#op. i owe you my whole entire life and soul.

[lale-txt]

🌙 modern AU: OP kids teaching their dads how to use the computer

a/n: avoiding all the things i'm supposed to write and writing silly little headcanons like these instead because i needed something for the soul today and because my heart is soft and weak for any of these dads and their sons ugh („ಡωಡ„)

Law & Rosinante

deep breaths, Law is reminding himself as he watches Rosinante trip over the cable of the charger and almost take down the whole PC setup with him as he falls to the ground

this was the man he owed his life to, the man who burned down several hospitals for him, the man who never gave up even in the darkest hours… giving him a computer crash course was the least Law could do to show his gratitude 

with a cigarette dangling from his lips Rosinante sits up straight, eager to learn all about the world wide web 

he nods along eagerly as Law starts rambling about the importance of secure passwords and how to detect spam mails, that he should never ever click on one of those and never give out any private data about himself

as if Rosinante hadn’t lived an undercover life for so many years and didn’t know a thing or two about keeping data safe

Law is unfazed as he puts out a small fire caused by a smoldering cigarette someone dropped on the tittie mousepad (a gift from Rosinante’s brother who had obnoxious taste but at least it was good for the wrists)

he also continues his PowerPoint presentation when Rosinante slips from his chair when he wants to change his position and Law takes a mental note to never get him a gymnastic ball because that won’t help his dad with good posture, it will probably just break his neck

“any questions?”, Law asks after a 5 hour lecture and raises an eyebrow when Rosinate lifts his hand. now what could it be, he went into deep detail about everything, there’s not a single topic he hadn’t covered…

“so. how do i turn this thing on?”

Ace & Roger

his therapist had suggested some father-son-bonding time but Ace wasn’t entirely sure if that’s exactly what they had in mind

“you have to doubleclick to open it”, Ace says through gritted teeth as he watches his father trying to open the internet browser, the mouse disappearing entirely under his big hand

Roger laughs and pats his son on the back, just happy to spend some time with him

“but i’m clicking already, i think that thing is broken. maybe i’m just too old for this thing.” – “no, you have to click faster. not like that. just… fast. oh my god, dad, are you kidding me?!”

Ace is close to gnawing at the desk as he watches Roger click anywhere just not the icon he is supposed to click

how did this man sail the whole world back and forth and can’t do a simple thing as opening an app and why does he want to learn how to use a computer anyway at his age

Ace is close to getting up and running out when Roger turns to him and smiles at him softly, almost apologetically

“you know… this is nice. i love spending time with you. now show your old man one more time how to write an email so we can stay in touch when you’re traveling.”

Ace feels a lump in his throat and takes a deep breath, putting on a stoic face as he lays his hand on top of his father’s and shows him how to click correctly

there’s many things left unsaid between them but not all of them were bad. after all, Ace would sit and smile when Roger replies to his email from vacation with an over exaggerated chain of smileys :-) :-D :-) :-D :-) :-D 8-D  

Yamato & Kaido

listen, Kaido is trying, he really is

it‘s not his fault that this keyboard is TINY and his fingers are MASSIVE

lots of yelling and shouting and doors being slammed as Yamato’s patience is running thin 

he comes back to Kaido crying in front of his tiny laptop and in the end will help his dad send out the “funny eCard” to his friends and subordinates

Yamato will show him how to use speech to text because that might be helpful when Kaido can’t type on the small keyboard, right?

little does he know that he opened the box of pandora with that

cryptic text messages at 2am, something about “running out of sake press send why doesn’t it send Yamato can you hear me this is not working send send send hello oh fucking hell hello? hello? i need more sake where is it where is it ahh it’s empty hello”

that’s Yamato’s breaking point; when he decides to get rid of the computer the following day and just gift Kaido a nice calligraphy set or something instead

because frankly, he never wants to wake up to a dozen emails from his father again written through entire phases of his drunk stages

emails he didn’t send to Yamato only, but to his whole subordinates to which Ulti replied to all with a simple “is Kaido stupid?” 

also because he learned that people online call his dad “babygirl” and he’s not sure how to explain that to him…

[cowboybrunch]

I have been combing through your archive for any botrd content, so I beg you: Please, please please gimme a infodump on botrd🥺🥺

Your favourite snippets, anything you deleted but still liked, fun facts, anything really 🙏🙏 I will be grateful for any crumbs you provide

leah hi!!! waking up to ur notifications made me happy dance <3 <3 :-)

*rubs hands together* oh you have NO IDEA what you just unlocked

let's start with some fun facts:

when I first started writing BOTRD, it was entirely in Rosalie's pov and it was intended to be a straightforward romance (i refer to this as draft zero). i got about 80% of the way in and then realized 1) it's not really romantic at all and girlie needs to get out of this situation and 2) there was another story hidden in Theodore's pov that i wanted to explore

the first completed draft is sitting at 95,267 words and is organized into acts and scenes, not chapters. here are the names of the first scenes from each act (only used for outlining purposes):

act 1: "sunrise" act 2A: "old flame" act 2B: "ten seconds" act 3: "mouse thunder storm"

after finishing the first draft, i jumped straight into writing the prequel, Judas Wept. and im so glad i did! it really influenced how i'm approaching future drafts (and it gave us Elias! i love Elias!)

my favorite character to write dialogue for is Emily. my favorite character to write period is Marcella

some rapid fire lore!

at the beginning of botrd, Theodore has consumed 2 souls: the soul of the person that killed him, and Andrew's. at the end, he's got around 6,000 (most from Mortae voluntarily sacrificing themselves to make him OP)

Marcella only targets men due to her past trauma and a desire to protect young women. she thinks it's funny when they beg. she has no qualms with murder or lawlessness. if she had Theodore's abilities, we wouldn't have a story. she would've dealt with this mess a century ago

Rosalie is very subdued and passive in act 1. she thinks more than she speaks or acts in her first few POV chapters. stuck with one foot in the past kinda thing. once she starts processing her grief, she becomes more of an active participant (which is not necessarily a good thing! but! she's healing!)

Azmaveth has a whole secret backstory (Uriel, too! i dont know if we ever unlock that one on page) but basically: he lost a child, so now he's ultra protective of his wards (Theodore and Marcella) BUT he has to balance that with his loyalty towards Morrigan so she doesn't come by and just slaughter all of them

i affectionately refer to Rosalie's friends as "the humans" and they're a bunch of goobs. Mike is a golden retriever. James is a chihuahua. Henry is a dachshund. Emily isn't a dog, she's a mountain lion

and now, a favorite snippet:

(context: Theodore is at dinner with Rosalie's friends. they're having a potluck!)

I start silently amending my statements without her having to ask. I lived in California for a few years and recently moved back. Truth. I work at my foster father’s restaurant. Lie. I don’t follow any sports, but baseball is my favorite. Truth. She coughs to hide her chuckle, but I don’t think anyone is fooled. Baseball? It’s the great American pastime, is it not? Aren’t you French? Her eyes dance with laughter. I’ll give her all of my secrets if she just keeps looking at me like that.

something i deleted!

"little life" (Rosalie POV):

I work. I eat. I sleep. I go to family dinners once a week and participate in conversations and drinking games and try my best to quell the worry in their eyes. It’s easy, or it should be. I don’t tell them about Theodore, and they don’t ask. Not directly anyway, but I see the questions in Emily’s eyes when she catches me twisting my wrist in the lamplight, studying smaller scars that linger above the others, the promise I’d made, the debt owed. I try not to think about it and succeed, mostly.

and i'll wrap up with a picrew dump!

Rosalie / Emily / Andrew

Theodore / Marcella / Azmaveth

Gemma / Elias

this story has been my brain worm for two years and will probably pester me for two thousand more so thank you so much for asking about it!! <3

[laryna6]

Hmm, Cha Hae-In... if she ran into Sung Jin-Woo at the sword school somehow and is ? that he smells good?

Sugar Mama Cha Hae-In + the Hunters’ Guild going ‘these two are adorable we are going to make this ship sail’

Also he’s adorable and her sword teacher tells her that he keeps getting injured but keeps going on hunts, people think he’s an idiot rich boy in it for the thrill but he doesn’t buy that, no defense and yet he gets wounded protecting their healer too.

Cha Hae-In using her vice guildmaster position to offer him a position on the resource gathering teams, and watching as he goes from shut down and dead inside to smiling and friendly and starting to actually talk to people. They’re like sure, he’s not the fastest/strongest worker, but he’s hard working and does his best and pays attention to instructions.

Meanwhile Sung Jin-Woo is ‘this job comes with medical insurance!’ and Jin-Ah is ‘I don’t have to worry about my brother dying anymore! The Hunter’s Guild would absolutely have like, whole guild social functions where you bring your family and Jin-Ah wanting to talk to Cha Hae-In and explaining the situation and being ‘thank you so much for saving the life of my last family.’

So Cha Hae-In is *manly tears* Such a wonderful big brother! So filial! So cute!

Sung Jin-Woo starts bringing her lunch to thank her and she’s ‘you don’t have to...’ (but it’s really good) ‘I am rich af let me pay you’ and Sung Jin-Woo is ‘sure’ because money.

... to skip ahead, shadow!Choi Jong-In continuing to do paperwork, corresponence and checking over payroll after death leaves him Not Impressed with Ashborn wanting to ditch Jin-Woo (especially after finding out Ashborn made Jin-Woo responsible for his army)

So like, the entire Hunter’s Guild is like, ‘Cha Hae-In has a boyfriend... but we already know him and he is a Good Kid not like, someone who wants to feel dominant over a powerful woman or any of that BS and oh hey this food is really good’ So Choi Jong-In goes ‘we’re going to have a cafeteria now and provide lunches for all the gate teams’ and puts Sung Jin-Woo in charge of it and people are like ‘this is why we call u a genius’

People are like ‘when are you going to ask him out’ and Cha Hae-In is ‘as vice guildmaster I’m his boss! I can’t hit on him!’ so Choi Jong-In is like ‘congratulations you own a restaurant in our guild building now with a lucrative contract with our guild’

Now it’s ‘i can’t hit on him at work! And he feels like he really owes me, I don’t want to make him feel like I was... expecting things’

They are like ah! She is such a good person for an s-rank! Ok, then they need Sung Jin-Woo to make a move! Plan 1: he seems to like watching her train even though he can’t follow a lot of her movements, so we’ll invite him along to watch a fight.

Next up is a double dungeon, but it appeared in a low rank dungeon and the measurements are still weak AF. So like, it’s a mission that the Hunter’s Guild can go on like, just to be sure! But almost certainly safe for an e-rank.

And then you have Choi Jong-In and Sung Jin-Woo scrambling to figure out the rules. Cha Hae-In carrying Sung Jin-Woo over her shoulder, someone else taking Choi Jong-In after he passes out burning up all his MP in the hopes of taking out the statue’s eye beams. 

So they’re around the altar with their unconscious boss and the e-rank up on it in the center to be safest, and they’re staring down the statues and debating ‘do we send Cha Hae-In out the door to carry the guildmaster and Sung Jin-Woo to safety, or does that door scream obvious trap because the rule is ‘prove your faith’ and wouldn’t leaving the temple be abandoning your faith?

And Cha Hae-In and Sung Jin-Woo are ‘that would leave you guys without any s-ranks against a very high a boss if not worse.’ and it’s the hunter guild’s duty to close gates first. This gate was counting down when it was reported as a double dungeon, they cannot let this boss gate breach.

The flames count down and, hmm, should the architect react like a thwarted bully or improv some new bullshit to act like everything is within his calculations? So he goes ‘to prove your faith you must now offer a sacrifice’ but instead of obviously giving up the weakling to keep the others alive they’re like yeah, fuck no (’if the porter/guest gets hurt the whole guild has failed’)

So he grabs Jin-Woo and unleashes the statues on the humans with orders to make it hurt but not finish them off, and tells him ‘get on that altar and you’ll be able to leave here with them.’

And Jin-Woo knew he was willing to die for Jin-Ah and Mom, but they’re safe now and he owes that to Cha Hae-In and everyone at the Hunter Guild’s kindness. so he’s ‘ok’ and they are ‘nonono’

He wakes up at the hospital, told he’s the only survivor and he’s been asleep for a month, which... he knew the boss was a lying bastard, monsters don’t spare humans, but he couldn’t just not even TRY/do anything.

...WTF is this? He thought seeing that screen before was some kind of pre-death brain screwery. Jin-Ah and the Hunter’s Guild b-team start coming in and he’s ?? are you guys seeing this? THey are ‘what did that thing do to poor helpless e-rank good boy?!’

Choi Jong-In measures him as an A rank, but instead of being happy Sung Jin-Woo is going through status screens on job class an abilities and...

And then he pales.

And summons the dead.

The boss said ‘he’d go home with them.’ Effing literal words... They can’t speak, but they touch his shoulder to say it’s okay.

...He...

Sung Jin-Woo ends up rejoining the Hunter’s Guild after leveling to S because without any S ranks it would have lost a lot of prestige and ability to take more valuable gates and pay for all the salary, benefits and expensive protective armor.

Doing the JeJu op and since he’s OP, replacing the Draw Sword guild as emergency call-in guild for southeast asia due to like ‘why would we charge you fees A rank gates are where the money’s at if anything we should be paying you for finding them for us’

But if Min Byong-Gyu does die and get turned into a shadow but talks to Baek Yoon-Ho re ‘hey I’m being forced to adore that guy his power is really creepy get me out of here’ and Baek is concerned about Choi Jong-In too...

Sung Jin-Woo’s reaction to the idea his friends are being FORCED to care about him/not be mad he was a useless e-rank and couldn’t save them...

Ashborn seeing Sung Jin-Woo with comrades that ~died with him, like he resurrected his fallen soldiers after did... even more ‘like me’ so earlier decision to not possess.

Ms. Selner going ‘there is great darkness in you’ and he’s ‘can you tell me anything else?’

Hunter’s Guild Shadow Squad wanting to powerlevel for Cartenon temple rematch and then they get sealed instead of getting to attack that bastard? FFFFFFFFFF

instead of ‘get necromancer class’ it’s ‘unlock a prestige class’ so he does get Igris.

He wants to get stronger so he can stop this from happening again, and making sure gates got cleared and people were safe is what they wanted... right?

More examination of using his power on humans/to preserve human souls since like, he can’t get valid consent NOW.

...Chairman Yoo going ‘those lizards killed my son, stole his equips, and made me pay them for being ‘kind’ enough to carry his body out, but I can’t do sh*t because the older brother’s an s-rank,’ and bowing his head.

So Sung Jin-Woo shadowing Jin-Ho, who gets adopted into squad happily. That way he can ask him to confirm ‘those guys did murder you, yes?’

Hunter’s Guild is guild conference rep for Korea OFC, people from guild helping Jin-Woo study up on who everyone is and the contacts they’ve got/are working on. Hwang Dong-Su kidnaps someone else.

During Ashborn meeting Choi Jong-In showing up to SHAME Ashborn for planning to sleep forever (suicide ideation) bc as a leader he should be more responsible than to ditch someone else to take care of the org he’s responsible for. If Choi Jong-In is doing paperwork from behind the grave, this guy isn’t going to get to lie around when humanity desperately needs more combatants at this level/Jin-Woo shouldn’t have to die alone.

[bts-fic-mania]

DAZED DAMSELS

PAIRING : BTS × Female OC

GENRE : Fluff | Romance | Comedy | Husband AU!

RATING : 13+

WORD COUNT : 11.4 K

SUMMARY :

Balancing between work and home has been quite a tiresome task, but still Min Ji has been managing and juggling through all of those responsibilities thanks to her lovely husband who's always been by her side as her backbone. Will this Wedding, Bachelorette party and a simple shopping trip add in a bit of spice to her life...?? Help her reminisce her past...??

Having the most important responsibility of all time can be nerve wrecking but Soo Jung is determined give her best friend the best wedding a person can ever wish for. But how is she gonna react to the fiasco and the most astonishing revelation of eternity...??

It's the biggest day of Ji Na’s life -'Her Wedding Day'. She never even dreamt that she'll marry the man who ruled the entire world's hearts. Her family and friends didn’t leave any stone unturned to make her wedding more memorable. She wouldn’t have had this much fun in a million years. Little did she knew that the universe had another special thing in store for her...

"Where are the Keys ?" He inquired, looking for them in his pockets.

"Tae, Open the door already !! I'm soo tired... My feet are gonna give out..." Min Ji whined as she slumped down on the floor, her back against the door.

"Yahh! Where did i keep them. " He said, still struggling to find the item.

"Yep. Gotcha." He jiggled the keys, then inserted the key inside the lock to open the door.

Both of them entered their home, tired and exhausted.

Min Ji plonked herself on the couch, face first while Tae went inside to place the packs with their clothings in their bed room, getting himself a bottle of water on his way back.

His phone began ringing the moment he sat down beside his wife.

"Hey Jungkook-Ah !" He let out, rather chirpily.

Min Ji wondered how he could be soo lively after their wearying shopping trip and soon she observed an elated expression plastered on his face.

He disconnected the call, a soft smile on his face.

"What ? What did Jungkook tell you that's making you smile so bad?" Min Ji asked teasingly, her head propped on her elbow.

"Jungkook invited me to his Bachelor's party which is gonna be held in a week. I'm soo excited to meet all my hyungs after such a long time." He sinked back into the sofa, his expressions were enough to reveal how happy he was at that moment.

"That's nice." She grinned, too elated to see her husband so riant.

"Ohh i completely forgot." He remembered. "Jungkook mentioned that his wife wanted you to attend her Bachelorette party too."

"Huh... But... I don’t even know her or anyone there, what will I do alone. I'll stay at home with my bed, my soulmate." Min Ji stated, casually.

"Ohh... So your bed is your soulmate then who am i ?" Tae asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Uhmm... You're my lovely, adorable and handsome husband." She complimented him.

"Yahh... Min Ji-Ah You need and have to go okay. Get out of this house and just enjoy your life, jagi. There's an entire world outside these four walls." He tried to convince his wife.

"You know how i feel in a crowd full of people I don't know. Even you won't be there. I'd be really bored." She retaliated. "Secondly, I've got nothing to wear and I'm no mood to go for a shopping trip anytime soon."

"I'd accompany you and we'd buy a gorgeous dress for my beautiful wife. Please Min Ji." He pouted.

'His puppy eyes were too hard to resist. Damn, he knows my weak points.' She thought to herself.

"Okay. FINE." She gave up.

'It was easy for him to make her agree with everything he wanted.' She thought, looking at his satisfied smile.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

Works been keeping Min Ji and Taehyung pretty busy lately.

Who says a Teacher's Job is easy...? For a teacher like them, who literally put in their whole and soul into their work, it's never been facile. Sadly, being a teacher is the most under appreciated job despite the burnout they go through, every single day.

Min Ji and Tae lazed around after being drained of all the zing.

They worked their asses off, the entire week, since they had to take a few days leave on the occasion Jungkook's marriage.

Min Ji flipped open her journal just to discern that she still needed to go and buy a dress that she'd wear for Jungkook's Wife's Bachelorette party.

' It's Sunday tomorrow and the Bachelorette's gonna be on Monday... So I'm gonna go shop tomorrow and drag Tae along too... YES!! It's Sorted then. ' She planned in her mind.

"Tae, We need to go look for a dress I'd wear to the Bachelorette's. So you need to accompany me tomorrow." She said, unaware that her husband who was sitting on the couch, besides her, his eyes fixated on the TV screen as he played 'Over Watch' did not acknowledge a single thing she said.

No response made her look at him and call him out again.

"Tae..."

"Tae..."

"Tae..."

"Taehyung..."

"Mr. Kim..." Min Ji spoke again, touching his shoulder to shake him, but he shrugged it off.

In spite of Min Ji's repeated attempts of trying to gather his attention, the boy didn't budge.

"YAHH!! KIM TAEHYUNG!!" She shouted, annoyed that her husband ignored her entire existence, completely focused on the game.

Taehyung jumped from the couch, stumbled down to the ground, puzzled and scared out of his guts. The controller dropped on the carpet by his side with a 'thud'.

Min Ji was trying hard to suppress a loud laughter as she saw her husband's pallid appearance.

"Bahahahahaha..." She laughed, hysterically.

Taehyung stood confused, trying to figure out what just happened.

"Min Ji-Ah..." He whined, putting his headphones down at the coffee table, picking up the controller, placing it on it's proper place.

Min Ji cackled while Taehyung smiled lightly, listening to her melodious haa-hee.

"Stop It... It was not that funny." He turned to her.

"I-hh It wah-hh was..." She held her stomach and tried to calm her breathing down.

"It was sooo funny. You should've seen the look on you face... Haha..." She beamed.

"Okay Okay... Fine... Now speak up, What's the matter ? What did you want to tell me ?" Tae inquired.

"I just wanted to inform you that we're going shopping tomorrow and you're coming with me." She let out, straight.

"Oh... Okay... But that's all?" He asked and she nodded.

"Yah!! You disrupted my game because of such a mere thing." He said, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning.

"Tae... Okay... I'm sorry." Min Ji pouted as Tae turned his head to his side, away from her.

"I was thinking that I'd order Japchae for dinner today. But since you're soo annoyed with me..... " Min Ji continued.

"Japchae!!" His eyes twinkled as he drooled, visibly.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

"Tae... Get Ready..." Min Ji whined, her husband still lying down, occupied on his phone, unaffected by what she told him.

"Kim Taehyung, I swear that I'm gonna burn your phone to ashes if you're not ready by next five minutes." Min Ji warned.

She giggled as she saw Tae immediately standing up, dropping his phone at the nightstand, stumbling on his way to the bathroom.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

Tae locked the main door as they stepped out of their home.

"T-" Min Ji was cut off by the ringing of Taehyung's phone.

"Hello Bogum." He said, signalling Min Ji to wait for a minute as he went a bit away to talk with his friend.

A few minutes later, Tae returned, apologetic in guise.

"Look... I know that I promised you that I'd help you with the dress but Bogum's father is in the hospital and he needs my help so i need to go. I've got no other option Mini... " He was sad.

Taehyung was really a genuine friend that everyone deserved to have. He was always up for it when his friends needed him.

"It's okay, Jagiya. I'll manage everything, here. Bogum needs you right now so you should go. Don't worry about me." She assured him as she placed her hands in his.

"I owe you one for this, cupcake." He spoke.

"What's up with these nicknames? Huh?" She teased. " And you don't owe me anything." She pecked his cheek.

"What did i do to have you in my life.?" He hugged her and her cheeks flamed up.

" Taehyung-ah, Bogum might be waiting for you... Goooo...."

"Bye. I Love You." He shouted, running towards his car.

"Yahh!!! This Boy!! " Min Ji smiled to herself and shook her head in disbelief.

'Seems like I gotta do this all by myself' She thought as she mentally face-palmed.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

Min Ji wandered from store to store looking for a suitable dress she could wear to the Bachelorette but in vain.

She was strolling through the hallway when a beautiful, metal black, bodycon, dress caught her eye.

She immediately entered the outlet, looked for her size in the dress and bolted towards the trial area.

As she was about to enter the corridor, her phone went off. She opened her handbag, looking for it and then,

"Ope!!" Min Ji squealed as she stumbled backwards but managed to retain her balance and save herself from the embarrassment of falling straight on her bum.

Min Ji bumped into another women who was storming out of the corridor, busy taking over her phone and both failed to realise the other's presence.

"Sorry!" The lady said as she bowed and dashed towards the exit.

"It's.... fine..." Min Ji said, which came out as a whisper since the woman was already out of the store by the time she uttered those words.

She shook her head and headed to the trial room.

"Yah!! Soo Jung-Ah!!!" A voice called out, behind a closed door, Min Ji just went past.

"Aye!! Come here and Help me." The voice spoke again.

Min Ji's motherly instincts rose after listening to the word "Help" so before she realized, she knocked on the door.

"Hey! There's no one outside here since you're calling out for them..." Min Ji continued "Are you alright ?? I can help you if you want me to."

There was absolute silence for good few minutes until the voice spoke up again, "Hey!! Could you please help me fix the zipper of my dress..? Since you can see my friend's already bailed out..."

Min Ji stifled a chuckle, "Yep...Sure."

The door opened which revealed the silhouette of a woman dressed in a wedding gown.

Min Ji couldn't help but remember the day of her marriage and smiled to herself.

"Here... It's Stuck!! " Her voice snapped Min Ji out of her daze.

She moved towards the woman, trying to pull it up but it didn't move.

She took a step away and stood there, analysing it, thinking of something that could be used repair it.

An idea struck her mind almost instantly as she reached out for some Vaseline from her handbag and applied it to both the edges of the zipper before pulling it up with a 'ZIG' and *VOILÀ*, it was fixed.

"Thank you so much." The woman smiled.

That's when Min Ji looked up at the woman's face but she couldn't help but feel that it look familiar.

"Do I know you? Have we met before? I think I've seen you somewhere." She inquired and let out a string of words before she could stop them from rolling off her tongue.

The look on her face turned sceptical as she could practically see the wheels turning inside woman's head.

"N-No... I don't think so." She immediately grabbed her shades before putting them on.

"Oh-Okay then... I should leave." Min Ji bowed and made her way out.

'Weird' she thought to herself.

Min Ji couldn't help but feel that she knew the women she just met.

But the thought subsided as soon as she tried her dress on. And she knew what she was gonna have on for the party.

She rushed towards the cash counter, bought the dress and made her way back home, happy to finally relax after an entire day full of exertion.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

Min Ji stepped out of the lift, trudging towards their apartment.

She was about to open the door when she noticed a hamper with a card by it.

She picked it up, trying to figure out who could sent it to them and walked in, shutting the door behind her.

She slouched on the couch and started unboxing it.

It contained Two Exclusive Perfumes: One Chanel and One Jo Malone with an Invite to Jungkook's Wife's whose name as mentioned on the card was KANG JI NA.

It stated that Min Ji had to be ready really early tomorrow (which meant waking up even before that,,,URGHHH....) since it wasn't just the party but a trip filled with activities including all of them staying there.

"OHH GOD... I NEED TO PACK UP EVERYTHING..." Min Ji bolted towards her room, ready to complete another task so she could lay down on her bed at the earliest.

❖ ── ✦ ── �� ─ ◈ ─ ✧ ── ✦ ── ❖

Here she was stressed the heck out of her life waiting for what these next few weeks hold.This was it. This was the day Kim Soo Jung, Head stylist of JK's company and wife of the famous actor Kim Seok Jin, was gonna be held at the helm of being THE BEST MAID OF HONOUR. Knowing her best friend Kang Ji Na was gonna get married to the love of her life after a period of creepy stalking and one sided administration (Really pretty adjectives used by Soo Jung to make Ji Na flustered Infront of Jungkook).

She was more than happy and overwhelmed at the fact that her friend's one sided endeavours bore into fruitition and before she knew those two were marrying each other. She has to say this is one of the most happiest moments of her life. She states dramatically to her husband, right after she enters the house with cake samples and seating herself on the couch, not wasting a second to search up her contacts for best wedding dress maker.

"I thought discovering cookies and cream flavour was your happiest moment." Jin retorts while sitting beside her on the couch, with a mischievous smirk on his lips.

"You know me so well Jinnie!!" She says smiling fondly and leaning in to give him a cheek kiss.

"Did you like to rush home from work and Wow... did you bring me some cake!!" Jin says while taking the package placed on the tea table.

"Those are cake samples for Ji Na's wedding" she says while Jin opens the box and gorges over one of the sample.

"Don't knock yourself out with those cakes I too have to try and decide the best one. How do you like that one, though ?" She asks.

"Oh it's soo good I was starving" Jin says with stuffed mouth and reaches in for another sample.

"No!!! Jinnie it's not for you to eat. I have to do the taste test and find the best." She whines poutyly while snatching away the box

Jin's face dulls down with disappointment.

"Okay you can eat those but you will have to tell how each one is and help me find the best." She says.

Jin's face lightens up. "You are the best Soo Jung-Ah!!" He exclaims while taking away the box.

And like that with just a mere snap of finger, Soo Jung's one of her many jobs was done. she pats herself internally while smirking at the victory of having her strategic plan work. She hands him over the taste quality rating list with names of each flavour.

Jin does whine about work given but feels it's worth the delicious cakes he tries.

She calls in the best of all wedding planners who is also Jin's childhood friend, wedding designer whom she worked with for a huge actress's wedding having advantage of discounts and instant work.

Now the biggest deal of all, The Best Bachelorette party.

Soo Jung had planned everything before a week of wedding rolled around. She went in with Ji Na and other bridesmaids for dress fitting, approved and checked up all the wedding arrangements made by Hoseok her wedding planner, mailed all the invitations. Everything was going according to her plan until she couldn't think of a good idea for bachelorette's, which she needed to sent invite for too.

Soo Jung racked her brain while tapping her pen continuously on the edge of her planner. She took few days off and was working continuously towards her maid of honour duties

Being frustrated she thought of going out meeting other friend as she was feeling coerced and needed air to breath.

She went in and waited in the café while ordering a sweet Caramel Frappuccino.

"You know I recognised it was you just by seeing that overly creamy drink on the table without even looking at your face." Yoongi teases her while settling himself before her in the small cabin.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Soo Jung says while enjoying her drink and humming in contentment.

Yoongi just chuckles and gets himself a simple Iced Americano.

"So how is your Best Maid of Honour campaign going? " Yoongi asks.

That's when she starts to worry again about something she came here to avoid.

"I am facing an idea block for the bacherollete party." Soo Jung sulks while worrying maybe her coming to this café only wasting the precious time she has.

"Just do as we boys are doing." Yoongi remarks while looking at his phone.

"Oh yaa I forgot to ask Jinnie. What are you guys doing?" Soo Jung asks expectantly.

"Las Vegas baby!!! We always teased our youngest about taking him to Las Vegas and getting him wasted before his wedding. We know he likes Hangover movie too much. So we had to fulfill his fantasy." Yoongi lets out with excitement.

Soo Jung deflates and starts to rack brain again for ideas.

"You don't seem to like that idea..?" Yoongi claims after lifting his gaze from to the phone and meeting Soo Jung's disappointed face.

"Nah that's too typical and so unlike Ji Na she hates clubbing and getting wasted. I want to do something she loves and something she can relax with as it's gonna be her big day." Soo Jung says while sipping her coffee.

Yoongi smiles at her thinking how she cares so much about the ones she love.

"I am sure you will find something." Yoongi says while patting her head.

"I hope so." She returns him a smile.

"Oh why don't you ask Namjoon as he is Ji Na's best friend and knows her for long time too." Yoongi suggests.

"Yahh! I am Ji Na's best friend, can't you see who is the maid of honour. I don't see Namjoon picking out dresses and bouquets for her." She remarks offended.

"He is the best man.....but I thought I was your best friend." Now it's Yoongi's turn to be offended.

"Whatever he is managing Jungkook's side so he doesn't count as her best friend right now... It's complicated Yoongi. But you will always be my little meow meow." Soo Jung teases him.

"Yahh how many times I have to tell you not call me that." Yoongi spits with mild anger yet internally feeling pleased.

"Come on... I know you love it." Soo Jung teases him with mischievous grin.

Yoongi answers her only with a slurping noise of his coffee.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

When Soo Jung reaches home she contemplates what Yoongi said. Namjoon really did know Ji Na way long than she did and having no other choice she had to step down her pride just a little bit and ask him for a few pointers regarding Ji Na's likes and dislikes.

Soo Jung waits until two telephonic bleeps and hears a hello from the other side.

" Hey Namjoon, this is Soo Jung." she introduces.

" Oh Soo Jung it's been long since we conversed.. How are your maid of honour duties going?" Namjoon asks.

" It's been great actually. You know I won't let my best friend down ever." Soo Jung remarks while emphasizing a little bit more than necessary.

Namjoon just gets amused at her kiddish saltiness towards him.

" Hmmmm..." He states after a period of awkward pause " So what did you call for...."

Soo Jung clears her throat "About that.... I was thinking of few bachelorette ideas and I did find many, like many great ideas that she may love but still do you have any suggestions about what she might enjoy." Soo Jung adds in the unwanted whipped cream to save herself after remarking herself as best friend cause clearly she doesn't have any great ideas.

"So much for being Ji Na's best friend...Huh?" Namjoon teases but doesn't give her time to retort. "She did say she loves hiking and camping." he says without giving much of a thought.

Suddenly a light bulb lightens above Soo Jung's head.

"Thank you very much Namjoon, I agree you win this time. Bye! " before Namjoon can tease her for her slip up she cuts the call.

She swiftly opens her system and looks for the hiking resort just near the venue.

She can't believe how perfect the whole deal is. Being a full day trip she wants it to be a surprise.

Soon she orders in to design and send her the invites in two days with complimentary perfumes.

Now that everything is sorted she thought she could relax but still she was a little stressed about how whole plan will turn out.

Next day she shopped secretly for everything she needed for the party and came back home, exhausted.

Having taken off she gave all her responsibilities to her assistant who was great at her work but still Soo Jung preferred to not risk it and checked before finalizing everything.

She started to work on her real job while settling herself comfortably on bed.

"Soo Jung-Ah! finally I caught in your natural habitat otherwise you were out as a light by the time I returned." He says while settling himself beside her and cuddling her up.

"Aww Jinnie I missed you too" Soo Jung said while keeping her work aside and started playing with Jin's hair while looking at beautiful black-brown orbs.

"You are doing great my wife. I can say you are The Best Maid Of Honour." Jin states while intertwining their fingers together, pressing a fond kiss on her hand that he held in his.

" Do you think this will earn you browny points and I will let you off the hook for whatever mischief you have planned for." Soo Jung remarks sceptically.

"Noo... Jagiya I mean it." Jin states with sincerity. "You have been working so hard I am proud of you." Jin looks at her with a smile.

Soo Jung has nothing to say to her husbands's soft demeanour so just smiles with cheeks tinted in a shade of pink.

"But yaa it was so evil of you to manipulate me into helping you to select a cake for you. Now my trainer wants me to work half an hour extra otherwise I might look like a dumpling on screen." Jin whines poutyly.

Soo Jung can't help but laugh out loud at the prospect of being caught and also feeling fuzzy over the fact that Jin caught on to her plan.

"It's okay Jinnie your fans will still coo over you saying how you look like a cute dumpling, All puffy." Soo Jung mocks his crazy fan following.

"Somebody seems to be jealous." Jin remarks with a mischievous grin.

"Why would I when I have the real deal and besides you aren't my favourite actor either." Soo Jung states while leaving the room to prepare dinner.

Jin falters at her sudden motion and starts whining about what she just said.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

The days roll by and soon the day of the trip comes around. She wakes up way earlier than anyone to pick up everything she needs and order the van to reach the venue.

Now all she has to do is pick up the bride.

Soo Jung gives Ji Na a heads-up and is glad to see she received her call.

Ji Na having a good life style habits unlike Soo Jung is way more in a better condition in the mornings.

Soo Jung is far from being a morning person but she has to push herself for her best friend.

She rushes her to the venue and see's most of the girls have arrived. Soo Jung invited all of the girl group members Ji Na trained and debuted with before starting her solo career. Even after going solo she tend to be in good connection with most of them.

Soo Jung see's a really pretty woman approach whom she kind of recognise from some where but can't put the finger on.

°°°°°°YESTERDAY; IN THE SAME STORE°°°°°°

Ji Na was assessing her gown when she heard a knock on the door of her trial room followed by her best friend calling her out.

Ji Na opened the door only to reveal a stunned Soo Jung who eyed her up and down, examing Ji na's dress.

Soo Jung was mesmerized to see her friend in a princess wedding gown.

"Whoa... You look FANTABULOUS!! " She exclaimed.

"Thank You" Ji na blushed at the compliment. "But Where did you disappear?" She asked strictly. "If it would've been for that lady I would've still been holding up the dress and standing lonesome, calling your name out like a fanatic in the empty area. But thanks to no one other than you, that lady was about to recognise me and my identity was just a bit away from being revealed." Ji na blabbered.

"JI... Calm down. PLEASE. My assistant called me to inform about a sudden fiasco regarding your Bachelorette party so I went out to sort them up a bit. I'm thankful that the women was at the right place at right time and happy that she wasn't one of your crazy fangirls." Soo Jung says, grateful.

Ji na passed her a mix of an annoyed and a 'yeah-yeah' look.

"I feel kinda Guilty tho..." Soo Jung continued seeing a big 'WHY ?' written on her best friend's face. "Actually, on my way out, I bumped into a woman and if she would'nt have had balanced herself, she could've fallen down. And i was in such a hurry that i didn't even apologize properly."

"It's okay, hun... Rhe next time you meet her, if it be, then you can repent over this." Ji na patted her shoulder. "But for now.... We need to look for dresses we'd wear to the Bachelorette now that my wedding gown has been finalized." Ji na reminded.

Both the women went out and started looking out for a dress as per their preference.

°°°°°°°° PRESENT; BACK TO THE TRIP °°°°°°°°

When she realised where she recognised the women from, she immediately looked away away, her back facing the woman approaching her, now.

Ji na saw Soo Jung standing awkwardly, so she approached her.

"What's wrong??" She asked.

"That woman from the shop, she's a guest at your party." Soo Jung confessed, embarrassed.

Ji Na looked over her friend's shoulder, "Ohh Shit!!", her eyes turned wide as she rotated in her stance too.

"You know her too?" Soo Jung asks a bit muddled.

"She was the one who helped me with my zipper the other day and then things were left on an itchy note." Ji Na clears it.

"So she was the one who you bumped into." Ji na says and Soo Jung nods her head as an answer.

The best friends stood there uneasily for a good amount of time until Ji na felt a hand tap at her shoulder which forced her to look at the bearer of the hand, but she whirls Soo Jung along with herself, both smothering a guilty look.

The woman's expressions falter a bit but transform into a smile soon. "Hey! I am Kim Min Ji, Taehyung's wife " She states chirpily.

The faces of both Soo Jung and Ji Na retorts into confused expressions.

"Hi... Sorry for yester-" Soo Jung gets cut in between.

"Sorry about what.....oh about the incident where we bumped into each other yesterday." Min Ji states calmly.

"Yup I was the one who suddenly left Ji Na alone. It's just I had learnt my assistant did this huge blunder....." Soo Jung starts to explain herself.

"It's completely fine... You don't have have to give me any explanation and no need to be awkward. You are Maid of Honour for lords sake... I can understand the pressure you have. The time's have passed by soo let's start anew, shan't we ?" Min Ji said as she put her hand forward in front of Soo Jung.

Soo Jung looked puzzled at Ji Na who was too shocked herself.

"Yeah... Yeah, for sure... You're right! Nice to meet you Min Ji... I'm Soo Jung by the way, Jin's Wife." Soo Jung smiled, taking Min Ji's hand for a hand-shake.

"Ms. Kang Ji Na or should i say soon-to-be Mrs Jeon Ji Na, the idol and bride-to-be. You looked soo familiar." Min Ji states with a warm smile.

"Hello Min Ji! I'm sorry, I'm just not used to be in public that way..." Ji Na confessed.

"It's completely fine..." Min Ji says as she leans in for a hug.

"I am glad you made it. It's really good to meet after so long. Jungkook tells a lot about you and Taehyung." Ji na states.

"I'm happy to meet you in person too Ji na..." Min Ji let's out.

AND THAT WAS ENOUGH TO BREAK THE ICE BETWEEN THEM.

"It's bizarre about how we never met even after the boys being such good friends..." Soo Jung turns to her for an excited hug.

"So what are we gonna do today..??" Ji na inquired.

"Let me present the amazing plans you have today, as this is your last day before you forget us for ethereal fiance of yours." Soo Jung teases and Ji Na can't help but start blushing.

The trip starts off with you guys changing into hiking attires to enjoy the mini hiking trip Soo Jung planned.

Ji Na seemed to be thrilled and very much after knowing the day Soo Jung planned.

All of the girls start excited for the perfect view the top most peak holds.

Hiking enthusiastically Soo Jung seemed to enjoy the trip. Being not much of active person herself the idea of hiking wouldn't much of a liking for her personally but when it comes to Ji Na she seems to be the opposite.

Soo Jung starts to breathe in the fresh crisp air and loved how the birds chirped pretty while she was surrounded by the lushious green trees with healthy sunshine peaked through the canopy when she looked up.

Everything seemed fine until..... halfway she suddenly remembered why she despised hiking.

Breathing heavy she tried to catch up with others but she can't permit it herself. She was just thankful Min Ji didn't leave her side purely through concern. Suddenly Soo Jung felt a cramp on her side.

She still tried to walk in failing a little by twisted her ankle. She just stood there cursing the person who mentioned to her that hiking was an amazing plan. 'Who was that Satan... Obviously it was Namjoon!!' she face palmed herself.

Min Ji faltered in her steps seeing Soo Jung was left behind. She approached her tired face.

"Are you okay, we can wait in the café which is just a minute away. Will you able to hang in till then?" Min Ji bent down to look at Soo Jung like a person would speak to a child hurt.

"I am fine....ouch..." Soo Jung moaned while trying to walk.

"Oh you seemed to have bent your ankle. It's fine let's just settle ourselves there." She says and guides Soo Jung to nearby artificial tree trunk fashioned bench.

"I can't believe I chose hiking of all activities. I know Ji Na loves it but I should I have known it would have been a bummer to me.....so much for asking Namjoon for advice." Soo Jung snorts.

Min Ji laughs at Soo Jung's childish bitterness.

"It's okay you can see Ji Na is having fun. So you did a great job. Don't be too hard on yourself." Min Ji comforts.

" Do you like hiking ???" Soo Jung asks for the sake of having conversation flow.

"I am neutral towards it. But I do love camping. I am looking forward to that." Min Ji remarks.

"Ohh I love camping too since I was a child. It used be the only reason I went camping. For amazing s'mores and playing funny yet memorable games with my friends. Those were some good days." Soo Just states while reminiscing her past camping memories which she can't forget about.

According to her those were the best of the summers she ever had.

"Same. I loved camping as a child too. It used to be the best part my summer. I used to love treasure hunting and all the team work we used to put in. It used to be so exhilarating as a kid." Min Ji states with admiration.

Soo Jung makes a agreeable noise.

"Which camp did y-" Soo Jung got cut off by Ji Na coming there way.

"Are you okay Soo Jung-Ah ?? I noticed you weren't with us in the café so I came back searching, did you hurt yourself?? " Ji Na asks concerned.

"No I am fine just sprained my ankle a little. Everything is good and dandy other than that." Soo Jung tries to cheer up to not worry Ji Na.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

Soon with her friend's assistance, Soo Jung finally reached the peak. When she takes in the beauty all her anger towards hiking washes away.

Now after having comforting spa treatments all of them get ready for the bon fire party arranged in the camping site.

Soo Jung brought in the most comfy sweaters with pjs to wear and she created a unique one with bride to be embroidery for Ji Na.

Then all of the girls gathered around the bon fire to enjoy marshmallows with some booze.

All of it brought back soo many memories and Soo Jung couldn't help but feel warm that she is feeling the same endearment she felt when she was a little girl. With all the girls camping huddled up and cozied in one blanket, all of them enjoyed some amazing barbeque with delicious s'mores.

S'mores aroma and sticky yet amazing texture always brought back her childhood.

At the end all the girls played some random games like never have I ever and chatted about random things while being tipsy.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

Next day they woke up, the sun peering through tent they crashed in and heard the most pleasing birds chirping.

Soo Jung exited the tent to see Min Ji and Ji Na already awake yet groggy sitting on the grass while sitting curled up by bringing their arms towards chest as if to protect themselves from the chill yet soothing spring early morning.

Soo Jung joined in while settling herself on the prickly yet fresh dewy grass.

She started to look at the beautiful butterflies which were on for their honey hunt. At the moment she felt the most peaceful in days.

"Last night was so amazing. I loved every second of the camping Soo Jung-Ah. Thank you for such an amazing surprise, Chingu-Ah." Ji Na said while hugging her Maid Of Honour lovingly.

"Anything for you..." Soo Jung returned a smile filled with warmth.

"How long do you guys know each other?" Min Ji asks curious.

"For five years or so right after she started her solo career I became her stylist and now her best friend. But it seems like I know her forever" Soo Jung remarks clearly admiring her friendship.

"Oh I was meaning to say this, I am a fan of your work and it completely reflects how creative you are, in the way you planned this trip. I enjoyed myself alot. It was just so.." Min Ji's fond ordeal is continued by Ji Na.

"Nostalgic... Right ?" Ji Na said.

"Yeahh.... Exactly..." MinJi let out.

"I felt that too" Soo Jung affirmed.

All of them start to giggle at the similarity and sat in comfortable silence remembering their childhood.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

The same evening the party kicks in the resort with loads of champagne. All the girls dress in their fanciest out fits looking all glamorous. Soo Jung gets ready along with Ji Na and Min Ji.

Ji Na's Dress :

Soo Jung's Dress :

Min Ji's Dress :

Soo Jung feel pleased to see everyone having fun and sips her drink in the corner.

All the start usher Soo Jung to make a toast. Soo Jung getting a little embarrassed just states how much she loves Ji Na and jokes about she might be the only fan who actually got to marry her idol.

Music started to create an amazing vibe for everyone to enjoy themselves. Ji Na's fellow idol friends performed one of their hit songs as a girl group and she herself joined in.

Soo Jung did plan few drinking game to get Ji Na wasted.

"Drink if you are married." Hwasa proposed which let to some of you take in the shot except for Ji Na who was forced into drinking any way as she was bride-to- be.

"Take a shot if you texted some one four hours straight." Irene remarks.

Soo Jung glares at Ji Na who seems to avoid taking a shot.

"Does it even count if you don't get a reply." Ji Na whines with defense.

"It sure does honey..." Hwasa states who is a little drunk herself and forces her to chug the drink. Everyone fall into a giggling fit even though things did not seem to be as funny. It's just every body seems to be tipsy.

"Take a shot if you met a movie star." Ji Na remarks with ulterior motive of revenge.

"Jin is not a movie star he is just an actor." Soo Jung remarks catching on her motives but fails as she is forced to take two more for denying.

By the time clock hits one all of the guests blacked out drunk chatting nonsense and some of them just moving to the beat.

Soo Jung cares for the safety of all the girls and ushers to their rooms to sober them up cause she really can't afford to ruin the wedding tomorrow.

After having a lovely day, Soo Jung feels a rush of relief wash over her. She relaxed for a while looking at her planner for further activities then realised she didn't check up on the boys.

She scrambles in for her phone on the nightstand.

Jungkook:What are... 2:55am

Ddeokdinnie:we are... Wednesday

Soo Jung opens in Jin's text first.

Ddeokdinnie[9:04am]: We are half way to Las Vegas

[ Photo sent]

Ddeokdinnie[11:01]:We just checked in to our rooms. We sure gonna show a nice time to Jungkook-Ah, but that kid seems to have his brain elsewhere. So much for bringing him up to be a fool he is now🤦🏻‍♂️.

Ddeokdinnie [1:55pm]: You seem to be busy.Enjoy!

Ddeokdinnie [2:05am]: i m gld u ennjoying.i miss u....

Soo Jung can't help but smile at the small miss you which seems to be written after having right shots of soju.

Soo Jung replies Jin that they are safe and adds in a miss you and love you.

Now she goes to the attend Jungkook's text as the lover boy seems to be really brought up by Jinnie. Soo Jung chuckles reminiscing Jin's hypocrisy and opens the text with no intend to reply just to exhilarate him. Clearly in non positive ways.

Tsundure turned lover boy[1:05am] : I know Soo Jung you might have taken her phone away give it back to my Ji Na.

Tsundure turned lover boy[2:55am]:What are guys doing. I just wanted to check in if Ji Na was having fun......Let me know how she is.

Soo Jung coo's over Jungkook's adorable concern and feels tempted to message him back. But she doesn't, wanting to tease him a little and knowing he would pester Jin or Tae for the information anyway.

Soo Jung soon forces herself to sleep as she still has a lot of responsibility as a maid of honour and reminds her that this is not the end.

Next day she wakes up to the harsh ringtone of her phone.

"Hello..." She answers with scratchy voice.

"Hey...Soo Jung, This is Hobi. You seem to be still asleep. Seems like yesterday was wild. I have arrived to the venue...."

Soo Jung glances her watch too see she is late.

"Oh God I overslept I should have not participated in those drinking games.....I will be there soo just give me five. You are already aware of plans please follow through." Soo Jung states while hurriedly rushing to her closet and hanging up before Hobi finishes his okay.

❖ ── ✦ ── ✧ ─ ◈ ─ ✧ ── ✦ ── ❖

The D-day came when the heart throb of millions of women round the globe Mr. Jeon Jungkook,kpop idol turned camera director was going to be someone's man and the luckiest girl who had been chosen for him by the gods above was none other than Ms. Kang Ji Na, kpop idol who is not as much as famous as jungkook but still made a little space in the hearts of netizens with her charm, dignity and hard work which never let downs her fans.

They both were more like a couple made in heaven. It was like as if a committee was setup in the ethereal heaven with various gods, goddesses and angels discussing over who should marry jungkook and how to make his wedding one of the best ones the universe had ever experienced.

There was golden silence in the room until the alarm popped out of no where and kept roaring like a wild cat.

Ji na gave it a few hits as if it were her own fiendish child weeping to get his things done and she trying to keep his mouth shut.

"Ji na, get up!!!" yelled her mom.

"Eomma...five more minutes..." moaned Ji na,trying hard to overcome the state she was in.

"You can't still be asking for five more minutes like you always do pabo...its your wedding day and you have loads to do." told her mom in one go.

On hearing that she gets up at the speed of light.

"AHHH!!! It's my important day. How did I forget?? Eomma, I still cant believe I'm getting married. Its happening..OMG I'm soo nervous." she says exhilaratingly.

Her mom is rather a calm lady unlike Ji na who couldn't hold up her emotions that well and state to tear up for no reason.

Her mom plants a kiss on Ji na's forehead as a sign to make her calm down.

"Eomma, can you pinch me...cause I cant believe I'm actually getting hitched up with Jungkook." says Ji na frantically.

Her mom considers it to be her one and only best and the last chance to take revenge from her daughter for troubling and teasing her from the day she was born.

She pinches Ji na so hard that her entire body suffers from redness and make her look like a cherry.

"AHHHHH!!!!!! Eomma not that hard..You shouldn't be taking your grudge on your young, beautiful daughter like this.." tells Ji na rubbing the spot where her mom gave her a mark that's probably gonna last till she dies.

"It was a pay back Ji na..its nothing when compared to how you made me suffer by living in LA and leaving me alone in korea.." exclaims her mom.

Ji na gives her mom a tight hug and a peck on her cheek..

The door which was kept ajar opens in the blink of an eye and there stands a 5 '11" tall, young man with black hair which doubtlessly looks like a dense enchanted forest.

Ji na looses her grip on her mom and jumps onto the man like a tigress coming for her prey and he catches her softly in his arms and Pat's her back.

"NAMJOONAH!! You arent supposed to be here." lies ji na who missed him a lot and wanted to see him very badly.

"What is Jungkook doing?" inquired Ji na letting loose of namjoon.

"He panicked when you didn't pick up his call..he called you numerous times and he ended up sending me here to check on you" complained namjoon.

"Oh shit!! I didn't check my phone from last night... SooJung and MinJi made me drink FIVE FULL SHOTS of soju at the bachelorette's. You know that I get drunk with just one shot ..it took me time to sober up" she exclaimed.

"Umm I see...I guess you guys had a lot of fun at the party while we kept wondering what you guys were doing and just wasted our precious time at ours." Namjoon complained rubbing his finger on his chin.

"Don't lie joonie!! You guys went to Las Vegas for your bachelor's while we stayed back at here. That explains how you guys enjoyed a lot more than we did." Whined Ji na holding both her hands firmly to her waist.

"I wish what you said was true. We indeed went to Las Vegas, but the party got messed up and Kookie ended up drinking like a monster, chanting your name and crying like a baby and we were thrown out of the bar for his behaviour..." Namjoon sighed.

Ji na couldn't control her cackle and laughed out loud, " I wish I could see him like that".

"Namjoon, I think you should leave now and help your brother. It's an important day for him, TODAY." interrupted Ji na's mom.

She quickly yeeted Ji na into her bath room asking her to get herself a shower. Namjoon smiled and made his way out of the room.

But before Namjoon left the room Ji na shouted, "OPPA!! Tell jungkook that I love him and I love you too oppa....BYE!!!"

Namjoon quickly peeked through the door and gave her a big smile showing off his cute dimples.

Ji na took off her clothes in the bath room and made her way into the shower. She drenched her whole goddess figure with water. After 5 minutes of standing like a statue in the shower, she grabbed the shampoo and manipulated it on her hair until her hair oozed out with foam.

She tried to style her hair with foam and acted like the character she was in and also tried to add up karaoke to her performance.

She finished her so called bathroom concert and dabbed her damp, trickling body with a fluffy towel and came out of her bathroom with a thick bathrobe.

As soon as she came out she was yeeted onto her bed by two beautiful women who were indeed her best friends.

"SOOJUNG , MIN JI ....you scared me to death... GOSH..." she stuttered.

The maid of honour, Mrs. Kim Soo Jung and The bride's entourage, Mrs. Kim Min Ji are twinning in a beige sheath silhouette and the hemline reaching their ankle.

"Here!! Ji na take off that robe" SooJung said plainly.

"YAHHH!!! What are your intentions??? I'm gonna complain about you two to my husband" Ji na joked.

The three of them kept laughing for a while.

"We came here to help you with your make up,hair and your dress Ji na" MinJi exhaled.

"Oh!!that's great, So we'll start now" smiled Ji na switching her mood.

Soojung helped Ji na style her dress . The wedding gown was a ball silhouette which had a transparent fabric at the back with a zipper and her bust being a bit revealing in the front . The gown was extremely long with beautiful embroidery sewn on the hemline.

The fabric at her back was see-through and glittery which made Ji na's beautiful back on display for everyone to watch.

Min ji helped Ji na with her bridal make up and fixed her long locks.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

The bride's family arrived at the hotel where the ceremony was about to take place. They were greeted into the hotel by the hotel staff.

Simultaneously, the groom's family also arrives.

Min ji and Soo jung swiftly grabbed Ji na's hand and they ran to their hotel room.

"YAHH! Leave my hand...it hurts" Ji na complains.

" I'm sorry Ji na, But you know it's considered bad luck for you both to see each other before marriage " explain MinJi.

Ji na keeps dreaming of her past about how jungkook hated her like hell and later falling hard for her after coming to know the real her.

A sudden beep of her phone breaks her reverie. Before Ji na could check her phone Soo jung yanks it from her hand.

..........................................................................................

25 Oct,2020

4.00 pm

          I want you to meet me in room no.275 in 15. Come soon sweet heart. I'll be waiting for you.

                                                         Love- Jungkook

..........................................................................................

" Umm...so you guys are planning to meet before the wedding huh!! You very clearly know that we are never letting that happen" bawls Soo jung.

"But......I want to see him very badly." Pouts Ji na.

" Soo jung, let's prank Jungkook by sending Tae instead of Ji na" says MinJi enthusiastically ignoring Ji na.

"That's a great idea!! I'll message Jungkook telling him to put a blind fold so that he won't know its Tae.." grins Soo jung while texting Jungkook.

The both ladies end up dressing Taehyung into Ji na's spare wedding gown and decorating his head with a large wig. They lock Ji na in the hotel room and follow Taehyung .

Taehyung quickly knocks the door twice where Jungkook was waiting in and enters the room valorously while the two young ladies tip toe into the room and hide behind the couch for a better view of the drama they were gonna encounter.

Jungkook yanks Taehyung into his arms and holds him tightly not giving him enough space to breathe.

" Bae!! You've turned a lot more muscular than the last time I saw you. Don’t you think you've been gyming a lot these days?" Said the blind folded man, vigorously kissing Taehyung's neck.

Taehyung couldn't stop his guffaw .Jungkook takes off his blindfold on hearing a manly sound. To his damn, God for saken surprise, he found three familiar personalities rolling on the floor and laughing their heart out.

He feels extremely abashed and his cheeks turn red as an apple from the embarrassment he faced then.

" You really thought it was easy for you to meet Ji na before your wedding. Didn't you ?" Laughed Min ji holding her painful stomach .

Jungkook was completely speechless at that point and he couldn't utter a word to defend himself. The three of them kept teasing him and enjoyed themselves laughing at the awkward Jungkook.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

Now, the actual deal of the day was to come about. Jungkook and Ji na were just 30 minutes away from starting their new lives together and annexing their names with each other.

The wedding hall was pervaded with a horde of dignified guests seated on their respective tables on the either side of the aisle.

Jungkook's parents positioned themselves on the left side of the aisle on the stage while Ji na's parents installed themselves onto the right side of the aisle. Both the elderly couples were dressed in their traditional hanbok while the other family members and the guests designed themselves with modern western style.

The wedding hall was beautifully decorated with flowers and so the hall was filled with fragrance of those beautiful flowers. There were daisies, calla lilies, ranunculus, tulips, roses of different shades etc. There were wedding curtains here and there which camouflaged with the tint of those beautiful flowers. And not to forget about the sweet strains of classical music that drifted through the crowd.

Jungkook was stunning in a single-breasted charcoal tuxedo with a white wing collar shirt and a cute black bow tied around his neck line with some artificial white calla lily along with it's buds worn on the lapel of the tuxedo. He situated himself on the dais afore the aisle.

The guest tables were crammed with few costly goodies of dryfruits, champagne bottles, distilled water bottles and few pre wedding photo cards of Jungkook and Ji na.

The bride's maids accompanied Ji na to the aisle helping her hold her long gown. Ji na stood idle for a while at one end of the aisle meeting her eyes with Jungkook's who stood at the other end. All the heads turned to face the far end of the walk. The music stopped and the opening to the bridal chorus began to play.

Jungkook couldn't help but stare and grin at his gorgeous wife-to-be.

*****Jungkook's P.O.V*****

I couldn't believe my eyes. I know, Ji na is beautiful but I never thought she'd look absolutely stunning in a wedding dress. If I knew it before then I'd asked her to wear it every time we met. My eyes stopped listening to my brain and started to tear up in happiness .It was obvious cause it is the first time that my eyes encountered the most beautiful thing in the world,my dearest Ji na-Ssi. But I still managed to roll back few droplets just to ensure nobody would make fun of me after.

The dress perfectly fitted onto her. I couldn't help but notice her flawless love handles. I even cursed and swallowed harshly when Ji na stood before me like that.

She wore a Cinderella ball gown with embroidery on her bodice. Rhine stones and Pearls were sewn on her gown that matched her crystal head piece. She held a French rose silk bouquet. When she began to walk towards me my heart beat matched with her pace. It started beating so fast that I thought it'll probably gonna tear up my chest.

The way she looked at me when she started to walk towards me had sent an arrow that pierced through my heart.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

Ji na positioned herself beside Jungkook a feet away from him, but he managed to pull her towards him by her waist. She gave a warming look at him with a big smile on her face. And jungkook grabbed a chance to give a peck on her cheek.

"Cherished family members and honoured guests, I would like to thank each of you for coming out this evening", the preacher on the podium spoke.

" Let us begin by offering thanks to the lord on this wonderful day", all of them bowed their heads and he prayed.

The preacher led them through their vows and it was time for the exchange of rings. Both of them slipped their rings on each others fingers.

" By the power vested on me, I now proclaim you both husband and wife. Now, You may kiss the bride." the preacher ordered.

Jungkook leaned forward onto Ji na and kissed her plump lips placing his hands on her shoulder.

The emcee of the ceremony was elected to be Mr. Kim Seokjin, actor and best friend of Jungkook. He performed his duties very well from guiding the guests to introducing the cake cutting and bouquet throwing activities at the end of the wedding by cracking jokes in between that kept the guests entertained.

Jin announced the dinner and the hotel staff placed the delicious food before the guests guided by jimin who took the charge of catering .

Mean while Ji na and Jungkook left the hall to change their outfit into a comfortable one. The Best Man and Maid of Honour trailed behind them to help them.

Jungkook followed Ji na to her room but the bridesmaid's successfully shoo-ed him away.

They returned to the hall and sat beside each other on the podium. Jin handed over his mic to his beloved wife to give a speech and so the entertainment continued as each of their friends started singing,dancing and giving speeches for them. Jungkook even managed to pull Ji na to dance with him.

After the commencement of their evening, the guests were offered dessert and the couple went back again to change their outfits into traditional korean hanbok.

They returned the hall holding each others hand and greeted each and every guest at their respective tables. The guests stood up at their places pausing for hugs and kisses congratulating the young couple and giving them beautiful gifts.

Jungkook managed to invite south korean president and the first lady who just arrived at the time the newly weds were greeting their guests. The older couple congratulated the younger ones and handed over a venus flower basket which has a great reason to it's own. In Japan it symbolizes " till death do us part". They helped them reach out safely, greeted them once again for accepting their invitation and returned back into the hall.

Ji na then turned around throwing her bouquet behind her. The women collided with each other as they tried to catch it.

Jungkook and Ji na ran to the decorated Ferrari that waited for them. Taehyung and Jin tried to stop both of them from escaping, just to tease them.

Taehyung tried hard not to step on Ji na's long trail that brushed the ground as they ran. They were so quick to get away. Jungkook jumped in the driver's seat helping Ji na settle herself in the passenger seat. Jungkook took off as if it were a race. The ribbons, twisted coils whisked in the wind behind them.

The happily married couple left the hotel all by themselves to get few dates and chest nuts for the pybaek ceremony held at Ji na's in-laws place.

"I'm not gonna speak to you, Ji na . You hurted me...", said jungkook seriously steering .

"What did I do kookie?" Ji na cried out.

"Firstly, you didn't show up when I texted you. And worst of all you sent Taehyung instead. You know how they made fun of me", complained Jungkook.

" I sent you a sorry text later sweet heart", Ji na defended herself.

Jungkook gave Ji na a staid glare.

" And secondly, you've distracted me during the entire wedding with that sexy dress of yours and ofcourse your seductive figure. My mom caught me eyeing your provocative figure and she gave me a death glare...", pouted Jungkook.

Ji na chuckled and leaned forward to give Jungkook a quick kiss and settled herself to where she was before.

" Are you tryna give me a ROADHEAD baby girl. I'm ready for it . Go on", Jungkook laughed.

"STOP KOOKIE!!! You're so shameless. There are people here", shouted Ji na cutting her eye contact with Jungkook's and blushing all herself.

Jungkook halts his car at the parking of the store and both of them entered the store merrily.

Ji na let goes jungkook's hand in the store helping herself to find a small pack of nuts. After 15 minutes of struggling, she eventually finds the perfect sized pack.

She turns to face her husband to show him what she got. To her surprise she finds him standing at the bill counter with a large pack which is half of his height.

Ji na quickly grabs Jungkook out of the queue .

" What are you doing Ji na? You cant see I'm paying up there!! " Jungkook yells.

" Is this whole packet for the entire family? Pybaek's only for us bae. We dont need a larger pack." Ji na explains while throwing the large one to where it was before.

" I want you to collect as many nuts as possible with your skirt at pybaek so that we'll have many kids." Jungkook says in a matter of fact tone.

" This man's probably gonna kill me with those looks some day and he never forgets to embarrass me everywhere " she thought to her self hitting her palm on her forehead .

She grabs Jungkook by his hand,paying off at the counter for the packet and yeeting him into their car.

Jungkook trails behind her silently and gives her a soft kiss and they're off to their destination.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

Both the couple arrive at Jungkook's lavish house and his parents greeted the young couple into their house. Ji na handed over the packet to her mother in law .

Both of them entered the hall way which was crowded with their friends and family members.

" You were fast kid. Both of you ran as if you were eloping." said Jin bursting out his wind shielded laugh.

" I realized that if we both stayed there you and your wife were never going to let us breathe. So we had to do that." replied Jungkook with a poker face.

" Let us begin the ceremony. " called out jungkook's mom.

Ji na and jungkook sit facing eachother beside the table decorated with chestnuts and dates.

Ji na and jungkook hold a white apron from both it's ends and his parents threw them towards the newly weds. Jungkook gives his 100% , catching everything without missing a single seed. Ji na couldn't stop but give jungkook a kiss on his cheek for his extraordinary performance .

The number caught signifies the no. of girls (dates) and boys (chestnuts) they would bear in future.

Later Jungkook lifts Ji na on his back and gives her a ride to denote his strength which is a part of ceremony.

Jungkook places a chestnut between his lips and its Ji na's turn now to take a bite from his mouth.

All of their friends and family members cheer them and enjoy themselves with the drinks and so the wedding day ended on a happy note.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

The next day Jungkook wakes up first yet late after their first official first night from a state where Jungkook back hugged Ji na tightly, protecting her from the cold breeze and their duvet being tangled up between their legs.

He quickly gives Ji na a cute sleep peck on her forehead and goes out into their new kitchen to make her breakfast.

After a while, he comes back with two cups of caffé latte along with croissants and wakes his wifey up.

" WOW!!! I'm quite impressed. " exclaims Ji na giving him a kiss to appreciate his efforts.

" I did this only to get a kiss from you and now my mission is successful." he says joyfully plonking on the bed beside Ji na.

»»-—————--✧✦✧--—————-««

A sharp door bell breaks Ji na and Jungkook apart who were probably enjoying their best quality time watching a movie while cuddling each other. Jungkook curses even without knowing who showed up at their home, gets up angrily to attend the door.

As he opened the door he hears a loud thud followed by metallic sheet pieces, ribbons falling straight on his head.

When he recovers from the unexpected blast he sees his's and Ji na's friends standing with balloons, party supplies and beverages.

They hug Jungkook and run into his house without his permission. He stands there for a while with a poker face and ofcourse crying internally for the interruption they caused.

He closes the door and returns to where ji na is.

" Jungkook-ah, sorry for the intervention. It's been a long time since our last meet so we just came here to see you both. ", explains Taehyung.

'It was yesterday we last met . This bastard is getting on my nerves' Jungkook thought to himself giving him a fake smile and crying internally.

Ji na senses Jungkook's annoyance and tries to calm him down, simultaneously, greeting the guests trying hard not to show them how they actually feel.

" It's been so long we all sat together like this. So I thought it would be a great around every one and come to breach our lovely weds time." Namjoon wiggled his eyebrows teasingly while Jungkook got more pissed.

"Oh my God I just asked Jungkook to watch it with me. I myself was really looking forward to it. It's gonna be amazing view from our balcony.I am glad you brought in all of us together." Ji Na states excited but yet feels the longing gaze Jungkook gives.

" This was gonna be our thing, You spoiled it hyung." Jungkook whined poutyly but Ji Na pulled him closer to comfort the giant man child.

Soon every body gathered in the balcony. With some Chinese take out brought in by the considerate Jimin.

Namjoon started to adjust the telescope to view the shower more precisely to be able to witness it's beauty.

All started to anticipate the meteor shower to start soon as per the live news shown on the internet. All just cuddled up in their blankets and fell into random conversations.

Couples start to get sappy to which the single boys started to mock yet all were grateful to have their loved ones together to witness something that will happen only few times in a period of human existence.

"So what were you guys doing fifteen years back." Taehyung asks

"You know, we were just a bunch of dorky kids who wouldn't even care about once in a life time astronomical deals, it was characterized nerdy." Yoongi retorts sarcastically.

" That was the reason I didn't invite you guys then." Namjoon states silently while still peering through the telescope.

" Oh God!! I saw one. Guys!!! it's happening!! " Namjoon states excited as if he were the same kid fifteen years ago.

Soon the meteors start falling through distinct sky appearing like beautiful splinters of fire which can be explained as the fireworks made by nature.

Along with Namjoon all others start to get excited and some of them start jiggling around happily while holding to the balcony reeling.

The maknaes pushed their hyung to try and see the meteors a little nearer through the only telescope.

While staring with lightened smile MinJi states" I remember seeing this while camping when I was eleven with two of my best friends. It was one of the most beautiful thing I ever witnessed and that with them along with me. It's nostalgic seeing it again today", said with her eyes sparkling.

Soo Jung gets a little confused " What a coincidence I saw the meteor shower in a summer camp with my friends too."

Ji Na can't help but cut in and she felt a chill run down her spine for such an absurd coincidence the world has ever played on them.

"So Min.... Minty, Oh God Min Ji!! Are you MINTY POO?" Ji Na shouts shocked.

"That means, Soo Jung you are SOJU BUN !!" MinJi exclaims.

Now all of them just look at themselves in silence

"What are you long lost sisters or something..?" Yoongi remarks sarcastically while not being able to digest the trio's exaggerated expressions.

All of them just start giggling together as what Yoongi said was actually close to reality.

"Some thing like that, Yoongi... All of us went to the same summer camp when we were eleven that's where we know each other from." Soo Jung enunciates.

" Wow!! I can't believe this can all be coincidental and it's so absurd we didn't realize this till today." Ji Na states still in daze about the new found information.

" It's okay Jiffy Bugga..." Soo Jung teases.

" I can't believe we found each other again. I missed you guys so much after I left the summer camp. I still get dew-eyed thinking about our memories." Min Ji says while pulling the two girls for a group hug.

"W-Wha-Ba-Hahaha... " Taehyung cracks up listening to his wife's name. "Minty poo!! " He says breathely, earning a slap on his arm from MinJi herself.

"Soju Bun huh. Should have told me sooner." Jin teases Soo Jung while patting her head.

Soo Jung kicks him to his shin and he exclaims way dramatically than the actual pain.

" I just meant that I don't need real SOJU when i have you." He says, agonizing in pain while Soo Jung side eyes him.

On seeing their hyung suffer like that, all the boys who were previously laughing, instantly shut up while Jungkook who was about to taunt Ji na with her nick name clamps his mouth up too.

After the girls stop getting perplexed and emotional about there unexpected reunion they pull a toast for life and how things can turn out so unexpected.

❖ ── ✦ ── ✧ ─ ◈ ─ ✧ ── ✦ ── ❖

[ruminativerabbi]

Forgiving Sirhan Sirhan

Sometimes life imitates art (and sometimes just the reverse), but what is true about art is true about religion as well: there are times when specific issues are on our minds owing to the nearness of a holiday or some imminent life cycle moment…and then, just as we are focused on that specific issue, it appears on the front page of the paper in some wholly other context and invites us to consider its intricacies from an entirely different angle.

As we count down the days to Rosh Hashanah, the question of forgiveness is on our minds…and in a dozen different ways. If we have wronged someone in the course of the year now ending, can we ask for forgiveness in a way that provokes a charitable response on the part of the ill-treated party? If we have behaved poorly (even in a way known solely to ourselves), can we repent us of our sin sufficiently meaningfully and wholeheartedly for us not to be judged harshly during the course of these coming Days of Judgment? If we have remained silent and inert while seeing another soul being wronged or demeaned, or treated unjustly—or even while merely knowing that someone was being treated in one of those ways, can we forgive ourselves to the extent necessary to stand up in shul and recite our Rosh Hashanah prayers without feeling like hypocrites? Owning up to our own weaknesses of character and errors of judgment is, after all, not quite as easy as it sounds in that it requires a level of self-awareness and candor that comes naturally to almost none of us. So to do it at all is difficult. But to do it because we truly regret our errors of judgment and moral missteps and not merely because we hope merely to garner for ourselves a good write-up in God’s great Book of Life—that is neither a simple nor a straightforward path for any of us to follow.

So those were the ideas that have been occupying me in these last weeks as we move ever closer to the Days of Awe. And then I opened the paper the other day and who should be looking out at me if not Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of murdering Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 and sentenced the following year to be executed for his crime. (In 1972, when the California Supreme Court determined that capital punishment was in violation of the state constitution’s stricture against cruel or unusual punishment, his sentence was retroactively commuted to life in prison.) The years passed. As generally happens with the incarcerated, the public heard almost nothing about him. From time to time, a brief note would appear in the paper reporting that Sirhan had yet again been denied parole. But then, just one week ago, Sirhan appeared for a sixteenth time before the parole board and this time he was recommended for parole.

Their recommendation, it turns out, does not guarantee his release. First, there will be a ninety-day review by the California Board of Parole Hearings. And then Governor Gavin Newsom will have thirty days to accept the parole board’s recommendation or to alter it or to reject it. The governor, who has his own hands full with a serious effort to remove him from office, has not indicated how he will respond. Sirhan Sirhan was twenty-four years old at the time of RFK’s assassination and is now seventy-seven.

I remember Robert Kennedy’s assassination vividly. I was just wrapping up tenth grade when he was killed on June 5, 1968. And I was a huge fan, one of my only classmates to prefer his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president to Eugene McCarthy’s. He had his flaws, to be sure. But he had been a presence in American life since the John Kennedy presidency, during the course of which he served not only as his brother’s Attorney General, but also as his closest advisor. As a result, his willingness to run for president represented—to many of us, at least, including to myself and my parents—the possibility of returning to Camelot, of restoring some version of the John Kennedy presidency to our riven country just five years after Dallas.

And then, in a heartbeat, it was over. The images are, at least for people my age, indelible. RFK lying on the floor of that hotel kitchen. The busboy putting a rosary in Kennedy’s hands while he was still conscious. The funeral service at St. Patrick’s. Andy Williams singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic. The nighttime burial in Arlington. John Glenn presenting the flag to Ted Kennedy, then the latter handing it to his mother.

The assassin, a Palestinian without American citizenship, was motivated to murder Kennedy because of the latter’s support for Israel. So that’s certainly part of the story—in general as well, but for me personally in an intense, meaningful way.

And now the newspaper meets the Machzor and challenges me, not to decide what the man’s fate should be (that will ultimately fall to the governor of California, Newsom or whomever), but answer a series of simple questions prompted by the parole board’s decision. Is forgiveness a gift that must be freely offered or can it be earned? If the former, can it be offered other than by the wronged party? (That is obviously an impossibility if the wronged party is dead.) Society can free RFK’s murderer…but would that be tantamount to forgiving the man? The man has been in jail for fifty-three years. He claims to have been drunk when he murdered RFK, a man he had never met and did not know personally. He admits his guilt, but only because he feels it was proven in court, not because he has any recollections at all of the actual event. He is clearly a danger to no one at all at this point. And so the parole board felt that he had earned the right to live free for whatever time he has left. They clearly have the right to free (or to start that ball rolling). But can they forgive?

The responses to the parole board’s decision have been fast and furious. Six of Robert Kennedy’s children expressed outrage that their father’s murdered could possibly be allowed to get on with his life, while their father remains dead and thus unable to get on with his. (To see Maxwell Taylor Kennedy’s op-ed piece opposing parole from the Los Angeles Times, click here. To read Rory Kennedy’s piece published yesterday in the New York Times, click here.) But two of RFK’s sons, Douglas Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., support the board’s decision, the latter going so far as to say that he was grateful to have lived to see the day on which his father’s murdered could be deemed “worthy of compassion and love.” Clearly, they forgive their father’s murderer. But do they have that right? That’s the question the whole story has challenged me to ponder.

That Sirhan Sirhan is a different man at seventy-seven than he was at twenty-four is hardly an impressive achievement: of what seventy-seven year old could not the same thing be said? But the question here is neither whether he is a new man or whether he regrets his actions. Nor is the question for me personally to consider whether the man will or will not constitute a danger to society if he is freed. (Those are obviously huge questions for the parole board to work through. But I don’t sit on that board—and I’m asking a different question here, one related to the question of forgiveness, not to the actual decision regarding Sirhan Sirhan’s release from prison.)  Our tradition is clear that bad deeds fall into three categories: those which can be forgiven by the wronged party (whom the doer of the deed must find the courage to approach and ask for forgiveness), those which cannot be forgiven by the wronged party because the latter is dead (in which case tradition suggests convening a minyan at the grave of that individual, publicly confessing to the wrongdoing, and praying for God’s mercy), and those which cannot be forgiven because the aggressed-against party is not known (in which case all the doer of the deed can do is to fast, confess the wrongdoing, and pray for forgiveness). There are a thousand subcategories to those categories, but all are rooted in the same simple concept that only the wronged individual can forgive the wrongdoer. The rest of us can be understanding, generous, kind, and non-judgmental. But if you wish forgiveness, tradition instructs you to find the courage to address the wronged party and to ask—simply and unequivocally—for that individual’s forgiveness. Nothing more than that. But also nothing less.

[grimelords]

Hello and god bless, I have finally finished my November playlist a week and a half into december. Disco, Guns N’ Roses, an entire doom metal album and everything in between. Please enjoy.

​Extraball - Yuksek: Aside from the extremely nice electro bass I think what I appreciate most about this song is that the chorus seems like the sort of thing you could sing in a round, or as some kind of children’s clapping game.

Mirror Reaper - Bell Witch: Let me be the first to apologise for putting an 80 minute doom metal album as the second song on this playlist. I’m sorry. It was selfish and it won’t happen again. That said, please listen to this because it is transformative. I’ve listened this a lot this month and it’s really affected my mood I think. Doom metal is one of the only genres that takes itself seriously enough to release an album that’s just one 80 minute track but I really can’t fault them for doing it. This is a piece of music that demands to be listened to in full, and while it does naturally divide into movements like anything else this long would, it would be weaker overall if it were split into individual tracks or listened to individually. A lot of the playing on here, which is very sparse in long sections feels like ritual music of some kind - a feeling that’s compounded by the length when you’re absolutely lost within it. It makes electric bass and drums feel like modern ritual instruments and this album feels like an invocation of the spirit of loss itself.

Sixteen Tons - Merle Travis: For some reason I keep thinking about and listening to different versions of Sixteen Tons. This is Merle Travis, the orginal songwriter, but this is a new recording he did in 1989. Notably I love the very plaintive solo in the middle of this, but I especially love that he changed the lyric at the end to say “I owe my soul to Tennessee Ernie Ford” which feels like an agressive rebuke or a solemn nod but I can’t tell which.

Looking Up - Michael Smith: My girlfriend sent me this song because she heard it on the podcast Good Christian Fun which as I understand it is an exploration of the bizzare world of american evangelical christian media. Anyway this song rocks. It sounds like Todd Terje remixed the theme to some lost 80s sitcom and I really can’t get enough of it.

Wild - Beach House: This is such a beautiful song. I love the tinny drum machine and the live drums that sound programmed constrasting against the huge wall of guitar and synths. I used to listen to this album a lot a few years ago when I worked night shift and it reminds me of standing on top of wine tanks in the cool night air at 2am texting my now girlfriend as she went to bed. Sorry.

Piano Concerto No. 3 In D Minor, Op.30: 1. Allegro ma non tanto - Sergei Rachmaninoff: I had a friend in school who did his licentiate degree in piano in year 12 and was obsessed with this piece. One day he took me through the whole first movement and showed me how the theme is established and comes back in different forms over and over again throughout and basically taught me how to listen to classical music which was very kind of him because it’s something I’m only really appreciating now.

Verklärte Nacht, Op.4: String Sextett for 2 Violins, 2 Violas and 2 Cellos - Arnold Schoenberg: This is an early Schoenberg piece before he got into that good good atonal serialism, but it does still have moments that presage what was to come. I don’t really have much to say about this other than it’s a very good place to start with Schoenberg because it’s like proof that he was a human man at one point.

Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) - Harry Belafonte: I’ve really been thinking about how work songs like this and like Sixteen Tons become international hits. This one especially, in the 50s, was it because it was a really good song (which it is) that a lot of people related to or was it a sort of exoticism about funny banana song (which to be fair, it also is).

Boogie Wonderland (12" Version) - Earth, Wind And Fire: This is the song you hear playing from the other side of the door when you get to heaven.

Apollo’s Mood - The Olympians: This album is basically a collection of Daptone All-Stars under the name The Olympians just doing their thing and it’s really amazing. I especially love the harpsichord in this, an instrument that doesn’t get nearly enough of a workout in soul music. Also, I don’t really know how to describe it but I really love the way the snare roll that starts it off and comes back a few times sounds - buzzy and busy without rushing anyone.

Saturn - The Olympians: This is the song you use for your montage at the end of a James Bond movie that’s just four minutes of him relaxing and drinking different cocktails by himself that the critics called ‘wholly unneccesary’. In the drums and bongo break he does a little dance and falls over.

November Rain - Guns N’ Roses: As far as overblown classic rock epics go, I really wish November Rain had the cultural place of bad song Bohemian Rhapsody or Stairway To Heaven because underneath the 9 minutes of stings and bullshit it’s actually a very beautiful and sad song written by an idiot.

Sisters Of The Moon - Fleetwood Mac: With the current wytchy cult that Stevie Nicks has around her it’s easy to forget that she wrote songs like Sisters Of The Moon, a song explicitly about a witch converting other women to witchery. I love the big extended phrase of guitar chords in the chorus and I’m very mad about how this song fades out just as it’s absolutely going off.

When The Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin: Rounding out this unexpected classic rock trio is When The Levee Breaks which I was thinking about because I was thinking about The Big Short. This song sounds so good and there’s been so much written about the famous drum sound and the production but what I only learned this month is that it was apparently recorded at a faster tempo and then slowed down afterwards, which explains a lot about a lot of the sounds in here.

Bad Liar - Selena Gomez: This is maybe the pop song of the year honestly. It’s so good in every single aspect, especially the when she says’ oh baby lets make reality, actuality, reality’ which is a very weird lyric. So is 'you’re taking up a fraction of my mind, every time I watch you serpentine(?)’. Great stuff all around.

Hello Miss Lonesome - Marlon Williams: I saw Marlon Williams a year or so ago and it was one of the best gigs I’ve been to because things just kept going wrong. Broken strings and misunderstandings and all that sort of thing, and the highlight for me was in this song the drummer got overconfident and started pushing the tempo near the end and eventually tripped over himself so badly they had to stop and start again.

The Voice Of Q - Q: Here’s how you can tell a song is good: you can only find it on Spotify on a compilation album called 'Cocaine Boogie: 24 Kilos Of Underground 80s Dance’. This song seems like a classic case of 'somebody bought a vocoder’ and it’s very very good, another fantastic entry in the canon of interplanetary disco. I also love the children sadly pleading with Q to come back at the end, because the song hasn’t really given you any understanding of who or what Q is other than a being with a voice who is from space.

Take A Trip - Rev. Utah Smith: If I were, hypothetically, to start, for example, a UFO cult, I would definitely have my congregation sing this song. I love it so much. Outside of the fun premise it does what good gospel music should do and completely uplifts my spirit by promising a better life after this one, and if I get to go there by rocket ship, well that’s all the better.

Normal Person - Arcade Fire: I love the little 'do you like rock and roll music? 'cause I don’t know if I do.’ he sings at the start because it sounds like they’re into their 13th hour of recording or something. I love the lead guitar that sounds like it’s severely undernourished but trying its best and I love how strangely heavy the bass and rhythm guitar is compared to a lot of their other songs. A good song to sing along to while you’re driving.

Top Of The World - Kimbra: I don’t know exactly how or why but Kimbra made a Kanye song. Playing the dual roles of Kanye and Featured Artist she does a great job and once again defies whatever I thought she was going to do next. I can’t wait for the album, I hope it has even more Raps.

Eric’s Trip - Sonic Youth: I’ve never gotten much into Sonic Youth because they seemed way too New York Cool for me, so imagine my heartbreak when I found out the lyrics to my favourite song of theirs are wholesale lifted from an Andy Warhol film. I still have a lot of love for 'my head’s on straight, my girlfriend’s beautiful, it looks pretty good to me’ though.

I Hope I Sleep Tonight - DJ Seinfeld: God I’d be embarrassed if I blew up on soundcloud with the name 'DJ Seinfeld’ and then had to keep it when I put my album out. This album varies pretty wildly in quality but I really love this track, the synth melody that just careens around wildly while the rest of the song happens nearby is what does it for me I think.

Problem With The Sun - Nicolas Jaar: “In an interview with Self-Titled Magazine, Jaar said “I was watching a documentary about bugs. It said that if they looked at the sun, they’d die. I thought ‘Oh, that’s funny; that’s cute’ and I wrote a track about it (…). If you find something really special in a tiny story about bugs, it could have a much bigger meaning than that. I like the idea of turning life into this miniature thing”.” He’s used this particular voice modulation on a couple of song and it really cracks me up because it so thick and textured and just plain silly but somehow it suits the song perfectly.

Long Strong Diamond - Baggsmen: This is a song I remember seeing on Rage late at night years and years ago. The guy was dressed up as a werewolf and kidnapping some girl but he gets so distracted by his song about being a werewolf that she ends up escaping. Extremely mad to find out that the guy in this song from years ago that I love is none other than personal enemy of mine Jake Stone from Bluejuice.

XO/The Host/Initiation - The Weeknd: Trilogy could well be the best album of the decade. Remember when The Weeknd was this mysterious anonymous guy who was firmly a character and not an actual guy who seems to actually believe what he’s singing? I love Trilogy because the progression across the three discs from like 'cool indifferent party guy’ in House Of Balloons to extremely deranged cult leader in Echoes Of Silence is very satisfying. Initiation especially is great because it’s like a cool fun song about a party mixed with some extremely dark shit about the clocks not working so you can’t tell the time and the blinds not working so you can’t see outside in a scary pitch shifting voice. “And all I wanna do is leave 'cause I’ve been zoning for a week and I ain’t left this little room, trying to concentrate to breathe” but you absolutely MUST meet my boys.

This Guy’s In Love With You - Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass: Anyway here’s a change of pace. A very peaceful song about just fucking dying if she won’t be your girl. I love how dramatic this song gets before completely stopping and starting again into a very relaxed trumpet line.

Jasmine (demo) - Jai Paul: I’m obsessed with the cult that develops around guys like Jai Paul and Jay Electronica, who put out two songs that are so good that it drives people insane when they don’t put out any more. There’s apparently a bunch of stuff happening with Jai Paul currently that I haven’t been keeping track of but The Fader had a really good article earlier this year about how the Jai Paul leaks and how insane it made everyone. Aside from all that, the song is pure magic - just listen to it and you can understand why everyone was obsessed as they were.

Freaking Out The Neighbourhood - Mac Demarco: I remember I saw an interview with Mac Demarco talking about this song and he described the riff as just some dumb little thing he made up which is shocking to me because I am totally obsessed with how good it sounds. It’s perfect!

Bob - “Weird Al” Yankovic: Yes baby it’s Weird Al’s all-palindrome Bob Dylan parody! I was telling my girfriend about how this is actually really good songwriting because even though it’s essentially gibberish it has enough good imagery and fun sounds that it works anyway and really how different is 'may a moody baby doom a yam’ to 'transient jet lagged ecto-mimed bison’ from the Mars Volta which also appears on this list? Anyway she hated it, and rightly so.

I Have Good News To Bring - Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Live from the basement church of my UFO cult, a beautiful version of Take A Trip that sounds like it was recorded on the organ of an empty baseball stadium at night.

Julia - Jungle: I have been desperately waiting for three years now for another Jungle album and they finally posted about new songs the other day and I got very very excited. This is an amazing song, every sound in it is so perfectly placed and the vocals are very beautiful and have such a rich bass for such a high tenor. I love the way the drums subtly get very busy in the last few choruses, I could listen to this song for hours.

Ray Gun (feat. DOOM) -BadBadNotGood & Ghostface Killah: I love that this song is maybe 20bmp faster than Ghostface or Doom are expecting. Doom especially sounds far more excited than he has in years and they both do really well with it. Also, I was certain the melody it breaks into in the last third was some Lalo Schifrin bit I’ve heard before but I can’t seem to find any info corroborating that. If it’s familiar to you or you know where it’s from, please reply to this post because it’s been driving me crazy.

Confessions Pt. III - BadBadNotGood & Colin Stetson: Any song where Colin Stetson has to play with others is funny to me. He’s such a self contained ball of power that him joining a traditional group like it just wouldn’t work. Sure, this song does sort of sound like him doing his own thing for seven minutes while the band sort of reacts to him but it is absolutely fantastic anyway.

Everyone Nose (All The Girls Standing In The Line For The Bathroom) - N.E.R.D: Remember when Pharrell was crazy? This song is total chaos. The pitched down sample in the hook, the two note bassline, the sax that just hoots once a bar. And I absolutely love the contrast of the beautiful bridge, especially the 'achooo’ backing vocals.

Parties - Shlohmo: Bad Vibes was such a moment. It is such a beautiful album, and a very easy album to fall asleep to and then wake up 20 minutes later terrified and choked by your headphones because Trapped In A Burning House, the song that sounds exactly like its title and nothing like the rest of the album, came on. I have such a strong emotional reaction I really can’t explain to the cutoff samples of people laughing near the end of this song.

Bering/Human Till Born -Talkdemonic: I have no idea how I came across this album but I’ve been listening to it constantly for ten years now and I still find new things to appreciate in it. The drums especially in Human Till Born are a source of obsession for me.

Don Caballero 3 - Don Caballero: For a long time I never 'got’ Don Caballero or Hella or any of these supposedly legendary math bands, despite loving so many bands obvously influenced by them. But then one day this album, and this song especially just clicked for me. It also happened to coincide with one of the most surreal weeks of my life when I was on a cruise ship and all I listened to was this and a field recording album that seems to have completely deleted itself from my computer since then. The best advice I’ve heard for listening to this is, and bands like it is that it’s backward. The drums are the lead instrument and everything else works around that, if that helps. This song has a twisted sort of morose quality that’s really hard to pin down. Some days it is absolutely heartbreaking, which sounds silly but it’s true.

B.Y.O.B. - System Of A Down: There’s a few reasons I was thinking of this song. First and most importantly it’s because of that dog vine but the other reason is I was thinking about how there hasn’t been a good anti-trump song yet outside of YG’s FDT, and that came out before the election. This and American Idiot came out in 2004/5, and I suppose it’s only been a year since the election so we’ve got a few years yet until the real hits come out I guess. Or I suppose he’d have to actually properly declare war, which, you know.

4D/MTI - Koreless: These songs are so intertwined in my head I feel like you can’t have one without this other. 4D is such a simple, beautiful piece of music. The synth that sounds like glass and the chopped vocals getting more and more contorted as the song goes on contrasted with the propulsion of the drums is so great. Both of these songs have a meticulousness and restraint to their sound, every single piece is perfectly where it should be and nothing else is allowed. Even MTI using so much white noise feels incredibly controlled and when it totally drops out it feels like coming up from underwater.

New Lands - Justice: Remember when Justice took 4 years to write a follow up to their album that lit the world on fire and instead of doing the same thing again they made a classic rock album? Everyone was so mad. Luckily this song is incredible and everyone was wrong once more.

You Discovered The Secret And Juiced It For All Its Majesty - Venetian Snares: This is from an EP called Cubist Reggae which I think a lot about in concept alone. This is probably the song that illustrates the idea worst but I love it a lot. My incredibly unpopular opinion is that Venetian Snares is miles better of Aphex Twin and whoever but everyone’s written him off as the Rossz Csillag guy so he doesn’t get no respect. I love how detailed his music is, how every one of the million sounds seems to be perfectly placed. I think he’s in a similar position to Autechre where he’s been making and listening to only his own music for so long now that he’s forgotten how normal music sounds, which is good.

Blues Run The Game - Jackson C. Frank: I made a playlist a couple of years ago of all the songs I sing to myself when I’m just walking around or whatever and it turned out about 6/10 had 'blues’ or 'hard times’ in the title, which is tough but it’s ok, and this was one of them. If you want to read a wiki article that’ll make you cry, read Jackson C. Frank’s, but mostly you should just listen to this, his only album.

Thermal Treasure - Polvo: I played this song for my girlfriend and during the intro she said 'you have such a wide variety of tense, off kilter music seeminly designed just to put people on edge’. I’m a huge fan of this very defensive sentence in Polvo’s wiki article 'Their sound was so unpredictable and angular that the band’s guitarists were often accused of failing to play with correctly tuned guitars’.

FML - Kanye West: This is such a strangely affecting song and it’s hard to be sympathetic to Kanye as a narrator sometimes (especially when he insists on doubling down on dogshit lines like “'I'mma have the last laugh indian cause I’m from the tribe called chekaho’”) but against all odds you can identify and relate to his struggle to hold onto the woman he loves and not be undone by his own worst instincts. Musically this is the best The Weeknd has ever sounded and I already love him a lot, and the way the drums lead into the sample at the end is just perfect.

Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of) - The Mars Volta: This is the album I’ve probably listened to the most in my life. As a teenager I would listen to this album every night for easily a year and somehow there’s still something new to hear in it. It’s almost hard to listen to it now because I have so much Teenage Feeling attached to it but it’s still an incredible piece of work. Jon Theodore deserves a statue for his drumming on this album, and this song especially, in my humble opinion.

Life’s A Beach! - Studio: God I love Studio. I think if you tried to describe them on paper you could never make it sound like good music. “It’s sort of, balearic , reggae, guitar-led dance music and the songs go for about 15 minutes most of the time.” But it is good music! I absolutely promise it’s incredible music!

The Number Song (Cut Chemist Remix) - DJ Shadow: I love this remix because it feels like theseus’ ship as demonstrated via remix. How many parts can you swap out for similar but not identical parts before it’s a completely different song. The drums are almost the same beat, but a totally different sample.The Jackson 5 horns in the original that signal the transition to the second half are still here with the same function, but it’s an entirely different horn sample, and an entirely different second half save for 'the party’s already started, and it’s about to end’. 

listen here

[noprepracing]

When you hear the term “all in “you usually think to poker tournaments or betting like that, but not normally drag racing. When it comes to Ronnie and Emerald Pace they are the exception, they are “all in” in this lifestyle now and will do everything to make it work. This is their only way of life right now and we couldn’t be more thrilled and excited for their dedication and what is to come this season. Ronnie was born in Georgia then moved to Weatherford TX when he was 10-11 years old. That’s when and where he met Emerald. Now I’ve heard of high school sweethearts, but junior high sweethearts is a whole other level of sweet swoon goals, like a made for TV movie. She caught his eye walking down the hallway and near he gave himself whiplash. It’s been like that ever since, turning heads and making others love jealous. They are a true ride or die pair. Emerald and Ronnie have been together for 32 years and married for 28 of those years. They have two children and 4 grandbabies in total. Ronnie has been into cars all of his life, he remembers being about 8 years old at his grandpa’s house where his grandpa and uncle were working on a Chevelle with a 4 speed. “They threw me in the back seat and I’ve been in love ever since.” It’s been a nonstop journey with and no plans of stopping. Most guys have a main job and then racing comes next, but not for Ronnie. He had a small concrete business but had to let it go to pursue racing full time. This is what we mean when we say they are “all in”, it is not just a metaphor. During the events Emerald is his rock, not only does she look fabulous lining him up on the starting line, but she whispers words of encouragement, helps calm him down at the light, plus she does all the computer work for the car. She isn’t afraid to get dirty, looks out for him in case someone tries taking advantage of his kind and trusting nature, “she’s my right-hand man and I couldn’t do it without her.” Emerald is someone to look up to that doesn’t get nearly enough recognition for us female race fans. Ronnie is old school and a die-hard street racer who happens to love JJ the boss and loves the heads up style of racing. Not so much a fan of all the other ways to do a street race like taking the hit and so on. He currently has 4 cars, 71 black Nova, 71 green Nova, 68 Nova, and a blue 71 Nova and a partnership with a 67 Camaro. Many people wonder how Barefoot Ronnie got his name, well here is the quick story. Ronnie was at a street race many years ago with Street Outlaws, he was on the line backing up, and Big Chief starts knocking on the window. “Damnit boy where’re your shoes at?” Ronnie replies “I don’t wear em.” “You’re going barefoot?!?!, ok then, Barefoot Ronnie it is.” Thanks to Big Chief years prior to the nickname stuck and here we are today. When Ronnie’s car caught fire on TV, Chief and Shawn were the first ones to reach out to him to check and see if he was ok and needed anything. It’s things like that, that aren’t shown on TV all the time, and solidifies that this sport is truly a family. Sometime after that Ronnie received a phone call at 11 pm on a Thursday night asking if he could make it to a No Prep Kings event. Of course, he jumped at the chance and worked all hours of the night to make it to Oklahoma for Friday night at 7 pm. He made it there with one minute to spare at 6:59 pm for the drivers meeting, which was his first time ever down an actual drag strip and his first time on NPK. He lost to Barry Nicholson in the first round. He’s still learning how all of this works, using the tree instead of a hand drop or a flashlight, and selling shirts at the events to help make it to the next race. It’s all a learning curve for them, this time next year look out! It took Ronnie and Emerald a long time to agree to do the show, they were so afraid of losing their credibility of street racing. Ronnie is the type of guy who will drive around looking for a street race, it’s the adrenaline and thrill of it all, as it is with most of the drivers. In the very first Street Outlaw season, his goal was to get the 66 Chevy Nova on TV but not him. Ronnie explained that when they saw the cameras coming around, the entire family would hide out of view in the trailer. One race against Doc, Ronnie’s brakes went out, he went through an intersection, jumped the tracks and ended up a ¼ mile deep into a cornfield. Luckily everyone was ok. Emerald and Ronnie are always looking to improve themselves in every facet of this lifestyle. She’s always nervous for what he is about to say while the cameras are on. In terms of boasting themselves up, they don’t. They are a very quiet couple who does not brag or trash talk about a soul out there. The social media accounts are simple and they let the car do the talking for them. A purest approach which is extremely appreciated in the eyes of the fans. Although there was one time Ronnie beat Kye Kelly, which is his grandson’s favorite driver, he had to call his grandbaby and tell him who he sent home. The Pace family has such a kind mentality and a humble spirit. They get along with everyone on the circuit and has deep admiration for the majority of them. It’s no secret that Ronnie and Emerald don’t come from a lot of money aren’t ballers in the sense of fancy trailers, spare parts or team members. When the couple says they are “all in to do whatever it takes to make this work”, they mean it. He works on his own car, does his own paint and body work. They love to travel and to see as much as they can while on the road, but it doesn’t come easy. One time headed to a race in North Carolina they ran out of fuel, they had no money or no credit cards. Ronnie jumped out and started panhandling, doing anything he could, even offering to sell his personal belongings. Luckily someone pulled in at the gas station and recognized him and filled his tank. We need more people like that in this world. After making it to the race event, they survived off of selling shirts, shared value meals and copious amounts of sandwiches. This life is a hard one to try and live, but with the help of this racing family they couldn’t have made it at times. The pair have a special thanks to James “Doc” Love, Joe “Dominator” Woods, Ryan Marin, and Cali Chris Poncia, who helped them with anything they could including groceries. The Pace’s owe them so much and will always have their backs no matter what wherever they are. On top of the many thanks, they have for the drivers and their families they also owe their gratitude to Mark, Bobby, and Darren at DMB Motorsports in Delaware/Maryland. Without them they would not even be at the point they are now. A highlight of Ronnie’s career was when he wasn’t even racing. He went to a different racing event and through the pits he heard his name being shouted. It was Clay Millican, and he wanted to take a picture with Barefoot Ronnie, a real street racer, which took Ronnie by surprise. His dream car is a 69-70 Superbird with a big ol’ wing on the back. He is also currently pursuing his dream job of driving and hopes that it will eventually pay off. Most people make a judgment about their favorite tracks by the racing surface, but they also take into consideration the tracks accommodations. Since the pair has a small travel trailer without sleeping quarters or water, they look for warm water to use to freshen up. They have a window unit for A.C. in the trailer, use a hair dryer for heat all the time (even at home), and a torch to make grilled cheeses. With that being said Norwalk is at the top of their list. Despite hardships, it has not made them jaded, in fact, because of all this, they are even more thankful for the fans and opportunities they have before them. Ronnie’s huge heart shows when he meets and greets every person he can that comes to see him, they love hearing all the stories about the people and how they got there and stories about their own cars. He will never say no to a signing or a photo op, and if you can’t afford something of his, just tell him, don’t steal it, he’ll most likely just give it to you because he knows what it’s like to go without. Ronnie and Emerald at one point turned their living room into a workshop for fans. They have over 100 pieces of random car bits and parts and signed each and every one of them. Just like B-Rad Brad Eglian, Ronnie also hands out hot wheel cars to the children when they come around to his pit. “The fans mean everything to me, if they stop coming, we stop racing, we’re so incredibly lucky to be a part of this”. When, not if the day comes that Ronnie and Emerald start to make it big, their dream is to help others. Visiting children in the hospitals, bringing other guys with them to brighten up the kids day. Show them that dreams do come true in this world. He would also love to start a raffle somehow at the beginning of the season for the younger crowd. He would like to build a car and at the end of the season hold the raffle for it. It’s a way to get the younger generations involved and help start them off so the sport doesn’t die out. He would also like to send his momma on a vacation as well. After traveling and racing, the couple loves to come home to their family and momma and daddy, to have a Sunday dinner with them, and play cars on the floor with those grandbabies they love and miss so much. Not many people realize that this lifestyle isn’t all flashy lights, cameras, and a huge bankroll. We forget there is off camera things happening, friendships being made, and non-blood families coming together to help one another out. Ronnie and Emerald Pace prove to the world that there is still hard work and dedication that goes into family, the sport, and trying to make dreams a reality. We may not know which car for sure he will show up in, but look for the shirtless, shoeless guy in the pits, and if you can, bring him some ice cream, he’ll be our best friend.

The post Going ALL IN with Barefoot Ronnie and Emerald Pace appeared first on No Prep Racing NoPrep.com.

[dragonsbl00d]

I am a writer. The second I stepped out of infantile amnesia and embraced my offical, conscious mind, I started considering myself a writer. The next thing I remember considering myself as was a total loser, especially once I entered my hometown’s school system. I had wanted to go to Co-op since I received an NHPS flier in fifth grade, and when I was finally done with middle school and could apply to enter for 9th grade, I didn’t get in. Clearly, that was a mistake on the universe’s part, because by the end of my freshman year, I was sat in a dimly lit woodshop-classroom-turned-study-hall in a moldy wing of an ancient high school, playing crazy eights with my fellow students. They were an unsavory version of The Breakfast Club, comprised of a heroin addict, a neo-nazi, a chemically dependent woman of the night, and a rapist. I may have jumped to conclusions, but I’m pretty sure that’s not where my life path was supposed to take me. A few days later, I received a text from my mother letting me know that I had won the registration lottery and could enter Co-op for my sophomore year. Being able to transfer felt like what I’ll bet Anakin Skywalker felt after winning the podrace and being freed from slavery. Now, three years later, in my senior year, I feel more like Padme. I conveniently explained why in my college essay, which I will share the opening paragraphs of with you now:

I have the same scars as Padme Amidala.You know, in Attack of the Clones, when she was trying to escape the Nexu in the Petranaki arena, but it managed to claw her back pretty badly? Yeah, I’ve got those same marks.

Padme earned her scars at a very significant time in her life. She had just become the senator of Naboo and suffered several assassination attempts because of it. I earned my scars at a very significant time in my life as well. It was right at the end of my freshman year, just after I’d had my first run-ins with death and loss and existential crises.

Several of my closest friends, the most important people in my life at the time, took their own lives after a long battle with depression and anxiety. The combination of depression and anxiety I began to struggle with as a result was crippling. Not that I didn’t have an anxiety disorder before hand, but I no longer had my source of comfort, consolation, happiness, inspiration and light, and I was left more defenseless than usual.

Anyway, to sidetrack a bit, I think it’s fair enough for me to give some context to my whiney “finding my place in Connecticut school systems” story before I go further. A lot of my friends, like Jazmine for instance, are constantly saying that I am incapable of being serious. About anything. And that made me think about the reputation I built in my circle of friends. I’m the snarky one. I’m the sarcastic one. I’m the one that makes jokes in every circumstance, whether it’s to lighten the mood or to be insensitive. And I’ve realized that’s a defense mechanism and not how I necessarily always view the world. My other defense mechanism, when I’m separated from my friends, is to be as silent as I possibly can, so I don’t draw any attention to myself. This quiet-as-a-mouse defense is something I’ve had pretty much my entire life. So, despite everyone telling me that I should do a… “funny” (i.e. impersonal and superficial) capstone, I’ve decided to try and say something important for once in my life, like the things I think about when I’m pretending to be mute and trying to avoid eye contact with my teachers. Therefore, my capstone is about my voice. It’s not about finding or discovering my voice and it’s not about developing my voice, it’s about the fact that I have a voice, despite my anxieties and introversion and reservedness… and superficial jokes.

I started off with the beginning paragraphs of what was once my “college essay” that is now nothing like what I sent to that one college I applied to before deciding to take a gap year. I have now devolved my happy-ending, picture perfect vignette back into how I usually tell stories… by jumping from one point to the next and pretending it all circles back to one cohesive point even though it rarely ever does. The only literary device in this is really just a ton of exposition.

My decision making became cloudy. (Or, maybe it was already cloudy, since I was only 14 years old and was still using emoticons as punctuation, but I digress.)  So, to fill the new hole in my life, I fell into a toxic relationship, becoming fast friends with the human equivalent of cyanide. This resulted in emotional and physical abuse I was forced to juggle during the academic year. This stupid twelfth grader’s toxicity became entirely consuming and it took a long time for me to pull myself out of it. (And when I say a long time I mean it took me until October of 2014 to completely remove this guy from my life.)

So, in my freshman year, when I was fourteen years old, the eighteen year old in my study hall got mad at me for “being a tease” by repeatedly telling him no, so he walked to my house when he knew my mom wouldn’t be home and he raped me, and then he left. In response, I pretended like it never happened. I mean, I didn’t even admit what happened to myself, let alone tell someone else about it. I suppressed this for two whole years, until I was surrounded by so many amazing friends that I only have in my life because I decided to go to Co-op, and I started to open up to them, and they helped me build up the confidence to start really getting into advocating for social change and women and against rape culture. But it meant so much to me that my friends and even some of my teachers were there for and supportive of me that I started focusing on them a bit and how much they mean to me, so I wrote this next piece about them. This is called “Astronomy” because all of my titles are cop-out titles.

They are the sun. They are bright and beautiful and larger than life. Their heads are huge and full of gas, but Earth and all of the other planets in the galaxy revolve around them. When they get burnt out, they explode into a fiery, destructive mess and collapse in on themselves, leaving a black hole in their wake. Their light shines so bright that it reflects off all of the moons.

They are the moon. They’re a large piece of Earth that had broken off many, many years ago but is still caught in its orbit. The oceans’ waves are contingent upon their moods. Their terrain is rough and parts of them are even sunken in. Other parts are scarred by the footprints of humanity after they treaded on and scuffed them like doormats. They shine even in the darkest of nights, but there is always a part of them that remains dark and cold. You feel weightless in their presence.

They are the Earth. They carry the weight of all humanity in their minds and their hearts. They build mountains for every little thing they’re passionate about, and fill rivers, lakes, and oceans with the salty water of their tears to wash away the ash if their joy crumbles down around them. Their tectonic plates grind violently together, wrecking buildings and lives with no warning, sometimes for no reason at all. They could drown millions of people with just one of their tsunamis. Their cores pump blood as hot as molten lava throughout their every vein, right into their souls.

They are the planet I call home and the star my life revolves around and the satellite my tides are influenced by, and they’re just kids my age.

Humans are made of the same materials as the stars and the seas are made of, and this rule does not exempt my friends, me, or anyone. But the stars and the seas and they run infinite, whereas the rest of humanity could never.

So yeah that was kinda just about the people that mean a lot to me and my mostly unconditional love for them whether they’re sad or mad or happy and excited. Also, I focus heavily on dialogue in most of my writing so I tried to step away from that and focus on things like imagery and analogies. Oh, and two of my other major personal and writing influences are my mother and Mr. Brenner because they’re always honest with me about my writing and I look up to them intellectually so they mean a lot to me and impact my life decisions as well. As far as influences specific to this capstone, I owe it all to anyone that disapproves of people wearing their personal experiences on their sleeves, because after suffering in silence for years in fear of the consequences rape victims face in this culture, I can tell them, with confidence, to shove it.

So, with that, I wrote a children’s book in Mrs. Katz’s class in my sophomore year that I ended up turning into a “children’s” book recently, where the main character is modelled after me, and I focused on trying to show the faults in my own logic, as well as the faults in the people around me’s logic. I affectionately named this one, “Tiberius the Lion”.

Tiberius was a lion. Not that he ever called himself that or anything, since the politically correct term is panthera leo, but fine, Tiberius was a lion.

"Go outside and play with the other cubs!" his mother would say every morning when she came to pry him out of bed to prevent him from sleeping until the late afternoon.

In response, Tiberius would simply roll over and sigh deeply, explaining lazily, “Mom, what’s the point of going through all these motions in life if we’re all just going to die anyway? I’d much rather stay here in the shade and at least find some enjoyment in this hellhole, thanks.”

But his mother, fearing her son was depressed, forced him to go outside and play with the other cubs anyway. The young lions became increasingly uncomfortable around him, as all he seemed to do was stare at his reflection in the waterhole trying to decide if his fur was golden like his mother’s or just a dull tawny like his father’s. They began to avoid him at all costs.

"Tiberius is so weird," they’d whisper as he sauntered by them, dressed in all black, his face lacking emotion and his eyes vacant of any joy.

"I heard he’s gone vegetarian," they claimed when he stopped helping them hunt, and instead spent his time skateboarding.

Finally, Tiberius decided that everyone else was the problem and that he was doing absolutely nothing wrong and that everyone was just against him for no reason, so he remained  in his den, sprawled out on a nice cool rock for quite a few days, until his mother began to nag him to do something with his life. At that, Tiberius rolled his eyes, grunted, and stomped outside reluctantly, muttering various insults under his breath.

With a quick flash of his middle finger and an annoyed “screw you guys,” Tiberius walked right by the other lion cubs and headed out to explore the savannah alone.

Along the way, Tiberius caught sight of a cheetah crouched in the grass, getting ready to pounce on a grazing zebra. Without much of a thought, Tiberius let out a mighty, deep roar. He made a mental note to become the lead singer of a death metal band as the cheetah hightailed it out of there.

To his surprise, the zebra didn’t run at the sound of his roar. Tiberius approached him.

“Yoooo, little homie, peace and love, man, I ain’t lookin’ for trouble,” said the zebra slowly, the whites of his eyes red from… “allergies”.

“Nah, I don’t eat zebra, don’t worry. Scout’s honor.” Tiberius gave his most sincere smile.

“Radical, man,” the zebra folded his lips into a grin and nodded his head. “Name’s Zed, man.”

“Aye, I’m Tiberius. I really like your mohawk, bro, do you think you could give me one?”

“Of course, little dude, step into my office.” Zed waved vaguely to nowhere in particular.

Tiberius’s mother, who’d been out hunting antelope, saw the two together and immediately ran home to her husband to alert him that his son was making friends with prey instead of sinking his teeth into their jugulars like a proper young boy.

"What’s this I hear about you hanging out with zebras?" his dad asked one night after dinner.

"They’re cool, dad. One gave me this punk rock mohawk.” He shook his trimmed mane.

"Why won’t you hang out with the other lions?”

Tiberius rolled his eyes. “They’re lame.”

“How do you know?”

“They don’t like me, all they do is tell me I’m weird and stuff.”

“You’re a lion, aren’t you?”

“Duh, Sherlock.”

“A king of the jungle. The most courageous cat of all.” continued his father, getting slightly irritated with his son.

“Um. Yeah.”

“So, you need to have more pride in yourself. Lions have mighty roars for a reason, you should go show them what you’re made of. They’ll really appreciate you then. Once you establish your dominance as a true lion, they’ll be like putty in your paws.”

Tiberius sat up straighter and cleared his throat, taking what his father said into consideration for just one second. “Get out of my room, Dad.”

His father stood up and fiercely smacked Tiberius upside the head with his powerful paw. “Don’t talk to a lion like that,” he said, while stomping away. Right before he left, he turned and added, “See? Like that.”

The next day, Tiberius decided to take his father’s advice. He went down to the tree where the other cubs were playing and shook out his mohawked mane.

“Hey, Tiberius,” the crowd sighed and nodded in his general direction.

“Where’ve you been these past couple weeks?” one cub asked.

Tiberius let out a casual roar as he yawned, “I’ve been busy, scaring cheetahs and stuff.”

“Ew, what the hell, Tiberius, you’re so weird, go away,” an older cub said, and the rest of the group rolled their eyes in agreement.

Tiberius, taken aback by how his peers did not immediately bow down to his clear superiority, said defensively, “Shut the fuck up, Nero. Why don’t you go take care of your flea problem?” and stormed away angrily.

So yeah, I went and turned a children’s book into a hyperbolic mockery of the existential angst I had in junior year, because what I’ve found in my other introverted friends is that we’re quiet because we’re filled with anger and anxiety, not because we don’t have interesting personalities or things to say. I didn’t explore it in Tiberius because children’s books don’t really have deep, insightful character explorations, but there is a lot of soul searching involved in the forming and dismantling of defense mechanisms. Anyway, back to my college essay:

The toxic relationship became entirely consuming and it took a long time for me to pull myself out of it.

But I did pull myself out of it. Back in October, I worked up the courage to stop allowing him to affect me emotionally and told him, using my favorite inappropriate-for-school words, to…  “go away”. I then began to focus on finally allowing myself to grow as a human being as a result of the inner turmoil he had spent three years drowning me in.

Where Padme’s scars are fictional and the makeup that created her injuries was wiped off before the next movie, mine aren’t and mine won’t. Her scars “didn’t define her character” and her character died. My scars define my character and I will not go down without a fight. My scars are my survival story and I’m allowed to be proud of them.

The last paragraph was just all lies about how the next “obstacle” I would “set my mind to” would be college but that has no relevance so I cut it out for this.

But in conclusion, I think maybe our present is defined by our past. But that doesn’t mean anything to the future, and no matter how difficult life becomes, or how many obstacles are put in our paths, we should never give up, especially if we had tripped over them. Those who are still suffering from their past in silence shouldn’t be made to feel like they have to keep their experiences bottled up. I learned the hard way that shaming people for being open about their personal experiences is absolutely soul crushing and I’ve decided it’s time to make people realize that silence is not the way to fight injustice. I didn’t fight with my fists when I was raped, but I am going to fight with my words, and encourage others to as well, for the rest of my life.