#wayv short stories

[mrkerina]

Decent ; park jisung

— (high school au) in which you’re insecure and he worries about you.

Pairing — Park jisung (nct) x fem!reader

Word count — 1384

Content — You have never gotten validation all your life, life felt a little bleak but he managed to light it up even if for only a moment.

Author’s note — I decided that i’ll post for leisure, still love the feeling of just writing. I’m a sucker for words of affirmation btw.

You look decent.

Your grades are decent.

Your skills are decent.

Decent. That is just what she was. Regardless of how much tireless effort she places in everything she does, all she ends up with is that one word - Decent.

It has never been anything more nor anything less. She felt suffocated by that word like she could never be recognised for being something more. It was as if she was just a figment of imagination in a sea of people. No one wanted someone who was just decent.

They would always go for exceptionally good people. The ones who stood out. Those that were way more skillful, talented or smart in everything they do.

It was just unfair.

Why is it that she was never anything more than decent to anyone? Why did she have to struggle so much just to try to be something better?

Perfection seemed unattainable. She felt as if she always fell short from everyone around her. She could study for days for a test but still score decently as compared to others who study the night before and still do better than her.

Maybe it was just her method of studying that was not suited for her, but to her - it felt like she just had something lacking in every aspect of her life.

⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉

Just like everything else in life, there are always two ends of the spectrum. In this case, Park Jisung was everything but decent. From his looks to the way he dances so flawlessly and smoothly, everything about him was exceptional.

No one is perfect, but he sure comes close to being perfect. You were envious of him. He had the reputation that everyone wanted, it felt like he had his entire life already laid out in front of him. It was easy to tell where he was headed towards, whether or not he would be successful in life. Everything just felt easy for him, while you had to constantly suffer from the pessimistic thoughts of not being able to make it far in life - ending up with a job that you absolutely hate to do.

From Jisung’s perspective though, it would be a lie if he said that his life was not easy. It did feel like he could have everything and anything he wanted, he didn’t feel like a complete failure. But that was exactly what kept him up at night - the fear of failing.

He constantly worked to make himself seem like a strong person, someone who was so accomplished and had everything set out in life. And he is successful at doing just that, in accomplishing everything he puts his mind to, everything except for you.

⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉

“Okay class, settle down, I will be giving back your test papers that you did two weeks ago,” the teacher’s voice roared through the class. “I would like to congratulate Park Jisung on getting full marks….again.” A round of applause sounded throughout the class as he smiled shyly at the attention as he went up to take his paper. His eyes skimmed the class and towards the girl in the corner who was just staring out of the window into space.

Unknowingly, the corners of his lip tilted down slightly and a slight wave of sadness washed through him.

As people walked to the front one by one to collect their papers, his eyes couldn’t help but drift towards you. When it reached your turn, you took the paper in anticipation but when you saw the score on the front page, your heart sank.

64%. That was the usual grade that you got and yet you still couldn’t help but feel disappointed over and over again. Your classmates were all squealing at their scores while you sat back at your seat silently. Another test that you studied hard for and yet still didn’t improve nor get a score that you wanted.

“For those who did well, good job. For those who didn’t do as well, go home and reflect, and do better next time. You are all dismissed.”

⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉⑉

You sighed in defeat, looking through your mistakes as you stayed at your seat while everyone else in class ran out of the door. Your heart felt heavy, as you started to grip the paper progressively harder the more you stare at it.

Once it was only you left in class, it was as if it was the trigger as the tears started rolling down your face. One came after another until you were full-on sobbing. The pressure just felt too much for you, and the disappointment that came with it just further aggravated the emotions that you felt.

Your future felt bleak. How can you pursue something if you weren’t good at anything?

In this vulnerable moment, a boy happened to rush into the classroom. Seemingly in a rush to grab something but got alarmed when he saw the teary-eyed girl sitting in the corner. Jisung stopped in his tracks, grimacing when the door slammed behind him causing you to jump in surprise.

You didn’t expect anyone to come in, especially him.

You vigorously jumped into action, wiping away your tears and calming yourself down. Although it didn’t exactly work, you continued to hiccup and looked away from the boy who looked like a deer caught in headlights.

He let out an awkward cough. “Um..sorry…I forgot to grab something…” he trailed off. You simply nodded in response, still facing away from him, not wanting him to see you in this state. Jisung hesitated before asking “are you okay?”

“Yes,” you softly replied, your voice slightly choked up from the lump in your throat. “I’m fine.”

The boy walked to his desk to take his phone before walking back towards the door but paused midway. In his head he knew that maybe he should just leave her alone to sort out her feelings but he couldn’t simply shake away the tightening of his chest with every sob that she quietly let out in the midst of the silent classroom.

With a goal in mind, he turned back around and quietly took a seat opposite her. His palms started sweating as his brain spun sentences on what to say or do. After a few wordless moments, he finally spoke up. “Do you want to talk about it?” He questioned softly, not wanting to scare the girl. “Uh or if you’re uncomfortable I can actually leave…maybe i’m just being intrusive, if so i’m sorry,” he started rambling.

You looked up, slightly surprised at how close he was to you. “No, it’s okay. I’m not uncomfortable, I'm just upset about my test that’s all,” you said, mumbling the last part.

“64% is pretty good. Why are you sad? Cheer up okay, there is always a next time!” Jisung smiled trying to be optimistic but stopping when he watched the girl scoff.

“You can say that because you got full marks.”

“Huh what, no, of course not. I’m just saying it is pretty good considering half the class failed.”

You sighed, shoving your test paper in your bag before zipping it up. “It’s just a decent score, there is nothing good about it,” You muttered. “Nevermind, you can go, I’ll be fine. You’re right, it is just another test I did decently in. Whatever. I’ll just leave after I look better, you can go though, thanks for checking in on me.”

You looked back out the window, resting your chin on your palm, expecting him to leave. However, instead, Jisung grabbed a pen from your pencil case and took a post-it paper that he kept under his table before scribbling on it. He left it on the corner of your table before quietly turning around to leave.

“Just text me if you ever need help in anything or uh just need someone to talk to okay?” He said before closing the door behind him.

You looked at the post-it after the door closed with a thud. Your heart warmed reading it, your lips stretching into a small smile. Hope bloomed in your chest, maybe everything will be okay.

You are never just decent to me.

You did well, I’m proud of you :)

It’ll get better.

Here is my number if you ever need it

061-321-3928

— Jisung.

[thetypingpup]

i don’t know if you will be into this but one of those ejacualting straps with xiaojun 👀

it's the way i just saw a post about this earlier with a different idol and was instantly intrigued by the concept 😏

no bc he would look so fucking pretty getting his face fucked. just letting you hold both sides of his face while his lips stretch around the toy. he'd look like he's in fucking heaven, eyes slid shut in bliss, cheeks hollowed to suck on the strap, moaning every time the tip hits that stimulating spot in the back of his throat. just imagine him getting genuine pleasure from having his mouth fucked like this, desperately trying to stroke himself with a shaky hand the entire time. he loves every bit of it, the rough tug on his hair, the smoothness of the toy sliding over his tongue, the rough stimulation of the tip bumping against the back of his mouth and sliding down his throat oh he's here for all of it. the way you moan as if you're getting pleasure from this too only adds to the experience, makes him wanna bob his head and suck harder and faster just to please you more. and when you pull back right before you "cum" and start stroking the strap, oh he fucking lives for that moment of anticipation, looking up at you with glassy, faraway eyes and an open mouth, his tongue peeking out ever so slightly to catch the release. fuck imagine painting his pretty face with ropes of cum, the planes of his face being the perfect canvas for the stark white strands. fuck imagine if he had makeup on too, that pristine image of beauty completely defiled by such a lewd side. the whole thing is so fucking erotic to him he could easily cum at the sensation of the cum landing on his face, especially if the warmth seeps into his skin.

[kpopsexstories]

BREAK! My "Most Memorable Sexual Experiences of NCT" series will now take a break while I write the remaining stories

With Jaehyun's story that I posted yesterday (Feb 12, 2024), it's time for a break in the Most Memorable Sexual Experiences of NCT short story/smut series.

By break, I mean a posting break. I'll be spending this time writing the remaining six stories, meaning that for me it's the opposite of a break: Xiaojun, Taeil, Jeno, Jaemin, Winwin and Lucas are still to come 😊

I have no idea how long this break will last...

...but the last one was for about a month and a half. I already have drafts for the above members, but a lot of work still remains.

While you wait, you can check out (and follow!) the blog to find all k-pop smut stories I've published, and request a story for my other on-going series, Quick Fix Dirty Kpop Imagines.

Can you believe that with just the 15 "Most Memorable Sexual Experiences" stories I've published so far, I've written the length of a full-length novel! That's pretty insane now that I look back on it. I'm having a lot of fun with this project! 😀

For more information on the "Most Memorable Sexual Experiences of NCT" series, check out the posting schedule.

Will the blog be silent during the break? No, because I have some other stuff coming that I think you'll love! 😍

I started this blog to write smut specifically for NCT, and I always knew I wanted to start with more realistic sex as in the "Most Memorable Sexual Experiences" series.

But if you've paid attention, you already know that I'm expanding my horizon. The Quick Fix Dirty Kpop Imagines series is already running, and I've got more "Quick Fix" stories coming while my main series is on break! This means both a different, wilder style and members of other k-pop groups.

In fact, starting this week I'll be posting TWO "Quick Fix" stories per week, at least for a few weeks – and for the first time on this blog, they are stories with non-NCT members!

BTS Namjoon is up next (tomorrow, Wednesday February 14, 2024), and on Saturday TXT Soobin makes an appearance.

NSFW K-pop Smut Series: "Quick Fix Dirty K-pop Imagines"

The "Quick Fix" series has significantly shorter stories that focus exclusively on the sex, and makes you the other character:

Short, sweet & to the point – no fluff or backstory, just sex!

Written with you as the other character; imagine yourself in the scenario (having sex with your bias!)

Slightly wilder sex than most stories in the "Most Memorable" series.

Mixed members & k-pop idols from various groups.

Requests open – visit the blog to request a story!

So, the blog won't be dead just because I need more time to finish the "Most Memorable Sexual Experiences of NCT" series.

And, once I'm ready with the stories for the six remaining NCT members, a new, longer NCT story will be posted every Monday again, for six weeks straight.

Beyond that, I'll let you in on a little secret: when the NCT series comes to an end, I'll be expanding the "Most Memorable Sexual Experiences" series to other groups.

What a great start to 2024 so far, huh? 😄 Thank you so much for reading and following!

[xdjville]

wayv and pda

pairing: wayv x gn!reader

cw: none

author's note: guess who's back from the dead! long story short i've been booked and busy, and since i started this blog purely to post if and when i have an idea and/or inspiration, i didn't want to push myself to put out just anything. i'll continue to write as motivation comes though, so please stick around 🫶

#kun

not really huge on pda. he prefers to keep intimacy for, well, intimate spaces, but still enjoys showing his affection for you to the level that says "this is my partner and i love them" without making any of the parties involved uncomfortable. that said, he prefers to do it with actions over touching, like opening the doors for you, walking on the side of the sidewalk that's closer to the street, or helping you out of your outerwear, but linking your arms or wrapping his hand around your waist is also very welcome. he's extremely observant too, so he'll move your necklace if the clasp has shifted to the front, fix your hair or head accessories, or take care of an eyelash that fell on your cheek. bonus: not exactly pda unless someone else is in the car, but he will put a hand over your thigh when he's driving.

#ten

honestly couldn't care less. not that he doesn't show pda, he does, a lot, but he never does it on purpose. he'd just casually put a hand around your shoulders when you're walking, on your thigh when you're sitting down, or place his chin on your shoulder when you're waiting in line out of habit. he'd touch your arm or shoulder when he's talking and lightly slap your arm while laughing because it feels natural to him. he's mindlessly reaching for your hand and intertwining your fingers when he's absorbed into telling a story, and give it a little squeeze when he's done and realizes it. most of those he would also do to his members or other close friends, but none of them would give him that familiar feeling in the stomach when reciprocating his affection like you do.

#winwin

not a fan, at all. not in front of strangers, not family, not the members. you'd have to take things slowly and look out for his reactions to get an idea of what he's okay with, or simply just sit him down and get it out of him. he will get shy and embarrassed, and that's the main reason for why he's not big on pda, but unless you plainly don't respect his boundaries he won't be uncomfortable to the point of getting annoyed either. he can handle a few teasing comments from his members and probably will gradually accommodate, but he still prefers when there's only one pair of eyes watching him. when it comes to holding hands, please link your pinky with his, for the sake of his heart (he also thinks it's cute).

#xiaojun

gets shy about pda but does it nevertheless. what can he say? he's whipped for you and he couldn't go an hour without a peck on your head, at the very least, and if someone happens to be in the same room at the time, then that's what the universe must have wanted. he's really just slightly less clingy in public than he is in private, and maybe will limit the amount of kisses according to who's there with you, but won't really complain about anything you initiate. will he blush all the way to the tips of his ears if anyone comments on his display of affection? yes. is he going to do it again in the span of the next thirty minutes? also yes. is he going to get over the shyness anytime soon? probably not.

#hendery

no amount of eyes can stop hendery from showering you with all the kisses and touches you deserve. he loves you and he's not afraid to show it - more than that, he might even get a slight ego boost from a stare or a teasing comment (to which he will respond with something along the lines of him being able to pull someone like you and make you embarrassed instead). he lives by the rule that if he can see you, he should be able to touch you and will sulk if you sit too far away for his liking. got past the stage where the members would tease him for pecking your lips by throwing shade back at them and now wouldn't even flinch if they walked into the room right into your make out session (which may or may not have happened).

#yangyang

he doesn't mind pda, but most of the time won't initiate it either. he's fine with more casual things like holding hands, hugging, or an occasional kiss on the cheek if that's something you're into, but he will get embarrassed and slightly uncomfortable if you do anything more without a warning, espacially in front of a bigger group of people. he has pretty strict boundaries in this matter but he's more than happy to communicate them to you and make sure he's aware of your own, as well as make sure that you don't feel pushed away. yangyang's also not a fan of showing affection in front of his members. he'll throw an arm around your shoulders when you're all watching a movie together if you've already been together for a while, but that's about it. you'll get all the cuddles and kisses in the world when you head to bed for the night though.

#taglist ➼♡ @0-hoony @suzayaaa

©xdjville

[justwritedreams]

Irreplaceable | Kun

Pilot!Kun x Reader, soldier au

Word count: 1592 Genre: Fluff, action. Author: maari Warnings: mentions of military exercises and Kun being kind of angry bc that's hot Note: This is so short, I'm sorry 🥺 but it's my first story with him so I hope you like! Request: Could you please write something with Kun (WAYV/NCT) with him being a plane pilot? Idk, Top Gun Maverick vibes?

⪢ NCT Masterlist

Y/N adjusted her sunglasses better on her face while a smile played across her face, she saw her boyfriend looking for her on the beach and almost laughed when she saw him confused.

But she genuinely laughed when a much older woman approached him. Even from afar she could see the bad intentions of the woman who even caressed his arm.

Kun was already an extremely attractive man, with the air force uniform and the Ray Ban attracting everyone's eyes even more.

But she had no reason to be jealous, firstly because she knew he loved her, secondly because the scene was very funny.

She bit her lip to hold back a laughter as he politely walked away from the woman, saying something to her and looking around.

Y/N decided to help him, she came out from under the umbrella she was in and waved her hand to get her boyfriend's attention.

Not only did it work, but she also saw his relieved smile and without waiting he started walking towards her. As soon as he got close, Y/N threw herself into his lap, hugging his waist with her legs and his neck with her hands.

Kun smiled widely as he held her by her thighs.

“Are you laughing?” he asked in disbelief.

“Another fan approaching you?” She smiled evilly.

He shook his head.

“I love my job but going out in uniform has its downsides.”

It wasn't the first and probably wouldn't be the last time he was stopped by someone, whether to flirt or thank him for his service and effort.

"Oh really?" She looked him up and down. “I don’t see any disadvantages.”

She bit her bottom lip and Kun threw his head back, laughing.

“I'm going to start thinking you're only with me because of my uniform.” he said before touching their foreheads and placing a peck on her.

“That’s one of the reasons.” She caressed the back of his head, laughing.

Kun took the opportunity to go back under the umbrella and sat down on the sand with Y/N still in his lap, she then buried her head on his shoulder.

She wanted to make the most of what little time they had before he went back to base.

“Are you going to watch training today?” He asked, rubbing her back.

“I went last week.” she remembered. “Your commander is going to fight me, I’m not leaving the base.”

“I train better when you watch me.” He admitted, smirking.

She raised her head and looked at him, she wanted to bite his cheeks, which were turning pink, but she just squeezed them with her hands.

“If it’s for the good of the aeronautics then okay, I’ll go.” She moved closer to place a kiss on the tip of his nose.

“I will train with the new soldiers and we will have an international team to train with.” he began to speak, excitedly.

Y/N paid attention to what her boyfriend was saying, focused on the way he looked so happy as he shared it with her. She stroked his short hair.

She liked listening to him talk, the way his dimples appeared when he smiled made Y/N smile too.

They stayed on the beach for a while, before Y/N gave him a ride to the base. When they arrived hand in hand while Kun carried the suitcase in the other hand, they greeted the soldiers who passed by them and Kun turned to kiss her lips softly when he saw the commander ahead.

“See you in a bit, sweetheart.” he smiled and kissed her once more.

“Fly, my indomitable wing.”

Kun laughed and she watched him walk over to the commander, where he saluted.

Y/N had a silly smile on her lips and saw when the commander started walking towards her.

“Y/N, it’s good to see you again.” he greeted her and she quickly bowed.

“I say the same, Commander.”

“Come to watch the training again?”

“If I can, of course.”

He indicated for her to start walking and as soon as she did, he started walking beside her.

“You’re not supposed to.” She looked at him, scared. “But Kun trains much better when you’re at base, so I’ll allow it.”

She nodded and smiled restrainedly, following the commander to the communications room where they would have access to the aircraft's radios and built-in cameras.

Y/N was used to it, she already knew that aircraft 3 was his and focused on the camera, watching him put on his helmet. She couldn't contain her happiness at seeing him do what he loved so much.

She was anxious about training and missions, but she always believed him when he promised that he would return in one piece and well.

Kun was a responsible and committed soldier, he had a leadership spirit that infected others.

And even the training he took seriously, he prepared himself very well for the exercises. Flying was his life.

Y/N followed his career so much that she knew the basics of the exercises, if anyone walked in there would mistake her for someone on the team.

It was routine training so there wasn't much new, the training, the instructions were always the same.

However, when a soldier from the international team made a risky move with the airship, Y/N saw Kun's expression change.

He wasn't just serious, he was angry and she knew very well why, any kind of accident or something like that would be his responsibility, after all he was the team leader. And the foreign team was probably not paying attention to their safety.

Y/N frowned when she saw her boyfriend's airship perform a dangerous stunt and glared at the commander.

He didn't seem at all calm about it.

“Was he supposed to do that?” she asked quietly, seeing the commander shake his head.

“It’s getting a little too risky.” he said.

She tried not to show her concern, she trusted her boyfriend but she knew how he felt when a soldier from abroad didn't follow what was agreed and he felt obliged to show why they were following protocol.

She couldn't say that she hadn't felt her heart stop in her mouth every time his airship spiraled in the air or when it got too close to the other ones, both his own team and the other.

She only felt a little calmer when the exercise was over and the airship began to turn around to land at the base.

Y/N left the room along with the commander and the rest of the team monitoring the exercise, a little further back as she heard the noise of the airship getting closer and closer, ready to return to the ground once again.

When this happened, she was already outside and saw the soldiers leaving one by one and recognized her boyfriend from afar, holding his helmet.

She stiffened and hurried forward when she saw Kun quickly walk over to another soldier, holding him by the collar of his uniform after dropping his helmet on the ground.

Y/N's eyes widened when she saw her boyfriend glowering with hatred while shaking his colleague.

“Listen, Simpson, if you do that again in my territory…” the other soldiers also approached to push the two away. “I swear I will shoot down your aircraft in the air.”

“Stop being nervous, Qian. It was part of the protocol.”

“Part of protocol to almost rip off the left wing of my airship?!” he questioned irritably and shook the soldier once again, who simply laughed ironically.

“That’s enough, you two!” The commander ordered and the two walked away. “Get out of my yard before I make you two load the fuel for all the aircraft.”

The two looked at each other irritated and left in opposite directions after saluting their superior.

Y/N observed the scene a little further back seriously and with her arms crossed, her boyfriend walked towards her while his face softened when he saw her there.

"My angel." he said as soon as he was close enough to stretch his arms out to her.

However, before she threw herself into his arms, Y/N threw a stinging slap at his arm which he dodged, complaining.

"Ouch! What was this?" he asked, confused.

“You scared me, you know?” she complained. “My leg went wobbly three times thinking you were going to fall with that thing from the sky!”

He laughed softly and approached her, hugging her around the waist.

“I knew what I was doing.”

She continued to stare at him, angry.

“I will never see your training again, it’s decided.”

"You sure?" He asked, raising his eyebrows and she narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t fall because I knew you were waiting for me.”

“Shhh.” she brought her cold hand to his mouth, shushing him. “Don’t even say that as a joke.”

He moved closer to place a kiss on the top of her head.

“I would never leave you!” he said and she suppressed her silly smile.

“You better!" She pouted. “You look too handsome in uniform and fighting with someone for me to lose.”

He pretended to be offended.

“Ah, so that’s all there is to it?”

She smiled mischievously and brought her hand to the back of his head.

“Of course not, you fool.” she caressed his skin, watching him close his eyes at the affection. “You are unbearable but you are irreplaceable.”

“I’ll show you what’s unbearable at home.”

[starlightkun]

⇢ word count: 13.5k ⇢ warnings: past unethical experimentation, you have to accept the premise of a single human empire in space in the future with colonies and a military and not think deeper about that, multiple needle/injection mentions, main characters are morally gray, and oh yeah cursing ⇢ genre: sci-fi, set in the near-ish future, humans and aliens and robots, black op mission, captain kun, ?????? reader, slow burn, fluff, dash of angst, ft. wayv as the crew of the vision ⇢ extra info: took a lot of obvious inspo for this one from isaac asimov’s robot stories, specifically his concept of positronic brains & the three laws of robotics (and if you’ve read any of his stories, you’ll probably be able to see some other places too) ⇢ author's note: holy shit, this is finally it. the last part. THE last part. im literally vibrating rn y’all, im so excited for you to read this one, i hope you’ve been enjoying this fic im so so proud of it and love it so much ⇢ series masterlist | prev.

You looked down at his hand, then back up at him. “Do you want whatever a robot’s love is?”

“Here’s the engine room,” Ten announced, pushing open a door. Inside were multitudes of pipes, tubes, and wires. On your tour with Kun, he had only pointed out the door to you, not taken you inside.

You looked around with interest, following the pilot further in. He was walking towards a large cylinder set lower than the floor, about the same height as him. Thin bands of white light wrapped around the body of it, stopping where it tapered into a blunt end. Ten stepped down into the inset, now a head shorter than the cylinder, and jerked his head for you to follow.

You dropped down as well, looking up at the contraption.

“This is the slipdrive,” he gestured to it grandly. “Brand new.”

“It’s smaller than the second gen,” you observed immediately, looking around the engine room. “The dimensions of the prior model would be… twice as large?”

“Correct.”

“The Vision was built before the new slipdrive, it’s meant to use the prior model, which has a completely different energy signature. How are they compatible?”

“You’re fun,” he declared with a grin, resting a hand on the side. But the explanation he seemed about to launch into stopped short, as the smile fell from his face and turned baffled. “Well that’s not right.”

“What?”

“ZEN?” Ten called out for the AI. “There isn’t something wrong with the slipdrive, is there? You’d tell us.”

“Of course, Sergeant,” ZEN’s voice confirmed, though his avatar didn’t appear. You figured he might not have a terminal to project himself from down here.

“So it’s just… idling?”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

“Why’d you turn it on idle?”

“Captain Qian’s order.”

“Should’ve figured. Thanks, man.” Ten just looked even more troubled.

“What’s wrong?” You asked.

“Captain apparently ordered ZEN to suspend us in slipspace…” He crossed his arms thoughtfully. “I’m assuming you know the difference between turning off a slipdrive and idling one?”

“Turning off a slipdrive drops the ship out of slipspace. Idling it suspends it in slipspace.”

“It’s not exactly putting it in park. The longer we’re in slipspace, the more the slipdrive and the ship’s systems have to work to hold its position outside time and space. Not an ideal position to be in for a protracted amount of time.”

You gulped, following after Ten as he started towards the door. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to ask the captain why he suspended us in slipspace,” he said simply.

Ten seemed to barely register you accompanying him to Kun’s office, or at least didn’t mind if he did notice. The door was open when the two of you got there, and Ten knocked as he walked in.

Kun looked up from where he had been staring rather listlessly at his desk reader displaying some report. He dismissed the document as he went to give his greetings, “Ah, Ten, Y/N. How can I help you?”

“We were just down in the engine room, Captain,” Ten started. “I was showing Y/N the new slipdrive, when I noticed that it uh, it wasn’t set to propulsion.”

“Yes, I’m aware.”

“Why did you suspend us in slipspace, Captain?” His words, despite their bluntness, held no hostility or malice, they clearly weren’t accusatory or suspicious, just curious, inquisitive.

The captain sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. You chewed on the inside of your cheek nervously. After far too long of a pause to be comfortable, he replied, “There is… a matter that needs to be resolved before we arrive at UHN Main. Do you trust that you do not need to know anything further at this time?”

“How long will it take to resolve?”

“I don’t know, unfortunately.”

“Just making sure we’re all on the same page about the slipdrive idling.”

“It’s brand new, and the newest model. Not to mention ZEN is monitoring all the systems. If an immediate danger becomes present, I will obviously reevaluate.”

Ten seemed satisfied. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do, yeah?”

“Thank you, Ten.”

“Alright, Y/N, have you seen the armory? I bet you could trick out a blaster like you did the coffee machine.”

Before he could take you back out of the captain’s office, however, Kun cleared his throat. “I wanted to have a word with Y/N, actually.”

“Gag, okay.” Ten headed for the door alone. “I’ll find a manual for the blasters, Y/N. Find me when you’re done. Bye!”

And then it was just you and Kun. And ZEN, presumably.

You turned to Kun, fidgeting with your fingers. “I didn’t say anything about you suspending the slipdrive, Kun. He was showing me the engine room because he knew I had read about the new slipdrive model, and he noticed it was idling all on his own. ZEN told him you suspended the ship.”

“I’m not angry, Y/N,” Kun reassured you gently. “Apparently Liu has been doing some thinking, about the headache you got yesterday.”

“…Right.”

“He wants to take another look at your head, to see if he can figure out what was causing the pain. And ideally, disable it.”

The mention of a painful headache made you shift your weight from foot to foot. Somewhere, in the back of your mind, you knew what he was talking about, but it felt like it happened to someone else, not like your own memory.

“Okay, sure,” you agreed.

In Yangyang’s lab again, he had you lay down on one of the cool metal counters this time, and you felt startlingly like an autopsy cadaver as you stared up at the sterile white light above.

“Well?” Yangyang prompted the captain pointedly, holding his hand out palm-out.

“Well what?” Kun snorted, crossing his arms over his chest.

“My positronic Allen key that you stole yesterday. I need it back now.”

“I don’t have it.”

“Don’t tell me you destroyed it in some noble, romantic gesture, or so help me, Captain—”

“I have it, Yangyang,” you interrupted, digging into your pocket to bring it out. You offered it out to the roboticist. “Here.”

“Ah, thank you, Y/N,” he beamed, accepting the coin into his hand. “Now, unlike last time, I’ll be putting you into repair stasis. You’ll lose muscle tension, kind of like when you’re asleep, except you’ll be awake. Hence why you’re laying down. That’s so if I were to test out anything that caused unexpected movement, you wouldn’t injure yourself or break anything. But I won’t be messing with any of that, promise. I’m just going to be looking around at how your head’s constructed.”

“Like… opening my head?”

“I don’t think yours does that.” He shook his head with what looked like a nearly disappointed frown. “I’m no human doctor, but from what I remember of your x-ray, I’m pretty sure your positronic brain is encased in mostly human stuff. At least, stuff that doesn’t look like metal on an x-ray. Bone, skin, who knows? I’ll be doing live imaging with some robotics tools this time to try to look at what’s inside.”

“Got it…”

When he held the Allen key up to your head this time, the side that faced you had a glowing pentagon in the center rather than a triangle. Yangyang talked as he slowly slid it around your forehead and temple, “The receiver to turn on repair stasis is usually around the same area as diagnostic stasis, but not always.”

“Holy shit…” Liu breathed out as he moved the sensor over your forehead, continuing to develop the image on the small handheld screen in his other hand.

Captain Qian tensed. “What? What’s going on?”

“I was kind of right. Y/N’s head wasn’t exploding so much as ripping itself apart from the inside.” The roboticist squinted at the parallel, jointed strips of metal at strategic points around your positronic brain casing. If they were to expand, which it definitely looked like they were meant to do, they would not only rip the casing apart, allowing the organic, wet human fluids like blood into the carefully aligned positronic brain, but fracture and break your skull from the inside out.

“Well fix whatever did that!” The captain snapped.

“I can’t.”

“What kind of roboticist are you?”

“A fucking good one,” the lieutenant shot back, the tension in the room finally getting to him as he bit back at his superior. “Because I can tell that nothing is faulty, Captain. It’s a failsafe. If certain parameters are met, the failsafe is triggered, and her entire positronic brain is permanently destroyed.”

He sighed, looking over the mechanics again. They were almost too familiar to him, rudimentary, but effective. They were widely considered cruel to use on robots nowadays. His roboethics professor was the first vocal opponent of such failsafes, especially when the topic of sentient robots was brought up. A human ordering a robot to destroy itself was one thing, a direct order, a choice, a decision. But installing failsafes for a robot to destroy itself, entirely unaware of what was happening to it was different. You weren’t even just a robot, you were… something else. A person, regardless of what percentage of you was organic matter.

“I doubt she’s doing it consciously,” Liu added, as if that made it any better.

“But you said someone either took all her data or destroyed it already, then ordered her to forget everything! What the fuck would this failsafe even do?” The captain was still demanding answers, insisting on reason, on anything less than the brutal reality in front of them.

“Presumably destroy the last thing left from whatever shady thing was happening down there.” Liu nodded to you, laying limp on the counter, eyes closed, almost looking peaceful, if one could imagine that you were sleeping.

“I hate to ask… but why keep her like this in the first place? Why not just destroy her when they abandoned Aegeum? Why do all this to her and not just trigger the failsafe? It’s just… cruel,” Captain Qian said, his voice hoarse. The lieutenant didn’t need to look at him to know that he was staring at you. They both were.

“I wish I knew, Captain. I wish I could tell you anything.”

“It registers as pain for her?”

“She remembers being human a lot better than she remembers being a robot, those might be the only words she has for it,” Liu offered up an explanation, then another, “I also haven’t seen a model exactly like her… I don’t know how much of her is organic. She could have nerves, pain receptors. If she says it hurts, then I believe her as much as if you told me you got a boo-boo.”

“Is there any way you can take the failsafe out? Or deactivate it at least?” The captain asked, voice near pleading now.

Liu turned away from you to shoot the captain a look, retorting, “Without accidentally triggering it or turning her into a positronic vegetable in the process? Fuck no.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.”

“God, what the hell went on down there?”

“The more I learn, the less I think I want to know.”

“You’re going to have to tell the rest of the crew. You know that, right?” The roboticist said bluntly, leaning his elbows forward on his knees to look the captain in the eyes.

Captain Qian ran a hand through his hair, sighing. “I know…”

“I won’t blab. This is between you and Y/N. We all trust you to tell us what we need to know when we need to know it. But I think they need to know this for Y/N’s sake.”

“Yeah, I know. Don’t want them accidentally triggering the failsafe or ordering her to do something.”

“Or another flying knife incident.”

“Fuck, that too…” He swore, looking up to the ceiling as he tried not to imagine your head randomly exploding at mess one morning. The captain focused back on his crewmate. “Are you about done with her like this?”

Liu stood up, setting the positronic Allen key onto the countertop next to your head. “Yep.”

“See you at mess, Liu.” The captain nodded to him as the roboticist moved to leave, closing the door behind him.

The captain picked up the Allen Key, gently lifting and turning your head to be able to access the base of your skull. He slid the key into place as he’d seen Liu do twice now, pressing the side with the pentagon to your skin until the coin buzzed twice against his fingertips. Setting the key aside, he delicately placed your head back down.

This time, you could tell that time had passed. Kun was standing above you, in the process of letting your head go, so tenderly, and you didn’t quite remember him grabbing it, but you didn’t not remember him grabbing it. You blinked slowly, eyes following him as he stepped back politely.

“Y/N?” He said your name quietly, holding your gaze. “You with me?”

“Yeah, Kun,” you replied, slowly sitting up. “I’m here…”

“How much of that were you actually hearing?”

“All my systems were operative but not talking to each other. I could hear you guys, but I wasn’t actually processing what you were saying.”

“Sounds like Wong in our briefings,” Kun joked dryly, and you let out a half-hearted chuckle. When tense silence fell over the two of you, he cleared his throat and continued, “Anyway, Liu thinks we have to be careful with our words when discussing certain things about your amnesia or Aegeum, and that the headache is a failsafe is to keep us from prying too far.”

You tried to argue, “I can deal with a headache if it helps—”

“Y/N, it’s not just a bad migraine. It’s a self-destruct button. And pushing it wouldn’t help us at all.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. So we’re going to leave it alone, alright?”

“No picking at the scab.”

The corner of his lip twitched. “Exactly.”

“I-I think I’d like to go back to our room,” you said weakly.

“I’ll go with you.”

When you woke up from your midday nap, you weren’t expecting Kun to still be in the room, honestly. But there he was, sat at the desk with the paperback book from Aegeum, having turned the chair around to face the bed. As you stirred, he dog-eared his page and set the book aside. You yawned and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes for the second time that day.

He stood up and moved to sit on the edge of the mattress, offering you a tentative smile. “Hey.”

“Hey…” You echoed hesitantly.

Kun inhaled through his nose, then exhaled through his mouth before drawing his eyes up to meet yours and setting his shoulders. “Whatever kind of impulses and signals fire in me that my brain interprets as love, I don’t question those. If the best word you have for what’s going in you is love, it’s not my place to question that either. I’m not the gatekeeper of the word.”

You held his gaze steadily. “Do you think I only love you because of the First Law?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

“Can you live with yourself not knowing?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m sure this has been a lot for you too, I won’t push you for an answer right now,” you said quietly, slinging your feet over the side of the bed to stand up.

As you made your first step towards the door, hand outstretched to grab the handle, Kun spoke up, “I…”

You stopped, your hand falling back down to your side as you turned back to look at him curiously. “What is it?”

“Never mind.” He rushed to shake his head.

“You were going to ask something, weren’t you?”

“It’s okay. You were going.”

“You can ask. I know the difference between question that I can say no to, and an order.”

He still hesitated.

“You’ve seen me say no, haven’t you? Even to you, when there was no danger. Think.”

Kun finally nodded. “You’re right.”

“So?”

“I want— Could you… Would you mind… staying, for a little bit? You don’t have to… you can sit over on the other bed, or at the desk, or leave, or whatever you want, but…”

“I want to be around you too, Kun,” you said the words that you knew he couldn’t bring himself to for fear of it being too forceful, sitting back down next to him, closer than before. “Even if… you don’t know what to do about it.”

He swallowed thickly, and you saw his jaw tighten. You held your hand out for him, watching as he slowly put his on top.

You woke up first in the morning. From where your head rested on your pillow, you could see Kun’s own sleeping form in the bottom bunk of the other bed. Yesterday had been a bittersweet time: he told you about the book he was reading, you shared what you’d learned about the latest subject you’d been perusing, you gave him his injections, and the two of you had been unable to leave each other. Until it was time to go to sleep, and then Kun wordlessly got under the sheets on the other side of the room.

Slipping out of your cabin, you started down the halls of the ship. You had no particular destination in mind, thinking that maybe you’d go to the observation deck before eventually meandering over to the kitchen for mess, but more-so wanting to stretch your legs and let your mind ruminate. Your positronic mind. Even that thought alone was something you were still turning over.

As you passed by the robotics lab, however, you weren’t expecting to see light coming from under the door. Stopping, you gently turned the handle and pushed it open, finding it unlocked. Yangyang—or who you assumed to be Yangyang, as their face was completely covered by a welding mask—was at one of the workstations, welding something together as sparks flew up around his hands, and you squinted, covering your eyes against the brightness.

“Hey, Yangyang,” you announced your presence.

He perked up towards the sound of your voice, and waved his hand that was holding the robot piece in it. “Oh, hey, Y/N.”

“Are you busy?”

“Does it look like I am?” He gestured to the materials in front of him.

You looked over the countertops that seemed more cluttered than normal, welding tools that he was actively using, and robot part that was still in his hand. “I mean, yeah, kind of.”

“Nah, come in.” He waved you in, setting his tools and project down as you stepped further in. Still aware of how early it was in the morning, you shut the door behind you. The roboticist took his welding mask off, putting that aside and mussing his hair up with his fingers. “I really am sorry about the other day, by the way. Giving you an order.”

“Oh, that’s not why I’m here.”

“I didn’t think it was, but I still wanted to apologize. I needed to do it, but it was still a shitty thing. So I’m sorry. I’d do it again, to save your life, but I’ll apologize after every time.”

You tilted your head curiously. “Then what’s the point of apologizing?”

“Because you deserve one,” he said sincerely, firmly.

“Well, thanks. For saving me, and apologizing, I guess.”

“So, what do you need?” He changed his tone, throwing on a bright smile.

You took a deep breath, pulling up another stool to sit across the counter from him. “Do you think I can love?”

“From a robotics standpoint, I don’t know enough about how you’re constructed to be able to say much about what you can do.” He leaned back in his chair, putting his feet up on the tabletop, lacing his fingers together over his stomach. “But that doesn’t matter. Ever since humans invented the idea of love, we’ve been debating about if it’s real, what it is, trying to study it, sell it, whatever.”

“Sounds like you don’t think it’s real.”

“Sure it is. As real as any abstract, undefinable concept is,” he shrugged. “Humans like to think they’re special. It was only in recent human history that we even learned that we weren’t the only intelligent species in the universe. And even then, there were some people who said that surely what sets us apart from them is that humans are the only species capable of love. And when we finally got translators proficient enough and could talk to them and we found out that they had the concept of love too, then it became that humans are the only ones capable of real love. Whatever that is.”

“The other species might’ve been thinking that about humans, too.”

“True.” He tapped his thumbs together thoughtfully, then continued, “My old roboethics prof, he used to say something: There’s no true metalman.”

“What does it mean?” You asked curiously.

“It’s a play on ‘no true Scotsman,’ which is a logical fallacy. The fallacy itself is kind of irrelevant. But it means there’s no such thing as a pure robot, free of human influence. That no matter how hard a roboticist may try, they’ll unintentionally leave some trace of themselves in whatever they create. There is always some human choice to be made at some point in the process. Some cases are more obvious than others, like early robots that had more limited built-in vocabularies talking like their creators, or a roboticist making seemingly arbitrary aesthetic decisions for a robot’s head features then his buddy walks in and jokes that it kind of looks like the first guy’s ex-wife.”

You blinked. “Did that really happen?”

“It’s an ‘everyone knows a guy who worked with a guy who…’ kind of thing,” he explained. “Anyway, my point is that I don’t think it’s so hard to imagine that a species so obsessed with love might, intentionally or not, make something that loves too.”

You pulled your bottom lip in between your teeth, thinking about the difference in Kun from before and after you went into repair stasis. “Is that what you told Kun?”

“What?” Yangyang’s confusion seemed genuine.

“I don’t know, I figured he would’ve talked to you about it,” you mumbled, looking down at your hands.

“No, he hasn’t.” After a moment, he added, “For what it’s worth, I think if he was to be taking my word about if you can love over yours… that wouldn’t be a great sign?”

You let out a choked laugh. “What does it mean that I’m asking you that then?”

“You’re someone who knew so little about yourself in the first place and now feels like you’ve had all that turned on its head. You’re doing what you’ve always done: Asking questions. I think that’s perfectly fair.”

“You don’t think I’ve completely lost what little sense of self I had?”

“I think you might feel like that—I can’t read your mind—but this doesn’t make the Y/N we got to know on Aegeum a figment of our imagination. You weren’t pretending to be our friend.”

“You don’t think that was the First Law?”

“The flying knife and the ceiling, definitely First Law behavior,” he conceded. “But I’ve met some rude, unhelpful robots before, trust me.”

“When did you know?” You asked. “That I wasn’t completely human?”

“I suspected something from when they found you untouched with no memories. I thought you were an android with a busted memory core. But then you bled.”

“I thought androids didn’t exist.”

“They don’t, but it’s the best I could come up with. No way was I expecting that they had actually developed a functioning humanoid before the first android.”

“Maybe they did but they didn’t survive.”

“Oh, you see, now that’s sad,” Yangyang clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Don’t make me think about that.”

“Sorry,” you chuckled a little, then went to change the topic. “So what were you working on?”

As Yangyang began explaining the personal project he had been tinkering with when you walked in, you let your seemingly ever-present problems fade into the background, eagerly listening to his enthusiastic words.

After breakfast, you took an extra plate of food to Kun’s office, knocking firmly on the closed door. When ZEN had called him for mess earlier, the AI reported back that he didn’t want to be disturbed, and the other six of you were to eat without him.

“Come in,” he voiced from within.

You entered, spotting him at the desk, hunched over reports with his head in his hand. “You missed breakfast.”

“Sorry, I… thinking.”

“About?” You asked, setting his food on the only empty space left on his desk.

“Thanks,” he took the food, moving some of his papers aside to put the plate front and center. “The Skippers that were on Aegeum, we still don’t know why they were there.”

“No, we don’t. Or why they were flying Fishead pods instead of their own ships.”

“I was just re-reading this report from the Admiral from before we entered slipspace. List of attacks by Fishead pirates, but there’s something off about a couple of them. The targets are all UHN scientific sites, not military vessels or trade outposts, and nothing was pillaged. Just destroyed.”

You tilted your head thoughtfully. “Were any K’llor spotted at the attacks, or only their ships?”

“It looks like they were just aerial attacks, cannon blasts. So, it would seem like a no.”

“If we assume those weren’t K’llor pirates driving those pods, and were actually more Skippers looking to destroy rather than plunder…”

“Two’s a coincidence, three’s a pattern.”

You sat in one of the chairs across his desk from him. “Were the facilities bigger or smaller than Aegeum?”

“Sites, not facilities,” Kun corrected you. “They weren’t even buildings. One was an unmanned space station in orbit around a meteor. It was ran entirely by robots, so it had no defenses. The other was a solar farm installed on a colony planet. They left the city it was powering alone.”

“So… no fatalities?”

“None. The city that lost their solar farm is running on back-up generators until the solar farm gets fixed.”

“If they were all Skippers, and they were all together, then what the hell happened on Aegeum?”

“They may not be in the same faction. Or they may have been at some point, then diverged only recently because of… differing ideals.”

“Still makes you wonder how they ended up at Aegeum in the first place…” You mused. “Doesn’t seem like a place you could really stumble upon accidentally.”

“No, not particularly.” Kun shook his head. After a beat of silence of him pushing food around on his plate and you silently mulling over what you had just been talking about, he changed the subject, “You got up early this morning.”

“Yeah, I was thinking, too.”

“…About?”

You shifted forward in your chair, resting your elbows on the desk in front of you and folding your arms together. “I understand that you’re worried about my having a lack of… choice in the matter, when it comes to this. And I can appreciate the sentiment, Kun, and where that concern stems from. But don’t you think, that in unilaterally ending our relationship supposedly for my own good, that also takes away my agency? The thing that you’re so worried about me keeping through all of this?”

Kun’s fork stilled over his food, and he swallowed as he held your gaze steadily. He slowly nodded, the weight of your words clearly resting heavily in the creases of his forehead. “I-I didn’t think of it like that. I’m sorry.”

“Do you trust me to make my own decisions? Even about this? Or do you really just think of me as a mindless, obedient robot?”

“No, I don’t think of you like that. God, Y/N, of course I don’t,” he denied, his voice troubled.

“Then you have to trust me to make decisions about us, too. You can’t just make them for me.”

“I…” He opened and closed his mouth, momentarily at a loss for words. “Can I digest this? Think, before we keep talking?”

“Of course,” you agreed, well aware of the gravity of your questions. Hopefully, your next ask would be lower impact, “Yangyang asked me to stop by the shop after breakfast, I’d like you to come with me, if you can.”

Kun gave you a small smile. “Nowhere else I’d rather be.”

“No, she’s not something for you to experiment on,” Kun rejected Yangyang’s idea as soon as he had started pitching it, his voice biting.

“She’s all we have left of what they were doing,” Yangyang replied, gesturing to you zealously.

The captain stepped in between you and Yangyang, his fists clenched down by his sides. “Exactly. Don’t you think Y/N’s had enough people studying her? You’re not going to put her under your microscope next.”

You looked at your friend from around Kun, shaking your head for him to drop it for now. Yangyang held his hands up and started backing away towards the door of the lab. “I’m going to grab a juice…”

Kun watched him leave, his chest heaving with deep breaths.

“Kun… what’s wrong?” You asked calmly.

“What?” He looked back at you.

“You’re shaking.” You gently picked up one of his trembling hands.

“I’m angry,” he answered shortly. “Why aren’t you?”

“He’s trying to help.”

“Did you see his face? Liu’s just found a new toy. You’re not just some… specimen to be studied.”

“This is his field of study, he’s allowed some interest, I think. And I don’t think that’s all he thinks of me.” You watched as Kun started pacing, running a hand through his hair, visibly agitated. “You’re thinking about your program, aren’t you?”

He sighed bitterly. “We weren’t people to him. Especially not the discards.”

“That makes me angry.” Your blood simmered just hearing him talk about himself like that, so casually, as if it were an objective truth. “You’re not… disposable, Kun. You hold your crew together, and I… treasure you.”

“God…” Kun looked up at the ceiling again, and it was then that you saw tears forming at the corners of his eyes as they reflected the lights above him.

“Yangyang is not Dr. Yoon,” you said firmly.

He stopped his pacing, hung his head, then nodded. “No, he’s not. He’s a good kid.”

“Exactly.”

“Y/N…” He said your name weakly, desperately, looking up from his feet to your face. You saw the tear tracks on his cheeks.

“Yes?”

“It’s true, that you were created by Dr. Yoon. I wasn’t letting myself think about that earlier. But I don’t hate you.” He didn’t falter in his words in the slightest, determined, resolute, his mind made up. “You are probably the only good thing that has come out of that man’s existence.”

“I might’ve done awful things, back at the lab,” you said, warning him.

“Yeah…” He shrugged one shoulder almost sheepishly. “And I work for the head of Intelligence at the UHN, right now. Do you think my hands are clean?”

“I’ve never thought they are.”

“You’ve always been able to just see me. I’m sorry I was refusing to see you before, but I’m looking now, I promise.”

“Can you live with yourself? Not ever knowing… if it’s the First Law?”

“Roboethicists and robopsychologists can talk themselves to death on that, I don’t care. You were right. I wasn’t giving you any sort of autonomy by making a decision like this for you. So…” He inhaled softly, but in the dead quiet of the room, you could hear every rustle of fabric, every breath, every step he took closer to you. Kun held a hand out towards you. “I can’t offer you anything close to a normal life. Or really anything at all. Other than me.”

“That’s all I can give, too. Myself. You can accept that I am in love with you, whatever that means to me, just as I accept that you love me, however that reality presents itself to you. But…” You looked down at his hand, then back up at him. “Do you want whatever a robot’s love is?”

“You are more than enough, Y/N,” he pleaded.

You took his hand. “So are you.”

“All of you, how you were made, what you very well could have done, what you are… You are more than enough,” he repeated like a prayer, pulling you in closer at the same time that he stepped forward and wrapped his other arm around you, as if he hadn’t seen you in several lifetimes, holding you to him with a crushing strength that you hadn’t experienced from him before. You hugged him back as tight as you could, so he knew it was real, that you were real, and that you were here.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, pressing his lips to your cheek. “I’m sorry—”

“No, Kun,” you hushed him. “We both needed time. It’s okay. Thank you, for trying to do what you thought was best for me.”

“Are you sure about this? What Liu wants to do?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” You pulled back from Kun’s embrace to look him in the eye. “I’m the proof. I was built there, and if we want to know what they were doing, we have to study me. I wouldn’t trust anybody more than you guys to do it.”

He cradled your cheek. “You’ll tell us as soon as your head hurts? You cannot push through the failsafe, Y/N.”

“I will, I promise,” you agreed, wiping at the drying tears on his cheeks. “I like my head in one piece.”

He stroked his thumb over your skin gently. “Yeah, me too.”

“Alright, ZEN,” you called out to the AI. “Can you get Yangyang back here?”

“Lieutenant Liu has been loitering outside the entrance for the past two minutes,” ZEN informed you.

“Of course,” Kun sighed, stepping away and turning towards the door. “Liu!”

Yangyang traipsed in, a nondescript juicebox in his hand. “Reporting for duty, Captain.”

“Explain your idea again, please.”

“Right, so, every robot’s positronic brain has a unique imprinting of positronic pathways,” the roboticist started. “New copies of the same model that are fresh off the assembly line might be nearly identical to begin with, but as they’re exposed to new stimuli, learn new things beyond their base impressions, those pathways will diverge and change.”

“So kind of like a fingerprint?” Kun asked.

“If your fingerprint changed after you learned trig for the first time, sure.”

“You want to look at the pathways in my brain closer,” you said. “Will you be able to figure out what I was imprinted with and what has been… divergence?”

“That’ll be a little bit of trial and error,” Yangyang replied regretfully. “I mean, I can assume that you were imprinted with knowledge of Outspacer, and obviously you’ve had to learn who we are… and using your brain’s positronic flows from those, I can start building a functional image of your pathways.”

“How will you access her brain?” Kun questioned. “You’re not going to open her skull, surely.”

“No, no,” the other man shook his head. “Y/N, still got that positronic Allen key on you?”

You reached into your pocket for the tool that Kun had returned to you yesterday. “Had a feeling we might be needing this. Diagnostic stasis or repair stasis?”

“Diagnostic. Sorry. But, I’m hoping you have a secondary active diagnostic stasis. If not, doing a functional positronic pathway image will be pretty much impossible, since you won’t be able to respond to any stimuli.”

Kun narrowed his eyes. “What’s the difference between this and the repair stasis, then?”

“Loss of muscle tone and level of awareness.” Yangyang took the tool from you, then grabbed a nearby notebook and pencil. “An active diagnostic stasis will keep you pretty much frozen in place unless you’re executing an order, Y/N. And you’ll be fully conscious. You ready?”

You sat up on the countertop. “Yeah, ready when you are.”

“Woah, wait,” Kun interjected before the positronic Allen key could be brought anywhere near your head. “What sorts of orders will you be giving her?”

“I won’t be giving any,” Yangyang answered defensively. “Just having her react to stimuli. It’ll look like we’re having an interview, kind of. Or a conversation.”

You gestured to one of the stools that was nearby. “Kun…”

He seemed to get the idea, pulling it up closer to your side and sitting down. Yangyang, meanwhile, rolled his stool in front of you, bringing with him his notebook, pencil, and the Allen key.

“I’ll probably have you help me, Captain, if that’s alright with you,” your friend kept talking as he flipped open to a new page, then leaned in towards you with the Allen key. “I’d love to map what the positronic flow of love looks like.”

This time, he found the spot at the base of your skull with precision, lining up the Allen key deftly. Kun watched the movements of his hand closely as he responded, “Just… having a conversation?”

Their voices faded out as your muscles froze up for a moment, then faded back in, before Yangyang drew his hand away from you and sat back in his stool. You still couldn’t move, but you could listen in on their conversation once again.

“…nothing weird, Liu,” Kun finished whatever warning he had been giving.

“Of course not, Captain,” Yangyang grinned, then turned to you. “Hey, Y/N. So you’re in active diagnostic stasis right now. We’re going to get started. Can you tell me your name?”

“Y/N,” you replied automatically.

“Great.” He sketched something onto his notebook, then grabbed a tablet from the counter. After a few taps, he turned it around to show you the screen. “Can you read this for me?”

It only took you a moment to read the Outspacer glyph. “Grain.”

“Cool.” He swiped, then showed you another. “This one?”

“River.”

“This?”

“Emergency communication.”

He set the tablet aside, grinning as he looked back down at his notebook. “Fantastic.” Then, he asked, “What did you have for breakfast today?”

“Oatmeal.”

“Who sat on your left at breakfast?”

“Corporal Wong Kunhang.”

“And who sat directly across from you?”

“Lieutenant Xiao Dejun.”

“Who did you meet first? Corporal Wong or Lieutenant Xiao?”

You were quiet, unable to formulate your response.

“Y/N?” Yangyang said your name. “Do you understand the question?”

“It’s unclear.”

“That’s okay, I’ll rephrase: Who did you encounter first in your life? Corporal Wong or Lieutenant Xiao? Regardless of if you knew their identity at the time.”

“Corporal Wong.”

“And who personally introduced themselves to you first? Corporal Wong or Lieutenant Xiao?”

“Lieutenant Xiao.”

Yangyang nodded, his pencil never stopping once while you were talking. “Great. What’s my name?”

“Lieutenant Liu Yangyang.”

“And where did you meet us? Myself, Corporal Wong, and Lieutenant Xiao.”

“Aegeum.”

“Who are the other members of our unit?”

“Staff Sergeant Ten Lee, Captain Qian Kun, Professor Dong Sicheng, and ZEN.”

“I’m going to have Captain Qian talk to you for a minute now.” Yangyang rolled out of your view.

Kun scooted into your vision, offering you a soft smile as he met your eyes. “Hey, Y/N…”

“She needs a more direct prompt if you want her to respond verbally, Captain. Either a question or an order,” Yangyang said.

“Shut up, Liu,” he responded through gritted teeth. After taking a deep breath, he addressed you gently, “Uhm, do you remember the story I told you about my parents? What my dad built for my mom?”

“A greenhouse, because your mother wanted to grow strawberries, but the climate on Dura-Jil was too cold.”

“Yeah, and—”

“I read about greenhouses.”

That seemed to catch Kun off-guard. “Wait, really? Why? We have ag bubbles.”

“I wanted to understand what love means to you.”

“Because I said when I think about what love is, I think about him building her a greenhouse.” He nodded in understanding.

“It’s an involved process, requiring a lot of thought and planning. Your father must have had to go to great lengths to get many of the materials for it on Dura-Jil.”

“My dad was an architect. I don’t think I’ve told you that, have I?”

“No.”

“That’s why we were one of the first families on Dura-Jil, he was overseeing the construction of the buildings. He was a civilian contractor with the UHN.” Kun cleared his throat, then said, “Liu has a few more questions for you, okay?”

Then Yangyang was back in front of you. “What other topics have you read about while you’ve been on the Vision?”

Kun brought the positronic Allen key down from your head, his eyes watching your face very carefully. You blinked, readjusting in your spot and rolling out your shoulders. You could recall your entire lengthy conversation with them, thought the memories felt slightly hazy, as if you had been half-asleep the entire time.

“Alright, I’ve—”

“Sorry, would you mind if I stood up while you talked?” You interrupted Yangyang sheepishly. “It feels like I’ve been sitting for a while…”

“Yeah, of course.”

Kun helped you off the counter, his hand hovering over you cautiously as you stood, until he seemed sure that your muscles would support you. Your limbs felt just fine, no aches in them, but you felt the need to move your joints around again.

“So I’ve got your positronic pathways mapped out,” Yangyang announced giddily, gripping his notebook with two hands.

“How could you even measure that though? All we did was talk, you didn’t have anything attached to me, and you couldn’t see my brain,” you asked curiously, grabbing one of your arms to stretch it across your chest.

“You were indicating the positronic flows with your fingers.”

“Wait, really?” You looked down at your hands.

“Yeah, it looked like you were playing the piano on your knees the whole time,” Kun replied, his brow furrowed. “You didn’t feel that?”

“No, I didn’t even realize I was doing it.”

Yangyang’s face lit up. “We should totally do this again with a piano under your hands! Hearing the positronic pathways as music? That’d be so cool!”

“Liu, focus,” Kun said sternly.

“Right, anyway. Here it is!” He turned the notebook around for you to see what he had been sketching.

You couldn’t tell what you were looking at. It definitely didn’t look like a human brain, or even what the components on the x-ray had looked like. If anything, it looked like some combination of abstract art and quantum physics. Intersecting curved lines, straight lines, circles, the occasional indication of a charge or other scientific symbol, some numbers. It was fascinating to look at, and sort of beautiful in a strange way, but you definitely wouldn’t be able to identify it as a brain, much less your brain, without being told that.

“…What was the point of this?” Kun asked frankly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“It looks very complex,” you added. “What does it tell you? And what will you be able to do with it?”

“Well, first of all, the degree complexity is interesting. You see these more condensed areas?” He gestured to a few areas on the page where the drawing was more congested with information than others. “We call those nodules. Some robots’ impressions will only have two nodules: The Three Laws, and then whatever their pre-programmed job is. Those are basic robots, meant to do one thing. You have a lot, as well as sub-nodules, but I also watched you gain a sub-nodule in real time as we were mapping.”

“What sub-nodule?”

“When you were talking to the captain, he gave you new information about himself, about his dad, his family,” Yangyang rambled on with enthusiasm. “What a thrill… Anyway, you’re very dynamic.”

“Uh, thank you?”

He laughed. “You’re welcome. But also, that means something when it comes to positronic brain construction. You’re able to construct new nodules and sub-nodules on your own, as well as modify or combine existing ones when presented with new information. Pretty advanced stuff. You obviously weren’t designed to be a one-trick pony. You don’t have the most nodules I’ve ever seen in a positronic brain, but you had all your non-impressed knowledge wiped, to be fair. By my estimate, you’ll surpass that other brain in… a couple weeks maybe?”

“How old was the other brain? With… more nodules?” You asked curiously, hoping you were using the jargon correctly.

“Several years old.” He beamed. “And, I was able to confirm that you were ordered to wipe everything that wasn’t impressed. You see, when data is wiped from a robot, the data itself can be entirely erased. However, it’s like leveling a house. The house may no longer be there, but the foundation is still in the ground. The positronic pathways from when the robot did have that data still exist, sort of.”

“You can see the pathways from the data that I wasn’t impressed with, but you can’t tell what that data was?”

He nodded. “The pathways are there, but since they haven’t been used, they’re degraded.”

“We have no clue what the house looked like just because we can see the foundation,” Kun sighed.

“Exactly.”

“This degradation,” the captain continued. “Is it bad? For her?”

“No.” Yangyang quickly shook his head. “They weren’t for any sort of sort of critical functions, as those would’ve been in her factory impressions, and they won’t spread to any other pathways that are currently being used.”

“Good.”

“Did this tell you anything about Aegeum?” You questioned nervously.

The roboticist tapped the eraser end of his pencil to his paper. “This is one of the most advanced positronic brains I’ve seen, and I’d love do another mapping in the future, if you’d let me.”

“Why does it sound like you’re hedging, Liu?” Kun cut in.

“But… I can only learn so much under the current circumstances.”

“You’re not opening her skull up.”

“That’s not what I was going to say!” He defended himself. “I meant… she’s not a robot. I can’t study her like one. I’m not even 100% what parts of her are flesh and blood and which aren’t, other than the positronic brain.”

“Do you think we should call Dejun here too?” You suggested.

Kun hesitated. “Why?”

“Well, we know I have a positronic brain, but the field scanner and the infirmary scanner thought I was plenty human enough when he tested me. And, I obviously bleed, sleep, and eat too.”

“She’s right. We thought we were on the trail of… something else down on Aegeum. Getting a doctor’s second opinion on the fleshy parts couldn’t hurt,” Yangyang offered his support.

Kun approached you, holding your gaze seriously. “Are you sure about this? The more people know…”

“I trust Dejun,” you affirmed. “I trust all of you.”

“Go get him, Liu,” Kun directed. ZEN had been put on a blackout again for the actual mapping, meaning that he couldn’t just ask the AI to page him.

“On it!”

“You’re fucking with me,” Dejun deadpanned.

“Nope.” Yangyang shook his head, feet kicked up on one of his workbenches, having just explained why he’d dragged the doctor to the robotics lab.

“Y/N doesn’t get Earth humor, fine. But how did you get the captain to go along with this weird as fuck joke, Liu?” Dejun pointed to where you and Kun were standing off to the side.

“It’s not a prank!”

“She bleeds!”

“I know.”

“And breathes! And sleeps! And eats! And has vitals that can be picked up by diagnostic scanners!”

“Those only look for the presence of an illness or disease, right? Or abnormal heartrate or breathing?” Yangyang pointed out.

“Yeah…”

“So, an absence of certain things wouldn’t register. She’s got a heart and lungs, as best I can guess.” He continued, “Positronic brain confirmed. Everything else… we’re a bit less certain about.”

Your friend looked over at you, squinting in clear confusion, then back to Yangyang. “I… Huh?”

“Need a consult, Doc,” Yangyang grinned.

You sat down again for Dejun to start his exam. He brought over a few things from the infirmary, one of which was an ordinary stethoscope. He put the earpieces in his ears, then held the other end up to your chest. Everyone was silent as he listened.

“Yeah, okay, heartbeat. It’s… normal. Normal resting heartrate,” he murmured. “I’m going to listen to your breathing now.” He moved it to another place on your chest and paused again. After a moment, he switched it to his other hand and gently touched the back of your shoulder. “Forward.”

You leaned forward for him to reposition the stethoscope, and at the same time out of the corner of your eye, you could see Kun tense up and unfold his arms.

“Xiao,” Yangyang said urgently.

“What?” Dejun paused, sounding annoyed to have been interrupted.

“The Three Laws. Careful with your requests,” the roboticist reminded him.

“Don’t order her around,” Kun said more bluntly.

Dejun blinked and looked down at you, clearly startled out of his usual routine for an exam like this. “Oh. Right, sorry. Forgot you were… Sorry, Y/N.”

“It’s fine, Dejun,” you reassured him. “I didn’t… It didn’t process like an order.”

“I need to listen to your breath sounds. Can you take a few deep breaths for me?” He requested, looking between Kun, you, and Yangyang hesitantly, as if to see if he had said that correctly. When you felt him place the stethoscope on your back, you breathed in then out, deeply, as he had asked. After a few breaths, he said, “Okay, and normal breathing now?”

You evened out your breathing again, and he listened for a few moments, then drew back. Dejun took the earpieces out and hung the stethoscope around his neck, putting his hands on his hips.

“Well?” You prompted him.

“Those were definitely lung sounds. And I mean, you’ve already breathed into my field scanner, so I don’t know if it would’ve made more or less sense for you to not have them,” he declared. Next, he tested all your reflexes, then contraction and dilation of your pupils. “You have a heart, lungs, a circulatory system of some kind, and immune system, since you haven’t been bleeding uncontrollably from that cut you got. I’ve personally seen you eat, drink, sneeze, cough, and at least a dozen other normal, involuntary human reflexes.”

“Oh, about the cut…” You grabbed the end of your bandages, quickly unwinding them and taking off the pristine gauze that was underneath. Turning your hand, you displayed your unmarred palm.

Dejun took your arm to look at it closer, then looked at your other one as if to double-check that he was looking at the correct one. He held it up closer to one of Yangyang’s table lamps, running his fingertip over where the cut should have been.

“No scar?” He pushed on it with his thumb in disbelief. “Pain? Tightness? Muscle or tissue damage?”

“No, nothing. It’s been like this since the day after I cut it. I don’t know exactly how fast it healed, but it was less than a day.”

“Seriously?”

“I saw it when I went to change her first bandage. It was like nothing ever happened,” Kun confirmed.

“That’s…” Dejun trailed off and sighed. “Again, I don’t know if that makes more or less sense than her healing at a normal speed.”

“My turn,” Yangyang stood up, walking over to the x-ray machine that had started this whole thing. “Since the captain made me destroy the last image I took—Y/N, you mind?”

“Oh, sure.” You followed him.

“This is why you took my portable head x-ray machine?” Dejun asked incredulously as Yangyang got you situated, then went back over to his computer. “I thought you were just being a weirdo and wanted x-rays of your own head!”

“Xiao…” Kun’s voice held an air of warning. “Next time Liu is ‘being a weirdo’ like that, let me know.”

The process was as quick and painless as before, and you all gathered around Yangyang’s screen as the images processed and loaded up. Despite knowing what it looked like, somehow, you were still as baffled as before. Like there was still some part of you expecting a human brain. You didn’t know if it was the old order conflicting with your personal knowledge, or if you just couldn’t believe that that was your brain that you were looking at.

“Holy shit,” Dejun breathed out.

“Positronic brain,” Yangyang declared, as if it weren’t apparent enough to the doctor that he wasn’t looking at a human brain.

“Alright, I believe you now.”

Kun cleared his throat. “Liu—”

“Yep, deleting right now,” Yangyang quickly erased all the films he had just taken.

“Who knows?” Dejun asked you.

“Just the people in this room,” you informed him. “Even ZEN’s knowledge is somewhat limited, he’s on blackout right now.”

Dejun’s eyes strayed over to the captain.

“I’ve suspended us in slipspace and haven’t reported a word of this to Admiral Lee,” Kun answered his unspoken question, clearly bristling at the implication. “Nor do I intend to. Our story stays the same: We found a human survivor on Aegeum with amnesia.”

“I’d like to take some samples, if that’s alright.” Dejun’s focused back on you. “Blood, cheek swab, nothing invasive.”

“Sure,” you agreed.

Dejun took the cheek swab first, then prepared your arm to take the blood sample. Unlike the field scanner, which just needed a pinprick from your finger to get a quick rundown of your vitals, he apparently needed a bit more for the tests he wanted to run this time.

“Y/N, what you were saying earlier, about not processing Dejun telling you to sit forward like an order, what do you mean by that?” Yangyang asked as Dejun wrapped a band around your upper arm.

“I mean, I guess I knew that it was a request and not an order? Like, it didn’t shut me down like the order you gave me. I did what he asked, but there was no reason for me not to, you know?” You explained, trying your best to articulate the difference between the two experiences.

Yangyang tilted his head, his eyes once again glittering with that studious fascination. “How did you know it wasn’t an order?”

“I mean, his tone of voice, and the context? He was giving me directions for the exam, but it wasn’t really an order, right?”

“Oh my God…”

“What? She’s right. I wouldn’t have forced her to lean forward if she said no for some reason. I definitely didn’t think I was ordering her around,” Dejun scoffed, preparing the needle and collection tube. “Y/N, small pinch.”

You felt when the needle pierced your skin, but your focus was still on Yangyang, who was now pacing the room and gesturing furtively.

“Well, early robots did everything that any human told them to do, usually very literally. No room for sarcasm, no nuance. All orders were of the same level of importance. Then, they started being able to prioritize based on who gave an order, as they were given capabilities to create hierarchies of people in relation to themselves—only for the Second Law.” He then pointed to you. “But Y/N is the first I’ve heard of not only deciphering tone and context, but also then using that to determine if she was actually given an order or not.”

“So… what we do? Understanding social cues?” Kun arched an eyebrow, seeming unimpressed.

“That almost sounds like she doesn’t have a Second Law. Or at least not a very effective one, if she can think her way around it,” Dejun added skeptically. Having finished, he held a cotton ball to the site as he untied the band around your arm. “Here, I’ll get you a band-aid.”

“I don’t think you need to,” you reminded him quietly.

Dejun tentatively lifted up the cotton swab, and sure enough, there wasn’t any indication that you had just had a needle in your arm. No bruising, no blood, no small pinprick hole to be found. He silently nodded, turning away and bringing his materials with him.

Yangyang continued with his explanation, “Okay, think of it like this. We’re given a command, and based on tone, context, word choice, and other social cues, come to the conclusion that it’s an order. Despite knowing it’s an order, we can still choose not to obey it. Y/N, on the other hand, once she determines that she’s been given an order, she has to follow through. Like she said before, the Second Law shuts down her other systems until she’s executed it.”

“I’m not sitting there thinking it through like that… but yes, I think so,” you agreed.

“It all happens in less than a millisecond, like it does for us.”

Kun rubbed his face thoughtfully. “So she still has a Second Law, but what other robots might interpret as an order, and would therefore trigger their Second Law, Y/N might not interpret as an order, and wouldn’t have her Second Law triggered?”

“Exactly. Makes for much more natural interactions, especially if you want to treat the not-quite-robot you’ve made uh, not like a robot.”

“So, you guys think Y/N was… made there? On Aegeum?” Dejun asked, wincing over the word ‘made.’

“That’s the… working hypothesis,” Yangyang answered tentatively.

“So, she’s the proof of concept, then? Of the robot-people?”

You touched your forehead instinctively as a dull, familiar pain started up in your head again.

“Y/N?” Kun rested a hand on your back. “Your head?”

“Yeah…”

“We’re done,” he declared forcefully. No room for arguing.

Dejun looked between Kun ushering you to your feet, and Yangyang, who was watching the two of you somberly, with bewilderment and concern. “What’s—”

“I’ll explain in a minute, Xiao,” Yangyang said quietly. “Let the captain get Y/N out of here first.”

In your cabin, Kun sat you down on the single bed. He cupped your cheek to lift your gaze to him as he stood in front of you, eyes tracking over your face. “How’s your head?”

“Better,” you assured him, placing your hand over his. “You can’t be mad at Dejun, he didn’t know.”

“No, but I can be worried, and afraid of your head… of the fact that you have a self-destruct button that we can’t disarm.”

“I’m okay, Kun.”

“This time,” he added bitterly. “I get why you hate what I’ve been doing, with my enhancements degrading. The way I was acting. Why you called me a pathetic idiot. I don’t like seeing you like this either, especially when it doesn’t have to be happening.”

“You should tell the others, about me,” you said. “What I am, orders, the failsafe, everything.”

Kun sat down next to you. “Are you sure?”

“We didn’t know enough before. It would’ve been too much, for everyone. But we know enough to be able to tell them something, and to tell them what we don’t know. And you need to tell them everything. So nobody accidentally triggers the failsafe or gives me an order. Or asks why we aren’t at Earth in a week.”

He nodded with a resigned agreement. “And I have to tell them…”

“So you can speak candidly and they can ask whatever questions they need to. Without worrying about my head.”

“That’s not fair to you,” he stated.

You reached over to take his hand, lacing your fingers with his. “But it’s what will keep my head in one piece, isn’t it?”

Kun looked at the time on the wall clock above your cabin door. “There’s still a few hours before mess… Can I do it then?”

“Sure,” you chuckled. “Can I make a request in return?”

“Of course.”

“Will you sing for me?”

He looked at you with genuine shock. “Excuse me?”

“When you and Yangyang were talking about the piano earlier, I realized… I’ve never heard music.”

“God damn it… Hold on.” Kun moved around until he was sitting up against the headboard, then gestured for you to come closer. “Come here.”

“What?”

“I’m not going to do this with you looking at me. So—” He once again motioned for you.

Reclined back against him, your head against his chest and his arms around your waist, you definitely could not see his face from this angle. You were looking out at the desk and the dresser, in fact.

You half-expected him to try to dissuade you again, as he cleared his throat from behind you. But instead, the next thing you heard was the quiet, uncertain beginnings of a hum. He slowly added more words to the tune, every so often dropping back into a hum. His voice never rose above a quiet murmur right beside your ear, a performance just for you. It was a simple melody, only a few notes, and repeated over the few verses. But you found yourself enthralled the whole time, never wanting it to end.

His soft singing faded out, and he cleared his throat again, signaling the end of the song.

“Can you sing it again? Please?” You didn’t dare look back, not wanting to startle him from fulfilling your request, but you grabbed his hands tightly, hoping to pass along your enthusiasm through your touch.

“Really? It was just a nursery rhyme my mom used to sing. I don’t think I’m even a very good singer…”

“I liked it.”

“Alright,” he sighed, a tinge of fondness in the word as he leaned forward to press a featherlight kiss to your cheek.

So far, this wasn’t as big of a shitstorm as Kun had been expecting, really. The crew who didn’t already know were understandably shocked, but ultimately, let the other three finish briefing them with minimal interruptions or questions.

“So Y/N’s a…” The Professor trailed off, looking to Liu to fill in.

“Humanoid,” the roboticist offered tentatively. “So far the only robotic part we’ve found is her brain.”

“You say that like she has a prosthetic pinky toe,” Ten retorted. “It’s her brain.”

“Ten, come on, dude. It’s Y/N,” Wong scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“I’m not saying we deactivate her or throw her in a cell or anything. I’m just trying to make sure we all understand the gravity of the situation.” The pilot sat forward in his chair. “She’s clearly the proof of concept that they were trying to preserve by doing a partial scrub. The question is what use is to she to them like this? No offense to her, Captain, I’m not calling her an idiot, I’m saying they erased her memories and convinced her she was a normal human. Whatever she was doing for them before the partial scrub, she doesn’t know how to do it now.”

“Maybe she has some component to whatever they were doing there that’s vital enough to risk her being discovered,” the Professor suggested.

“Right, Liu said they could have backed up her data externally. Maybe they were planning on this being temporary. They knew they were about to be found out for whatever they were doing, and had to get out, but couldn’t bring Y/N for whatever reason. So they make an external back-up of all her sensitive data with the intent of putting it back in later and, you know, picking back up where they left off. But they wipe it off her memory banks so if she’s found in the meantime, whoever finds her has nothing.”

Kun interjected here, “I’m telling you, Y/N didn’t—”

“You think they just kept one of the most advanced robots—sorry, humanoid—Liu has ever seen around a top-secret, illegal, unsanctioned lab for conversation?” Ten retorted, then seemed to catch himself, and added as an afterthought, “…Sir.”

“Captain, we all like Y/N…” Liu assured him.

“She’s one of us, just like ZEN,” Xiao jumped in to defend you as well.

“But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the fact that she was definitely involved in whatever was going on in that place. Somehow,” Ten argued.

“We don’t know how. Or if,” Kun reiterated forcefully.

The Professor quickly tried to smooth over the rising tensions in the room, “You’re right.”

“I mean, I just think it’s crazy that they took her memories from her—her entire life—and you guys are assuming that there’s going to be proof she did all this awful shit in there!” Kun was on his feet now, he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t stay in his seat another moment, not when a righteous anger was electrifying every inch of his being now.

“And you’re assuming that it’s going to be the opposite.” Ten remained seated, but no less impassioned then before.

“No, I’m saying we don’t know! So we can’t just treat her like a criminal because we’re assuming she’s going to be one!”

“Nobody’s doing that,” Wong tried to placate the captain now. He repeated, “She’s one of us, Captain.”

“She’s not here. We’re talking about her without her. That doesn’t seem like she’s one of us,” Xiao stated bitterly.

“Right, so you want her head to rip itself apart from the inside?” Liu reminded him.

“I would have preferred to be able to have Y/N here as well, but we needed the ability to discuss this openly without risking her safety,” Kun said regretfully.

“I hate this,” the doctor announced.

The captain sighed. “So do I, Xiao.”

“Uh, I feel like we’re all forgetting something here?” Wong spoke up hesitantly.

“What?” Kun asked shortly.

“Y/N’s a robot… kind of. The First Law? She can’t hurt a human.”

“She could’ve not known what they were doing,” Ten immediately proposed.

“Then that blows a hole in your whole theory that she was crucial!” The captain retaliated.

“There’s been loopholes found in the First Law before. Robots who were convinced some kinds of people weren’t humans. Robots who were convinced that hurting individual humans for the greater good of humanity was okay. And then of course, we have robot surgeons,” ZEN gave his own incredibly helpful input at that moment.

“Did I ask for a fucking encyclopedia article?” Kun snapped at the AI.

The Professor waved his hands to get everybody’s attention, declaring, “This conversation is getting us nowhere.”

Kun stood up straighter and rolled out his neck, taking a deep breath to recenter himself. This was not the level-headed leader he wanted to be for his first crew. “The Professor’s right. This isn’t productive. I wanted to debrief you all now since we know more, and also for Y/N’s safety.”

“Yeah, what was Liu talking about her head ripping itself apart from inside?” Wong asked, clearly concerned.

“The failsafe, that we had mentioned earlier,” Liu took over explaining this part. “Specifically, the mechanism is in her head, and the best that we’ve been able to figure out, it’s to prevent anybody who may have found her in her amnesiac state from finding out too much about the experiments they were doing, while also having her, uhm, intact.”

“She gets headaches, usually around stuff having to do with the people-robots on Aegeum. That’s the failsafe. If you’re talking to Y/N, or within earshot of Y/N, and her head starts hurting even a little bit, shut the fuck up. Talk about anything else,” Kun instructed, deadly serious.

“So it’s like a game of hot or cold of if we’re on the right track?” Ten tilted his head curiously.

“A game that we’re not fucking playing,” Xiao smacked his teammate’s arm. “Because winning means Y/N’s head exploding.”

“Why do you people assume the worst of me? Fuck…” he grumbled, rubbing his bicep. “I was going to suggest that we could try to reconstruct what was being talked about when Y/N got her previous headaches. Not give her new ones.”

“ZEN, look through your archives,” Kun instructed. “Next: Orders. Do not give her a direct order.”

“Y/N’s really good at distinguishing what’s an order, or direction, or suggestion, or question,” Liu clarified. “But so far, it seems like the word ‘order’ triggers her Second Law.”

“So like, what can we say to her? Like, if I’m fixing the coffee maker—” Wong got interrupted by incredulous sounds from the others. “—and she’s closer to the wrench, can I ask her to hand me it?”

“Yes, you can say ‘Can you hand me the wrench?’” Kun affirmed. “Just don’t be demanding, and don’t use the word ‘order.’ Third: No flying knives.” He was practically boring holes into Wong with his eyes.

“I haven’t done any knife tricks since that happened!” Wong defended himself.

“That goes for everyone. No doing stupid shit that could get you hurt around her. I don’t care if you’re willing to risk slicing your finger off because you’re spinning a knife around, unless you’re also willing to risk slicing Y/N’s finger off, don’t do it.”

“First Law. She will intervene,” Liu added, in case they had somehow forgotten about your positronic brain the past ten seconds.

“Uh, Captain…?” The Professor tentatively raised his hand. “We’re on a pretty dangerous mission. Does this mean you've changed your mind about keeping Y/N aboard?”

Kun’s brows were furrowed as he evaluated the options in front of him, none of which seemed like good ones. “Leaving her somewhere else in order to keep her safe in regards to the Second Law would require briefing whoever she went with about what she is, which would put her in an entirely different kind of danger.”

“So she’s staying?”

“I wish there was a better option, but yes.” The captain watched the uncertain glances that his crew were exchanging. “I’m not asking that this affect the way you do your job. However, outside of the mission, when you’re around Y/N, don’t be doing stupid shit you don’t need to be doing. She’s not made of metal. If it’ll hurt you, it’ll hurt her.”

There were murmurs of agreement and head nods, and Kun let out the breath he’d been holding unwillingly.

“Any questions?”

After everyone else filtered out to go to mess, Kun remained on the bridge, sitting in his seat at the head of the table. He held his head in his hands as a hologram of a green cube materialized in front of him. The captain didn’t even react, continuing to stare through the transparent projection.

“I think that went well, Captain,” ZEN declared. Kun couldn’t tell if the AI was taking pity on him.

“If the crew can survive this, I think we can survive anything,” Kun stated, not sounding very optimistic about the chances. Shaking himself out of his despondent spiral, he asked, “Where’s Y/N? At mess?”

“I let her know the meeting was over and she thought it best to wait for you, Captain. She’s in your cabin.”

“Thanks, ZEN. I’ll go see her.”

Mess wasn’t as awkward as you had been expecting. Sure, the crew had some questions, especially when you took your first bite of food, but they were all pretty tame, and seemed to come from genuine curiosity, not suspicion.

“What else needs to be done before the slipdrive can be reactivated, Captain?” Ten asked between bites of food.

“Xiao, how long will your tests take?” Kun turned to the doctor.

“Should all be done by tomorrow,” Dejun answered.

“Liu, anything else pertinent that we need to take care of before arriving on Earth?”

The roboticist let out a puff of air as he looked up at the ceiling, thinking. After a moment, he brought his eyes back down and shook his head. “Nah, all clear here.”

“Pending the results of the tests that Xiao is running, we’ll be turning the slipdrive back to propulsion soon.”

That got them excited again, one step closer to shore leave, the crisis of the evening almost completely pushed from the crew’s mind. Almost.

“Hey, Y/N,” Kunhang got your attention, mischievous grin on his face. “Xiao said something about how you’ve got super-healing. You up for a drinking contest on Earth?”

“You’ve watched way too many old superhero movies, Wong,” Dejun scoffed. “You think she’s going to have a superhuman metabolism and not be affected by alcohol, right?”

Ten, meanwhile, was laughing. “She’s probably never had a drink! She’s going to be a lightweight!”

And of course that set them all (including the Professor and Yangyang) off into a debate about, theoretically, based off what they did know about your physiology, whether or not you’d process alcohol like an average human or not. You looked over to Kun with amusement, and found his eyes already on you. Quirking an eyebrow up at him inquisitively, you didn’t receive a verbal reply, but instead he reached over to briefly squeeze your arm before dropping his hand back down to his lap.

“What’s Earth like?” You asked Kun as you prepared his injections that night.

“Tired of hearing about Dura-Jil?” He teased, settling in on his front.

“That isn’t the only place you’ve lived,” you pointed out. “And we’re on our way to Earth. I’m curious.”

“I didn’t go to Earth when I was 15. I went there after.”

He didn’t say it, but you knew where he had been in between Dura-Jil and Earth. The program.

“When you enrolled in the Academy?” You disinfected the injection area.

“Yeah. Couldn’t believe how blue that sky was…”

You aligned his first injection. “Is it a similar color the sky in the ag bubble?”

“Sometimes.”

Click.

“But Earth has weather, and clouds,” Kun continued, humor in his voice. “Central, the city that UHN Main is located in, it’s got all four seasons. I think we’ll be coming back in late summer. I kind of wish you could see snow. It’s got a big military population, Central, obviously, but the city’s so huge that if you can get a few blocks away from the UHN Main building itself, you can kind of forget that. As long as you don’t see a solder in uniform.”

As you listened to Kun gradually and sporadically paint you a picture of Earth, you could feel the soft, persistent smile on your lips, even as you had to switch out his med-pod, which didn’t make him falter or stutter. He was telling you about a restaurant within walking distance of UHN Main that he used to frequent when he was on Earth between missions when the second med-pod clicked again, signaling it had finished. You disposed of the materials and sat back down next to him, up by the pillow he was resting his upper half on.

To your pleasant surprise, he didn’t immediately roll over or sit up this time, simply looking at you over his arm. You ran a hand over his hair, dropping it down to rest it on his shoulderblade.

“I can’t wait for you to get your adjustments,” you sighed. “How long is the procedure?”

“An hour or so,” he informed you. “I’ll have Xiao wait with you.”

“Dejun should be able to enjoy his shore leave with the rest of the crew.”

“I’m sure he’ll want to wait with you anyway. It’s what friends are for.”

You stretched a finger out to trace his cheek with your fingertip. “Does it hurt?”

“No, I feel fine,” he promised. “Still doing good on two med-pods.”

“I meant the adjustment.”

“Oh, I’m under anesthesia for it. Don’t feel a thing.”

“And after?”

“A little stiff for a day or so, but after that, good as new.”

Before you could respond, there was a rapid-fire series of knocks on your cabin door, and you exchanged a bewildered, concerned look with Kun. You stood up as Kun slowly began shifting himself into a sitting position.

Dejun was on the other side, and you didn’t hide your confusion as you looked him up and down in his pajamas as he stood in the hall. “Uhm, hi?”

“Can I come in?” He requested quietly, his brow furrowed deeply, a look of worry cut deeply into his features.

“Sure.” You stepped back, opening the door further for him to enter.

“This couldn’t have waited until morning, Xiao?” Kun asked flatly, clearly disgruntled at the nighttime disturbance.

“I’m not Wong, I take no joy in this.” He gestured wildly to his surroundings and the three of you. “But no, this felt rather urgent.”

The captain sighed, “Go on…”

“The tests I was running. A few of them came back. I also ran another test on the sample from the lab on Aegeum.”

“I thought you already did all the testing you could with that sample. It was human, right? The other results were largely inconclusive.”

“Yeah, yeah. But I realized I could run another test, actually.” Your friend was clearly agitated about whatever it was, fidgeting, unable to stand in one place.

“And?” You prompted him.

He met your gaze, face clearly filled with regret and a deep want to not be saying this to you. “It’s a partial DNA match for you.”

“Partial? Like she’s related to it somehow?” Kun questioned.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a familial connection… I sequenced the genes and they’re almost identical.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, the differences in these genes wouldn’t come about from the natural shuffling of genes that happens during reproduction, or even familial variations. It looks… more precise.”

“Genetic modification?” You guessed.

“More like genetic design.”

“So Y/N and the sample you found…” Kun trailed off, and you weren’t sure if he didn’t know how to finish his own sentence, or didn’t want to.

“Same base DNA, different modifications,” Dejun did it for him anyway.

“Clones?” You could feel your eyebrow shoot up.

Dejun rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. “If you want to be crude.”

“And what’s the not crude way to say that, Xiao?” Kun snipped.

“I’m just saying, we don’t call identical twins clones…” The doctor replied levelly. After a beat of you and Kun still wrapping your minds around the information, Dejun cleared his throat and added, “The sample was all undifferentiated cells—stem cells—it wasn’t… developed like you are, Y/N. Uhm, for what’s that worth.”

“Oh, okay…” You said just to say something, grabbing your upper arms and holding yourself tightly.

“Anything else, Xiao?” Kun asked tersely, already getting to his feet.

“Nope, nope, I’ll show myself out,” Dejun scrambled for the door. “Sorry, goodnight, and uhm, sorry again.”

You heard the door close behind you. Looking up at the ceiling, you could feel the tears gathering in your eyes before you even knew why they were there. They easily eked out the corners of your eyes and slipped down your cheeks.

“What are we going to do, Kun…?” You whispered, your voice coming out as a nearly unrecognizable squeak.

“ZEN, set the slipdrive to propulsion.” Kun’s stern command made you turn your head towards him in confusion. But his brow was set with determination, just like it had been when he’d suspended it in the first place.

“Are you sure, Captain?” ZEN questioned an order from Kun for the first time that you’d ever heard.

“Yes. Then go on blackout.” After a beat, the cabin was quiet, save for your shaking breaths, and the sound of Kun’s feet as he padded over to you. He wiped his thumbs over the wetness on your face, holding your gaze steadily as he answered your question, “We’ll be arriving on Earth in two weeks. The crew will go on shore leave. I’ll give my full report to Admiral Lee about Aegeum, the human survivor we found there with amnesia, and Dr. Yoon being alive. I’ll get my tune-ups. If we have time, I’ll take you to a concert to see some real music, live. And then we’ll go where the Admiral sends us.”

Keep going. Don’t pick the scab.

You gulped. “What if he sends us to find Dr. Yoon?”

You weren’t sure if you ever wanted to see the man who made you, whose experiments, in one way or another, got all those people killed on Aegeum, who did what he did to Kun…

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” His voice stayed steady.

“You said Admiral Lee has never lied to you. Why are you willing to lie to him, for me?”

“I already told you. All I can offer is me. You’re the first person who I got to choose to give that to.” Kun smiled bittersweetly with his words, still cradling the side of your face, giving him the perfect view for when your tears rose back up. “Y/N? Are you okay?”

“I was just thinking about your program again. And Aegeum…” You admitted, bringing your own hand to your damp undereyes. “Do you still think you’re… not human?”

“I’m certainly an experiment that they didn’t plan on living this long. But I did, which let me meet you. So whatever I am, I’m lucky.”

“Then we’re two experiments, created for something, and choosing each other instead.”

Kun chuckled softly. “You know, I actually think I like that a lot better than cyborg or humanoid or clone or whatever else.”  

“Me too.” You wrapped your arms around his waist to hold him closer. “I love you, Kun.”

“I love you, too,” he murmured, pressing his lips to your forehead.

⇢ series masterlist | blog masterlist

[taetr4ck]

sing me a song, and i’ll sing it back to you — 500 followers & anniversary event .ᐟ

✦ you got a message from juwon !

⋆ hello everyone! first of all, thank you all so much for the 500 followers! thank you for all the appreciation and love you gave to this blog, and i’m going to shower it all back at you! also, this blog’s first birthday is fast approaching, so why not fuse the two milestones into one event? 😋 anyway, let’s keep going!

✦ ABOUT & RULES

⋆ sing a song to the ocean breeze and your story will slowly unravel .ᐟ all it takes is a song and the name of the person you love – all you need to do is to give me a song and a character and i will write a short drabble based on it 𓇼 ( for example, tattoos by artemas + taeyong )

⋆ open for all the fandoms i write in: nct 127, dream, and wayv + skz

⋆ strictly no nsfw

⋆ strictly one (1) character per request & maximum of three (3) requests per person only!

⋆ the event will end on the first of may, 23:59 (GMT +8)

⋆ any event requests i will receive after the time & date indicated above will automatically be deleted!

✦ care to sing with him? ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

[peanutpinet]

Try Again | Idol! Jaehyun x fem nctzen

Author's note: it seems that work is only allowing me to write one fic a month and I'm so sorry guys for not writing as much as I used to. Believe me, I truly want to write more but work truly has taken my energy out and well, this story has been in my mind for a while. Probably the most angst I have ever done.

I know it's valentines and Jaehyun's birthday. Also that I still have a love-hate relationship with him but you know, I just can't help but write something in honour of his birthday. Just because this fic is angst, it doesn't mean that I want this to happen to him or anyone.

Warnings: everything in this story is completely fiction and not a depiction of what Jaehyun or his members are like. Cheating, a form of torture, pure angst (I literally cried and felt a stab in myself whilst writing), anger and physical fight. Right person wrong time sort of situation. Indirect reference of soulmates :) happy reading

[14:02pm] - It’s crazy how someone’s life can change drastically just by coincidentally meeting someone unexpectedly. Sometimes you wonder if life was just messing with you because you’ve been far too careful your whole life; to the point where you’re always unsure of every little good thing that happened in your life. Always wondering what was wrong, which part of your life will go down the drain next time and everything.

But finally, for once in your life, you finally got the taste of not worrying when everything will go wrong. All because you met the person that you were sure was practically your soulmate, Jeong Jaehyun.

The two of you met coincidentally. Jeong and NCT 127 were the brand ambassadors for the brand that you managed and somehow, when they were in town, you got the chance to meet them and even created an event altogether. What’s even more surprising was how well you and the neos connected. It was as if you were all long-lost friends. Especially you and Jaehyun.

Despite the short stay, you managed to exchange contacts with all of the neos but it was Jaehyun who kept on talking with you and somehow, throughout the times you both talked, Jaehyun has taken an interest in you. Which is why you were so surprised when the next time NCT 127 came to your country and Jaehyun asked you out on a “simple” date.

Over at Jaehyun’s end, he was also sure that you were practically his soulmate with how the two of you talked as if you’ve been friends for so long, how he managed to dream about you after a few days knowing about you, and how he felt so much warmth and comfort whenever he was around with you. That’s why Jaehyun didn’t hesitate to ask you to be his girlfriend the second time he came to your country.

Despite the rush, Jaehyun never really pressured you to quickly accept his confession. But you also feel the connection with Jaehyun; as if you two were destined to meet and be together. Which is why you accepted Jaehyun’s confession but told him that this was your first relationship and you wanted to take time to build it, which Jaehyun very much respects.

Little did you know that Jaehyun has been secretly telling his parents about you ever since you both first met. But of course, Jaehyun wouldn’t rush you to meet his parents who were excited that their son finally met someone with whom he truly feels a connection. Jaehyun instead warmed you up to his other members from NCT 127, NCT DREAM, WayV and even SMrookies along with Shotaro and Sungchan.

Jaehyun was more than relieved that his members also took a liking to you; especially the younger ones because you were closer to their age. Right when you think that everything was already going at a fast pace, Jaehyun managed to surprise you once more with a job offer from SM Korea where you’ll be provided with everything; being allowed to live with Jaehyun, being given free Korean course, additional allowances whenever you had to work overtime or even if the work is outside of the office.

While you would naturally be scared of a sudden and big change, you were willing to try and get out of your shell to explore the world out there; and it was all thanks to Jaehyun being there with you through every small or even big step.

The first time you arrived, you were definitely cultured shocked but luckily Jaehyun and the foreign members helped you adjust to your new life in Korea. And not long after, Jaehyun invited you to meet his parents and even grandmother. To your surprise, Jaehyun’s family was more than open with Jaehyun dating a foreigner and was even happy that it was with someone like you.

You had already mentally prepared yourself with whatever critique Jaehyun’s parents and grandmother had of you but shockingly, they took a liking to you and even treated you as if you were their daughter/granddaughter more than Jaehyun as their son/grandson; which of course from both you and Jaehyun’s end, it was definitely a good sign.

Everything seemed to be going well. Your relationship was growing, you had a stable job that provided you with a wide variety of knowledge that you can use should you want to have more of a side job. Heck, you and the neos have an amazing friendship/bond. Life was pretty much at its finest and you were finally allowed to live your life. Or so you thought.

It was just another typical day at work for you but it was going to be your first year anniversary with Jaehyun. The both of you wouldn’t really be seen together without any other members/staff but today, with the help of the other neos, mainly Chenle and Renjun, you managed to plan something that’ll hopefully surprise Jaehyun. But it turns out, you were the one to get the surprise first.

The three of you were just walking together after a photoshoot session and were about to get the plan into action when you all heard a conversation between what sounds to be Jaehyun with a female artist. Chenle being the nosy person he is, decided to peek through right by the corner but when he immediately gasped, both you and Renjun had to take a look at what happened and well, to say you were a loss for words was an understatement because you saw the female artist kissing Jaehyun right in the middle of the hallway.

Not knowing how to react, you just turned around and walked away. With every step you took, your speed increased that Renjun and Chenle had to blink a few times to realise what happened; immediately rushing to your side as your emotions started to burst from the bubble that you kept after so long. Eventually, the two Chinese lines of Dream decided to bring you back to Chenle’s place since you’ve stayed there every once in a while whenever NCT 127 or Jaehyun were out of town.

You had no idea what time or day it was because once Chenle and Renjun brought you back to Chenle’s house, you practically cried yourself to sleep; wondering where it all went wrong or if you were truly unallowed to be happy in this world. As you slowly woke up from your sleep, you noticed that someone was by your desk, working on their laptop. Upon sitting on your bed, you finally got a closer look at who was at your desk and it was Jaemin. Hearing you shuffle on your bed, Jaemin quickly rushed to help you sit up then gave you some water, letting you breathe whilst he tells you the whole DREAM were cooking dinner.

“Pretty bold of you to let them cook without you. Especially Mark” you tried to crack a joke, making Jaemin chuckle

“That can survive. There’s Chenle & Haechan. Are you okay? Everyone in the group already knows about it” Jaemin mentioned, eyeing you, trying to read your mind somehow

“A-are you serious?! E-everyone in NCT knows?!” you choked, immediately covering your face

“Mark and Haechan rushed with the rest of us the second Chenle told the Dream group. Haechan probably spilled something to the hyungs in 127 except for you know…and well, Chenle might’ve accidentally spilled to the WayV group. WayV also wanted to come but they had a schedule out of town. Anyways, let’s go eat first, okay? I won’t let the others question you until you’re ready” Jaemin explained, getting up from the bed until he heard you spoke

“I need to go” you stated, tears were starting to spill again

“Go? Where? Do you need snacks from the convenience store? Medicine from the pharmacy? Or perhaps…” Jaemin questioned when you stopped him

“No. I need to go home. Back to my country. I need to get out of this country. I can’t stay in the same country. Not right not at least” you stammered, drowning back to your bed covers

Sighing, Jaemin went back to sit right next to you, patting your head. “Alright. NCT DREAM will be going to your country soon anyways. But if you truly want to leave as soon as possible, I’ll take care of it. But you have to promise to at least say your goodbyes to the hyungs, write your resignation, slowly handover your work and tell his parents” Jaemin replied, patting my back

“Okay…I’ll try to get it done by next week. Hopefully. And Jaemin-ah…” you replied. “Hmm?”

“gomawo. Really. Also, I haven’t really told or ask anyone about this but I don’t think that he did it on purpose. I think that he wasn’t in the right state of mind” you admitted

“Let’s not think about it too much, alright. What happened, happened. You can’t change that. But know that it’s alright to feel any sort of emotion, alright? You’re allowed to express yourself no matter what happened. C’mon, let’s eat!” Jaemin replied, smiling as he helped you go and eat with the other dream members who were all very kind in not forcing you to tell them anything until you want to

Johnny’s POV

The second I suddenly received a picture from Chenle, I knew something was off. While Chenle and I have personally messaged each other than being apart of an NCT U or same schedule, it was very rare. When I opened the message, I noticed that it was a forwarded message and after getting a close look, it was a picture of someone who I never thought would’ve done something this outrageous.

I was sure that everyone who received the picture must’ve had the same reaction as I do. Disappointment, anger and confusement. I mean, who wouldn’t be when your best friend whom you consider as your brother and whom you’ve trusted to take care and date someone who you consider as your sister would betray her like this?! It frustrate me to see Jaehyun kissing some new female artist, basically cheating on (y/n).

Immediately, I asked Chenle how is (y/n) and after reading his response, it was enough for me to confront Jaehyun myself. I could care less if this might ruin our friendship or even our group but I needed to know for myself about what happened. So without thinking or telling my other members, I went to Jaehyun’s place.

Arriving at his place, I knocked on the door and ironically, the person that opened the door was the man himself. Without any exchange of words, I lunged at Jaehyun, punching him until he fell to the ground, blood coming out from both his mouth and on my hand, drawing attention to everyone in his house.

Before his parents could question me or even scold me for what happened, I showed them the picture I received from Chenle. “This is how you treat someone who has been hurt? Who has given their trust to you when they have trust issues?! You disgust me Jeong Jaehyun” I scolded as Jaehyun’s mom took my phone to see the picture for herself.

“Where is she?! Does she know?! Hyung, I swear, it was just an accident” Jaehyun tried to reason but I scoffed at his answer

“Accident or not, you weren’t drunk. Maybe if you were drunk we could talk this out but it’ll take a lot to make you drunk. You don’t deserve to know where she is; nor her condition. Mr, Mrs Jeong, sorry for interrupting dinner” I blantly replied, slightly bowing and was about to take my leave until I felt a strong grip on my wrist.

“Where is she? She’s at Chenle’s house, isn’t she?!” Jaehyun demanded, looking angry but instead, I gripped him by his neck and pushed him to the wall

“What if she is? You’re going to try to explain to her? To make amends with her? Giver her gifts? Charm her again? Make it so you’re the victim? Or perhaps you’re going to take advantage of her feelings to feel something again? Wake up, Jaehyun. You can’t get away with everything” I snapped, finally about to leave. “Oh, just for your information. Since you wanted to know so badly. She’s leaving” I stated, taking my leave before I was questioned again

Ever since Johnny confronted Jaehyun, all the other neos didn’t bother to talk to him but instead made sure that you were all ready to leave back to your country. You were lucky because the management allowed you to go and the DREAM members even go with you back to your country because they had a schedule there.

You were more than thankful for each of the neos to be there for you, to help you with your resignation, back you up and even settled back down. Unfortunately, the dreamies had to leave sooner than you’d like but you all still contact each other every day. You were also lucky to be able to transferred to the SM of your country. But there was a downside to it.

The downside is not long after the dreamies left, you were given a special job upon a special request and if you don’t accept it, let’s just say that the whole event will be cancelled. What’s more is that you knew who was the one that requested you.

Setting your personal feelings aside, you gave in and accepted the job. You were told that the job would be out of town and you will be given your own hotel room for 3 days and 2 nights. You will also be given additional allowance to cover your needs throughout your stay.

A few days later, you finally flew out of town for your special job. Upon landing, you were contacted by the driver that’ll pick you up and after meeting with the driver, who apparently came with an escort, you were escorted to the hotel. Making your way to the front desk and providing your information, the desk manager gave you your keys and made sure that a staff help you with your bags.

Arriving to your room, you thank the staff for helping you bring your things and inside, you immediately set your bag down, amazed with the room because it wasn’t just a room, it was a wholeass suite that you were staying.

As you explored the room, you noticed that there were several gifts lying around in the bathroom and even on your bed. Opening the gift in the bathroom, you were shocked to find an array of toiletries from body wash, body lotion, perfume from Jo Malone an in the scent that you loved so much. In addition, there was also a card with a handwritten note. “I know how much you love this scent and everytime I walked by the store or even see this scent, I always think of you. Happy belated Christmas and valentines day, dimple. All I hope is that you would give me a chance to talk” - with love, J

Putting the gift back, you went back to the bedroom area and opened the other gift that you were certain was from Jaehyun as well. Opening it, you were just as shocked as the previous gift because, in this box, you were gifted with a stunning medium-length black dress with sleeves and a flowy skirt along with a small gold heart pendant, a black shoulder bag and black loafers. Along with this gift, there was another note. “Just this one time, please accompany me for the event and hear me out. I promise that I’ll respect whatever decision you decide afterwards” - Jae

Knowing that you don’t really have a choice, you got ready, put on light makeup and put your hair in a low ponytail, got dressed and made your way to Jaehyun’s room which you were told to go to by Jaehyun’s manager.

Knocking on the door, you were greeted by the prada staff which you knew from the clothes they wore with the embroidery. As I went in, the door to the bathroom was unlocked and it revealed Jaehyun already in his tailored suit which was more classic yet casual outfit. Jaehyun wore a simple black turtleneck with matching smart pants and leather boots. His hair was an ashy gray colour, styled in a more relaxed slicked back, with some pieces hanging down to frame his face; looking effortlessly handsome.

As Jaehyun was getting his final touch-ups, you decided to stand a few feet from him, telling him about his whole schedule throughout the day and what are all the things that you would be assisting. Throughout the explanation, Jaehyun has been professional. Asking you questions about the even and the after-party and all his questions are definitely professional. Unfortunately, just when you thought that you were done and was about the excuse yourself, Jaehyun stopped you.

Now that he has finished all of his touch-ups, he stood up and directed you to sit down and his glam team to add-on to your makeup and also style your hair. Without questioning, the staff got to work as Jaehyun slightly directed them on the style because he said that you would accompany him throughout the night so you had to look presentable.

Once the glam team was done, both you and Jaehyun thanked them and Jaehyun also politely asked them to leave because he wants to discuss something confidential with you. Noticing his tone, his team bowed to him, tidied their things, and immediately left the room so it was just you and Jaehyun. Alone.

Taking a deep breath, you knew that you were going to have to face him someday. Jaehyun walked closer to you, stopping once he was behind you, rubbing your shoulders lovingly; a habit that he picked up whenever he was going to discuss something deep with you or whenever he was anxious. But instead of words filling the empty room, it was filled with heavy breathing and sobs. Tears started to drop on your bare neck and collarbone.

“Please. Say something. Get angry, curse at me, call me anything. Hit me even. Please…” Jaehyun cried, almost as if he was begging, his hands moved to grip the chair that you were sitting on

“Jae…stop, okay. You have an event and we have to leave very soon” you sighted, turning to face him, grabbing some tissues and wiping his tears but stopped when he held your hand

“why won’t you confront me? scold me? I hurt you” Jaehyun asked, caressing your hand

“yes, you hurt me but part of me still believes that that girl was the one that forced herself on you, that maybe, you weren’t in the right state of mind. But the other part of me also knew that you were most probably capable to push away” you replied, pulling your hand away but Jaehyun immediately gripped it back

“You’re right. While she did trick me into the kiss, I was well aware on what happened but I didn’t realise what actually happened until it actually happened. And I’m truly sorry for it. Johnny came that night and made me realise what I did but when I tried to get to you, I was too late. My parents were more than disappointed in me. I know that I don’t deserve your forgiveness because I too don’t think that I’ll forgive myself. But I truly want to explain the truth” Jaehyun explained, holding your hands tightly

“Jae…forgiving you was the easy part. Forgetting what you did is something else. At least answer me this. Did you ever truly care about me? Actually, love me? Or was it all just because of our similarities? Or perhaps because you were pressured?” you asked, not even wanting to meet Jaehyun’s eyes

“If I’m going to be completely honest, in the beginning, I wanted to see where the relationship would go. If I was just fantasizing too much because the amount of dreams I’ve had of you were absurd and it just pushed me to go and reached out to you. But as we went on, I truly did fall for you. With your personality. How you were independent yet dependent on me. You were ignorant about all the gossip but caring towards others. How you seemed cold but is actually one of the most heartwarming person I’ve ever known. You’re curious but wise at the same time. Whatever happened, please know that my feelings for you were valid. That I truly fell for you but I was too worried and scared that it was all too good to be true. Until I hurt you” Jaehyun admitted

Luckily for you, Jaehyun’s manager came and told the both of you that you had to leave. Right when Jaehyun was distracted, you pulled your hand away and immediately agreed with his manager. But secretly, you were relieved because if you had stayed longer and Jaehyun kept on talking, you might actually caved and give him another chance then and there.

Without even sparing Jaehyun another glance, you went ahead with his manager, Jaehyun following behind the both of you. Along the way to the car, Jaehyun’s manager filled you in on the people and things you need to keep in mind whilst accompanying him throughout the entire day which made you scream internally because you were practically stuck with Jaehyun 24/7 except sleeping or going to the bathroom.

Luckily, the event went by quickly because there were times when you had to be directly involved with the conversation; some even saying that the two of you looked like a pair which immediately you declined. After the event, there was still the dinner after which the both of you had to attend; which was also held at a private beach club.

Fortunately, you didn’t have to participate in any of the conversations Jaehyun was having. Deciding that you need a break from the crowd and sort your thoughts, you went and walked along the beach where there was little to no one there because it was already late at night.

As you were walking along the beach, you started to remember all the good times that you and Jaehyun had. The first time you both met, you were just like every other fangirl when they first met their idol or someone that admire. As someone who tries to not get attached to someone else, you were always worried that you would get hurt but when the universe sent Jaehyun, it was as if you finally learnt to fully put your trust in someone.

Those times Jaehyun would show any sort of worry or affection, you couldn’t help but appreciate them because all this time, you were the one that always took the initiative. You were never someone who gets the other side of the rainbow. Even when the two of you were apart and you were still unsure of Jaehyun’s feelings towards you, Jaehyun always made an effort to show his affection. He isn’t someone that says a lot but he would always find ways to showcase his appreciation for you. Whether it be through his Instagram stories, the gifts that he send or even staying up late just to hear you ramble about your day.

Not far from where you were standing, you notice a couple were having fun dancing in the sand under the moonlight, not caring about the dinner that was going on or whether anyone else was judging them; it reminded you of the first time you joined Jaehyun in one of the training rooms. Not caring that it was past midnight or if the both of you had a long tiring day. Because at that moment, being with each other was well worth it.

Deciding to hear out what more Jaehyun has to say, you decided to go and find him; wanting nothing more but to trust in fate rather than regretting everything one day later. However, when you saw Jaehyun, you saw him with another woman who was definitely gorgeous and her clothes perfectly showed off her amazing body. Though you couldn’t really see clearly, you saw that Jaehyun’s face got closer to the woman as she slowly tilted her head, probably giving Jaehyun more access.

Perhaps it was all in your mind but you remembered that if someone can cheat on you once, they can surely do it another time. And this time, you don’t want to know what Jaehyun and that woman were doing. You blamed yourself for thinking that everything Jaehyun said that morning actually mean something.

Wiping your tears, you started to leave. Wanting nothing more but to go back to your room, pack your things and book the first flight back home. To hell that Jaehyun wouldn’t attend the rest of the event of the week because all that matters right now was holding onto what little hope you had for yourself; to take care of yourself first and foremost.

As you were rushing to find the exit, you accidentally bumped into a drunk man. Though you apologized, the drunk man didn’t just want an apology. Instead, they gripped your wrist tightly but luckily you immediately defended yourself, kicking them at their weak spot and immediately escaping.

Unfortunately, the man grabbed your ankle before you could completely escape from his grasp. Shouting for Jaehyun, you fell and your head accidentally hit a rather sharp object, making your whole system all over the place. Instead of letting you off, the man dragged you to the sea, wanting to get rid of any evidence that might’ve caused damage to his reputation.

Because you were injured and scared of the sea, your body practically gave up on you and allowed the water and darkness slowly consuming you. Memories of Jaehyun helping you get used to the deep water, and being there for you whenever you started to feel anxious and suffocated were the last thing you could remember before mouthing a “sorry”.

Jaehyun’s POV

Tonight was supposed to be the night when I would make things right. I could care less if anyone would see what I would be doing. If anyone would record anything or if the news would blow up about the fact that I had a lover all this time. None of that matters anymore because all I care was to tell (y/n) everything. About how I have felt all this time, how much I needed her because just like my dimples, I’m nothing without her. I’d beg her on my knees if I had to.

All those days without her felt like hell. Everything felt empty. Even though my members were still pissed at me, most of them pitied me. They would be the ones that update me about her status and oftentimes, I find myself scrolling through all the pictures we had together or even looking at her social media to find any sort of update about her.

But unfortunately, after the incident in my room this morning, (y/n) wouldn’t even spare me a glance at all. Every time I tried to reach out to her or even say a word, she would turn away. The only time she would respond was when we were having a conversation with the other guests. Even now during dinner, she would try her best to escape the crowd, and me. But I’ve let her go once, I’m not going to let her go out of my grasp without at least knowing how much I regretted my action and would spend the rest of my life trying to atone for myself and live with the guilt.

After drinking the champagne in one go, I immediately excused myself from the crowd, secretly following (y/n) away from the crowd. Making sure that there was enough distance so that she could have her space but not far enough so that if anything happens, I could be there for her.

Unfortunately, the one time I was distracted was when everything went wrong. A female guest tried their best to get to me, even trying to show off her “assets” but if anything, I was turned off, disgusted even. Even after I turned her down, she was persistent and started to touch my arm but I quickly instinctively gripped her throat. Tilting her head, she probably thought that I was finally going to blow off some steam. Well, she was probably right, but I had a different idea of blowing off my steam.

The grip on her throat got tighter as I made my face closer to her ear. “I’m only going to warn you this once. No one gets to touch me like that except for my girl. And luckily for me, you’re not my girl. Now leave while I’m being nice” I growled, pushing the woman away as she coughed for breath whilst I took my leave, immediately searching for (y/n) who was gone from my sight.

Running around, I scanned all the surroundings, trying to find (y/n). Anxiety started to bubble up with every second passing and not seeing (y/n) in sight. Right when I was about to leave to find (y/n) outside of the venue, I heard a faint scream of my name. Perhaps I was crazy but it truly sounded like a scream; more so, (y/n)’s scream.

Trusting my guts, I ran to find where the source of the scream and stopped when I saw a drunk man walking away from the sea, holding what seems to be (y/n)’s bag. Worry and anger consumed me as I confronted the drunk man, punching him until he was unconscious. Taking the bag, I opened it and this time, fear was the one that took control.

Dropping the bag, I scanned the sea to hopefully find some sort of sign to prove whether or not my worst nightmare was actually happening. Squinting a bit, I noticed some bubbles on the surface. Without thinking, I took off my coat, shoes and socks and jumped into the sea, swimming to where the bubble was at.

Upon getting closer, I started to smell some blood. Taking a deep breath, I dived in and what I saw confirmed one of my worst nightmares. (y/n) drowning and the blood that I smelt came from her. Without wasting any time, I swam deeper, praying that when I got her and bring her back to shore, she would make it.

After months of not holding her, this is not what I had hoped when I held her body close to me. When I arrived back at shore, I immediately gained multiple attention but none of that matters to me. I shouted for someone to call emergency help while I tried my best to perform CPR. I didn’t know how long was I performing CPR but that was all I could do whilst praying for this universe to not take her away from me.

“Fuck…(y/n), wake up. Don’t you dare leave me. Not when I haven’t apologised properly. Not when I haven’t done anything to get you back. Not when I haven’t begged for your forgiveness. Fuck. Punish me all you want just please don’t take her from me” I begged this universe to give me another chance or to exchange myself for her because to me, she deserves to live much more than me

As if the universe heard me, (y/n) started to cough out the water she accidentally consumed and right on time, the medical team arrived. Sighing with relief, I finally cried when the medical team told me that she was going to be alright. In addition, they told me to come with them so that I would know her updates and also for me to get a checkup.

Luckily, right when we were about to leave, my manager found me. He scolded me about how worried he was when neither me nor (y/n) answered his texts or phone call. But upon seeing both mine and (y/n)’s condition, my manager sighed and accompanied me to the hospital, requesting to the hospital to get a VIP room for the both of us and updated on what happened to the company.

Arriving at the hospital, the emergency staff immediately directed us to the VIP room and get (y/n) treated asap whilst I was having a check-up. After confirming that I was alright but still have to stay overnight to rest, the doctor and nurse left me with my manager. Right when I was about to explain myself, my manager just nagged me to shower and change which I obeyed.

Once I was changed and dried, my manager told me that (y/n) is stable and is already moved to the VIP room where I would also be sleeping. I looked over at my manager for any sign of discomfort but instead, he told me to follow him and the staff.

Right when we entered the room, the nurse that was taking care of (y/n) told us about her condition and excused herself; also letting us know to push the emergency button should we need anything. Thanking her, my manager immediately locked the door as I went to (y/n)’s side, grabbing one of her hands and cried at her state; blaming myself for hurting her again.

“This is all my fault, isn’t it? I’m always the one that hurt you in this relationship. I didn’t mean any of those, I swear. I’m so fucking sorry” I sobbed, kissing (y/n)’s hand

“Jaehyun. What you did was definitely wrong. But I doubt what happened just now was your fault. No one knew what could’ve happened. It was just wrong timing” my manager tried to reason with me

“It’s all still my fault hyung. I was the one that cheated on her but I don’t want to let her go. I was the one that forced her to come with me and because she was nice and cared more about the fans seeing me, she came and accompanied me” I ranted, still looking at (y/n)

“Yes, you hurt her by cheating on her and I know that you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to atone for it but I’m sure that if she didn’t care for you, she also wouldn’t have done it” my manager reminded me

“B-but, what if…” I was about to argue but I felt (y/n)’s hand grip my hand, snapping me out of the conversation

“(y/n)….a-are you…” I mumbled as I saw (y/n) opened her eyes, instantly making me cry

“T-thank you. Thank you for fighting. I’m s-so so sorry. I’d do anything to rewind time and make things right. You can hate me all you want but please don’t scare me like that. I’d rather sacrifice anything and even myself just to see you back to your sweet, loving, and even childish self” I cried as I felt (y/n)’s hand caress my head

“J-jae…” (y/n) breathed out, trying to sit up but I immediately helped her

“I’ll leave you both to have your privacy. Just don’t forget to call me, Jaehyun!!” my manager commented as he left the room, leaving me and (y/n) together

When Jaehyun’s manager left, you didn’t utter a word because you were confused on the situation. You really thought that Jaehyun didn’t care for you and only cared about trying to get every girl he finds attractive. But if you don’t even shared your own thoughts, how is Jaehyun going to know anything?

“I thought you had a date or something” you managed to mumble

“D-date?! I never even had the thought to be with someone else after the incident” Jaehyun replied, holding your hands in his

“You were with that girl at the beach. I saw it” you replied back

“Girl at the…oh her?! She was being very persistent but I was getting annoyed. I told her to back off and even somewhat choked her to threaten her. I swear I didn’t do anything with her” Jaehyun explained

“How do I know that you’re not lying” you replied back, looking down

“I’d beg on my knees right now. I swear on my life that I’m not lying” Jaehyun stated, already standing and getting on his knees

“I, I’m sorry, Jae. I truly don’t know how to trust you again. Even if you beg, I’m not sure if I can fully trust you. I know that you’ve done so many good things but the one time you hurt me was one of the worst ways” you admitted, Jaehyun’s breathing immediately gotten heavier

“I know what I did was wrong. And I know I’ve said this before but I truly regret what happened. Whether I was in the wrong state of mind or not. I know I don’t deserve any of your forgiveness but I just hoped and wished that perhaps we could start over. Just as friends” Jaehyun stuttered

“As much as I want to hate you. I can’t, Jaehyun. Even during the last moments of being dragged to the sea, all I could remember was you teaching me to swim. The warmth you gave me. The idea that you would be there for me. I’d be lying to myself to say that I didn’t miss any of those. When I walked along the beach, I saw a couple that were just in their own little world. It reminded me of all those domestic things we did. Even at the company where practically everyone knows about us. As much as I want to go back to the way things were, every time I try to imagine it all, I was constantly reminded of what you did” you let out, Jaehyun shakingly wrapped his arms around you

“I know. And I will forever live with that burden and guilt throughout the rest of my life” Jaehyun breathed out, starting to cry as well

“Don’t live like that Jaehyun. You deserve to be happy as well” you replied, cupping Jaehyun’s cheek

“I don’t deserve it. Not when I was the one that took your happiness. No matter how long, I’ll always try to atone for what I did” Jaehyun sighed

“You can just move on. There are many other girls prettier, smarter, and have a better personality than me. Why don’t you just move on? What’s keeping you? Are you haunted by me? Are the members threatening you?” you cried

“How can I ever move on? You were the best thing that could’ve ever come into my life. And there is nothing to blame but myself for ruining it” Jaehyun replied, his laughter was dry

“What if I moved on? What will you do? Don’t live with this guilt, Jaehyun” you reasoned

“If you moved on? If you’re happy because of someone that’s not me? I’ll gladly accept it as my punishment for hurting you in this lifetime and take it with me to the next life where I will find you and make it up to you. If that doesn’t happen, I swear upon my entire life that I will always find you and make sure that you’re happy. Even if it’s not because of me. Because at least seeing you happy will allow me to slowly forgive myself. Seeing you alive and well will bring me comfort that at least I was part of your life that comforted and protected you. Till the end of time, even if I’m not yours forever. You will always be my forever only, dimple” Jaehyun cried just as you did in his arms. Both of you want nothing more but to forget about the bad memories and try again.

Lil bits of author's note: this was a self-indulgent and experiment writing on how angst I can make a story without any actual character death. Safe to say, I want to rip my own heart out :) Also, yes, I did leave the ending more of an open-end because I don't want to force anything. Hope you understand.

Anyways, happy valentines day to everyone and happy birthday to my forever only love-hate member, Jeong Jaehyun 🫶. I hope you are all doing well and feeling well. Physically, mentally and emotionally (not after this fic hahaha). Stay safe and healthy. Always be happy :) vinet

[dat-town]

never seen circus | masterpost

a multifandom series revolving around a mysterious circus that’s constantly on the move and even though it always has visitors, it’s not remembered by anyone

A short story collection set in the same mystical world. The stories themselves are not linked although I try to put little hints into them about the theme of the next one. They can be read entirely separately though. Details and warnings are specified on each story but all of them contain magical realism/fantasy/folktale elements with ambiguous endings.

Who would you like to visit?

➝ the hypnotist hypnotized (in your eyes) | the boyz hyunjae | 2.3k

➝ the psychic met you like destiny | p1harmony jiung | 2.8k

➝ the siren broken atlantis | a.c.e yuchan | 1.8k

➝ the dark fae careful what you wish for | txt yeonjun | 2.5k

➝ the escape artist chained to you | cix hyunsuk | 1.8k

➝ the trapeze artist falling for you | cravity serim | 1.4k

➝ the cursebreaker curse me out | enhypen sunghoon | 2k

➝ the ghost whisperer haunting | ateez yunho | 1.4k

➝ the ringmaster curiosity kills | wayv ten | 2.3k

[mingkist]

nct masterlist

⇔ all of my nct work in one place for you to navigate

👾: smau series |🪻: smau series with 3-6 chapters | ☆ my fav! | ◇ : short smau fics | ✔️ : finished

◎ ОТ20

◇ my friends as cakes!

127 ver.

wayv ver.

dream + sungtaro ver.

◇ nct twitter shenanigans ☆

◇ more twitter shenanigans ☆

◇ even more nct twit shenanigans ☆

◇ more more nct twit shenanigans ☆

◎ lee taeyong

◇ boyfriend bubu on your ig stories for bf day

[joocomics]

hi just a question, do you no longer write for p1harmony?

hi there! 👋🏼

no, i will continue writing for them. long story short because i was going through a pretty rough time i got very overwhelmed with my blog to the point i thought it would be better if i stick to xdh only. but once i started feeling better during my lil break my inspiration slowly came back as it used to be and eventually i realised that i acted impulsively because of the stress i was feeling from different things that were happening in my life. i just need to take it slow (including this blog) and write whatever whenever i want 🤭

i’ve decided that when i have ideas i will post stories for my other favorite groups as well, which are: wayv, txt and p1h while my main focus will always be xdinary heroes!

you didn’t ask for an explanation, but i decided to share this anyway. everyone is always welcome to chat with me about them ^^ my guidelines and rules are the same for every group - i don’t accept requests at this time, only soft/hard thoughts, short headcanons and most to least type of posts. if i take some time to reply to an ask i’m sorry. it’s never on purpose, it’s just that sometimes when i get overwhelmed i write slower even if the post is something small

[kpopsexstories]

ur fics are so good and well-written! im ur silent reader and i just finished reading EVERYTHING like every fic u wrote and likeeeeeee it's so 🔥🔥

This made my day! 😄 Thank you, and don't be afraid to not just be a silent reader. Hearing from you like this makes me want to keep writing 😊

Reading everything is quite a feat, well done! That's around two full novels by now. You have no idea how happy it makes me that at least one person has done this.

For anyone who doesn't want to be that thorough I want to give you a list of some of my personal favorite stories:

Jungwoo shares a girl with Johnny

Jisung with Haechan's sister

Ten is invited to watch Yangyang have sex with his girlfriend

Jisung pulls out just before orgasming (very short story)

Haechan jerks off Mark and Jungwoo in the shower

Backstage sex with Haechan (with dirty talk)

Backstage sex with Jungkook (my longest story)

Lucas' (WayV) scandal (two parts)

Taehyung (BTS V) with a vibrating teddy bear

Jaemin bonds with a troubled fan

Jeno has sex with an older woman

[neokwxn]

my nct recs

key - [🦁] oneshot, [🐯] headcannon, [🐻] reactions, [🐶] short series, [🦊] series, [🐱] smau series

nct

none yet !

nct 127

🐯dates with nct - @lemon-boy-stan

nct dream

🐯common phrases in relationship - @yongislong

wayv

none yet !

moon taeil

none yet !

johnny suh

none yet !

lee taeyong

none yet !

nakamoto yuta

none yet !

qian kun

none yet !

kim doyoung

none yet !

ten lee

none yet !

jung jaehyun

none yet !

dong sicheng

none yet !

kim jungwoo

none yet !

wong yukhei

none yet !

mark lee

none yet !

hendery wong

none yet !

xiao dejun

none yet !

huang renjun

🐱best friend - @yuitaru

synopsis: as your best friend, renjun's been putting his feelings for you on the back burner, but what happens when his friends think it's time for him to confess after a drunken confession?

genre: smau, idiots to lovers, crack, fluff, slight angst, slice of life, (barely) university!au, parallel universe (based in let's fall in love! universe)

warnings: lots of swearing, mentions/threats of violence, mentions of bodily fluids/functions, references to let's fall in love!, my broken humour

🐱crush culture [renjun x gn!reader ] - @suhnshinehaos

synopsis: yn has always flirted with huang renjun. but they do that with literally everyone else too, they couldn’t possibly be serious about pursuing him, right? on their final year of university, yn is determined to show that they are. with all the walls that renjun has built around himself, will they be strong enough to succeed in tearing them down

genre: university + student council au, fluff, angst, pining, humor, slice of life

warnings: swearing, food mentions, suggestive humor

lee jeno

🦁social casualty [jeno x f!reader] - @mayaflowerxs

synopsis: Jeno doesn’t understand why he has such strong feelings for you, but he does. He also doesn’t understand why you try so hard to be someone you’re not. And you, well you don’t want to become just another student at school, no. You want to stand out, to be someone’s option for once. Most specifically, Jeno’s option.

genre: fluff, humour, angst

warnings: Slight Smut at the end! swear word usage, break ups, rejection, self consciousness, ‘unrequited love’, friend zoned , Jeno is a love sick pup, reader is afraid of confrontation, misunderstandings and mean girl alert

lee donghyuck

🐶blood red [donghyuck x reader] - @neonacity [chap 1] [chap 2]

synopsis: You’re a forensic psychologist assigned to one of the country’s high-profile criminals. You want to unravel him, but he’s set on catching you in his web instead.

genre: thriller, smut [only in a scene], angst (?), fluff (if you squint?)

warnings: crimes, blood, weapons, toxic dynamics, psychological themes, personality disorder, mental health disorder, dissociative identity disorder, alcohol use, smut (protected sex, humping, intoxicated sex)

na jaemin

🦁nighted [reader x vampire!jaemin] - @neonacity

synopsis: no official one, but basically just follow reader through their life as a hunter (?)

warnings: blood, violence, mentions of weapons and death. Age gaps though there is no underage romance that happened, reader goes through different ages throughout the story.

liu yangyang

none yet !

osaki shotaro

none yet !

jung sungchan

none yet !

zhong chenle

none yet !

park jisung

none yet !

[xdjville]

wayv as not-so-common romance tropes - xiaojun

description: you get to choreograph and teach the routine to wayv's new song, and good god, you look hot in those sweatpants

pairing: idol!xiaojun x gn!choreographer!reader

cw: reader has long hair and a crop top, a few curse words, xiaojun being an extreme case of a loser

word count: 1,677

author's note: the first chapter of this series is out, yay! it was the first one i wrote and to be honest it was the reason this turned into series, originally the stories were supposed to be in a form of bulletpoints but i got a little carried away with dejun here... what can i say i love me a loser man 😔✊

you first met xiaojun after your demo choreography got chosen for wayv's new title track.

as a mentee of one of sm's most recognised choreographers, over the years you naturally picked up his dance style that the agency had favored so much, and after working as a dancer for a few years, you finally got to make your first original choreography - for red velvet's song.

with the instant recognition from the fans that your work got you, tiktok challenges with the choreography going viral and praise for both the group and you flooding the comment section under the dance practice video, the company began to hire you more often. that had eventually lead you to where you were then - having already worked with most of their artists at least once, it was time for your first collaboration with nct. wayv, to be exact.

when meeting the members for the first time, you were more nervous than usual. you couldn't put you finger on what exactly was the reason - was it their visuals that almost made you choke on your words from seeing them up close, or the group's, and you mean it in the nicest way possible, overwhelming personalities? maybe it was the combination of both, who knows.

but as the first practice went on, you quickly found yourself getting more comfortable with them, the uneasiness dissolving with each joke and silly remark from their side. on top of that, they seemed to have a lot of respect for you and your skills, letting you know they loved the choreography every chance they got and in the result giving you a good boost of confidence.

that is, except xiaojun. xiaojun was not feeling any more relaxed - if anything, he was getting more tense.

why? the answer was simple, although it took a good amount of courage for him to even say it in his head. the thought alone was making him very uncomfortable, feeling like he's going through puberty once again and not fully understanding the signals his body was sending.

you were, to put it simply, fucking hot.

and if that alone wasn't humiliating enough, dejun kept making a fool of himself because of how nervous you made him. normally, he was pretty confident with his dancing skills, but with you standing in front of him, your eyes carefully following his every move, arms crossed, hair, slightly disheveled from dancing, falling on your shoulders, your gray sweatpants, god, those gray sweatpants...

obviously, you noticed his uneasy state, it was hard not to. though since you didn't know him outside practices, you just assumed he was the shy type and hopefully would warm up to you with time. his members, on the other side, knowing their friend probably better than he knew himself, caught on to what's going on almost instantly. and no words had to be exchanged to form a silent agreement to make it even worse for him.

it's safe to say that the next week was nothing short of a living hell. every morning xiaojun had to hype himself up to even show up for the dance practices because of how straight up stupid he felt there. he had trouble memorising the choreography, because every time he tried to follow your moves, instead his eyes would move on their own to follow the hem of your cropped shirt, then the line of your waist all the way down to the waistband of those goddamn sweatpants. on top of that, he became so hyperaware of his own actions he started to question if he'd always been like this, or if your presence just turned him into a completely different person.

and because the only thing he would get out of your lessons was was what you wore on that day, every night he had to stay another few hours after everyone left to actually practice the choreography with the guide video you sent them in the beginning (he was thanking the universe that you weren't in that video, or else it might have gone very badly for him).

after he was done with that, all he could do was pray that his members were asleep by the time he returned to the dorm so he could wash the day away and hide in his room to push his face into the pillow - which, most of the time, was not the case. so the second he stepped through the door he was bombarded with unnecessary questions that they all obviously knew the answers to, but still posed them to him just for the sake of it ("what took you so long, you two made out in there or something?", "fuck off, guanheng."). those were then followed by teasing remarks, kissing noises, and occasionally some actually helpful, although unasked for, advice from kun or sicheng who got a sudden surge of conscience.

that's how xiaojun spent six out of seven days of your work together. six very long, draining days.

after finishing your last practice session together, all seven of you sat down on the floor, talking about everything and anything. drinking the last sips of your watered down iced americanos, getting to know each other, and joking around. you were enjoying your well deserved break, when at some point xiaojun stood up, very abruptly - you assumed he also realised it was a bit too sudden from the way he took a second to recompose himself, looking around sheepishly - and made a beeline towards the door, mumbling something about going to the bathroom.

before the door could even close behind him, ten jumped to his feet even faster than dejun had and bolted out of the room, following his friend right behind. puzzled, you watched the door slowly close behind them, but the remaining four members didn't seem fazed at all - they seemed to understand the situation much better than you, sharing glances and not-so-discreet smiles between each other.

at that point you were starting to feel a little worried - have you done anything to make him so uncomfortable around you? it's been quite a while since your first meeting and all the members had loosened up, but not xiaojun. thinking back, you can't even recall one time he looked you in the eyes, and it made you feel terrible.

using that the reason for your concerns had left, you decided to ask about dejun'a behavior, hoping that his friends would ease your worries and confirm that it was just his way of being and not you unintentioanlly being an asshole. after hearing your question yangyang only smiled wider, eyeing the three of his members with an expression full of something you couldn't really read,

"just wait."

well, that did not ease your worry at all. but before you could dwell and ask for more explanation the door opened again, and the two who left earlier returned. instead of going back to their previous spots though, they remained right by the entrance, their faces showing emotions so different they looked almost comical next to each other.

on one side stood ten, both hands resting on his hips, his smile nearly reaching his ears and eyes beaming with... excitement? maybe pride? meanwhile to his left was xiaojun, with arms crossed on his chest and head tilted down almost at a ninety degree angle, only small parts of his unbelievably reddened cheeks visible from between his dark hair strands. you almost thought he looked adorable like this, but you mentally slapped yourself just before that idea could be finished. not the right time, y/n.

"i guess it's time for us." kun spoke up, turning to you with a bright smile - what the hell were they all so jolly about? with that, the five of them said their goodbye's and thank you's, each giving you a warm hug before leaving out of the same door the two had been standing by moment earlier. before you could even muster up a proper reply, you and dejun were left alone in the empty practice room, the tension between you making the air so thick it was starting to get hard to breathe.

after the loud slam of the exit you turned your attention back to xiaojun, who seemed to had taken that moment of the spotlight not being on him for once to compose himself a bit, and was now standing straight, the color on his now fully visible face slightly closer to his original skin tone. your eyes locked for a brief moment, but he quickly averted his gaze back to the floor.

although still not fully in understanding of the situation you found yourself in, you were honestly starting to get a bit annoyed. you didn't want to leave any unresolved problems behind, knowing it would be hard for both of you if you were to work together again, so you took the initiative,

"dejun, what is all of this about? do you have something to tell me?"

the said man tensed up even more at the sound of his own name, closing his eyes tightly in a desperate attempt to get somewhat of a grip of himself. after taking a deep breath, and then another one, he opened his eyes again, and for a moment he swore the world started spinning at the sight of you. despite that he knew it was his only chance to let out what had been weighing on him, so he mustered up all the confidence he had left for that day to take a few bold steps forward until you were just an arm length away. it took probably all the confidence he had stored for that comeback to then raise his head and meet your eyes and, for the first time, don't look away.

"fuck it," he thought, knowing that it was extremely unlikely he would gather the courage to get to that point again, especially with your involvement in preparations for that comeback being done.

he took another, very shaky, deep breath,

"would you, uh, like to got out, maybe, sometime?"

©xdjville

[mymoodwriting]

Of course NCT wound up in second place, so they shall get their own poll too. I mixed in stories from all units, so let's see who wins. Unless it's the same as last time then I am going to laugh again >_<

[ecl1pse]

TEN LEE THE ARTIST U ARE!!!

ngl just from the film teaser he released last week i got so excited to hear the full songs. nightwalker was soooo good. definitely in the lines of what key & taemin have done by playing a villain in their solo releases, but still a progression of the sound ten has had from his dream in a dream / new heroes days. ngl ido prefer nightwalker over even birthday. his music so far has felt more like pieces for him to showcase his dancing w occasional singing portions, which was fine, he IS one of the best dancers in the industry. but i've felt like his amazing singing is often overlooked for how much improvement & capability he has shown both in wayv's discography & the nct year-end projects over the years (his high note in the round&round bridge is still one of my favorites in probably all of nct's discography).

ten can be as much of a capable singer as he is a dancer is he's allowed to be, he's just emotive when singing & i really feel like this album shows that.

water is definitely my favorite song in the album, this was pulled straight out of the clubs in 2003, it's something that would've been an absolute hit in méxico & probably all of latinamerica imo. he did this for meeee!! thanks king.

on the other hand dangerous sound like something pulled from the 2003 anglo-saxon clubs. there's a over all very 2000s feel in the album, but mixed with a modern production imo.

while i would love for any of the b-sides to be performed alongside nightwalker, i think the one thay will be mainly promoted is going to be on ten, not only because it's a callback to his artistic name, but also the other song in the mini album with a modern feel aside nightwalker + plus it has such a good beat that it's bound to have a really good choreo (im thinking something very bouncy, fast & very hard for fans to replicate lol).

shadow is probably the song that aligns mostly with what he did with birthday albeit a little more melancholic. i love the little touches of the acoustic guitar that have been nearly all the songs across the album, it really seems to link them in a story.

we all know sm loves to add at least one ballad to their artists' repertoire, lie with you seems like the closest thing ten will have to one so far & it's honestly really fitting with how deceptive the song is. it comes off like such a cute lovey-dovey song -- until you pay attention to the lyrics. in the verse he's trying to pay nonchalant & make his lover believe it's ok if their relationship wont last & just wnhoy it for what it is, & then the chorus starts & he lets out just how much he also wishes it would all last for him. even the track video also being so cute serves to confuse us into thinking this is a short but very cute love story.

as you probably can tell, i really enjoyed this mini album. honestly, i kinda wish it were a full album so we got a fuller story cuz i'm sure there's a clearer through line than what i'm reading as of now from the few listens i've given it today. the sounds ten explores in this mini are sooo up my alley, like u dont understand, this kinda sounds like my childhood??? yet it doesnt sound like any song in specific that i can clearly point out the influnces, they're just blended really nicely to me. i havent liked a mini in a while like this, like enough that im probably gonna buy it even tho im supposed to be saving money. its a 10/10 for sure!!!