- s / o, while poking his cheek : " kuzuryu-kun, kuzuryu-kun, kuzuryu-kun, kuzu- "

- fuyuhiko : " i'll pay attention to you if you call me by my name, geez ! it's annoying to hear you say " kuzuryu-kun " so often. "

- you stopped in your tracks for a moment, your face incredibly red and nervous.

- and then

- s / o : " fuyuhiko, fuyuhiko, fuyuhiko, fuyuhiko, fuyuhi- "

- ah, yes, true love

[ K I Y O T A K A ]

- he upheld standards really well

- okay, maybe not just " really well "

- he lives nearly every day of his life adhering to the rules, both of society and school

- so he took stuff like that very seriously

- in fact, you two knew each other for more than a year before he even started to get the idea of changing from just polite friends to closer than such

- the idea came to him while he was talking to you at the library

- taka : " ah, i think cereal is the most adequate food to eat for breakfast, what do you think s / - i mean ! l / n -san ! "

- you had flushed up red immediately, but not nearly as red as he was

- he could not believe that he almost screwed up like that, seriously

- both you and him pretended like that little slip up never happened for the entire time at the library

- and for the next week, it was back to normal

- well, as normal as it was going to get at hope's peak academy

- until one night, you finally texted him

- it was completely out of the blue at nearly nine pm, just barely an hour before he went to sleep

- s / o : " hey, remember that day at the library ? "

- he almost threw his phone, oh gosh darnit

- taka : " yeah, sure do. what's this about suddenly ? "

- s / o : " well, i just wanted to know,,, why did you almost call me by my given name ? "

- taka : " i was not thinking ! i apologize if i overstepped my boundaries, l / n-san ! "

- s / o : " no, just checking. well, its getting late, i should be going to sleep. goodnight kiyotaka. "

- after reading that text nearly a million times

- he finally came to the conclusion that yes, indeed, you did say that

-  and now he had to do something about it

- at school the next day, while walking to his locker, he saw you reading your textbook to get an early start for your language class

- taka : " hey, l / n-san !"

- s / o : " oh, ishimaru-kun ! hi ! "

- he sat down beside you on the bench, reading your book slightly

- taka : " i have a favor to ask of you ! please, refer to me as kiyotaka ! in the same context, i will refer to you as s / o ! ,,, if that is acceptable ? "

- s / o : " ah ! i can do that, kiyo ! "

- taka : " now, let's get to class, i don't want to be late. "

- s / o : " we have ten minutes before class starts. "

[ I Z U R U ]

- listen, i know the request said " shy boys " but izuru just got stuck in my head and wouldn't let me write this without writing him, so here he is

- first things first that he does not care about being proper

- literally, it mattered zero to him

- however, he still stuck to calling everyone [ last name ]-san, purely because he didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea about him or any of his friends that he talked to on a daily basis

- one time that happened with chiaki where a rumor was being spread that he was in a romantic relationship with her and she almost killed him on the spot upon learning of it

- he doesn't fear death, but he fears chiaki

- just a little bit tho

- so while it didn't matter to him, he still got used to saying it

- however, when you joined the group, he wanted to call you by simpler terms for a different reason

- he spent a long time trying to figure out what was wrong with him when he talked to you

- he would feel his face heat up, and it was significantly harder to think of words to say when you were around, even if he wasn't directly talking to you

- and dear god don't get near him or he felt like he was going to combust

- what the fuck were these feelings ?

- even though he was a mess inside, he kept it calm and rational to everyone else

- and by that, i mean he looked like he always did, uncaring about everything in the universe

- since he always seemed like he didn't care, you were known for messing around with him, or more specifically - his hair

- brushing his hair and braiding it seemed to be your favorite pastime

- during lunch, you would sit on the table while he sat down on the bench, and would just brush away with your soft pastel purple brush

- whenever you would, it took everything out of him not to curse at you for,,,

- he didn't know really why he felt like cursing at you

- there were just a lot of feelings in one body, something he wasn't used to

- one day was going very well

- you were idly talking between chiaki and nagito while brushing izuru's hair

- hajime was somewhere, probably retaking a test because he failed his exam last time

- you were humming, trying to pull all of his hair into a ponytail so you could make a few braids in it

- s / o : " kamukura-kun, can you push your hair from your face, i can't reach it - "

- izuru : " must you always play with my hair, s / o ? "

- s / o : " huh ? oh, yeah. yeah, it's kind of mandatory, kamukura-kun. "

- izuru : " my name is izuru. "

- wait, what was he saying ?

- s / o : " k-kamukura-kun,, , "

- izuru : " izuru. "

- you two went back and forth until you finally gave up, giving into his requests

- s / o : " geez, you're so,, ugh ! why do you have to have such nice hair izuru ? "

[disregardcanon]

while i’m thinking about umbrella kids and language learning, i would bet that reginald picked out a group of a few languages that he thought were Most Useful TM based on his particular. uh. WORLDVIEW (cough racism classism cough cough) and didn’t give the kids any say in which language they got. they were nine when they started their second language in their pods.

i put the kids into pods because i think even though reginald’s an asshole who doesn’t understand the value of human interaction he’d know that learning a language in a vacuum is. not ideal. you need someone to bounce off of

so vanya and allison started on russian

luther and klaus started on french (which klaus uses exclusively to try to get people into bed these days because americans think french is sexy)

and then the other three started on japanese. diego was always angry because he had decided he wanted to learn spanish, ben wasn’t mad because whatever but then when he got older he was like... wait... did dad put me on the WRONG east asian language because he’s racist (ben is korean-american like his actor because of course, and he doesn’t even know about the specific colonialism aspects here because he died too early to do the reading himself and KLAUS certainly isn’t doing any research on the historical relationship between japan and korea) and five hasn’t been using that knowledge to watch a ton of anime as a fifty something year old man who was finally allowed back into the land of the living. no SIR.

all of them are good at their second language. they started on the third language when they were twelve, and their mileage varies on how well they retained this one.

vanya and allison working on russian with luther and klaus

klaus and luther working on french with the japanese gang and

the japanese gang working on japanese with vanya and allison

vanya and allison were both pretty into learning languages so they helped luther get very good because he was Studious TM but klaus was incredibly done with the whole affair by that point so his russian is very spotty at this point. he mainly talked allison into gossiping while vanya and luther were working (allison didn’t really mind because it was just klaus’s loss- not hers) 

when the french gang is teaching the japanese gang french, it’s luther trying VERY hard to teach (which he’s not very good at) and klaus cracking jokes which diego and ben are very entertained by. it mostly descends into klaus, ben, and diego goofing. and then five goofing off too because he’s a very fast learner. and luther being frustrated because we’re supposed to be WORKING

five knows a LOT of japanese but he’s not a very good teacher. ben is the best at the teaching aspect and since vanya and allison are both pretty interested they’re able to work things out with five’s depth of knowledge and ben’s patience. diego is doing “research” on samurai that he SWEARS is going to be helpful to their learning. it isn’t, but it makes him happy so no one complains. he wasn’t really contributing anyways.

five disappears right before they form the FOURTH language groups and reginald doesn’t make any changes based on five not being there. or even comment on it. fourth language groups are the same but backwards.

luther tries very hard to teach the girls french but it’s. uh. since he and allison are doing the incest romance thing and french has CONNOTATIONS it keeps getting.. steamy. klaus is sitting in the corner cracking jokes. vanya has also curled up there and is like. bro. is this really? and he’s like yeah. and they’re like OH MY GOD

the japanese gang is hanging on by a thread. luther is trying very hard to learn while klaus is trying hard to do Anything But TM. diego was never into this so he’s very much just playing with his knives and thinking about how five’s supposed to be here and ben is trying his best but getting distracted by klaus and also thinking about how FIVE IS SUPPOSED TO BE HERE. this is mainly luther looking at kanji in a book and pretending to know what any of it means. he nods sagely while internally going what the FUCK

allison and vanya are both messed up when they work with the japanese group because diego is not interested in learning russian, ben is trying his hardest but just isn’t on his game, and really. no one is. because five is supposed to be there and he isn’t. they don’t actively goof off, but things are not going well for learning russian because everything is wrong.

SO! how well the kids learned the languages! 

1. luther: approaching fluent in french, passable in russian, and then has more japanese than the average american. his level of japanese is like.. base level weeb who has just decided to learn and hasn’t done much of the legwork yet

2. diego has pretty strong japanese, bits and pieces of french, and can like. identify russian letters. maybe get through a few levels on duolingo. it’s not a lot

3. allison IS fluent in russian, don’t even test her. her japanese is strong and her french is too. she kept working on all of them after leaving the academy and then picked up a few more. this girl is a polyglot

4. klaus has enough french to flirt and basically none of the other two. he can identify the sound of the other two and knows what it looks like on a page. maybe could ask where the bathroom is in the other two

5. VERY good japanese, solid french and no russian, solely because he never had the chance to learn

6. VERY good japanese and then he’s got pretty good french and the amount of russian an american would have if they took two years in school and didn’t use it much

7. VERY good russian and solid in the other two. she didn’t pick up any other languages after leaving the academy, but she really kept up her other languages. trying to make her way as a violinist she’s done a few poorly paying tours in europe so her russian and french served her very well there.

[serendipityjxmn]

I Hate You, Park Jimin!

Chapter 23

Words Count: 3.1k

TW: Very slight sexual innuendo

Link to Chapter 22

Link to Chapter 24

I didn’t know where to go. I almost choked in my own tears until I felt Jimin’s presence beside me and I instantly relaxed.

“Baby.. you okay..?”

I shook my head.

“Do you wanna leave this place?”

I nodded quickly.

He nodded and wasted no time taking me away, from that place.

We were back in his apartment not long after. But as soon as we arrived, he only told me to quickly take a shower and wear something comfortable and warm since we’re going out. I told him I don’t have the energy nor the mood to do so but he just shot me a glare and told me I only have five minutes.

“Airport?” I almost shrieked when the car pulled over at the familiar place half an hour later. “Why are we heading to the airport?!”

Jimin almost jumped at my sudden outburst since I was brooding in silence during the whole ride in the car until now.

“Get out, now or we’ll miss our plane.”

I hesitantly took a step out of the car and suddenly the horror hit me that I didn’t pack a single thing. Jimin on the other hand seemed determined to whisk me away and not giving me a second to think.

“Jimin! I literally packed nothing! Where are we going anyway? Jimin answer me!” I stopped walking, forcing him to give me attention.

He stopped short too but then rolled his eyes at me. “Babe, we’ll buy everything you need. You don’t have to worry about anything, okay?”

“I don’t want to buy everything! I don’t want to buy shirts and everything, I already have tons of them!”

“Well, you can just go around naked then. Personally, I don’t mind.” He winked then pulled my wrist.

“Jimin!”

“Babe, seriously, you can grill me everything you want. But right now, we need to get on the airplane okay babe?” He tugged me and I gave up so I just followed him.

I glanced at the boarding pass he handed me and my eyes widened. Japan?! He bought a ticket to Japan?!

Did he really just booked a ticket to Japan just because... because of what?

“Jimin why are we going to Japan?” I asked him as soon as we both took our seat. And of course, with Jimin, we got on First Class cabin. It was my first time flying in First Class.

“Why not? I like Japan,” was his only answer.

I shook my head. We were too far to sit together. I pouted slightly.

But soon after I was deep asleep only to be woken up by the announcement made by the pilot that we’ll be arriving soon. Groggily, I looked to my side and saw Jimin playing with his phone.

I briefly wondered if he’s tired as well. It must’ve been past midnight. Was he not sleepy at all?

When we arrived, a sleek black Range Rover picked us up and we rode silently towards wherever our accommodation was. I swore Jimin won’t tell me anything.

We stopped outside a tall and luxurious looking building. It was only now that I noticed Jimin had packed a small suitcase but it was attended by the bellboy immediately. He laced his fingers with mine and I just followed suit silently. He released me for a while to settle things at the reception, speaking in fluent Japanese that I fell in love a thousand times during the time though I was keen not to show it. Once everything was settled, he went back towards me and keeping his firm arms around my waist, he guided me towards our hotel room.

Entering the hotel room- scratch that. It was basically a luxurious premium suite. Well designed and fitted with traditional wooden Japanese interior, it was nothing short of modern beauty. The expansive suite had everything- spacious living room that features rich decor and the jaw dropping floor to ceiling windows with night view of Tokyo, the large bathroom that has yet to be explored (though I managed to note the lack of doors and opaque walls the bathroom has). Walking further inside with Jimin’s guide, the spacious living room leads directly to a huge double glass sliding doors, which I immediately deduced as the bedroom. The interior was simply stunning- a King size bed with dimly lit lights, hmm such an inviting atmosphere for something romantic. The bedroom’s wall were too filled with floor to ceiling windows that accentuates the spectacular view of Tokyo’s city.

As soon as I placed my small handbag on the edge of the bed, I felt strong, firm hands encircling my waist from behind. Almost immediately, I felt Jimin’s hot breath on my neck, raising all the hairs on my body.

He was slowly leaving soft, lithe kisses on my neck and I had to fight the urge to release a moan.

“Jimin-” I called, intending to stop him before I became a mess underneath his touch. I craved comfort from him, I wanted his touch that usually calms my anxiety, but not right now. As much as I want to lean into his touch, I need to keep a firm still since we have things to discuss and matters to be addressed. It proved difficult with his hands that’s started to roam over my stomach, his right hand dangerously close to my breast. “Jimin-“ I called him, trying to push his hands away that had now went on a mission to travel south.

“Baby..” he whispered seductively and I almost combusted.

Taking a deep breath then holding it as if not smelling his scent would somehow make me focus better, I managed to croak, “Jimin go shower.”

He didn’t stop any of his acts though. Instead his lips were now nibbling in my ear, making me shudder. “Shower with me?” He asked, voice dropping seven octaves lower.

I gulped but then proceeded to hold his hands more firmly this time. “No.” I shook my head and took the chance of him being unguarded to step away out of his embrace. Though I wasn’t looking at him, I could feel his stare boring into me from behind.

He let out a sigh. I turned around to see him pouting and almost jumped to throw my hands around him or bite into his adorable cheeks. I shook my head once again at him. I had a feeling that if I joined him in the shower.. there’s only one way how the night would end.

He just hummed a slow and somehow sad response but still made his way to the bathroom alone. Hearing the shower being turned on, I almost went back on my decision and join him in the shower. It sounded so inviting but I was tired enough and I’ve already showered few hours ago.

I could do for a quick refreshing bath but I was pretty exhausted that my eyes felt heavy enough. It doesn’t help that the bed looks so comfy.

I took my breath then proceeded towards the small suitcase Jimin brought before I could succumb to the bed’s invitation. A small gasp of surprise left me as I saw my black satin nightdress neatly folded on the edge of the carrier together with some of my lace undergarments. I looked through again and found a pair of blue jeans and a simple blouse which should be enough to be worn tomorrow if we’re going out. Jimin also packed enough for a day as well. I wonder if we were only going to stay for a night but if we weren’t, we definitely have to buy clothes tomorrow.

Not wanting to waste any time or risking Jimin walking out on me naked, I quickly strip myself out of my pants and hoodie as well as my bra, leaving only my panties on before wearing my nightdress. The hem of the dress stopped to cover my ass enough and certainly fitted with me to accentuate the little curves I have. It somehow made me feel hot.

It certainly wasn’t helping when I came to the complete realisation that the bathroom’s walls were all but transparent enough for me to make out Jimin’s silhouette. I had a feeling that if there wasn’t any fog from the water heater, I can clearly see his glorious naked body. I gulped, feeling hotter now than ever.

God, this isn’t the time! Blame Jimin for packing this nightgowm for me where the thin straps can fall off at the slightest movement I do and the lack of privacy the bathroom seems to have. See, people, expensive things does not always mean better.

Taking my breath, I crawled over the bed and settled underneath the duvet. My body shivered from the contact since the linens had not warmed up yet and at that exact same time, I heard the shower being turned off. I stared at Jimin’s silhouette that was now wrapping his towel around his body. I had a feeling from the way he was sauntering it was as if he was trying to tempt me into the depth of sin while half naked.

I gulped when he exited the bathroom. Looking glorious as ever with his wet hair, his perfectly toned body, those extremely sensual and deep V curves on each side of his waist, the way the small beads of water clung to his body, the line of hairs that settled on the lower part of his abdomen.. leading south... where it was loosely wrapped with towel it’s a wonder it doesn’t fall off-

“You know, if you like the view so much, you know you can just tell me, right Ms. Kim Hana?” Goddamnit, he was smirking at me when I finally dragged my greedy eyes to meet his.

Blushing, I looked down on my lap and pulled the duvet further up, concealing me completely.

Jimin moved towards the bed, towards me and within seconds he was right beside the table, towering me. A high pitched brief scream escaped me when his face went straight towards me and I caught his wicked smile when he lean in even closer, one of his knee coming to rest on the bed. I tilted my own body backwards towards the headboard and when Jimin doesn’t seem to stop his invasion of my space, I turned my body so my back had more space to even go backwards.

My eyes widened when I felt the bed dipping with both of his knees now on top, hands on either side of my face, mischievous gleaming in his eyes as I fell on my back, flat on the bed and his face is dangerously close to me, hovering and all hot breath against me.

Heart racing, Jimin’s face leaned even closer and when I thought our lips were going to meet, he pulled back, clearly amused.

Opening my eyes, I saw his hand holding his grey sweatpants that I had taken out from the carrier and placed on the other side of the bed for him to wear. It turned out he was only using me to get to his pants when he could’ve just went to the other side of the bed.

I awkwardly looked at everywhere but him as he put his pants on. Why was I back to being shy with him? We’ve honestly did everything together..

Oh, I know why. I was currently trying hard to show I wasn’t affected since I was not in the mood while Jimin’s on the complete opposite pole, trying to tempt me with his all too hot body. I silently curse him in my head.

“Hmm. Where’s my shirt?”

I gulped when I turned to look at him. How on earth does he makes wearing only a sweatpants looked so delicious and so tempting- “You’re the one who didn’t pack them.” I told him accusingly.

He looked at me, smiling teasingly. He then lunged towards me all too sudden and I was screaming, desperately trying to pull him off my lap and pushing him aside. But my efforts went straight into the drain as his lips met mine in a soft lip-lock, patient yet urgent enough to try and persuade me to give in.

“Jimin-“ I tried calling him as soon as he pulled away for breath. “We need to talk.” I said. But the only response was him meeting my eyes for a very brief moment then leaning back forward to kiss me again, even more passionately and his tongue strikes to ask for permission which I let in almost immediately. How could I not with his expert tongue knowing exactly how my lips work although my brain is telling me to stop him now.

A soft moan involuntarily escaped me when I felt his hands on my neck, holding them firmly before his fingers slid my shoulder strap down, further revealing the curves of my breast.

“God-“ he pulled back and I blushed even more fervently. He was kneeling on top of me, thighs on each side of mine and his hands gripping my shoulders, his gaze hot and intense on mine. “How am I supposed to keep myself from taking you in anyway possibly could right here right now when you’re already flushed just by me kissing you and this god forsaken sexy dress of yours?”

I gulped at his words yet unable to deny the wetness pooling down there. “It’s not my fault..” I mumbled.

“The fuck it isn’t.” He growled. He pressed his forehead against mine, breathing slightly labored and whispered, “You will be the death of me, Kim Hana.”

I bit my lips.

“God I wanna bite those lips.” He said and I stopped immediately earning a chuckle from him.

“We need to talk.” I said softly.

His brought his right hand up to caress my cheeks then sighed. Then he lifted himself off me and sat beside me, leaning his head against the headboard too.

“Okay. What do you wanna talk about?” He asked.

I took a deep breath and fixing my shoulder strap, I turned to look at him, feeling nervous to finally address the elephant in the room. He was staring at me intently as if he was ready to hear whatever I was gonna say. Fuck- how do I start.

“Something simple..” he reminded, as always. As if he knew what I was thinking, as if he could read me like an open book.

“About Jungkook...” I began and saw his expression turned into distaste as soon as I mentioned him. “Why didn’t you tell me about him? About who he was?”

He ran a hands through his hair. He looked so handsome although his brows were creasing. “You told me he was your friend. I don’t want you to assume that I was trying to ruin your friendship or something. Plus.. I thought that I should give him a chance. Maybe he just wants to freely befriend people.. without the burden of his family name you know? And he’d tell you about his status on his own someday. Guess he didn’t.” He shrugged then looked at me as if trying to assess my reaction.

I swallowed bitterly. It’s kind of logical, really. In the end, it’s my own fault for wrongly trusting Jungkook. I bit my lip, remembering the amount of times Jimin tried to warn me about him. “Okay.. what about the proposal..? I mean, don’t get me wrong.. I love you.. I do, like really do-“

“I know.” He cut me and when I looked up at him he’s just fondly smiling at me and I can’t help to smile my shy smile back at him.

“I love you but.. it’s just too sudden.. Like I would’ve appreciated it if you’d tell me first in private maybe? I mean, given that I would say yes in a heartbeat but.. you know how I feel in front of so many people in the crowd.. it’s just.. weird.” I finished.

Still looking at me intently, he then took a deep breath. His fingers searched for mine and laced it together after he squeezed it.

“I’m sorry.. I know I should. And I know you must’ve been so surprised by everything. But my dad wanted me to announce right then and there during the party.” He rolled his eyes. “So I had no choice. I’m sorry.”

I remained silent, unsure of what to say next.

“It’s official, but it’s not official official. I know I still have to get permission from your mom..” he laughed.

I widened my eyes and hit him in the shoulder. “You’ll do that! I don’t want to get involved. She’d think I’m blackmailing you or something.”

He chuckled. “You don’t have to worry about that. Your mom loves me.” He winked.

Oh, I don’t doubt that. My mom is a definition of whipped for him. Who isn’t? Though I wouldn’t tell him that and feed more to his ego.

When his hands suddenly went towards my exposed arms, running them up and down giving me shivers, I looked at him.

He was staring at me with a slight curve upwards on the edge of his lips. I knew what that stare meant.

And when he closed the gap between our bodies to plant kisses on my neck, I knew I was right about his intention.

“Anything else you wanna ask, baby?” He asked with his dangerously low voice as he planted a wet, open mouth kiss on the nape of my neck, immediately making a surge of warm liquid pooling down there.

“Jimin- can we.. can we just sleep?” I asked though slightly breathless from his touch.

I thought he wasn’t going to stop but Jimin as always stunned me. He withdrew almost immediately and the loss of his touch was profound and that was a level of twisted.

“Okay.” He said simply then adjusting his own body to lean against the headboard.

“O..kay?”

He smiled at me. “I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do to you. We’re lovers. Not some random one night stand. Consent is important in a relationship.” He must’ve seen the look on my face as he suddenly lean in to plant a kiss on my forehead, hands moving to pull the duvet, further wrapping my body.

He then went towards the switch on his side and switched off the lights.

“Sleep tight baby.” He said and without thinking, I moved towards him and hugged him under the blanket and laid my head on top of his chest.

I couldn’t see him in the dark but I knew he was smiling down at me. He kissed the top of my head and that’s how I went to sleep, smiling like a complete loon realizing how just how lucky I am to have Jimin in my life.

Link to Masterlist

201218 11:49AM