#thank you seventh grade computer class

[felixsmeshglove]

Hii I'm a baby stay who biases Seungmin and I've been on a total kick of reading everything with him lol

So could I please request

Seungmin (maknae line)

Gn!reader

Prompt: academic rivals to lovers? Prefer straight fluff with just like friendly competition/teasing but hurt/comfort could work too!

I'm a uni student and the only thing that is saving me is imaging stray kids at university with me lol

Thank you so much lovely :)<3

ooo thank you so much for requesting! i have been a little nervous to write for non idol!au type SKZ so bear with me, seungmin honestly rots my brain out so much so i get your obsession!

~~~~~

finals week - kim seungmin x reader

writers note ; for this fic seungmin and you are both in high school, you share a photography class and you both are just trying to get your portfolios done for finals week but seungmin just has to make it as much of pain as possible. not the most confident in this but feedback is welcomed

pairing ; college!kim seungmin x gn!reader

wc ; 0.9k

content warning ; seungmin’s an asshole™️ but in a cute way, angst if you squint, mostly just fluff, sorta enemies to lovers? more like playful rival to lovers

~~~~~~~~~~

your feelings for kim seungmin were… complicated. he truly frustrated you to no end, and what made it even worse was just how pretty he always looked. you always chose to put the thought out of your mind though. he was manageable enough last year when in normal classes but this year for some reason you’d chosen photography in an attempt to fill in some elective courses.

much to your chagrin, you were met with the same big goofy shit-eating grin and cocky gaze peering at you as you’d entered the room. you’d even requested to change classes but by the time you had, it was too late to switch.

you were stuck with kim seungmin.

he always seemed so critical of your work every time, peering over to your computer as he watched you work on your various assignments.

“why did you retouch that, it looked just fine.”

“i can still see the seam of where you removed that.”

“are you really going to crop it like that?”

never outright insults, but just blunt comments that always seemed to itch you just where he got on your nerves. no matter, though. all of the interactions you’d had with him before had prepared you for this.

throughout the semester though, he never seemed to die down in his efforts to tease and compare your works. that was another thing of his that he seemed to love doing- he loved to brag about how much better his photos were. how much better staged, better edited, better subject choices.

however, he finally wore down to your breaking point once finals week rolled around. your professor had requested a twenty photo portfolio. each student was required to have twentu unique photos, also unique from each other. this meant students could not both have photos from the same location. it was florals for this assignment, you thought you’d had it in the bag.

somehow though, seungmin always seemed to beat you to your various photo locations, forcing you to pick a new one. you’d attempted the floral nursery? he was there. the woods out back behind the school, even past where the trail ended? he was there too.

it was finally when you’d finally changed your photo locations for the seventh time.

it was almost comical as you arrived to the park, and there he stood in his big black puffer jacket and school-supplied professional camera.

“ahh y/n! i didn’t think you were going to try to get your photographs from here! i didn’t like the ones i got from before so i wanted to try again. only the best portfolio can get the best grade,” seungmin said with a cocky hand on his hip as he held the camera with his other hand.

what seungmin was expecting was just for you to scoff and roll your eyes, and attempt to go back to one of the previous locations. however, what he was not expecting was for you to start to tear up and start to ramble. he could barely even understand your rambling as you ran a hand through your hair in exasperation and started to shout at him.

what he didn’t know was just how stressed you were about finals. all of your finals, not just your photography finals had consumed your every hour. you had no time for friends, for any leisure time. you were stressed, exhausted and just wanted to finish your portfolio so you could take one more thing off your plate.

now it was your turn to be surprised, as seungmin cut you off mid-ramble. he hugged you close, firm and comforting arms wrapping around your back. as quickly as he hugged you though, he let you go.

seungmin’s expression was far from his usual cocky one, his plump lips formed into a slight frown as he gave you a look of worry.

“y/n i didn’t know how much it was actually bothering you, if you’d genuinely told me to stop i-… aish…” he tried to explain, but every explanation he tried just made him feel worse about it. the young puppy boy had not intended to actually make you truly upset let alone start to tear up, but it was no excuse for adding to your stress.

seungmin really did like you, that’s why he always seemed to pursue you. poking at your sides when he could, standing just behind your shoulder only to whisper in your ear or surprise you. he thought you were so cute and so expressive, but in hindsight seeing you so upset was never once his goal.

“do you want maybe help you? i know of a few more places no one else will try-“ seungmin offers. you sigh softly and look down, you can’t help but fall for his sweet change in demeanor. even if just a little.

“sure… that sounds nice…” you said softly. much to your surprise, he grabbed your hand gently. he led you along the park trail, taking lots of care to point out various areas you could take extra stunning photos, of course not without snapping a sneaky few of you.

after all, the photos to him were only stunning if they were of you. you didn’t need to know that yet though, but soon. he just had to change his approach to support you more and bring you up. after all, he never once wanted to see those tears in your eyes ever again.

maybe then, you could forgive him. maybe then he could ask you out.

little did he know, you forgave him the moment you saw his face drop when he saw you so upset.

[parkinglotdelulu]

Worth the risk -> Friends to Lovers 🧸⛅️

Pairing: Han x OC 

synopsis: Erin and Han had been friends since they were little, that’s it just friends. However, when Erin’s boyfriend makes her pick between him or Han she’s left torn with the decision. 

Word count: 6198

A/N: here goes nothing 🤎

Han and you have been best friends since forever! Since you were neighbors in grade school, till middle school, since high school, pre-debut, and post-debut. He was always right by your side, that was never gonna change. 

“I don’t get it!” Han called out from the hall, “Why are you getting ready for your date here?” 

“Because,” you said, getting dressed in his room. “Hyunjin wanted to help me.” 

“It’s like your seventh date with this guy, I don’t get why you're still trying to be perfect for him.” He mumbled. 

Back in high school no one was ever really romantically attracted to you, at least that you knew about. You were shy, quiet, and mostly kept your head down. A bit of a nerd actually. But Han never minded it, you showed the other side of yourself to him and him only. The goofy, loud, fun side. Having another guy see that version of you was something he never enjoyed the thought of. But when you got asked out by Jay, he realized that it was something he was going to have to get used to for your sake. 

He remembered you running into the recording studio wearing your Nirvana t-shirt with leggings, glasses practically slipping off your face. And your long hair that was in a ponytail was a mess, hair falling into your face. Your book bag was sliding off your shoulder and you were breathing heavily. 

Chan and Changbin visibly looked startled at the girl’s disheveled appearance, Han however was far used to it by now. 

Barley even glancing over to her, Han chuckled, “Well you look like hell Erin.” 

Sighing loudly you stomped up to Han and smacked him upside the head. He hissed in pain while Changbin and Chan chuckled. 

“Ow! That hurt!” he growled. 

“Serves you right.” You said plopping down next to Bin on the couch. Chan and Han both spun their chairs to face you. 

“Are you okay? Did something happen?” Chan asked. 

“Well I did come here with news for Han, but now I don’t even know if I want to tell him.” 

“Don’t be so dramatic and just tell me.” Han rolled his eyes 

“Sure…Erin’s the dramatic one in this relationship.” Changbin chuckled. 

Han reached forward, hitting Bin. “Just tell us the news already.” 

“Fine! You know that guy in my History 325 seminar!” 

He nodded, the other two boys just shook their heads no. 

“Okay well I ended up running into him at the coffee shop before class and we started talking and we walked to class together. Then after class, he asked to take me out!” 

Hans' eyes widened, “Like-Like on a date?” He stuttered out. 

“No like murder me.” Han stared blankly at you, “Yes a date.” 

“Oh.” He spoke quietly. 

“Is that like a problem for you or something, come on at least act a little bit excited.” 

“I am! I’m just shocked anyone would actually ask you out. Especially when you look like that.” Pointing at you up and down. 

“Whatever…” Han watched as you took your ponytail out, shaking it out. “Where are Hyun and Lix? At least they’ll be excited for me.” 

“Dance studio,” Chan said. “But seriously Erin, that's cool, congrats.” 

“Thanks, Chan,” 

“If he hurts you, I’ll beat him up!” Bin spoke up. 

“And there is no doubt in my mind you would win Binnie.” Standing up you ruffled his hair. “Okay well, I’ll see you later?” 

Han nodded before turning back to look at the computer screen. Before closing the door behind you Han called out, “Hey Erin?” 

“Hmm?” You stuck your head back in. 

“I’m happy for you.” He said, smiling at you. 

“Thanks, Hannie! I’ll see you once you're done!” You smiled at him, a big genuine smile. He loved that nickname you gave him, he loved that smile of yours, dimples and all. And he loved you…platonically of course. He was your friend. He was supposed to be worried about you going on a date, right?  

“You didn’t need to act like that,” Chan spoke after you left. 

“What?” Han asked, looking at him. 

“You were so rude to her,” 

“No-no I wasn't, I was just shocked that’s all.” 

“Are you jealous?” Changbin smirked 

“Me? Jealous of the guy taking Erin on a date? You do know I have taste right? Clearly, he doesn't…Now come on can we just get back to work.” Putting on his headphones he began focusing on whatever new beat blasting was on his computer. 

The two boys gave each other a knowing glance, but Han was too stuck in his head to notice. 

“Okay, what do you think?” You asked opening the door and coming out of his room. 

Han sighed and glanced up at you, his eyes widened as he took in your appearance. You were wearing a slightly dark purple dress with a bit of lace trimming on the bottom and spaghetti straps. You had a few silver necklaces that hung around your neck.

“Whoa…” he whispered before quickly standing up in front of you. “You look, you look like a girl.” 

You rolled your eyes and glared at him, “Gee thanks?” 

“No no that’s not what I meant it’s just. Well, you um- I just can’t remember the last time I saw you in a dress.” 

“I feel like I forgot my pants.” You said looking down at yourself. “It’s like my nightmares about not wearing pants to school are coming to life.” You joked. 

Han chuckled. 

“Oh real classy Erin,” Hyunjin called out from the kitchen. He came around the corner walking up to both you and Han. “Do I have taste or what?” 

You laughed as Hyunjin was the one who originally convinced you to even buy the dress and loaned you the necklaces you were wearing. 

“Well, you do have the eyes of an artist.” You quipped. 

Hyunjin shrugged when he finally glanced over at his friend. Han was still staring at you with a smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth. He was studying you almost, taking in your whole appearance as if he was about to be quizzed on it. 

“She looks pretty, huh Han.” 

“What oh um yeah.” 

Hyunjin rolled his eyes. Seriously is that all he could even say to her? He nudged Han's shoulder almost giving him a ‘come on say something’ look but he just mouthed ‘What’

“Don’t mind him,” you spoke. “He’s had zero game since I could remember.” 

“That is not true.” He finally spoke. 

“Oh really?” You arched a brow. “Remember that girl you liked in your second year? Mister Player over here went up to her and said she had a very pretty lunchbox.” 

Hyunjin burst out laughing. Hans face reddened remembering the mortifying incident. 

“Whatever.” He mumbled. 

“Okay, Erin you have to leave soon so…can I do your hair now!” 

“Yup!” You turned and both you and Hyunjin made your way to the bathroom, while Han followed closely behind. 

Han watched as Hyunjin tied your hair back with a small white bow into a half up half down look, with a few strands left in the front. 

Hyunjin sighed, “I still don’t get why you cut your hair so short.” 

Han made eye contact with you in the mirror. 

“Just, needed a change I guess.” 

But Han knew the real reason. 

He was waiting for you to come over for movie night when he heard the doorbell ring. He ran to answer it and saw you standing there in comfy pajama pants and a sweatshirt. When he glanced up toward your face his eyes widened. 

“What the hell did you do?” He yelled. 

“Jeez Han yell a little louder, why don’t you?” You groaned while walking inside. “I cut it.” 

Your hair that used to go well past your shoulders was now cut right above them. 

“But why?” 

You shrugged, “I don’t know, I felt like it. Can we just watch the movie?” 

He nodded, before closing the door behind you. 

Throughout the whole movie, he couldn’t help but just stare at you. Why, he kept wondering. Why did you cut your hair? He was so lost in a daze that he wasn’t even paying attention. 

“Oh my god!” You yelled startling him. 

“What! What happened?” He glanced back towards the movie, only to see the credits rolling. 

“You would know if you actually watched the movie instead of looking at me the whole time. What’s with you?” 

You stared at him with a curious look on your face 

“Why did you cut your hair?” He blurted out. 

“Oh my god! Seriously we’re still on this?” You groaned. 

“You loved your long hair! Like even when your parents told you to cut it you still refused! So what happened? Cause I’m not buying this you needed a change bullshit!” 

You sighed and looked down at your hands in your lap fiddling with your fingers. “If I tell you, you can’t get mad or make a long speech okay?” 

“Okay got it!” He threw his hands up in surrender. 

“A couple of days ago, Jay mentioned how he doesn’t really like my long hair, said he thought I would look better with short hair…So I kinda cut it for him.” Your eyes wandered over to him as he just looked at you. 

“Well, that’s just stupid!” He said 

“I told you not to get mad!” 

“Well, when you're reasoning is that I’m gonna. Who changes their hair because another person wants them to!” 

“Umm…You! You guys change your hair all the time!” 

“That’s different!” 

“How?” You argued 

“It’s for work!” 

“Yeah, but it’s other people telling you how to change it! So same fucking thing! Plus I know for a fact you don’t love dying your hair! At least I liked that I cut my hair.” 

Han sighed, throwing his head back, “Fine, you got me there.” 

“Ha!” You laughed mockingly. 

“But do you though? Do you really like that you cut your hair?”  Han although was a big goofball, and always laughing. You knew that when he got serious…he meant it. 

You shrugged, “I like that it made Jay happy. A few inches of hair isn’t a huge sacrifice. It will grow back.” 

After you got quiet you didn’t even want to look at him. You could already feel the disappointment and embarrassment radiating off of him. And if you were being honest you were also embarrassed. Embarrassed of yourself for changing for someone else. You always promised yourself you would never be that person to change for a guy, but here you were. It was just that you liked Jay, a lot and he liked you. He asked you out, he chased you. No one has ever done that. 

You sniffled a bit, bringing your sleeve up to rub your nose. You felt the couch dip under you as Han moved closer to you, bringing you into a hug. You were pulled into his chest, his arms snaking around your waist. 

“You shouldn’t have to change yourself to make someone else like you.” He whispered. 

“I know,” you mumbled. “But it’s not like he forced me, it was still my choice.” 

“Okay,” He wasn’t going to argue with you. He knew how you felt about this relationship. How happy you were. He was your best friend, he wasn’t going to be the one to ruin it for you. “But don’t let his opinion affect your choices.” 

He felt you nod into your chest before you pulled away. 

“Does it really look that bad?” Bring your hands up to the side of your head. 

“No!” He brought his hand up to your hair, twiddling the ends of it in his hand. “I think you look really cute!” 

Both you and Han’s faces reddened at the comment. He pulled his hand away coughing uncomfortably. “Plus now my hair is almost as long as yours.” He said, jokingly pretending to flip his back. 

“Sure,” you laughed. “Whatever you gotta tell yourself. 

“And…Done! What do you think?” Hyunjin asked as he put down the curling iron. 

“It’s perfect! Thank you!” 

“So where is Jay taking you tonight?” 

“Some restaurant.” 

“Which one?” Han piped up. 

“As if I would tell you? Knowing you, you'd show up with a fake mustache and some awful get-up.” 

“You know I could always borrow I.Ns grandma costume.” 

“Please for the love of god, no.” You glared, but still couldn’t help but smile. “So what do you guys have going on tonight?” 

“Gonna go over and watch a movie with Min,” Hyunjin said. 

“I don’t know, maybe work on a new song.” Han shrugged. 

“Ooo what kind of song?” You wiggled your eyebrows. 

He shrugged, “Have to write a love song for the next album, so maybe that.” 

“Hmm, well good luck. I can listen to it before, right?” 

“You always do.” He smiled at you. 

“When is Jay gonna get here?” Hyunjin looked at you.

“Crap! In like five minutes!” 

You rushed out of the bathroom and grabbed your purse in the living room. Where Chan and Changbin were sitting. 

Chan whistled jokingly, “Dang look at you!” 

“Yeah, what’s got you all dolled up?” Changbin jokes. 

“Date with Jay!”

“Oh well, have fun and be safe! Also, you might want to bring a coat because it's cold.” 

“Whatever you say dad…” rolling your eyes. The other members chuckled. “I didn’t bring a coat but I’m sure I’ll be fine. What do you two have going on tonight?” 

“Gym.” They said in unison. 

“We were actually just about to make a protein shake and head out,”  Changbin said. 

“Ew.” Hyunjin side-eyed them. “That is clearly my cue to leave. Bye, have fun tonight.” He said walking out the door and heading over to the other dorm.

“You're not gonna go with them?” You looked over at Han. 

“Kinda just need some alone time.”

You smiled softly at him before giving him a small nod. If there was one thing about Han that you learned to understand early on is that although he tends to be the life of the party he is the biggest introvert you know. You're one too, so whenever there was a day when your social batteries were both dead you learned to respect it. But there were also days even back in high school when you would still hang out. Sitting in each other's rooms in complete silence each doing your own thing, Han working on music, you doing homework. It was a comfortable silence. And even though it was always quiet, it was your favorite sound in the world. 

All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. 

“Oh, that’s Jay!” You started heading over to the door.

“Are you coming back over after?” Han asked. 

You shook your head, “Probably will just go back to his or my dorm.”

You opened the door and were immediately met with a cold gust of wind making you shiver just slightly. 

“Hey!” Jay said, smiling at the door. 

“Hey, man!” Chan called out. 

Jay gave him and the rest of the guys a look before giving them a nod and a half-assed smile. 

“Ready to go?” 

You nodded. 

“Wait,” Han said before running off down the hall. You could hear him going through something in his room before rushing back. “Umm…here.” He handed you a black cardigan. He looked shy giving it to you, “Hope it goes with the outfit.” 

“It’s perfect! Thank you.” You give him a slight hug. 

“I’ll be in the car,” Jay said, before stomping off. 

“Okay…well bye.” You began to close the door before Han grabbed the handle. 

“Hey, Erin.” 

 You peeked your head back in. “Yeah?” 

“You have a really pretty lunchbox.” 

“Pfft…Thanks, Hannie.” 

He watched as you ran over to Jay’s car getting inside. Before closing the door and leaning against it. 

“Dude you got it bad,” Changbin said. 

Han snapped his head towards Changbin, “What!” Han exclaimed. 

“It’s obvious you like her!” 

“Yeah mate, Bins not wrong.” 

“I do not like Erin! I mean we grew up together. We’re supposed to be close, she’s like a sister to me.” 

“Yeah, a sister you want to kiss.” Changbin sneered. 

Han leaned forward to the couch, grabbed a pillow, and chucked it halfway across the room at Changbin. “Don’t be weird!” 

“Ow!” Changbin yelled. “I’m not being weird if it’s the truth.” 

Han lunged forward at Changbin before Chan stood between them. 

“Stop, okay? No more throwing things. Look, Han, Bin might be going a little far…But he’s not wrong it’s obvious you like her and that you don’t like that she’s in this relationship.” Chan smirked, he knew exactly what to say to finally get Han to admit to everything. “I mean I don’t blame you, she is hot.” 

“Don’t! Don’t say that about her! Like it’s her only personality trait. Okay? And I don’t like that she’s in this new relationship because Jay doesn’t even know her. He doesn’t know that when she listens to music she creates stories in her head, or that when she doesn’t want to talk to people she’ll just wear her headphones with no music. He doesn’t know that she mumbles to herself when she’s anxious and that she could laugh for hours at her own jokes, and she can always tell what music was in what movies, and- and.” 

“Go on.” Chan urges.

“And that she always supported me, even when I’ve fucked up, that she’s always the one to apologize first even when it’s not her fault, that she always puts everyone before her! Her favorite book is Narnia because when she was little all she ever wanted to do was escape. And that when she smiles, and not her fake one she has dimples. When she comes to the studio and listens to whatever track I’m working on she always tells the truth about it cause she knows I want it to be the best. And that I quite literally wouldn’t be here without her!” He froze and just stared, he didn’t know who or what he was staring at, he was just staring. Why did he say all that? Where did that even come from? 

Chan and Changbin were both snickering next to him when Han glanced over at them. 

“Fuck.” He muttered, “I like Erin.” He ran his fingers through his hair. 

“Finally glad you admitted it to yourself, buddy.” Chan patted him on the back. 

“But-But I can’t like Erin she’s my best friend, and she has a boyfriend and- and I missed my shot.” 

“Look you never know, I think she feels the same way about you. You could always tell her.” Bin spoke up. 

“And fuck up the relationship she’s in now? Do you know how much that would hurt her? And what if she does like me, huh? What happens if we get together and we break up? I wouldn’t only be losing her as my girlfriend, I would be losing her as a whole. I don’t think I could do that.” 

“Why?” Chan asked. 

Han looked over at him, “Because nothing would make sense without her.” 

 “You gotta ask yourself if she’s worth the risk,” Chan said, his hand still on Hans' shoulder. 

Han stared for a minute thinking, he thought of you guys as kids, as teenagers, up until now. Every single step he ever took you were right there with him. With your smile, your laughter, and your encouragement. He knew how scared you were of him leaving. Being afraid that he would never speak to you again after he made it big. You risked it all to see him happy, maybe it was his turn to take the risk with your friendship. 

“Yeah, Erin’s worth it.” He smiled. 

“Then what are you waiting for? Go tell her!” Changbin said, almost rushing him out the door. 

“What now? No way!” Han said maneuvering out of Changbins grip. “I’ll tell her later,” Both Chan and Changbin looked at him, cocking an eyebrow. “I promise. I just need to work out what to say.” 

“Want to go to the gym? Always helps clear my head.” Chan asked. 

“No, I think I’m gonna go work on a song.” He said and quickly rushed off to his room, closing it shut. 

After a few hours of working Han looked over his lyrics and realized that all of it was about you. He didn’t even mean for it to happen, but after figuring out that he did like you more than a friend it was the only thing in his mind. He wanted to tell you, scream it to you, sing it to you and show it to you. He wanted to prove that he cared about you more than a friend. However, his anxiety was also getting the better of him. What if you thought he was crazy? What if you got mad? What if you picked Jay over him? Then he had to remind himself that you weren’t like that. You wouldn’t abandon him, or get mad. You were you, Erin was just that, Erin. 

A loud crash of thunder shook the building, making him remove his headphones. He didn’t even realize that it was raining. Finally, he heard just the faintest knocking at the door. Chan and Bin should still be at the gym, maybe Hyunjin forgot his key or something. Leaving his work he walked over to answer the door and saw you. You were soaked from head to toe, your hair dripping and your dress and his sweater clung to your skin. 

“What the hell? Erin, get in here.” He said, his voice laced with concern. Pulling you in by your arm as you stumbled inside. 

“Sorry!” You spoke 

“Why are you soaked?” 

“Duh cause it’s raining,” you joked. 

Except Han didn’t find it funny, “Clearly, did you walk here or something.” 

You nodded. 

He sighed, “Hang on,” he rushed off grabbed something from down the hall, and hurriedly came back. “Here…” he whispered. Wrapping a towel around your head as it draped down your body. He began to rub your arms with the towel in an attempt to warm you up and dry you off. “I thought you weren’t going to come back. Why didn’t Jay drop you off.” 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come over unannounced and interrupt your night. It’s just well-” your voice started to crack and your eyes began to burn with tears forming.

“Hey hey hey, you know you're always welcome here! Did something happen?” 

You nodded slowly. 

“Okay, well we can talk about that later. First, you need to get out of those wet clothes.” 

He again grabbed your arm and dragged you to his room. You stood in the corner as you watched him rifle through his closet pulling out a sweatshirt and a pair of shorts. 

“Here,” He handed you the clothes. “You change in here and I’ll go make some coffee or something to help warm you up.” 

“But I really need to talk to you.” 

“You can’t talk to me when you look like that.” 

“Wow, thanks.” You rolled your eyes sarcastically. 

Hans' eyes widened, “No! No no no! Not like that I mean, you're probably freezing just get into some warm clothes then we'll talk. I promise.”  He began to head out of his room leaving you to change. 

“Hey Han?” 

“Yeah?” He poked his head back into the room. 

“Thanks.” 

“Sure, what are friends for?” He gave you a small smile before closing the door and rushing off to the kitchen. 

‘What are friends for?’ Stupid he thought to himself. Here he is coming to the realization that he actually likes you and he says the most cliche friend zone thing there is. He kept thinking about why you were so upset, could Jay have broken up with you? At first, he smiled at the thought. The thought of him not being a factor when he told you. At least then it wouldn’t be as fucked up…But see you standing in the rain eyes red and upset. It made him also realize that whatever did happen hurt him. And he didn’t want to just add more fuel to the flames by telling you. He would wait, he can do that. 

He poured the coffee into a mug when he heard the door to his room open and you walked out. He turned to hand you the mug when he froze and stared at you. You were wearing his hoodie that was way too big on you, going down almost to your knees, and the long sleeves burying your hands. He had seen you in his hoodies on numerous occasions, maybe it was him finally realizing he liked you, or maybe it was just the situation. But he couldn’t help but like seeing you in clothes, you looked so…cute. It was gonna be hard to wait. 

“Umm…here.” He said handing you the mug. 

“Thanks.” You whisper, grabbing the handle and clasping your hands around the warm ceramic cup. 

Han moved to sit over on the couch as you followed, plopping down a few feet away from him. 

“So what happened? Did Jay do something? Are you okay!”  It was like his mind was running a marathon of questions. 

You sat there curled up, legs pulled up to your chest as you still cling to the mug looking at the brown drink inside, watching the steam still rise. You just kinda shrugged at his questions. 

“You're not okay? Or you don’t know? Come on Erin what happened? Whatever it is, I can help you.” He said, his voice was laced with concern. 

Han was always like that even as a kid. He put everyone before himself. He could be having the worst day and yet, he would still always be wearing a smile. Han was funny, he loved to make people laugh and smile. However, sometimes he did that even when he really didn’t want to. He could be drowning and still give the other person a life preserver.

“I don’t think you can help with this one.” You whisper. 

“Was it Jay?” 

You nod. 

“Okay, then what happened? You're scaring me, Erin.” 

You sighed, “Okay well…”

After you left the dorm you ran out to the car where Jay was waiting. 

“Sorry.” You said smiling at him. 

“Whatever,” he rolled his eyes and began driving. “You're over here more than you are at my place. Don’t see why you need to say like a million goodbyes.” 

You looked down playing with your fingers, it was gonna be another one of these nights. “Sorry…” you muttered quietly. 

Jay was great, most of the time. But something always bothered him about you and Han’s friendship. I guess it just didn’t seem normal to him, a guy and girl being strictly friends for this long. You never saw a problem with it though, if he had a girl friend you wouldn’t mind. But he still would continue to get upset. Every time he did though you would reassure him that you and Han were friends nothing more. Of course, in high school, there was a time when you thought that maybe you could be more, but he left for training. Your feelings for Han never went away but instead just subsided. You knew deep down he only saw you as a friend and having Han as a friend was more important than having him as a boyfriend. However, you would never admit that to Jay. 

The whole time at dinner he was rude. Passive aggressive comments. Ignoring you or just giving you one-worded responses. Dinner was quiet, awkwardly quiet…it was always like that with Jay. Silence just never felt as comfortable than when you were with Han. 

After dinner you guys went on a walk, the clouds were rolling in hiding the moon and the stars. The smell of rain fills your surroundings. It was chilly so you slipped on the sweater Han had given you before you left. 

Jay scoffed, “You're seriously wearing that?” 

“I’m cold, it’s not that big of a deal. Why are you so upset? You have been in a mood all night.” 

“I think I have a right to be upset!” He stopped walking and looked at you. 

“Cause I’m wearing someone else’s sweater?” You asked a bit stunned. 

“It’s everything! I mean come on do you really expect me to think that you and that guy are just friends!” 

“That guy happens to be my best friend! And his name is Han.” 

“Best friend? Yeah right! The way you guys act together, how you're always at his place, you wear his clothes. Why don’t you just date him instead, huh?” 

“Cause I’m with you! And I don’t like him like that!” 

“Well, he sure likes you like that!” 

“What?” You practically screamed. “No-No he doesn’t! We’ve been friends since we were kids. Hate to break it to you, but guys and girls can be friends!” 

“Guys are only friends with the girls they want to fuck!” He spat. 

You stared at him, eyes widening, “Are you being serious right now!” 

He sighed, “Look I get it, okay?” You have been friends with him since you were little. But he is starting to affect our relationship.” 

You shook your head, “No! You are letting him affect our relationship!” 

“You're seriously placing the blame on me!” 

“I just don’t get why you're upset. I’ve told you and reassured you over and over again that we are just friends!” 

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t be friends with him anymore!” 

“Excuse me?” 

“It's either him or me! Pick.” 

“This is a joke, right? You're not actually asking me to pick?” 

“I am. It’s either him or me. But just a reminder, that no one has ever liked you before me! So good luck trying to find someone who will love you as I do. I mean is someone like him really worth the risk?” 

“He gave me an ultimatum, he’s making me pick.” You said looking back over at Han. Tears were filling your eyes and beginning to run down your cheeks. 

He was just staring at you. He didn’t know what to think. At first, he wanted to go punch Jay for even making you choose. Then he wanted to comfort you, tell you that he’s not the only person who is going to love you. Tell you that he loves you. However, his mind started to panic, the anxiety settling in at the last option. The option that left you so upset, that you had made your choice. You chose Jay. It would explain why you were so upset and worried about talking to him. 

“You're not gonna say anything?” You said pulling Han out of his thoughts. 

“I mean umm what do you want me to say!” 

You shrugged, “I don’t know, anything.” 

He thought for a moment, “Look Erin you're not…unlovable. For him to say that well it was messed up. But I get it, I get that fear of never finding someone. I know how happy he makes you, and if I’m the one standing between you having a healthy relationship well then,” as much as it pained him to say this. As much as he wanted to shout and tell you not to choose Jay. To choose him and for him to tell you that he does like you more than a friend. He couldn’t be the one to destroy the relationship you're in now. He couldn’t hurt you like that. “Then you should pick him.”  His voice cracked and his eyes stung. 

“I knew you would say that.” You whisper. “Which is why I broke up with him.” You smiled softly looking over at him. 

“You what?” Han snapped his neck up and looked at you.

“Amongst calling him an insecure bitch.” You chuckled. 

Han laughed and moved forward hugging you tightly. You wrapped your arms around his neck and smiled into his chest. 

“I really thought I was going to lose you.” He whispered into your neck. 

“You're not getting rid of me that easily. Plus even if he is right, I'll never find someone who likes me.” You both pulled away and looked at each other. You smiled, “You were worth the risk.” 

Han smiled softly at you, looking into your eyes that were still filled with tears. He reached up and his thumb grazed your cheek and wiped away your tears. His eyes glanced down to your lips. He swallowed harshly, his breath caught in his throat. Before he could even register what he was doing he leaned forward, his lips brushing against yours. It was a simple peck, but there was a tenderness to the touch. Your eyes widened in shock, before you could even register what was happening he pulled away, his facial expression mimicking yours. However, the softness of his lips still lingered on yours… 

His cheeks flushed red, “I’m sorry!” He almost shouted it. He quickly moved away from you. “Fuck, I am so sorry!” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I swear I didn’t mean to! It just- I mean I just. I wasn’t thinking, and you're upset! Not that that’s the reason I kissed you! But I just don’t want you to think I took advantage of you when you were emotionally vulnerable! You just got out of a relationship, that was basically my fault! And I don’t want you to think what Jay said was true! That I’m only friends with you because I want to fuck yo-” His eyes widened again, “No not like that! Fuck I’m making this worse!” 

You sat there listening to his anxious rambles, before moving forward and grabbing his face. He stopped talking and looked at you. His eyes were glazed with panic and shock. You pulled him in, pressing your lips against his. Unlike the last time, this one was deeper. Your arms wrapped around his neck while his arms snaked around your waist pulling you in closer. Your hand tangled in his hair. Your whole body felt warm and giddy, but everything else just felt calm. It was as if the whole world had gone quiet and you two were all that was left in this moment. 

You pulled away your eyes meeting his. You were both still so close, not having even moved yet. You could feel him take a breath. 

“Dude…” he muttered. 

You couldn’t help but let out a small shy chuckle, “Seriously? I just kissed you and you call me dude.” 

“No! No no, I mean yeah, but it was a force of habit! Okay?” 

“So…” 

“So…” He was still looking at you, in fact, I don’t think either of your eyes had broken away. His hand left your waist and pushed a piece of your hair behind your ear. He sighed, “Look Erin, I like you, like a lot! It took me a while and a lot of nagging from Chan and Bin to make me realize it. But the moment I did it scared the crap out of me! My whole life you’ve been there, you supported me, you held my hand, mentally and physically. These feelings were different from what I used to feel before. I’ve always loved you but now I’m realizing that I’m in love with you. I didn’t know if you felt the same, and you were with Jay…I didn’t want to mess up what we had! I didn’t want to hurt you or-or make you hate me. But Chan asked me if you were worth the risk. You risked your friendship with me when I left to follow my dreams. And hearing you say that you risked your relationship with Jay, just for our friendship. It made me realize Erin that you are worth the risk.”

You smiled, “Just to be clear? This is like more than friends right?” 

Han looked at you and laughed, “Yes more than friends.” 

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for you to say that! I am in love with you too! So so so in love with you!” 

“Yeah?” Han whispered. 

“Yeah…” 

He leaned in again, both of you smiling into the kiss. When you heard the sound of keys in the door knob as you both quickly pulled away from each other. Chan, Hyunjin, and Changbin walked in. 

“Oh hey, Erin! How’d the date go?” Chan asked. 

Your eyes widened, as you scratched your neck uncomfortably, “Well…Jay and I broke up.” You smiled and looked over at Han. His cheeks had a faint blush to them as he smiled at you. 

Chan smiled knowingly at the two of you. 

Changbin glanced between you and Han before letting out a gasp. “Well, it’s about fucking time!” He yelled.

Hyunjin jumped at Changbins change in volume. “Time for what?” Hyunjin asked. 

As Chan smacked Changbin on the head, beginning to drag him and Hyunjin to his room.

“Come on! Congrats you two.” He said before heading down the hall. 

“Congrats on what!” Hyunjin yelled.

[16magnolias]

Gonna pick a couple random numbers for the ask game- 22, 67

22. describe your writing process from scratch to finish.

Fun answer: Oh boy it’s a lot of squiggly arrows, a veritable Jeremy Bearimy if you will XD

Real answer:

I start with a lot of daydreaming.  All of my fics have stemmed from ‘what if…’ or ‘how?!’ questions.  The daydreaming takes up a significant portion of time.  In the shower, laying awake in bed, staring out the window doing dishes, etc.

At some point the daydream will start to solidify into a few solid lines/descriptions and develop a clear end and beginning.  This is usually when I delude myself into thinking it’s going to be a one-shot.

I start writing down my favorite/most important bits.  Could be on the back of a grocery list or junk mail, or more likely hastily typed into the notes app on my phone.

I continue daydreaming and noting the important bits until I have enough important bits to string together.

I sit down and write out all the important bits together on the computer and fill in the rest, spending a lot of time putting myself in the characters’ shoes and asking ‘What Would Character Do’ in this particular circumstance? And ‘Does This Sound Like Character’s Voice’?

I get stuck in a black hole of tweaking and editing and trying to connect this important bit with that important bit.  Sometimes this leads me to realize I need to add some more bits in to get there.  Plot ensues.  I’ve lost control of the narrative and it usually goes from a one shot to a multi-chapter story with side plots because I keep asking myself ‘what if’, ‘why’ and ‘how’.

I now have a clear end in sight. If this is going to be a multi-chapter fic, then by Jove - characters are going to develop, lessons are going to be learnt, and the ending is going to be happy ‘cause I’m in charge here and that’s how I like it!

Oh no. In order to develop character and learn lessons Hard Things happen. I must write emotional scenes and now I need music to help me get in the mood.

I fart around on Spotify and Youtube and find myself some mood music.

I write. Usually starting with the most emotional pivotal scenes, and then filling in the gaps to get us from point A to point B. 

Characters develop. Then they betray me by learning their lessons and developing too quickly and now I need to go back and undo something I did so my Big Climactic Moment will still be Big and Climactic and not redundant.

I take a pause and look at the big picture.  I tweak the writing so the big picture is consistent in terms of themes and pacing. 

I get distracted by life or tumblr or a really good book and then have to come back and reread everything I’ve written to remind myself of everything I’ve planned.

I edit and revise until I’m satisfied with both the chapter itself and its place in and what it contributes to the overall story. 

I post the chapter and repeat the above steps until the story is finished!

67. when have you felt the least confident?

Probably seventh grade gym class 

For real though, with my writing it’s usually when I’m tackling a heavy subject and I want to be respectful and real and do it justice.  Runner up is the opposite side of the spectrum - humor - because humor can be a very subjective thing and a punch line landing totally wrong makes me deflate like a discount bounce house after an elementary school field day. 

Thanks for the asks! :)

[britneyshakespeare]

i have been working with kids for four years and i had to write my first ever note just now about a seventh grade boy being inappropriate towards me. i don't know what the hell this could possibly lead to or what. he was trying to feel my legs repeatedly to the point where i had to stop sitting next to him (and i was subbing for his one-to-one para!!!). he's got high support needs. in that kind of job, you're supposed to sit next to them all day and look over their work.

the teacher whose classroom this was happening in could also tell something was wrong. the whole class was acting kinda crazy because it was the day before school vacation week and there was another class coming in to share projects. so like, he was swamped with keeping order already. but we were sitting two feet away from his podium at the front of the room. the kid was giving him and me a hard time when he wouldn't take out his chromebook as he was instructed. and then when he did take out his chromebook, he immediately, for some reason, places it on my lap. he had been ogling my legs the whole time. he puts his computer ON MY LAP. and i'm just like, stunned, because what the hell? can you not keep it on your own lap, for some reason? i don't even know what to say, i just hold it a little above my lap while i'm thinking why on earth would this be happening? he would NOT do this to his regular para if she were here, would he? this can't be normal.

and the teacher sees this and within a minute places a stool in front of the kid for him to put his laptop on. and i'm like. oh ok. yeah. he notices exactly what's happening and that that's not appropriate. and then when the other class comes in to share projects he tells me "miss b——, you don't actually have to sit next to c—— this whole period if you don't want to." and he grabs me a chair for me to go sit with the other paras in the back opposite corner of the room. like he KNEW. and thank you mr. d—— for recognizing that because i was just kind of shocked and didn't know if i was overreacting in my head to all of this.

when there's a point in the class where the kids are discussing stuff, i privately mention what's happened to the para who's sitting closest to me. and she says that the thing about him calling me pretty is something he's been known to do, but the fact that he kept trying to touch my legs is new behavior. and that's a completely different class of behavior. i was telling him NO, don't do that, and he kept doing it. and the fact that he was calling me pretty repeatedly, even when i was giving him instructions that he wasn't taking. and this is the second to last class before the end of the day, so she says she'll take a walk with him before learning center and talk to him about it, and i'm grateful for that. she does. the kid apologizes to me as soon as i come into learning center. but like. WHAT the hell.

i'm STILL like what the hell. this is unfathomable to me. the other adults who i told about this or who witnessed it were supportive of me. but. what to do??? i wrote a long note to his regular para about this, because i knew she was going to hear about it at least from the first para i told. the second para i told about it after school had a kind of... i'm not gonna say enabling reaction, but i suppose since it had already been "taken care of" (or at least, he had been spoken to and apologized) she didn't really have much to add in the way of discipline. i told her what happened after school and she was just like... a little bit, laughing? like oh, yup, that dog. she at the very least confirmed he KNEW what he was doing, that that was not an accident. she said to me "i had a feeling he was going to develop a crush on you" (me and these other paras were together for most of the beginning of the day too). but it's like. it's not about that.

i have worked with children for FOUR years. children have had crushes on me before; i'm quite unfazed by it. boys from the ages of 5-to-15 have told me i'm so pretty before and asked me to marry them. i've never had them feeling up my legs before. i've never had them making me physically uncomfortable. it's NOT about this seventh grader having a crush on the pretty substitute. he is NOT unusual for that, at all. but i've never had a boy of any age or education level repeatedly touching my knees and thighs. THAT is problem behavior!!!

because what if i wasn't assertive enough with him to tell him to stop? what if i was a girl his age? worse, what if i was an adult who encouraged this behavior? i don't come to the middle school to be a seductress. i had no intention in putting on a pair of tights and a skirt this morning of being viewed as an attractive object, especially not by a pubescent boy. what if i did though? what if his interpretation of me wasn't so incorrect and offensive? what if i let him keep touching me inappropriately and saying flirtatious things to me? me, an adult in my mid-twenties, towards a middle school boy?

in no world would that be ok. if i had been feeling up and overly-complimenting a CHILD at my place of work, holy shit would there be reports about me. so a child acting that way could never be ok either. if it'd be firable for me to be reciprocating that action, then that action should not be happening to me. ever. and that child should never repeat that action again to any other adult again.

like i am simply not there to be treated as an attractive young woman. i put on a skirt that shows too much knee and get paired with a boy, though, and that's apparently just a natural consequence. hooo-ly shit. like i don't know what to do. first of all, the more time passes since this has happened, the more i am just unable to stop thinking about it. i wasn't "hurt" or too emotional in the moment but i'm just still processing it and it gets worse. i'm just more and more disgusted.

i don't know what i expect to come out of this, or the email i sent to his regular para. like, am i gonna have to attend a fucking meeting? what is the precedent that this sets for him? WHY do i feel BAD for him about this? well, because he's a child, of course. a child who has done wrong he may not be able to understand. but he knows WHAT he did. he just doesn't know WHY it was wrong.

and i couldn't even say something to him that was like, "well, how would you like it if i was touching you like this?" because young boys do not understand how inappropriate it'd be. i'm sure this kid thought he was gonna get away with what he was doing at the very least. but probably not unlikely he (being a child with no concept of how wrong it'd be) thought he could get some sort of "positive" attention for treating me like this. either way he was simply doing what he wanted to do, with no perspective of how it would make me feel or that it could be classified as harassment. teenage boys think it'd be awesome if the older attractive woman would reciprocate their affections. they're wrong. i, as the older attractive woman of his affection, cannot be the one to convince him of that, though.

i don't know. i don't know. like it's just so not ok. but if i didn't tell another adult about this, he would've gotten away with it. he would probably do it again. and him being in trouble for it is not the same as him understanding that it was wrong. unless someone has a REAL talk with him about inappropriate attention and consent, it's not unlikely that he'll just repeat the behavior in a setting where he thinks he won't be caught or told on. THAT'S the problem. me, i could just never have to be this boy's para again. in my email, i didn't say that i would never be ok working with or around him ever again. he already knows i didn't like it and i'm not afraid to tell on him; as far as that lesson applies to me, individually, i think he's become too ashamed to repeat that.

i don't know. i don't know. i very much expressed that i, i guess, "forgave" him in the email that i wrote. i clarified that i was writing it for the sake of having it on the record. i think that could potentially be very important for the purposes of preventing further similar or escalating behavior from him in the future. i don't want him to be in trouble. i don't think i will be blamed for this, especially not with how promptly i acted, although i don't know to what extent this will be framed as me thinking i'm a "victim." i'm not... i don't feel victimized. i feel disgusted. i feel afraid for the sake of what could happen to or with him in the future, if he thinks behavior like his towards me today is ok.

i feel like if i end up having to further respond to this, this will be made about me. in a way it kind of was. is? in the moment it was happening, it was certainly about me. because i was the one this boy was giving all this unwanted attention to. but to make the consequences of this about me and to involve me any further, i also don't want. because i said what i said already, i don't care if a student has a crush on me. this isn't about me being the pretty substitute. i'm the pretty substitute all the time, to tons of people. that's not really something i've been concerned about up until now.

but do i have to reexplain my personal embarrassment? that i was wearing a skirt? that he was ogling my legs? really? what more do i have to gain from sharing that, other than having the adults at my place of work confirm or deny me in their heads as the pretty substitute? i don't know. perhaps that's REALLY overthinking it. but i don't want to be the substitute that caused a problem for this special ed kid. i don't wanna be the reason that he can't be around me anymore, the person people think of when they're monitoring how he's acting around girls and young women. i DON'T want to be the one people think of when they think of his past misbehavior. i'm NOT here for that.

that's just fucking humiliating. and in this being a thing that could follow him, i have to be ogled and touched over and over again in people's minds for this to be taken seriously. but for this to be swept under the rug would be even worse, no? i don't know. i hate this. the principal is a nice guy; i wouldn't be surprised if he and/or people from the special ed department reached out to me sympathetically about this. but i don't wanna be reached out to. i don't wanna have ppl i work with tell me "sorry that kid was just so attracted to you he couldn't help himself" like come on. if the kid himself doesn't change then i don't really care to remember this incident. and no one reaching out to me and saying they've talked to this kid will actually prove to me he understands. this is the kind of inappropriate behavior it takes years for people to understand why it was wrong, especially a child who has no idea. i mean come on.

[foxhouten]

My Least Favorite School Question

Remember on the first day of class, your teacher would go around the room and make you introduce yourself and say something unique to you? It's such an easy assignment: simply say your name and something you like or something interesting you've done. Couldn't be simpler. It terrified me. The idea of standing up in a classroom, saying my God-given name, and repeating one single, inconsequential fact about myself was so intimidating it gave me momentary anxiety. It's not a trick question. I know my own name and I know what things I enjoy. But having to repeat those things in front of others seemed somehow impossible. However, when the question was asked during one of my college courses, I was ready. You see, I attended Webster University, a school that prided itself on its small class sizes. While that was great for, you know, actual learning, it sucked for the quiet kids who just wanted to blend into the background. That wasn't gonna happen. So, on the first day of one of my Webster courses, the professor asked that we each take turns standing up (why the fuck was that necessary? There were like 20 of us in there -- were you worried someone wasn't going to be able to see?), saying our names, and listing a fact about ourselves. This simple task would have petrified a different Dan, but this Dan -- a college Dan -- was armed with a plan: I would copy off some other kid. So as each student took turns standing up (again, why?), saying their names, and listing a fact, I paid close attention. Not because I actually gave a damn, but because I wanted to see which answers were easy enough to steal. The sixth or seventh kid to go, we'll call him John (because that was his name), stood, said his name, and told the class that he enjoyed hunting. Boom, I had an answer. I was going to steal John's hunting thing. Had I ever been hunting? No. But could I believably pass as someone who enjoyed hunting? Also, no. But we'll get to that. I was around the 12th or 13th person to go, a suitably far enough distance from John that my 'hunting' answer wouldn't cause any raised eyebrows. So when my turn came, I stood (WHY?), said my name, and said that I enjoyed hunting. I sat down, part of me worrying that I'd hear a chorus of hushed whispers, classmates wondering aloud why my hunting answer sounded so familiar. And then I remembered that everyone in my class was 19 years old and didn't give a shit about any of this. Thank goodness for teenage apathy. Within minutes, as other students took their turns, my nervousness dissipated. Eventually, as the class wore on, I forgot all about my silly hunting answer. But when the class ended, guess who hadn't forgotten: fuckin' John. My backpack slung over my right shoulder all cool like, I was exiting the classroom when John stopped me. John: Hey man, I'm John. You said you like hunting, right? Okay, so at this moment I had a choice to make: either just confess that I didn't actually like hunting and walk away, or lean into the bit. I chose the latter. Me: Uhh, yeah. This should be the end of it, right? Nope. Not for fuckin' John. J: Cool, me too. What do you hunt?

Let it be known that while I'm not a hunter, I do know what types of animals are typically hunted: deer, rabbits, maybe cows? But in that moment, faced with a line of inquiry I was not expecting, my nerves got the best of me and my mind went blank. I couldn't think of a single plausible answer. And then my brain fixed on a computer game I had played in grade school: Oregon Trail. Hunting played a part in that game, and I remembered what type of animal I loved hunting while playing it. So, I said it out loud. Me: Buffalo.

Yep, for real. I legitimately told this kid I hunted buffalo.

John looked at me perplexed before laughing, assuming I had made a joke. I quickly caught on and laughed, too. He then told me that he hunted deer, so I quickly agreed that yes, I too hunted deer. Cool, end of this weird conversation, right? Nope. Fuckin' John still had more questions. J: So what do you hunt with?

Okay, what the fuck's going on?? Is this guy trying to set up a play date or what? What do I hunt with? I didn't know how to answer that. Apparently, as I've since learned, there is rifle hunting and bow hunting, so I guess I should've chose one of those answers. But not knowing that at the time, I replied with the best answer I could come up with: Me: Guns. Guns, plural. Like I was fuckin' Annie Oakley wandering the woods with a couple six-shooters, blasting deer. Again perplexed, John said he hunted with a rifle, the type of which I couldn't care less about. Noting the conversation was wearing thin (observant are you, John??) he concluded the conversation and walked away. I dropped the class the following week and signed up again the next semester. Happy hunting, John!

[pissfaggit]

[storiesforallfandoms]

small world ~ corpse husband

word count: 2053

request?: yes!

“Can I get a Corpse x fem reader where reader an corpse are both streamers and they meet each other for the first time and realize they used to know each other as kids? I know Corpse has said that he didn’t have many friends when he was younger so maybe have it where reader was someone that was really nice to him? Sorry for the long request and thank you if you do it! 😊🖤”

description: he never would’ve thought that the new addition to their friend group would be someone from his past

pairing: corpse husband x female!reader

warnings: swearing

masterlist (one, two)

“Hey Corpse,” Karl said. Corpse hummed in response, focused on the drawing he was doing for their Jackbox game. “(Y/N) is also from San Diego. Do you know her?”

(Y/N) chuckled. “Karl, San Diego is pretty big. We’re not bound to know one another. Besides, just because he lives here doesn’t mean he grew up here.”

“I did grow up in San Diego actually,” Corpse said. “I don’t think we would’ve known each other though. Even if we happened to be in the same area, I didn’t talk to many people and I dropped out in the seventh grade.”

“I was, regrettably, popular in school,” (Y/N) added.

“Regrettably?” Karl asked.

“Yeah. Looking back, I hated being popular. I hated it when I was popular even. My friends were mega jerks and made fun of everyone, even me sometimes. I would try and make them be nice but they just let the popularity go to their heads. I haven’t spoken to any of them since we graduated. There was this sort of outcast in middle school I used to have a crush on. I tried to be friends with him, but he preferred to keep to himself. I always wished I had been friends with him because I feel like I would’ve been so much happier. I never saw him again either. I wonder whatever happened to him.”

Something about her story triggered a memory in Corpse. The year before he dropped out, there was a girl in is class who was always nice to him and tried to talk to him. He brushed it off as another way he was being made fun of. When it kept up, though, he realized she was likely being genuine. He still kept his distance, but he found himself gaining some feelings for her as well. When he dropped out, he never heard from her again.

I wonder where she is now, Corpse thought to himself. Man, what was her name?

Corpse accidentally gasped, drawing the attention of everyone in the Discord call.

“You good Corpse?” George asked.

“Y-Yeah,” Corpse responded. “Just uh...just realized I fucked up my idea a bit. No big deal, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

The game started prompting for everyone to show what they had created. Taking the opportunity of not having to speak, Corpse went to Google (Y/N)’s YouTube channel. She had come into the game as a friend of Karl’s and Corpse hadn’t heard of her channel, but now somethings were starting to click together.

The first thing that popped up with the top Google Image for (Y/N)’s channel name. It was a beautiful girl laying in a garden of flowers with a wide smile on her face. Corpse sucked in a breath as he realized that the girl in the picture looked familiar.

“Corpse,” came Karl’s voice, snapping Corpse out of his trance. “It’s your turn.���

“Sorry,” Corpse said. “I was distracted.”

The rest of the stream Corpse felt like he was in a daze. He continued to play the games and forced out laughs when he realized someone was making a joke. Every time (Y/N) spoke, he felt his heart flutter with excitement. He couldn’t believe that after all these years he had finally been reunited with her. And what was better was that she had actually admitted to having feelings for him too!

Don’t get too excited, he thought to himself. She said she used to have a crush on you. That was a very long time ago.

He tried not to seem too eager when the stream finally ended. He waited for someone else to leave the call first before he exited out of it himself. He waited another few minutes before messaging (Y/N) directly on Discord.

hey. it was fun playing with you tonight. weird request, but can we voice call maybe? just the two of us?

Corpse didn’t expect her to respond any time soon. It was late in San Diego, like nearly 3am late. Most people were going to bed by now. She had mentioned once during the stream that she was starting to get sleepy. He figured she’d see it in the morning and either call, or just ignore the message.

To his surprise, near seconds later, she was calling him.

“Hey stranger,” she said when he answered. “Long time, no speak. You must’ve missed my voice a lot, huh?”

Corpse chuckled. “Exactly, I really did.”

“Makes sense. I do have the best voice on the internet.” She laughed this time. It sounded like such a perfect sound. “For real though, is everything alright? Why did you want to call?”

How did he even tell her? Hey, so you know that outcast you liked? It was me! Surprise!

No, he couldn’t say that. Maybe she wouldn’t even remember, or maybe she wouldn’t believe him. He had to figure out some way to bring it up.

“I kind of wanted to talk more about your popular school days,” he said, trying to keep his voice light and teasing. “It’s not every day I meet a streamer who’s in my own area code. It would be nice to get to know someone who isn’t like a five hour drive away.”

“Oh!” She seemed excited by this response. Her excitement was almost contagious. “Okay, where should I start? The shitty friends or the shallow popularity?”

Corpse chuckled. “You pick.”

She talked for nearly an hour about her high school experiences with her popular friend group. Despite how much she despised being popular, (Y/N) still spoke with a light tone in her voice. She tried to bypass a lot of the more negative details and speak only of the good experiences she went though, which was nice to hear.

Corpse nearly jumped with excitement when she began to talk about middle school unprompted.

“It really was the last good years I had in school,” she admitted. “All my friends, the ones who went on to be super popular with me, they were nice then. Annoying, but all middle schoolers are. We didn’t care about popularity or social rankings. We were just...we were just kids. We didn’t even really know the difference between ‘losers’ and ‘popular’, which was why it was so easy for me to talk to that guy that I liked at the time. My friends weren’t mocking me for having feelings for an outcast.”

“You said you never saw that guy again,” Corpse said. “Do you know what happened to him?”

She sighed heavily. “No, I don’t. He just stopped showing up before we hit high school. I thought he moved, but I knew his mom and I saw her around everywhere. I don’t even remember his name anymore to look him up. Wherever he is, though, I hope he’s doing better. Even if they weren’t sucked completely into their popularity at the time, my friends and the other kids were still awful to him.”

“I feel that,” he said. “I wasn’t exactly the most liked kid in school. Before I dropped out I didn’t even have any friends.”

“That’s awful.”

“It wasn’t too bad. I’m not really a friendly person I don’t think. I’ve worked on it since that time, but the thought of trying to maintain a social relationship still gives me anxiety from time to time. There was one girl who tried to be friends with me the year before I dropped out though. She was nice.”

“What happened to her?”

Corpse smiled to himself. She would figure it out soon, he knew she would.

“I just didn’t hear from her after I dropped out,” he responded. “I guess that’s mainly my fault. I never reached out to her or anything, but I barley knew her name. Just her first time, and she never gave me a number or anything. I couldn’t look her up online. Maybe we just weren’t destined to be together.”

“I don’t know about that. Maybe you two were just right people, wrong time. Maybe you’ll cross paths again and finally have that opportunity to be friends with her again.”

“Maybe you’ll cross paths with that guy from your middle school, too.”

There was a prolonged silence. Corpse wondered if (Y/N) was starting to put the pieces together. He could barley even hear her breathe. The longer she went, the more worried he was becoming. He was about to say something when she finally spoke again.

“I made him a Valentine,” she said, her voice soft. “Special handmade one. He was the only one I gave it to. It had some really badly written, sappy poem in it. I watched him open it and...I really think he got emotional while reading it. Of course, he’d never tell anyone that.”

Corpse had gotten emotional over the Valentine (Y/N) had given him. It was the first real Valentine he had ever gotten. It wasn’t one of the generic ones that everyone gave out to every classmate so no one felt excluded. It was made from the heart, and that fact alone touched his. Like (Y/N) said, though, he didn’t let anyone know how emotional he had gotten. It would’ve just been more mental ammo for them to use to bully him.

He quickly got up from his chair, racing to his room where he had his box of memories shoved in his closet. It was little things from throughout his life that he kept in a shoebox. Whenever he felt particularly down or depressed, he would open the shoebox and look at all the things that made him smile.

At the very top of the box was (Y/N)’s Valentine.

He went back to his computer and took a picture of the Valentine using his phone.

“That sounds really nice,” he said as he went into the Discord app on his voice. “It must’ve meant a lot to him that you put so much time and effort into a handmade gift.”

“I don’t know if it did. I never got to ask him what his reaction was.”

“Oh, I’d bet anything he was happy.”

He sent the picture through Discord and waited for (Y/N) to open it. The silence between them felt deafening. The seconds felt like they had slowed to hours. He wondered what (Y/N)’s reaction would be. Maybe she’d be weirded out by the fact that Corpse kept the Valentine, or by the fact that Corpse was the middle school crush in general.

What if she’s upset that this is who I am now? he asked himself. What if her crush was just a middle school thing, and the moment you dropped out she moved on?

“I knew it.”

Corpse couldn’t help the smile on his face when he heard the slight excitement in (Y/N)’s voice.

“I knew it was you!” she continued. “Well, I didn’t know know, but when you asked me to call you I had a bit of a suspicion. I can’t believe it...it’s actually you!”

“It is me,” he confirmed. “And it’s you.”

“Small world we live in, huh?”

“Yeah, small world.” Do you still like me? Did you ever stop? Do you know that your kindness stuck with me for so long?

The silence returned. Corpse was starting to get sick of it, but he didn’t know how to fill the void between them. When he heard her yawn, he realized how late it had gotten. “I’ll let you go, you sound tired.”

“We just had this breakthrough and you’re asking me to sleep?!”

Corpse chuckled. “You have to sleep eventually, (Y/N). It’s like 3:30am, normal people sleep at this hour.”

“I am offended you would think I’m anywhere near normal.” She yawned again, cutting off her short lived rant. “But you’re right, I am tired. Listen...promise me you’ll answer when I call tomorrow. I...I’d really like to catch up. Maybe...to pick up where we left off.”

“Okay,” Corpse said, then realized that wasn’t really a response. “I promise. I’ll be waiting by the phone the moment I open my peepers.”

(Y/N) giggled. “I’ll be sure to call you the moment I open mine.”

“Goodnight (Y/N). Sleep tight.”

“Goodnight Corpse underscore Husband.”

kind of a bad ending, but i wasn’t really sure where else to go with it as i wrote it. sorry! :(

[sqoiler]

On the Thursday of the last week of kindergarten, the DVD that Miss Martinez was going to play turns out to be scratched beyond recognition, and so she gets out construction paper, scissors, markers, and glitter glue. 

“Father’s Day isn’t for a few more weeks,” she says. “But why don’t we make some cards, just like we did for Mother’s Day, okay?” 

The kids all get to work, reaching for the pile of brightly-colored paper. Stephanie Brown, who will be turning six in August, is the last one to get up. She shifts through the leftover colors--black, a pukey shade of green, blue, white. She picks up the black one and takes it back to her desk. She does not want to make a stupid card for her stupid dad. The other kids at her table are enthusiastically chattering about their dads’ favorite colors and jobs and drawing crayon drawings onto the paper. The girl next to her is cutting a snowflake out with safety scissors. 

Steph picks up a white crayon and stares at her blank card. Across the room, Dexter raises his hand. 

“What if we don’t have a dad?” he asks. Steph remembers from Mother’s Day that Dexter has two moms. 

“Make a card for someone else,” Miss Martinez suggests. “Your grandfather, maybe. Or a neighbor, or a hero.”

A hero?

Steph looks at the black card before her, and her white crayon. She smiles.

And she makes a Father’s Day card for Batman.

-----

On the Monday of the last week of first grade, Mrs. Arnold, the art teacher, sits down her class and passes out white paper. 

“Father’s Day cards,” she explains. Stephanie Brown, seven in August, considers making her own father a card. She didn’t get him anything last year but he didn’t seem to notice, and she’s not really that mad at him this year. But he didn’t seem to notice, and when Steph thinks about it, she thinks Robin probably doesn’t make Batman a card. Steph could make another card for her own dad at home, and make one for Batman at school. 

Mind made up, she reaches for black markers and gets to work. 

-----

On the Tuesday of the last week of second grade, Stephanie Brown, almost eight years old, sits down in art class and carefully draws a black blob with pointy ears, and a red and green and yellow stick figure, next to it, and she tries to remember what Nightwing looks like, and when she can’t remember she just draws Robin again but bigger.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, she writes in red marker, and she closes the card.

------

On the Wednesday of the last week of third grade, Mrs. Arnold passes out watercolors in art class with pieces of thick paper, and tells them to make presents for their dads. Stephanie Brown, nearly nine, hasn’t seen her dad in almost four months, and she uses up almost all the black water colors at her table painting a picture of Batman. 

------

On the last week of fourth grade, nobody sits down their class to have them make Father’s Day cards. 

On the Thursday before Father’s Day, Crystal passes Stephanie Brown, age almost-ten, a card bought from the store and tells her that they’ll mail it to Blackgate the next morning. Happy Father’s Day, the card says. You’re the best dad ever! the card says. 

Steph stares at it for a long time.

Then she tears out a piece of notebook paper and folds it in half, taking the rainbow gel pens she got in December and picking up the pink one. She squints at it and sees that it’s nearly run out, so she picks up the purple one instead. 

When she’s done drawing Batman and Batgirl and Robin and Nightwing, she decides she likes purple, and she folds the notebook paper inside the card her mother gave her, and she doesn’t mail anything to Blackgate the next day.

-----

On the last day of fifth grade, Mr. Robinson turns on The Great Mouse Detective and sets out a stack of colored paper and scissors. He tells the class they can do whatever they want during the movie and even sets up chips and cookies, then he sits in the back of the classroom and maybe falls asleep. Stephanie Brown, ten-going-on-eleven, wants something to do with her hands, so she takes a black piece of paper and cuts out a batsymbol. She learned how to draw them by sticking her head out her window at night and looking at the sky, and she’s proud of her newfound skill. When she’s done cutting it out, she’s not really sure what to do besides maybe tape it to her shirt, but her dad’s been out for a week now and she thinks he’d be mad if he saw that. 

Instead, she folds it in half and writes HAPPY FATHERS DAY across the middle using white-out. Skye, the girl who sits next to her, leans over and asks what she’s doing, and Steph pauses. She’s...she’s not really sure why she keeps making these. To prove a point, maybe. She’s not really sure what point, though.

“Do you think Batman ever gets cards?” she asks in a whisper. 

“Yes,” Skye says. “Probably every day.”

“Oh,” Steph says. “Well, I probably won’t send it then.”

“Okay,” Skye says, and then she downs half of her dixie cup of orange juice and turns back to the movie. Steph puts purple glitter glue on her batsymbol. 

------

On the first week of April, Stephanie Brown, age seventeen, pulls a plastic bin out from under her desk. There’s a cardboard box beside her, and two other cardboard boxes on her empty mattress, full and taped shut. There’s a full duffel bag of clothes next to her, and her posters from her walls have been taken down and rolled up. All she has to do is finish going through her desk, and then she’s done. The rest of her things will be sold or something, she’s not sure. 

She pries off the lid of the bin before her and takes out old school binders and ragged notebooks, paper folders falling apart and ancient art projects. She lifts out a collage she probably made in seventh grade and tries to decipher the meaning behind it. There is a cutout of red heels from Kohls on top of a blue betta fish. 

Steph decides it will go in the trash pile and sets it aside, lifting out a yellow plastic folder. She opens it, curious, and lifts out a black paper batsymbol. She gasps when she opens it.

Her Father’s Day cards! 

Of course, she had never sent them, so she has all--she counts quickly--six of them. She looks them over, laughing at her kindergarten misspellings and looking at the evolution of her drawing ability fondly. This is--she totally forgot about this. Steph closes the folder reverently and puts it on top of her duffel bag. There’s no way she can get rid of this--especially with the purple cape still in the hidden part of her closet. Especially not with where she’s packing up to move to.

----

On the third Sunday in June, Stephanie Brown, age eighteen-in-August, takes up her yellow plastic folder from where she hid it under her new mattress, and she leaves her room, tucking it under her arm. She gets like four steps down the hall before another door opens, and already an accusing voice says, “What’s that?” 

Steph whirls around. 

“None of your business,” she says. Tim makes a face at her and she makes the same one back, because she is very mature. To prove her maturity, she slides down the banister on her way to the kitchen. 

Dick and Cass are in there, doing the dishes. Steph watches them for a second and then says, “Why do you have dishes at this hour?” ‘This hour’, upon checking, turns out to be almost noon, but nobody wakes up early in this house. 

“Breakfast for Alfred,” Cass says. 

“You can do that?” Steph asks, thinking that Alfred would get offended if someone tried to cook for him. 

“You can today,” Dick says, shrugging, and Steph frowns, realizes that they ganged together to make breakfast on Father’s Day for Alfred and didn’t invite her. 

It was probably an accident, she reasons, but then she remembers Tim and turns to face him. 

“Why didn’t you make breakfast for Alfred?”

“I was sleeping,” he says. 

“He’s impossible to wake up so we called it a lost cause,” Dick says. “We have extra pancakes, though, help yourself.”

Steph is still a little affronted, but she knows that she’s the newest person in the house and she’s only staying here until her mom’s done with rehab and whatever, so they probably didn’t think she’d want to be included, even though Alfred is everyone’s grandpa, even Babs’s. She goes to pick up a pair of pancakes and bites into one, deciding syrup can wait, and she leaves before they can rope her into conversation. Besides, she’s a little scared they’ll start referring to whatever plans they have with Bruce, and she doesn’t know how she’s supposed to react. 

She heads to Bruce’s study and pushes open the door, glad to find him in there. She thinks if she had to search for him she’d probably lose her nerve and chicken out. Bruce glances up for like half a second and then looks back at the computer, and she takes a deep breath and steps inside fully. 

Now or never, she thinks, and so she marches right up to him and slams the yellow folder on the desk. 

“What’s this?” Bruce says, and Steph isn’t really sure how to explain, so she says, “It’s, uh, I found it when I was packing my stuff, and it’s...it’s from a while ago, but I thought you might, um…”

She trails off as he picks up the folder and opens it, raising an eyebrow at the contents from inside. She kinda wants to look at his face, but also totally doesn’t want to do that, so instead she looks at the desk, and opens her dumb mouth back up. “They always used to have us do Father’s Day cards at school or whatever and I never wanted to make one for Arthur so I made those instead ‘cause...well I don’t really remember why but whatever I thought you might want to see them.”

“Stephanie,” Bruce says, and she shuts up and bites her lip, looking up at him. “You...made these?”

“Yeah,” she says. He looks back down at the cards in his hands, all spread out--even the one that was intended for Arthur that Steph never sent. He touches the one from kindergarten. “Um. You can keep them.”

Bruce stands up. Steph isn’t really sure at all what he’s thinking, but he steps away from his chair and wraps his arms around her, holds her tight. 

“Thank you,” he whispers. 

“Happy Father’s Day,” she says, and when he squeezes her she closes her eyes, exhales, and squeezes him back. 

(based on this post x) (ao3 here x)

[mieohmy]

𝖬𝗒 𝖬𝗂𝗌𝗍𝖾𝗋? | 𝖩𝗎𝗇𝗀 𝖩𝖺𝖾𝗁𝗒𝗎𝗇

PAIRING: teacher! jung jaehyun x teacher! fem reader 

GENRE: flufff, humor

WC: 2.7k

NOTES: tiny mention of blood

SUMMARY: you think it’s cute how your seventh grade students can’t get enough of Mr. Jung. or in which the whole middle schools ships you and jaehyun together.

ღ  

“Miss y/l/n! Miss y/l/n!” You look up from your computer. “Yes?? What is it?” One of your students suddenly asks, “Do you have a boyfriend?” You raise an eyebrow. “What? Um, I don’t think that’s appropriate for class.” Your students protest. “No, Miss Y/l/n, we just wanted to know more about you... that’s all!” one kid pipes up. You scoff. “How many months has it been since I started teaching you guys?” You stand up and grab the papers you were about to hand out to the students for homework. “It’s none of your business, but no, I don’t have a boyfriend.” You hear whispers, and someone faintly says, “But you’re so pretty...” causing your heart to warm. 

After you finish passing it out, you let the kids go. You didn’t think much about the question, not knowing what was to come.

ღ 

It’s a few weeks later when you sit by Naeun at the teacher's table for lunch, that the topic comes up again. She greets you as you place your lunchbox on the table, unpacking your food. “How were your classes?” she asks. Humming, you reply, “Busy as usual, you know.”  Naeun nods, sighing as she laments, “I wish I at least had someone at home to care of me with all this work... Hey, y/n, do you have a boyfriend?” You pause. “No, not anymore.” Naeun sits up. “Oh, sorry.. I didn’t-“ Cutting her off, you laugh. “You don’t need to be sorry about anything. Let’s just relax during our break as much as we can, right?” She smiles in relief. 

The two of you are interrupted by the lunchroom doors opening. You immediately hear whispers and giggles. Turning your head, you see Jaehyun Mr. Jung and another teacher walk in. This was only your second year teaching here at a big school, so you didn’t know all the staff yet. 

“Wow, I have to admit Mr. Jung’s very handsome, no matter when. And I think all the kids agree too.” It was a known fact that Jaehyun was the definition of a teacher-crush. He was extremely handsome, and all students liked him and his class. You’re not sure how many times you’ve heard his name being mentioned in class by your students. It could be about his face, his outfit of the day, or even what he ate for lunch. You nod absentmindedly at her words, mostly focusing on your food. 

Naeun raises her eyebrows at you. “Ohh, so you think he is too??” You stuff a mouthful of food into your mouth, “Well-“ “Who is too?” a voice cuts in. You harshly swallow, coughing. “Are you okay??” You recognize the owner of the voice. It’s Jaehyun. You turn, meeting his eyes. “Yeah, it’s all good..” He nods before placing his papers on the table and leaving to get something to eat. 

“Oooh...” Naeun sings. You roll your eyes. “He was being polite.” You two continue eating until Naeun abruptly says, “You know, you and Mr. Jung would actually look good together.” You squint at her. “Naeun... don’t start shipping me with every guy I speak with now.” “But,” she protests, “it’s not any guy, it’s Mr. Jung. Jung Jaehyun. I don’t believe he’s dating anyone so, think about it.” She stands up to get to her next class, leaving you to sit and contemplate. 

ღ

You’re walking to the office when you’re stopped by a small gathering. Jaehyun’s here, you notice. Getting closer, you see him kneeling next to a crying girl. Two other girls were standing there as well. Must be her friends. You quickly walk closer. Jaehyun senses your presence and his head turns to yours. 

You see a flicker of recognition in his eyes as you ask what’s going on. “She lost her book and was searching for it. She was going to be late for her next class, that’s why she panicked. Her friends here were helping search, but they still couldn’t find it.” 

You slowly nod in understanding. Squatting next to Jaehyun, you reassure the crying girl. “It’s fine. We’ll find your book, and you won’t be counted late to your next class. You should go to the restroom and get yourself cleaned up, alright?” She shakily nods and heads off. You dismiss her friends, the two of them whispering and glancing at you and Jaehyun. 

He stands up, offering you a hand. You gratefully take it as he pulls you up. “Well, that was something, wasn’t it?” You fight back a smile, agreeing with him. He scratches his head, about to say something, but you remember you had to go somewhere. You quickly bid him goodbye before running off.

ღ

Some students were staying after school for tutoring. You’re helping a kid when one girl speaks up. “Miss y/l/n, you said you don’t have a boyfriend, right?” You frown. This topic again? You look up and see the other students have tuned in on your conversation. “No, I don’t. Why are you asking?” She shrugs, fiddling with her pencil. “I mean, you’re so pretty. We all thought you were dating someone.” 

You shake your head and laugh. “Thank you, but no, I’m not dating. I don’t do that anymore.” She nods thoughtfully. “Well, I think we can find you, someone..” You notice a mischievous look on her face before you cut her off. “Get back to work! This isn’t school-related!” She salutes. “Ma’am yes ma’am!!”

ღ

You didn’t know how fast word spreads between kids. It’s only been like what, three days? and rumors were flying everywhere. “Are Miss Y/l/n and Mr. Jung dating?” “ I think he likes her.” “They would look freakin good together...” You sigh as you write on the board, hearing the whispers behind you. And while all these rumors spread, you had no idea what Jaehyun was thinking. 

It became the talk of the school. Even the staff knew and shipped you two. Naeun brings it up one day in the teachers’ lounge. “What’s all this stuff with you and Mr. Jung?? My kids keep talking about you two, and they don’t even have you or him as your teacher.” You shrug. “I don’t know. Kids like to make a big deal of out anything.” 

“But this time, they aren’t wrong.” she teases. “I agree with them. You two would be like the power couple of the school.” You make a disgusted face. “I don’t want to be known as the power couple of a middle school.” Naeun laughs, the two of you getting into other boring topics. 

It didn’t help when Jaehyun had to go to an emergency meeting one day, and he couldn’t get a substitute for his sixth graders. You’re not sure why you’re surprised when he comes knocking on your door, a sheepish smile on his handsome face. You’re pretty sure there were several rooms between your and his classrooms’, so why did he come to yours? 

“Miss y/l/n, you wouldn’t mind watching my students for a couple of hours?” You immediately shake your head, “No, of course not. Come in!” The kids slowly shuffle in, some of them shooting you both weird looks. 

After he leaves, you continue teaching as the little kids watch on. In the middle of it, your neighbor knocks on your door and tilts their head in. It was Mrs. Park. She catches your eye and beams. “So sorry to interrupt, but thank you for taking Mr. Jung’s kids. I had no more space in my classroom, you know...” You let out a forced laugh. No way... could she have done that on purpose?? Nah.. “No! It’s no problem! We’re all fine in here. His kids are really well behaved too!” 

“It’s only because Mr. Jung is awesome!!” one of his kids suddenly says. You hear a chorus of agreements, even your kids who must’ve previously had him were nodding. “He’s so kind and a really good teacher as well!” a student says, purposely looking at you. You attempt to smile, but it comes off as a grimace. How long would this go on for??

ღ

The audience was silent, attention focused on the bright stage before them. The dancers held a special performance for the school in the auditorium, AKA a break for you. You watched, entranced as the dancers seemed to effortlessly glide across the stage. Suddenly the thought popped into your head that you left the classroom door open. There was nothing wrong with that, but you wanted to be on the safe side. 

Not wanting to bother the onlookers, you slowly get up from your seat, ducking down to stay as low as possible. Curse the darkness, for you didn’t notice that one darn kid whose foot was sticking partially out into the walkway, and you trip over it. You gasp, bracing yourself for the hard ground, but you only feel something strong in front of you, holding you inches from the ground. 

Your eyes open, seeing the ground in front of you. Your head turns, and it’s Jaehyun. He was conveniently sitting on the end where you tripped and luckily stuck out his arm to catch you. His eyes are full of concern, staring at you. People are whispering all around, you think Jaehyun silently mouths a question to you. 

You squeeze your eyes shut, get a freakin grip y/n!!, before detaching yourself from him and quickly walking out-you’re not sure what exactly happened- it was too dark, and you were too embarrassed. You briskly walk into your classroom, shutting the door behind you. 

You let out a silent scream. Did you really just trip and fall in front of a bunch of students!?!?? You slowly breathe in and out, collecting yourself. It was dark. Maybe some people didn’t see. You remember the whispers and stares, cringing. 

You’re not surprised when during the next period, all your students are talking. Probably definitely about you and Mr. Jung. You’re furiously typing away on your keyboard, trying to drown out the sounds of the kids gossiping. “Miss y/l/n,” one kid says. 

“Yes?” you call out distractedly. “Are you interested in anyone?” Wow, way to be discreet. Your typing comes to a cease, but you don’t look up. “Well, I’d hope not, since I already have a husband.”

Immediately gasps and whispers break out. You continue typing and clicking away. “B-but Miss y/l/n... I.. I thought you said you didn’t have a boyfriend??” “Yeah, I don’t have a boyfriend anymore. We got married so I have a husband now.” The students remained shell-shocked for the rest of the day until they’re released from school. They run out, probably to spread the news that you’re actually married. 

Once everyone’s out, you sigh and examine your desk. You pick up the small photograph (that no one noticed apparently) of you and your husband. The two of you were red-cheeked and had identical shining grins on both of your faces. You smile, the happy memory fresh on your mind. 

Suddenly someone knocks on the door before opening it. Your head turns around to see Jaehyun. He steps into your classroom, looking around. “What are you doing?” he asks. You grin. “Just looking at an old picture..” Cocking his head, he asks, “And what picture might that be?” 

You place the photograph down before walking over to him and placing your arms around his neck. “Hmm.. I think you should know. After all, you were in it.” He laughs before leaning down to kiss you. 

ღ

You met Jaehyun in college, both of you wanting to become teachers. You started as friends until all your friends kept commenting on how good the two of you looked together. At first, you laughed it off, but over time, you started thinking about how it would be like if you actually started dating him. And apparently him too. I mean, he was handsome, kind, polite, your mom LOVED him.. so what kept you from liking him so much?  

You went over to his apartment (now your shared apartment) one night for a celebration after finishing finals. “Ughhhhd,” you groan, throwing your bag on his couch. Jaehyun smiles, looking at you from the kitchen. “Rough day?” You nod, slowly walking over to examine what he was doing. “What are you cooking?” He chops some veggies. “Noodles. But healthy.” 

You make a confused expression. “What kind of healthy noodles now?” Jaehyun laughs at the look on your face, not paying attention to the knife and cutting his finger. “Ow!” he hisses. Your eyes widen, walking over to him and grabbing his hand. Examining the cut, you see blood well up. Immediately you bring his hand to the sink, turning on warm water and running his finger under it. 

You look up at him, slightly annoyed and amused at the same time. “Jaehyun. How did you just cut yourself right in front of me?” He scratches the back of his head sheepishly. You drag him over to his couch, sitting him down as you grab his first aid kit. 

Rummaging through it, you hear him say, “Y/n, it’s not a big deal. It’s just a cut you know..” Huffing, you respond, “Just a cut my ass, you didn’t sound like it. Now shut up and let me take care of you.” Grabbing the medicine, you sit closer to him and take his hand. 

You carefully put on the ointment and wrap the bandaging around it. Finished, you look up to see his face extremely close to yours, already staring at you. You raise your eyebrows, cheeks reddening. “Uh-“ but Jaehyun’s hand that reaches for yours silence you. “I was distracted by you.” 

You open your mouth, but no words come out. He continues, “I was too busy looking at you to pay attention.” You gulp. “Why?” You notice him lick his lips before responding. “Because I like you. Isn’t that obvious?” You’re shocked. This guy? No, he wasn’t even a guy, this fine man... liked you? You can’t even get a word out as he places his lips on yours. You immediately move your hands to his hair, feeling the soft strands. 

Breaking apart, he chuckles. “So I guess that means you’ll be my girlfriend?” You pretend to think for a second, before saying, “I guess... if you’ll finish making time dinner.” Jaehyun freezes. “Oh shoot. The noodles!!” 

After that, the two of you dated until graduation when he proposed. You didn’t cry. You still insist on that to this day. You didn’t purposely apply to the same school he was teaching at, the offer just came up, and it was convenient that you could go to work together. (Strangely, no one saw you two when you arrived at school) And you don’t know why you never told anyone about your relationship, no one really asked, and you both just kinda went along with it. No one assumed anything, probably because you preferred being called by your last name instead of his. You just liked it more, and Jaehyun didn’t mind. That is until the whole school started pairing you two. 

ღ

The memory resurfaces in your mind as you sit in Jaehyun’s lap, snuggling comfortably as the TV blares in the background. You smile, and he notices, pinching your side. “What’re you smiling about?” You bury your face in his neck as you say a muffled response. “Nothing.” 

You continue watching whatever’s on the tv until you suddenly ask, “Do you think the students know yet or?” Jaehyun shifts, tightening his arms around you. “Nahh, my students feel bad for me. They think I don’t know anything and still have a crush on you.” Your head shoots up from his chest. “And you don’t?” you ask indignantly. He laughs, sitting up. “What?” 

You don’t know why you suddenly become embarrassed. Looking down, you fiddle with the end of his shirt. “Have a crush on me?” There’s a moment of silence where Jaehyun stares at you. He bursts out laughing before grabbing your hands and pulling you back into him. Kissing the top of your head, he responds, “Y/n, we’ve been married for almost a year now. Yes, I always have a crush on you.. idiot.” 

“I had to make sure!”  

[dearevanhansenofficial]

“YOU WILL BE FOUND” NATIONAL COLLEGE ESSAY WRITING CHALLENGE 2021 | DEAR EVAN HANSEN

In partnership with Gotham Writers Workshop and the Broadway Education Alliance, DEAR EVAN HANSEN invited 11th-grade and 12th-grade students across the country to write a college-application style essay that describes how they channeled “You Will Be Found” to ensure those around them were a little less alone over the last year, or, alternatively, a moment where they found comfort in connection.

READ FINALIST LUCY’S FULL ESSAY:

By mid-May, I had stared at my computer screen so much that I could see it even when I closed my eyes. My back ached constantly from hunching over it, my fingers were sore from typing, and I left the house only once a day to walk the dogs. Friendships I had depended on since seventh grade withered without daily contact, texts coming fewer and further apart as we ran out of things to say. I berated myself for not having made friends in the neighborhood in all the years I had lived there. Every day a troop of masked and giggling girls strolled by, doing a dubious job at social distancing and enjoying themselves even more because of it. I knew them all by sight and none by name.

One such day, gazing out of my window during one of the gaping spaces between Zoom classes, I noticed someone I hadn’t seen before– a dark-haired girl emerging from a house across the street, hands stuffed in the pockets of an olive-green hoodie. Aha! I thought. Someone else who isn’t part of the neighborhood crowd. Crossing into the puddle of sunlight on the sidewalk, she sprang back and shielded her eyes with one arm, considering the brightness of the day. I know that feeling. Even better, I was pretty sure I knew her name. My mom had sent me over to make introductions when she moved in a few years back, and sheepishly I had done so, barely swallowing my embarrassment at this old-fashioned errand. Juliette. That’s what it was. Thank goodness I’d already put myself through the pains of an introduction. Hopefully she remembered who I was.  

When I put pen to paper, the words flowed out so easily that I wondered if I had been subconsciously drafting this note since the beginning of quarantine. I re-introduced myself, expounded on the monotony of isolation, and asked if she’d like to hang out while trying to sound chill, covering up my desperation for human contact with wry jokes and smiley-faces. ‘Love’ was too personal and ‘sincerely’ too stiff, so I signed with just my name, hoping that didn’t make me seem boring. I found a YouTube video demonstrating how to fold the paper into its own little envelope the size of a MetroCard with triangular embellishments at each corner. I filled the blank space with her name, ‘Juliette,’ in my very best cursive.

Turning the packet over and over in my fingers by the door, I was shot through with doubts. She’d definitely think it was weird, this note. And what if she saw my desperation for a friend? What if she did know the neighborhood girls? I could picture them passing my note between them as they walked by the next day, surreptitiously pointing out my house to the ones who didn’t know. That’s where she lives. The one with no friends. But it was already written, and in my hand at the open door, ready to be delivered. It felt far too late to back out. Crossing my fingers that no-one was near the door, I darted across the street and slipped it into the mailslot before I could freeze up, turning right around to sprint back to the safe claustrophobia of my house.

All day I avoided the window, scared to catch a glimpse of Juliette sneering as she sorted through the mail and found this odd scrap of paper from the weirdo across the street. But when I finally went downstairs, there was a piece of looseleaf stuck in the mail slot, folded into a different type of origami envelope than mine. You have no idea how glad I was to get your note, it started. I’ve been thinking of reaching out to you since quarantine started, but I never would have been brave enough.

Lucy Meola Hunter College High School New York, NY

[iamknicole]

New Kid on the Block

Family Ties AU // Bloodline Family Series AU

"Okay class, quiet down." Mrs. Johnson called out to her eleventh grade class. She continued once they were quiet. "We have a new student. What's your name, sweetie? Tell us about yourself."

"My name is Haleigh Reigns and I'm from Florida," she shrugged looking back at the faces that stared at her.

Mrs. Johnson smiled. "And now you're here in Mississippi. Well yhen class this is Miss Reigns from Florida and we will make her feel welcome here in digital photography. You may take an empty seat and before you leave stop by my desk to get your camera."

Slowly, Haleigh made her way around the tables to the table in the back with one occupant. She took a seat and pulled her notebook out. Mrs. Johnson looked up from her computer and smiled.

"You've chosen a great seat. Mr. Bekim takes some of the best pictures I've ever seen. He'll help catch you up to speed these last few minutes of class. Hopefully you'll join us for both periods all the way through on Monday."

Haleigh nodded, "Yeah, sorry about that. Was in the office getting my paperwork together."

Sighing softly, Ardian moved over to the seat beside her with his things. "I'm Ardian, I keep telling her to call me that but she stuck on that miss and mister thing."

"Nice to meet you. I hate being called by my last name but it seems like that's all I've heard all day. What do we do for two periods?"

Ardian shrugged, "It depends on the day but mostly go out to take pictures and edit pictures for projects and assignments. Thankfully it's sixth and seventh period so she let's us leave when we're done."

"That sounds cool. What are you guys doing right now? Didn't seem like much of anything?"

"Before you came in, we were talking about a field trip. Deciding where to go to take pictures. Bell's about to ring so we can go home."

Haleigh nodded putting her notebook away. "Cool, I'm ready to go anyway. Thanks for helping me."

"No problem. I don't mind."

The bell ring loudly through the class signaling that the school day had come to an end. Waiting to most of the class cleared, Haleigh went to the teacher's desk and grabbed her camera bag before leaving. Trying to stay out of the way, she went quickly to get locker to get the books she needed for homework. When she closed it, she locked eyes with the boy leaned against the others and scrunched her face up.

"Sorry if I was in your way," she said quietly starting to turn away.

He grabbed her arm making her snatch it away. "Sorry, I didn't mean any harm. I been seeing around today and wanted to stop and talk to you."

"No, that's okay," she said shaking her head. "I've gotta do so I don't miss my ride."

"If you need a ride, I'll give you one. I don't mind."

"No thank you, I don't know you. I have one. Goodbye."

When she turned to walk away he pulled her hand again which she snatched back.

"My name is Tony," he smiled. "And you're the new girl, Haleigh. We know each other now."

Rolling her eyes, she quickly turned away from him and walked off ignoring his calls for her to wait up and come back. Making her way outside, she stood in the curb for a second looking around until she spotted the van she needed to be on across the parking lot. By the time she got near it, the van pulled off leaving her.

"You've got to be kidding me," she mumbled checking the time on her phone. It was a quarter past two, she was supposed to be on the van by five minutes prior to not get left. She reluctantly dialed her aunt's number.

"This phone call let's me know that you missed the van, Hae. I told you be on that van no later than 2:20."

"I know," she sighed softly. "I was trying to leave but this boy kept holding me up, Auntie Pearl."

Pearl chuckled, "Well then thanks to him, you're walking. And I still want your homework done before you do anything fun. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am but can't you pick me up? Please."

"No ma'am I cannot. I'm helping finish up snack for you and the other girls. I love you and I'll see you when you get here."

Without another word, Pearl hung up leaving Haleigh to groan and mumble to herself. Fixing her bookbag on her shoulders, she started her walk. Tony drove up beside her trying to get her in his car, she told him no until she realized he wasn't giving up and opted to just ignore him. This went on for more than five minutes until Ardian caught up to her.

"Sorry I took so long, had to go back for my book." He said out of breath.

She looked at him strangely for a moment. "I thought you weren't coming."

"This why you ignoring me? For him? He a square, I promise you." Tony chuckled from his car.

"Take a hint, man. Drive off. Don't embarrass yourself even more." Ardian told him with a huff.

Haleigh and Ardian walked in silence for a few minutes after Tony drove off. Haleigh watched cars and people around them, trying to figure out what to say.

"Um, thanks for that. He's gone now if you wanna hear back. Don't want you getting too far away from your car." She said softly.

"You don't gotta thank me. I don't drive to school, this is the way I walk home. I don't mind."

She nodded not sure of what else to say. The walked in silence again this time until they got to her home. She nudged him as she came to a stop. Ardian looked at the home then at her with a brow raised.

"What's wrong?"

"Just letting you know that this is my stop." She explained softly.

Ardian frowned, "It's a group home. Are you sure you're in the right spot? It's easy to get streets mixed up here."

"It's a girls home," she corrected. "And yes I'm in the right spot. I live here."

"Why? I mean it's nothing wrong with it or anything. Just ... sorry forget I asked."

Haleigh smiled and played with her fingers. "It's cool I'm not upset. It's a long, personal story but short version, I got kicked out of my home. And my aunt owns this girls home so here I am."

"Sorry I asked, didn't mean to be in your business. I'll let you go."

"Like I said, I'm not upset. Thanks for walking with me, Ardian."

"No problem. Have a good rest of your day."

She nodded headed up the few stairs, he waited until she went inside to continue his walk. Ignoring the other girls, Haleigh went to to her room going straight to her desk and getting her books out to start her homework.

"Knock, knock."

Haleigh looked over at the door with a small smile. "Hey, Auntie. Sorry I missed the van."

"You don't have to apologize to me, dear. It didn't hurt me, you were the one who had to walk home. Here's your snack." Pearl sat the plate of pasta chips with marinara sauce, apple slices and caramel on the desk. "How was school? Did the other girls help you around?"

"Thank you. School was school, I guess." She shrugged. "A couple of them did when they could."

"Good. Make any friends?" Pearl asked brushing hair from her niece's face.

Haleigh shook her head eating one of the apple slices. "No but it's okay."

"Mmm ... so the boy you walked up with is the one that made you miss the van?"

"No, that was Ardian from my photography class. He helped me her that boy that made me miss the van away from me. He was driving alongside me trying to get me in his car until Ardian walked up."

Pearl nodded. "Well okay then. You be careful and please make sure you're on time for the van. When you get out of school tomorrow, your uncle is going to take you to a job interview. It's at a restaurant."

"Yes ma'am."

"Oh your parents want you to call them."

Haleigh nodded turning back to her homework.

"Call them now, please, Hae. It's been a week since you've talked to them. They miss you."

Haleigh bit her tongue to keep from saying what she was thinking. She simply nodded and took out her phone, pleasing her aunt enough to leave the room and close the door. Haleigh facetimed her father's number and proped her phone up.

"Hey, Princess." Roman greeted smiling. "Kandi! Come here!"

"Hi, daddy," she responded dryly as she ate her food. She glanced up seeing her mother come into the frame. "Hi, mama."

"Well hello pretty girl. You look like you're settling in good. I see books, started school today?"

"Yup. Doing homework, Mama."

Both parents sighed audibly.

"From your time I take it you're still upset," Kandice inferred softly.

"Nope. Not upset."

"Princess, we love you and didn't want you getting into more trouble. This was the best thing for you, I know you didn't want to go to the detention center."

Haleigh chuckled to herself lifting her eyes to her phone to look at them both. "I get it. Send me hours away for someone else to deal with me."

"Hae," Kandice called out softly. "That's not it. We just felt you needed some time away from here. A new start. And you're not with a stranger or anything, you're with your Auntie Pearl and Uncle Don. You're okay."

"No, I'm not with them. I'm in Auntie Pearl's girls home with a hundred other different girls. I've got homework. Can I go?"

Roman sighed, "Go on and do your homework, Princess. We love you. Call us later, please."

"Sure thing. Love you guys too. Bye." Hanging up her phone, Haleigh went back to her homework and ate her snack.

After stopping by his grandparents' house, Ardian went to his uncles restaurant to work. He usually stayed in the back cooking only going out when the servers needed help. Tyrell walked until the kitchen smiling and went to lean against the counter beside him.

"What's going on? How was school, nephew?"

"School was school."

Tyrell laughed, "That's your answer every damn day. Nothing happened? New people?"

Ardian shrugged cutting cabbage up. "New girl in my photography class. Had to help her out and ended up sorta walking her home."

"Sorta?"

"She walks the same way I do. Her stop is like ten minutes from Grandma and Grandpa house."

"Uhuh. She say thank you?" Tyrell asked scratching his beard.

"She did. She was grateful. You know that girls home that's near the house?" He asked still cutting.

"Yeah, yeah. What about it?"

"That's where she stay at. Her aunt owns it."

Tyrell hummed listening to his nephew talk for a few minutes. "You think she cute?" Ardian looked over, staring at his uncle making him laugh. "My bad, just asking. You never take this much interest, you know you ain't a people person."

Mumbling to himself, Ardian went back to his cooking glancing at his uncle every now and then. He just liked to help and for once the learn wasn't ungrateful or rude after he did.

[soulmate-game]

Okay, so here’s the story. Let’s rewind to 2010/2011. (Actually, it might be closer to 2008... you get the point) I’m a seventh grader in middle school, that’s the important part. And up until this point, I was pretty heavily bullied in middle school. My entire science class once yelled profanities and called me names all at the same time, when we had a substitute once. Like, I went through the whole fake friendship narrative, people calling me ugly at every available moment, people trying to frame me, etc etc.

BUT! I was also somehow that one person that everyone knew. Sometimes the rest of the school, no matter what grade level they were in, knew things that happened to me or things that were said to me almost before I did. It seemed like everyone was constantly aware of my whole life, it was kind creepy ngl. People would, on a weekly basis or more, walk down the hallway and say, “hey (my name)” and wave. I almost never knew who those people were, they were usually in a different grade and I hardly ever shared any classes with them. It was really confusing.

Well, by the time seventh grade came I was absolutely boiling for revenge. I was never a physical fighter, especially considering that it seemed the whole school was against me, so I was on the lookout for anything I could do to ruin the day for my emotional abusers. And then it happened.

I was in GT (the gifted and talented class— don’t be fooled, it was basically just theater kids. The majority of the test to get into GT was creativity based) and we were working on some project or another. I think we were in the middle of trying to make functional chairs out of nothing but old cardboard boxes and hot glue. And one of my friends let’s it slip that the golf club she was in was doing a fundraiser, but their sales were low as hell and they were scared they wouldn’t make enough to afford their supplies for the season. Considering the golf club was less than ten people, that was an issue. So I, always willing to help and always the person people oddly enough went to for pseudo-marketing help, I waltzed over and asked for details. The club was apparently selling beanies with the school logo on them (the logo is a hawk in flight) but nobody paid attention to their fliers.

First, I knew that anybody who legit wanted a beanie with the school hawk on it were not gonna be the ones that looked at fliers. All of my fellow beanie lovers were the sort that stared straight at the floor the entire time we walked through the halls. So I got the info for the golf club and got permission from their club supervisor to brainstorm ideas. They almost immediately approved my idea of making a sales jingle, a little song, to help sales. I spent a good hour, just an hour, thinking up the catchiest, corniest, yet professional-sounding thirty second jingle I possibly could. To make things worse (better, way better) I based it off of a KidzBop rendition of a song on purpose. Add that cringe factor, ya know?

And I went straight to the vice principle. This dude would bend the school rules for me, and I have no Fucking idea why. But damn if I wasn’t gonna make use of it for my revenge. I showed him the written lyrics for my jingle, and explained my heart-wrenching story about just wanting to help my friend and her club be able to afford their golf clubs and supplies. I felt so bad that such a small club wasn’t getting any attention or support, etc etc. He ate it all up. He asked me how I planned to share the jingle so that the sales could go up, and this is when I struck: I asked for permission to sing it in my classes first to see how people responded to it. He agreed, and offered for me to use the cafeteria stage if all went well.

Let me back up: in my middle school, there was an iron clad rule. Before the bell for the first classes rang, everyone in sixth grade and everyone eating breakfast HAD to stay in the cafeteria. No exceptions. If you were in seventh or eighth grade, you could go to the library or the back courtyard to wait for the bell to ring, or the computer lab, but that was it. So every single day, there was at least 800 captive kids in the cafeteria who either couldn’t leave because they were sixth graders, or because they were busy eating. My school had 2000+ kids, so this was a good number for me. On a good day, I might even have half of the school quite literally trapped in the cafeteria as my captive audience.

So I sang the jingle in my science class first. Yes, the same class that just a few weeks earlier had all yelled profanities at me as one horrible, toxic group. They laughed and teased me as much as they could get away with in front of our awesome teacher, but this time I felt no shame and I was not at all discouraged. They didn’t even suspect the fact that singing it to them first was just a warning; a taste of the Hell to come. Several people commented (away from the teacher’s hearing) that I sucked at singing and shouldn’t do it again. Honestly, that was exactly what I wanted to hear. I just smiled fake-apologetically and said I would try better next time.

But my science teacher loved it, she was completely supportive of me and said that the sales jingle was a great idea to sell beanies. She loved how supportive I was of our school’s smallest club, etc etc. which was honestly all I needed; that day, I went straight to the vice principle with the good news. My teachers loved the song and thought it was a great idea to help the fundraiser. Later, back in GT, I told my friend the good news and asked her to print me as many of her sales fliers as she could. I would hand them out when I launched my big plan the next day. She was excited and thanked me profusely, and we got the all-clear from our GT teachers to spend the rest of the class printing and cutting out a good 200-ish fliers so that everyone knew what colors the beanies came in, where to buy, and how much they were.

The next day, the vice principle gave me full access to the cafeteria stage before the first bell rang, and a fully functional microphone. You better fucking bet I got the attention of every last one of the 800+ captives there, and sang my jingle at full belt for everyone. At first, people shrugged it off and laughed and playfully covered their ears.

But then they noticed I was there again the very next morning. And I sang the jingle again, over the microphone. Everyone was noticeably a little less entertained by this point. But I didn’t stop there— oh hell no. Every morning for the rest of that week, I got up on the stage and horribly sang my sales jingle to all of the captive kids. Some of them started yelling for me to please not sing again by the third day, to which I ignored gleefully. People started trying to bribe me in the hallways to please, please not sing again the next morning.

I had never felt so powerful before in my life. It was amazing.

On the last day of the fundraiser, the vice principle asked me and two of my friends to sing the jingle again— over the intercom during morning announcements, when literally nobody in the whole school could avoid hearing it. I was absolutely ecstatic because I hadn’t even considered that as a possibility. So we were able to end my reign of terror with one last song when everyone thought they were safe, but literally couldn’t escape it. It was even better because my friends and I hadn’t rehearsed for even a second, so we were all out of pace and not in tune and it was gloriously bad.

My friend ran up to me later that day with the biggest smile ever on her face, and told me that someone had literally donated $200 to the club, not even wanting a beanie, just asking that we stop singing the damn song. By then, she had caught on to my plan and kept thanking me for purposely annoying the hell out of people so that they donated. I think they ended up making somewhere around a $1,000 in sales along with a few smaller “stop singing” donations.

For the rest of that year and even the year after, all I had to do to get people to leave me the fuck alone was start singing the jingle. Anyone who had attended the school in time to hear it immediately covered their ears and ran away, or shut up immediately. I got random ass people I never met calling me by name in the hallways complaining about how my song was still stuck in their head literal weeks later, and they couldn’t even intimidate or properly threaten me because I just started singing the song and they were gone faster than I could say “what are you gonna do about it?”

this is revenge. And I have never been more proud of myself.

[mangozcat]

hi hi!! It’s a request- uhm can you do a Jeno fluff where it’s a best friend to lovers and you both just slowly fall in love with each other..? Thank you🥺🥺🥺 -🦋

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆. lee jeno x fem!reader 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐑𝐄. fluff, best friends to lovers, tiny bit of angst 𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒. it was under horrible circumstances that you met. everything seemed dimmer, you felt unmotivated and worst of all; lonely. but then there he was, with a big gummy smile on his face, purely there to lift your spirits. it felt like fate, and if you could go back, you’d fail seventh grade all over again just to meet him.

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄. hi! I’m so sorry that this took absolutely ages. it took a long time for my brain to come up with a way to write a slow burn, since I’m not really good at that kind of stuff. so, I put a ton heart into this because this is actually based off of my life! I substituted jeno for my childhood friend and everything that happens in this story is very much real (minus the romance), which is why it’s so personal to me. I hope you enjoy this and that it’s not a huge let down!

𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐌𝐄𝐓 𝐉𝐄𝐍𝐎 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋. it had been under rather unfortunate circumstances, to be honest. having just been forced to go through with your seventh year of school again, it was depressing, especially since you had already done half of it the year before. but in a sense, you were also grateful for your lack of worth ethic in online school, because it allowed you to return during the second portion of the year and meet him.

he was cute and particularly sweet. the first things that had drawn you to him were his chubby cheeks and beaming smile. he was the epitome of child-like innocence. you noticed quite quickly from the one class you shared with him that he enjoyed mixing work and play. he was sure to ask questions about the lesson at hand, not afraid of it embarrassing him. after all, failing would just embarrass him more. but at the same time, jeno was carefree, funny, and loved to joke around to lighten the tension in the classroom.

at first he hadn’t really noticed you. he knew there was a new girl in his class and that you were supposed to be a grade ahead, but he wasn’t too caught up in your arrival like some other people were. they would bombard you with questions about where you came from, forcing you to re-explain the situation for about the eighth time within three days. after awhile, you stopped counting.

but it was when you slipped during class that he finally noticed you. it wasn’t a mocking kind of attention, nor was he laughing to humiliate you. he did laugh at the incident, but to be fair, you laughed too. and to make up for it, he even helped you get up off the floor. “some shoes need better grip,” you had huffed out, patting down your shirt. 

jeno had smiled, releasing a small laugh, agreeing wholeheartedly as he slid his foot along the slick floors, pointing out how his foot was sliding too. “it’s the floors,” he said, walking over to where the computers were stacked neatly in a pile, making you follow after him to keep up. you used him as a little guide as to what you were supposed to be doing in the class; after all, he had been there for a half a year and you were there for a mere few days. “they hardly clean them, and when they do, it’s left slick with water. so either way, it’s a lose-lose situation.”

you had shrugged during that time, simply accepting that things happen, people slip, but that you always had to get back up.

you weren’t aware, at the time, how easy it would be to fall into routine with jeno. grabbing computers together, holding small conversations during that time. and when he had to go back to his desk, he’d always shoot you friendly smiles during the lesson. the two of you even began eating lunch together and he introduced you to his friends.

they were definitely not as open to the idea of adding someone new to their friend group. you understood that part pretty well. when you were still in your correct grade, with the people you grew up with, it always felt strange when someone new joined the school. it wasn’t that you were a rude person or incapable of allowing others in, it was merely the fact that it felt odd; wrong. the group had been formed for so long that any foreigner being spotted within its’ bounds seemed off.

it took a long time to get used to, for both you and them. seeing this new face daily, beginning to get to know someone new. it was uncharted territory, or at least, it was a land they hadn’t explored since they were little. but you managed to bond, slowly but surely, with the other boys and began getting comfortable around them.

and over time, the pain of not seeing your former friends slowly eased away.

he was helping you more than he realized, especially since people had taken more to just staring at you than approaching. they were interested in you for sure; your origins, why you weren’t in the correct grade, everything about you. but no one actually put in enough effort to say anything aloud or ask questions, or simply be near you at all. they simply watched from afar.

jeno hadn’t exactly done any different, it was all circumstantial. but after your odd meeting, he put in effort to keep the friendship alive, surprising you. he was a friendly guy, not just to you, but to everyone else too. it was reassuring in a sense, to know that you had this nice guy by your side. you got to see him every morning, and he brightened your day more than he’ll ever understand.

jeno was your anchor. he always helped you do homework, helped you find your way to the classrooms that you had never visited before, or that had changed teachers. and often times, he’d walk with you to class. it was the start of a beautiful friendship, and you had nothing but your failure to thank for it.

sometime during your school years, jeno started changing. he was quickly becoming a handsome, well-mannered young man that had the hearts of young teens clenching tightly. they were all desperately whipped for him, and while you had to admit that yes, he was handsome, you had been friends for too long for it to change.

you were satisfied with jeno’s friendship and were appreciative of his comforting presence.

to put the progression of your friendship into words would be far too difficult. emotions? easy; there was a lot of hesitance, but then came happiness and this sudden feeling of peace. everything slowly became natural, and you had found yourself residing within the comfort of his arms.

“you gonna eat your fries?” you asked, looking up to see his face. sat between his legs, head on his shoulder with a book between your hands. one earbud was in your ear, the other in his. he shook his head, running his fingers through your hair soothingly and letting you reach over to steal the fries from his tray.

this was how most of your lunch periods went by. seeing as you and jeno shared one or two classes each year (excluding the one unfortunate year where you shared none), you’d spend all of your lunch period together. using it as time to bond and catch up. most of that time was spent in silence. it was comfortable. bot much was required to say aloud and it was just nice, sweet, peaceful silence.

jeno’s eyes were closed behind you, his head lolling to the gentle music running into both of your ears. he was rocking the two of you back and forth easily as you continued to read, vividly imagining the scenes from the book coming alive. you’d imagine the fierce lions and big cats jumping from the bushes and darting across the courtyard clearing, excited to taste the freedom of what they had been dreaming of; escape.

you never did understand why getting lost in books was so easy. maybe it was just because of the escape the inked words allowed you to have. but it always a fascination, an obsession of yours. words seemed to so easily get up and dance along the lines, shimmying their way into your mind and easily imprinting an image within your brain. stories were your safe zone, your getaway. they helped you collect your thoughts and rearrange them prettily upon your shelves.

you just adored books.

when jeno’s grip on you tightened considerably, pulling you back into him, you let out a small laugh. the boy cuddled his head into the crook of your neck and shook his head, making a ticklish sensation erupt upon your skin. giggling to yourself mindlessly as you squirmed in his arms, he simply smiled to himself. reaching forward, he grabbed the book from your hands.

“now that I have your attention,” he started, making you turn slightly so that you could see his expression. a beaming smile was dancing across his lips, making you mirror it. his eyes dazzled under the light of the sun and you wondered how you’d never realized how pretty his eyes were. they were dark, almost chocolate-colored. they were comforting, you noted.

“I require your assistance, m’lady.” he said cheekily, making you roll your eyes. lightly slapping at his chest, you whined out a sound of annoyance. he had adopted the formality after some play you performed in when you were kids, you being the juliet to some boy’s romeo. he knew you hated it.

“it was one play, jen!”

he grinned. nodding to himself, “yes, it was one, very interesting play that I swore to never forget. I’m simply sticking to my word!” letting out a little laugh at how utterly disgusted you seemed at the reminder of that stupid play, here shook his head; he’d let you off the hook this time. “anyways, I need help on the homework.”

huffing to yourself, you leaned out of his embrace for a minute to grab the paper out of your backpack. handing it to him, you leaned back into his arms. grabbing the earbud from his ear, you plugged it into your own as you let your senses become overwhelmed by the music.

jeno had frowned to himself, but didn’t argue as he copied from your paper.

there comes a point in everyone’s lives where they get into their first relationship. whether it’s some childish kindergarten one or a serious one in college, it happens eventually. it doesn’t have to last forever, nor does it have to be this groundbreaking first experience. it’s a relationship, that’s all.

or at least, that’s what you thought about your first relationship. there wasn’t any magic, no earth shattering love or groundbreaking first times. it was plain, you realized. you didn’t realize that relationships were supposed to be special. they were supposed to make you feel loved and appreciated, and make you feel as though you belonged. you didn’t know that. after all, how could you, when you had never truly experienced the true love of what a relationship was meant to represent?

when you saw people on tv or around campus, you couldn’t help but notice the things in their relationship that wasn’t in yours.

they held hands and exchanged public affections. your boyfriend rarely ever spared you a glance, nor did he put any effort into spending time with you. most people would be eager to spend time with the person they claimed to love. it would invoke excitement even at the mention of being near them. so how come, despite sharing four classes, there was always distance between you? over half of your day was spent together, seats right beside each other, projects intertwined because you were partners. so why did everything feel so wrong?

you liked him, you really did. but every day you regretted ever dating him to begin with. it was such a kick to the gut when you remembered that it was him who asked you out, who put so much love and care into your first date. and that at the same time, it was him who seemed to avoid your existence in general.

“y’know, staying in your bedroom isn’t helping,” you heard jeno sigh from the doorway of your room. your mom surely let him in, you knew, as you huffed at the intrusion. he glanced around at the messy space and raised a brow at it’s appearance; you were always the tidy type.

peace and quiet was never going to come, was it?

“am I not allowed to wallow in my misery?” you said, peeking your head out from under the covers, your eyes filled with unshed tears. jeno knew well enough about the incident. it wasn’t some well kept secret, seeing how public the display of anger was. your boyfriend had yelled at you in the middle of the courtyard, leaving you humiliated and lonely.

jeno only sent you a comforting smile to cover up his own frown. holding up a box of cookies, he shook them eagerly as he came bounding into your room. taking his shoes off in a hurry, he declared, “well, as long as I exist, you aren’t allowed to do anything alone!”

a small smile bloomed on your face as he crawled over your bed, resting himself behind you, atop the covers. you turned around, coming face to face with the beaming boy. sending him a small, sad smile, you finally caved in and rolled yourself into his open arms. he only patted your back, chin atop your head as the two of you shared these simple, though comforting moments together.

you both knew that your heart hurt. but at the same time, you desperately tried to cling onto the few good memories of him that you had. he still loved you, he promised he’d always love you. the reality was simply to hard to accept, and you knew that if you actually faced it, it’d only make you hurt more.

he did love you.

when your boyfriend finally broke it off with you, you were left feeling like a used toy. useless, worthless, so incredibly naive. you ended up hiding away in your room, begging your mom to not let anyone in so that you could be alone. you didn’t want to be alone, but the thought of having anyone with you also felt so miserable and embarrassing.

it had been a few days since you closed yourself off. you struggled to attend school and the rare times you actually showed up, you avoided all traces of humanity. it felt like eyes were always on you, following you around. you felt so unexplainably exposed under their gazes.

when jeno showed up at your doorstep for probably the tenth time since the breakup, you were beginning to get tired. you missed your best friend, but at the same time, you were so overwhelmed by what you were feeling. your mom was probably the smartest person in your life, so when she let him in, you were both confused but also didn’t want to question her reasons.

mom knows best, you had been told.

you could hear the padding against your stairs as he practically ran up the flight, bouncing between steps. he didn’t even bother knocking on your door before opening it, staring at your figure sprawled across your bed. tear-stained cheeks and eyes that seemed to be so far away; the windows to your confused and lost soul.

but you were surprised to see the same thing reflected in his face. he had bags beneath his eyes as if he hadn’t been sleeping. he seemed visibly thinner, almost as if he wasn’t eating properly. and his hair was messy, his clothes still what he woke up in. he was unkempt, to say the least.

the first thing he did was meet you on the bed. arms instinctively wrapping around your figure and drawing you as close as possible, though his grip remained gentle, as if he’d break you. you sniffled instantly, tears swimming in your eyes as you buried your head in his neck. he had pulled you into his lap sideways, supporting you with his arms.

“talk to me,” he whispered out into the crown of your head, showering your hair in gentle, wisp-like kisses.

“I feel,” you started, biting back the lump in your throat and fighting off the tears threatening to escape your eyes. your eyes glossed over as you took in a long, shaky breath of air. “so, so alone. my mom’s here, and I see her every morning. and I go to school and talk to people but-”

suddenly, his hands were on your face, making you look at him. his brows were furrowed, his chocolate eyes hurt. “you aren’t alone,” he said your name sweetly, surprising you in how softly it slipped from his lips. “I’m here, I always have been, and I always will be.”

and then, you realized.

he was right.

jeno had been by your side throughout everything. regardless of how much time you spent together, it never seemed like enough. always desperate for more, always wanting to taste the sweetness of the other’s presence. it was like a sweet drug, and you were no foreigner to the withdrawals. jeno was everything you realized you had been searching for.

no distance was too far, nor was it too short when it came to the two of you. he was always there to make you smile, to bring light to your days, to cheer you up. and by the looks of him, any pain you felt was almost like a dig at him too. he was your number one fan, always supporting you throughout. 

you had been searching for this perfect instance. one where your boyfriend would finally notice how important you were to him. where he would chase after you to fix what he had broken, to restore the peace between the two of. to bring the magic, the love, back to the relationship. yet, that never happened. it was merely a distant dream, one that would never be achieved or become reality.

maybe in some other universe it would be real, and you’d be happy.

but that universe wasn’t this one. this universe was far more meaningful. because despite all the pain, it lead you to him, it lead you to realize; jeno was always there. he would never leave your side. and just how he’d been banging on your door for days straight, he’d continue to do so to your heart.

lee jeno, the perfect boy that would never let you be alone. lee jeno, the childish, the brave, the sweet, the caring. lee jeno, the boy of your dreams. lee jeno was him. lee jeno was who you had been searching for, had been dreaming of, unaware of the fact that he was right by your side the entire time.

and that’s why you kissed him.

because he was the boy you had been after. he wasn’t your first boyfriend, you both knew that. but he was your first love, and that would never change.

[purplylinos]

looking out for you ♡ lee minho

♡ genre; fluff, best friends to lovers!au, highschool!au

♡ pairing(s); gn!reader x minho

♡ word count; 1.2k

♡ description; it was almost like he knew what type of romance you wanted, and he fulfilled every aspect of it.

♡ notes; i wrote this listening to joy again, their songs are literally on repeat i am in love

minho was spontaneous, almost everyone knew that. he knew about your dreams, and randomly bought you things to bring you closer to them, appearing at your front door (or window) with ice cream and cookies in hand if you were up late, and everything in between.

it was nearing midnight and you were staring at your computer screen, pressing your lips together in irritation. the essay you had been putting off for so long was due within the next three hours, and there was no way you were going to be able to get it finished in time. you were distracted by flashing lights outside, followed by your window sliding open. you turned and pulled back the curtain, seeing minho with a smoothie in his hand. “why is your room up so high?” he asked, catching his breath. you laughed softly with a small shrug.

“you ask me this every time you come up here.”

minho grinned with a shrug. “late night? he continued, handing you the smoothie and propping his arm on the window sill. 

“sort of, i’ve been procrastinating for too long, i’ve gotta finish an essay before three.” minho nodded and unwrapped a lollipop, placing it in between his lips before a grin appeared on his face.

“here, come with me,” he suggested, getting ready to find his way back down to the ground before being stopped by your voice.

“dude, i can’t. my parents will kill me if i fail this class.” minho raised an eyebrow and locked eyes with you, a mischievous glint hiding in them.

“you literally have the highest grade in that class. i’m sure you’ll be fine if you turn it in a few minutes late. how many paragraphs do you have left?”

“two,” you answered flatly, mulling it over before a smile appeared on your own face after taking a small sip of the smoothie. “okay, fine. i’m coming.” minho’s eyes brightened as he nodded, looking up at the stars for a moment before looking back to you.

“see you down there.” he grinned before dropping away, disappearing from your sight. you thought for a moment about how your best friend seemed to thrive at ungodly hours of the night, how pretty his eyes looked reflecting the light of the moon and stars. you were wondering if his behavior began to rub off on you. you slipped your feet into white vans and climbed out of the window yourself, listening for your parents before closing it behind you, and strategically dropping down to the ground.

“where are you taking me?” you asked, shoving your hands into your sweatshirt pockets. minho turned and grinned at the sight of you, grabbing your wrist and jerking his head.

“this way,” he responded, breaking out into what felt like a sprint and yanking you along behind him. after what felt like hours of running, minho finally stopped running, leaving you breathing heavily. 

“what the fuck, dude?” you complained breathlessly, placing your hands on your knees. you could hear minho chuckle quietly before hearing him sigh, turning to look at you.

“here we are.” at the sound of his voice, you stood up straight, eyes scanning the place. it was a clearing of grass, with a number of trees surrounding it. “where we first met.”

“square one,” you answered. it was the name the two of you had given the patch of land shortly after third grade. “i’ll never forgive you for pushing me off of the swings,” you muttered, earning a grin from minho. 

“stargaze with me,” minho said after a moment of silence, laying on his back and patting the spot next to him. you happily agreed to laying down, a heavy sigh exiting your body. “aren’t they pretty?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

you nodded in response, folding your hands on your stomach. “very,” you replied, watching the boy’s eyes sparkle with delight.

if you were being honest, you had way more than two more paragraphs to write, but you couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get out of the house with minho, to actually get some alone time with him. you were always out with him, that wasn’t a lie, but you’d always run into people, meet up with changbin or seungmin, it was like minho knew everyone in town.

“it’s sad they tore down the swing sets and stuff,” minho murmured suddenly, disturbing the welcoming quiet that had fallen between the two of you. turning to look at him, your heart warmed at the sight of the stars being reflected off of his eyes. 

“you’re right. but in a way, i’m thankful for it. now i don’t have to worry about you pushing me off of them anymore,” you half-joked, heart nearly stopping when minho turned to look at you.

that was the worst part about falling for your best friend, there was no way to escape constantly being flustered by the smallest things. “your ears are red, are you cold?” minho asked, propping himself up on his elbow with a frown. you shook your head, your ears were burning rather than freezing.

“i should go home,” you answered, getting up and dusting your pants free of grass. “i’ll see you tomorrow.” minho frowned and grabbed your hand before you could travel far.

“wait. please, just a little longer.” minho’s eyes sparkled underneath the moonlight, drawing you in more and more by the second.

a soft sigh floated from your lips as you carefully sat back down, a small “okay” leaving your lips before turning your attention back to the sky.

“can i tell you something?” minho asked after a few moments of silence. you turned your head to look at him, quirking an eyebrow. “i think my heart is set on you.” he added, catching you completely off guard. you furrowed your brows and tilted your head, opening your mouth to speak — yet minho beat you to it. “i’m not gonna just straight up say ‘i like you’ because that’s such a middle schooler thing to say. but, every time i think about you, i come here, especially at night.”

“why?”

“because i remember how you said you wanted to kiss someone under the stars in seventh grade.” your eyes softened slightly, smiling gently. “that wish hasn’t changed, right?”

“not at all,” you answered, voice slightly wavering. your heart was thudding harshly against your chest, feeling like it could fly out at any given moment.

“can i be the person who fulfils that wish for the first time?” minho asked after a few moments, finally directing his eyesight on you. although it was dark, from the dim light the streetlights not too far away were providing, you could see minho’s face was bright red. you couldn’t form a coherent response to his question, opting to slip your hand underneath his chin and inching your face closer to his. you paused and gave a slight nod, allowing minho to close the distance between the two of you.

flashes of comfortable warmth washed over your body, minho’s lips tasted of strawberry, soft, pillowy and warm. everything about the boy kissing you in that moment was so incredibly warm and loving. he pulled away first with shiny eyes, a shy smile forming on his lips. “did i manage to take your mind off of school?”

a breathless chuckle left your mouth, nodding. “yes, yes you did. i’m very grateful for it.” your eyes scanned the grass and trees around you, feeling your heart swell with happiness and the warmth of love. letting minho take you back to square one was the best decision you had ever made.

[milkcakejamun]

ShiVi X HP Crossover, Part I

“For the Japanese, who know so much and intuit more, human relations are predestined by a red string that the gods tie to the pinky fingers of those who find each other in life. Legend has it that the two people connected by this thread will have an important story, regardless of the time, place, or circumstances. The red string might get tangled, contracted, or stretched, as surely often happens, but it can never break."

----------Page Break -------------

His little finger interlocked with her own, “Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to find you?” He brought his other hand up to her face and gently caressed her cheek as she leaned towards him in comfort. “In any shape. In any form. In any world,” he whispered as his thumb brushed across her lower lip. “I will find you,” he leaned closer to her as she angled her body towards him, “because we are fated for each other.” — C. K. Rani

Raavi smiled as she lowered the book. Her eyes trailed over to the boy… no man, sitting right across from her. His hair was neatly combed and parted to the side, uniform was clean and well ironed, quills organized by size and shape of the tip.

He was Ved Pandya, and he was absolutely perfect.

As someone who believed in soulmates, Raavi knew that Ved Pandya was the one for her, perhaps from the moment she first laid eyes on him on Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Station hugging his family. A warm feeling blossomed in her chest when she saw those happy smiles, and for the first time, she knew where she belonged… and that was with the Pandya family…

For that reason alone, she did her best to pursue a friendship with Ved, even though they were sorted in different houses, him in Hufflepuff and her in Ravenclaw. She would try to sit at his table, she would meet up with him after class asking about doubts, and she would try to be involved in whatever activity he was involved in (with the sole exception of Quidditch).

Slowly, but surely, her efforts paid off… Ved and her began a friendship in their third year of school, and now as seventh years, they were essentially inseparable. She knew every little secret of his, and he knew almost everything about her as well… and fairly soon, he would know the last truth she was hiding.

The truth that she loved him…

“If you spent as much time as you did watching me on your studies, you would’ve cleared all the exams with straight O’s,” she heard his soft murmur. He glanced up from his book with a frown adorning his face, and again, she was absolutely mesmerized by how good-looking Ved was… his soft eyes, the gentle curve of his cheeks.

She smiled lazily at him as she leaned over to close the book he was reading, “Grades don’t matter,” she stated as a matter-of-fact. Not when my goal is to be by your side anyway. “Not when I have a job, at least,” she mentioned with a smirk. The Pandya family already offered her a job after graduation, regardless of what her final exam scores were.

Ved rolled his eyes, “I might not mind, but my cousin—,”

Raavi scowled at the thought of working for anyone else other than Ved. Ved’s father, the sweet and charming Dev Pandya, would not allow her to work for anyone else. Most especially that “dreaded” and “tyrant” of a cousin… She’s never met that good-for-nothing cousin (and never even cared to inquire about him), but she knew he was not good news.

No man was good news when he sent her plastic lizards for her birthday… and that man even knew of her crush on Ved, as every birthday note included a small message of, “Do not even dare!”

Ansh Pandya… the beloved son of Gautam and Dhara Pandya, and the heir apparent of the wonderful Pandya Store… Someone with such a great legacy should have been a model citizen… instead, Ansh chose to be the bane of her life… the villain of her love story.

Even when he wasn’t there, he made her life miserable… suggesting Ved should get a girlfriend, and even offering a list of potential girls he could begin talking to…

“Let’s not ruin this afternoon by speaking about him,” she huffed.

“He’s not that awful,” Ved’s lips curled upwards in amusement. “He was the one to offer you a job, after all.”

And it was a halfhearted and insulting offer should she say so herself. Without even being there, he sent her an offer letter after Gautam Pandya made the initial offer. His letter claimed she would make the perfect addition to the company, as their next project was developing the operating system to their cell phone line. The Chipkali operating system… and as a “chipkali” herself, she would offer the perfect inspiration…

If he wasn’t related to the wonderful Pandya family, she would have throttled him years back when he sent her a toy lizard which came to “life” the second she touched it. The only good thing that happened with that was that Ved hugged her and stayed by her side the rest of the night.

“When you join company, you’ll understand,” Ved stood up and stretched. “His heart is truly filled with gold… and he honestly is the beacon of the family, especially after…,” he trailed off as his eyes were filled with anguish.

She swallowed, knowing to stay silent. A few years back, prior to Ved’s birth, the Pandya family suffered their greatest loss. They had been the most spoken about family, especially with the advent of their new wizarding products… a phone that rivaled the ones used by Muggles… computers that connected every aspect of the community… quills that were able to engineer anything from the imagination…

They had transformed the Wizarding World… and just as they celebrated their greatest success… the inventor of it all passed away…

“I wonder if he’s proud of us,” Ved murmured as he glanced out the window, gazing at the blue sky.

Raavi smiled softly as she squeezed his shoulder. She had never known Shiva Pandya… and she seldom hears of him as well since he always invoked the tears from the family. But she knew, that regardless of who Shiva Pandya was, he would be proud of Ved and Ansh…

Ved placed his hand over hers and turned to her with a soft smile, “Anyhow, it’s time for us to part,” he slowly packed up his quills and belongings into his bag as Raavi turned to him curiously. “Sruthi and I will be practicing today for the big game next week.”

Raavi had nodded her head… until he had uttered that vile name from his lips… Sruthi… the woman that Ansh had come up with. She had thought Ved would break the connection, just as he had done so with the four other women… but, after going out for butter beer once, Ved and Sruthi had hit it off. They had been speaking to each other much more, despite Sruthi being an entire two years younger. And even though they were in different houses, they practiced Quidditch together…

She wasn’t one to become mad with jealousy… but there was something in Sruthi that brought the worst in her… that made her worry about the future she envisioned for herself.

“I want to come, too!” she announced as she quickly packed her belongings herself.

“You?” Ved raised a brow. Raavi nodded her head, ignoring the bewilderment in his expression. Even after nearly four years of friendship, she had hoped Ved would’ve known. How relentless she could be. “You do understand we will be riding our brooms,” Raavi raised her brow as Ved continued, “Playing Quidditch.”

After a moment of silence, Raavi crossed her arms, “So?” She was fully aware that she could not ride a broom… however, that doesn’t mean her eyes were not perfectly functional. She could sit in the bleachers and shout whenever they became too close. “I’ll watch!”

He rolled his eyes as he motioned for her to tag along.

Grinning with pride, she skipped along his side, briefly glancing over at his profile every now and then, admiring everything she could about him. He was absolutely perfect for her in every way. He was just about an inch taller—so he wouldn’t have to bend down and hurt his neck whenever they kissed. He had the most impeccable fashion when they did not have to be in their uniforms.

“Are you excited to join the company?” Ved murmured as their hands brushed.

Raavi felt a gentle tingle go up her arms as a smile split wide on her face. She gently rubbed the area that had touched his hand. Nodding her head, she felt a warm flush come over her face, “Yes,” she breathed out. Working alongside him was a dream come true.

“Ansh is excited as well,” Ved brought his hand up to his mouth as he tried to hide his smile. Raavi raised a brow as she glanced over in his direction. “Wait… do you not know?” he began laughing. “Ansh will be your supervisor once you start working.”

Raavi’s eyes widened as she stilled to a complete stop. Ansh? My supervisor? She could only see a dark cloud over her head… They were never able to meet because he had chosen to attend Durmstrang (thank Somnath, otherwise they would’ve killed each other), but from the small tidbits she knew of him, and from the letters he had sent her, he would be a brutal boss.

“Ansh is not bad, Raavi,” Ved whispered. “He would never hurt anyone. Most especially you.”

Me? She scowled remembering all the gifts he had sent her over the years. The toy chipkalis, the dung bombs, packets of oils and masalas (though she had no understanding of why he would give her such a thing… she was an absolutely wonderful cook!). Not a single gift was sweet… and she didn’t even know what she did to deserve this! They hadn’t even met before!

Which was why she began sending him inappropriate gifts as well. From sending him acid pops, frog spawn soap, bulbadox powder… unfortunately, nothing terrible had happened to him.

“Raavi.”

She glanced at Ved as Ved reached out for her hand.

“You’re Raavi… anyone can fall in love with you,” he smiled at her softly.

Warmth blossomed in her chest as she followed Ved to the Quidditch field. Anyone can fall in love with me… her eyes zeroed in Ved’s back. Does that mean he actually loves me? A smile found it’s way onto her face. Then I don’t need to wait to confess? I can just do it right now?

“Ved,” she called out at the same moment Ved’s face brightened with joy.

“Sruthi!” he called out as the happiness fizzled out of Raavi.

She turned to Sruthi with a glare… She didn’t even exist a few months ago, but now, she became a mainstay, an unwanted third wheel, and despite all the hints she was giving Sruthi… that girl really didn’t understand.

“Ved!” Sruthi smiled as she ran over to him.

Ved pulled her into a hug as Raavi bit her lower lip, feeling excluded. In all her years of being good friends with Ved, he had never taken the liberty to hug her in such a manner. Is it because he thinks I don’t want to hug him? How do I let him know that I do want to hug him? That I want to do much more with him like hold his hands and go to Hogsmeade with him on a date?

Sruthi turned to Raavi with a small smile, “Will you be sitting on the bleachers?”

Raavi nodded her head slowly, wishing she didn’t have to sit on the bleachers. Wishing she could ride a broom just as well as Sruthi, if not better.

“Could you hang onto this for me?” Sruthi handed her a gold necklace with a small hourglass in the middle.

“Time turner?” Ved asked excitedly. “Aren’t they all gone?”

Sruthi nodded her head, “Yes, but,” she glanced at Raavi briefly, and Raavi quite honestly felt very insulted. She and Ved shared everything. How dare this girl treat me as the outsider! “My uncle actually works in the Ministry, and after I told him about how I wanted to take extra classes… he kind of gave this to me,” a warm blush colored her cheeks as Raavi scoffed in annoyance.

Know it alls… She hated those people the most, and this “using a time turner to take as many classes as I possibly could” was yet another reason for her to despise dislike Sruthi. She’s just a fifth year student! She has a few more years…

“And because it’s so precious, I can’t let anything happen to it, so Raavi di,” Raavi did her best to not react to the ‘di’ that was spoken. “Could you hang on to it as Ved and I practice?”

Before she could utter a single word, Sruthi placed the necklace in Raavi’s hands. Ved and Sruthi, then, both grabbed their brooms, heavily engaged in their own conversation. What surprised her greatly was the chemistry they shared with each other. Sruthi was able to touch Ved’s arm, and instead of shrugging her off, like he normally does, he just stood there, smiling at her and whispering something that made her laugh.

V-Ved?

Raavi swallowed as she watched them zip through the sky. Sruthi’s dark brown hair zipped across the wind, and for a second, Raavi’s heart wavered. All these years, she reassured herself that she was the most beautiful girl in all of Hogwarts—and her long list of admirers only made that so much easier. But as the sun shone on Sruthi… Raavi wondered whether she was truly beautiful enough…

Ved’s younger sister had taken a liking towards Sruthi as well… and Ansh… he was the one who suggested Ved speak to Sruthi…

N-no Raavi… you can’t give up. You’re Raavi! The girl who can make anyone smile and laugh. No one can hate you…

Raavi bit her lip as she quickly ran to the storage closet, picking up a broom for herself. It doesn’t matter if I can’t ride a broom… besides how hard can it be? Whispering a small prayer, she gripped onto the broom as she mounted it, and gently, she tilted the broom up, eyes widened as she slowly rose into the sky.

Taking slow, steady breaths, her racing heart slowly turned normal again as she stabilized in the sky, “I-I really did it,” she cracked a small smile, ignoring the drop of sweat that was forming at the side of her forehead. She let out a few airy laughs, “And it wasn’t even that hard,” she began laughing a little more comfortably. “I don’t even know what I was so worried about.”

She patted her shoulder with the hand that held the time turner, “G-good job, Raavi.” Her eyes briefly glanced down, getting a glimpse of the small architecture that was underneath her and she instantly regretted it. “N-no, no, no… don’t think about it. J-just figure out how to g-go forward.”

Swallowing, she raised her head at the same time she heard her name be shouted.

Oh bugger… the blood from her face drained the second she saw the bludger coming towards her. She brought her hands up to her face, feeling a searing pain pierce through her abdomen as she was knocked off her broom. Her nails dug into her palms as she closed her eyes, embracing her free fall.

This was certainty not the end she thought she would meet.

At least you’ll be remembered as the girl who brought a smile to everyone’s face… I wonder what Ved will think… will he remember me afterwards? Or will he forget about me, too…

Warmth enveloped her as her head was cradled. Instead of feeling a searing pain rip through her… she was held by someone strong… someone well-built.

V-Ved… did you catch me?

A waft of masalas and oils drifted towards her as she clenched onto the uniform with trembling hands.

No… it can’t be him… then who…?

Even through the dull pain that was throbbing at her head, she slowly opened her eyes.

Sharp facial features, long hair, dark, smoldering eyes… He was the exact opposite of Ved. Manly… terrifying… not at all her type. Heaviness fell upon her eyelids as her face fell on top of his chest.

Who are you?

[marawritingstuff]

SUNSHINE

Finally, I would like to thank my fellow classmates.  I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for you.

Valedictorian speech written.   Come on, Amelia, no sleeping.   Time to write the memoriam.   Everybody would have completely forgotten about Sunshine, aka Jennifer, if those idiots stopped talking about weird stuff.

On this day as the Class of 2008 celebrates our graduation, our Sunshine isn’t here.   Jennifer Halloway sadly took her life seven months ago.  

Couldn’t someone else give this speech? Heaven knows, we weren’t friends. Sunshine didn’t have any friends. I didn’t even know her!  Well, maybe a little bit.

Sunshine always lit up a room with her distinctive style.  She brought laughter wherever she went.

My first encounter with Sunshine occurred the first day of fifth grade.  Jennifer stumbled through the homeroom door dressed in a jumper that was falling apart at the seams with a sun patch centered slightly below her large breasts.  The tall, overweight girl, with a haircut that even a discount barber wouldn’t admit to, clutched her books closely to her chest.  As a chorus of “You are My Sunshine” sprang from the mouths of a group of students near the back, a storm of spitballs flew through the air.  Sunshine didn’t even look up amid the commotion but headed to a corner desk at the far side of the classroom. A wave of sympathy overcame me, and I began to get up to greet her, only to be met by Susie, my best friend’s hand. I looked at my friends.  Some were laughing while others had wrinkled up their faces as if Sunshine had a communicable disease that could be passed through the air by her mere presence.  There is not much I can say now.  Then I was a ten-year-old girl who wanted to be liked so I wrote off Sunshine’s life, joining in my friends’ laughter and jeers that would last for nearly seven more years.

Her intelligence and compassion did not go unnoticed by teachers and fellow students.

Sunshine remained on the periphery of my universe.   We were both smart, extremely smart.  Advanced placement classes cluttered our schedules; at least for a while, but she lacked the social graces to stay amongst the “gifted.”  Group projects were the new fad in education.   My peers pretended to let Sunshine be part of the group during class, but everyone knew the real discussions, work, and fun happened afterschool. Nobody ever told her where the meetups were happening.  When it came to the division of work, the group inevitably responded: Jennifer refused to help.    Some of the teachers would try to elicit a defense from Sunshine, but she remained silent.   I guess she never got over the fear instilled in her in elementary school.  Supposedly, she told on some bullies for calling her “Cabbage Patch Kid” and they slammed her in the mud and kicked her bad.  Of course, there were some teachers who were just as ruthless as the students.  I heard Ms. Reardon, the sixth-grade science teacher, tell her that despite her intelligence, social problems meant that she would never succeed in life and Mr. Pearson, the seventh-grade English teacher, said someone as poor as her shouldn’t have hope. I wish I could say that I acted differently, that I tried to include her, but I didn’t. By the time we reached high school, the group project grades had dropped her out of my academic circle.   However, the continued bullying kept Sunshine burning bright in my orbit.

Jennifer’s grace was an example to us all.

The whole cheerleading squad threw me a welcome party the day before my freshman year began.  They even brought me the cutest outfit and a junior offered me a ride. At 7: 15 a.m., she pulled into the driveway in her clunker.   Fifteen minutes later we screeched into the parking lot, just as the buses were pulling in.  The unmistakable sound filled my ears.  “You Are My Sunshine.”   Mud balls flew knocking Jennifer from the stairs of the bus onto the concrete.   She pulled herself up dredging her splattered sunshine jumpsuit with her.  As she stepped through the entrance doors, Sunshine disappeared from my mind again.

Though she wasn’t one of the more outgoing students, she was beloved by everyone.

That first year our paths didn’t cross much as our classes were clearly different now and extra-curricular activities weren’t her thing.  At times, I would hear calls of “fatso”, “creepy”, and “not so little Orphan Annie” coming from the halls, and witness Sunshine being thrown into lockers.  At lunch she sat alone, while some kids threw food at her and most...okay, all…of us just sneered.   Gossip went around that her grandmother, her sole living relative, got cancer and the water in her house was turned off.      Her hygiene suffered, ostracizing her even more.  One morning I really had to pee, so reluctantly ran to the gross bathroom on the first floor. That giant jumpsuit was in a sink with Sunshine scrubbing it with a bar of soap. Laughter exploded from me.  She just stood there scrubbing…I am sorry I did that now.

I, for one, enjoyed Jennifer’s contributions in the classroom.

A language class was required for all students and, unfortunately, I lacked any skills in this area, so this meant mixing with all the other sophomores. As I walked into class, I noticed the name cards carefully placed on the desks. Señora Amelia Brantley.  Cute.  Assigned Seating.  I scanned the desks.  Señora Jennifer Halloway right next to Señor Harry Hankel, the quarterback, who later became captain of the football team, a notorious bully. Everyone thought Harry would make it to the NFL someday bringing fame, and money, to our school. Thus, his pranks were largely ignored, especially by the popular teachers, like Ms. Garcia. Throughout the semester, every time Ms. Garcia turned her back, he would take hold of Sunshine’s desk and throw it into the wall leaving her reeling. Ms. Garcia refused to discipline Harry, instead admonishing Sunshine for moving her seat.  The worst day came on Cinco De Mayo.   There was a buffet of Mexican delights contributed by the students and Ms. Garcia.  A decorated piñata hung from the ceiling.  At the end of class, Ms. Garcia had us start a Conga line.   When Sunshine tried to join in, no one would touch her back.  They called her a dirty pig and made oinking sounds. Rather than discipline the class, Ms. Garcia simply broke up the line and we went back to the Cinco De Mayo feast. Sunshine went to the back corner of the room, sat down on the floor, and for the first time ever, I saw her cry.   That was the beginning of the end, even though I neither knew nor took any steps to stop it.

She was the picture-perfect student.

To be honest, SAT’s, college applications, and maintaining my 4.0 kept me too busy after that to think much about Sunshine.  I jumped on the chance to assist with developing the year-book pictures, not only since it would add another line to my Ivy League applications, but also because I loved watching the blobs slowly transform into images of happy people.  Cheerleaders forming pyramids.  Football players making touchdowns.  Even Susie’s mug, now a beautiful young lady, smiling at the Junior Fall Dance.    After school one day, I stirred the solution as the last picture appeared.  My arm grew limp as the picture came in focus. Sunshine was sitting in the corner of the gym at a pep-rally, all alone, grasping her knees.  She looked so miserable, like a puppy that had been hit too many times.   Gently, I moved the image towards the trash when the Senior Editor came in and stopped me, laughing and pronouncing that this would be a highlight. I didn’t say anything.   The centerfold of the yearbook was Sunshine’s picture with the caption, “You are the light of our school.”

As we are here to celebrate our own accomplishments, I know the Senior Class wishes they could throw Jennifer a ceremony that could honor her alone.

Unlike my freshman year, I walked through the school doors on the first day of my senior year with confidence and pride; head of the cheerleading squad, member of the student council, editor of the yearbook and a shoo-in for valedictorian.   Frankly, this was just a distraction from the wait on the responses of the Ivy League schools. December was the traditional month that early applicants received an acceptance…or rejection. August. September, November, were all a blur.

December 12th, I arrived home and opened my inbox:

NEW MAIL

HARVARD:   APPLICATION STATUS

SUSIE:    SPECIAL CEREMONY FOR SUNSHINE, DAWN

Clicking the attachment of the first message, my hands shook uncomfortably. The Harvard Crest sat cleanly at the top of the letterhead.  My eyes scanned the document.

“Congratulations.  You have been accepted into the incoming Class of the Fall Semester of 2008.”

The next few hours were a haze.  Screams and tears.  My mother hugging me.   Calling Susie.  It all seems like a huge mess of emotions now.   Later that night, Susie called to remind me that she was picking me up at 6:00 a.m. for the ceremony.  The excitement of the day had overwhelmed me.  I assumed it was another award for one of the teachers.  The second e-mail remained on my computer unopened as I dreamed of Harvard crimson sweatshirts.

The alarm rang all too soon, I threw on a hoodie and my Northface winter jacket and lumbered down to Susie’s car.  The window made a perfectly good pillow and blocked out most of her jabbering. Later, I learned that Susie was explaining that Sunshine’s grandmother had been missing for a few days.  One of the idiots from the football team called Sunshine impersonating the police luring her to the flagpole in front of the school, our destination, with a promise of information regarding her grandmother.  If I had only listened to Susie.  Or opened the e-mail.  Or done…anything.  

Susie screeched to a stop a few blocks from the school where several other cars loaded with seniors had assembled.  I struggled from the car, joining a group of twenty-five in a steady creep.  As we came over the hill, I could see Sunshine standing beside the flagpole in her old, scantly patched coat, shivering in the cold.  She kicked the snow around her, weakly mouthing, “where are you Grandma.”  The group pounced on her. Harry Hankel seized her by the arms forcing her to face the flagpole.  From under the snow, two other blindsiders began to pull ropes causing a pair of bloomers and a bra to ascend. The sunshine patches left no doubt of the owner, though I had no idea where the mob had obtained her private items.  The group broke out into a chorus of “You are My Sunshine” as they blasted her with ice balls, several striking her square in her mouth causing teeth to be knocked fully out.   Seconds seemed liked hours until someone opened the front doors of the school.   Everyone scattered.   I stood there for a second watching Sunshine lie there on the ground.  Blood dripped from her mouth staining the snow. Susie pulled me by the arm, and I turned away.  This would be my last view of Sunshine.

I wish I had a chance to know her more personally.

The incident occurred one week before the holiday break.  Sunshine didn’t make an appearance in school that week.     Holiday cheer soon made me forget the horrible event as my family overwhelmed me with gifts of Harvard paraphernalia: sweatshirts, mugs, anything you could imagine.   When I finally stepped back on the grounds of the school, I shivered. My eyes turned up to the flagpole resting on a shadowy image of one of Sunshine’s patches waving.    Susie dismissed it as an illusion due to stress.  Only a few hours into class, the principal called us all for an assembly in the auditorium.   Despite my heavy sweater, I hugged myself tightly trying to keep warm.  Mr. Lumbre, our principal, stepped on the stage, but I could barely see him despite all the theater lights.  A shadow seemed to be engulfing him.  

“Jennifer Halloway took her own life on New Year’s Day.  She is survived by her grandmother.  Funeral arrangements will be announced.  Grief counselors will be made available in the main office.  School is dismissed for the day to allow time for mourning and processing.”

The senior class sat still. I don’t know what they were feeling, all I know is no one said a word.

We really didn’t have the opportunity to say a proper good-bye.  However, even after she was gone, Jennifer still seemed to be with us somehow.

No sunshine came through the clouds the day they put her in the ground.  Only her grandmother and the church pastor watched as the casket descended into the earth.  I sat in Susie’s car staring.  I read in the newspaper that Sunshine had shot herself with her grandfather’s old gun. Her grandmother, finally recovering from a bout of dementia, returned to find her in the garage a few days later. Some of the other seniors said they were going to come to the funeral.  Susie backed out but let me take the car.   Only the hearse and the pastor’s beat up Chevy kept me company in the cemetery parking lot.  I couldn’t bring myself to get out and drove away in perceived silence, though I thought I heard the faint sound of Nat King Cole’s “When Shadow’s Fall.”

The grief counselors only stayed a few days as no one sought their services. Sunshine never left.   No matter how hard I tried to avoid it, every morning the sunshine shadow enveloped me as I crossed under the flagpole.  As the temperatures rose outside the school, they fell within.  The furnace was replaced, but the temperature didn’t rise a degree. They tore apart the ductwork, vents, and changed all the thermostats.   Nothing worked.   Soon things…well…they started getting scary. Senior girls were randomly being thrown into lockers.  Books flew from students’ arms.  The darkness and “When Shadow’s Fall” were everywhere. Most of the students, and staff, for that matter, were unfamiliar with the song.  My grandmother adored Nat King Cole.   Though I used to love hearing that smooth baritone, I shivered as it creeped from every Ipod, car stereo, and even the PA system.  No other music has been heard in the school since Sunshine’s death.  

I walked into a biology class one day on a mission to deliver notices of the upcoming teacher and student council cooperative meeting.  There sat Harry Hankel snoring away as a film on protozoa projected over him. I stared at him and sighed, sick of the whole damn school. To my shock, an invisible force picked up his desk and relentlessly banged him back and forth into the wall.   I saw nothing touch him but some in the class maintain that a sunshine shaped shadow passed over the film screen before the accident.  Harry’s dreams, and the school’s dreams, were over.  The doctors were unable to repair the damage in his right leg.  He will never play football again.

We wish she could have partaken in the many happy activities of Senior year that are captured forever in our memories.

The final grade announcements confirmed my valedictorian status.  I wanted to drop it all and drive off to Massachusetts, never to look back.  However, the yearbook distribution had to be done.  On the penultimate day of school for the seniors, I walked into the student council office and watched my junior editor sliding receipts into each book. She abruptly stopped, something seeming to catch her eye.  Flipping open the book, she let out a shriek and bolted from the office.  Drifting over to her workplace, the pages of the yearbook flipped back in the constant cool breeze that pervaded the office. I covered my mouth in horror, looking down at the faces, or lack of faces, of the senior class.  Susie should have been smiling back at me.  Instead, there was a black spot in the shape of a sunshine. Book after book, page after page, the same.  Black blotches smeared out any faces of seniors.  Slumping down in a chair, I began to cry.  I wasn’t sure then, or even now, who or what I was crying about. Was it for our lost happy year? Was it for the loss of my hard work? Or was it finally for Sunshine?

We are all sorry for the tragedy that befell Jennifer.  I can only hope that Sunshine can find the peace she was seeking.  Goodbye Jennifer.  

There will be no yearbooks to sign this year.  Mr. Lumbre cancelled the prom.  No one objected.  Soon there will be parents wishing many of us well as we head off to our respective colleges and universities.   The question is will Sunshine be with us?  Will she stay at the school?  I don’t know the answer to that.   I do know that she is here now as I type these words, shivering, in the dark, a sunshine shaped shadow looming over me.

I…am…. sorry….