#so that won't be until the end of the summer unfortunately

[daydadahlias]

Hey, hopefully soon we can get an update on Bite Marks??? Would love more when u get to it!!!!

i unfortunately cannot promise a BM update any time soon :(

but thank you for the encouragement and interest!

[nwjws]

WAIT FOR YOU TO LIKE ME AGAIN - LSH

; SYNOPSIS - whether it be in the middle of the halls or during his election speech, heeseung's never passed up an opportunity to ask you out on a date. although you've always said no, that hasn't stopped the boy from trying again anyway - at least until senior year, when he suddenly stopped pursuing you, to your (and everyone's) bewilderment.

; PAIRING - heeseung x fem!reader

; TAGS - one-shot, fluff, slice of life, highschool au, stuco president!heeseung, vice president!reader, one-sided enemies to lovers ; WARNINGS - angst, mild swearing, light mentions of an abusive ex (not hee's or reader's)

; WC - 11.7k (including the bonus at the end)

; PLAYLIST ► blue butterflies (JIHN) ► line without a hook (ricky montgomery) ► making the bed (olivia rodrigo) ► comfort crowd (conan gray) ► love. (wave to earth)

; AUTHOR'S CORNER ! first fic after hiatus omg. also half the things in this fic rlly happened and the other half were google searches guess which ones are which 😝 i planned to post this on the 17th but i finished it just now and my brain is fried so here we goooo

you hated lee heeseung.

throughout the three years you've known him, he's been always the bane of your existence. the boy was constantly bugging you and pulling a new stunt to show off and get your attention. all of this just to ask you out on a date - something he's been doing practically every week since the age of fourteen.

seriously, after a hundred 'no's you'd think he'd learn to back off. and yet, he was still persistent in pursuing you.

at least, until your final year began.

see, you two had been competing against each other for the position of student council president at the end of last year. unfortunately for you, he was immensely popular; an actual threat. on top of being the captain for boys' volleyball team, he was class rep. and actively helped out teachers after school. students and teachers alike were drawn in by his hardworking yet casual nature and how easily he talked to others. despite the busy campaigns and rivalry, he still managed to somehow find time to ask you out, ending his final speech with, "and aren't all these qualities worthy of at least one date?"

of course he'd still find a way to make such an important event about asking you out. whoops and cheers echoed the hall, with almost everyone looking at you. everyone knew your history, with half the school on his side, cheering him on and urging you to say yes.

thankfully, the other half of the student body understood that no means no, and were more sympathetic towards you. after all, it's not like you were disliked or anything - you were as well known as h*es*ung.

you yourself had led the school to win several math competitions over the years, and tutored over ten students in your highschool career (get that money girl!). in addition, you were already on the council as the treasurer.

yet, it was his last sentence that one the people over and he'd been chosen as the president, with you as vice.

"just say yes. one date won't hurt," ningning had chuckled when you complained again, once she'd come back from her summer camp.

"my pride and reputation of always saying no will be."

"maybe he'll back off if you do?"

"no number of rejections has stopped him, how would a 'yes' do that?"

"maybe he'll realise you're absolutely undateable," she laughed at you, which had you throwing a pillow at her in retaliation.

you scowled at her before pulling out your phone and finding heeseung's instagram.

"thanks for meeting with us today, i'm sure you guys are excited to go home. first days are always tough." and with that, heeseung closed up the first meeting of the year.

conversation and the screeching of chairs filled the room as everyone began to pack up and leave, bidding goodbye to each other. as president and vice president, you and heeseung were left behind to clean up after the others and sort out other documents and such.

you half-heartedly expected another question of a date from him as you threw away the paper cups and teabags, but it never came.

instead, all he said was, "good job today."

you turned to look at him, with his bag slung over one shoulder and a hand stuffed into his pocket. he gave you a tight smile and left the room after that, reminding you to lock up before you left.

a little disconcerted, you continued the last few tasks while mumbling to yourself, "that ass, making me clean up and not..." you didn't finish that thought. it almost sounded like you wanted him to ask you out on another date. you thought he would though - he always did, but the first day of school passed without incident.

well, it's only the first day. he'll definitely ask you out tomorrow, or later this week. he's never missed a chance to do so during first week of school.

he hasn't asked you out at all. not in the first week, nor the second, or the third.

a whole month had gone by, and all you'd heard from heeseung was student council-related stuff. he hadn't even talked to you outside of meetings.

"did you two fight, or something?" ningning asked you curiously.

"i dunno?" you reply truthfully. you really weren't sure if what was going on between you was a fight or just a change in dynamics. it was confusing.

the rest of the school noticed too; the halls whispered when you passed by, wary and concerned looks thrown your way. someone even asked off handedly in conversation: 'are you two secretly dating, then?' everyone was walking on eggshells around you two.

"well, i guess you can rest now."

"huh?"

"you said you wanted him to stop, didn't you?" ningning raised an eyebrow at you. "who knows how many times you've complained about it to me in the past. it's made up like, half of our conversations in all our years of friendship."

"oh, right."

ningning tilted her head curiously at you. "what's with the disappointed tone?"

"what tone?" you rolled your eyes. "this is perfect! i can finally concentrate on my work without having to be afraid that i'll be distracted by heeseung trying to get me to date him again." after a moment, ningning hummed in agreement.

"and! those girls can stop giving me death glares. i mean - i've already seen so many triumphant looks from them, as if they've already got him in the bag."

"uh-huh," she said sceptically.

"they'd definitely say yes if he asked them out. unlike me. he can actually go and date for once, instead of embarrassing himself with me."

"riiiight."

"good. that's good! maybe he'll have a girlfriend by next week. and-"

"okay! i get it, i get it," ningning burst out laughing. "i've never seen you overthink about heeseung this much."

"i can't help it! what would you think if some guy who's been obnoxiously pining over you for years consistently suddenly stopped out of nowhere?"

"hmm... i'd hang out with him, break my leg, therefore obliging him to bring me to the hospital, manipulate him to visit me every day as i recover, be overbearing as hell so that he'd realise he doesn't want me anymore, and poof! he's gone."

you stared at your (possibly insane) best friend (how is she your best friend?!) in alarm.

"...i think it's time for another visit to the psych ward."

"hey!"

you two laughed yourself to stitches. she might be crazy, but she definitely got your mind off heeseung, if only for a little bit.

"you guys don't like sports, do you?"

everyone in the council shook their head.

"well, luckily for you, the student council members aren't be required to participate in sports day. we're only expected to volunteer and help the teachers."

you and the others cheered, relieved you wouldn't have to run yourself to death in the cold wind like last year. you might have been gifted in almost any skill and hobby you picked up, but sports was an exception.

"make sure you do help out, as i'll be taking note of who does what." then, heeseung said in a whisper, as if sharing a secret (who in this room he's hiding it from, you don't know), "and we'll hold a little party here. just us members." that definitely got everyone murmuring excitedly.

in the two previous years you've been in the student council, you've never seen one so lively and reactive to their president. you hate to admit it, but you too could feel your mood lighten up with them whenever heeseung was leading another meeting.

not to mention, he listened intently to the others' concerns, always suggested good solutions, and greeted everyone who entered with a cup of tea. he was a lot more considerate than you'd expected.

see, you hadn't really shared that many classes before. and the one or two you ever did, you avoided him at all costs so you never actually noticed him properly until it was forced right in front of your face.

"on another note, we'd like to take in suggestions for places to visit for an upcoming school trip," you started, garnering their attention.

as you began your part of the meeting, you could feel heeseung's intense stare, but every time you looked at him, he'd turn away.

it was a little frustrating, and you didn't know why. you couldn't figure out why you felt a little more upset every time he'd look somewhere else. was he ignoring you? but, this was a totally normal thing to do, right? so it's not like you could just ask him 'hey, why do you always ignore me when i look at you?', you'd look stupid.

when the meeting ended and everyone else had left, the awkward tension between you two was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"make sure to lock up before you go-"

"did i do something wrong?"

heeseung stared at you, mouth frozen from being cut off mid-sentence.

"what? no. why?"

"i just- well, you-" you stuttered, unsure how to answer. "i guess, i'm not used to you not..."

"to me not asking you to be my girlfriend?" he laughed, but there was an odd lack of humour.

you shrunk into yourself. you should have just kept your mouth shut, now you sounded self-centered.

"nevermind," you huffed.

"i'm just doing what you asked. after the date, remember?" he left before you could say anything else.

after he'd gone, you couldn't even hear the silence he left behind - not when your thoughts rang in your ears. shame, embarrassment, rage. you hated him, heeseung.

but most of all, you hated yourself.

you avoided heeseung at all costs after that incident, at least, whenever you could.

previously, with the lack of interactions you two had, you felt like you barely ever saw him. but now that there was this weird air of tension between you, seeing him at three times a week after school for student council activities suddenly felt too often. every time you were alone with him, you were sure you were as red as a tomato; you developed a habit of letting your hair hide your red ears and hide your face.

when sports day inevitably came, you took over his responsibilities, seeing as he was still a part of the volleyball team. that made him the only one in the student council to join any sports activity, whereas the rest of you relaxed. (the privilege was all thanks to heeseung, who advocated for your guys' exemption from activities after everyone had complained, in return for volunteer work.)

"you haven't gone to the volleyball games yet?" soobin, the treasurer, asked.

"no. i planned out a route to visit all the activities, and the courts happened to be last."

he raised a sceptical eyebrow at you.

"really. it's not because you're trying to steer clear of our dear president or something?"

you cringed. "keep your nose out of our business."

"well, if it's affecting student council activities, isn't it our business too?"

"maybe, but i think your priority should be helping out mrs. shin over there," you pointed to the teacher walking across the field, carrying a bunch of equipment by herself. "'looks pretty heavy, it would look bad if our volunteer wasn't doing his work, now would it?"

soobin gave you a dirty look before leaving to help out, but not before bidding you "good luck!"

when you finally made it to the volleyball courts, you spotted him immediately.

he'd done a spike, the slap echoing so loud that it drew the attention of other students passing by. paired with the sound of feet skidding against the ground and the thumps of balls making contact with skin, you decided that you hated the courts. it felt like walking into a battle zone - always fearing you'll get hit by a ball when you're not looking. once, ningning got hit in the face by a baseball and her eye had actually been pushed inwards into her socket. of course, that wasn't on a court, but you weren't taking your chances.

unfortunately, you still had to make sure everything was going smoothly and take note of how many more rounds were left.

"excuse me! students who aren't playing aren't allowed to step into the courts," the teacher yelled at you from the other side.

"sorry, but i have to check on you guys, i'm part of the student council," you explained as you crept closer.

"but-"

"my bad, mr. jeon. i forgot to tell you to expect our vice president to come around eventually, since she's taking over my duties for the day," heeseung said as came jogging up to you two.

"ah, really? was volleyball taking up your time? you should have told me! i wouldn't want this to get in the way of your work."

"no, it's okay. i wanted to play, and she's very reliable," he gestured to you.

"if you say so."

"right," you started, finally looking at heeseung for the first time that day. you nodded your thanks to him, to which he gave a quick thumbs up to before rejoining the game.

"how many sets are left?" you asked mr. jeon, pulling out your pen to note down on your clipboard.

"two. this is our final game of the day."

"great! who won for the girl's team earlier today? i'm sorry i couldn't come earlier. i thought it might be best to come later in the day so i could get all the results at once."

"don't worry about it. the boys' games are always more interesting anyway - in the sense that it's a little more dramatic, what with all the force they put in their hits."

right at that moment, the resounding boom of the ball hitting a wall interrupted you two. geez, were these guys playing with a ball or setting off canons? why men are so aggressive, you'll never understand.

"perfect timing," mr. jeon chuckled. "well anyway, the U-16 girls won the first game, but the U-19 team won the second-"

you should have minded the ongoing game. it was the number one rule when you were on a court, but you foolishly got distracted with mr. jeon's own clipboard. of course, the moment you let your guard down, the ball flew your way, right when you were shifting your stance and was therefore a little more unstable than usual.

the volleyball hit you right in the chest, and had you falling to the ground. by instinct, you tried to catch yourself - but instead of your palms reaching out backwards to save you, it was your elbows that hit the ground.

"fuck!" you cried at the pain that seared through your arm.

"oh my god, are you alright?" the team suddenly ran up to you, with mr. jeon himself trying to help you up.

"i'm so sorry! i didn't mean to." one of the team members apologised.

"watch it next time," heeseung's stern voice came, but you were more focused on trying to minimise the pain as much as possible.

"where does it hurt? your elbow? can you try moving it for me?"

you did as mr. jeon instructed, but underestimated how much it would hurt.

"oh, that popping sound does not sound normal," heeseung commented.

"heeseung, take her to the infirmary."

he nodded and grabbed your unaffected elbow, asking if it was okay. you nodded and followed him as he started leading the way to the school nurse.

"does it still hurt?"

"if i move it, yeah."

"sorry about that."

"it's fine. it happens." a quick silence followed.

"well, you should go to the doctor later. the nurse probably won't do much, maybe just hand you an ice pack or something else useless," he joked. you laughed.

"yeah. she never really does much, does she? all those years of school just to hand us ice packs for a broken bone or twisted ankle."

"right! even the PE department is better equipped for more serious injuries."

"mhm."

another bout of silence. you were going to go crazy, either from the awkwardness of it all or the immense pain in your right arm. you looked at heeseung's back, and the sweat on his skin, soaking his shirt.

"hey, you can go back if you want to," you told him suddenly. "i can walk myself to the infirmary, it's not like i hurt my leg or anything."

"i know, but i'd feel more at ease if i saw you there myself. you're my vice president, of course i'm concerned."

well, you didn't know how to feel about that. you've been downgraded from his crush to coworker, but he still cares for you. so maybe that was a plus?

"i see."

as expected, you were given a cold pack for your elbow and sent to the local hospital. luckily, it was only a ten minute drive and the nurse accompanied you as a staff member drove you two there. heeseung watched you get in the car and leave, going back to his game.

the next time you went to school (two days later), your right arm was in a sling and you pretended like that wasn’t just the most embarrassing moment of your life.

“you’re ambidextrous?” heeseung whispered to you while everyone else was focused on the movie projected.

the council had waited for you to return before they held their (secret) party, since it just felt wrong to hold one when their vice president was suffering in pain and away. up until now, heeseung had only known you used your right hand from all those meetings.

he'd been paying attention to that?

“i’m a better writer with my right.”

“but you can still write well with your left,” he said, impressed. “you really are amazing”

you stared at him, the look of awe on his face, and the slight smile of his mouth. you really had no idea what to say, flustered by his comment.

then he seemed to realise what he was doing, and quickly turned to back to the movie.

“my mom wanted a left-handed daughter, and would always switch the pencil to my left hand when i was younger,” you told him. you had the sudden urge to spill a bit more of your life to him.

“ah, really?” he replied, still looking the other way.

“yeah, but at that point i was already used to my right. i ended up being able to write with both hands though.”

“oh, you can do that?” soobin joined in the conversation. you nodded at him with wide eyes, not expecting the sudden interruption.

“do what?” hanni asked.

“she can write using both her hands. isn’t she so cool?”

“really?” she gasped, looking at the pen in your left hand. “wow. our vice president is way cooler than the president himself.”

“hey!” heeseung exclaimed as everyone giggled.

“seriously though, she’s the whole package. smart, talented, and pretty?” soobin lowered his voice in a mock-whisper, “i can treat you way better than this guy," he joked, pointing his thumb at heeseung.

“alright, i think we need to get a new treasurer,” heeseung suddenly said. he pointed at the projection and yelled, “look! ernesto's actually the villain!” this successfully put everyone's attention back on the movie, all shocked by the plot twist. (you already knew, because coco was your favourite airplane movie.)

when the party finished up, heeseung actually stayed behind this time, and helped you clean up.

“oh, you really don’t have to,” you told him.

“it’s fine, it’s quicker like this. it’s not fair to make you clean up when you don’t have two working hands.”

you watched as he put away the heavy binders and throw out the trash, feeling a little off-put by the new scene. you thought that maybe you should just go home and leave him to lock up, but he wasn’t saying anything, so you stayed and kept him company. his presence was surprisingly comforting.

“you have the keys?”

“yeah,” you answered, trying to open your backpack.

heeseung made his way over and opened your bag for you. “here, i’ll get it. tell me where it is.”

“oh, uhhh in the pocket there. the left one.”

he found the keys and took them before closing the bag again. he waited for you to put it back on, but noticed you struggling a little with the books in your arm.

“why don’t you just put these in your bag?” he asked, taking them from your good arm and helping you slip your injured one through a strap.

“it’ll be really heavy if i do.” you then thanked him, gesturing for him to give back your textbooks.

instead, he kept them, even holding the door open and waiting for you to pass by first.

“where do you live? i’ll try to help you bring these home.”

“you really-”

“it’s fine, i promise. in fact, i insist.” at your expression, he added, “what kind of president would i be if i didn’t help out my vice?”

right. president. and vice president. not friends, not even classmates. just coworkers.

you rolled your eyes and let him help you. “i usually take the bus home. the one that goes to the museum.”

“ah, i know that one. i usually walk home, but i think there’s a stop that bus goes to that’s near my house. so let’s go.”

heeseung led the way, walking in front of you so you took the chance to observe him from behind.

recently, you noticed that although he always looked put together and clean at the beginning of the day, his hair and clothes felt more loose and casual towards the end of the day - particularly on the longer days where there were council meetings after school. you like this version of him; you feel closer to this heeseung, because it’s a side that only you (and the other members) got to see. it felt a little bit like a secret.

“sorry, looks like my stop is earlier than yours. are you fine with carrying these yourself from here?”

“yep.”

“alright. well then, okay.” when he stood up as the bus stopped, he turned to you and waved lightly. “bye bye!” it was a little endearing - the way he'd said it.

“see you.”

you immediately flopped onto your bed when you reached home (on your back side, of course). it was an… odd day, but you didn’t dislike it.

after a bit of a struggle, you finally fished your phone from your bag, sending ningning a message.

“i think you took my advice too seriously,” ningning chortled during class the next day. “when i said i’d break my leg i didn’t mean actually getting injured!”

you dragged your hand down your face, asking whatever being was listening to your pleas to make your best friend stop teasing you.

“it’s not like i sprained my elbow on purpose??”

“oh girl, you don’t have a single athletic bone do you?”

“you know what, maybe i need to learn to shut up and stop telling you things.”

“i know you won’t. when you’re with me, your attempt at a mysterious persona disappears…”

“are you saying i’m loud?” you ask in mock-offense.

“i’m saying you yap a lot,” she rolls her eyes playfully. “but seriously, who knew getting hit by a volleyball would lead you and The Heeseung finally talk. maybe that guy should’ve thrown one at you when we were fourteen.”

“when did you start rooting for him?” you raised an eyebrow at her.

“i just thought he deserved a chance,” she shrugged nonchalantly, but the way she turned away didn’t sit right with you.

“oh, okay,” was all you came up with.

“so, anyway,” she started again after a moment. “i stalked my ex’s spotify and-”

“oh my god,” you groaned at the mention of her ex. “ningning i told you before, you need to forget about him.”

“i know, i know. but i couldn’t help it! his user was just there on the side, and he was listening to memories!! by conan gray!! i had to see what playlist he was listening to.”

“you need to block his spotify.”

“but that’s so embarrassing. it’s never that deep.”

“if you can’t move on from someone who convinced you that you were nothing without him, then maybe it is that deep.”

ningning sighed. “okay, i’ll block him. but do you want to know what his latest playlist was about?”

“duh,” you laughed as ningning pulled out her phone, promising to block him after.

heeseung continued to help you on the way home every time you guys had a meeting, to your surprise. during those bus rides home, you learned way more about the boy in three weeks than you ever had in your three and a half years of knowing each other. you wondered what had made him like you so much before this if he never even really knew you.

“but i did,” he said. “i did know you.”

“did you really?” you asked, thinking he was joking.

“well, at first, i obviously didn’t. i just thought you were pretty, and fun to annoy. so i kept asking you out just to see your response. after that, i did begin to like you - on a superficial level, of course; i was fifteen!”

you listened intently, finally getting answers to a question you didn’t realise you’d been curious about for so long yourself. heeseung didn’t look at you at all during his monologue, but straight forward instead. so you were able to observe the way the gold light from the sun highlighted his features perfectly. (did he always have such a perfect nose?)

“and then there was a time where i just got tired of it. i wanted to stop, but then everyone would have thought it was out of character. so even though i didn’t even like you anymore - in fact, i hated you, i still kept asking you out. just for show. stupid, right?

“but then, one time, i accidentally ran into you at a shop with ningning. actually, more like i saw you and hid behind one of the aisles. but i heard you say you wanted to get something for your siblings too, and i was like, ‘wow, she actually cares about others?’ back then, i was convinced you only thought about yourself.

“another time, you posted one of your competition wins on your instagram, and i could see from the caption how much you adored your team, even tagging each one of them and thanking them individually. i had never seen someone put that much effort into a simple win before. i kind of felt like i wasn’t thankful enough to my own volleyball team,” he chuckled to himself.

“what really had me falling for you though was when you tutored my sister last year . before that, she'd been going through some sort of mental struggle, what with being bullied at school and coming home to our parents telling her she should be ashamed of her grades. i felt so bad that i couldn’t do anything, you know? her older brother; her protector, but couldn’t do anything against the very people who should have been protecting the both of us. when she’d been signed up with you though, she came home for the first time in a good mood - she was humming! and i asked if something good happened at school, and she told me all about her amazing tutor that assured her she wasn’t the useless being she thought she was. how she was finally beginning to understand school for once, and looked forward to your sessions. when i learned that was you, i wanted so surprised, but so grateful."

you had never felt so touched until now. somehow, heeseung’s words made you feel like you really were worth more than you believed.

“really? wait, who’s your sister?”

“lee haseul. the one with autism, remember?”

“ah yes, of course i do!” you said, the name ringing a bell in your head. “she was definitely a little harder to tutor, but once we found a way to use her fixation on cars and link it to what we were learning, it was smooth sailing from there.”

“i really have no idea how you did that, but you have no idea the impact that had on me and my family. sometimes she asks me what it’s like working with you,” he finally turned to look at you, a pretty smile on his face. your face burned at the adoration on his face, looking away yourself.

“i hope you tell her good things about me.”

“there’s not a bad thing to say.”

“really?”

“really.”

when heeseung left the bus that day, a part of him still stayed with you, as words that constantly replayed in your mind.

it made you feel a little self-conscious, knowing that he’d been watching you this closely all this time. you felt like your efforts were appreciated, and that they weren’t for nothing after all. while your admiration of him only begun after really seeing him work on the council, his respect for you had been brewing for way longer.

you went to bed thinking about him way more than you usually did (and you’ve been thinking about him more often since you sprained your elbow). you found yourself a little more excited for the next meeting day, when he’d go home with you again.

what would you guys talk about? will he tell you more of his thoughts? maybe his other interests? should you ask about his team and work? how was he handling all that? or perhaps you should ask about his sister. anything, really. you just wanted to talk. to him.

oh no, you sounded like a typical high school girl with a crush just now, didn’t you? (well, that’s exactly what you are - no shame in that, though!) if your arm wasn’t injured, you would have been punching your pillow and screaming into it right now.

oh, right - the elbow. for the first time, you really didn’t want it to heal. you wanted it to stay sprained for as long as possible, but that would be stupid, and inconvenient. but then, how else would you talk to heeseung outside of council work? it’s not like you two shared any classes, nor did you run in the same circles at school. the bus rides home were really the only times you got to really talk to heeseung, without all the eyes watching you two.

a small part of you began to dread the day your cast came off, because that would mean heeseung would stop talking to you again, right? he wouldn’t have any reason to riding home with you, and it would go back to that awkward thing you two had.

you sigh and turn over, careful with your arm, and finally fall into a fitful sleep.

“you’re staring at him again.”

that sentence had you flinching away and turning back to ningning, looking at you with a knowing glint.

“i can’t help it! his hair just looks so messy, obviously i’m going to notice.”

“his hair looks the same way it always does…”

“well- look at him walking around like he owns the place! he thinks he’s the shit, doesn’t he?”

“to be fair, he’s the student body president and captain of the volleyball team. maybe he is.”

“why are you defending him?!” you cried at all her replies.

“why are you trying to hard to hate him! we both know how much you li-”

“okay, okay, shhhh,” you shut her up by covering her mouth. really, she needed to learn to shut up. it’s not like the whole world needed to know about your massive crush on the boy you previously hated.

ningning pushed your hands away. “why are you more fixated on him today than usual anyway?”

"okay, first of all," you scoffed at her. "you make it sound like i'm always fixated on him."

"you are."

you rolled your eyes, then bit your lip after a moment of thought, knowing that whatever you were about to say would sound stupid(ly in love).

“it’s just that, i finally got my cast off this past weekend, so i can carry my books home perfectly fine again.”

“ah, and so he won’t be escorting you home anymore like he had been these past five weeks,” ningning finished your train of thought.

you buried your face in your arms, flushing bright red. “god, i sound like an idiot. i hate that i even thought that.”

the girl laughed at you, but patted your back consolingly.

“don’t worry about it. i don’t think heeseung’s gonna stop taking the bus with you just because you’re healed now. trust me, he’s one of the caring people i know.” was that a bit of sadness and longing? maybe you were interpreting her tone wrong.

“he probably will! it’s not like he used to take the bus home before i got hurt.” you peeked up at her. “is it wrong to ask you to throw another ball at me?”

“girl…”

when that day’s meeting finally ended, you and heeseung worked in tandem, tidying up the room before locking up, albeit a little more slowly. it was like both of you were waiting for something, but never said it out loud,

as you finally made your way out the school, you and heeseung turned to each other, hoping the other would say something.

“well-” heeseung started at the same time you said, “are you-”

after a brief moment of awkward silence, you guys burst into soft laughter at the silliness of the situation. what were you so afraid of anyway?

“do you still want to ride with me?” you finally asked him.

“if that’s okay with you.”

“of course it is,” you rolled your eyes playfully, falling into step with him.

“honestly, i thought you were going to go back to walking home after i healed up,” you confessed to him on the bus. “it made me kind of sad.”

“you’d miss me?” he teased, but there was excitement in his tone. he was elated.

“well, these rides are kind of fun! i wish i got to know you like this sooner. and then i thought we’d go back to the way we were before after this, but ningning assured me that it’d be fine.”

“ah yeah, ningning’s cool. wish i had a close friend like her by my side.”

it didn’t click until now how they seemed to be familiar with each other. when did heeseung and ningning become friends? in fact, when did they get a chance to even talk to each other?

“are you friends with her?” you tried to ask nonchalantly, like the topic wasn’t bugging you now. if those two were friends, why didn’t ningning mention it to you?

heeseung seemed to notice the shift in your mood though. “we’re just friends, promise. there’s nothing between us.”

that eased you a little, but that wasn’t really your main concern.

“that’s nice to know. but how did you become friends? i thought you two were was close as me and you were before all this.”

“oh! we met up at summer camp. it was purely by coincidence; my parents decided to send me to one last summer, and she happened to be there. i didn’t know anyone else, so i stuck by her for most of the two weeks we were there. we got to know each other then.”

ningning’s summer camp. last summer had been her third year there, so she wasn’t new or anything. the programme usually lasted two weeks, and they’d take away their phones during that time, so you’d have no contact with her until it ended.

but you’re surprised she didn’t tell you about it when she came back. after all, she had said it was ‘just as usual’, but seeing the new face of your best friend’s (previously) most hated person didn’t seem like nothing.

“huh.”

“i swear though, there was nothing between us back then.”

“i see.”

“i hadn’t talked to her much after my date with you-”

the date. ningning had been the one to push you to go. but why? even if her and heeseung became friends during camp, you and her were still closer. so why did she switch sides? you’d thought it was odd how she was suddenly encouraging you to say yes, when she’d spent the last four years sticking her tongue out at heeseung by your side.

the date, which had gone both so bad and yet so good. when everything had gone terribly wrong, but heeseung did everything right.

“i’m so sorry for being late!” heeseung panted as he ran up to your table.

“the one time i give you a chance, and you’re an hour late, lee.”

“i know, i know. it’s just that my sister-”

“i’m not hearing out any excuses,” you huffed.

you’d felt so humiliated waiting for him. you were shaking, your hair was frizzy with stress and your make up probably a little smudged too. the staff had even given you a free cheesecake slice out of pity. a pity cake.

“whatever, you’re here now, so let’s get this over with”

the waitress came over and gave you an encouraging look (which you ignored) and took your orders. when your meals arrived, you stared at the orange slices in the sauce of your orange chicken. although you hated them, you actually loved the sauce and chicken itself, so you ordered them every time you went to a chinese restaurant.

“you don’t like the oranges?” heeseung asked after seeing you pick them out.

“not really, no. i don’t know how to explain it; i love orange chicken, but i hate actually seeing the oranges on the sauce. it’s a little bit jarring for me, fruits and savoury foods together just don’t make sense to me visually, but when i taste them, they’re so good. just like pineapples on pizza, you get me?”

“i guess,” he thinks out loud. he uses his own chopsticks and starts picking them out from your plate, placing them onto his. “mind if i take these then? i love oranges.”

“i’ve literally seen you throw out a whole orange at school before.”

“you were watching?” he smiled sheepishly, a light pink tint to his cheeks.

“n-not particularly.” you look back down at your food, focusing on your task. you need to be more careful with what you say.

after a terrible start to your date, the rest of your lunch went okay. it wasn’t too bad, and you two started discussing your next plan: watching a movie.

“i’m not even a marvel fan,” you told heeseung after he said he’d gotten two tickets for spiderman: no way home.

“don’t worry, i’ll explain everything to you during the movie.”

“really? also, isn’t a movie a terrible date idea? we wouldn’t really talk to each other.”

“well, i will. i tend to talk a lot during movies.” he turned to you with an apologetic look. “i hope you won’t mind.”

“i’ll need it, won’t i?”

turns out you didn’t need his talking during the movie because you two didn't even get to watch it. a kitchen in the food court next to the theatre had gone up in flames, with the fire spreading to it’s surroundings. thankfully, no one died, but the damage was pretty severe, with half the mall having to close down until reparations are finished. and who knows how long that’ll take…

“oh! well, it’s a good thing i was a little late then, right?” heeseung tried to lighten up this messy date as you two passed by the mall which was now in ashes.

“i guess,” you mumbled. “so what now?”

“well, how about a little bowling?” he suggested.

you nodded, and he drove you two to the local bowling alley. you hadn't done it since you were eight, so heeseung showed you how to do it on your first turn.

“swing your arm like this,” he said, holding onto your bicep and holding onto the ball for you.

“you can let go, you know. i can carry the weight, it’s only the small size after all.”

“i know, but it’s just for demonstration. i’m going to let go of the ball now, okay? make sure to hold tightly,” he looked at you intently. geez, how could someone telling you to hold a bowling ball look at you like you hung the stars?

well, you didn’t really need his help anyway. your instincts kicked in and you managed to hit nine pins all together on your first, with similar numbers for the rest of the rounds. you even got a strike twice!

“are you sure you’ve never bowled before?” heeseung chuckled in awe.

“positive.”

“it always surprises me how easily you pick up things.”

“…thanks.”

and then you hit very few pins every single round after that in the second game.

you hadn’t been able to finish your second game however, because a heavy downpour suddenly came down.

“oh my god, the water is rising so fast,” you called over to heeseung as you looked out the glass doors of the main exit. if the floor hadn’t been lifted, the water would have started flowing in by now.

“crap, should we go home before it gets worse?”

“i suggest you should, kids,” the man behind the counter gruffed. he himself was getting ready to go, with the other customers running outside to their own cars.

heeseung looked outside and then at you.

“you can’t walk outside in those shoes, they’ll get wet.”

you were wearing pointy slip ons that would definitely get wet and soaked if you took a step outside, but it’s not like you had a choice.

“it’s alright, let’s just go-woah!”

heeseung picked you up bridal style and started making his way to his car, going fast but careful not to slip.

“hey! let me down!”

“no way, we’re almost there.”

you tried to fight him off, but he just held tightly until you reached the car, and he gently set you down into the passenger seat before backing out of the parking lot.

“are you crazy?”

“are you?” he retorted. “like hell i’m letting you get all soaked on our first date.”

you wheezed. “this date was so unlucky. who imagined everything that happened could’ve happened.”

“i know! and i wanted to make a good impression so bad. it’s like the world is against me,” he whined.

as you finally reached the front of your apartment complex, heeseung turned to you one last time.

“i’m sorry for everything that went wrong. please let me make it up to you.” he sucked in a breath, and you realised what he was going to say just a moment before he did.

“will you let me take you out on another date?”

yes. absolutely. this was fun. it was terrible, but i had a great time. wait, is this him asking me to be his girlfriend? i should ask. if he says yes, would i say yes? i don’t know, i don’t know him that well. i’ve only really only talked to him today. today’s date. everything went wrong. what if that was a sign? if i say yes, will all our dates just keep going to shit? no way, today was just an anomaly. we’ll be fine. but then when i go back to school, everyone will know. they’ll all look at me like they knew this would happen. they’ll clap him on the back and whoop in the halls, that’ll be so embarrassing. i hate that. maybe i should say no. but he was so sweet. it’s not his fault. but i wouldn’t be able to handle the attention. maybe i should-

“oh… i see.”

you looked up at him in confusion. but he wasn’t looking at you anymore. just straight ahead.

had you said something out loud? your thoughts were running wild, and you really couldn’t make up your mind.

“okay, well. have a good night,” heeseung said. when did he make his way to your door? even through the heartbreak clearly displayed in his voice, he still went out and opened the door for you. or maybe he was kicking you out of his car. was ningning right? had he thought you were undateable?

too much. too much was happening; so much happened today that you couldn’t form an answer. heeseung took your silence as a no (or did you actually say no? out of instinct?), which made your mind even more befuddled. you weren’t sure if you were even forming a coherent thought.

“oh, okay.”

you somehow made it out of the car and to the entrance of the apartment. turning back, you found heeseung’s car still there, with him watching you. you gave a weak wave, one he didn’t return, and punched in your house number.

at the last moment, you wanted to say something. anything, you didn’t know what. but when you around back to him again, he was gone.

you didn’t sleep at all that night. or maybe you did? you couldn’t tell. you’d been so worried over that last moment with heeseung, and had replayed it so many times in your head.

eventually, you convinced yourself that things were fine. that maybe you just imagined it. maybe it wasn’t that bad, and things would go back to normal at school.

definitely. he’ll definitely get back to his shenanigans when school started up again. there wasn’t some sort of finality in his tone - no you just imagined it.

you were wrong.

“why didn’t you tell me you met heeseung at summer camp?”

“how’d you-”

“he told me.” you looked at ningning intently. “but it should have been you.”

“i just- i didn’t think it was worth mentioning! you hated the guy, and it’s not like him being there would have affected you in any way,” she defended herself.

“sure, but i would have appreciated hearing it from you. you knew i’ve had a crush on him for months now, and you could have mentioned it to me?? summer camp was in july; it’s already march for fuck’s sake!”

“i wanted to! i just couldn’t find the right time. you were always busy with student council stuff, and whenever you were free you always talked about heeseung,” he huffed exasperatedly. “how was i supposed to just go, ‘by the way, your crush paid me to set you guys up!’”

your head snapped towards her.

“what?”

“what do you mean wh-” when ningning saw the look on your face, she slapped her hands over her mouth. “you didn’t know about that part...”

“no. i didn’t,” you seethed. “well, i’m glad i got to hear at least something from you.”

you stormed out, ignoring ningning’s pleas of ‘wait! hear me out!’

a fool, that’s what you were. somehow, ningning’s behaviour was even more clear. your best friend had been paid to convince you to say yes. who would have thought she was easily swayed by a few bucks?

and to think that heeseung was really that desperate to take you on a date, going so far as to pay someone close to you to get you to agree? wow, he really was a grade A asshole. sports day had just been topped by ‘being played by my own best friend and crush’ on your list of most embarrassing moments.

speed walking through the halls, you couldn’t stand to look at the pictures of you and heeseung’s faces on the student council board. it hurt so bad, that your feelings could just be easily bought. that someone you considered as family could sell you out like this. that the guy you’d fallen for would go to this length to ‘get you’.

at the bus stop, you saw the man himself smile brightly at you and wave, like he didn’t pay your best friend to get you to go in a date with him. one thing that never fails to amaze you is the audacity of men.

was it all a lie? was his kind-hearted and caring personality all fake? just another thing he did to get your attention? did you truly know heeseung like you thought? or just the 'heeseung' he wanted you to see?

you pointedly looked away, and decided to go home by foot. it was twenty minutes away by walking, but that was enough time for you to at least calm down a little and think about it more. sort out your mind.

you ended up skipping the rest of the week, convincing your parents you were sick (by putting a hot pack on your face and neck before they checked). otherwise, you might have actually broken down right then at school if you saw either heeseung or ningning.

"is everything okay?" soobin asked one day.

"yeah! everything's fine," you said cheerily. "why do you ask?"

"well, it's just that you've been sitting with us instead of ningning."

looking at soobin and his friends, you finally noticed the slight awkward air in the group because of your presence. to be fair, you weren't really close with them to begin with. or anyone. you spent most of your lunch breaks with ningning, but now that you've refused to talk to her for the last two weeks, you've been floating between different groups. sometimes, you even spent lunch in the toilets or the student council room.

but who else could you spend it with? you weren't ready to face ningning yet, and it was already hard enough tolerating heeseung during meetings. you didn't miss the worried looks from him, and he's tried to talk to you several times (which you always declined).

a sigh escapes you, and you massage your forehead. obviously, you needed to confront them both eventually. but not right now. whatever the answer is, you don't think you'd be able to handle it right now.

"do you want to talk about it?" soobin asked, a low volume only for you to hear.

"maybe later," you admitted. it would be a good idea to tell an outsider all of this, especially to soobin, who's always been a great advice-giver.

"there won't be a meeting this friday; seniors are having a rehearsal for the graduation ceremony then. the school wanted to have one before finals started," heeseung told the council. he looked around and asked, "anything else?" at everyone's silence, he nodded and closed the meeting. everyone bid their goodbyes and left, except soobin.

heeseung stared at you with anticipation and uncertainty. he'd given up on asking you to talk for a while now, but still waited for you to act first. he understood that you'd come to him when you were ready.

you looked up at soobin, looking at you with a similar expression, but one that had more curiousity and less anxiety.

"let's go?" he asked. you nodded and followed him out, leaving heeseung to lock up on his own.

you started doing that ever since The Incident. of course, you didn't leave all the clean up work to him, but you rushed your own responsibilities to minimise as much time you had to spend with him as possible.

"seriously?"

you and soobin turned back, finding the voice belonging to heeseung. he was standing outside the student council room, looking at you two, fuming. you could practically see the steam coming out his ears.

"you ignore and shun me away, refusing to talk about this issue between us, but talk to soobin about it instead? why are you dragging him into this??"

you rolled your eyes and turned to him fully, blood boiling. "i'm not 'dragging him into this'. i just wanted to talk to someone, is that so wrong?" you retorted.

"yes! you seriously think getting soobin's opinion is gonna help?"

"am i not allowed to talk to him now? are you going to pay him to stop talking to me too?"

"god, i know it was wrong of me, okay?! i'm sorry, it was shitty of me."

"your apology isn't going to suddenly make everything better. it won't take back what you did."

"i know. but please, talk to me. it's driving me crazy, how you go about acting normal with everyone but me. this whole year, did you not feel anything for me at all? do you really hate me?" he asked, his voice cracking at the end. "if you do, tell me now. so i can finally move on."

you stared at the boy, and the way the late afternoon sunlight hit him from behind. you could barely make out his expression, but maybe that was for the better. you probably wouldn't have been able to turn away and stand your ground if you saw the look on his face.

"you can't say that. not when you were the one who put yourself in this situation. did you think i would never find out? that you bribed my best friend into setting me up with you?" you heard soobin's surprised gasp on the side.

although you had your back to heeseung, you could still imagine what he looked like. the scene broke your heart, but not as much as it did when you found out that ningning had even agreed to such a thing.

after it was clear he wasn't going to reply, you started walking away, with soobin tailing you.

"wow... so that's what happened," was the first thing he said after a few minutes of silence.

"yeah."

"what a dick move."

"right."

you sighed, the adrenaline leaving you and now realising how loud you two had been. there weren't many students left at school, but a teacher or two probably heard the commotion. you'll be the hot topic of the staff lounge room for sure.

when you finally explained it all to soobin, he was quiet for a moment, thoughtful.

"i honestly never expected this from heeseung. it just- it doesn't seem like him."

"that's what i thought too. a little part of me wishes it's all some misunderstanding, but i don't know how it could be twisted any other way."

soobin hummed in agreement. "but, i noticed one thing from all of this though: you still call ningning your best friend," he pointed out. "despite everything, you've already forgiven her. or at least, you've begun to."

you bit your lip, realising he was right. you were beginning to accept it. she seemed genuinely sorry, and you could never hate her forever.

"it's just that - after getting to know heeseung, i felt like a terrible person for not giving him a chance. for always turning him down harshly. maybe i drove him to bribe ningning, maybe she got fed up with me too. i couldn't help but feel guilty for causing both of them to act like this.

"and i know this sounds wrong... but somehow, i felt a little relieved that i wasn't the only person in the wrong. that i wasn't the only asshole in this story - isn't that such a twisted thought?"

soobin melted when he saw your face, and pulled you in for a hug.

"of course not. it's alright to feel like this, you know? it's what makes us human, and what are humans without complicated feelings?"

and just like that, a dam was broken. you didn't realise how much you needed to hear those words until he said them.

it wasn't until may that you finally mustered up the courage to finally talk to ningning, and it seemed she had the same idea too.

"please, can we talk?" she asked at the same time you called her name.

"i was just about to ask the same thing."

once you two found an empty classroom, ningning started immediately.

"listen," she called for your attention. "i'm so sorry. you have no idea how many times i want to say it; i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry. it was such a light offer, really. i didn't realise the meaning it would have in the moment."

"what do you mean, a 'light offer'?"

"during camp, i had bought heeseung's sister some ice cream because she was being left out by the other kids. it was only like two dollars, but heeseung insisted on repaying. but the smallest bill he had was a five, so obviously i refused. but he kept asking me to take it and i told him that if i took it, i'd be the one in debt to him instead. so he made a light-hearted joke about getting you to go on a date with him, so that there'd be no hard feelings between us." she looked up at you pleadingly. "we'd been joking around, i didn't even realise the reality of his question. but when i got back from camp, i didn't think you'd actually go on one with him."

"you kept bringing it up; i trusted your opinion."

"i did, but i didn't really mean it. i was hoping you'd continue to say no, and i could just tell him something like 'sorry, i tried. here's your three dollars back.'"

"you didn't mean it?" you prodded.

ningning looked down at her hands and sighed. you could tell something was weighing on her.

"the truth is... i ended up catching feelings for heeseung. you know how i'd just broken up with my ex recently."

you thought back to her ex, who had isolated ningning from you and her other friends. how she'd come to school covered up even in the heat. the way she'd lost a worrying amount of weight. in all honesty, you should have tried to pry more; to break her out of this toxic relationship. but instead, you told yourself that there wasn't anything you could do, and left her to deal with the abuse on her own.

the guilt ate you, but you distracted yourself with work (and heeseung). god, you're so self-centred, aren't you?

"oh yeah, i remember very well."

"exactly," she says, hearing the loathing in your voice. "heeseung was the first person to show me genuine kindness after that whole affair. and so i found myself watching him over those two weeks, falling for him. and i thought to myself: if you didn't want him, then could i? i feel like the worst person ever, how could i even think that?"

her voice broke at the end, and you could see her silently crying; tears poured down her face but her sobs were inaudible. you'd noticed it was a habit she formed after getting with her ex. she'd never cried much before him, but she used to cry as loudly as you. you placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"it's okay. you're not the only one with shitty thoughts."

her wide eyes peered up at you, sparkling with tears. she wrapped her arms around you, and you reciprocated the embrace.

the way she'd hiccuped and the wet spot you could feel forming on your shirt yet the silent sobs broke your own heart, and you had to force your own tears down.

"i'm sorry too. i was too absorbed in my own life that i didn't pay enough attention to the way you were breaking. i mean, how did i not notice anything all this time?"

you wondered if her smile had ever wavered when she was with you, if she had to fake a laugh, or even force herself to talk to you this past year. dealing with her own problems on her own, while you vented to her yours. if she had, you didn't notice (someone give you a 'best friend of the year' award right now!).

as much as you wanted to hate her for liking heeseung, you didn't. you understood her feelings, especially after getting to know the boy himself. he brought a sense of safety with him wherever he went - so how could you ever hate your best friend for needing that security when no one else offered it to her?

"wait, can i ask you something?" you asked. ningning slipped from the embrace, nodding.

"if you liked heeseung, then why did you still ask me to accept his date offers? you could have just kept it from me, and told him that i said no. was it really just because of the three dollar 'debt'?"

"ah, right. well, when he'd asked me to get you to go on a date with me, it reminded me just how much he liked you. i don't think he'd ever see me the same way, not when his sights are so fixed on you. and after getting a taste of his hospitality, i felt that you deserved it too. that not only did he deserve a chance, but so did you.

"i realised that you needed someone like him. i couldn't give you the care and support he could, not when i'm too absorbed by my own problems. and i knew you were feeling guilty, and heeseung was the only one who could really understand you."

oh, you really were going to either jump off a cliff or hug her so tight her eyeballs might pop out. even when you neglected, she still thought about you through it all. heeseung was wrong, he made you out to be this caring person who thought of others, but that person was really ningning.

"but, what about you? you need care and support too."

"it wouldn't work out between us, he's not the kind of person i want. he was just the first kind person in a while. i need to heal and learn to be more independent myself."

a quiet moment followed, with the both of you lost in your thoughts and emotions. you hadn't felt this lonely in so long, and a weight had finally been lifted from your shoulders.

"so what are you going to do? have you talked to heeseung yet?"

"no, not yet. but he's waited four years now, he can wait a little longer. i just want to spend time with my best friend right now."

'a little longer' ended up being another month. when finals started, the school let the older years off on study leave to focus on exams. so you didn't end up seeing heeseung until the final graduation rehearsal.

as president and vice president, you two were expected to perform a speech and be next to each other the whole ceremony. so you decided it was the perfect time to confront him then.

"heeseung, wait," you called, grabbing onto his wrist as he walked by.

he immediately paused in his tracks, whipping around to look at you with wide eyes, surprised you'd finally decided to talk to him. you glanced at his friends behind him, all with a mix of curious and knowing looks.

"oh, uh, you guys can go ahead," he told them, and they left you two alone.

"i made up with ningning..." you told him.

"i see! that- that's good. im happy you guys did."

"...and i'm sorry. for making a big deal out of nothing. for making you wait so long. you're seriously one of the sweetest people i've ever met. you didn't deserve that."

heeseung shook his head in protest. "no, don't say that. i'd wait for you as long as you want, even if you never accept me. and it was a big deal. i'm guessing she told you?" you nodded. "it was fucked up of me to even make a joke like that. in fact, it was worse than if it was a genuine deal. and i can't just buy your love with three dollars, you're worth more than that." you tried to say something, but heeseung continued.

"i screwed up, i know. but i never lied to you. if there's one thing i've always been sure of, it was loving you. don't you ever feel like you have to love me back though, it's not something you can force. but i'll always have your back. no matter how many fights, how many fuck-ups, or if i ever lose my feelings for you - which might never happen. you can always fall back on me for support."

your eyes watered at his sincerity, feeling unworthy of his kindness.

"i don't deserve that though. ningning does."

"you both do. listen to me," he said, grabbing onto your shoulders and forcing you to look up at him. "don't you ever dare say that you're undeserving of love and support. every one does, but i know who you are; i know how hard you work and your honesty. and i want to guarantee you a home with me, if you ever need one. because i love you."

wow. you've cried so much these past few months, and you're sure you're about to start again. heeseung wiped your tears with his thumb, and your heart swelled.

a year ago, you would have never even thought of accepting heeseung's feelings. a few months ago, you thought you had just missed him, finally reciprocating his feelings right as he lost them. but now you were finally on the same page, and you didn't want to waste another moment.

"i love you, heeseung."

graduation day was a busy one. you had to start getting ready earlier than other students in order to prepare your speech and arrive before everyone else. it was stressful, yet rewarding, especially as you crossed the stage and finally received your diploma.

when you and heeseung were set to give your pre-written speeches, you almost didn't notice the way everyone looked motivated during his, being captured by his words yourself. you hoped to be able to instil that inspiration in others one day.

towards the end of his speech though, he did something you didn't expect, but shouldn't have been surprised by.

"so toward my fellow graduates and our families who've supported us all this way, let's celebrate our achievements and strive to follow our dreams," then turned to look back at you, pulling a bouquet of flowers from under podium, which he'd blocked from your view this whole time with his body. "as i will be with mine. so i'll ask one last time: would you let me have the honour of being your boyfriend?"

you rolled your eyes, but couldn't hide the smile on your face. with the cheers echoing throughout the hall, you suddenly got a sense of deja vu, remembering his election speech the previous year.

oh, how much things have changed since then.

"if only you'll let me be your girlfriend."

; BONUS

with exams over and the heatwave taking over the country, you had decided to spend the day at heeseung's house and try to cool off.

"are you and ningning going back to camp this summer?" you asked, hoping he'd say no. having zero contact with your best friends for two weeks sounded like hell. not even a good morning or good night text? shivers went down your spine at the thought.

"i think i'll be busy with college apps. not sure about ningning though."

"really?" you gasped, turning over to look at him. "so basically i get to spend the whole holiday with you."

heeseung grinned at you excitedly, thinking the same. then, his face suddenly lit up, as if remembering something.

"speaking of ningning, i just remembered how she sprained her leg last year. she spent the rest of the week in the infirmary."

"really? she was fine when she came back though."

"it was minor, so it only took one week, in the middle of those two."

suddenly, you remembered something too.

"i'd hang out with him, break my leg, therefore obliging him to bring me to the hospital, manipulate him to visit me every day as i recover, be overbearing as hell so that he'd realise he doesn't want me anymore, and poof! he's gone."

"no way..."

"what?" he questioned.

"did you have to visit her everyday?"

"oh. yeah, to give her her medicine and meals. the other kids had basically made me their makeshift nurse, since i treated them better than the nurse apparently," he laughed at the memory. "i caught the old lady glaring at me several times - maybe she thought i'd stolen her job?"

you laughed with him, but not only because of his story. you couldn't believe ningning's oddly specific solution had actually come out of experience. you were so going to bully her for this later.

"should i glare at you too, then?"

"hm?" he hummed confusedly.

"for stealing my heart."

heeseung blinked at you for a moment, before breaking into a wide smile and suddenly attacking you with tickles (a habit you learned he tended to do when he was flustered, specifically by you).

giggles escaped you, laughing so hard that it began to hurt. if this is how it's going to be with heeseung, you'll grow abs in no time.

"okay! okay, stop-" you cackled.

he obliged, helping you sit back up. then he tucked your hair behind your hear and placed a quick peck on your lips.

suddenly shy, you looked away with a smile facing the fan as it blew air onto your face, pushing your hair back. when you looked back at heeseung over your shoulder, you were surprised to find him beaming at you with awe on his face.

"you're beautiful, you know?"

"only when i'm with you."

"nope. you're always stunning."

"okay."

"you don't believe me?"

"i do."

"good. i'll keep saying it anyway, to make sure you do."

you stared at him for a moment that felt like hours, just staring into each others eyes. you then went in for a hug, toppling over the other and staying in that position - just you two cuddling on his bed.

sure, it was really hot today, but somehow the warmth from his body was more comfortable than anything else. you couldn't have asked for a more perfect moment.

; AUTHOR'S CORNER ! is it obvious i've never had a big injury before... anyway i hope u guys enjoyed this! i wrote this really quick and suddenly like it js came out of nowhere lol but for now i'm proud of it :)

; TAGLIST - @naespas @okwonyo @sleepdeprivedline @lcvclywon @llvrhee @hommyy-tommy @sumzysworld @syazzzlisa @jiawji @cjayius @desistay @dimplewonie perm. @lovelovelovebts @miyseung @babyy-bambii @haechansbbg @gweoriz @maoyueze @manooffline @yizhoutv @rikibun @wonniversity networks. @kflixnet @k-films @/k-labels

[ne-videl]

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐤𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞

♡

yandere Ayato x fem reader

there's something wrong with your employer.

yandere, mentions of violence & kidnapping, stalker Ayato, non-consensual touching (not sexual, just our man being clingy), reader has a pretty low self-esteem, sfw this time I guess??, poor english

word count: ~2k

a/n: alright I decided to procrastinate and ignore my study, and what's a better way to do it than posting some more of my stuff?

p.s. лисичка солнце как ты меня находишь?? теперь мне стыдно за то что я все никак не могу дописать главу про нёвиллета и ничего не придумала про венти 🤧🤧

enjoy.

bright sun of Inazuma shone on the kimono shop on the corner of the street, filling its visitors with pleasant laziness, and the hostess herself with a desire to end the stuffiness of the day as soon as possible.

you hung your haori on the back of a chair covered with bunch of fabric and exhaled wearily.

it's only noon yet, and you're already listening to insults from a well-to-do girl after announcing that her outfit won't be ready at least until the next evening.

"and besides, with your appearance, I would be ashamed to even look people in the eye!" – the client left, slamming the door irritably. the bell on the door rang plaintively.

"why get personal...?" – you rubbed the bridge of your nose with another sigh, while your gaze slid to the dusty mirror.

impassive glass showed a young woman. always sad eyes, hands covered with calluses and small scars from work. slightly disheveled bangs framing a tired face.

"no matter what, it's still you." – your reflection replied mockingly.

you knew yourself that you weren't that beautiful. there was a little chance to notice you in a crowd, "unremarkable" was the word that suited you the most. the only bright detail on you was, perhaps, a smear of red lipstick on your dry lips. gloomy appearance and an overly calm personality did not add to your attractiveness either. but you were a reliable and practical person, and therefore at least you had a successful career as a tailor.

summer in Inazuma was a nice season for the likes of you: time of festivals and celebrations, banquets and parties of nobles. sometimes you wanted to be in the shoes of your clients yourself: a charming, cheerful young lady choosing among a string of colorful fabrics the one that would suit her new luxurious outfit.

but, unfortunately, you were just a gloomy mistress of a sewing workshop, overwhelmed with work in the hot season.

the long-suffering doorbell, which had to endure a lot of tantrums and dissatisfied cries from visitors today, once again tinkled plaintively, forcing you to come out of your thoughts and turn around.

tall gentleman dressed in expensive white clothes stood in front of the counter. gentle, beautiful face was decorated with a friendly smile and a mole under his lips. at first glance it wasn't difficult to understand that someone very important was in front of you. you were even a little embarrassed, just a little bit: he, bright and cheerful, looks at your modest figure, dressed in a dark, simple kimono.

looks without taking his eyes off.

"lady seamstress? good day. I'm here with a business proposal for you." – the man came closer, still smiling. – "you see, my sister happened to visit your workshop a short time ago."

you tilted your head to the side, scratching your chin. the man in front of you surely looked familiar, for some reason. so it should not be very difficult to remember some pretty young lady with blue hair, from whom the same aura of aristocracy and prosperity would emanate.

"I remember something like that. you must be lady Ayaka's older brother?" – you looked at the supposed head of the Yashiro commission with an impassive look. you're too tired to be surprised by anything, and after all, important people have visited you before. if anything, you certainly had no equal in skill.

"yes, indeed. you are very observant, [name]." – you raised your eyebrow: you couldn't remember telling your name to Ayaka. well, it's not like it really matters, right?

your strange visitor continued to speak with an unnerving gleam in his purple eyes.

"as you have already understood, my name is Kamisato Ayato. I would like to offer you to work at our mansion."

____*:･ﾟ✧

"it's beautiful. I like it." – the younger Kamisato was looking at the sleeves of the kimono with satisfaction while you, now her personal tailor, pinned the hem with pins.

"but, I would like to ask you something, [name]." – you raise your head, looking up at your lady. – "you make such beautiful things. why don't you ever wear them yourself? I always see you in such inconspicuous colors. no bright fabrics, no embroidery."

you get up from your kneeling position, your scarred hands concentrating on straightening the fabric while you mumble without looking up from your work.

"you see, milady, there are people like you and people like me. beautiful things are meant for beautiful people, for important ones: who look good in gold embroidery and silk hemlines." – you look up at Ayaka, narrowing your eyes a little. – "people like me don't wear such clothes. besides, I don't have the looks to wear bright fabrics."

you walked over to the table, adjusting your black haori and assessing the work you've done. kimono suits your lady, who is currently looking down in embarrassment, realizing the huge difference in your statuses.

"ah, I also wanted to know..." – Ayaka swallows, averting her eyes and changing the subject. – "you're going to the festival, aren't you? I'd like to do your hair, if you don't mind."

you answered as calmly as usual, stating the fact.

"I have nothing to wear. and no one to go with." – calloused fingers unconsciously run through your hair, as if you could not imagine someone gathering them into a beautiful hairstyle.

"how is that? what about my older brother?" – the younger Kamisato bats her eyes with confusion.

"master? why would he?" – you tilted your head to the side in genuine surprise.

"wait, I remember exactly, brother said that you will go to the festival with him." – you smiled wearily, as if Ayaka was a child who blurted out some nonsense.

you? with him? you'd rather cut off your own finger than believe it.

you felt your master's hands resting on your shoulders.

"that's right, you're coming, and you're coming with me. I'll take care of the outfit, and I'll do your hair too." – Ayato glanced at his sister and continued talking. it seemed to you that he was standing a little closer than he should have been: at least you heard his voice right next to your ear. – "are you done here? can I borrow you for a while, [name]?"

you just nodded cautiously, wary that your master still had his hands on your shoulders. and the fact that you could clearly feel his hot chest pressed against your back.

"eavesdropping is bad, brother!" – that's right, eavesdropping is bad. and you could only think just how much did he hear.

your walk down the corridor was in silence: you didn't want to speak until you were asked, and apparently he didn't want to ask.

"master," you finally spoke up, tired of the suffocating silence, – "why would you need to accompany me to the festival?"

Ayato gave you a look with his cunning lavender eyes and replied with an unchanging smile.

"because I want to."

"what about clothes? you know, I feel quite good in what I usually wear." – you raised your voice slightly, sincere confusion shone in your eternally tired eyes, – "and my hair? why would you need to-"

Ayato bent down, holding a strand of your hair between his fingers.

you saw him kiss your hair, felt his hot breath on your face.

"because. I. want. to."

that night, as at all nights before in this estate, you felt like you were being watched.

and they didn't take their eyes off for even a second.

____*:･ﾟ✧

summer passed quickly: time for banquets, bright festivals and celebrations ended.

you always finished this usually noisy and busy season with a sense of accomplishment, although, of course, you had less work than usual this summer.

you thought you loved to work. at least your hands were always busy with something: fixing someone's obi, making a sample for the store's assortment or another order. to live you need money, and to have money you need to work. so you've been working as long as you can remember.

that's why it was a surprise to find yourself sitting and doing nothing. Thoma did the mending of clothes and other simple work, and new things, as it turned out, were not needed too often by your masters. so all that remained was to drink tea with them and walk around, feeling guilty for your rather big salary.

archons, it's like you're not a tailor but a friend for them.

on the day when you were ready to climb the wall from idleness – such a seemingly unusual thing for you in the past – you finally decided to visit your employer.

Ayato perked up as soon as you appeared at the door of his office.

"master." – you bowed briefly, looking at him with your eternally tired eyes.

"what can I do for you, dear?" – lord Kamisato, realizing that you were here on a business matter, continued with an impenetrable smile, – "is there something you're not satisfied with? if you don't like the food or the clothes, then I'll immediately-"

you shook your head no, clenching your hands nervously, and spoke. there was a tiny bit of embarrassment in your usually calm voice.

"you see, master," – you swallowed nervously, – "I'm a little worried that I don't really have anything to do."

under Ayato's confused gaze, you continued, explaining what you meant.

"I've been working as long as I can remember myself, and when you offered me to work for you, I expected a higher level of workload." – you exhaled.

"I think I feel guilty for sitting around all day. at least let me fix the servants' clothes."

Ayato scratched his chin while his purple eyes seemed to drill a hole in you. you wanted to leave, to end this conversation as quick as possible. you've never been very comfortable in the presence of your employer. you felt the urge to run away to lady Ayaka and distract yourself with idle conversations, or embroidery – with anything.

"no, no, dear, that won't do. I can't let your pretty hands do that." – your gaze dropped to your rather elegant, but scarred and callused hands. not "pretty" at all.

"then," – you sighed, – "then I'm asking for your dismissal. in that case, it would be better for me to return to my shop in the city. I can't sit around all day, master."

pen crunched in Ayato's hands and fell onto the countertop, breaking in half.

you couldn't see him get up from the table before you felt his hot arms wrapped around your waist in a strangleingly tight grip. gloved finger gently stroked your cheek, outlined the edge of a dark circle under your eye.

seeing in your gaze the absolute misunderstanding of what is happening, commissioner Yashiro only smiled gently.

"[name], sweet, sweet [name]. no matter how beautiful a kimono is, if you lost your legs you won't be able to wear it, don't you think? I would recommend that you don't even think about leaving me. besides, Ayaka will be sad. we all got so attached to you."

Ayato giggled sickly, stroking your hair.

it's time to start preparing for the wedding.

____*:･ﾟ✧

[name]. sweet, adorable [name].

quiet and calm woman living on a street corner. completely unnoticeable in a noisy crowd. smoothly, smoothly her hair flutters in the wind. scarred, thin fingers hold the bundle of fabric tightly.

last name is unknown.

date of birth is unknown.

presumably an orphan.

owns a sewing workshop in the city.

not married.

"is this really all that has been found out?" – Ayato puts down the papers, staring intently at the servant who just nods nervously.

"I see. you may leave."

it's probably a good thing she doesn't have a family. no one would look for her if, say, he decided to kidnap her.

any other person would not have noticed her dark silhouette among the noisy streets. would not have remembered the features of her tired face. would not have made inquiries, looking into her past, find out her schedule, send people to monitor and report to him where and with whom she was. any other wouldn't have memorized what she likes and what she doesn't like, and what time she goes to bed.

anyone else wouldn't, but to commissioner Yashiro, she was the most precious person in the world.

ah, she's so diligent! every time Ayato sees his charming seamstress on the street, she always carries some bundles of fabrics, or in the shop, always busy.

today [name] is also working hard.

hiring her at the manor was the right decision: it meant always having her in sight, by his side. whether it was trying on another suit, when he could feel the light touches of her calloused hands sending euphoric shivers down his back, or just talking over tea – being in the company of a gloomy tailor was great.

humans are greedy, selfish creatures by nature. Ayato was no exception–a man of his status could afford everything and even more. and at the moment, his "everything" was her.

sweet, sweet [name].

slipping into her bedroom in the middle of the night has already become a familiar, routine activity. yukata fell off her shoulder, exposing her skin, while she slept, wrapped in a blanket and quietly snoring.

Ayato carefully, so as not to wake her up, sat down next to her and stroked her hair.

of course, so far they are just a worker and an employer.

"but not for long." – he whispered to himself.

you've always wanted to be in the shoes of your clients, haven't you, my dear? to be a noble lady dressed in luxurious silks?

well, you don't have to worry, your wish will come true soon. you won't mind becoming the wife of the head of the Yashiro commission, right, [name]?

I'm very very sleep deprived I wanna scream cry and throw up

bye!!

[seat-safety-switch]

Rust is my most hated nemesis. I have stared more than once into the crumbling mess of red death that was, long ago, a pristine steel panel. Many evenings have been spent cutting out rust, only to find more rust, and cutting out that rust only to find yet more rust. Everything on my car is actively trying to return to the earth, but I won't let it.

Maybe you're lucky enough to only own new cars, or so absolutely fortunate that you live somewhere that cars don't rust even when they get scratched. If that's the case, you can pretend that the rest of this story is actually talking about croissants. Croissants are delicious, rich, and buttery, and I'd probably have learned how to make them myself if I didn't spend what my Daytimer® estimates is three-quarters of my waking life fixing body and structural rust on my harem of shitbox cars.

For years, car folks have been lured by a series of snake-oil paints, oils, dyes, dips, and other formulations that promise to help prevent rust. Virtually all of them are horseshit: elaborate scams produced by an industry that knows they have a desperate customer, just like parachute companies. The most effective rust prevention is to hose your car down with lanolin, which is a sort of wax you make by crushing up sheep. It works well, but the trick is doing it every year, forever, perfectly, until you miss a spot and your car disintegrates at highway speed, like a sand castle being hit by an errant volleyball.

If you talk to someone rich, they propose simply driving a bad car in the winter, and keeping your good cars cooped up. This is impossible for me: not only do I have exclusively what the rich would call "bad" cars, but I feel shrieking agony every time I am destroying any vehicle at all through my carelessness and malice. That is, of course, unless I am racing the car, in which case it is understood by all involved that dying in battle is the most noble way for the car to ascend to Valhalla. There is no honour in scrapping a car because the rear subframe prolapsed on your way to work, so I enter my most precarious vehicles in ice racing in order to give them a good end-of-life experience.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the gaping rust holes reducing the weight of the chassis, and my devil-may-care attitude bumping rivals off the lake in fact is the secret formula to produce winning race cars. Now, I'm not as rich as your Inoues or your Sennas, but the $50 gift certificates to the local tire place really add up. I hear they've got anti-rust underbody spray, which seems like a good thing to do to whatever chunks of cars I can frantically weld together this summer in the few weeks before the leaves turn again. The cycle of life.

[24hlevi]

— fever

jigokuraku characters (chobe, toma, sagiri, yuzuriha, & shion) x gn!reader

summary: how the jgkrk characters would react to sharing a bed with you

warnings: language, a lil suggestive

Aza Chobe

— does not give a single fuck, he probably did it on purpose even, as an excuse

— he'll be super cocky about it at first, making suggestive jokes about what could happen during the cold hours of the night even if it's summer

— if you want to find another sleeping space of sorts he'll try and convince you that one bed is better than two, saying how he'll keep you warm

— hate to say it but he would definitely try to hit, it's the perfect opportunity for him to try and he would definitely do his best to hook up with you

— by the time its time to sleep it's probably past midnight for sure, and he doesn't sleep well so he will probably be asleep for a few hours then wake up and stay awake

— will not cuddle with you whatsoever, but he sleeps on his back with his arms supporting his head so if you wanna try go ahead, he might smack you though

— chobe moves around a lot in his sleep whether it's rolling over repeatedly, spreading his legs apart so you have little to no room at all, or just simply ending up on the floor when he wakes up

— when the two of you awake the next morning, he's likely already awake ready to get the day started, ignoring however you feel about the situation and whatever happened during the night

Aza Toma

— feigns being confused over the situation at first as if he didn't deliberately ask for a room with only one bed

— then would pretend that getting a new room would be too much of a hassle, even going as far as offering to sleep on the floor until you agree

— but toma is genuine in making sure you're comfortable with it and he truly doesn't want you to feel weirded out by the matter

— when you do say it's fine he is ecstatic about it, grinning widely as he hugs you tightly saying how he'll keep you safe despite knowing nothing would happen

— toma is a big cuddler unlike his brother, he is always holding onto you and will wrap around you like a koala when sleeping because he loves you so much

— he sleeps super deeply like you could shake him and he wouldn't wake up, he also has an iron tight grip on you when sleeping, so you'll unfortunately have to pry him off you if you need to use the restroom or anything at all

— he mumbles a little bit when he's super deep in sleep, it's rarely full sentences but it is freaky at times with what he says

— you'll likely wake up before him because he constantly sleeps, and will have to forcibly shove him off of you for him to wake up, but he smiles at you as soon as he sees you're still there with him

Yamada Asaemon Sagiri

— literally the only one genuinely confused on how it happened

— will immediately offer to ask for another room if you are uncomfortable with it but won't if you say it's fine then she's fine with it

— ngl it's probably super awkward between you two for some reason, she's busy overthinking everything and you're just trying to make sure she's genuinely okay and not just lying to make you feel better

— she'll likely try to make up an excuse for you to sleep on the bed and her on the floor or somewhere else, but if you tell her it's fine enough times she'll eventually believe you

— sagiri isn't much of a cuddler but she will at least have an arm secured around you lightly, laying on her side with you in front of her so she can know you're there still

— she sleeps quite light and will awake at the slightest movements, but she falls back asleep super fast so it doesn't really matter too much

— halfway through the night she gives up and just fully cuddles you while mumbling how much she loves you

— sagiri will likely wake up before you by a few hours simply because she's so used to waking up early that her body naturally does now, and will wake you up by gently kissing your face until you open your eyes and see her

Yuzuriha

— she didn't do it on purpose but she definitely won't be complaining about it that's for sure

— doesn't bother asking if you're okay with it or not, simply assumes you don't care so therefore she doesn't either

— like chobe, she will likely try to hit but she'll stop eventually, hopefully

— does not know what personal space is, like at all, she will be halfway across the bed sprawled onto your side

— she'll try and convince you to cuddle, not for any other motive but simply because she enjoys it and says it helps her sleep better

— the girl completely sprawls out when sleeping she can't stay still literally her legs will be across your body and she's not waking up anytime soon, so good luck struggling to move her

— like toma, yuzuriha has a hard grip she keeps on you so you won't be able to move a whole lot, whoops!

— you probably wake up first solely because when she has availability to sleep in she is definitely sleeping in, you'll have to bribe her with food to wake her up

Yamada Asaemon Shion

— is almost as confused as sagiri, but also doesn't mind it too much

— he will first ask your thoughts on the situation, if you want another room, him to sleep somewhere else, etc. then decide what to do

— once it's decided you two will share the bed, shion does everything in his power to make sure you aren't uncomfortable

— he won't even go near the bed until it's actually time to sleep

— when it is time to sleep he is so far away from you that you wonder if maybe he wants to get another room cause it seems like he's avoiding you but he just wants to ensure you have enough space

— he sleeps on his back straight like a stick figure trying to not take up a lot of space so you have more room

— but if you were to cuddle with him in the middle of the night he wouldn't be against it, would lean into it and keep an arm secured around you so he knows you're still there

— shion sleeps very lightly, so he will likely wake up a few times before eventually fully waking up, probably drinking tea while watching nature outside waiting for you to awake

[vecnuthy]

Eddie and Steve kept catching the other's eye every time Dio, their grey and white cat, kept flopping down with a world-weary sigh that, this time, wasn't due to Eddie being annoying showing affection. The poor thing had formed a habit of seeking out the cool floor vents or worming his way into fridge when it was open, but that behavior never seemed too out of character, considering how his fluffy butt would shoot outside and completely starfish-jump into a fresh mound of snow if given the opportunity. And he was always given a lot.

On a leash, of course.

The first time that had happened, Steve and Eddie doubled over in laughter, hands slapping at arms until the "Did you see that?!" of the moment turned into "Can you see him?!" and they both frantically started digging for him. The snow-chilled but panic-warmed reunion yielded a very unamused Dio held tight against Steve's chest (with a hyperbolic "He's frozen solid!") as Eddie's forehead pressed between Dio's snow-dusted ears with a vow of "Never again" spilled from his chapped lips.

But that was January of last year, and it was now July of this year, and — look. The decision was that the cat needed his fur trimmed past just the regularly-scheduled maintenance of the very necessary Butt Trim. It was the peak of summer, and Dio was obviously uncomfortable in his long fur that was thicker than Eddie's skull, the latter of which was unfortunately to blame for the current situation:

Little Dio, Baby D, Dionysus, Rice-a-Ronnie fighting for his hairy little life on the top of the dryer, wiggling like an eel half out of Eddie's hold, claws raking through fur clippings and skidding against its absolutely gripless surface. The clippers buzzed menacingly from the floor after falling off the dryer.

Eddie tried his best to talk the cat down, cooing little things like "You're gonna look so handsome, Steve's gonna be so impressed. You're gonna be such a cool cat," but Dio the Diabolical didn't want any part of that.

Butt trim? No problem. Starting there probably would have been the better idea, but Eddie — alone, forsaken, and abandoned, thanks to Steve getting called in to work on his off day — had started working at the other end and soon found that the job couldn't be carried out with just one set of hands, committed though they were.

After a well-fought struggle, Eddie finally let Dio go with permission to "be free and angry — for now," and turned the clippers off, but he was not prepared for the sight that fully registered when he found Dio sitting on a stool next to the counter.

After an appropriate gasp, Eddie muttered, "Ohhh my god. Diogenes, what have I done?" from behind his hand, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.

Dio ignored him, fully in ice-out mode as he groomed his face. He didn't even flinch as Eddie snapped a picture on his phone, but didn't take too kindly to the tone of Eddie's "Why are you so tiny?!" so he hopped down and found another spot in a different room.

Eddie texted the following to Steve:

I made a mistake he won't let me clip anymore. Will I be arrested.

Not even ten seconds later, Eddie received a video call from Robin Buckley, who was absolutely howling in laughter, featuring a horrified Steve in the background, unable to tear his eyes away from his phone.

The rest of the fur trim may or may not have happened until a few days later because the sight was just so ridiculously fascinating (and Robin had insisted on experiencing its full glory in person). His fuzzy boots and a fluffy tuft at the end of his tail remained, though.

[ahllohehn]

does Grian in your Au like to host games? Like TNT run or build swap?

(please give me some slack, I’m barely into the percy Jackson books. I am starting the second book. But I got started on Percy Jackson when someone made a fanfic on Wattpad by IndigoSliver08. And funny enough what got me to get Wattpad as an app was another hermitcraft fanfic called Meteor Effect by Crazycatmeow413… I swear to gods I was so obsessed. I read that fanfic every day)

I've personally never read any wattpad fics, so that's fun to hear :D

As for Grian, he still organizes and starts a lot of camp games every hermit can participate in. However, a lot of his games don't last long due to... Reasons.

Like in TNT Run, although he tried to start it off behind the camp director's back with the help of the Hephaestus and Ares kids, he still ended up getting in trouble for it because the infirmary gained at least 10 patients that day.

There was also build swap, although it was more of like a miniature house making competition rather than anything. Hearing such a harmless and fun activity, you would've thought that it would stick, right? Nope! The Athena and Hephaestus cabin ended up diffing everyone that none of the other cabins wanted to participate the next summer. And the exchange between Athena and Hephaestus cabin went on for so long that, instead of miniature houses, the camp ended up with two more useless facilities. (Where did they even get the materials for two whole ass buildings? No one knows.) It eventually had to be stopped and it only lasted for one summer because the camp counsellors weren't ready to worry about more buildings than they should.

One of the activities that did stick though is the game of tag but with a twist. Together with Cub, Grian impulsively started a competitive long lasting game of tag. The 'It' was magicked/enchanted to have a tattoo of a clown face on their wrist until they tagged someone else. So if you were unfortunate enough to have been run away from by other campers, you'd have to live with a clown tattoo on your wrist up until you come back to camp next summer.

Grian also had a hand at the 'automaton battles' but Doc is mostly the one overseeing it.

I'd give you more headcanons and references, but I won't ramble for too long :]

If you want more, feel free to ask though.

[pukner]

Can I ask you a kinda weird question? What do you think steddie and the party would be as a supernatural creatures? My headcanon is Vampire Eddie and Succubus Steve, but I'm open to discussion. 😁

hello this is a FANTASTIC question

I love the idea of a succubus Steve, but also like? Siren Steve? This might explain his affinity for water, maybe he basks in his pool a lot and unfortunately that becomes extremely cursed for him Post Barb. He's the son of two beautiful, supernaturally charming people who learned how to show people exactly what they want, become exactly what they want. Steve is pretty and handsome and terrible and sweet and exactly what you expect from him, right up until he isn't.

I like the idea of a werewolf Robin, and also Max. Robin's larger and ganglier, and spends the full moon curled around Steve and growling at anyone who gets close. Max is a puppy, and a grumbly one, and Lucas ends up with a very determined guard dog. Robin also gets bizzarely territorial over Steve's house, for someone who doesn't live there. Her whole family scent Steve constantly, and he's thrilled about the extra cuddles.

I like the idea of Lucas and Erica being from magical heritage, old school witches who go very different with their practices. Lucas does very practical magic; makes little charms for his friends, for protection and strength and peace. Erica leans more towards big enchantments; she's real pissed about Steve's natural charisma.

Dustin is a very human person, who can and WILL science his way into magic.

Nancy and Mike, I waffle on. Maybe fae-blooded? Diluted enough that they can dwell here, won't get hunted down by either court. But still fae enough that Nancy has an almost pathological need to get to the truth, that she won't stand for illusions, that she chafes against Steve and his automatic charisma and the lies he lures people in with, almost thoughtlessly. She and Mike are deadly territorial over their kin, over those they've decided are theirs. Losing Barb made her absolutely inconsolable. Mike is much the same. They get it from Karen, who got it from her mother, who got it from hers. Ted Wheeler is an extremely mundane dude.

Will is a shapeshifter, all the Byers are. He likes to be small, unassuming animals, and so does Jonathan. Turns into a mouse or a grass snake and hides in his brother's pocket, up his mom's sleeve.

Eddie is a son of a vampire, came into his bloody heritage honestly. Wayne, his uncle on his mothers' side, is extremely human and had to learn real fast how to raise a bloodthirsty kid. He has raw steak in the freezer and teaches his kid how to hunt. He also has bloodpops in the freezer for summer days when Eddie gets lethargic and whiny.

He absolutely develops a weird obsession with Steve Harrington And His Summer-Sunshine-Salty Blood. Robin Buckley tries to eat him about it one time when he leans in too close for a sniff one day at Scoops.

Hopper is extremely human and extremely done with the supernatural side of things on this goddamn town.

El was human, once. They don't know what she is. She smells wrong, to most of them. Reads weird to their magic, to others. They love her anyway.

[jeon-s-sins]

Middle of the Night | Part One

Synopsis : In the world you lived in, humans were not the only inhabitants of Earth. For years, you had fantasized about your homeroom teacher without knowing his true nature. At night, you thought and dreamed only of him, unaware of the weight of your actions. What will happen when you finally discover what he is?

Incubus : An incubus is an evil spirit or demon who appears in the masculine form to sexually prey on sleeping women during the night. An incubus is what the stories from ancient myths and folklore also characterize as an entity that could impregnate women or even kill people while they were sleeping.

Word count : 5.9 k

n.a : English is not my first language, so it’s possible that there are some mistakes that I missed while proofreading.

Index │☕️

It was early August. You were about to start your last year of college after five damn years. You were both excited and not so excited. On the one hand, you were excited to graduate and enter the working world. On the other hand, you were a bit nostalgic. You would never have the opportunity to set foot in a school again. When you attend your children's parents and teachers meetings, you will, if you ever have any. Which is not a priority in your life right now.

The last year of the university also means a lot of stress and workload. As an International Business student, your senior year included a six-month internship abroad. So you have already started researching and sending applications to different companies abroad. Your destinations: Bali, Malta, and the Maldives. For this last year, you wanted to make it big. Go to a dream destination. So far, you have not received a positive response from any company. At the same time, August had come and gone, so most of them would be closing for vacation if they weren't already.

So, preferring to forget everything you'll have to do at the beginning of the school year, you decided to focus on the present. You are in a relatively quiet place, far from the city center and all that goes with it. Your parents owned a cottage near a lake. Every summer, you meet there to spend some time together. The rest of the year, you lived on campus. You had a dorm room that you shared with a girl who had become a good friend of yours over the past five years.

Unfortunately, the family reunion was coming to an end. Tonight, your brothers returned to their respective homes. Your parents were also returning to work, but would stay until the next day.

"YN, set the table, please."

Your mother, a great and renowned chef, had asked you or yelled at you from the kitchen. You were lazy to get up from the couch, but you did it anyway to avoid your mother's wrath. This lunch will be your last family meal. The next one probably won't be until after the holidays. And even then, it's not sure.

"Did you hear? There was another attack last night." Your father said as he sat down after pouring himself a red wine.

The last few days had not been easy. Many bad things had happened, shattering the tranquility of the population. A group seemed to have decided to attack the people for no reason, just for fun. Who would do such a thing? Only crazy people would do such a thing.

"This time, a young she-wolf was the victim of their cruelty. Her body was found dumped near a river. Stripped of everything she had, including her clothes." As if to emphasize your father's words, the news reporter had begun to speak on the subject.

This young girl, a werewolf, had been reported missing two days before her body was found. She had been the victim of several waves of physical and sexual abuse before she was stabbed about twenty times. It appears that the fifteenth was fatal.

It had been seven generations since the truth had been revealed to the world. Humans were not the only ones living on Earth. Among them were all the creatures that had been legends until then. We are talking about vampires, werewolves, angels and demons, elves, goblins, and many other fantastic and supernatural beings. Besides, there were some supernatural beings in your class as well. Despite their nature and stereotypes, they were not harmful to all of this; on the contrary.

Vampires were often characterized as immortal, merciless, and bloodthirsty. But this was far from the truth. In reality, they fed on blood, but were not all insane. Most of them were civilized, sometimes even more so than humans. In fact, your roommate was a vampire. There was a little bit of everything in your class: werewolves, vampires, nymphs, elves, and muses.

There was even a rumor that your homeroom teacher was a demon, and not just any demon. An incubus. An incubus is a demon that appears at night to sexually assault its victims while they sleep. They are also said to suffocate their victims because of their weight.

Whether this is true or not, you don't know. You have never met one or had the opportunity to fool around with one. At least, that's what you thought until today.

Lying on your bed, you exchanged messages with your roommate Chung-Ae. So far, everything has been going well. The conversations often varied. Sometimes you talk about your day. Other times you got into crazy games, but you never imagined that Chung-Ae would drop such a bomb in your face.

< By the way, do you know what I discovered? Or at least what they told me?]

[No, but I guess I won't wait long for you to tell me. >

< Do you know how conservative the man is about his private life?]

[I would like to say that everyone is. >

< I know, but I don't know if you remember the day we had an integration day].

[I remember it very well. That was the day we found out that Mr. Jeon wasn't human >

< Right!]

[Yes. So what? >

< After several years, we finally found out what he is.]

In fact, you've never wondered more about the true nature of your homeroom teacher. For months, the curious student that you are had tried to guess who he was, but the answer was always negative. You had even given up hope of finding out, so you decided to give up and move on. The fact that Chung-Ae announced a supposed discovery to you piqued your curiosity.

< It seems that Mr. Jeon is a demon].

They were speechless. You didn't think that Mr. Jeon was a demon. Sure, he was unbearably attractive, but it was confirmed that the thought never crossed your mind.

< But not just any demon. An incubus.]

Damn. This just gets better and better.

Since freshman year, Mr. Jeon has been your homeroom teacher. Once a semester, you would meet with him to discuss your studies and progress. You could also ask him questions. Every time you met him, you felt a strong attraction to him. It was as if something invisible was pulling you toward him. You almost succumbed to temptation and jumped into his arms more than once. You didn't care about the consequences. But you also felt a certain reluctance on his part. You were sure that you were not the only one who felt this attraction, not just physically.

At the same time, how could you not fall for your teacher's charm? He was quite a man - a demon at that. His body was strong, and his arms were three times as long as yours. Not to mention his thighs, my God. Thick and muscular, so much so that his pants didn't let them go unnoticed. His buttocks were bulging and plump, like peaches. The shirts he wore during class shaped his arms and pecs. Sometimes his pecs would squeeze his shirt so tightly that the buttons threatened to pop off at any moment. It drove you crazy. You couldn't concentrate during those lessons. You prayed that the buttons would fall off by themselves so that you could see his mounts.

Mr. Jeon's face was like a marble sculpture. His pink lips were enticing, and the scar on his cheek made him even more attractive. His cinnamon eyes were enchanting. Every time your eyes met, you were lost in them without regret. Even once, you seemed to see a slight smile on the corner of his lips when you came to after getting lost in his eyes. But it was short-lived, and he returned to his posture so quickly that you thought you had imagined it all.

You spent the rest of the evening researching the Incubi. You wanted to know more about these dark but fascinating beings. Not only that, you made many exciting discoveries, but you knew that people could say whatever they wanted on the Internet, especially on blogs. So you only considered the information frequently appearing on various blogs and websites. This meant it was more likely to be a relevant and current fact or knowledge. You also read some testimonies of people who decided to share their sexual experiences with incubi and succubi - the female version of incubi.

From what you read, these demons were called sex demons for a reason. A night with them was a guaranteed night of madness. But one thing you noticed was that in none of these testimonies did anyone talk about feeling crushed by the incubus that visited them. This was a good sign and proof that, once again, you should not believe everything you read and see on the Internet.

Some witnesses had even admitted that incubi and succubi could attach themselves to mortals. It was something rare but still possible. Something almost impossible but still existing, the experts in fantastic and supernatural creatures, made a rather exciting discovery. To understand their findings, we must go back to the time of the revelation of the existence of these beings.

Before coming to the human world and trying to have relations with them, incubi and succubi had tried it with each other. As a result, the pleasure and the end result were not the same. They were unable to produce babies and ensure the continuity of their existence. In addition, both male and female parties are dominant by nature, so during intimate moments, neither wants to give up their place as dominant to their partner and thus become dominant. Seeing that nothing was being done, they decided to try their luck with humans, which was successful. Not only were they able to maintain their dominant status, but they were also able to ensure the future of their species. The succubus automatically produced succubus babies and incubus babies, while the humans could have incubus and succubus babies or human babies.

It was also possible for a human to become an incubus or succubus, but not vice versa. No one knew how this was possible, not even the specialists. Only incubi and succubi see the secret. Not many people change their nature, but sometimes some people do.

Some websites explain how to summon your incubus or succubus. It was also pointed out that he didn't have to do anything occasionally and that they would appear on their own when they felt your call and desire. You wondered if Mr. Jeon felt your urge for him at that moment. At this thought, you blushed on your bed in the dark.

Deciding it was time for bed, you looked at the clock before turning off your laptop. 2 h 55. Almost three in the morning. They say it's nearly time for the devil and the demons. Not wanting to think about it too much to avoid nightmares, you had turned off your computer before placing it on your bedside table. You were careful not to drop it during the night and then went to bed.

It had been a few years - about three years - since you'd had sex with a partner, and it was taking its toll. You were more stressed and nervous. Nothing made you feel better, and you were sexually frustrated. Still, the one-night stand wasn't really your thing. You also weren't a very romantic person. If you had the opportunity to sleep with someone, you would be frustrated that the person wasn't Mr. Jeon, but you wouldn't say no. In fact, at this point, you'd be stepping out of your comfort zone lest you lose your mind and sanity.

Finally, as you lay on your bed, you got a crazy urge to masturbate. So, without thinking, you take out the petroleum jelly in your drawer, which is more discreet than a typical tube of lubricant, in case your mother or a family member searches your drawer. When you got up, you went straight to your private bathroom. You opened the cabinet where you kept your towels, cosmetics, and bath products and took out a white plastic box with flowers. As you opened the box, you took out another small white box with the same numbers as the big one. Inside were some of your favorite little companions.

There was your precious little butterfly clitoral stimulator that you had in black. The part that stayed out was a clitoral massager. While attached to it was another vibrator. The part that was left out was a slight butterfly shape. This part was used to stimulate the outer interest of the clit. The part that went into the pussy was shaped like a penis, six centimeters long and twenty-seven millimeters in diameter. While the outer part massaged the clit, the glans massaged the G-spot. They were pretty happy with this little device. It was relatively quiet and discreet. Practical when you go to hotels or your parents' houses for parties or vacations. It was also waterproof, so you could use it in the shower or bath, but a little extra was that it came with a bit of remote control that allowed you to control the nine different vibration intensities. So far, you have not exceeded intensity number six, which was not bad.

Then there was your second baby in the box. A vibrator in the shape of a rose, red. It had two functions. In the center of the rose was a hole that allowed the function of sucking. While on the other side, a classic vibrator allowed me to stick it in the pussy. The suction mode was a nipple and/or clit stimulator. We could make a choice.

Like the previous one, it was waterproof, silent, and rechargeable with a USB cable. It was made of silicone and had ten vibration frequencies and five suction modes. It was one hundred and ninety-eight millimeters high and thirty-five millimeters wide. They had this little gem for two months and were not disappointed.

Then the last of the family. This time it was just a slight pink color. Unlike its big red sister, there was no hole in the center of this little jewel, only a tiny tongue. It might have been small, but it was still powerful, with nine different levels of tongue vibrations that could make you see stars.

But for tonight, your choice was quickly made. Since Chung-Ae told you about Mr. Jeon, your body has been on fire, and your brain has been replaying many not-so-Catholic scenarios with your teacher. Unlike your classmates or the women in your college, your attraction to Mr. Jeon wasn't just physical; far from it. It was also about his personality. He was calm and collected. He was patient with his students, including you. His goal was to push his students to be their best. He was also close to his students, always willing to help them. He was passionate about his work.

The more you thought about him, the more your body burned. You were almost feverish. So, without wasting more time, you grabbed your butterfly clitoris stimulator, and the red rose for a sucking effect. Thank God your three precious babies are quiet. You couldn't forget that your parents were still home and their room was down the hall.

Back on your bed, you reached for your nightstand to get some petroleum jelly. You had finally gotten rid of all the tissue that covered your body and prevented you from accessing your private parts.

Brushing your clit and slit with Vaseline to lubricate them well, you had done the same with the stimulator on the inner and outer regions. Before you lay on your back and finally started to relieve yourself and let your fantasies take over, you inserted the clit stimulator into your pussy. Like a dick, you had gently pushed the glans of the part going into you, careful to let it slide in and out as the length stretched you. You sighed as you felt every millimeter of the stimulator slide into you, creating a good feeling of pleasure.

It had been a while since you had used it, playing with the youngest of the family. How could you miss this little miracle? Even though it wasn't turned on, you felt pleasure as it slid into you. Picking up the small remote control of the stimulant, you press the first button to turn it on before pressing the second button, just below the previous one. Immediately, you felt movement and a little pressure on your external and internal clitoris, also known as the G-spot. The intensity was not the craziest, but you all felt pleasure. This rhythm is perfect when there are two of you, and the other wants to torture his partner, making him want more than anything else.

Besides, your mind was already starting to produce scenes with you and your favorite teacher. Mr. Jeon. This man-made everyone addicted to him without even touching them. To fully immerse yourself in the illusion your mind was projecting, you had to be more comfortable before closing your eyes. The images in your mind were crystal clear. You might have believed it was all real if you hadn't known it was all a mirage. A reality you wouldn't mind.

You saw Mr. Jeon standing in front of you with his shirt off. You could finally see his body without any barrier hiding the magnificent view of his body. Only his lower body seemed covered by black sports pants that fit him well in all parts. All without exception. Seeing the shape of his cock pressed against the fabric of his pants, you were sure he wasn't wearing any underwear. The thought alone was enough to make you salivate. The way he stood in front of you, legs slightly apart, showed how much his family jewels must have weighed.

The look in his eyes burned your skin every time he paid attention to you. The room was dark, but the window was open, and the breeze came in, caressing parts of your body you were not used to feeling.

The only light source was the moon's faint rays, causing a silvery glow on the floor, part of the wall, and one side of your teacher's face.

A thread of light was also on your body, illuminating the most essential and intimate part of you. Neither of you broke the peaceful silence, although it was full of sexual tension.

Your teacher was delighted with the sight before him. You lay naked on your bed, your body trembling with desire for him and his cock.

The trickle of light that caressed your skin didn't let you see much, but he didn't care because the part that interested him more came to the fore. You had spread your legs wide, allowing him to see your pussy unhindered. Your wetness flowed from your slit and slid gently down your butt hole. Your clit was swollen with the excitement of seeing the man who haunted your nights and thoughts, even when you were awake. When you noticed that your teacher had his eyes fixed on your womanhood, your pussy clenched in anticipation of the man's cock - supposedly a lust demon - standing at the foot of your bed.

He didn't do anything. As he looked at you, you felt pleasure in your pussy and inside. You couldn't stand the weight of his dark, lustful gaze on you. You were about to lose your mind. He had to do something. Your desire for him only increased. You wanted to get up and jump on him once and for all. You needed to feel his hands on your skin. Furthermore, you wanted to feel his lips on yours. His writing is around your neck, putting gentle pressure on it, slightly cutting off the oxygen in your system, making you lose your mind.

"Please." It was the only thing you felt able to say in the state you were in.

You'd seen a smile form on his lips - as if his pants had magically disappeared. He was naked in all his glory. Adonis had nothing on. Mr. Jeon looked as if he had been carved from the finest marble in the world. His skin was flawless, and he didn't have a single hair on his chest, which made his skin look smooth. His caramel color drove you crazy. You wanted to taste it, to bite into it. Mark him as yours and no one else's.

He crawled onto the bed and approached you. He was standing over you, but he didn't touch you. All you could feel was the warmth of his body against yours and his musky, masculine scent caressing your nose. Enough to make you lose your mind even more. Holding on to his inactivity, you lifted your hand from the mattress to place your palm against his cheek. You moved his face closer to yours. Your teacher thwarted your plans when he grabbed your wrist and pinned it to the mattress above your head.

"No." Her voice was deep and husky, perfect for setting your body on fire even more. "Just be patient, you little bitch." He'd whispered, his lips caressing yours as he spoke to you. "You'll get what you deserve. In time. For now, let me enjoy you as you should." Then he sealed your lips. His other free hand was immediately on your womanhood.

Mr. Jeon wasted no time in getting to the point.

He began to move down your body until he reached the desired area. Jeon could see that your clit and lower lips were swollen with excitement. Sniffing your pussy, he loved the smell that came from that area. It wasn't the smell that all humans smelled, but as an incubus, he was given something more. Something more attractive, perfect for him. But that smell also pointed to something else he had been searching for, for a long time.

"Finally. I've got you." Without giving you time to understand what he was saying, he had fallen full mouth on your pussy. His expert tongue had gone straight to your slit to taste your nectar. And you were creamy, just the way he liked it. Feeling the touch of his tongue on your pussy, you let out a not-so-discreet moan as your hand came to rest on the top of his head, grabbing his hair. Jeon had moaned against your intimacy, making his mouth vibrate and increasing your pleasure.

He had no mercy. He devoured you greedily, as if he'd been deprived of you for a long time. "Mr. Jeon." You tried to moan quietly to not wake your parents, but it was mission impossible. This man was driving you crazy. Jeon doubled his intensity in response, alternating wildly between your clit and slit, getting you wet simultaneously. He licked, sucked, and penetrated you with his tongue. Your pelvis kept moving, and Jeon tried to hold it to the mattress, but you kept moving in pleasure, making him grunt increasingly, his mouth still glued to your privates.

You weren't far from climaxing. But you didn't want to come with Mr. Jeon's tongue around you. You tried to go around his cock. To feel it deep inside you while he was beating you fervently. "No." You protested just before you came.

"Patience, baby. I'm not done with you yet." You were relieved. You didn't want it to end so soon. Not to mention you hadn't had a chance to taste it yet. "Come on, my tongue, baby. I got you." His hands moved under your thighs, which were raised, to get a better grip on you before he doubled his licks.

"Mr. Jeon." You had surrendered to pleasure. Your body shook all over. Mr. Jeon continued his licking and sucking even though you were sensitive. With your hand still gripping your teacher's hair, you tried to push his head away, but he didn't move a muscle. "Way too much."

You'd pleaded, but he'd continued anyway. He collected all the wetness dripping from your slit, swallowing it as if it were the only thing he was allowed to drink from, and it had been too long since he had been deprived of it.

When Mr. Jeon felt that he had lapped you up, he raised his head and looked straight into your eyes. His eyes were dark and full of desire. As he got down on his knees in front of you, between your legs, you saw his hard cock. Long and thick. At that moment, you wondered if you could take it inside you. Your doubts were short-lived as your teacher fell over you, pressing your lips together in a lazy, searing kiss. His tongue had found an unhindered refuge in your mouth. You could taste yourself on it. Strangely, you didn't mind.

Your body had arched against his as you felt your slit invaded by his long fingers. Followed by another, then another. With three fingers inside you, you felt complete. Mr. Jeon was excited to see your reaction. He loved the way your body responded to his. His cock trembled as it touched your walls, tightening and swallowing his fingers even more. "Fuck." He'd said as he broke your kiss.

Feeling you sufficiently spread and ready to receive him, he had removed his fingers from your lower cavity before taking them into his mouth and sucking his fingers. He didn't want to waste any of your juices. It was far too precious to him. When he had nothing left on his fingers, he took his cock in his hand before pumping it. Your buttocks that had roamed over your lover's body had ended their trajectories on his well-rounded, plump, and firm buttocks. One of them had positioned between your two bodies before pushing his hand. Once there was nothing between you and her member, you'd taken it in your hand. "Oh yeah."

His head tilted back as you pumped his member with your hand. To make it better for Mr. Jeon, you'd stopped all movement before running your hand over your pussy, catching the wetness that leaked out before running it over his glans, lubricating it. "Fuck." Your hand slid over his hardened member with greater ease. As you moved your hand back and forth over his cock, you tightened your grip around it a little. "Just like that, baby. Keep going." His voice was hoarse as he encouraged you to continue.

Your teacher rested his face on your neck, then let your wet kisses fall on that area. One of your weaknesses was kissing the neck. Whether during intimate moments - like now - or just an innocent kiss. And if the neck kiss was accompanied by a hug from behind, that was the holy grail for you. You loved the feeling of arms wrapped protectively around your waist as your back was pressed against your partner's chest. It made you feel protected.

Your teacher juggled kisses on your shoulder and neck. Sometimes he'd move up to your earlobe and nibble on it. "Baby, don't stop." He begged you, and you loved the control he gave you over him. It wasn't easy for an incubus - if he ever was one - not to have the upper hand in the situation. That Mr. Jeon let you have the upper hand right now proved that he had some confidence and ease with you.

Your movements on Mr. Jeon's cock caused the tip of his glans to brush against your clit, giving you pleasure as well. You continued to pump him, but this time you weren't satisfied with just grazing the clit, but took advantage of the fact that you were in control to push the tip of his glans into your slit as well. "You like playing with my cock, don't you?" He had whispered in your ear in a deep, husky voice, sending a million shivers down your body. "You like to torture yourself by pushing my glans into you." You didn't answer, too busy pumping him and teasing the entrance to your privates. You wiggled your pelvis every time the tip of his penis made contact with your tunnel, increasing your pleasure.

Although he had allowed you to be in control until now, Mr. Jeon felt it was high time he took the reins back. So he took advantage of the moment when you titillated your slit by thrusting the tip of his glans into you to move your hand away from his length and thrust into you. Not expecting this from him, you let out a cry of pleasure. "Did you think I would always let you be in control?" You were no longer able to answer him. He was hammering fast and hard inside you. "Did you think I would let you use my cock to pleasure yourself, you little minx?"

Mr. Jeon grabbed your leg before placing it on his shoulder. "You were wrong." His hand had found its way around your neck as he pounded into you. You wanted to hold on to him, but didn't get the chance. Mr. Jeon again pinned your hands above your head as he continued his movements. "You wanted to torture both of us. Now suffer the consequences, baby." You started to whimper helplessly.

You were out of control. You knew you had a good chance of waking your parents, but you didn't care if you got caught right now. All you cared about was the pleasure your teacher was giving you.

His movements became wilder. He fucked you as hard as you loved. "Take me like the good girl you are." His grip had tightened a little.

Inside, you could feel his cock twitching, signaling that he was at the same stage as you, not far from your climax. "Mr. Jeon," he had kissed you on the mouth, cutting you off. "I know, baby. I can feel it." Your prey closed around your teacher's cock, choking him, making his hip movements harder and harder.

Finding it harder to keep your moans at a discreet volume, you'd found a way to keep yourself from waking the whole house.

Concentrating on running after your climaxes, your teacher had been surprised to feel your teeth sink into his shoulder, making him hiss and grunt. The pain of your bite mixed with his pleasure, causing him to convulse on top of you, emptying his balls into your pussy. Your partner's grunts, combined with his movements, were the cause of your orgasm.

The walls of your pussy clung to Mr. Jeon's cock, giving him tenfold pleasure. But he didn't stop moving his pelvis. He tried to make you feel it to the end without missing anything. As for Mr. Jeon, he was satisfied. You had bitten him. Even if the skin was not pierced, in his world, when two lovers bite each other during the act, it is a sign of ambivalence between violence and affection. The eternal duality between Eros, love, and Thanatos, death. It stimulates the wild and primitive side of each of the living. Mainly when these bites occur during the intimate moment between two beings - human, demon, or other - the most exciting places are the collarbone, the neck, the lips, the thighs, the buttocks, the breasts, and finally, the wrists. But it also meant that the other belonged to us.

"Wow." You didn't have enough words to describe how breathtaking it was. So much so that your legs still shook, and you had trouble regulating your breathing. Mr. Jeon was quite a man. He had everything to please everyone, women and men alike. Tonight, you had seen the duality Mr. Jeon had in him. In the eyes of everyone, he was a brilliant, talented, and dedicated man. He helped everyone who needed it. But once inside the four walls, this man was a demon. He knew how to put aside his dominant side to let his partner enjoy the power. The power to give pleasure to the other.

But he knew when to take control and dominate his partner. He wasn't rough, but firm and confident in his movements and words. His words were enough to make you lose your mind. And his voice. God, his voice. Hoarse and deep, just the way you liked it. When he spoke, your stomach would twist in all directions from the desire he was arousing in you, making you wet your pants. How often had you left his class with your panties soaked from excitement? It had happened so many times that you had lost count. Just thinking about it made you want a second round.

When you turned your head to look at Mr. Jeon, who was still lying on the mattress next to you, you saw him looking at you with that damned smile. You didn't have to speak for Jeon to understand what you wanted. Your body and your eyes betrayed you.

Positioned on his side facing you, still in Adam's outfit, your teacher had moved his face to yours before kissing your lips softly. "Soon, baby." His lips had brushed yours before they pulled away. When you opened your eyes again - you didn't even realize you'd closed them - you saw her figure slowly disappear. A pang of sadness and disappointment washed over you as you watched him slowly disappear. And yet, a sweet smile remained on his lips, showing his buck teeth. A smile you loved so much.

"No!" At the same time, your eyes opened, and you abruptly sat down on your bed. A wave of frustration washed over you as you came to your senses and realized that everything you had experienced with Mr. Jeon was just a dream. A damned plan, but it seemed natural. You didn't understand anything. You didn't even remember falling asleep. When you looked at the side of the bed where Mr. Jeon was lying, you saw your sex toys and the bottle of Vaseline.

When did you take it off?

You couldn't remember anything except the dream with your teacher. Your skin seemed to remember as well. You could still feel Mr. Jeon's touch on your skin. His hand had been all over your body. His lips had dominated yours, and you could feel that too. Your intimacy was still sore, remembering Mr. Jeon's abuse.

Everything was very confusing. But it was already very late - or relatively very early. It was seven o'clock in the morning, but you felt like you hadn't slept at all. Your body was crying out for rest, so you listened. You decided to postpone your little investigation. As soon as your head made contact with the pillow, your eyes closed, and you returned to dreamland.

Lying on his back in bed, Mr. Jeon stared at the ceiling of his room and smiled stupidly. He had finally found what he was looking for. Jeon was determined not to let it out of his sight again. Now he was sure that he had found the right person. For years, he had had doubts, but not anymore.

You were the one he had been looking for, for so many years. And it was only a matter of time before he claimed you and made you his forever.

n.a : I hope you enjoy this short story as much as I do. To make sure you don't miss the progress of the chapters as well as their release, don't forget to check out the Working on and Updates section, where you'll find not only updates on "Middle of the Night", but also other stories and "One Shots" that you'll probably enjoy as well. Also, don't forget to check out the Masterlist, you'll probably find something for you among my other stories in progress and those to come.

If you enjoyed the chapter, please consider buying me a Coffee.

Next ↦

[maehara-san]

𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙪𝙣𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙣―

Pairing: Izuku Midoriya x Gn!Reader

Backstory: You were expecting to enjoy a summer trip with your s/o. Going out together and exploring, having a nice time. Unfortunately your dream ended quickly when reality decided to hit you.

A/N: This is based on a request by a lovely follower (@internphantom) , hope you like it! If you enjoyed this writing piece please consider donating, thank you! <3

𝑳𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒔 ━ | 𝒎.𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 | 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓 | 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒔 |

"Hey can we check out this store before we leave?" You asked smiling as you looked up at your significant other.

"Um..." they looked at their wrist watch, "We have a few minutes to spare sure."

"I won't be in too long."

They nodded, "That's fine. I'll wait for you here."

"Oh..." you pulled away. "You don't want to come in with me?"

"I'm kinda tired," they slightly smiled and held the side of your face. "But you should go... like I said I will be waiting here for you outside."

Pouting you nodded, "Okay."

Noticing your sad eyes they pulled you into their arms, hugging you tightly.

"We still have our next stop, remember?" They said kissing the top of your head. "I want to save my energy until then."

With their reassuring words, your smile returned as you hugged them back. "Alright, I can't wait then."

"Me too."

Pulling away you bid your significant other goodbye and walked into the store. There weren't many things you still needed to get, but seeing the (favorite color) outfit on the mannequin intrigued you.

Thinking about your next stop made you felt all giddy on the inside. It had been such a long time since you two went on a trip together, you were excited to spend some quality time and enjoy your marriage.

For once you thought that things were turning around in your favor. And of course you weren't going to let this opportunity slide by to spoil them and let them know how much you missed them.

"(name)?"

Looking over your shoulder you saw your long time friend, a smile forming on your lips.

"Izuku, hey!" You exclaimed walking over to him. "I did not expect to see you here."

"I came here looking for a present since Ayane's birthday is coming up." He explained pulling you into a hug, smiling as he felt your warm embrace. "I didn't quite know where to go so I decided to come to the mall."

Slightly pulling away you said, "I forgot that her birthday is next week... I'm sure whatever you decide to give her she'll love it."

"You think so?..." Izuku chuckled lightly, "I've been trying my best to make her happy. I really want to make this work between us."

"Has she been distant?..."

He sadly nodded, "When I get home from work she's already asleep and when I have time off she gets busy or makes plans before I'm even able to."

It made your heart ache for him. Izuku was always such a sweetheart and cared about those around him, especially his family and friends. He never failed to be there for them or even when strangers asked for his help. Seeing him suffer like this was so unfair.

"I'm sorry to hear about that... I know you really care about her." You said holding both his hands in each one of your own. "I'm sure she will come around when she sees how hard you are trying to fix your marriage. Ayane would be insane to let go of someone like you so easily."

Izuku slightly blushed hearing your words. "I don't know sometimes I feel like she's better off without me―"

You shook your head, "Don't say that. Ayane is lucky to have someone like you. You're a kind hearted, respectable, funny, selfless, person. I know she's your life but she really knocked it out of the park with you."

He smiled looking at you, feeling thankful that he has someone like you around to bring him out of his fearful thoughts. Sometimes he wishes things would have turned out differently.

"Thank you, (name). You always know just what to say."

"I try my best because you're the type of person who deserves the whole world."

Izuku smiled with his eyes closed as he gently squeezed your hands. "I miss having you around like old times, (name)."

Your eyes become glossy knowing you feel the same way, "Me too."

Maybe if you hadn't moved in junior high, things wouldn't have played out this way. If you had convinced your parents to let you stay and finish your third year― but you couldn't keep going on with what if's not anymore. Life turned out the way it did and all you can do now is support him.

"I can help you find a gift if you'd like?' yo suggested.

"Really? I'd appreciate it!" He widely smiled, "You're not busy?"

"Well I came in here to look at something while (s/o name) is resting outside on the bench." You pointed at the entrance door. "I'm sure he won't mind me being here a while longer."

"Let me know when you need to leave I don't want to keep you from going somewhere you need to."

"No worries, did you have any idea on what you'd might want to get her?"

"Actually..."

Turns out shopping with him was a lot of fun, it felt weird not doing it with your partner. But it was different with him. Izuku paid attention to detail and was vocal about what he thought. He was a gentleman even when you had picked things off the rack, he offered to carry them for you.

It was kinda eye opening how different he was compared to (s/o name). Jealousy started to build in your chest, Ayane was lucky to have a boyfriend like Izuku. If this was how he was with you, as a friend, you can't imagine how lovely he mustbe with her.

Approaching the checkout counter, he placed all items down.

"Did you find everything you needed?" A women asked.

"Yes, thank you." You responded and turned to look at Izuku, "You can pay for Ayane's present first. I can pay for my things second."

"No, I'll pay for your things too." He said taking out his wallet and reaching for his credit card.

Shaking your head you held his hands, stopping him from giving his card.

"No way!" You said, "I have enough money to pay for my things Izuku―"

"I insist." he softly smiled looking at you in the eyes. "It's the least I can do for you helping me to find her a gift."

"Izuku." You whined, "You can't pay for my things it'll be too expensive in total!"

Chuckling he placed his hand on top of yours. "I don't mind."

Knowing he wasn't going to give up, you sighed letting him do it while he gave you a sheepish smile in return. The women behind the counter couldn't help and chuckle at your interaction.

"My, you two are such an adorable couple." She took his card and waited for him to put in his details. "Young love."

He smiled looking down at the machine in front of him. "Thanks I try my best to make them happy, that's all I ever want to do."

Your eyes slightly widened at his response making you turn red.

"I can tell you make her happy. I saw the way you held their stuff while they looked around. Not many couples do that for each other nowadays."

The women handed you the bags and mumbled a thank you to her.

"Thank you for coming!" She waved at you both goodbye, Izuku and you waved back as you headed to the entrance door.

You were too flushed to even say anything. His comment was something you never expected, you'd think he would have denied it by saying you were only friends.

"L―Let me pay you back―"

Izuku stopped you this time from taking out your wallet.

"Can you please let me have this one?" he begged. "I wanted to do it for you. I don't want you to return or pay me back with anything."

"I swear sometimes you are too kind for this world Izuku."

"I mean I don't think so." He chuckled rubbing the back of his head, "But that's thoughtful of you."

"See you just proved it again." You said opening the door and letting him go out first.

Izuku shook his head finding it funny how stubborn you were as well. He was about to ask you something when he bumped into your back, he stepped aside and looked at you.

"(name)? Is everything alright?..."

He followed your gaze and saw your partner standing there kissing, someone else.

Your hand gripped the newly shopping bag tightly, not blinking once. Tears started to brim in your eyes as you tried to understand what was happening in front of you.

Izuku immediately covered your eyes with his hand but it was already too late. The damage had been done nothing he could do to shield away the pain in your chest.

You looked down at the ground, tears falling to the floor. The shiny tile mirrored your ache, you tried your best to control them but the sobs were becoming harder to keep down.

He lowered his head and softly spoke "(name) do you want me to take you somewhere else?..."

"N―No..." your voice broke, "I can't... walk away and pretend like nothing is wrong."

It was sickening how they both stood there kissing each other not caring about them being caught.

Firmly you walked towards them removing his hand from your eyes. Izuku stood behind you, making sure he stayed close to you.

You parted your lips to speak, but no sound was coming from them. It was difficult to even gather a word, like your voice had been taken away.

Izuku of course noticed and slid his hand into yours trying to comfort you to let you know he was there if you needed anything.

"(s/o name)." You spoke trying to speak firmly without your voice breaking.

(s/o name) and the women turned around, it was much of a bigger surprise than you had anticipated.

"I―Izuku..." the women spoke.

"It all makes sense now..." he said furrowing his eyebrows as he looked looking straight into her eyes. "You always made sure to make plans and arrive late when I was already asleep so I wouldn't notice the time you came back home."

Your eyes flashed with anger, feeling upset at yourself for not noticing is sudden change in character and the trips he had to take. It was plainly obvious for anyone to see except you.

"To think that I tried hard to match my schedule with yours to fix things." Your lip was quivering, "Damn it... I was so set on doing anything for you."

"I'm sorry you found out this way, (name)." They said looking away from your gaze.

"But you're not sorry for cheating are you?" You questioned then looked at Ayane, "And neither are you huh? You did not care about having an affair or thought about how this would affect your spouses! All you cared about was your damn selfish desires."

Ayane scoffed. "Don't pretend you are innocent when I have seen the way you looked at him each time you two were together. You are the same as us, so don't point fingers and turn into hypocrites because it doesn't suit you."

"You're wrong." You roughly wiped away the tears. "I never once thought about cheating I knew if things went south I would be upfront and tell the truth. I could never in a million years think about breaking a person's trust."

"Can you please... drop it?" Your partner said, "I know it wasn't ideal but you are making a scene here."

"You're right."

The sound of your hand connecting with their cheek echoed in the busy mall. (s/o name) held his cheek in shock not believing what you had done.

Ayane's eyes widened, her hand went up to hit you but Izuku caught it in time.

"Don't you dare hit them." Izuku's grip tightened on her wrist.

"Why are you defending them when they were the one who started it?" She accused you, "How can you choose them over me!"

"Because they weren't the one who hurt me." He let go of her wrist standing beside you.

(s/o name) clenched his jaw. "Why do you always have to be so damn dramatic? I started to go out with out you should be happy I even considered doing that for you (name)."

"Yeah because that was the bear minimum you jerk!" You exclaimed raising your voice not caring if strangers stopped by and stared. "We got married and swore an oath to be there for one another... I shouldn't have been getting the crumbs that you couldn't give to her."

"At least they were having more fun with me than you." Ayane accused. "The only reason they stayed with you is out of pity."

"And you seems so proud saying it out loud." Izuku chimed in, "It's like neither of you actually cared about us to begin with."

She looked away feeling slightly regretful for not being honest with him.

"What's done is done, (name)." (s/o name) said standing taller as they proudly held Ayan's hand out in the open in front of you two as if you both never existed in their lives. "I screwed up alright? I cheated on you with her. Let's just start the divorce and finish this boring relationship."

Stepping back you tried so hard to make sense as to what you did wrong. Were you not enough for them? Were you too caring? Too bothersome when all they wanted was their space? Did you ask for too much in return―?

"You're right." Izuku spoke wrapping his arm around your back, holding you close to his chest. "This marriage was doomed from the start and for once I am glad that it's over. Because (name) never deserved all the stuff she has done for you. It always looked like such a one sided relationship, at least finally they're getting rid of the garbage that held them back all these years."

Their eyes widened getting ready to counter attack with their fist. Ayane held them back from putting their hands on Izuku.

They pressed their tongue on the inside of their lip, seething in anger. "You son of a bitch."

"You can get mad all you want, but you better, listen to me." Izuku ordered, looking straight into their soul with no hesitation. "I don't want you to come back and look for them understand? I want you out of their lives for good. (name) doesn't need to keep suffering because of you."

"You're just going to stand there and let him talk to me that way?"

"You have until tomorrow to get your stuff out, (s/o name)." You replied and turned, walking away from them blocking out their rage against you two.

Izuku was trying so hard to keep himself cool and collected but his tightened fist and clenched jaw proved otherwise. Yes he was hurt and bitter for how things turned out but deep down there was a feeling of relief, glad that he wasn't going to be in a lonely home, tied for the rest of his life.

Sniffling you leaned closer into his side trying to hold yourself up. Tears kept rolling down your tear stained cheeks.

Looking around the mall, he managed to find a secluded spot away from prying eyes. Gently he sat you down on the bench. Izuku crouched down in front of you holding both your hands in his own.

"It's okay, let it out." He softly spoke.

But it was difficult to keep crying. The heaviness within inside you remained and yet no more tears came out. You had cried yourself to the fullest.

In the same way, you felt like an idiot about crying for someone who did not deserve your tears to begin with.

"You're not a fool for letting yourself feel, (name)." He knew you so well. "You are pain, it is natural to feel like you have to free yourself in some way."

"Y―yeah but I―I wasn't the... only one who got h―hurt." You stuttered, breathing heavily. "I―I should be helping.. you t―too."

"I was already anticipating for this to happen." He lowered his head, looking down at the floor with a disappointed smile. "I did have some small hope that I would be wrong, I won't lie that it does hurt."

He exhaled out as his lip began to quiver. All the emotions he was trying to block out were suddenly hitting him all at once. Sniffling he closed his eyes in hopes of stopping the tears from falling, but failed.

"I―I'm sorry..." He croaked out, resting his forehead on your lap and letting go of your hands.

"Don't apologize..." you whispered, "You also found out that you were cheated on. It's okay to cry it out, remember?..."

Izuku did not respond, you took the moment to gently caress the back of his head, running your fingers through his soft green locks. His body slowly relaxed as he felt your touch.

"I know this is something we both... did not expect to happen. And I won't lie it hurts like hell..." Tears began to cover your eyes. "but we will... no matter h―how much time it takes us, we will get through this... together."

Sniffling he wiped away his tears with his forearm, lifting his head to look at you. "Can I... can I hug you, (name)?..."

You weakly chuckled not believing he was asking you for a hug.

"You don't need to ask, Izuku." Opening up your arms you invited him in. "My hugs are always here when you need them."

He leaped into your arms, hugging your body tightly. Sobs began to escape from inside of him. You did your best to calm him down by rubbing his back gently. "There there... it's okay."

"I should be the one comforting you..." He said breathing hard.

"Sometimes it's okay if the roles are reversed, you know?" Resting your chin on his shoulder. "You've been there for me countless times when we were little, it's my turn to comfort you."

"I―I know... it's just that," he pulled away sitting down next to you. "I wanted to ease your pain a bit, help you in any way s―so you could feel better."

"I feel better knowing you are the one here with me." You said trying to assure him in some way that his presence alone was enough. "It's going to be awhile until either of us are okay again... that is the truth. Maybe―" you sighed looking down at your lap, "With time things will turn out differently."

"I'll be here, just like I always have been, (name)." He reassured you, "If you need anything, anything you can tell me."

"W―well..." you turned away from him.

"What is it?..." He asked leaning forward and tilting his head to the side.

"I―uh..." you clasped your hands together, moving your thumbs one over the other. "I was wondering... if it would be okay if I could stay with you?... j―just for a couple of days of course..."

Izuku smiled for the first time, "Of course. I was going to ask you as well but I didn't want to pressure you to make a decision."

"I felt kinda embarrassed asking you..."

"Why? You shouldn't feel like that at all. You'll always have a place to go to I told you that if something happens you can stay with me."

It was funny how he was acting more like a loving partner than (s/o name) ever was. With him you felt save and appreciated.

"Thank you..." you wrapped your arms around his mid section.

He cupped the back of your head, pulling you tighter against his chest. Using his other arm to wrap it securely around your lower back.

You both did not know if it was the ache or the exhaustion that was already creeping up your bodies, but the hug this embrace felt nothing like any of the hugs you had given each other before. This closeness, the feel of arms enveloped around each of your figures, held so much love.

It went far beyond it being just a hug between friends.

"Do you want to pass by to pick up some of your clothes?"

You shook your head.

Looking down at you, chuckling tightly. "I can just lend you some of my clothes then."

There was no clear answer as to what you were both feeling, all you did know was that you did not want to be with any body else.

[cellard0ors]

It’s the 80’s. It’s a summer camp out in the boonies.

If there’s still wild boar running around in the canon time period of the game, what kind of critters and creepy crawlies might be just waiting to frighten or disgust the hapless couple?

No, in fact, that’s not a snake in Travis’ sleeping blanket. 😆

As a general rule, Travis doesn't have a problem with animals.

Give him a dog or a cat and he's more than happy to pet them and give them attention. Unfortunately his parents aren't fans of the simple pet type. No, his mother grew up on a farm and his father worked on one, so...

Farm animals.

Every year, every summer, farm animals were paraded around for the campers by one of the locals. And Travis - as a counselor - was supposed to help out. 'Supposed to' being the operative words, as the vast majority of them made him deeply uncomfortable.

The cows were big, the chickens mean, and the sheep...

The less said about the sheep the better.

Especially since one of them was always chosen as a camp 'mascot' - something Travis has never understood, much less liked. And this year is no different.

Brodie Mitchell from Miller Farms brings in this year's lot and like every year, the children eat it up. They 'ohh' and 'aww' as a parade of animals are brought to them to pet and learn about.

Bruce is a real winner here, as he makes sure to drop the word 'cock' into every conversation when asking about the rooster. The older kids snicker and the younger ones are lost as to why, and eventually David gets him to tone it down.

Nancy shows off some piglets and Angela seems at home with the cows which leaves Travis exactly where he doesn't want to be.

With the sheep.

Why can't they - just once - have horses? Travis could get behind showing off a horse. There was a brief period in time when he'd wanted to be a cowboy.

He was six and he'd watched a lot of westerns with his Ma and it was one of the few times they'd gotten along. Until he'd been fooling around with his toy rifle and accidentally broken a vase.

After that and his mother's subsequent... punishment for the destroyed item, he'd lost his love for the idea. But not for horses. He found them to be majestic beasts.

But none of the local farms felt comfortable bringing one, so he's out of luck and looking leerily at this year's collection of sheep. He has some note cards with facts and when Brodie comes over with the kids he'll help out, but Travis is still not at all thrilled at the prospect.

His heart, however, thrills as Laura suddenly appears to one side of him, "Hey."

It's a friendly greeting and he returns it, doing his best not to think back on how - just two days ago - they kissed. They kissed a lot. And now things between them are uncertain, but exciting and he has to do his best to act cool even though he feels like butterflies are clogging his throat, "Didn't think you'd be here."

"I'm here on a 'just in case' priority."

Travis simply nods, because he gets it. At the end of the day, animals are just that and one wrong move could result in an accidental injury. Hopefully nothing will happen. Although...

He takes a nervous peek at the sheep behind him, three of them in the makeshift pen, and Laura catches the action, her voice warm with amusement, "Um, you okay?"

He turns back to her and she gestures to the sheep, "You look like you think they're going to shank you."

He snorts, "They might."

"You don't like sheep?"

"Not particularly."

"Why not?"

He looks at them and then at her again before edging closer to mutter, "It's their eyes."

She's fighting off a smile, but he wants it to blossom, so he continues in a sotto tone, "They're shifty."

Laura loses the battle, grinning widely and Travis eats it up, "Seriously though - their eyes are kinda creepy to me."

"Well, they're rectangular." She explains, "Their pupils, that is. And you shouldn't worry too much because they have no upper teeth so, think you'll be safe from them biting. Not that they won't, but?"

He blinks in surprise, "You're a sheep enthusiast?"

Laura shrugs, "An animal one."

She says it in that way where it's clear she doesn't want to divulge too much, but he wishes she would. Oh, how does he. Travis wants to know Laura inside and out - mentally and physically and the physically took off quite a bit recently and just as he considers asking her about it a cavalcade of kids and Brodie arrive.

Laura just gives him another smile and a wave as she steps away so the presentation can begin but Travis watches her go, his heart aching a little. As if to commiserate with him, one of the sheep lets out a near sympathetic 'baa' and he looks at it with a frown.

Fun facts or no, sheep are just...not his thing. Maybe if he was a wolf, maybe, but...

Travis looks away from the sheep with a sigh. Who is he kidding? If he was a wolf, the last thing he'd hunt is a sheep. He'd much rather be the type to go after a Red Ridding Hood type.

And Laura?

Definitely the type.

[thesoftboiledegg]

The Smiths want Rick to change, but I don't think they want him to change in healthy, responsible ways. They don't want him to talk them out of bad ideas, ignore the bullshit that people throw at him or abandon his crazy adventures and inventions that just lead to trouble anyway. They want him to be passive and vulnerable so that he indulges their worst instincts.

When I think about this episode, I see so many classic manipulation techniques. Rick tells Jerry that fooling around with raw power will make Jerry miserable, like him. The Smiths immediately tear into him: they all yell at him at once, saying that he's petty, he doesn't care about Summer, he doesn't want Jerry to be happy. Rick never said any of those things.

Admittedly, it's not unreasonable to assume the worst about Rick, but--as he points out--they initially praised him for going to therapy. Now they don't want him to do what Dr. Wong instructed.

Look at his expression when Summer yells at him. They know that he's becoming more vulnerable, it's getting harder for him to say no and their yelling upsets him instead of just aggravating him. And they pounce on it.

Rick gives in, and they indirectly reward him with their happiness. In the end, they reward him again with affection and apologies when they think that he concocted a ridiculous plan to boost Jerry's ego. When they learn the truth, they take it all away.

I won't judge them too harshly for that because it was a huge shock, and Rick shouldn't have trusted a 14-year-old with that information, but I think it's part of a growing pattern.

I think the Smiths want to trap Rick in a loop where they reward him for "good" behavior (making crazy inventions for them, indulging Jerry's power fantasies) with praise and attention. When he doesn't do what they want, they tear it away from him--yelling at him, throwing out accusations, storming off.

The Smiths are all he's got when Bird Person's not around, which is 90% of the time. He relies on them for love and attention. He could get increasingly desperate when they pull away from him, obsessing over what he did wrong, trying to make them happy again. When they reward him, he feels relief until they punish him again.

At that point, they could get him to do almost anything that they wanted. They could also make him the family scapegoat because they know that he's not going to fight back too harshly. If he did, they'd pull out the guilt card.

"Yeah, Grandpa, you gotta, like, keep it in your heart as a great sacrifice." Don't tell anyone what's going on. Keep it to yourself. Suffer in silence.

I realize that Rick's been abusive and manipulative, and you could write twenty posts about all the shit that he's pulled. Maybe he had it coming, maybe turnabout is fair play. But he's not going to get his act together if the Smiths take advantage of his willingness to go to therapy to target and exploit his vulnerabilities.

The way I see it, they have three options:

Support him as he goes to therapy and encourage him to follow Dr. Wong's instructions.

Go to therapy with him to hash out their issues (honestly, they should be doing this AND supporting him.)

End their relationship with him. Which would be hard on him, but it's warranted. Going their separate ways would give everyone closure and let them move on with their lives.

Unfortunately, they seem to have chosen a fourth option, which is trying to manipulate him into being what they want: a zany scientist who indulges their power fantasies, a docile old man and the household villain who's responsible for everything that goes wrong.

"Dr. Wong would be so proud."

[starsfic]

Summaries:

AU where the Camel Ridge Trio, never sealed away, raise Qi Xiaotian as the son of Azure and his ex Sun Wukong...right until Red Son kidnaps Xiaotian to help free his father. Heavy Spicynoodles and Lionpeach smut.

AU fic where Red accidentally finds part of a very sexy scavenger hunt and accidentally ruins it. He follows the clues to apologize, only to find at the end a Qi Xiaotian bawling his eyes out bc the bf he set this up for just dumped him, on their anniversary, before he could send the scavenger hunt. Smut.

AU where Sun Wukong refuses to go back to the pilgrimage after saving Tripitaka from Kai Mulang. Ignoring the protests, he returns to FFM to sulk... at the same time Macaque pokes his head in on Five Phases Mountain to find Wukong gone. Shocked and horrified bc he wanted to apologize, Macaque ends up spilling the deets to the Camel Ridge Trio. Azure is immediately horrified and decides to find Wukong. And their search leads them to the pilgrims.

Spicynoodles are cast in a remake of Sun Wukong's most cursed movie- a.k.a somehow everyone involved in this broke up for some reason. Smut.

AU where Red keeps running into this very cute guy. Said cute guy seems to be the clumsy type, always falling on his face, but always manages to make a falling pun to save face. Over time, however, said puns turn more flirtatious and Red is starting to become convinced that this cute boy is falling over on purpose.

Sun Wukong manages to avoid getting sucked into the scroll and sends Xiaotian home to get some rest and then get Tang. Unfortunately, the following brawl with Azure locks them both in the treasury overnight. Smut.

@vegalocity and @bitterqueenbean found Spicynoodles on AITA in this .

AU where the Camel Ridge Trio are not imprisoned in the scroll. After the chaos of Lady Bone Demon, Azure Lion sees two chances: 1. Humans now have a renewed awareness of Heaven's existence due to Nezha smashing into the train. This is not a good look for Heaven and a weakness. 2. Sun Wukong is greatly weakened from his possession and still recovering. So, what's a man to do?

A/B/O AU except stone monkeys don't have secondary genders. So Qi Xiaotian is confused about why he hasn't displayed at all but at least he's not alone in Sun Wukong who is confused by the whole secondary gender thing.

A recently wed Spicynoodles, an engaged Zoisite, and Ironbull end up staying at Immortal Ruyi's home for the summer. Unfortunately Ruyi is a dick who believes that Red and Xiaojiao are married. Spicynoodles and Zoisite smut.

[dangraccoon]

An Update!

Hey all! So I wanted to let you guys know about a couple things :)

First things first, I'm probably going to somewhat disappear/not be as active in May! I know that in basically any post involving him, I refer to C as my "husband" but technically that won't be true until May 25th (after dating for 10.5 years, we are finally getting married!) so I'll be rather busy next month!

I should have a little bit of time between that and my summer camp job starting mid-June (that'll end sometime in August)

I'll try to be as active as I can during the summer, but unfortunately I can't guarantee anything with what signal can be like out there!

All that being said, I'm working hard to get as many things written while I still have a good amount of free time so I can queue them up to post while I'm away. I may have to slow down updates (if I do, it'll probably be about every other week), but I'll be sure to let you all know if I do!

Thank you all for the amazing support you show every week! It really means the world to me (and blows my mind that anyone would enjoy the musings of a mid-twenties autistic stay-at-home cat dad lol)

With so much love, River

💛

Tags for visibilty: @writing-positivelyexisting @nekotaetae @lokigirlszendaya @get-wr3ckered @jediknightjana @idoubleswearimawriter @lucyysthings @unstable-kiwi @6oceansofmoons @l3xi3luv @savebytheodoresnonjosestuff @winter-phoenix1995 @serenityselene @nomercyforthewarrior @ravenclawbitch426 @luna-the-lone-red-wolf @flowered-bicycles @error6gendernotfound @techs-goggles9902

[whenyourbirdisbroken]

hi 🫶🏻 do you have some more 80s fix-it fic recommendations?

Hi, so I have a list here of 80s fix-its/John survives and I think it's a good list! I'm not sure how many other in that particular category I can think of, but here are some more fix-its from post-beatles era, both in the 70s and 80s:

I Still Miss Someone by RosalindBeatrice: Ok I always rec this fic (it's actually 3 fics) and I think everyone else doesn't like it as much as I do, but I think it's just great, John and Paul clearly love each other but it's complicated, you know? Their families and also, them. So I enjoy it even though it's not a pure happy ending.

Summer Rose by chanderson: Another great great fic of John and Paul meeting up in 1980 but unfortunately it's not finished so don't read it if that's going to drive you crazy! It's very good though, maybe it will be finished one day.

The Jumper by @merseydreams: Yeah, just the perfect fix-it. John loses his mind over a picture of Denny Laine wearing a jumper that used to belong to him and that he gave to Paul. He goes to England to confront Denny/Paul, and feelings are revealed!

Bermuda by @scurator: Another very satisfying fix-it! John calls Paul from Bermuda to complain about his problems pulling and Paul ends up coming to Bermuda to see him. No more problems pulling! :)

Love Lies Bleeding by @mydaroga: A very sweet fic where Elton John plays matchmaker for John and Paul in the 70s!

six hours in august by @stonedlennon: John and Paul bump into each other in a gay bar in New York in the 70s! What a premise!!!!

stuck inside these four walls by @monkberries: During the Lost Weekend, John and Paul's friends lock them in a room and won't let them out until they discuss their problems! The scenario I dream about! Very cathartic read.

Hope that helps, anon!

[cassiaslair]

UPDATE REGARDING MY CARRD TEMPLATES!

hi friends!

so currently, i'm paying for the carrd pro plus 100 plan. my plan expires on may 26, at which all of my templates and active sites will be become offline drafts because i cannot currently afford to renew my plan, and because of the features i'm using in some of my templates, i cannot downgrade to standard.

that being said, if you currently have any of my templates in use, you're fine! if you're planning on purchasing a template, i'm not sure if it'll be able to be used or not. i think when templates go offline, i want to say that the build links will no longer be available.

please don't worry, though! this is only temporary and i'll be renewing my plan as soon as i am able to. i just had to take care of some bills and school expenses first. so if you purchase one after the 26th, you won't be able to use the template, but that same link should still be valid, so hold onto it!

i also want to apologize again for the lull in my releases. i'm still recovering from losing all of my psds (which i cannot get back unfortunately) and my assets. to those waiting on my carrd upgrades, thank you for your patience!

my shop is still open and i'm currently having a 30% off sale (click the link OR use MAY30 at checkout) on ALL items! no current end date, but it'll last until i can renew my carrd plan! i appreciate all tips and coffees as well, so thank you to all that have been!

and just a general update: i will not be accepting icon or banner commissions for the foreseeable future and will be focusing on personalized carrds once i'm able. I WILL STILL ACCEPT ICON DESIGN REQUESTS! all requests will be placed for sale on my shop! i will be taking summer classes from may 28 to july 23, and my fall semester starts august 19, so i have a short lapse between then! i MIGHT open comms during that time.

thank you everyone for your patience!