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taexual · 6 years

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HOLIC - 8 | jb x reader

pairing: Im Jaebum x Reader

genre: enemies to lovers au | roommate au

warnings: some strong language + angst

words: 3.1k

disclaimer: i do not own the gif, please let me know if it belongs to you, so i can give proper credit

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Work was awful. It tended to be this way on Tuesdays because that was usually the day when so-called high-class socialites swarmed to art galleries to purchase pieces that’d make their guests think they knew anything about art, and, on top of that, crowds of artists and photographers gathered here, trying to get meetings with every possible staff member, wanting their work exhibited here. But today was bad even by those standards.

At first, the iPad you usually used stopped working. You were informed that they were doing maintenance on the servers today but you didn’t expect the entire system to crash on you just when a particularly pompous woman asked you for more information about one of the photographers whose works she’d enjoyed at the exhibition last week.

You told her the name but she wanted more details that you couldn’t provide her with because no matter what you pressed on the damn tablet, it would only display errors.

“I’m very sorry,” you said, feeling cold sweat wash over you. An epic escalation was awaiting, you could feel it. “We’re having some technical difficulties today, if you could just wait a moment, I—”

“I think I’ve waited enough,” she responded in a thundering voice that almost made you flinch. “I came to an art gallery to buy something from you, did I not? Why am I being forced to wait when I’m not even sure I want to invest in this… artwork, at all.”

Already having learned to be patient with similar snobby attitudes, you gave her an apologetic smile.

“My apologies, ma’am, this should be fixed soon and then I can answer all questions you might have about the photographer,” you said and then tried to get rid of her by sending her to a floor you didn’t work at, “in the meanwhile, could I interest you in the photography exhibition on the second floor? The theme is—”

“I could not care less,” she cut you off again. You understood her irritation so you could forgive her for not really listening to you, but, Jesus Christ, did she have to yell? Her loud voice echoed all through the gallery. “Find me someone who can answer my questions immediately. Or better yet, find me the manager. I refuse to be treated with disrespect by incompetent staff members.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” you said, hating the endless apologies that passed your lips. You wondered if she could tell they were fake. “My manager is the owner of the gallery and he is, unfortunately, away on a business trip. I can direct you to my supervisor, though, if you’d like.”

“You better do that,” she responded, crossing her arms over her chest and nearly scratching herself with the huge, sharp-edged rings on all of her fingers. “And don’t give me attitude. I will not tolerate that.”

You didn’t realize that explaining the hierarchy of the gallery – since she was so eager to talk to someone higher up – was a form of giving her attitude, but, for the sake of not getting kicked out for bad customer service, you nodded wordlessly and guided her across the gallery to where Eva, your supervisor, was having a conversation with one of the new photographers, whose exhibition the gallery was preparing for.

“Eva,” you said, not bothering to address her in a formal way. She wasn’t much older than you and the two of you spent so much time together at work that neither of you bothered with the formalities anymore. “There’s a snobby woman ten steps behind me. She is a nightmare. The system crashed, so I can’t help her, and now she wants to talk to you.”

Eva bit her lip, not particularly happy to be dragged away from the photographer – you tried to get a look at him, but he had turned away, watching the paintings around him instead, while he waited for Eva to give him her attention again.

“Could you keep her occupied for just one moment?” she asked. “I’ll be with her in a second. I’m kind of busy right now.”

“She is a nightmare,” you repeated, emphasizing the word for more effect. “I’m sure she’ll sue us if we don’t accommodate to her wishes right away.”

Eva groaned.

“I swear this is the tenth time this had happened in the past few weeks,” she said, after excusing herself from the photographer, who – aside from being very attractive – was a lot kinder than the snotty, problematic woman. “It’s time the staff here grew some balls. You, included, by the way. It would really take some weight off my shoulders if you just found a way to deal with her without getting me involved.”

Eva – probably – didn’t mean it personally but you took offense. You couldn’t exactly intimidate the woman with your status in the gallery and she wasn’t listening to anything you tried to tell her. On top of that, her loud voice truly gave you the chills. You felt bad for her children if she had any.

Confused what to do with yourself now that you were subtly scolded, you glanced at the photographer next to you, nodded at him as a way to excuse yourself as well – Eva hadn’t asked you to keep him company, after all, and you really wanted to get out of here, anyway – and then headed to the staff room to finally inhale.

The system still wasn’t fixed when your workday came to an end and you were forced to stay up later to help the IT team test out the updates they’d attempted to install after finishing with the maintenance. They had you walk around the gallery and scan the names of the photographs and the paintings while they checked if the system recognized the names and provided the user of the program with all the information about the artwork possible.

You knew this would make your job easier in the long run, but you were completely not in the mood to spend the whole night at the gallery, hence all of the complaining the IT team had to endure from you – they got their revenge on you by constantly criticizing the way you used the tablet, though, and that didn’t really help your self-esteem.

You ended up getting home three hours later than usual and, naturally, feeling three times more exhausted and upset than usual, too. To be honest, you just wanted to jump into the shower – which, you weren’t sure if you’d even enjoy – and then go to sleep. But, aside from not knowing if the hot water was back or not – Jaebum was on the phone with someone when you got home and you haven’t parted on a good note anyway, so you didn’t ask – you also realized you had no idea if the sheets on the mattress in your room were fresh or not. You had initially planned to sleep here because you weren’t in the mood to spend another night in Jaebum’s room, no matter how comfortable his bed was, but he did have sex here last night.

Groaning because you just couldn’t relax today, you walked out of the bedroom and saw Jaebum walking out of his at the same time.

“Did you change the—”

“I called the—”

Both of you had started to talk at the same time and both stopped, watching each other for a moment or two.

“You go,” you told him then. If he had something offensive to say to you, you’d rather get it over with faster so you could spend the rest of the night sulking. You’d planned to do that anyway.

“I, uh, I called the maintenance,” he said. “They said they’ll be here on Friday at best but Monday for sure.”

You closed your eyes. “That’s next week.”

“I know,” Jaebum said. When you opened your eyes, you saw him bite his lip while avoiding your gaze.

God, you could feel an outburst coming but you made no attempts to stop it. Maybe a part of you thought he deserved to hear it after being the cause of your inner misery ever since you moved in here.

“I’ve never had a roommate before,” you said and waited until he dared to look you in the eyes. “But, I swear, you are the worst imaginable roommate in the world.”

“W-wh—”

“You shut the fucking hot water off! And why? To get back at me for getting your water bottles out of the fridge,” you were louder now. “Well, guess fucking what? You can fix the damage I’ve done within an hour the most – your stupid water can get cold again. But you—you do shit without thinking about the consequences, you broke my—”

“I let you sleep in my room!” Jaebum cut you off, your aggression brushing off on him as he threw his hands in the air. “I tried to make it up to you for that.”

“I left you no choice the first night,” you disagreed. “And it doesn’t even matter. Does it look like I want to sleep in your room? I’m sort of left with no other option since I still don’t have a proper bed.”

He was going to object – the first syllables of his counter-argument were already at the tip of his tongue – but then you pushed past him into his bedroom. There was no point in asking him if he’d changed the sheets of your bed. You weren’t going to sleep there.

“But since you’re obviously so kind to me,” you said, glancing at him over your shoulder one more time. “I’ll be sleeping here again.”

He was taken aback for a moment after you slammed the door of his bedroom in his face – if he wasn’t so angry, he’d have admitted: this was a real power move – but then he tried knocking. Gently at first, but harsher after you didn’t react and didn’t open the door.

“Jesus, I’ll fix your damn bed!” he yelled at you through the door. “Just lose the fucking attitude and talk to me like a normal person. I was trying to be nice to you.”

The attitude, again. First, the rich, snobby bitch at the gallery insisted you gave her attitude for just doing your job. Then Eva countered by saying you don’t even have an attitude at all, or else she wouldn’t have to do your job for you. And now Jaebum was accusing you of the same thing even though you just told him the truth; not in a particularly nice way, but you had to put it out there.

After you simmered down, though, – while staring at the books piled by the wall in front of Jaebum’s bed for a whole hour, – you realized that if you hadn’t let the comments made at work get to you this badly, you wouldn’t have bitten Jaebum’s head off. Maybe he deserved that for all of the snarky comments he’d said and the things he’d done, but he was truly trying to have a normal conversation with you today, so maybe you should have been more understanding.

Sure, you’ve argued with him this morning – it got kind of bad, really – but you were still forced to live him and being civil with each other would have surely made this experience appear less like a torture.

Or maybe, another part of your brain disagreed, you should have truly let him know that he was not going to get away with everything by just being nice to you. Maybe you should have slapped him, too, for more effect.

As two sides of your brain gnawed at each other, arguing about what you should have done and said, you heard another knock on the door of the bedroom. It didn’t take a genius to guess who was behind the door, but you still hesitated before opening it because you weren’t sure how to act.

You did feel guilty about the outburst in the hallway. You’d always been a firm believer that the best way to resolve any issue was to have a calm discussion about it; it’s just that sometimes, you acted before you allowed yourself to think.

Maybe you’d feel better with yourself if you didn’t yell at Jaebum after you opened the door. So, you just stared at him.

He stared back, truly having expected you to scream at him. He had prepared what to say to you but he forgot all of that when you just looked at him, no words leaving your lips.

“Uh…” he said, lifting the plate in his hands slightly. “I brought cupcakes.”

Not having expected that – the two of you were now, clearly, involved in a wordless fight which one could surprise the other one better, – you looked down at the chocolate treats on the plate in his hands. “So you have. Are those the ones Lily brought over?”

You had moved away from the door slightly – Jaebum wasn’t sure if you did that consciously, though – and he slipped into the room. After you didn’t object against him being in your personal space – even though, technically, this room was his – he nodded with a small smile.

“I hadn’t slept with her when she brought them, though,” he said, putting the plate on the bed and sitting down next to it. “So, I’m sure they’re not poisoned.”

You let out a sound that was a mix between a sigh and a chuckle and sat down on the other side of the plate. You didn’t feel like talking about the way he’d handled everything with Lily. Actually, you couldn’t even remember why you were so upset about it, in the first place. Jaebum and Lily’s relationship – or lack thereof – wasn’t really your business. Maybe you’d allowed your personal feelings to get in the way and that’s why you yelled at him this morning. And this afternoon.

Both of you took a cupcake off the plate each and, after unwrapping it, began to eat. You stayed quiet for the most part, but when the cupcakes were halfway finished, you sighed again.

“Sorry for bursting out like that when I got home,” you said, choosing to only apologize for the most recent fight. A small part of you still considered Jaebum worthy of the harsh words you’ve said to him after Lily had left. “I had a long day at work.”

Jaebum nodded as a way of accepting your apology but didn’t make a big deal out of it, asking instead, “what happened?”

“It wasn’t… I guess it wasn’t truly horrible,” you said. “I’m just sensitive to that sort of stuff, maybe. I can’t be myself when I work – I’m not sure anyone can – so that means I can’t stand up for myself, either. I just have to let the visitors and even my superiors walk over me.”

“Yeah, that sucks,” Jaebum nodded. “You have to put up with every degrading thing they say if you want to keep the job.”

“Exactly.”

“I laughed mid-track at my station today,” he said then and you looked at him, curiously. “I didn’t realize the mic was on when I was reading a text on my phone during one of the songs, and I just burst into laughter before a part of me went, oh, but wait… I don’t remember pressing the button.”

You tried to gasp but just the image he put in your mind made you chuckle. “Did you boss realize?”

“No, he wasn’t working today, thank God,” he said, smiling, too, now that this got you to laugh however softly. “I would have been fired for sure. He’s a no-bullshit sort of fellow.”

“I’d have loved to hear that, though,” you said. “What time is your show?”

You already knew Jaebum worked at a radio station because he’d mentioned that during one of your late-night conversations back when you still thought he was a girl, and he thought you were a guy. He never elaborated much – and you didn’t really push – so you found yourself rather excited to find out a little more about him. He was starting to feel like Def to you again.

“Two to four,” he said, explaining why he was still at home most mornings. “It’s this really uncomfortable time because most people are already done with lunch but not done with their work day yet, so no one really listens to the radio at this time.”

“What do you do there?” you asked. “I mean, what is your show about?”

“Up-and-coming artists,” he said, sounding unusually sad. “They’re not really that, though. I just basically play underrated songs that no one knows. People send them to me – well, not to me, personally, but to the radio station – and I pick the ones I like the most and play them. It takes me a while to get through all the Soundcloud mixtapes we get sent, but I don’t mind. I don’t get to talk a lot during the show.”

“I can imagine how many days you make by doing this,” you said and Jaebum gave you a confused look, so you explained, “well, I think when someone hears their song on an actual radio, they really lose their shit, you know what I mean? It doesn’t matter to them what time the radio show is on. They’re just excited to hear their song playing and they’re probably very grateful to whoever chose it. You’re the reason for their happiness.”

“Huh,” Jaebum looked away from you, a slight rosy shade adorning his cheeks. “I-I forget that sometimes. The job—it’s all mechanical. I listen to music without thinking much of the artist, but you know what? You’re right. If it was my song playing there, I’d be losing my shit as you put it.”

You snickered at that but then an idea hit you. “Why don’t you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Play your own song at the radio,” you said, reminding him – and yourself, too – that the two of you knew more about each other than you had pretended to know for the sake of acting as hateful roommates to each other. You weren’t really complete strangers to each other, after all.

“Oh, man, no,” he shook his head, his eyes scanning the room wildly for a way to change the topic. He was like this when it came to his music. He refused to talk about it overly much over texts but he was even worse in real life. “Anyway, I came here to make amends and maybe make you feel better about your day at work. Shocking, yeah? But, look what happened: it’s you comforting me.”

You laughed. “Get out of my room before we actually bond.”

He laughed at this, too, but then stopped, “oh, well, technically, this is my room.”

“Oh, I’m not going back to sleep in my room,” you said. “You had sex there, that mattress is… marked.”

“Oh, God,” he visibly cringed at your choice of wording. “I changed the sheets, I’m not some animal.”

You chuckled, but your mind was starting to wander. Now that you’d finished eating Lily’s cupcakes and the topic switched to Jaebum and Lily’s previous activities, you couldn’t help but remember Jaebum’s scared face when you told him a girl had been knocking on your door.

And then, before you could think twice about it, you asked, “hey. Remember, the other day, when Lily first came over?”

“Yeah?”

“When I told you that there was a girl behind the door, your face kind of…” you couldn’t find a way to describe it properly but Jaebum seemed to understand what you were getting at as he looked away, his face paling slightly again. “Uh, what was that about, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“It’s nothing,” he tried to dismiss it. “I just… for a moment, I thought it could have been my ex-girlfriend. She’d reached out to me recently but I didn’t reply and I thought she might have found where I lived.”

Oh, this was loaded. You didn’t know Jaebum had a clearly problematic ex, but, more than that, you had no idea she was trying to get back together with him and he was, evidently, terrified of that. There was so much you wanted to ask him but before you opened your mouth, he stood up from the bed, taking the empty plate with him.

“Anyway,” he said in a somewhat forceful way as if he was letting you know that you weren’t going to discuss this topic further. “I’m going to go to bed. Well, your bed. You sleep here.”

You tried to smile despite the change of topic. “You don’t mind that?”

“No,” he shrugged his shoulders. “I guess I don’t.”

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rambles4sarah-blog · 7 years

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March/April 2017

so I dont remember when that thing happened with the racist fragrance vendor. but it was ridiculous she was awful. I worked a whole bunch of hours. and I was getting so much pressure from savanna about the regional manager Jerrod. I was being watched without my know, obviously while I worked. and then the managers in the region got a mass email saying associate A,B,C; you get it, was doing. that Monday night I was tired I was stressed and that last thing I wanted to do was stand behind the sunglass display.

So, I sat in a cosmetics but between my sitting I did some display cleaning and thankfully that what he saw me do. it made me insanely paranoid when Ifound out. I literally wanted to quit right there. but didn’t because I liked savanna she was a great manager at first. I just literally stressed myself out with school too I wasn’t finishing up my classes and I wasn’t doing homework. I got some reassurance from my advisors and I worked up until the night I had to fly out savanna would Thursday opening so I had to close. went home at 10 and I packed and tried to download 13 reasons (show was better than the book but I read the book in high school so I could be wrong) but I had to wait until 2am. because stupid timezones. I had to wait for California hit midnight because spoilers that so stupid. anyways I couldn’t find my bag so, I borrowed my moms purse but I couldn’t find the longer strap, and I woke everyone up. my nana thankfully was watching novelas of course. and I was finally able to go at like 2:30ish. I was tired and unfortunately I couldn’t get a ride to the airport. I never can to be honest so I parked my car. hopefully I can finally get full use of my car and I can drive myself. its more pleasant I guess. I get to destress myself I think the second time around it will be easier. you know me, once I get something down I’m a pro. I parked my car I was freezing I had to wait for a bus carry my suitcase and sit on a high bench while holding on to myself and my suicase. In other words I need to grow a couple inches and get a new suitcase. I made it to the airport got in line listened to people talk. tried to snapchat. I passed through the line easy peasy once it was done. I got in tsa line and again I beat the rush by two seconds no lie. I passed again in like 3minutes even though I was lugging around my moms purse which is not good for carrying a laptop. I literally had a neck pillow, laptop, iPad, and chargers. but that was too much and my shoulder bruised a little which is dumb. I didn’t even use my laptop except for the free wifi at LAX, btw did you know that their wifi is timed and their airlines all have their own sections so nothing mixes? like its all one thing for each airline. idk I thought was cool? also their airport is legit. you can check in your own bag and all that jazz. but Ill get to that later. I got to LA at 7:30 and I had to wait for Veronica. I looked like a hot mess. I literally shouldn’t have worked that Thursday but I wanted protection form the time off from the trip. Anyways, I sat for two hours and just saw beautiful men walk out of the terminal. I was hungry. I was tired. I met up with Veronica and we hit it off literally immediately made it to the airport shuttle which was easy enough for me. made it to the first hotel which was AUHMAZING. literally made me excited because it was my first trip alone like the adult I’m not. jk we unpacked got somewhat presentable. and headed to Koreatown. Sarah, this is literally when I was amazed because I was somewhere where I didn’t think I would be at under the circumstances. I went into the Korean mall which is awesome and when I went to the Kpop store to buy our bts bomb. it made me wish you were there with me. I made a mental note that if got7 (mainly because thats your bias group) that we would have to go to California to have the full experience.

by the time we got out I was starving. we wanted to Korean bbq but in koreatown they don’t open until 4pm and it was noon so we went to a tofu place and that when you called. it was busy and loud and I was hungry but I answered the phone because the last conversation we had I know it upset you that I didn’t offer to cancel my trip to be with you. Im sorry for that. under that excitement. I spoke to you for a few minutes and told you I would call you back. I’m honestly going to say I did forget. once I got the the hotel with Veronica I remembered but it was 10pm California time and midnight your time, and I knew you wouldn’t answer.

we got lost. I rode a bus to Hollywood with all the Mexicans and I spoke Spanish in koreatown and I made friends with the store owners it was amazing oh! I bought sake soju whatever and first its really cheap second, I didn’t get carded. people are really nice but most keep to themselves. I did get irritated with Veronica I will say. she never travelled out I did everything. I planned I booked, I did time and pricing with Ubers and buses. she mainly didn’t think what I might want to do and focused on herself. which sucked and I did get so fed up on the second day. Day one I passed out. day 2 we woke up early got a lyft and headed to Anaheim. there was a convention and stuff the hotel was lit the first one was cooler we met up with mutuals ate lunch I missed the Frida Kahlo exhibit which peeved me, but I would lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy being around everyone and just the experience was amazing . by Sunday I got to see the exhibit for 45 mins I crazily enough paid $27 for 45 mins, because Veronica wouldn’t let me go alone. even though she didn’t know what it was. I saw I enjoyed and it brought me this peace and idk but I felt closer to myself as a Latina, I didn’t realize I was rejecting for such a long time but I was and seeing something so powerful it opened my eyes not to sound fake deep even though I do. I have to get ready for work ill continue this when I get back tonight.

#holding on #friendship

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