#we were supposed to leave 3 hours ago UGH

[enhard]

sim jaeyun — “you’re in safe hands”

pairing: s.jy x fem!reader

not proofread, enjoy! (MINORS DNI)

: you can’t handle looking at your boyfriend’s nice and veiny hands without doing anything about it.

cw: SMUT SMUT ALLLL SMUT, everything is consensual, hand kink (obviously), a bit of size kink, unprotected sex, creampie, fingering, riding, jake calls you princess most of the time, playing with your tits, slight choking, mentions of sending nudes??, lots of whimpers from him, jake slaps your mouth, established relationship, jake has a drivers license woahwoahwoah

—————————-⋆｡°✩ ✮⋆˙—————————

you faintly hear the ringtone of your phone through the buzzing in your ear. you slowly open your eyes, let out a sigh and immediately grab your phone to stop that annoying sound.. until you look at the now lit up screen of your phone, that your boyfriend jake is calling you.

you quickly sit up in shock, trying to clear your throat and answering the call, remembering that you were supposed to go on a date today.

“mm..yes my love? how are.. you?” you say, trying your best not to yawn in the middle of your sentence.

you can hear jake laughing at you through the other line. “princess, you’re still sleeping at this hour? i’m sorry for waking you up but.. it’s 4 pm already.” wait.. what?? 4 pm?? you were supposed to meet up 3 hours ago. how is it possible that you slept this long?

“don’t worry.. sunoo told me that he tried calling you since morning and you never answered, so i just let you sleep. instead of lunch.. could we go out to dinner now..?”

“ugh..fuck.. i’m sorry. i didn’t realise i slept that long.. is it okay in 3 hours..? i need to shower..” you reply as you’re massaging your head from the massive headache you got.

“of course love. i’ll come pick you up.. although.. does this mean i get no shower sneak peek??” he chuckles, and you just roll your eyes at his words.

“hold your horses now.. you might get to see me another time.” you smile.

there’s a few awkward seconds of silence, then he decides to hang up so you can get ready.

truth is.. you slept this long because of the hangover you’re having after a longgg night partying with your best friend sunoo. main reason why your headache is also present. —

you hop in the shower, actually debating to send jake a little picture or a video but.. you decide to be a bit of a tease. you just finish your shower and start getting ready.

you get dolled up all for him, putting on a nice laced dress and your favourite ysl lipgloss, that jake bought for you as a present not long ago. you get your phone and keys, locking your huge metal gate. your phone makes a few clicking sounds while you search for jake’s number to call him.

“baby, i’m right in front of my house. i’ll be waiting for you.”

“okay princess, i’m almost there. i can’t wait to see you”

you smile at your phone as you hang up, already seeing the blinding lights of his black suv, stopping right next to you. he gets out the car to check you out for atleast 5 minutes, offering you a kiss and then opening the car door like a true gentleman. you get in the car, the seats all warmed up. “good.” you say in your mind. it’s mildly snowing out, you needed this.

jake sits back in the driver’s seat, getting ready to leave. you turn to look at him while he’s focused on the road and you can’t help but admire him. you would lie if you said that he’s not the hottest man you’ve ever laid your eyes upon. with his slick back black hair, a nice black suit hugging his waist while also complementing his eyes.

your eyes suddenly slip to his arms, more specifically his hands. they’re resting on the top of the steering wheel, his fingers so long and pretty, multiple veins following from his forearm up to the back of his hand. that scenery alone made you squeeze your thighs together, knowing you couldn’t act on it here..

there is only one thing you thought about on that silent car ride, his long fingers inside you. you needed that more than anything. right now. instead, you try to look the other way, your body as stiff as a rock.

jake looks at you for a split second wondering why you’re moving around in your seat so much. he smiles, reaching out one hand to place on your inner left thigh. “what’s wrong love? are you uncomfortable?”

you thought you would let out a moan right there, right as he placed his hand on your inner thigh. you quickly shake your head left and right trying to diffuse the situation. you accidentally look downwards at your lap, and see that same hand, now grasping the soft skin of your thigh, one vein getting more prominent with each squeeze.

you continue through this hell for a few more minutes until you arrive, exhaling when he gets his hand off you.

. . . you get to your table, through the reservation that jake made previously. the place is pretty packed for a high end restaurant like this one. you’re both making small talk, asking how your day was and.. what plans you have for tonight.. he’s flipping through the menu and all you can stare at are those hands. you begin to breathe more rapidly, getting impatient.

“who cares about food right now? all i want are those fingers in my mouth” you think, trying not to slap yourself from the realisation of what you just almost said out loud.

still, you finish eating, he pays with his black card of course. even though you keep insisting that you want to pitch in. he loves spoiling you every time and all you can give him in return are kisses or.. something more.

after another few excruciating minutes in that car, you arrive back at your home. jake sits down on the couch, manspreading while you take your shoes off.

“thank you my love.. the dinner was amazing. what can i do to repay you?” he plasters on a confused look on his face, almost replying with “you don’t have to repay me” but.. seeing how beautiful you were for him.. how you looked and how you got ready all for him.. made him needy. in a blink of an eye. he knew he was lucky dating you, and the thought that you were all his made him so excited.

“hmm.. there might be something you can do for me princess. you think i’m stupid? i saw how you were drooling over my hands. you really love them huh?”

you get a bit embarrassed, but you’re way too horny to deny anything right now. “yeah.. i really do… i need them. please.” you say already biting your bottom lip.

you can see him slowly form a grin on his face, not saying a word. he pats his thigh two times, to show you the seat you’ll have for the rest of the night.

you eagerly walk up to him and take off your coat to take your seat on his lap. he pulls you into a kiss that turns into a make out session. he travels his hands down to your waist, and you move yours to hold onto his shoulders. you don’t pull away from his lips for a long time, the taste keeping you addicted.

he makes you pull away at one point, smiling at you. he takes his own coat off, having only a white satin shirt underneath. two buttons of the shirt are already undone, showing his chest real well.. with a nod from him as agreement, you begin unbuttoning his shirt, in a few seconds leaving him shirtless. you saw those abs and muscles countless times yet.. it still makes your body have a reaction you can’t explain.

he softly tugs on your dress while whining and pouting. you laugh at his pouty face, finding him so adorable yet so demanding. “go ahead”, quiet words leave your mouth while looking into his eyes.

he does not hesitate. he takes off that dress almost ripping it off out of excitement, leaving you in your underwear. he uses his middle and ring finger to open your mouth, shoving them in and wetting them with your saliva. you suck on his fingers a bit, getting to be a bit of a show-off.

he pulls his fingers out of your mouth, taking off your panties now. he immediately starts rubbing your clit first, flicking it a bit and getting it all wet.. then he moves down to your folds, moving his fingers back and forth. you grab onto one of his shoulders for support, digging your nails in it.

“l..love please.. put them in..”

he does exactly as he’s told. he shoves both fingers inside you, slowly pumping them in and out.. you’re rapidly losing your mind, this is everything you wished for. you grab onto his wrist with your other hand, trying to make him keep going but.. to no avail.

he stops, giving you a signal to ride his fingers instead. you get into position, trying your best to move your hips back and forth. you moaned feeling his fingers in you, not being able to resist anymore already. when he curls his fingers up inside you, he was almost convinced you were about to cum.

you ride his fingers as well as you can, trying to get on his good side. he’s not quite satisfied with your pace, so he gives you a slap over the mouth. “ride them faster princess, what’s up? tired already?” you’re fucked up as is, his words are making this WAY harder for you. the moans are getting more and more consistent, figuring that you’re going to cum soon.

“okay slut, slow down now. i don’t want you to get too tired. i’ll make you bounce on my cock just like this if you’re a good girl for me.” but… you don’t slow down. with how much energy you have left, you keep going. “ahh..i need to cum..first..plea..” he cuts you off, his tone getting more irritated.

“oh? you wanna cum? let me help you cum then whore.” he grabs onto your neck, choking you ever so slightly while fucking you with his fingers. he’s moving his hand as fast as he can trying to make you cum. you moan uncontrollably at this point, getting so close to your release and not being able to talk properly from the choking.

you do end up cumming all over his veiny fingers and pants. the grasp on your neck loosens, leaving a red mark around it.

“mmm.. since i stretched you out so well with my fingers.. how about we put that to good use?” he smiles, that smile being far away from innocent. you know exactly what he wants and you’re willing to give him that.

you catch up your breath, grabbing onto his shoulders again. “let me ride you then.” you reply, trying to be as nonchalant as you can.

you move your hands down to his pants, slowly slipping them off him. the bulge in his boxers is huge, obviously you already knew that but the thought didn’t comfort you. he’s usually hard to take in, now imagine being all fucked up and having to ride him. you let out a small scared sigh, while taking his boxers off too.

his cock springs up immediately and you lick your lips looking at it. you grab the base to stroke it a few times, before getting into position to ride him. you intertwine your fingers with his as you slowly go down on him. you almost feel like giving out when you take him all in but you need to make him feel good.

you slowly start riding him, his size almost being unbearable to take. he loves it though, he loves how you struggle to take him and how that small bulge appears in your stomach everytime you bounce up and down. he grabs and pulls on your hair just to make you speed up, teasing you with that hair pull each time he feels you slowed down.

you pick up your pace significantly, moving up and down, back and forth on him. your eyes roll back from the pleasure and it really feels like he’s splitting you into two. he stops holding hands to take your tits out of your bra just to fondle them a bit. he’s running his thumb all over your nipples, sending you shivers down your spine.

“such a good girl.” he remarks, coming from him this is a compliment. you smile at his words, motivating you to keep going. he’s very deep inside you right now, any sudden movement almost making you cum a second time..

you can hear him getting more vocal over time, he’s whimpering and cooing.. the usual tough guy that would control every movement of yours, is now getting so vocal.. you love it though, your favourite part of it might just be his moans.

you clench your teeth and force yourself to go as fast as you can, just to make him cum.

“fffuck…. princess hold.. on.. i’m close..” just music to your ears. you want to let this man fill you up right now. you push yourself even more to overstimulation just to make him cum.

he lets out a whimpery moan getting so close already.

“cum.. inside me.. please my love..”

those are the last words you can say before he cums all in you. he’s filling you up to the brim and you can do is smile, feeling his cum leaking out of you. you give him a sweet kiss on the lips then on the nose.

“fucking hell… maybe we should go out to dinner more often hm?”

you laugh, running your fingers through his hair. “you’re so cute.. now, wanna join me in the shower? no games this time.”

“waittt.. so this is why you didn’t send anything from your shower today.. let’s go for another round baby. what do you think?” he says, hugging your waist.

“hmmm.. maybeee. if you use those hands of yours again.”

“well, you know you’re in safe hands with me.”

[thoughtsforsoob]

Hiiii!This is for your event<3

Soobin + Helping Y/N with maths

Ngl,I thought he was genuinely bad at maths until I saw him help Hyuka with his homework.

I hope that you have a wonderful day/night🤍

a/n: I am so genuinely bad at math (aka: I failed math so miserably both time I have taken it here at university and now have to take it again). I hope this is good. inbox is always open for anything !!

math was genuinely testing you this semester and you hated it so much! you would sit there all night, in front of your computer, searching up videos about concepts you were supposed to learn in class. it's not like you weren't going to class either. you just had the worst math professor in existence! they had no idea what they were doing and when it was time to leave class, everyone just looked so dazed and confused because of the 2 hours of confusion they just faced.

tonight was a whole different beast. you were supposed to memorize the unit circle and things were not making any sense to you. math just seem like a bunch of numbers that had rules with a hundred and one different exceptions. how were you supposed to memorize any of this, let alone apply it to the questions on your homework?

it's currently 12 am and there you are, still at your desk, practically pulling all of the hair fro your scalp. soobin was coming home late so you knew you could get away with staying up late like this. he never let you stay up too late to study, arguing that you needed sleep to even get nay work done.

a few minutes after 12 struck, you were too busy to even heard the bedroom door open, revealing a tired looking soobin. he had showered at the dorm before coming to your apartment for the night. he saw you at your desk and sighed, which snapped you out of your studying. you turn to him and gasp, putting your hands over your chest, "soobin! you scared me! what the hell?" you look back at your computer and notebook, "ugh...this is torture!" soobin put down his things in the corner he always left them at and went straight to your side. "math?" he asked, looking at the screen at your scratch paper. you only nod and drop your head into your hands. he rubs your back gently, "here, why don't you let me help? I know it's against my rules to study this late but let's give it a try." you nod up at him and he smiled, kissing your forehead.

you two had taken this study session to the kitchen, taking a little break to gather some drinks and cook some ramyeon to fuel both your brains for the night ahead. once you both were back at the table, ready to go, soobin too a Quick Look at your assignment. he thought for a second and you both started to get to work. he carefully and thoroughly explained the first problem to you and how he would solve it. he shows you his work and writes down all the steps neatly on a pice of paper. once this problem was solved, he lets you work on the next one, which was much easier because you were able to look at the example problem me made for you and were able to clearly see the steps he took. the smile on your face when you finally understood and got the problem correct was a smile he could never erase from his mind. it made his heart warm.

after your assignment was done and the food and drinks were all gone, it was finally time to get ready for bed. all throughout your skincare routine and brushing your teeth, you thanked soobin for being such. great help. "hey, I thought you said you hated math?" he chuckles, "well, I do but that doesn't mean im not good at it." you sign and rolls your eyes, "we can't all be special like you, big dummy." "hey! I wasn't dumb when I was helping you just a few minutes ago!"

[jpitha]

Just a Little Further 18

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Ava bows dramatically, "Of course, Empress. Anything else while I'm over there? People are starting to worry about you, so I fear that they might just leave you."

I blink. Leave me? Abandon me here and go?

You're Empress now. They fear your power and what you will do. Some people there also fear you giving them orders.

But, it's not like I'd give them a bad order, or something I wouldn't do myself.

Despite what Ava - pardon us - Builder Ava says, a majority of people do not like to be ordered around.

Hmm. This is becoming more than I thought it would be very quickly. If they leave, then there goes our best ship and best way to traverse the gates. Coming in, it didn't look like the ships docked here were moving anytime soon and Ottarn's ship is proving that. We need ships.

"Ava. I have an idea. When you go back to FarReach and see if anyone else - human or K'laxi - is willing to come with you. Don't tell them we want to make them builders, but don't like, deny it either. We're going to need more help here than just the two of us." I see her face fall a little, uh oh. "But uh, you're still the first, and you're still my right hand, you'll hold a special place." That perks her up a little bit.

"We need a ship. I'm worried that FarReach might leave. See if you can get a duplicate of FarReach's printer database. She should have plans in it to make just about anything we need, up to and including a wormhole generator and Stardrive."

Ava gasps. "we're going to make our own ship? But, we don't know any AIs."

I nod. "We will have Builders though. If they can become starbases, I bet they can become starships. Plus, Venus doesn't use them, so I know it's possible."

At the mention of Venus, Ava raises her eyebrows. "You're not thinking of reaching out to Venus are you?"

I try and make a noncommittal gesture. "Well, they are the official government in the inner Sol system. And they are experts in doing things without AI help."

Ava is firm. "They're assholes Melody. They treat everyone not from Venus with no respect. They don't even think AIs are people."

Ugh, she's right. We can't reach out and contact Venus. If we did, we'd be seen by everyone else in human space as throwing our lot in with them.

Okay, we'll do it on our own. People over here have been in space for a long time, they know how to make starships.

Yes, but why are their engines so weak? Why did they never learn how to use a wormhole generator? They're ossified. They have no flexibility.

Well then, it's time for us to do some stretching exercises and see if we can get some flexibility back in place over here.

"Ava thank you, you're right. No Venus. We'll do it on our own." Ava beams at the compliment. "They must have a printer here. So we'll see if FarReach will let us duplicate their database and we'll build our own ship. We'll start small, a Frigate or something, no need to go nuts and make a Starjumper or Dreadnought right off the bat."

Ava smiles. "Wonderful. I think that's the right plan. I'll head over to FarReach, get your coffee, see if anyone else wants to join us and grab a copy of the database. Back in a few!" She reaches up and kisses me on the cheek before she leaves. My hand reaches up to touch the spot as I watch her leave. What was that?

She understands what it means to be the right hand to an Empress.

What it means to be an Empress? I look around the throne at all the empty seats in the gallery, the empty floor far below me, the wall blocking me off from the rest of the Reach. This will not do. If I am to really be Empress, I cannot rule from the rear. Where nobody sees me. I need to be... visible.

I stare at the huge, closed off opening to the Throne, and the paltry doorway I made just an hour ago. That won't do. Nobody can see me, can worship me from such a tiny door. I concentrate and think how it's supposed to look.

Grey fog boils and flows across the floor from behind me and down the stairs, flowing towards the wall. Making a change this large is tiring, but on the Throne I feel like anything is possible. More and more fog appears and climbs the wall at the far end of the room, and starting from the top, the wall starts to disappear. Working on a atomic level, the Nanites are disassembling the wall, turning some of the matter into more Nanites, and the rest becoming dust.

About halfway through the opening of the wall, I can hear a commotion outside. It's probably surprise at such a large wall being taken down without any heavy machinery. I guess it could also be people worried about the blast of fresh air and the improved environmental settings I just activated. I hope the vendors in front of the wall are able to move out of the way without being injured. I have already decided that if they lose any equipment I'll reimburse them personally. Nobody should be punished for me making sure that I am more visible.

Nobody who doesn't deserve it, at least.

I mentally roll my eyes as I can feel the Nanites nodding sagely.

As the wall comes down, I begin to see it. A crowd has formed outside the wall, and... yes I can hear the same singing I heard the first time. This must be The Smell of Soil after Rain's work.

The wall fades entirely, and I'm able to look down the Promenade of the Starbase. It really is an excellent view. I'm able to look all the way down to the administrative offices and over to the docks. As people come streaming in, they're still singing. I raise the lights in the Throne brighter and illuminate everything just to the point of being painful. They're not the only ones who can put on a show.

Rain's congregation barely fills out the entrance, let alone the lower galleries, but as they come in, more people from around the Starbase follow.

Everyone likes a show.

I decide to play it up. I've heard it enough that I know the basic beats of the song. As it reaches its crescendo, I stand and spread my wings wide.

The crowd erupts.

"People of Reach of the Might of Vzzx! After too long, your Builder, your Empress has returned! I am Empress Melody Mullen the First and I am here to help you become who you are meant to be. Who we are meant to be. No more will we cower in our starbase in our single system. We were an empire once, and will be again!"

They're chanting my name now. I have to admit, this is pretty great. I cast my gaze down and see Rain watching the speech. I wonder how I'm able to pick out individual people in the crowd so easily now?

"The Smell of Soil After Rain! Approach me!"

Bounding up the stairs, Rain is practically floating. They are rapturous. As they near me, they get down on their knees and bows, their head touching the floor.

Everyone in the crowd behind them follows.

"Rise."

He stands, practically vibrating with anticipation. There must be come kind of tech in the room. I don't need to shout, but the sound still has a nice, regal echo about it. "The Smell of Soil After Rain. You were the first. The first to recognize what I was, the first to see me for what I truly am. For that, you shall be rewarded." I reach a hand out and touch their shoulder. The crowd gasps as the white vestments turn royal blue.

"You are now Bishop for Reach of the Might of Vzzx. You will be the head of all the congregations here and you shall be responsible for making sure that I am worshipped correctly. Your first act is to call all the congregations here. We shall meet tomorrow to begin my reign properly. I will declare a celebration and will hear the pleas of my people. Let them know that should they so desire, they may petition me."

He turns and faces the crowd. I incline my head gently towards him, and in response, the crowd kneels to him. Clearly, his head is swimming. "Rise my flock!" He says to the gathered crowds. "The Empress has given us an order. Come, let us go spread the word so that tomorrow we can finally have our prayers answered."

Cheers and more singing. erupts from the crowd. In the time it took me to give my little speech and elevate Rain, the crowd doubled in size.

Rain turns back to me, and I lean in close to them and whisper. "Prove to me you're worthy of this elevation. Do not fail."

Their head jerks back, and their feathers ripple in surprise. Eyes wide, they nod, and swallow. I have taken all their joy of the elevation and turned it to fear.

Like I said, Great Empresses are feared and loved in equal measure.

I gently send him down the stairs, and before he reaches the bottom, his congregation picks him up and carries him on their shoulders out of the room. Presentation over, the crowd begins to leave.

I stand up. You wouldn't know it from looking at it but the Throne is surprisingly comfortable. Still, I was sitting quite a while. Ava hasn't returned either, so I don't really know what to do. I guess I should head back to FarReach and see what's going on.

I don't particularly want to be mobbed while I make it back to the dock, so I turn the crown and wings off. Huh, I am getting better at affecting the world around me.

I walk down the side of the stairs so it's not completely obvious, and I leave the throne room and walk towards FarReach. As I go, I hear Rain's congregation rush around, spreading the word. Some people are amused and tolerant, some tell them to leave and stop bothering them, and others are surprised and excited.

As I approach the dock, I see Ava. She's running towards me with a worried look on her face. Behind her, Omar and Um'reli are following behind looking confused and worried as well.

And she has my rifle on her back.

Ava sees me and waves "Melody! There's a problem!" I rush up to them. "What's wrong Ava? Hello Omar and Um'reli, why are you here?"

"That's just it Melody. FarReach declared Captain Q'ari unfit. She has assumed command of the mission and has stated that they're going home! She's disconnected from the umbilical and left!

What.

"What? Unfit? How come?"

Omar answers this time. "So, have you noticed how whenever anyone is around you, they are awfully chill about how you're now a God Empress who can not be disobeyed if you use your new creepy voice?"

My face said it all apparently. No, I hadn't noticed.

Omar nods. "Well, yes, that's what happens. You are giving off some kind of 'don't worry about it' field when around folks, and when you leave, it wears off. Captain Q'ari didn't... take it well. Dr Irenieum locked her in her quarters. Mei'la and Fer'resi also were pushing for us to leave."

"With me?"

Omar gives me a look. "That was not considered. Everyone figured you wouldn't leave. Ava showed up and said she's a Builder now too, and asked all of us if any of us wanted to stay with you and her to help rebuild the empire. She also grabbed your coffee stuff-" Ava holds up a bag, and smiles "-and said you asked for a copy of the printer database?"

"That's right. We're going to need our own starship. The ones that are here aren't very good, given that Mariens - Ottarn - who is trying to run in one that is practically leaving at a walking pace. I wanted a copy of the printer database so we could make our own Starships."

I look at them again. "So, if you're here then... you're in?"

Omar shrugs. "I didn't have anything going for me back home. Spouse died a few years back, we never had kids, I re-enlisted just for something to keep my mind off things. Staying out here is something new and different at least. I've never been this close to a God Empress before. Also, when Ava said you wanted a copy of the printer database I figured you'd need an operator. I bet you can't run a printer and I don't know how well anyone here would do."

I walk over and give him a hug "Oh Omar. You're welcome with us. Always." I kiss him on the lips and he jumps back. "Woah Melody! you're nice and all, but I'm gay, I'm not into women like that."

I lean back in shock. "Oh no, no, I'm sorry Omar, that's the easiest way I can give people Nanites to make them a builder. I apologize! I should have asked first! I'm so embarrassed."

"It's okay Melody, but next time warn a person."

I look over at Um'reli "What about you? Why do you want to stay? I thought a bunch of K'laxi feared me because of that old religion."

She scoffs. "Not all of us Melody. I'm an atheist, always have been. Most of my familial group is. Ava explained what was going on, and how you had said you didn't want just humans to be Builders-" I glanced over at Ava and she winked "-and thought that you were right. There was no reason that we had to sit by and be a client species if we were being offered a partnership." Um'reli looked at me carefully. "It is a partnership, right?"

I nodded. "Yes, of course. I can't do it on my own, and the K'laxi have been our friends for centuries. I'm not about to say that you are our friends but now you're a client group too. I'm the Empress, but you can be a Builder as well."

Um'reli smiles. "Thanks Melody. So... kissing?"

"Just a quick peck. The Nanites say it's the fastest way to give you some. If you don't want to, we can find out if there's a different way."

"No, no, it's it's fine..." Her fur ripples a blush. "Are you sure Ava won't be jealous?" Um'reli laughs.

I laugh too, but Ava just chuckles politely. I look over and Holy shit, she is jealous. I pretend I didn't notice and bend down and give Um'reli a peck on the mouth.

"Okay, it'll take about a day for the Nanites to grow and reproduce until you have enough to be able to do stuff like me. The language processing comes fastest though, that one should be working at least a little bit in a few hours."

Ava comes forward and hands me my rifle. "I know you didn't ask for it, but... I know how much it means to you."

I can't believe she thought of me enough to bring me this. It's so thoughtful.

"Thank you Ava, it's incredibly thoughtful of you to do that." I go in for a hug, and she turns my face and gives me a kiss too. I shrug mentally and kiss her back.

After, I lean back and ask "How did you get this?"

"Oh While Omar and Um'reli were getting their things I was waiting by the airlock and realized that you still had your rifle in the locker. I touched the panel and it popped open! I grabbed it and then Omar and Um'reli appeared and we left quickly."

I was shocked. Nobody should be able to open those lockers.

Builders can. She probably just thought really hard about being able to please you.

I look at my new team. It's just the four of us, but I'm hopeful that we can do great things.

Omar looks around the dock and then back at me. "So, uh Melody, where do we sleep?"

Shit.

Part 19

[averagemizukikinnie]

"I'm sorry I deceived you, I'm sorry I couldn't tell you."

TW: HUGE warning for SH (it’s what the fic evolves about pretty much) , ED implication, cursing

a/n: it’s my first time in writing for a pair, i apologize for any grammar or spelling mistakes in advance since english isn’t my first language!! there are also more notes at the end. this fanfic can also be interpreted as platonic

“23, 24, 25…”

. . .

The bigger the number got, the more aggressive Mizuki became, and the deeper the slashes cut. They don’t remember how their abdomen looked when it was clear, all they can see now is red and brown lines over it, some are even white.

“Ahahaha… I’m really filthy and disgusting, aren’t I? I ate more than I’m supposed to when I was at the diner with Ena, Mafuyu, and Kanade. I made a promise to tell Ena the truth of what I’ve been keeping inside long ago, yet I still avoid the topic whenever it’s brought up being the coward I am. I’m surprised they didn’t leave just like everyone did…” . While they were indulging themself in their self-deprecating self-talk, they went in deeper than intended. It wasn’t really a problem anyways, their parents were out of the city for work, their sister lives overseas, no one could stop them from getting so engrossed in their own mind.

. . .

1 hour later

*doorbell rings*

“Mom and Dad aren’t supposed to be back until next Tuesday, who could it be?”. They panicked for a split second when they remembered they were supposed to have a sleepover with Ena tonight. “Good thing I finished cleaning up just a moment ago” they mumbled to themselves right before they put up their usual grin, when had they gotten so good at switching their expression? That is a question that they’re unsure of what a right answer for it could be. They felt the burning sensation of the clothes brushing against their stomach —but thankfully for them—, they were already used to it, so hiding it was a piece of cake, they already hide so much anyways.

“Yaho!~ Woah you arrived just 3 minutes late, that’s a new record!! Did poor lil’ bro have to shake the entire room to wake you up?”

“I knew this would happen.”

Ena muttered under her breath. “Can’t you just say a normal greeting for once whenever we both meet up alone?”

“Waaaaaahhh!! You’re so mean!~”

Mizuki fake-cried as they dramatically had the back of their hand on their forehead.

“Yeah yeah whatever. Anyways, can we just actually get inside?”

They finally settled in Mizuki’s room. Ena felt so fascinated by the aesthetic of the room, it felt so… Mizuki. She could tell they poured their heart in making it to their liking. It might not be obvious from first glance for others, but for Ena it is.

As Ena’s eyes were hovering around, she noticed the torso near the mirror with an unfinished project on it that seemed like it collected some dust, she found it a little strange since she had this idea Mizuki is the type of person to get absorbed into whatever project they’re working on if it’s related to their passions. Ena recalled some of Mizuki’s rambles about clothes making on Nightcord, she secretly adored these rambles even if she knew nothing about that side of fashion herself; because she can hear Mizuki being so passionate and full of joy. If she ever admits it out loud she will never hear the end of it thanks to Mizuki’s teasing.

“Oi~ Earth to Ena— Does the princess need to sleep already?~”

“Huh?! First of all, why the hell are you calling me that?? Second of all, is zoning out for just a single moment a sign of sleep deprivation now?? Ugh this is going to be a really long night.” Mizuki couldn’t help but burst out laughing at Ena’s reaction, her reactions are one of the reasons they tease her more than other people.

. . .

Later on, they both decided they will play on Mizuki’s gaming console. It was kept up in Mizuki’s closet, they haven’t used it for some while. They bought it back in those times as a way to distract themselves even further from reality. It was so up high, Mizuki was wondering how on Earth they got it there before.

“Ah! I’m finally getting a grasp of it!” , just when they said that, they lost balance and fell on their back.

Ena immediately rushed to Mizuki to check if they’re fine, and help them get up if needed.

“Are you alright?? Did you get hurt? Do you need help getting up?”

“It’s ok I didn’t get hurt! I’m totally fi-“

Right when they started to get up, one of the console’s controllers fell on their abdomen, right where the fresh, deep, red scars are.

“Again?? Seriously what’s up with its location? Anyways are you ok? Again did you get hu-“

As Ena was saying that, she saw a dark red spot forming on Mizuki’s white shirt. Her face turned white when she realized what it was, it was blood.

“Mizuki, can you let me open the shirt to see the wound and clean it? Please? It would be terrible if it gets infected…”

“… No.”

“Why?… It would be difficult for you to get up and clean it up all by yourself.”

“The reason is not important… I can handle th— SHIT—“

“Mizuki please let me see it. It’s clearly hurting badly-“

“As I said, I can handle this.”

“You’re obviously lying. Whether you allow it or not, I have to check the wound and how bad it is.”

Mizuki grabbed Ena’s wrists with all the force they could gather, Ena struggled for a bit as she was letting herself go from their grasp, thankfully, she eventually managed to do so thanks to Mizuki’s state.

Ena finally lifted up their shirt, and what she saw was horrifying to say the least. Her face got devoid of any traces of curiosity just now just for it all to be replaced with horror, as if she saw a ghost. She saw all the variations of red, brown, and white contrasting against Mizuki’s light skin color, how there was some skin peeling around some scars, and most importantly, how fresh some of them were.

On the other hand, Mizuki wanted to escape from Ena’s gaze on their body as fast as possible, she saw what they thought was the most disgusting, filthy, and deformed part of themselves they ever showed to her. They thought she was going to abandon them for good, just like many people did. Everything Mizuki did in order to preserve their bond with Ena, it all seemed useless and futile now, just like they feared.

What snapped Mizuki out of their thoughts was Ena’s shaky breathing, they thought that this is it, that there’s now another person on the mental list of people they lost because of something about Mizuki.

“What the FUCK is wrong with you?!”

“You’re so fucking disgusting.”

“I never imagined someone this filthy exists, but here you are.”

Mizuki can already feel the words coming, they embraced themselves for it, it’s a matter of few seconds before they actually hear them… Or so they thought.

“… For how long have you been doing this?… I might not be the best at comforting, but why didn’t you tell me sooner? I- I just- I wish I realized this sooner. I’m so sorry for not being the person you needed. You were going through such a hard time without me knowing about it… I just-“

Mizuki didn’t expect this would be her reaction, they thought it will be the last time they ever talk, they thought this was going to be the end.

“I *sob* I’m so sorry… I can’t believe *sob* I didn’t know about this sooner…”

Ena grabbed both of Mizuki’s hands and gently kissed them, she then proceeded to wrap her arms around them and pull them into a tight hug. Mizuki froze in their place because of how astonished they were, they never thought of such outcome, not just did Ena not give the type of reaction they thought they were going to get, not just did she sound genuinely concerned, but she was also apologizing for not knowing better?? They never even dared to try dreaming of this yet here it is being actual reality.

Slowly, Mizuki started to wrap their arms around Ena, and they could feel tears forming in their eyes as well, they kept it inside for so long yet they couldn’t bring themselves to say a word out of fear of their past repeating itself again, they didn’t want to lose yet another person they want to stay with.

“No… please don’t say that to yourself it isn’t your fault in the slightest… Please don’t cry…”

“How the hell am I supposed to NOT cry?? Seeing you in pain hurts me and this time and this time it affected you physically and *sob* and to make matters even worse I couldn’t help you because of how oblivious I am…”

“Ena please… It’s my fault for being such a coward and not saying anything… I don’t want to see you cry because of me…”

Ena’s expression turned to a determined one, with tears still in her eyes, her nose still red, and her cheeks still puffy. She cupped Mizuki’s cheeks with both her hands and wiped the tears with her thumbs and said

“Mizuki, don’t say this about yourself. You are not a coward for not telling me about your struggles, l know it can be hard to open up to someone, no matter who that someone is. But whenever you feel like you’re struggling again and are close to doing this to yourself, come to me instead okay? You don’t have to force yourself to tell me you’re so close to doing it, just come to me and start the conversation like you normally do. Please.”

This was Mizuki’s last straw. Before they knew it they started sobbing uncontrollably with Ena having a firm, right grip on them. They were feeling so many emotions, they were keeping it inside for so long, they were so scared of Ena leaving them because of this secret of theirs they deemed “ugly and filthy” , they were in so much pain, they had so much on their mind, and most importantly, they were happy the what-it’s in their mind didn’t come true.

They were happy Ena didn’t reject this part of them. They want to stay with her as long as they can, even if their time together isn’t meant to last much longer, they hope it is.

Note: i am not implying that sh scars are something scary in ena’s reaction, the reason i wrote her reaction that way is because i wanted to interpret that she’s horrified because it’s happening to Mizuki. I hope you understand i meant no harm in the way i wrote her reaction, i struggle with sh myself.

[mvrsverse]

ATEEZ Cosplayers AU

Chapter I: Crunching before launching

...

Mingi couldn’t sleep.

No matter how hard he tried, every time he managed to doze off, an awful clatter of an old sewing machine jumping and banging against his flat mate’s desk immediately woke him up. He was squirming in his bed for almost 2 hours now, wishing for electricity to go down or just anything that could save him really.

“Ugh, this is pointless” he growled under his breath and got up reluctantly.

He reached out for his phone and rubbed his eyes while trying to look at the lock screen clock, refusing to believe it’s already 3am. He started walking towards the kitchen, slow enough to lurk through the half-opened door of his flatmate’s room. He stopped there and decided to enter the dragon’s lair and put an end to the symphony of agonizing noises.

 

“How about you just call it a day Hongjoong? It’s 3 am already and at this point the sounds of your sewing machine will haunt me in my nightmares... that is if I’ll ever be able to fall asleep today” said Mingi in such a manner you couldn’t tell if this was supposed to be a joke or not.

A blue haired boy was so focused that it took him a hot minute to even acknowledge that his friend was standing at his doorstep, squinting his eyes expecting any kind of reaction from him. He let go of the pedal of his sewing machine and frowned, trying to make sense of what Mingi just said to him, as if he did it in a different language.

Mingi’s expression softened. “Are you ok? You really shouldn’t overwork yourself like this” he said, sounding concerned.

“I’m sorry, I  was just so focused I didn’t realize you were there until you finished speaking to me” said Hongjoong, turning the chair towards Mingi and taking off his glasses. “I’m almost finished, I promise.”

“You said that when I checked up on you the last time, which was like 3 hours ago!”

“I know, but I really thought I was about to finish it at the time! But then I realized that my costume isn’t puffy enough so I’ve decided to add more tulle to it. I couldn’t just ignore it!” his eyes suddenly sparked and he started gesticulating intensively, looking like he was trying to desperately sell an idea that didn't make any sense.

“You’re unbelievable” Mingi blinked in disbelief. “You won a contest with this costume last year! It’s perfect as is!”

“I know, but…” Hongjoong stopped, looking away at the mess he did while working on his costume tonight “… you know we are going to have a cosplay booth with Seonghwa and I just want my costume to look amazing for the people who will come by to support us” he played with his fingers and looked back at Mingi with a shy, almost sad smile.

Mingi moved towards Hongjoong’s bed and sat there, without breaking eye contact with  his friend.

“Come here, take a break” he patted the bed sheet right next to him.

Hongjoong sighed and joined him. He looked even more tired up close. His eyebags had another eyebags and his shirt needed to go on a date with a washing machine asap.

“I’m not going to stop you from an all-nighter, we are living together for long enough for me to know better” Mingi laughed softly to what Hongjoong responded with a small, embarrassed chuckle.

“I’m not a cosplayer but I think your costume is really great” he stopped until Hongjoong looked at him again “you’re one of the best cosplayers I’ve ever known, seriously! There’s a reason why people still call you Hongruella a year after the debut of this costume!” Mingi grabbed and shaked Hong’s arm enthusiastically.

“Thanks, Mingi,” he answered quietly. “I know this costume is good but I’m just stressed because it’s been almost a year since I wore it and now that I took it out of the box I see so many small things that could’ve been fixed or done better. I know that it’s probably just me though… I hope Seonghwa wouldn’t mind if I leave it like that” he shrugged.

Mingi’s eyes widened as he started laughing again. “SEONGHWA?! Please, he’s basically your number one fan, of course he wouldn’t mind! What he will mind though is seeing you this tired tomorrow so go and get some rest already if Hwa is who you really are concerned about!”

Hongjoong nodded with an expression on his face that Mingi couldn’t really decipher. He stood up, patting Mingi’s back. “Alright, you won, I’m gonna take a shower and go to sleep, '' he said, already heading towards the bathroom and waving from behind. “Goodnight!” his voice echoed from the hallway.

“Goodnight!” Mingi answered with relief and went back to his own bed. He was laying there for a couple of minutes and when the much awaited dreamland started embracing him, he heard the sewing machine clatter again… But this time he was too tired to let himself be bothered by it and finally fell asleep.

_______

Okay that all for chapter 1! I wrote that back in March but forgot to post it here 🗿

Basically the idea is that (since I'm bad at writing but also I'm too lazy to draw an actual comic) I'm going to draw an illustration for each chapter and add a little bit of a story to it 💖 Please keep in mind that English isn't my first language so there are some errors for sure, but I still want to share my AU with u guys anyway!

When it comes to the story, there will be some romance but it won't be a main focus of plot. Also I'm not comfy writing smut so it's not going to happen either jhdjsjjd

In this AU I want to focus on depicting the good and bad in cosplay community or any creative community really. I also want to explore both the complexity of each character and the relationships(both platonic and romantic) between them.

I'll probably update the story in September because I'm finishing my thesis this month so I'm busy af 💀 but yeah I'll draw another illustration and maybe revive my cyberpunk kpop Artipolis AU too

[gravessyard]

Garden

Notes from the crypt: So this started out as self indulgence before I realized that I could totally make it into a fic to share, so I hope you all enjoy. I'll say here that I used the codename Garden because my name is Eden and y'know... Garden of Eden lmao again, this started as something I'd read back to myself for my personal pleasure but as I kept going I figured I'd share it anyway! I got a lil tipsy today so forgive me if the end is a little messy;;

Tags: GN! Reader, military au, depictions of violence, blood, mentions of death, angst with a happy ending

Summary: It was supposed to be a simple escort mission, until shit went sideways

“Ugh, an escort mission? That’s boring, I can’t kill anything on an escort mission”, Tartaglia huffs from his chair, slouching back with his arms crossed over his chest like a child who got scolded. Pierro glances at him, annoyance evident in his gaze after being rudely interrupted during their meeting. Scaramouche glares at him before kicking his shin from under the table, causing the ginger to jolt in pain and glare back at his teammate.

“Children, please, you two will get your chance at each other’s throats when we have secured The Garden. Now pay attention”, Pierro growls before going back over their mission, which was simple in theory: months ago you had managed to infiltrate an enemy base under the guise of wanting to join their cyber operations unit. You were successful, working alongside the enemy to “help” their missions while copying important data to bring back to the Tsaritsa. You had gone silent a week ago, your last message to Pierro relaying how you thought someone was beginning to grow suspicious of your presence before you just disappeared entirely, and then he saw that your silent alarm was tripped. Something felt off about it, but he prioritized your safety first, so he wasted no time in rounding up his squad that consisted of Tartaglia, Scaramouche and two other nameless soldiers to give them your location and the mission to get you out.

“Try not to gain attention to yourselves, Garden doesn’t have any weapons other than their computer so if they get caught, we’re all fucked. Plane leaves in 10 minutes, dismissed.”, Pierro watches the men stand and give a salute before they’re jogging out of the room and outside, boarding the awaiting plane that took off not too long after. Tartaglia yawns loudly while checking over his equipment, making sure his weapons were loaded and knives were where they needed to be while also complaining internally that you could have at least waited until noon to bug them and not at 3 in the morning.

“Shut up, you yawn any louder and they’ll hear us coming before they see us”, Scaramouche scoffs from beside him, and a moment later he’s pushing something into Tartaglia’s hand. He looks down curiously to see a 5 hour energy that Scaramouche pulled from his vest, a snort escaping him while he glances over to see the other shoot his own energy vial back. “Jesus dude, how many of these do you have?”, he snickers, unscrewing the cap to shoot the liquid back, face contorting at the questionable flavor.

“I have enough”, the rest of the flight to their first location was made in silence, tension beginning to grow among the four once the plane landed and they get off to see a car awaiting them. ‘The car will take you to where Garden is, around this time there will be guards posted, if you can sneak past them then do so. If not, well, leave the rest to Childe. Garden will be waiting at the south entrance, so get in and get out quickly.’ The car ride to the building was equally silent, not even the radio was on. Childe is no stranger to silent car rides, but there was something about this one that made his hackles rise. He snuck a glance at Scaramouche, who looked equally uncomfortable before the man is looking at the driver, a face he doesn’t recognize. Just as the car was beginning to approach the building, their coms devices spark to life, your voice breaking through static.

“STOP! Stop!! It’s a trap!”, your scream through the coms made Childe’s blood run cold, he was barely able to look at the driver before his hearing went out all together and the car was flipped upside down. A small crater was left on the ground where the tire went over the land mine that was awaiting them, Childe’s vision seemed to move in slow motion, a constant ringing in his ears as he takes in his surroundings. Scaramouche was kicking at the driver, his mouth screaming curses that Childe can’t hear as the smaller man kicks the gun out of the driver’s hand, the two shots that came from his own gun seemed to bring him back, the sound returning.

“Tartaglia! We have to go!!”, he hears Scaramouche scream and gets to work on opening the door so he could crawl out and help his teammates out of the overturned car. A flurry of bullets has them crouching behind it, weapons at the ready. “What do we do?!”, one of the nameless soldiers cries beside them, gun in their trembling grip. Childe looks over the side of the car to see where the shots were coming from before sending his own bullets back, taking down two of the enemy soldiers. Scaramouche joins him, peeking over the other side to spray bullets before barking orders at the other two. Seconds of firing go by before their coms are sparking back to life again, your trembling voice whispering in their ears.

“Tartaglia – this is Garden, how do you copy?”, you sounded like you were hiding somewhere, and Childe could only hope it was someplace safe.

“Garden! We’re under fire outside of the building, what the fuck is going on?!”, Tartaglia shouts back, pulling back so he could reload his weapon. One of the nameless soldiers take his place. “It’s a trap, I sent Pierro word that someone was onto me some days back and well, they found out I worked for the Tsaritsa. They wanted to use me as bait to get you guys here and kill you, I’m so sorry –“

“Quit whining, we don’t have a lot of time here! Where are you?”, Scaramouche growls in his coms, switching places with the other nameless soldier so he could also reload.

“I’m hiding in a supply closet on the second floor, I think I lost – “, a scream is ripped from you, Childe and Scaramouche could hear the door be thrown open and more screaming from your end before the coms went dead again, and dread filled their veins.

“Find a way into the building! We’ll cover you!”, Scaramouche snarls at the nameless soldiers before he and Childe begin raining bullets on the remaining soldiers that were trying to approach the vehicle. Following their teammates to the entrance, they wait while one of them fumbles with picking the lock, their trembling hands proving to be a hassle since they kept dropping the pins and cursing to themself.

“Move!”, Childe yells, pulling the soldier to the side so he could kick at the lock, he was growing way too impatient to wait for this fool to open the door when you could potentially be in danger this very second. Three solid kicks later the door gives, swinging open and his reflexes are quick to shoot down the single guard that was prepared for their break in. Childe calls your codename through the coms, hoping you’ll respond but the grip on his gun only tightens when he’s met with static. The inside of the building is eerily silent, there’s barely a body in sight outside of the guard he shot down. Like the trained soldiers they were, the four of them began sweeping the floor, checking every room in hopes that you had gone back to hiding. “clear”, Scaramouche grumbles quietly beside the ginger, who only frowns in response before he leads the team upstairs, he can feel a bead of sweat roll down his cheek as his eyes scan the empty floor, he notes the open door of the supply closet you were pulled out of, and guessing from the papers thrown around the floor, you managed to put up a bit of a fight. He’d smile if your life weren’t currently in danger, silently motioning his team to sweep the floor. He checks a room, finger nearly pressing the trigger when he spots the body of a dead soldier, knife plunged in their neck. His brows furrow as he looks around the room, other than the body he can see droplets of blood on the floor leading outside of the room and towards the stairs.

“Scara”, Childe calls and immediately the soldier is by his side, looking down towards where blue eyes were to see the blood leading up the stairs. “Sir… The wall”, one of the nameless soldiers whisper, and both men look up to see the bloody handprint that was clear on the wall, it had a streak going up, meaning whoever was injured was dragged upstairs. Swallowing hard, Childe takes a step onto the stairs when he jumps at the sound of a single shot followed by your scream, and then they were all rushing upstairs. Childe and Scaramouche couldn’t believe the sight that welcomed them, the bodies of two soldiers laying motionless in different places of the floor, one with a knife plunged in their chest and the other laying in a pool of their own blood. Four guns were pointed at a stumbling body that was exiting a room, hand pressed tightly against their neck before they’re falling face first on the floor, the sounds of gurgling dying down moments later. Approaching the room, Childe leads with his gun, stepping slowly inside with your name on the tip of his tongue before he sees a flash of silver, and suddenly he’s grabbing the wrist of the assailant and slamming them against the wall, arm twisted painfully behind them. Your screams and whimpers fill his ears and his heart drops, hands immediately letting your arm go and barely catching your slumping form as you cry in pain.

“Shit, y/n – “, his breath catches when he sees the state you’re in, your shoulder was bleeding from a bullet wound, you had a split lip and a black eye, he didn’t even want to imagine what other wounds you could be hiding under your clothes. “Fuck, Scaramouche! Radio in, we need immediate evac and a medic, Garden’s hurt”, Childe picks you up bridal style, whispering apologies to you when you whine in pain.

“I-I already… I already did that”, you pant in his arms, exhaustion beginning to take over. “Evac’s… 5 minutes out”, your head dips, and Childe has to shake you gently to keep you awake.

“Hey, don’t close your eyes, we’re getting you out”, he doesn’t know if he’s saying that more for your sake or for his, half of your shirt is already drenched in your own blood, and judging from how pale you appear, he fears you may have lost a lot. Scaramouche takes the lead in escorting the team out, leading with his gun while the two nameless soldiers cover the back, the sounds of a helicopter is reassuring to the ginger as he watches it land, the door opening so they could rush inside. He reluctantly gives you to the two medics who begin working on you, cutting your shirt open and Scaramouche can see how pale Childe gets when your wounds are exposed to the air. Along with the bullet in your shoulder, there was a stab wound on your side actively bleeding, your blood coating the forming bruises that littered your body.

“Garden, can you hear me?”, one of the medics calls out to you while the other pushes an iv in your arm to begin administering fluids, but both pause when you don’t respond, your eyes long closed and chest devoid of movement. Tense silence fills the air as the medic calls out for you once more, fingers moving to press against your neck to search for a pulse.

“H-Hey, whats going on?”, Childe questions, leaning forward to try and be by your side but was held back by Scaramouche, who had to use all of his strength to fully keep the man back. “Hey! y/n, wake up! No, no no, please!”, Childe screams as he watches the medic begin chest compressions, the other speaking into a radio. He couldn’t watch you die here, not when you two had gone through so much. You were always Childe’s favorite, you were reliable and witty and had a sense of humor that rivaled his own, you were always there for him and his team, your lovely voice guiding them through almost all of their missions before you decided to take this one for yourself.

‘You make a pinkie promise, you keep it all your life’, Childe begins as he holds your pinkie tightly against his own, your giggling making him break out into a grin. ‘You break a pinkie promise, I throw you on the ice. The cold will kill the pinkie that once betrayed your friend, the frost will freeze your tongue off so you never lie again’, he brings your pinkie up to his lips to press a kiss against it, your laugh ringing heavenly in his ears. ‘Well that wasn’t morbid at all’, you snicker as you mirror the motion, bringing his gloved pinkie up so you can press a kiss against it. ‘Just promise me you’ll come back safe and alive’, he huffs, letting go of your pinkie in favor of bringing you into his arms for a warm hug. ‘I promise, Ajax’.

“you promised…”, Childe whispers to himself as a tear rolls down his cheek, the helicopter landing and the door opening before you’re being pulled out and laid on a stretcher, the medic doing your chest compressions straddling you so they can continue while you’re being wheeled away. “They’re in good hands, now come on… We have to go back to base”, Scaramouche keeps a firm grip on his shoulder as he coaxes the grieving soldier out of the helicopter and onto the plane that brought them there. He was noticeably distant the entire way, not making any snarky remarks whenever Scaramouche prodded at him or even when Pierro was commending them for keeping a level head during the mission, even if it went sideways, all he was focused on was praying that you pulled through and was okay. He tried asking around about your status but was met with several confusing answers, some would claim that you died while others say you were brought back, it brought him to near insanity just trying to figure out who was telling the truth. He was growing impatient, waiting days before he was summoned for a meeting, silently sitting next to Scaramouche and crossing his arms, blue eyes staring at the table while he waits for Pierro to enter the room.

“Damn, who died? Thankfully not me”, his head perks up at the sound of your voice, looking up to see you walking into the room next to Pierro, your injured arm in a sling and he can feel tears fill his waterline. He shoots up to his feet, rushing to you so he could throw his arms around your form. You yelp, free hand smacking at him while telling him he’s hurting you, and he apologizes softly while loosening his grip, arms moving to wrap around your waist while he presses his face against your neck, hot tears rolling down his cheeks and getting the collar of your shirt wet. “Aw, did you miss me that much?”, you snicker, running your hands through his hair while listening to the way he sniffles and sobs quietly into your skin.

“You kept your promise”, he murmurs against you, his form beginning to tremble as he lifts his head to get a better look at you; while you still had a black eye and some scratches, he still found you to be beautiful in his eyes. Your eyes were wide at his statement before softening, holding your pinkie out for him to wrap his around while pressing your forehead against his to the best of your ability.

“Of course, I’d hate for my tongue to fall off from the cold after all”, you chuckle, hand moving to wrap around his neck while he brings you closer to press his lips against yours, completely ignoring the gagging sounds coming from Scaramouche.

“I’m never letting you go again, y/n.”

[quietlyimplode]

leave everything but your bones behind

Whumptober 2022: day 3 - gun to head

Warnings: headaches/vomiting/nightmares (discussed)/being sick/red room flashbacks

Word Count: 1.5k (gif not mine)

Summary: Natasha becomes unwell and only the Red Room can fix her. The choice is die or go back to the very place that made her.

A/N: ty for all the support and love. Comments/reblogs/likes are always appreciated <3 (please don’t repost, will be put on ao3)

Main Masterlist

Whumptober Masterlist

———

“It’s me,” he tries.

Glazed eyes stare, and he realizes she’s not with him.

Seeing but unseeing.

“Natasha,” he starts.

“You’re in your car, somethings happened.”

He’s as gentle as he can be, taking the gun off her, away from his head.

“‘Lint?”

She’s not all gone, he thinks, terror clawing at his throat as he smiles at her, trying to exude calm.

“‘Athappnd?”

Her eyes close, and she pushes her head into the car seat.

“Your head hurts?” he assumes.

“Yeah,” she breathes.

Clint wants to question her more, but he also wants to get her home.

“It’s time to go home?”

He doesn’t give her a choice. Unlocking the car, he leaves her to open the driver side door.

As soon as he opens it, the gun is at his head again.

“Natasha,” he admonishes.

“It’s me.”

It looks like it takes all the energy she has, to fully see him, lower the gun and stare at him.

“Clint?”

“Come on,” he prompts, helping her out.

The car with the broken window will have to stay here, she’ll be pissed when she realises but right now he doesn’t care, he’s an inch away from driving her to the emergency department.

She leans heavily on him, as he bundles her into the car, seatbelts her in and closes the door.

Natasha doesn’t talk, her eyes still closed even as he pulls into her apartment driveway to park the car.

“You’re home,” he prompts, unsure what to say.

He’s met with glazed eyes again, this time, when he touches her, he knows that her temperature is up.

He’s never known Natasha to be sick.

Not like this.

“Okay, almost there,” he holds her tight.

She grips his arm, but as soon as they enter the apartment she pushes off him and heads for the toilet, leaving Clint with Liho staring at him.

He shrugs to the cat and puts the kettle on, maybe some tea. Now is not the time for confrontation, he tries to convince himself.

But as he hears her vomit in the toilet, he knows there’s another one coming.

.

She passes out quickly.

Unable to handle Clint's concerned look, Natasha knows he wants to ask.

But she has no answers for him.

She just… doesn’t feel well. She’s hot, her head hurts, muscles ache, nauseous and shaky. It’s not like she knows why, and she doesn’t have the brain space for the conversation.

So she avoids him and puts herself into bed.

.

“She’s gone to bed, hasn’t she?” he asks the cat.

He peeks into her bedroom and finds her curled onto the bed, face flushed, a tremor intermittently running through her. It’s not a seizure, Clint tries to convince himself.

He’s helpless.

He should call an ambulance, but he knows how that will go. She’s already pulled a gun on him twice. He doesn’t want a repeat of Zimbabwe.

Instead, he calls Tony. It’s not even five pm.

“Clint,” he hears the billionaires voice, “where’s Natasha? She was supposed to be here an hour ago.”

Stress makes him pace.

“She’s sick,” he tells Tony, unsure of what to say next.

“I’m worried.”

There’s a pause as he hears Tony stop.

“What do you mean?”

“She had a seizure when we were sparring, I don’t know if it’s her first one. She’s currently sleeping.. I.. Ugh.. I don’t know about last night. I think she’s got a temperature.”

There’s silence.

“Shit,” Tony breathes.

They both ruminate in silence; Clint unsure what to say next and he feels Tony is thinking a thousand things.

He sighs.

“Come here,” Tony tells him.

“We have a medical suite, we can get Bruce here, we can run tests.”

There’s a pause.

“It’s better than being alone.”

“She won’t want to,” Clint reasons.

“Yeah well, there’s a lot of things she won’t want to do I think.”

He knows Tony is right.

This isn’t normal. Not for Natasha.

“She’s going to be okay. Get her her here.”

The words feel hollow, as Clint goes to check on her again. She’s still asleep, still flushed, and as he reaches to touch her arm, warm.

He leaves the room, nodding.

“Okay, yeah. We’ll come, I’ll tell her when she wakes up. Can you do me a favour, her car has a smashed window,” he proceeds to tell Tony about the events of the afternoon and asks him to tow the car. It’s probably an unfair ask, but he figures Tony is rich and can work it out.

He agrees, of course, and offers to send a car to pick them up. Clint declines, hoping that Natasha feels better in the morning.

Maybe it’s just a bug.

Maybe it’s nothing.

He feels in his gut though, it’s something bigger.

He always trusts his gut.

Thanking Tony, they organize the day tomorrow, hoping nothing is needed over night.

Next, he calls Fury, and lets him know they’re both taking a personal day tomorrow. He doesn’t have to elaborate, and truthfully Fury likely thinks it’s a mental health day, but he doesn’t say much, not sure what to say.

.

Clint feeds Liho, patting her gently, turning on the television, and looking around. The box on the table has Russian candy and he unwraps it eating it as he goes to sit down.

It does not taste great. It’s like coffee mixed with chocolate, he’s not sure how he feels about it but curiously wants another.

The evening passes slow, and still Natasha doesn’t arise. He checks on her intermittently but nothing changes.

Once he tries to wake her, but she just rolls over and mumbles to leave her alone.

It’s nine pm, when his phone starts to die from playing games and looking up possible causes for Natasha’s fatigue.

He thinks maybe poisoning, that maybe antibiotics might help, that he just needs to get her to medical and they can be the ones to answer the questions.

He hears a groan from the other room and he gently moves Liho off his lap, as he checks again.

It’s clear she’s in a nightmare and he’s caught between waking her or letting her work it through herself like usual.

“Nat? Natasha?”

He calls her name in hope; but it doesn’t work.

Clint moves closer but is beaten by Liho jumping on the bed. It’s like she knows what to do, as she invades Natasha’s space and pushes her body near her face.

It seems to work, enough anyway for Clint to squat next to her and brush sweaty hair from her face.

“Hey,” he whispers, her eyes tracking him.

“You’re okay, you’re here with me, in New York, okay?”

There’s a slight nod in her head as she seems to understand what he’s saying.

He repeats it anyway.

“We’re going to go see Tony okay?”

She sits up, Liho moving to the end of the bed, and Clint climbing in with her.

“Now?” she slurs.

Clint hugs her close.

“Tomorrow morning,” he assures.

“How are you feeling?”

Likely it’s an unfair question, but he asks it anyway.

He can feel her mumble against him, a nonsensical answer.

Wishing he’d gone to the toilet and put his phone on charge before climbing in with her, he closes his eyes and pulls her close.

.

Irina sighs, her head pounding as she repeats the ballet steps.

First position, second position then third. Repeat.

She’s already sweating.

Natasha watches her friend carefully, the shake in her arms as she holds them in front of her.

Madam turns her back and walks to the door, they all see Dreykov hovering.

“Hold!” She calls out.

They all hold the position, legs crossed and arm in the air.

“Are you okay?” Natasha whispers to Irina.

“Yes,” comes the harsh whisper.

They were all in medical, getting injections yesterday. Natasha had felt hot but it seemed better when she woke up. Irina, however, had stayed tossing and turning all night.

She leaves it. If Irina says she is okay, Natasha won’t ask again.

The lesson continues as Madam hits them with her switch, correcting positions and making them do repeat it, again and again until they’re all sweating with exertion.

They’re made to line up, Irina trips and starts to shake, her eyes rolling back as her whole body convulses.

Natasha knows she’s not the only one who’s terrified. They gather round her, trying to protect her from Madam who calls the guard, commanding them back into position.

No one moves except the guard who picks up Irina’s body, restraining her movement.

There’s water on the floor that Natasha is sure wasn’t there before and Madam gives the call again, anger that she’s had to repeat herself.

“Hold position four,” she commands; and she leaves behind the guard.

The girls don’t dare move.

The hour rolls on and just as they start to adjust position, Madam returns.

“Line up.”

Natasha thinks she can detect a hint of concern on the normally taciturn voice.

“Take them to medical,” she directs their line handler. Natasha feels the dread plague them all.

.

[killeroos]

Well well well. Dear Vk. The drama is yet to start, my friend.😉

indeed! 😂

***

vk is busy freaking out over his current predicament, when pat swears loudly. "what happened?" vk asks curiously.

"I missed my flight!" pat groans. "our team was supposed to leave for mumbai half an hour ago."

"yeah same here," vk sighs unthinkingly, before his eyes widen comically in horror. oh shit. pat doesn't know who he really is. he still thinks the guy he's dating is nick. why would "nick" miss a flight this morning?

fortunately for him, pat is too busy packing his stuff to offer anything more than an absent "you had a flight too nick? where were you going?"

"not a flight, er a meeting." vk invents wildly.

this gets pat's attention. he straightens up, taking a break from his haphazard packing to frown suspiciously at "nick." "it's a sunday today." he replies quizzically. "surely you don't have a meeting on a sunday?"

vk turns red. "an online meeting," he improvises quickly. "with, er, a potential foreign client. from america. it would be around 3 in the afternoon there," he supplies, before pat can question why on earth he's having a meeting at 8 in the morning.

"ah," pat nods in understanding. "no fuss to reschedule that though. my flight though... ugh my manager's going to kill me."

vk chuckles. "haha, i should probably get out of your hair. I'll go home and freshen up before I call these clients." he gets up, clutching the side table for support as pain shoots through his legs and his back.

"should I drop you off?" pat looks at him with concern.

"no, no," vk waves a dismissive hand. "i live on the opposite end of town. you'll miss your flight again if you drop me all the way to my house. I'll just call an uber."

"okay," pat smiles. "but i'm definitely coming over to your house one of these days."

"definitely," vk echoes. "bye, love." he kisses pat in goodbye before leaving.

"where to?" the bored uber driver asks him as he gets into the cab.

"um..." vk is in a fix now. he's still dressed as nick. he can't tell the driver to drop him off at the indian team's hotel or at one of his own lavish bungalows. it wouldn't be easy to explain. so he tells the driver to drop him off in an area near to one of his own houses. he'll walk to his mansion from there, he reasons.

the ride home is agony, his bum is so sore. then the twenty minute walk to his own house is another painful experience. damn pat, he thinks furiously, as he limps down the street, wheezing, holding his aching thigh.

when he arrives at the house, his own security doesn't recognise him. glancing around for any cleverly concealed paps and finding none, he removes his wig, and the hazel contact lenses he's put on. the guard's eyes widen in realization, and he lets him inside, apologizing profusely.

inside, the first thing vk does is run a hot bath. he sighs in relief as he sinks into the steaming water, his stiff muscles immediately relaxing. then he undertakes the daunting task of calling rohit.

"are you mad? how can you just miss your flight?" rohit booms, picking up on the second ring.

"im so sorry," vk apologises quickly. "i-- er-- i lost track of time yesterday. can you ask the manager to book another flight for me?"

"he says the best one he can find leaves in two hours. can you manage to catch that one, or will you be too busy taking a cock up your arse?" rohit snarls with venom.

"hey that's not fair!" vk snaps. "you know I didnt miss the flight on purpose!"

"yeah I know I'm sorry." rohit sighs. "just please get here soon? we need you for the match tomorrow."

"I don't know how useful I'll be though." vk warns him, and he's only half-joking. god, pat had been so rough with him last night. just thinking of it makes him twitch with arousal. experimentally, he presses a finger into a large bruise spread over his hip, shivering in excitement, when it smarts painfully.

he's less pleased about pat's roughness about two hours later when he's making his way to his seat on the plane. sitting down for two minutes feels unbearable, how on earth would he survive a flight of two hours?

"ouch..." he groans as he lowers himself into the seat tenderly. he's never ever going to sleep with pat before a match, he decides. god damn it. his bum feels as if it's on fire. and he's actually begun to suspect his back is fractured, that's how much it hurts.

he asks the airhostess for some cushions, as he wiggles around, trying to find a position where his bum doesn't hurt so much. that's when another man appears in the aisle and begins making his way to the seat next to him. vk stills immediately. great. the added humiliation of an audience. that's exactly what he needed today.

"can you please move your bag?" the man gestures to vk's kitbag, which is lying next to his feet, blocking the way to the seat.

vk doesn't feel up to bending down right now, but he does nonetheless. as he heaves the bag onto his lap, he turns to look up at his seat partner. his eyes widen. blue eyes, floppy brown hair and chiselled features. it's pat.

"you!" both of them cry at the same time, pat in irritation and vk in utter horror.

"just my luck," pat mutters mutinously as he takes the seat next to vk.

vk's face flames red as pat sits down next to him. all he can remember about the other man is the devilish smirk pat had sported last night as he pounded "nick" mercilessly into the mattress. and his hands grabbing his hips, leaving behind bruises that would last for days. and the taste of his lips against his own.

he has to spend this entire flight next to the man responsible for his current condition, hardly able to sit down, ass throbbing, back aching, lips swollen. vk is near-tears with shame.

poor vk just cannot catch a break 😭

[purplesurveys]

1684

1. What is something in your life that you feel hopeful about right now? I am just so so so SO excited for my trip to Thailand with friends. Since getting employed three years ago this will be my first Legit Break/Vacation, so it feels deserved and not as though I’m ~abandoning ship. Like yeah we have a string of events happening on the days I’m gone but for the first time ever I don’t actually feel guilty about missing them...because at this point, and probably for the first time in my career, I’m actually Tired. I just really need this breather.

Then immediately after Bangkok, my family and I are flying out to Malaysia also for a vacation, so the next two weeks will definitely feel like a breath of fresh air. It’ll suck when I’m back and have to catch up on everything I’ll miss, but at least for those two weeks I’ll remember to stay in the moment.

2. What was the last thing you worried about that turned out better than expected? Last Friday we had an event where it was supposed to be reservation-only for 75 pax, but then none of the motherfuckers who RSVP’d actually showed up and I was on the brink of hyperventilating because we had spent a fuckton’s worth of money for that event nobody arrived at and it was quickly becoming the worst flop of my career thus far – until we made the last-minute call to turn it into a public, free for all event. People poured in, people were dancing, and everyone had fun, and by the end of the night I was able to relax and have a couple of Long Island Iced Teas to finally loosen the fuck up lmao. 

3. Name somewhere you are planning on visiting in the near future? Seoul is definitely the next goal, after Bangkok. But ugh visa stuff is so much work idk when I’ll be able to find the energy to drag my ass to power through the requirements.

4. How often do you go grocery shopping and how much food do you usually get in one go? We usually do it once every two weeks, and we just get the same things every time – so essentials like meat, veggies, eggs, once in a while we’ll get frozen snacks like hotdogs and fries, then instant products like coffee and noodles. We’re not a very snack-y family to begin with so we never get junk food.

5. What is a meal you eat extremely often? Or do your meals & food choices vary a lot? Our meals are varied enough to the point that I can’t say I eat one thing more often than the others...but it’s a different story when we eat out. More or less, 8 out of 10 times we go with Japanese cuisine.

6. When was the last time you felt unable or unwilling to speak your mind to someone? TODAY LOL. My associate's fresh off a breakup and this week she’s been so out of it work-wise that it’s already led to a couple of delays and a handful of mistakes I have had to fix and stuff that she forgets to do. It’s a difficult situation to be in because I can’t exactly call her out given her vulnerable situation, but it also gets unbearable when mistakes are made by the hour. I’ve been telling her to take a leave partly because I want her to take care of herself, but also because I can’t handle any more mistakes that arise purely because of personal issues. I think she thinks I’m only saying it to be nice, but honestly, if you’re going through some shit, please file the leave and look out for yourself. 

7. What was the last thing you changed your mind about? Eh it was me initially wanting to do this work task but ended up delegating to my newest associate so she can learn how to do it herself, since it’ll be her first time doing so.

8. Who was the last friend you saw, and what did you do together? Lui; we attended a listening party that I was happening to manage/run.

9. Who tends to show up in your dreams? Do you ever wonder if you appear in anyone else's dreams? It’s usually just me in bizarre situations. No, I never think about that.

10. What is something you wish you could say to someone who is no longer in your life, or something you wish they could know? I hope Athenna has since come to the realization that she really used to have the tendency to be a shit person with intense anger management issues. I say tendency because she wasn’t always, and she would sometimes go out of her way to do Nice Friend Things for me; but when she was shitty, she really was.

11. Instead of flat earth, what do you think of the simulated earth theory, that we're basically all just a giant computer program or virtual reality? The jokes about us being Sims and it being the reason why we’ll sometimes forget why we walked into a room are funny, but it’s not something I legitimately subscribe to.

12. What worries you most about your future? Being stagnant.

13. What is something you do to feel better when you're scared? Watch BTS or have a quick play session with my dogs.

14. Who do you feel you can count on the most in life? Myself.

15. What makes you trust someone? When was the last time someone broke your trust? If I’ve spent enough time with someone I’ll usually get that a-ha moment where I sort of determine on my own, quietly, that I can trust them. Last time someone broke my trust...hmm. Not a lot of drama in my life recently but the closest incident that matches this is probably when my now-previous associate, Erin, filed her resignation just a week after she said she was very happy and was still very excited to keep learning. Like...what was the point of lying the week before lmao. This incident is more threw-me-off-guard than broke-my-trust, but still.

16. When was the last time you shared a secret with someone, and how did they react? This afternoon. Eh idk how to describe it, they just reacted the way I expected that person to react knowing their personality.

17. Are you more likely to give advice or to ask for it? Give.

18. When was the last time you felt totally lost, figuratively speaking? How about literally? Figuratively, around October 2022. Literally, last April when I had to drive home from Manila with 2% battery on my phone.

19. In what ways are you emotionally strong? In what ways are you emotionally weak? Strong: I’m pretty resilient and I’ve always been adamant and stubborn about proving myself no matter what it takes; this is also because I hate the idea of losing or people looking down on me. 

Weak: I think one mistake, regardless of context or situation, is the end of the world and I will overthink mistakes to death. Criticism also bothers me (internally – although on the outside I can always fake it and make it look like I’m taking it in stride).

20. What is the strangest book you have ever read? How did you find out about it? I don’t even remember the title but anyway it was a boring read.

21. Do you prefer to watch movies or tv alone or with other people? Is there anything you refuse to watch alone? I don’t have a preference on audience size. About things I refuse to watch alone – none.

22. What was the last thing you broke? How about fixed? Last thing I broke was errrr Agi’s diaper? I was figuring out how it worked when I inadvertently ruined the Velcro for it hahaha. Idk the last thing I fixed; I’m not usually able to fix stuff.

23. Is there a sign or symbol that means a lot to you for whatever reason (eg. seeing certain animals or birds, 11:11 or other repeating numbers, syncs, butterflies, hearts in nature, etc)? Just stuff related to BTS - the two doors, 613, 00:00, 7, the color purple.

24. Do you have any personal ghost stories or paranormal experiences? Nope.

25. What do you get complimented on the most? My writing.

26. What is something unusual that you find attractive? Arm hair as long as it’s not excessive. 100% because BTS members are always white-washed and Photoshopped to death that when I see airport or off-stage photos of them with actual normal human HAIR on their bodies I pop as fuck.

27. What time do you tend to eat your first meal of the day? And your last? I have my first and last meal of the day anywhere from 6-7 PM.

28. What was the subject of the last video you watched? Can’t remember...I think it was a snippet of a vlog from one of the vloggers I normally watch.

29. When was the last time you traveled out of town, and where to? We went to Laguna last weekend to visit family.

30. How would you describe your overall aesthetic? Namjooning minus the nature and bicycles.

[girl-bateman]

Attempting a terrorist attack on the train station is NOT very girlboss :/

[iwadori]

Getting hurt in argument PT 1 (Iwaizumi, Tsukishima)

hi!! so can i request a hurt to comfort with iwaizumi, tsukishima and any character that you want ? i saw you had reblogged a prompt list so you could us 18 for inspiration! @sheiscalling

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Word count: 2.1K

Genre: angst,fluff

masterlist

Tsukishima:

You and Tsukishima just moved in with each other a few days ago

Sharing a house has kind of put you at odds

As getting used to each others habits takes a while to get used too

You just hope that after a while things will go back to usual

Tsukishima has been conveniently busy since you guys moved in together, claiming he has to practice more since the Sendai Frogs have a supposed upcoming tournament. 

So he’s left you to your own devices unpacking boxes, picking out and buying furniture whilst working from home. Today’s task is choosing the wallpaper, which you wanted to ask Tsukishima’s opinion on (since he’s always been judgmental of certain colours, patterns and prints.)

Y/N: Hey Tsukki! You coming to *insert store that sells wallpapers here* today… it closes at 5pm??

Kei: Yhh practices finishes at 1 so I’ll probably run some errands get changed and meet you there for 3

Y/N: Okay! See you then <3

You were ecstatic, Tsukishima is finally going to do something for your new place and on the plus you get to spend time together. Maybe you’ll get to go to that new desert place across the road from your house.

2:45PM

You decide to get there a tad bit early so you can have a few options picked out (as you know how detailed and picky Kei can be.) As you picked out paints and swatches you noticed how time went by…

3:14PM

Surprised that Kei isn’t here right on the dot (since he despises lateness and on many occasion have reprimanded you when you’ve been just a tiny bit late) but just assume he’s stuck in traffic or something.

3:32

You’re still standing outside waiting, getting a tiny bit embarrassed of the looks of the passer-by strangers as if they could tell you’re desperately waiting for someone. You checked your phone, expecting a message from Kei explaining his lateness or saying he’lll be there soon.

4:00

He’s now an hour late, with no contact at all which got you frustrated as you really hoped that he would do at least one thing for you today. So you decided to go and choose what YOU want since it seems that Kei doesn’t seem to really care.

5:15

After nearly emptying the store with all your choices and additional furniture picks you finally make it back home with still NO word from Kei. You are completely over it! But he is now the least of your worries, now your current agenda is unpacking plates and cutlery (so you and Tsuki actually have something to eat of off and that’s if he ever joins you for dinner)

You’re washing and polish plates as you hear your front door open and shut with a slight slam. “Ugh practice was draining today” he said, tired 

You did not acknowledge his presence at all, you were beyond agitated that he made plans with you and then didn’t show up AND THEN didn’t even make sure the first thing he did was apologise. “Babe, whats for dinner” He asked entering the living room.

AN: Btw you have like a open kitchen type of thing so you can see the kitchen and the living room in the same room if that makes sense ://

You still ignored him, washing your plates annoyance slowly but surely building up inside of you the more he spoke “Y/N, did you hear me i asked what was fo-” Tsukishima stopped his words as he saw all the stuff you’ve bought for the house and before realising that he blew off your plans together he says,

“Y/N.. what the fuck is this shit”

That made you take a pause, and freeze ‘That is all he’s worried about’ you think. As you’re still ignoring him and he’s wondering why you decided to buy all this ‘crap’ (in his words not yours) he picks up one of the wallpaper designs and brings it to you.

“Y/N you really think we’re putting this shit on the walls..?” He asked 

You still ignore him, scrubbing harder and harder on the same plate you’ve been washing since he’s got here ( you definitely know it’s clean by now but who cares )”Y/N, are you listening to me” He then grabs your shoulders turning him to face you “Why the fuck would you buy this??” 

By now you were raged, “Is that ALL you care about!” You shout “You don’t care how I’ve been slaving away getting this place, our NEW place ready for us to live in but you don’t care you’re so self obsessed that all you’ve been doing is going to practice and complaining!”

He was about to speak before you stopped him again “Oh and by the way if you’ve got a problem with my choices for our walls then maybe YOU should’ve been at the store at the time we agreed upon! You dick.” after saying this his lips part in surprise, as he now remembers the promise he made you. 

You turn your body back to the sink, tears filling your eyes as you go back to ferociously scrubbing the plate again. 

“Y/N I’m sorry I-” He starts

“Oh shut the fuck up Tsukishima” You say a bit to agressively slamming your hands (and the plate) down on the counter, cutting your hand in the process 

“Shit” You say as blood starts to seep through your hand well there goes the clean plate you get a towel and hold it against your hand stopping the blood for a short while and you bend down to start picking up the plate remains as Tsukishima just stands there not really knowing what to say or do.

“Y/N i’m sorry about EVERYTHING” he says bending down to your level as you still pick up the plate remains. “What can I do to make this all better?”

“Just fuck off Tsuki” You say bitterly not looking him in the eyes

“I’m not leaving until I know you’re okay” he says grabbing your wrist softly to stop you from further injury “Just come sit down so i can atleast bandage your hands”

You finally look up at him, tears still in your eyes but you silently agree getting up and letting him lead you to the couch. He bandages you up, not saying a word as your sniffles and whimpers fill the quiteness in the room.

“Y/N. I am really truly sorry I-” He says

“Why don’t you care anymore?” You interrupt tears now streaming down your face “I know i can be overbearing at times, but I just wanted you to be excited about moving in with me as I was about you. Do you not want to live with me anymore” you cried

“I’m sorry i’ve been so busy it’s just practice and tournaments and … I was kind of nervous about moving in with you I just love you so much and I don’t want to mess anything up” he said “And I’m sorry about not coming to the store I just got tired up with practice and I’m just really sorry Y/N”

He goes over to the things you’ve bought and picks up one of the paint colours you chose (your favourite option) “This is beatiful Y/N you have such a great taste and I like anything that you like to be honest.”

He stares at you for a response as he noticed your tears have stopped running, which is a good sign. “I just want you to be more involved and show that you care about me about us “ you say

“I will and I do.. I always do” He said pulling you into a hug 

“I love you Kei” You say into his chest 

“I love you too” 

You spend the rest of your night unpacking plates, putting up wallpaper, painting walls and putting up furniture ending up on the couch with two slices of strawberry shortcake from the bakery across the street watching an episode of *insert your favourite TV show here* in your new place which you can finally call a home.

Iwaizumi:

You and Iwaizumi have been dating since highschool

You’ve had a past with anger issues but that was all sorted before you met Iwa

You’re very hard working and sometimes overworking but you have Iwa to always make sure you’re not too hard on yourself

You play volleyball just like your boyfriend, being the captain of your team is your pride and joy but sometimes you are way too hard on yourself trying to reach perfection. 

You’re in the gym way past normal hours setting to yourself against the wall with sweat dripping down your forehead breathing slightly more than usual

‘5 more minutes’ you think to yourself knowing damn well it’s going to be more than 5 minutes but you just have to perfect your form then you can stop.

You stop for a small water break and also to check your phone seeing 5+ messages from your lovely boyfriend Hajime

Haji: Y/N how was your day 

Haji: What do you want for dinner

Haji: I think we should get chinese

Haji: Y/N… you alive

Haji: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeffhpeE/

Haji: I just ran into *Insert Best friends name* and she told me you were last seen at practice I hope you’re not in the gym Y/N

Haji: I’m coming to the gym… you better not be there

By the time you start going back to set against the wall you look up to see a semi mad Hajime at the doors of the gym..

“Y/N.. I thought you said you wasn’t going to keep overworking yourself this term” He said slowly approaching you 

“Just” set “Gotta” set “Fix” set “My” set “Form” 

“Your set is fine babe, it’s perfect … you’re perfect” he says reaching out to touch you

“Well I guess perfect isn’t good enough then” you mumble

“Y/N that’s not what I meant” He responds touching your shoulder

Out of reflex, your hand flicks to his face your nail (which are amazingly sharp and long) catches him on his cheek causing a petite cut to now appear and small amounts of blood to come out of it. You both are frozen shocked at what just happened, you never meant to touch him like that at all. 

You quickly rush to your stuff leaving your volleyball in the gym running out the doors. How could you be so horrible, hitting your boyfriend in the face after doing so much work getting over all your anger issues. ‘Hes going to hate you now’ you think.

You stop at a bench trying to clear your head, crying softly to yourself worrying now about your relationship with Haji and where it stands now. Without you noticing, Iwaizumi sits down next to you, waiting for you to compose your self before speaking.

“I know you didn’t mean it Y/N” he said pulling you under his arm 

“Iwa, I’m so so sorry I didn’t mean to stay late in the gym it’s just that we have a competition next week and last time we lost because of me and I just … wanted it all to be perfect “ You said sniffling you look up at him and see the cut on his face that you caused making you even more upset “I am really sorry, I understand that you probably want to break up with me for hurting you which is completely valid”

You don’t want him to confirm your suspicions of him breaking up with you, so you abruptly stand up getting reading to move onwards again before he grabs your wrist “you’re not leaving till I know you’re okay” he says

which makes you laugh a bit “It’s crazy that I’m the one that messed up, yet you’re worrying about me”

“Well that’s my job Y/N, I always worry about you when you’re overworking yourself and being hard on yourself it’s not good” he said “accidents happen, I know you didn’t intend on me getting hurt and I know you’re going to do great in the upcoming game babe dont worry”

A week later, all was forgotten Iwa’s cheek healed quickly and he never blamed you for it all and reminded you that it wasn’t your fault whenever it seemed you felt bad about it.

You’re now playing your volleyball game Iwa in the stands cheering you on as loud as he could and of course you were doing your best because in Hajime’s words you are perfect.

AN:Thank you so much for my first request I hope you like it. I’m not really a fan of the Iwa one but the tsuki one i like the way it went even though I was meant to add a third character but got too tired. But thank for the request keep them coming!! 

[ptergwen]

through the lens

w/c: 2.3k

warnings: swearing and mentions of blood (all fluff tho!)

summary: yours and peter’s date night doesn’t go as planned, thanks to his “little” accident and mj’s photography project

a/n: it’s been a minute but i’m back! for now lol i promise i’ll be way more active when exam season is over <3 this was based off the lovely pic above taken by the even lovelier zendaya and i hope you enjoy these… let’s call it random workings of my mind

-

“hang on, can you come closer?” mj instructs you, you promptly stepping towards her. “is this good?” “great,” she affirms and squints behind the camera. “smile really big on the count of three, okay? one, two, three!” doing as she says, you give mj your cheesiest grin with your eyes squeezed shut and all. she snickers while snapping the moment on her polaroid.

mj asked you to be her subject for a photography project. you’re happy to do it, although it’s super last minute. like, barging-into-your-room-and-begging-you-for-help last minute. she was supposed to turn this in days ago. lucky for mj, her teacher was feeling generous and gave her an extension.

you have to work fast because of mj’s deadline and your plans with peter. he’s coming over for a movie marathon and cuddles right about now. well, he’s actually running a tad bit late. that’s typical peter for you.

“just a couple more, and then you’re free,” mj informs you while shaking out the polaroid. “this is honestly pretty fun, you know.” you glance at the photo she’s holding with an eyebrow quirked in surprise. she captures you well. “what made you choose me?” “no one else was free on a saturday,” she snorts and tosses the picture in a pile with the rest.

your mouth falls agape. “i’m not free! peter’s gonna be here in…” you check the time on your phone, much to your dismay. “he’s a few minutes late, but still. i have things to do, too.” a smirk sets on mj’s face as she gets ready for the next photograph. “relax, y/n/n. i was kidding. i’m sure spider-dweeb will be here sooner than you know it.” sighing lightheartedly, you take a seat on your bed.

“don’t call him that,” you shake your head. mj throws her own head back to the ceiling. “ugh, but that was a good one,” she insists, you only humming. “it’s better than penis parker, at least.” “nah, i like the alliteration,” you laugh out and earn a giggle from mj. “you’re lucky parker doesn’t have super hearing, or does he?” winking, you hit a pose for mj. you’re looking at her over your shoulder with smolder eyes.

“ask him yourself, after you get this shot.”

the two of you continue messing around with her polaroid until the film is almost gone, and peter has yet to arrive. you’re starting to worry. you aren’t sure where he could be.

he doesn’t patrol on weekends unless it’s an emergency, and he would’ve told you if there was one already. he’s never this late without sending a text, either. it’s almost an hour past when date night should’ve started. on the other occasions peter has gone off the grid, they didn’t end well.

“i’m freaking out, em. do you think he’s in some kind of trouble?” you ask mj, pacing around your bedroom. she offers a sympathetic shrug. “maybe he just ate some bad yogurt. remember last time?” being the dummy he is, peter once scarfed down an entire tub of vanilla yogurt before he realized it was expired. no one heard from him for days. he didn’t show up to school or answer any calls.

may ended up inviting you over and explaining he’d gotten a stomach bug, which you then tended to him for the rest of. the story was so amusing, and so peter.

“may doesn’t buy him dairy anymore. why do you think he always raids your freezer?” you bring your fingers up to rub your temples. “the kid can empty ice cream cartons in one bite,” she agrees, silently cringing. her curiosity piques at the fact. “is that also a power?” “who cares?” you nearly shout, your fingers curling into fists. “what i wanna know is if peter is fucking okay.”

on cue, there’s a knock at your apartment door. you and mj exchange looks of urgency, both rushing out of your room to answer.

mj follows you through the hall and stands by your side while you fumble with the lock. when your door pulls open, ned has his hand raised to knock again. “ned? what are you doing here?” you don’t give him the chance to speak. “have you heard from peter? he was supposed to be here a while ago, but he never showed.” rather than answering in words, ned takes a step aside.

the sight you’re met with makes you gasp. peter peeks out from behind him, cuts and bruises littering his flushed face. he gives you a lopsided smile.

“you have your answer,” mj murmurs to you and eyes ned curiously. he lets out a nervous chuckle. “here he is.” you push past ned and practically jump into peter’s arms, your hug bone-crushing. “peter, oh my god! are you okay?” wincing, peter hugs you back by your waist. his chin rests carefully on your head.

“hey… i’m alright, baby. still pretty sore, though,” he sucks his lower lip between his teeth. you take the hint to loosen your grip on him. “i was worried something bad might’ve happened to you. i… i guess i was right.” your tone softens, you threading a hand in his curls. they’re completely disheveled from whatever went down with him.

ned heads inside to catch up with mj, the two of them letting you have a moment alone.

“someone’s got a spidey sense of their own, huh?” peter tries to lighten the mood by joking. it doesn’t work, a frown still evident on your face as you try to untangle his once soft locks. “baby, everything’s fine. i just… had a little accident is all. no big deal,” he reassures you and moves in to peck your lips. you’re so shocked that you dodge the kiss.

“little? your whole face is black and blue, pete!” you tug on the white collar of his button up, peter letting out a shaky breath. your other hand comes to rest on his cheek, touch gentle. “how’d you get like this?” he licks across his lips shyly and sets his hands on your hips. “see, on the way over there were these bad guys who-“

“no there weren’t,” ned cuts in, scoffing at the beginning of his friend’s story. peter shoots him a warning look over your head. “yes there were, ned. you weren’t even there!” he catches mj glaring at him before he continues. “don’t listen to him. anyway, i had to fight them because…” when he trails off, you stroke your thumb across his cheek, avoiding any wounds in the way. raising both eyebrows, mj speaks up.

“because why? go on, parker. i’m intrigued,” she encourages him. everyone can tell peter is lying except you. the question really is, what’s he lying about? he gulps down his spit, pulling your body against his for comfort. “take your time, peter. we can wait,” you say only for him to hear. his love filled eyes meet yours, and he nods. ned huffs at the dramatics unfolding before him.

“dude, you’re making this way worse than it actually is. just tell her!” he demands, mj cocking her head to the side. peter’s gaze flits between the two of them. “tell me what?” you wonder softly and tilt his chin, willing him to look at you again. “i… i…” peter’s shoulders slump, his voice lowering in defeat. “there weren’t any bad guys.”

“of course there weren’t,” ned confirms. “no shit,” mj adds. exhaling, you wait for your boyfriend to further elaborate. “what really happened, then? be honest, pete.” peter lets go of you so he can come into your apartment properly, you shutting the door behind him. he scratches the back of his neck as he fills you in. “ok. um, me and ned were hanging out.”

ned is attempting to stifle a laugh for some reason, which mj elbows him for. you take one of peter’s hands. “yeah?” “we were at my place, and… you know those really slippery steps on the sixth floor?” peter pauses for someone to answer, playing with your fingers. “the ones flash almost wiped out on once?” mj questions in amusement. he lets a quiet chuckle out. “good times. yeah, those.”

his gaze averts to the ground, you listening on. “so, i was walking ned out on my way over. we were talking about spidey stuff-“ “as per usual,” mj mumbles to herself. ned raises his hands in defense. “—and i told ned i could always stick my landings. he didn’t believe me.” you playfully roll your eyes, seeing where this is going. “so… i, uh, decided to show him,” peter finishes off.

“i did a, um, backflip. tripped and fell down the flight of stairs,” he finally admits to you, putting his other hand on top of your intertwined ones. “clearly, i was wrong.” his bloody face is now red from humiliation. “you didn’t trip, dude. you freaking summersaulted!” ned corrects him and bursts into laughter he’s been holding back. “idiots, both of you,” mj simply remarks.

“that’s it? why didn’t you just say that?” you almost laugh yourself. groaning, peter rests his forehead against yours. “because it’s embarrassing! i wanted you to think i’m a tough guy or whatever.” placing both hands on his cheeks this time, you nuzzle your nose against his. “you don’t have to be a tough guy to impress me, babes. you’re kind, smart, funny. makes up for you being such a klutz.”

peter cracks a grin, easily capturing your lips in the kiss he didn’t get to before. it doesn’t last long because mj gags and ned whistles at you. you’re both giggling when you pull apart, peter kissing the tip of your nose for good measure.

“you really mean that?” he checks, tucking back a strand of hair from your face. “of course. i have a thing for himbos,” you tease and poke at his bare chest. his eyes widen. “how about i get you some ice and you find our first movie?” you’re already off to the kitchen, beaming at peter. “date night’s still on?” he happily plops down on your couch, mj showing ned her pictures from earlier.

“as soon as those two get out of here,” you call loudly enough so ned and mj hear you. “yeah, yeah. we’re leaving,” mj deadpans, shoving the photos back into her portfolio. peter glances over at it curiously. “what’s that for?” “photography project,” she says and gets an idea. “i have some film left. y/n took up most of it… you losers want the rest?”

while mj coerces her way to a higher grade, you put some popcorn in the microwave for your movie marathon.

“well, i could use a new lockscreen. i’m in!” ned quickly concedes. him and mj both give peter hopeful looks. “i’m not!” he protests, squishing one of your pillows against his chest. “with my face looking like… this? forget about it.” mj walks over to him and places her portfolio on the coffee table. “what? those gashes are gnarly… in a good way, i mean,” she promises.

“painful, too,” peter murmurs. “y/n, hurry up with that ice!” mj demands, grabbing the polaroid camera from its string around her neck. you wave her off. “what i’m saying is, they’ll look sick in my portfolio.” mj forces a smile, ned looking at her weirdly. “uh, what’s the theme of your project again?” “freestyle, baby,” mj casually replies.

peter comes up with a condition that could persuade him. “if you say please, i might consider it,” he concludes, mj perking up. “please be in my project. pretty please?” she instantly requests, ned pursing his lips from behind her. peter rubs his chin. “y/n, what do you think? should i?” you pipe in from the kitchen. “yeah, so she’ll leave my house.”

“you heard the lady. i’ll do it,” peter gives in. all but squealing, mj gestures for ned to sit. “this’ll only take a few minutes. you guys are really saving my ass.” ned gets comfortable next to peter on the couch, who wants to see how far mj will really go. “aw, we are? i believe that calls for a…” ned catches on. “it comes after please…” mj picks up her camera with gritted teeth. “thank you, morons. say cheese!”

that’s the only warning peter and ned get before they’re blinded with the flash. ned does a toothy grin as he leans into peter’s side. peter musters up the best smile he can, hair a mess and cuts burning pink on his face. satisfied, mj snatches the photograph as it pops out.

“pleasure doing business with you two,” she states, you joining the three of them in the living room. you set the popcorn on the table and give peter his ice pack. he presses it to his cheek, kissing the back of your hand. “send me that!” ned reminds mj, helping himself to your bowl of popcorn. she salutes him.

“there’s my star. what do you say, y/n? wanna take one more really quick?” mj suggests, already holding up her polaroid. you take the other cushion next to peter, your head on his shoulder. “can peter be in it with me? since he’s in the modeling mood tonight.” he wraps an arm tightly around you. “let’s do it, sweetness.”

eagerly jumping in front of you two, mj crouches down to get a better angle. “on the count of three. one, two, three!” the camera clicks, and you surprise peter by laying a smooch on one of his cheeks. he’s holding the ice against his other, genuinely smiling for this picture. ned coos at you, mj showing off her work when it dries.

“how adorable,” she says sarcastically but means it. peter nods at her in appreciation, his lips brushing the side of your head. “what can i say, you’re a pro,” you compliment mj. “come on, em!” ned cheers through a mouthful of popcorn.

tonight was an unexpected and exciting mess, even if your date night did get crashed.

[thebookreader12345]

Cuts and Bruises

Pairing: Greg Grainger x reader

Summary: After treating the temporary fill in at Firehouse 51 for a minor injury, Y/n gets the feeling that she'll be seeing Greg a lot more often

Requested: Yes, by anonymous

Warnings: mentions of a fire and minor injuries

Word Count: 1,423 Words

"Hey, Maggie," I greet the charge nurse. "Where are all of these people coming in from?"

"51 just responded to a huge complex fire," Maggie responded. "It's mostly minor burns, cuts, and a few bruises. Just take a patient chart, fix them up, and send them on their way. I want this ED cleared by 3."

"Got it," I say. "Thank you." So, I picked a patient at random and started doing whatever I could to help. After I had treated a few people, I went to the waiting room to grab the next person in line, but just before I could, Sylvie walked in with a firefighter at her side. “Hey, Sylvie. What’s up?”

“Grainger has a cut on his upper arm, and he insists that he’s fine, but it’s pretty deep. I think it might need stitches,” Sylvie put in.

“I’m fine. Seriously,” the firefighter insisted. “It’s just a scratch.”

“I’ll have Y/n be the judge of that,” Sylvie spoke. “Can you check over him? Please?”

“Of course,” I answer. “Follow me.” I led Grainger to the nearest empty bed and had him sit down while I pulled on some gloves. "So, Grainger-"

"It's Greg," Grainger interrupted. "Greg Grainger."

"Y/n L/n," I return, "So, Greg, are you new to 51? I don't think I've ever seen you around before."

"I'm just a temporary fill in as Engine 51's Lieutenant while Herrmann is on vacation," Greg told me. "And I work at Firehouse 40. All of the people we help on calls go to Lakeshore."

"Then it makes sense why we've never met. There's no opportunity for us to cross paths," I claim. "Now, lets see that arm. If you could ditch your coat, that'd be great." Greg took off his coat and laid it down behind him, but the wound was so far up his arm, his sleeve was covering it. "I uh, I'm gonna need you to take your shirt off too."

Greg didn't even flinch and pulled the shirt over his head, setting it down on top of his other gear. My cheeks heated up at the sight of Greg's toned chest and abs, and so I put all of my focus on the cut on his shoulder.

"So? What do you think?" Greg implored.

"W-what?" I stammer out, my face flushing even more.

"Of the cut," Greg stated. "What do you think? Does it need stitches?"

"Right," I murmur. "Yeah, I'd say so. But just a few. I can get you out of here in 10 minutes. Just sit tight." I was true to my word. 10 minutes later, I had finished up the last stitch on Greg's arm and was just putting a bandage over it.

"Thank you for this," Greg said and hopped off the bed, grabbing his gear from behind him.

"It was no problem," I assure him as he began putting his shirt back on. "Now, I don't know if you've had stitches before, but you've got to keep that wound dry for the first 24 hours, and also try not to overuse that arm. We don't want your stitches to rip."

"Got it," Greg confirmed. "Thanks again, Y/n."

"Like I said before, it was no problem," I repeat. "I uh, I hope I get to see you sometime in the future."

Greg smiled. "I have no doubts that you will. Bye, Y/n."

"Bye, Greg," I wave after him as he left the ED. Throwing off my gloves, I exited the treatment room to get to the nurses station, and I just so happened to bump into Will.

"Who was that?" Will asked and followed Greg out of the door with his eyes.

"A temporary Lieutenant for Firehouse 51," I reply and type away at the computer in front of me.

"Mmm," Will hummed. "You've got the hots for him, don't you?"

"What? Will, I just met him 15 minutes ago," I try and reason.

"But you do find him attractive," Will pointed out. "I can see it on your face."

"You cannot," I retort.

"So it is true? You find him hot. You know, I could see you and him being a cute couple," Will confessed.

"All right, I'm done here. Unlike you, I've got patients to work on," I attest to.

"This isn't over!" Will called out playfully as I walked away.

"Yeah it is!" I shout back.

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

It had been one week since I met Greg Grainger for the first time. And whenever I wasn't busy with work or my social life, my mind wandered to him. Seeing him shirtless on our first encounter, the sincerity in his voice whenever he talked, the smile he sent my way when he left the ED....lets just say he impacted me in a way I never new someone could after spending just 15 minutes together.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Maggie questioned as she joined me by the nurses' station.

"Nothing important," I lie. "Just about what I want for dinner after shift."

"Uh-huh," Maggie muttered. "You're thinking about Grainger, aren't you?"

"Ugh," I groan. "Not you too. Did Will put you up to this?"

"He may have mentioned something," Maggie revealed.

"Oh my...." I trailed off. "I've only met the man once!"

"Twice," Maggie corrected me.

I frowned. "What?"

"He's standing out in the lobby," Maggie informed me. I turned around, and when I looked towards the lobby, I saw that Greg was indeed standing out there. For a second, our eyes met, and then he started walking towards me. To keep Maggie out of my business, I took a couple dozen steps forwards to meet up with him.

"Hey, Greg. What are you doing here?" I quiz. "Don't tell me your stitches ripped."

Greg laughed. "Surprisingly, no. They are still in place. I uh, I actually came to see you."

"You're still in your gear," I notice. "Did you come over here in the middle of your shift?"

"Yes," Greg responded. "But that's not the point. I came over here because for the past week, whenever I'm not focused on something, I think about you, which is weird because we only met once and it was for 15 minutes. But everyone at Firehouse 51 has told me what an amazing person you are, and that only pushed me to come here more. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I'd like to take you out on a date."

"A d-date?" I stutter.

Greg nodded. "Yeah. Unless you're not interested or you're seeing somebody. If that's the case, forget about it."

"No. That's uh, that's not the case at all. I'd love to go on a date with you," I admit.

"Good. Great," Greg clarified, a slight blush rising to his cheeks. "Well then I will contact you later with the details."

"Greg wait," I interject, and reach forward, my hand grasping onto his forearm.

"What's up?" Greg asked. Instead of answering, I took my small memo book out of my pocket, scribbled something down on it, and then ripped the paper away, folding it neatly before stuffing it into his hand. Greg unfolded the piece of paper and stared down at it, his eyes glancing over my handwriting. "Your phone number?"

"Yeah. You need some way to contact me. How else were we supposed to talk about our date? Because as much as I love meeting up here at Med when we're both supposed to be working, the two of us could be fired for that," I joke.

"Right. Thank you," Greg spoke and sent a smile my way. "I'll be in touch soon." As soon as Greg walked off, I smiled to myself and turned around to head back into the ED. By the nurses' station, both Maggie and Will were waiting, desperate to hear the news.

"Well? What happened?" Maggie pushed.

"I just got asked on a date," I say.

"Told ya you liked him," Will exclaimed.

"So, what are you two gonna do? Tell us everything," Maggie requested.

"As much as I would love that, I've got work," I disclose.

"Work? You don't have any patients right now," Will declared.

"What? I'm sorry. I think I hear Dr. Abrams calling for me upstairs," I share and walk towards the elevator.

"Come on!" Maggie whined. "You can't just leave us hanging like that."

"I can, and I think I just did. See you guys later," I chirp and step into the elevator, the doors closing seconds later, leaving Maggie and Will frustrated in the middle of the ED.

__________________________

Tag List:

@prettypyschoinpink @securityfriendly-jay @scarletsoldierrr @lorenakaspersen @virtualreader @carnationworld @caitsymichelle13 @ncostin2001 @evangeline91 @just-arather-veryconfused-being @generalfarmmuffinagle @kaitlyn-marie-a @shywritermoon @jbbarnes212 @multifandom-loser

[formulawonu]

flutters / mick schumacher

(not my gif! creds to owner <3)

warning: kissing, getting a little touchy,, and just being flustered idk

summary: *requested by @gpiggy98​ <3* mick has just finished an intense race and you’re the only person he really wants to be around at the moment since you’re his best friend. you’ve secretly liked him for a while now and offer/give him a massage to cool down after the race and you can’t help but get flustered at the intimacy of the moment.

a/n: honestly. what would i give to have mick as my best friend. what would i give to basically have mick in my life. FOR REAL. ugh mick schumacher supremacy. anw i didnt know how to end this one properly so idk if im 100% satisfied but it was fun writing hsjakdhasd but enjoy anyway x (i’m always open to requests btw!!!!)

It’s the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix and you feel like you can finally breathe properly after a couple of hours. You’d think you’d have gotten used to going through race weekends by now but you always seem to find your breath caught in your throat and worrying over the safety of your best friend. Mick had finished in p12 - his current best finish throughout the season - and you were extremely proud of him. Despite how well he did defending from other cars on the field in the car he has, you can tell from the way his brows furrow together after removing his helmet that he’s far from satisfied. Watching him go through the procedure after each race required by the FIA from the garage, you decide to make your way back to the hospitality in order to not get into anyone’s way. You figured that you would just talk to Mick when he was free and tell him proud you are of him. What you were not expecting was Mick to show up at the hospitality earlier than you had expected, his body language clearly still tense, and motioning you with just his head to follow him up to his assigned driver’s room. He doesn’t really stop to wait for you or anything because he knows you understand that he doesn’t want to be around a lot of people right now. It leaves you feeling pleased that you’re still the one he wants to talk to. Perks of being his best friend.

“Hey, you.” You say as you enter Mick’s room, shutting the door behind you. You stand there for a while, leaning against the door as you take in Mick sitting down on the couch, his eyes shut with his head thrown back. His hair is all messy from wearing his helmet but it looks good anyway. You knew this wasn’t the right time to be thinking it, but you’d be lying to yourself if you didn’t acknowledge how Mick made looking stressed extremely attractive. Sexy, even. Mick pops open one eye as he lazily looks at you. “I’m so frustrated.” He mumbles. He then pats the space beside him, telling you to come sit beside him. You make your way to the couch and plop down beside him, trying not to mind the way your heart beats faster as the distance between you both has marginally decreased. Immediately after and without warning, Mick drops his head on your lap. You want to blame the lack of AC for the sudden rise of temperature in the room you’re both in, but you know that the heat is really just rising in your cheeks as you imagine how close Mick is to your body. “I’m so tired.” He continues, shutting his eyes again. You can’t stop the way your heart is rapidly beating inside of your chest and you wouldn’t be surprised if Mick could actually hear it. The vibrations that come from Mick’s voice run through your whole body, leaving you to slightly shift your thighs closer together. You bring your hands to run through his hair, hoping to distract yourself from your own thoughts by giving him a small massage. Mick hums in response. You rub small circles into his temples, picturing him doing the same thing to you in another area of your body. You have to stop yourself there. You seriously cannot be thinking about this while you’re trying to distract yourself from the fact that Mick, your best friend, is all hot and sweaty. Well, there’s always points for trying. 

You don’t realize you’ve stopped the small massage you were giving him until you feel Mick’s hand grip your knee. “Why’d you stop? That felt so good.” The heat rushes to your cheeks and you can feel Mick’s eyes on your face. You can’t bring yourself to meet his eyes because you’re flustered at how dirty your thoughts had gotten because of a few words Mick had muttered in passing. The fact that his hand was still on your knee also did not help your case. It was something you had come to terms with a while ago: you deeply liked your best friend - that was why you were acting like this around him. You had tried your best to ignore the fuzzy feelings that came up every time you thought of him or the way your stomach would drop whenever he was around. You tried to deny and cover it up by saying you just really appreciated him as a person, but you eventually gave in and realized it was pointless to fight your feelings. It didn’t matter anyway. Mick was still your best friend, regardless of whatever feelings you had for him. 

“Oh. Sorry.” You mutter, still refusing to look at him as you try to will the heat in your cheeks to disappear. You knew not to make eye contact with Mick because those damn eyes knew you almost better than you knew yourself so meeting them would just spell out disaster for you. He would figure out something was off immediately. You begin moving your hands again through Mick’s hair, kneading in a new pattern. Your eyes land on the hand still resting on your knee. You focus on it as you continue to massage Mick when suddenly it begins to draw circles of its own nearer your inner thigh. Your breath hitches in your throat and you accidentally tug at Mick’s hair because of your unguarded reaction to his hand. You quickly look at his face to see if he’s felt that (though surely he has) and you find yourself looking into a pair of amused eyes. There’s a hint of playfulness in them as he’s probably made the connection that you are... well... currently going through it. “You okay, there?” He whispers, raising an eyebrow at you. You try to play it off, as you usually do. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I-” His hand moves higher up and you involuntarily pause. “-be.” You swallow and desperately try to focus on anything else but the hand that is now closer to you than you had ever imagined it to be. How white the wall is, how cool Mick’s helmet is, how comfortable the couch is. Mick suddenly shifts his position and the hand on your thigh disappears. You let out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding in. The place where Mick’s hand once was now feels incredibly bare. Mick is still moving around until he’s positioned himself to be facing you, still lying down, with his head propped up by his hand. The arm propping his head up is over your legs - suddenly, you feel like you’ve fallen into a dangerous trap. 

“Hey there.” He whispers, smiling at you with those damn eyes filled with amusement. Like he knows. “Hi?” His free hand moves to trace lines up and down your arm. Goosebumps immediately come and you shiver. He smiles even wider, noting the way your body has unintentionally reacted to his touch. “Are you cold?” He continues to run a finger up and down your arm, mindlessly drawing his own patterns. His eyes never leaving yours. You know you should be answering him now, replying with anything really, but his hand has made its way back down and is now drawing circles on the part of your thigh he’s resting on. “Am- Am I what?” You ask, not remembering what he’s just said a few seconds ago. Your eyes move to glance at Mick’s hand then back to his face. Mick then fully sits up, this time lifting your legs to rest over his lap. “Something’s bothering you.” He says, gently turning your chin to have you face him. Your eyes land on his lips before you meet his eyes. “Not at all. I am just peachy.” He chuckles as you inwardly cringe, knowing full well that you didn’t sound convincing at all. What were you supposed to do when his other hand was now drawing those same distracting circles this time on your side. You had never been this close with Mick. You weren’t supposed to be this close to Mick. His eyes drop to your lips. “Can I try something to get whatever it is off your mind?” He whispers. You nod before you can think about what he’s just offered, too taken by how Mick’s face seems to be inching ever so closely to yours by the second. Your eyes flutter shut when you feel the touch of another pair of lips on yours. It starts out slow, almost shy, as if he’s checking to make sure you’re okay with what’s happening. But then you pull him closer to you, slightly parting your lips to invite him in. Your hands make their way around his neck and tugging at the ends of his hair. The pace has suddenly shifted and Mick has lifted you on top of him, letting you straddle him as he now moves his hands up and down the sides of your body. 

There was no way this was actually happening. All you wanted to do a couple of moments ago was tell Mick how proud you were of him. You push your body closer to his, trying to eliminate the almost nonexistent space between the two of you. Mick moans in your mouth, his hands gripping your waist tighter. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you for so long.” He says in between kisses. He’s trailing kisses down your jaw then your neck. “Me too. You have no idea.” You breathe into his ear. You’re about to kiss him again when suddenly you hear a knock at the door. You both pause, looking at each other wide-eyed. 

“Mick, it’s Guenther. We need to debrief quickly. Won’t take long, I swear.” You slowly move off of Mick, trying not to make noise. You were sure no one thought you guys were doing anything weird anyway but you didn’t want to be caught looking like it. Mick is still sitting next to you, both of you trying not to laugh. It’s almost like he doesn’t want Guenther to think he’s in the room. “Mick,” You hear knocks coming from the other side of the door. “The earlier we start, the quicker you can get back. Hi to Y/N, who is in there too.” You both burst out laughing, the jig obviously up. Mick finally gets up, chuckling and accepting he has to go and start debriefing. 

“I’ll see you when I get back. Still need to get that thing off of your mind.” He says, winking at you as he steps out of the room. 

[jae-canikeepyou]

| adjacent | j.jh

pair: jaehyun x fem!reader

word count: 18k+ (unedited & not proof read)

summary: jaehyun turns into a golden retriever whenever the day reaches the most beautiful time; golden hour. a secret he kept his entire life & always wonders how long he could keep it, especially when you suddenly showed up.

genre: au + golden retriever!jaehyun + hs!nct

a/n: idk what came to me as i brainstormed this but by now, nctzens and valentines should know jaehyun’s a golden retriever :3 so i decided to write a plot for this adorable fact T^T heavily inspired with fruits basket and beauty & the beast! i really hope you’ll like it. lmk what you think! enjoy reading lovelies! ~j

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

time was ticking real quick.

he rushed through the bustling people, avoiding the narrow crowds and jay-walked countless pedestrian crossings. he needed to hide. no one should see him transform. there was little time left. why was he so careless each time this happened? his parents and younger brother warned him to be alert at all times. did he listen? no, never did. they compared him to a rock— hard headed and stubborn. but all he ever wanted was to be free.

curses! just a little more, a few metres more! he pant as he tried to catch air. he felt his flesh tingling, his senses doubling and tripling. jaehyun peddled as fast as he could, at least reach the line of bushes by the basketball court. hopping over the plants, he threw his bag aside and jumped off his bike before bracing for the fall.

the now broken bell sounded horrible as jaehyun’s brother caught up to him with his skateboard. “dad’s gonna kill you if you ask for another bike for your birthday.” he sighed looking at the loosened chain while picking up the single-track vehicle and the scattered clothes.

jaehyun transformed to a golden retriever puppy and struggled to come out of the bushes with his tiny paws and body. when he succeeded, he scratched the back of his ears to brush off the leaves stuck to them. “won’t happen, sungchan. i’ve already saved up enough by then. i’m not gonna burden dad for my wants.”

sungchan pressed the bridge of his nose. “you’re kinda being a burden now.” he picked the animal— his brother— up and put him inside his coat, as well as the belongings on the ground. he hopped on the bike and headed towards jaehyun’s campus.

“what did you say?” jaehyun barked tried opening the zipper from the inside of sungchan’s coat.

“nothing.” the younger excused. “but can i have your bike if you actually plan to get a new one?”

“ugh just bring me to the court. i’ll be late for my morning practice.”

the brothers were able to communicate telepathically as they’re related and were both cursed. instead of golden hour, sungchan transforms during the blue hour, which occured at twilight. tracing back to their ancestors, all were cursed for unknown inexplainable circumstances. they tried breaking it with all they could. every idea ended a failure. so they had to live through it, adjust, adapt and be alert.

they bumped into ten, kun and jungwoo, who were doing warm-ups and they simultaneously trailed their eyes and heads towards the jung brothers. seeing the huge pouch on sungchan’s stomach area, they all cracked up and checked the time. “oh yeah, it’s sunrise.” jungwoo spun the ball on his pointer finger.

ten grabbed the pup with one hand and jaehyun barked at him but he couldn’t understand a thing. although he was confused, he continued to carry him in his palm because jaehyun’s response was funny. “what is he trying to say?” he chuckled and poked the pup’s snout.

“he said ‘it hurts. put me down idiot’. i have to be honest with you hyung. holding us by the back of the neck really hurts.” unlike his brother, he was rather calm and collected despite already imagining the pain.

“you’re a blue holland lop bunny. it’s normal to carry you like this too right?” ten showed the pup to sungchan.

kun facepalmed at the question and took jaehyun. “no dimwit it’s not normal. sorry jae. you know he just likes teasing your puppy form.”

“‘wait until i turn back’- ugh seriously do i really have to translate hyung’s words every time?” sungchan gave jaehyun’s clothes and bike to jungwoo. “you know what to do when he transforms back yeah?”

they nodded and upon seeing the kid leave and headed towards his campus, jaehyun couldn’t wait to turn human. he would always beat ten up almost immediately— sometimes forgetting that he was naked. for the dudes it was alright. the problem was if he was with girls, though he hasn’t encountered anyone so far. he hoped he didn’t have to.

the harsh drills from basketball practice already sucked the energy out of jaehyun. not only that it was physically tiring, transforming into a dog twice a day before that have doubled the strain. then him transforming back would cause migraines and painful joints, as they were the aftermath of the curse. he had to keep his title of m.v.p and captain since the told them there was a possibility of him of having a scholarship for college. he couldn’t let a minor pain hinder that chance. not ever.

however, ten and the others could read his suffering. to them it was obvious through his exhales and slowing speed. hiding it was of no use. jungwoo ruffled his hair with a clean towel after shower. “can’t you just be like that dog in the movie ‘up’? have a collar that translates barks into actual language?”

jaehyun rolled his eyes and wore his black t-shirt. “it’s a damn movie, jungwoo. the world might’ve evolved and advanced in technology and even if they were to exist they’d be expensive. can’t afford that.”

“you sound negative, don’t you have any hope at all?” kun joined the conversation.

“never had any. stopping this curse is impossible. it’s been generations. my dad’s still suffering too. i have to find a way.” he fixed his black cap in front of a mirror.

but he knew there wasn’t. silence loomed above them as the team struggled to continue the topic. they tried not to bring it up yet each time they did, it always ended awkwardly and badly. it was either they riled jaehyun’s mood— mostly ten— or jaehyun himself was building his own raincloud by sulking about it and not looking at the bright side.

how ironic it was, he thought. generally speaking, even though being golden had good intentions and the breed was meant to bring happiness to others, he felt the total opposite. if he had to describe it, it was all insecurity, lowered his self-esteem and hopelessness only increased over the years as he grew.

thinking about it, he slammed the locker a little too hard that its components caused it to bounce back.. and also added to fuel of his anger. “break that again you’ll be in the coach’s office.” kun tied his shoelaces and the others agreed.

“my dad is the coach, what do you mean?” he questioned at the stupidity.

“you didn’t show up the last time it broke. we got the punished in your stead. uncle wasn’t happy.” ten got out of the showers last, a towel was wrapped around his waist before the younger ones were scarred for a second.

“it was sunset and i transformed! of all people dad’s supposed to understand! i-” jaehyun rubbed his face quite agressively and headed straight outside.

“oi i’m still changing! wait up!”

jaehyun kicked the bike’s stand attached to the rear wheel. he and his father didn’t have the best relationship compared with other kids, but he could say that it was better than the relationship he had with his mother. she loved her little family, yet over time the curse grew onto her. her husband would turn into a werewolf at full moon. and until now, even though that happened once month, she thought a part of him wasn’t the same person she loved before. even more so, when her sons were just the same as him.

your mom’s delusional! she doesn’t love us! she fears us!

that feeling stayed in the boys’ mind until they were old and mature enough to comprehend the situation they’re in. why couldn’t she love them like any mom would? she was no different from an animal mother abandoning her calf/pup just because they were or had defects.

mr. jung tried his best to be the perfect father, for only he understood what his two sons were going through, as they might go through decades with it, just like he was. jaehyun still remembered his first transformation, he only had puppy paws, but that was a sign to mr. jung that he indeed inherited the curse. when sungchan grew a tail at a fine age of one, their father gave up his 9-5 hour office job to tend the boys. and that was before he became jaehyun’s basketball coach. now he could monitor them at a close range.

much to jaehyun’s dismay and for that reason, he felt more caged and overprotected.

—

“y/n! coach’s looking for you!” your classmate called.

no.. you groaned. again?..

it was already after school hours. you slouched on your desk as you covered your ears, remembering the errands he asked you to do previously. you didn’t know why, but ever since you had detention because you refused to run a 1600m marathon for an assessment, seemed like the other punishment was that he passed his job to you. that was a month ago, and today was the tenth time.

but curious as you were to find answers, you brushed it off and tried not to show any remorse. it’s all for conduct, you kept telling yourself. the whistle echoed the entire hallway and jolting you up in your seat. “okay, okay! hold on!” you yelled from the back of the classroom.

as coach jung stood rather comfortably outside the room, he gestured you to walk faster with a dimpled smile. “y/n! took you approximately three minutes to walk here.” he laughed and handed you several files and a zipper folder.

“thanks for counting?..” you replied with a confused and questioning tone. “coach, what’s this?”

“all school sports teams will have an annual retreat before their playoff seasons. i need a representing manager since ours was admitted to a hospital just today.” he pointed at the list. you followed his finger and it landed on your name.

“sounds like to me it’s more practice. and you want me to go because?” you raised your brows. he asked you to follow him to the gymnasium, in which it was making you recall all those extra detention after school.

“to make up with all of the p.e assessments you ‘purposely’ missed.” he said proudly while looking at his team doing drills. but he didn’t get any response from you. when he looked on his side, you were gone and ran across the basketball gym. “y/f/n!”

you squealed as embarrassment crawled your entire body. not only were you escaping from coach, you were disrupting the team’s practice and hitting couple of duffel bags and water bottles. “ah! sorry! coming through!”

*whistles* “after her!” coach jung’s voice added an extra chill to your spine.

“ugh why us?” ten groaned with sore muscles as coach gestured to them widely.

“just go.” kun panted.

then you heard a several footsteps turn into drums until they sounded a stampede. you jumped on your toes as you passed the line of showers cubicles. good thing you haven’t seen a naked man, or else you’d faint without knowing. you turned around and went straight ahead then to your right, and hid in a random room. the echoing voices and squeaking friction between shoes and waxed floors were cut to a silence, like your ears were muffled instantly.

your wobbly legs were tired and you were sighing in exhaustion and crouched down against the door. great, i’ll stay out of their sight- “what are you doing here?” you heard a low voice and froze on the spot. “only members of the basketball team can access the meeting room.”

that sounded like the captain.

“did you hear what i just said?” he raised his brows. you slowly lifted your eyes from his shoes to his legs, then to his built and face. “well if you’re a nobody you might as well leave before coach arrives. you interrupted my recording-”

“i heard you jung jaehyun.” you tsked and realised you had the name list on your hand. “ah, as a matter of fact, i can be here because i am part of the team. my name’s on the list.” you grabbed a pen and ticked the empty box on the paper.

what are you saying, stupid?!

“uh-huh..” jaehyun trailed, putting down his camera.

“y-yeah!” you stuttered. “you heard me.”

the door shook by the loud knocks from the other side. on the frosted window, you could see four figures. orange and black jerseys, they must be the team members. “ah! the door’s locked! she’s definitely in here coach!” one said.

“i’ll toss you the keys!” he yelled. oh crap. you were caught in between. your heart patterned with the knocks.

“you look terrified after hearing coach, y/n.” the chair squeaked from the weight. “i’m guessing you’re that troublesome student he has a hard time dealing with recently?”

of course captain knows you. great reputation you have, y/n.

“so? what’s your point?” you stood up to see his amused grin.

“say hello to a term’s detention.” jaehyun waved as the door swung open, revealing ten, kun, jungwoo and.. the coach.

you sighed heavily and dropped the papers. the coach crossed his arms and you lowered your head a little. “you plan to escape again y/n? then i shouldn’t hear any excuses from you. you’ll join us for the twelve day retreat. period.” he picked the papers up and wrote something.

“sir i can’t be with a bunch of jocks for that long!” your whine had the captain blocking his ears. “i have debate finals to attend to.”

jaehyun flinched at the high pitched sound and rolled his eyes. what was your deal? it was rude of you to suddenly barge into athlete’s quarters but judging them for that was even more rude of you. he had to shut you up at some point.

“so much excuses.” he played with his nails and to you he looked more amused than ever. you rolled your eyes at his chuckle and know he would target you from now on. “dad, y/n told me she’s ‘part of the team’.” he played his video that recorded your voice, clearly saying what jaehyun heard.

coach jung looked rather surprised, but his smile definitely screamed happy. “oh? that’s all i needed to hear. welcome, uh- temporarily. i’ll inform mrs. park about the situation.”

nononono- “i did this.” you were at a loss for words. “i won’t be able to compete in the debate.”

“yeah pretty much you made the wrong decision.” jaehyun stood to tower over you. “i’d like to see you suffer our drills-”

four knocks cut jaehyun off. “oh no, she’ll only do those for two days.”

you swifted your head in confusion, seeing coach jung wrote down your schedule on the white board. you were packed and it’s a lot worse than the actual assessment planned in school. “and what about the rest of the ten days?!” you exasperated that your hairtie snapped at the right moment, and your hair fell in sightful way.

“ooh that was hot.” ten commented in soft whisper, causing kun and jungwoo nudge him on the each side.

“she’ll be our manager for the remaining days, keep track of our drills and score points, or other extra things i needed a hand with while taeyang’s in the hospital.”

jaehyun rested his palms on his waist, swirling his tongue inside with a provoking gaze at you. “see if you can keep up, manager.” he chuckled.

you checked the time, it was nearing 5 p.m. “you know what, give me a day to process all this sport thing. it’s close to evening and i have to get going-”

“it’s evening already?” jaehyun cut you off as he looked outside the window.

the sun glistening at the distance while the sky showed a pretty ombré of warm colours. his senses doubled again and his whole body ached. he had to make you leave. it was already enough that his friends knew about his situation. there’d only be more trouble if you knew too.

“uh duh? the clock’s right there.” you pointed.

“hm, anyway you have to leave now.”

“sheesh i was going to anyway.” you rolled your eyes, but felt jaehyun’s palms behind your back. “hey stop pushing!”

“you’re too slow!” his tone changed. different than the usual because panic was what you felt from his palms. “quickly!”

the rest of the boys could tell you were pissed. they couldn’t understand why jaehyun had to make a fuss out of it when all he had to do was to kindly ask you. using force would only cause misunderstandings, like what’s happening now. “hey what’s your deal?!” you flicked his arms. “do you like to push people around? just because i’ll be with the team for the next two weeks, that doesn’t mean you could treat me like this already!”

“tsk so noisy! you’re wasting time! just leave would you?!” jaehyun turned you around towards the door.

this time you wouldn’t budge. “no jung jaehyun i need an explanation with this stupid attitude of yours!” you wriggled off of his hold, pushing him back with pats several times more that he stepped backwards.

“i don’t owe you an explanation!”

“you definitely do?!”

“why can’t you listen to what i say?”

“why can’t you stop being pushy, pushy?”

“you’re the one pushing me! time’s ticking y/n!”

the continuous back and forth of bickers and the war of pushing each other was an idiotic sight. your wrist was in jaehyun’s palms as he gripped you tighter. “i don’t care captain jerk! it wouldn’t bother you or hurt you to just give me one reason- and he slammed the door at my face! argh!”

jaehyun smirked wide and proudly knowing that he ‘won’ argument. silencing you was better than letting you see his other form. the boys stared him once he turned around to face them. “what?” he questioned,

“definitely not the right way to treat a girl.” they all said simultaneously.

“you know how bad it makes me feel when you all said it at the same time?” jaehyun pressed the bridge of his nose.

he knew well enough that this wasn’t his usual self. he’s good friends with you despite being in different teams of the school. you both took literature as your electives. sometimes you’d let him copy your notes when he had matches or leave small appetisers and juice cartons when he was tired and vice versa.

but no matter how close you both were, he couldn’t afford to let you see his other self.

not just yet.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

waking up so early in the day to assist the team was way more annoying than birds chirping by your bedroom’s window. instead of hearing their tuneful tweets, you had to endure endless phone calls every minute. you couldn’t remember much from that day because you passed out. and the team didn’t look for you until yesterday.

coach jung waved to catch your attention, only to be greeted with your huge yawn and a disinterested face.

“ah there she is! c’mon now, i got the green light from mrs. park. she agreed that p.e is the only subject you’re likely to fail this semester, so she’s giving you a cool-off from the team and focus on here.”

“yep. heard you coach.” you tied up your hair, only listening to half of what he said. “where’s the captain?”

kun did few stretches & jumps, his expression mirrored the other two boys who were also doing the same. you had a feeling about this— their telepathic gaze and awkward silence. you took a basketball to pass it to ten. “is he still mad about me calling him a jerk? that was a few days ago and i didn’t expect him to be that sensitive.”

they laughed because they couldn’t deny his obvious trait. “he doesn’t show it but somehow you know he is.” ten passed the ball back to you. “but not this morning y/n. he’s late for.. another reason.”

you hopped to catch it yet you were a second late, and groaned as you had to run far to retrieve it. “uh-huh. nature calls in the morning, again?” you yelled.

“do you think she knows about jaehyun?” jungwoo asked the older ones. they eyed you rummaging in the bushes for the ball, later looking back at each other for answers, but no one knew how your mind worked. “it’s been five days and no word from her at all.”

“if she actually does, i guess she just doesn’t want to be involved? i think we can trust her for that.” kun drank from his bottle.

ten didn’t look convinced. “involved or not, we have to make sure she doesn’t tell anyone about jaehyun’s curse. keep an eye on her-”

“ah!” they heard your squeals and ruffles from the bushes. “guys look what i found!”

kun sighed when they saw you running back with a golden retriever puppy in your arms, taking back his words said earlier.

“uh-oh. that scream means she has no clue at all.” jungwoo brushed his hair up.

“this puppy is so cute! i wonder what it’s doing here? are you lost?” you hugged and sniffed into its fur and gosh it smelled like vanilla shampoo. there was a metal collar around its neck, the piece spelled “jj”. “aww it has a name!”

no matter how happy you looked from the boys, they couldn’t help but take a photo of you and ‘puppy’ jaehyun. they had to tell you before it was too late. the golden hour in the morning was shorter than sunset, so either they would tell you straight up, or let jaehyun transform back to human.

but guess what? they were too late. they shouldn’t have second-guessed.

what had happened was way beyond your comprehension. it was in an instant. all it felt in totality was that, you weren’t carrying a puppy anymore. you lost balance and the weight in your arms doubled or tripled, you couldn’t tell. but you knew you were falling backwards. was there to brace for impact? none.

you blinked several times from the orange sunrise blinding your vision from the window. slowly you got up to sit and soothe the pain. that hurt..

here’s the thing. remember you mentally told yourself you hoped you didn’t run into any naked boy in the basketball team’s showers? there you have it. you jinxed it. jaehyun’s figure was on top of yours and you knew he had no clothes on. oh goodness.

“hyung? you forgot your lunch box- oh.” sungchan barged in the scene and everyone could tell he sort of malfunctioned. he froze then facepalmed.

you took turns into looking at the embarrassed jaehyun and at the boys who whistled to avoid the numbers of questions you were going to ask.

kun quickly shielded your eyes where your doubts were showing in your face. and no matter how much thought hard, you just couldn’t believe it. with fear written all over you, you dusted your pants and hands reached kun’s arm to support your weight.

“oh so you shielded her eyes but not my body?!” jaehyun’s voice entered your ears and you swore there was a hint of puppy whimper.

“this is a dream.. right?..” you asked before you fainted.

sungchan managed to save you from the fall. “whoa! ah, i had a feeling something like this would happen.”

—

“was she always like that?” minnie took a peep of your classroom, her eyes showed confusion. “is she tired?”

lisa shrugged and in her innocence she pursed her lips. “i don’t know. she’s been sighing a lot for the past hour? i wanna ask her but it might be too personal.”

you could her them and they were wrong. it was nothing personal at all. you’ve been sighing because you didn’t know how it was possible but it just happened— right before your eyes. since then you hoped that science could explain but not even the smartest people could give you a conclusion. you’ve been called out from lessons that came in the day and not that you didn’t blame jaehyun.

because for one thing, he at least told you the truth and the answer to your question as to why he had to make you leave that day. you propped your chin on your palms from jaehyun’s warning: “tell anyone i swear i’ll make you run a hundred laps with no water breaks.”

but the other thing? he was naked. and that’s not something you could erase in your memories overnight.

you let out a small whine that led to minnie and lisa copying your position, obviously making fun of you. “seriously, not a good time.” you laid on the table and hid from them. “don’t ask me anything.”

minnie and lisa looked at each other as you were being unreasonable and already gotten them curious with your remark. they both grabbed each of your arm, tugging on your sleeves where they begged nonstop for you tell them what had happened. they knew it was about the basketball team.

since you started to train and be with them, you’ve never complained. because if you did, coach jung would add another exercise for you, in which you knew you couldn’t handle. broken bones and sore muscles awaited for you. so you chose not to utter a single sigh, but you were careless just now and there was no escaping from these best friends of yours.

“c’mon y/n! tell us the deets! you sighing could only mean one thing.. did someone confess to you?” minnie closed her eyes and a wide smile suddenly became shrieks of laughter when you facepalmed. “oh who in the basketball team confessed?” she singsonged.

it’s not really a confession, jaehyun being a golden puppy is a secret that was never meant to be revealed but i happened to see him transform-

“what if it’s not a guy? maybe two? or three? oh gosh this is like a reverse harem anime-” lisa began to hype an awful assumption but you covered her lips. and plus? her voice was loud and how embarrassing it would be when the rest of the class heard it.

you were already restless at their energy. “none you idiots. i was sighing because i didn’t know that people with dimples would be that attractive.” you tried to divert the topic.

“pfft you’re talking about jung jaehyun?” lisa raised her brows and grinned teasingly to get a reaction from you.

“no, i’m taking about coach jung.” you hit her arm.

“but jaehyun’s his carbon copy, so you’re basically saying he’s handsome too.” minnie quickly rebutted.

“i mean, coach’s the original face so he’s definitely more handsome-” you paused. shoot they nearly got you to a corner. “wait- why are we talking about this? i thought we’re talking about me.”

“ah you were paying attention to our conversation?” minnie’s eyes grew.

“you’re not telling us anything dimwit.” lisa hit you back.

couple of squeals echoed the corridor and your classroom door crowded with people. apparently jaehyun stood by the door frame and scanned the room looking for you. when he spotted you, his face bubbled up and literally glided his way to your seat. you could tell he was slightly fuming, but you didn’t know what reason. “y/f/n! come here for a second!” he grabbed your wrists and pulled you up from your chair.

you tried to catch up with his pace as he continued to pull you. “let me go!”

jaehyun did in fact let go of you, but he instead led you to hit your back against numerous lockers. the squeals didn’t stop there and how that you were the centre of attention amongst all of the students, you had endure this for a little while. he was staring into your soul, eyes piercing that could strain yours, you knew he was pissed about something.

he slammed his forearms at the space right above your head, then the screams of giddy began to grow louder. you managed to see your friends at the far end of the corridor. they were smiling and lisa mouthed ‘kabedon’, making you flustered than you already were. “what do you want?” you asked.

“i thought i made myself clear?” jaehyun smirked as he felt you quiver against his skin. he leaned lower that his whispers tickled your ear. “did you tell anyone? your friends?”

“i’m not gonna risk my health for some dumb secret.” you rolled your eyes and crossed arms.

“please it’s not like our training puts your life on jeopardy-” jaehyun butted back.

“it’s safe with me. if there’s anything you’re worried about, just look at your fanbase. you’re making them sad.” you sighed, walking away and through the girls who has been following jaehyun around.

jaehyun exhaled at a rather slow pace. he liked your reaction and was aware of their presence. and in order to shoo them away, he had to do what he did. he just hoped you’d notice that too. “see you after school!” he yelled.

you briefly stopped in your tracks at his greet, you continued walking and pulled your girls away from the scene. you didn’t pay any attention, but you knew they couldn’t contain their smiles appearing on their faces.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

the bags full of foldable cones fell to the floor. the rest of the team turned to your direction, who already made mistakes on the first day of camp. they knew that you were obviously flabbergasted with your encounter. it was funny that you managed to stride your way so quickly towards jungwoo— he was very much entertained with your expression. “i know right? that was me earlier.” he stroked the large pup.

“h-how did puppy grow so big? that’s an adult sized dog! you stuttered but hiding your love for golden retrievers just wasn’t possible. there were times you forgot that this was actually jaehyun. “it’s only been a week.”

“yeah i’d like to know the reason too.”

suddenly you heard jaehyun’s voice. it felt like he was close to your ears again, but he wasn’t anywhere near you.

remains of memories probably were still in you head. you wouldn’t say you were traumatised, just surprised. why the hell am i hearing his voice? you shook the thought off at first but then again-

oi y/n. beside you. i’m talking to you!

what?

you gasped and fell on your butt. the pup’s ears were on alert and you knew he was hearing you too. “you can hear me?” jaehyun’s dog form practically towered on your fallen self. you avoided his look although the pup was so cute. his paws poked your shoulders, whiskers twitching as he waited for your response. “don’t look away! you can hear me right??”

all the guys could see was jaehyun staring down at you. and while you did the same, your knitted brows only meant something was definitely going on. they wanted to know. “what’s wrong y/n?”

your lips shook in heavens knows it was fear. “you’re asking me what’s wrong? why can i hear jaehyun? can you hear jaehyun? oh my g- this is really really weird-”

“you can?” they scooted closer to you, very much intrigued with your gift.

“and you all can’t?” you pushed jaehyun away for his body was weighing you down. he whimpered and got up to sit in front of the boys too.

they shook their heads vigorously. “only sungchan and coach were able to hear him.” kun stated, typing on his cellphone to inform his family.

“y/n! let’s talk when i transform back!” jaehyun’s paws kept poking you again. you glared at him with a loud hiss. his ears were alert, he didn’t realise that he was clawing you already, and turned a few rounds before he was laying like a bagel-shaped position.

jaehyun thought it was pretty strange. never in his life were there any people who could actually converse with him telepathically. other than his family, you were the first and he was determined to find out why this impossibility was made possible. there was a spark of hope forming in his heart at this sudden revelation. the glow from the orange light then shone above your head, marking the end of sunrise.

you looked at jaehyun’s dog form, it was- correction, he was.. quiet, and was still staring at you as if you were his master. he laid on this front legs, snout on the ground. huh, he can actually be behaved. footsteps were closing in. at the distance, coach jung walked with lisa and minnie, who were in their cheerleading uniforms. right, you forgot that they were also included in the annual athletes camp.

for a moment you panicked because you knew jaehyun would transform back from being a dog. ten and rest knew more people shouldn’t know about jaehyun’s curse. they were glad you read the atmosphere too. seeing jaehyun’s jersey in his duffel bag, you grabbed it and wore it on the animal.

coach jung made eye contact to your direction. he diverted the girls’ attention, and led them away from the basketball court. they headed towards the storage to “retrieve” some equipment.

jaehyun grunted and growled, his fangs tried to bite your skin. however, goldens were known for having a soft jaw, so his bites weren’t that painful. when you finally managed to put the jersey on him, jungwoo couldn’t catch up. “why let him wear the jersey?” he questioned.

“so he wouldn’t transform back naked when lisa and minnie arrives.” you pointed out the obvious.

ten held his laugh in. you recognised this tone, and prepared what came after. “heh..” he trailed off. “is it because you want to keep jaehyun to yourself?”

you continuously threw random items at him as heat spread to your cheeks. “screw you!” you scoffed. “get jaehyun to wear his pants. i have to pack a lot of things before we head onto the bus.”

“yes ma’am.” ten nudged your shoulder. “i’m kidding y/n. don’t take my jokes seriously.“

“it’s fine.” you picked up the fallen cones. “you’re worried about people knowing his curse. so i’m just doing my part to keep it secret.”

he pursed his lips and his heart softened at your willingness to help. “hm, i guess i can trust you after all.” ten opened the bag to help you pack. “oh! and also, jae in his dog form already is naked anyway.”

“you think i’m not aware of that?” you rolled your eyes.

your friends already have settled themselves inside the coach bus and you were seated in between them. now they would get to witness you with the team and hoped for a budding romance with any of the boys. you lowered your face under a cap to pretend you were sleeping, but in reality you just wanted to avoid lisa and minnie’s bombardment.

few rows at front, jaehyun stared by the window, deep in thought. rarely spoke a word since they started their journey to the retreat campsite. why was his hunch telling him to get closer to you? why could you hear him and he could hear you? he slightly turned to his side between the gaps of two seats. seeing you giggling with your friends had him rethinking if what happened earlier was just his imagination. he wondered why you purposely ignore him after he transformed back.

he slid lower from his seat. “i’d understand if this was a soulmate thing, but it’s not.” jaehyun sighed heavily where he broke the silence and supposedly ending the conversation earlier. now that he wanted to talk about it, his friends were still up for the news.

“oh yeah. those things are going on. except it only happens to some people.” kun popped a chip in his mouth.

“i just don’t get it. dad told me that never occurred to anyone with this curse.” he stole the bag of chips from the younger one to relieve his emotions.

jungwoo’s pursed his lip in wonder. “maybe the curse in another light has its own blessing? maybe you guys are soulmates?”

“nah, impossible.” they all said simultaneously.

“it’s a possibility-” jungwoo’s face soured where wrinkles appeared on the sides as the boys flared at him.

jaehyun shrugged not knowing what to say. his friends have bizarre ideas throughout the journey, and he wouldn’t say they were wrong either. all he could do was to wait until the next transformation. maybe you would say your thoughts about it through telepathy.

he would know if time passed quickly when he didn’t pay attention to anyone. one of them was the number of times you waved in front of his face to snap him back to earth. “jaehyun?” you laid on the ground and called out, panting to catch air after your successful reps. you tugged the ends of his track pants.

“hm?” he hummed, looking for your voice until he got annoyed with your repetitive pulls of his clothes. “ah stop that. i have to report your record to coach. come with?”

“do i really have to?” you whined. “i could barely stand, my legs are wobbly and i’m hungry.”

jaehyun rolled his eyes and took your hand, pulling you up on your toes. “then let’s grab something to eat on our way to the camp, hm?”

you gulped at the sudden gesture, even more so when you noticed your heart beating faster around him. somehow your sixth sense told you your friends were somewhere in the woods looking at you, and you were right.

minnie had her binoculars by her eyes as you and jaehyun headed in another direction back to everyone else were. she held in her excitement with a huge inhale. out of curiosity lisa stole the binoculars from her. a growing smile showed her pearly whites when within its frame, jaehyun was pushing you from the back before he took your hand again because of how slow you were. “min, consider your reverse harem dream for y/n over. we found her leading man.”

—

“few more reps y/n! do it properly this time?”

jaehyun rubbed his face, raising his tone in question of your athleticism. it was the second and final day of your assessments. your core should be able to get used to the pressure if you’ve done the reps for two straight days. so as of today you salute to all people who persevered and with great stamina. you just.. weren’t that person.

you’ve grown conscious now that jaehyun’s friends were watching a few metres away. you’d prefer kun counting and timing your exercises over him. in contrast, kun’s a little more understanding than the hotheaded jaehyun. “if i say i can’t, shouldn’t you consider stopping here? it’s the last one anyway so put random number on the blank or something.” you struggled to lift yourself up from the ground, arms in an ‘x’ position over your torso.

“is that so? then you wouldn’t mind if i write ‘0’ for the final count?” jaehyun checked the stopwatch while his knees put enough weight on your feet. “at least do five more?” he sat on the soles of his shoes.

“ugh! fine!” you tsked and did sit ups slowly, eyes shut closed.

jaehyun smirked with how determined you were in finishing. and he has gotta credit you for having the last brain cell to endure his overly playful bossiness and plans up his sleeves.

but even his friends has something up in their sleeves. they whispered to each other and nodded heads as excitement already boosted their anticipation. ten cupped his mouth then giving the raised brows as signal to start. “y/n! jaehyun’s recording your expression with his phone!” ten yelled.

jungwoo’s mouth widened and followed along. “jae! there’s a bee behind you!”

“what?!”

“where?!”

the moment you froze and opened your eyes after bringing yourself up, and jaehyun leaned forwards to avoid the insect, was way too hilarious for the guys to see. both of your faces were centimetres away from each other and jaehyun’s ears already tinted pink. jaehyun already found it awkward to help you for three days, but he never prepared himself for something like this.

as his friends bursting out laughing, that was when he realised it was all their plan. you were still too close to him, so he cleared his throat to cut the gap between. “is that a pimple on your nose?” he asked, only for his nose to be smacked and soon be numbed. “agh!”

what the- “jerk! don’t point it out!” you kicked him and rolled sideways to stand up, angrily leaving the area with the sheet in your hands. “i’ll give this to the coach!”

jaehyun held his nose and walked back to the guys, who were still laughing their butts off and rolling on the ground. “you can stop now.”

“oh that was funny! it was like a typical ‘ba-dump’ scene in a rom-com!” jungwoo wiped a tear.

“should’ve recorded it!” kun threw his head back while his hand rested on his heaving chest.

“no worries! at least it’s recorded in jaehyun’s mind!” ten cheered with closed fists.

“it’s embarrassing!” jaehyun threw his towel.

bonfires were mandatory at the start and end of the camp. however, because of your assessment, coach jung had negotiate with the other members of the basketball to get to the campsite a day before the other teams actually arrived at night. so for the kun and the rest, they had a little more free time than jaehyun. and him being the coach’s son.. he didn’t have the same benefits. he was stuck with you because he had to keep an eye on you while

he thought being with you would only be for the first two days, then he would go for his training. and yet here you were, sitting beside him in front of the bonfire while everyone else arrived and other danced to their hearts’ content. maybe he could ask you about the telepathy thing? but figuring you were cranky from earlier, he held back.

“can i ask more about your curse? if it’s okay with you to tell me.”

jaehyun nodded, you had the right to. not because you accidentally picked a random puppy then saw him naked few moments later. you could hear him in your head, and that was enough reason to tell you rather than a general information about it. “yeah. i’m okay with it.”

“you said your ancestors had the curse too. was there any specific reason why they had to suffer that your family and you had to be the..” you paused for a while. jaehyun was waiting for your next words, you guessed it was alright to say it. “..collateral damage?”

“right. i didn’t tell you more of it yeah?” he sniffed from the chilly night. “i don’t know how far back in the years it happened. but they said the head of the family casted out his wife because he assumed he cheated on him. he was the only person the wife ever treasured, so when she was accused, she took his pet and killed it. the head found out, he cursed her that her descendants turn into animals. and we’re the descendants of that woman.”

“that’s awful.” you cleared your throat. “i’m sorry you have to suffer the curse.”

“you don’t have to be. i’m just trying to cope with it.” jaehyun chuckled. “how awesome would it be if there was a way to reverse everything.”

“gotta find the blessing then.” you laid on the grass.

jaehyun’s face wrinkled in disgust. “okay you sound like jungwoo.”

“at least appreciate me for trying to lift your spirits up.”

he hummed in agreement.

“or you can just.. let the blessing find you.” you singsonged as you realised how corny you actually sounded.

“fine, and if it’s you?” he had to give a hint of the telepathic communication.

“because i can hear you when you’re in your retriever form? i’m not exactly a blessing but yeah i’d like to know how telapthy works too.” you stared back at the bonfire, flames flickering as the smoke flew in the air. as of tonight, you wanted to be that person who’d be the igniter of that hope he held on. “if i could help out a little, i’ll be happy to help.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

lisa and minnie stared at you, both had their palms under their chins as if their silence asked you to talk. “i can’t eat when the two of you are like this. it’s very disturbing.” you gripped on your fork, hesitant to eat as you took glances between the food and them.

you knew what they were going to ask. not like you didn’t want to share, it was just that you knew them well enough that they wouldn’t stop once they start. the food was getting cold every second passed, due to the wind outdoors, it was more vulnerable. lisa stretched her elbows while holding her poms to be noticed. five days have gone by and even though you were rarely with them in all those days, she had to ensure you’d tell them about the basketball team and your leading man— although you had no idea about that.

“any updates?” she raised her brows.

“nothing is happening with me or anyone in the team, if that’s what you both wanted to know.” you sighed. “i’m just simply taking down minutes.” you said sternly, kind of regret that you answered her and swirled the noodles with your fork.

“are you sure? twelve members should be enough for that.” minnie tied her shoelaces and bent down with a pressed smile when you pout. she softened her gaze when you were telling the truth and that their teasing should stop there. but they knew that the team should know something about you.

“they’re divided into teams. some did the score board while others practiced on their own. of course i have to be the one- why are you pulling my arm?” you asked and eyed them as if they stained your clothes.

lisa twirled on her toes and posed with her arm rested on her waist. “you’re being quiet again.”

“i’m not?” you said monotonously while you munched on your food.

she sighed and grabbed your chin. “you don’t look at me when you’re lying.” she hummed, yet you didn’t respond. “what’s up y/n? something’s on your mind i can tell.”

in fact a lot of things were.

so far in the week, you’ve helped jaehyun theorise solutions to end his curse after practice. not only for him, but his family and extended family too. some have passed not having to enjoy their lives, while others chose to hide themselves from the world. and a small percentage of the family tree actually tried to live through it— that was jaehyun’s family. coach jung was as determined as jaehyun to put a stop into this curse.

not only that thought alone. to you, jaehyun has been rather noticeable. even if you weren’t thinking of him, he’d appear out of nowhere— during your breaks, on your night-walks alone or even heading to the toilet. you’d always bump into him and his presence seemed to be marked in your consciousness now. not that you liked him around, it was just captain was more friendly than others made him out to be. “really, it’s nothing.”

to say that jaehyun didn’t feel same was definitely an understatement. since the start of the freshman year, he knew you were the loud girl with the two hot cheerleaders, but always wondered why you’ve never joined the team. sometimes he would catch you sitting at one corner, dancing along with the routines aside from cheering your friends on as he was heading to practice.

now he took a peek of you eating alone while lisa and minnie showed off their new uniforms. he was about to call you out to help the team, but the girls pulling you almost immediately once you were done had him holding back. “chaeyeon will be arriving soon, and remember the dare was to wear our uniform.” minnie giggled while you begged her to stop, to the point you nearly cried thinking about it. “you agreed to it-”

“i didn’t agree to it! you agreed for me! i had no say!”

jaehyun’s eyes widened at the thought of you in uniform. your yells were getting louder and pitchier. should he be your knight and shining armour? probably not. he’d like to have something to tease you about. for a moment there was silence, he hid behind the corner of a storage building. you were still telling your friends to stop doing what they were doing. but it was two against one, and he knew you were at the losing end.

the door slammed open, your huffs and puffs getting heavier and closer to where he was. jaehyun’s heart beat so fast that when he finally decided to call out your name, you bumped into him and he caught you to prevent you from falling. “i was about to fetch you, manager.”

you felt heat spread your entire cheek because of the attire you were forced to wear. “well you did and i’m here. can we go? my friends are giving me the stares.”

“fiesty, but i think you look alright.” he chuckled when you grumpily walked ahead. jaehyun followed you from behind with his hands in pockets.

what does he mean by that?

lisa and minnie pursed their lips, soon bursting into giddy squeals and continuously fanning each other from what they saw yet the second time. “he was really checking her out.” minnie laughed.

“his ears said it all.” lisa checked her watch on her wrist. “basketball team’s practice match is starting soon. wanna sit in?”

“girl you bet i will.”

even hours later you blew your baby fringes blocking your view. as you flipped the score board and whistles for a time-out echoed the outdoor gym, your friends could tell how uncomfortable you were but they’d do nothing to get more reactions from you. they liked that you entertained them. and what choice did you have? chaeyeon was already taking pictures of you in the uniform you despised wearing.

coach jung briefed the team information on their opponents this season. you wrote down important points, feeling the chill of the early sunset. you couldn’t wait to change into actual soft and comfy clothes, mosquitoes weren’t your friends.

jaehyun listened to his dad repeating the same points- mostly because he got the advice first before others. he heard you hiss several times, you were supposed to jot the notes down. then it got frequent. he tiptoed to see you opposite from him, shooing the bugs away. of course you were still wearing the cheer uniform. he didn’t want to draw attention, so he stealthy walked behind the guys and straight to you.

“trouble?” he asked.

“just a little chilly, that’s all. meeting’s nearly done yeah?” you hugged the file to your chest.

“say so if you’re cold.” he took his jacket off and draped it on your shoulder.

“and who am i to tell to?” your voice challenging him.

he hummed so low that it almost lulled you to sleep. “me. i’m not the captain for nothing.”

you were both busy talking that you and him weren’t aware of time nor anyone else close by. mind you that minnie and lisa were watching the whole thing. you managed to smile even if you were crossed with how you were dressed. like you enjoyed his company.

they couldn’t hear your conversation, nor were your lips were moving. but the body language they saw already proved and confirmed their assumption. they had to tell you. they went straight to you once the meeting was over, and pulled you aside whilst jaehyun was talking about his childhood.

jaehyun raised a brow and chuckled as you were being pulled away. his friends immediately surround him, bombarding him with questions that he wasn’t paying attention to the meeting. “dude, your time’s near.” ten smacked him on the back.

“don’t make it sound like i’m dying, ten.” jaehyun rolled his eyes, but whenever he did, they were always fixated on you. he couldn’t shake off the feeling you were that something to solve the curse.

“be alert than be busted.” ten shrugged, head tilting to where you were. your friends were busy recording you and giggles filled the air. “how are you so calm now jae?”

jaehyun pursed his lips. “with her, there’s no way i’m calm at all.”

“okay now i can’t tell if that answer was from human jaehyun or doggy jaehyun.” jungwoo pointed out.

his friends all looked at each other, jaehyun wasn’t his usual self. it was as if he was dazed but was able to converse with them properly. slowly his naturally peach-like fuzzy cheeks grew more fur, his tail started to reveal. although they were quick enough to hide jaehyun, they didn’t realise the commotion that came afterwards and drew everyone’s attention.

you swifted your head at the boys’ yells and gathering circle, faintly hearing jaehyun’s refusal into whatever they got him into. “stop it! hey!” he hissed.

jungwoo, a little too excited of the drama going on, spotted you looking at them and gestured you to come over too. your friends built up a curiosity and went ahead of you. as for you, you were mentally tired to think of anything.

not until you heard kun’s wavering yet convincing words. “uh.. y’all wanna see magic?” he chuckled nervously as he knew what jaehyun would do to him after all this was over. “quickly because it’ll happen soon!”

you held in a laugh at jaehyun when he was forced to sit down on the grass to hide his tail. “i’ve been trying to master this for months and i thank jaehyun as my participant. who loves animals? give me a name.”

most hands were up and the answers were said at the same time. some didn’t believe him, but others have seen kun’s little magic tricks over the days. so something of a huge scale like this already got them curious than ever.

“ah i hear great ones but i’ll choose dog. now i’ll turn jaehyun into a golden retriever.” he draped a blanket above his friend.

ten and jungwoo bit their lips to contain themselves, holding onto each other as they filmed this once-in-a-lifetime event. the circle enlarged in scale with the poor lad at the center and the golden hour shone over everyone.

“in 3.. 2.. 1..” kun only snapped his fingers then the blanket shrunk in size. your schoolmates were convinced that something was actually happening.

and it was amusing because you were able to hear jaehyun swearing so much in your head.

you let out a giggle. jaehyun was soon surrounded by everyone who wanted to pet him. even your friends went over to the animal. “at least pretend to be happy for them. goldens are known for being clowns.” you told him.

*sighs* “tell kun i’m gonna kill him.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

the silence was all jaehyun ever wanted after the shock he had to go through from kun’s improv few days ago. he’d be thankful for a moment because he actually forgot the gideon hour at the time, but he would soon later be clouded with annoyance that he should’ve been informed beforehand of his actions— not only kun, the others included. they’ve got a part in this too.

his friends seated side by side with bruises and bandages on their faces, jaehyun still giving them the silent treatment. he was cranky about that, yet even more so when there was no progress into finding a solution to his curse. “jae. we said we’re sorry.” jungwoo apologised and felt that he was the only one giving effort to talk to jaehyun compared to kun and ten.

“and i said it’s fine. so stop saying that before i actually don’t forgive you.” jaehyun pressed the bridge of his nose.

after walking up the slope to the cabin with heaves of breaths, you managed to hear their conversation before opening the door. “i refilled your bottles.” you threw them on a duffle bag, not caring whether either of them rolled away. “i have to apologise too, jaehyun. i haven’t come up with anything to help you.” true enough because you couldn’t think straight or have the energy to use your remaining brain cells for that matter.

“ugh it’s fine. i’m not in a rush or anything. not even assigning you to solve within the duration of the camp.” jaehyun squeezed the bottle as thirst continued to drive him crazy, the heat as well, so he removed his tshirt. you averted your gaze and looked elsewhere. maybe you were still a little bothered seeing him half naked after the incident?

ten sought the opportunity and decided to fan the flame even more. “why look away when you’ve seen him already?”

he managed to dodge your hits and you turned around embarrassed. jaehyun could see you fanning yourself from the heat. “it was an accident!” you cleared your throat.

“gah i’m tired. we’re done with practice. we get a day off tomorrow, so can’t we watch a movie? who has disney plus?” jungwoo wiped himself with a towel.

“i do.” kun brought out his ipad. “what do you wanna watch?”

“i haven’t watched that one.”

“beauty and the beast?”

“o-kay, i’ll be going now.” you yawned as you began to feel the exhaustion take over your body. “see you tomorrow.”

the door closed and suddenly you remembered a funny memory last halloween when taeil dressed himself as belle. he blended in with the other ladies that you didn’t realise it was him. either it was the wig’s work or just taeil in general. you found it funny when a bunch of young teens become children again as disney’s mentioned.

your phone vibrated with your friends asking to help them out with their practice. “i came to the camp for the basketball team, not you two.” you left a voice mail. all you wanted was to rest up today. not until a certain realisation hit you hard.

because what if?

it hasn’t been that long since you left the cabin when the boys jolted from their positions. their peace and concentration on the movie already ruined by you. “oh my goodness i think i got it?” you slammed the door.

jaehyun sat up and set his phone aside. “you’re saying it a question rather than a discovery. not convinced.”

“will you be when i tell you if it’s based on that movie?” you pointed at the tablet.

he trailed his eyes to the screen then back at you, a more confused expression on his face. “you expect me to find someone to love me so my curse will be lifted?”

“pfft nah kidding, you don’t seem that loveable anyway.” you stole a lollipop from ten. “okay bye for reals.”

as the door closed, ten unwrapped another lollipop. “bet you he’s thinking of his potential ‘belle’.” ten nudged the boys.

“shut up. i’m not going to base my life on a fictional movie.”

“but it could be y/n. i mean she can hear you.” jungwoo paused the film.

“it’s not going to be her and it doesn’t prove anything.”

jaehyun thought a lot for two things— you keeping his hopes up, the other was you setting his heart in a frenzy and he always hated that feeling. he groaned and dragged himself to bed to place a towel over his face. sure he’ll hold on to that idea you came up with for now. however it didn’t prove on telepathy.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

your heart missed a beat when jaehyun waited for you in front of the cabin you stayed at. he thought you bumping into his torso wasn’t a good way to greet in the morning, whereas you feeling some fur on his tshirt as greeting was any different. jaehyun handed you a file and a little note from coach.

while you read it, you could sense jaehyun was staring, like he had something to say. he retracted his lips when your friends appeared behind you with grins annoyingly appearing on their faces. “make it quick captain. we have things to discuss with y/n.”

“yeah sure. i just dropped by to pass this to you. coach said to make copies. i’ll come back after you’re done with breakfast.” he cleared his throat and announced his leave.

“hm. fishy. he could’ve just left it here outside but he seems like he waited for you.” lisa drank from her cup as you all sat and ate breakfast together.

“right? it’s been days he acted that way!” minnie walked back to the table. “he’s indeed a gentleman, but there are times he’s very hard to approach.”

you unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite. “anyway, what is it you guys wanna talk about?”

“lisa will go first. she couldn’t wait.” minnie giggled.

lisa laid out series of pictures of nature she recently took and were indeed beautiful. “oh my goodness they look amazing!” you sat up. “as expected from someone in the photography club. i bet if you submit these to johnny he’ll regret putting you as backup-”

“really?! i took advantage of the retreat and i made sure they were pretty!” lisa interrupted you and placed more pictures down. “these are my favourite! i’m thinking of sending these to johnny instead!”

however your face turned sullen at the next pictures. they were blurry and almost gone, but it was definitely jaehyun at the background, each one showed he was transforming from human to dog. you paused and your heart did the same.

the silence got longer, you knew you had to speak up, but no words came out. “what’s wrong y/n?”

“you can’t submit these to johnny.” you brushed the first batch of pictures aside and bind latest pictures together.

“why not? you supported the rest of them! how could these be not good enough?” lisa’s voice changed in an instant, like you’ve taken away her pride. she sat back with folded arms, her behaviour scared you a little.

minnie slightly wiggled your hand. “hey, are you hearing to yourself y/n?”

“sorry, i know i sound stupid-”

“you are!” lisa huffed where her cheeks blew up. it was cute though.

“but you have to hear me out.” one thing was for sure, your stress levels shot up high if word gets to jaehyun. you had to prepare for the consequences.

“okay, so why can’t i submit them?” lisa sighed.

you held her hand. “it would be alright to, only if these are not in the background.” you said, pointing out a figure at the background of the subject. it all became clear as day to them when they looked closely. “did jaehyun just.. transformed?”

you were surprised with how quick they were able to catch on. as much as you wanted to protect jaehyun’s family curse, things would’ve turn for worst if someone else had noticed it. i’m sorry jaehyun, this is for your own good.

“we believed kun’s ability of illusion and his magic tricks. ten sent us a video of it and it didn’t really occurred to us that the golden was actually jaehyun.” minnie pursed her lips. “if you think about it, he does look like a golden.”

“how is this possible?” lisa asked with a growing smile, but refrained since transforming twice everyday was nothing good anyway.

“i found about his family curse accidentally. he turns into a dog when it’s golden hour, like sunrise and sunset.” you propped on your elbows.

“it’s a curse? poor lad.” minnie gasped.

a rather sad nod caught them off guard. “the coach signed me up to join this retreat. it’s not only for my missed p.e assessments but it was to keep his curse a secret. a-and now that you know, i’ll be damned if word gets to him. so you have to promise me you both don’t say or do anything..“ you sounded as if you begged. that was how much your the friendship you have with jaehyun meant to you.

“and yeah, that’s my answer. the magic trick was just a cover up to hide jaehyun’s dog form.” they listened and were surprised to hear you like this.

your fidgety hands and nervous breathing was too obvious. if jaehyun was just a friend, you wouldn’t act as if he was your- “oh no.” you slumped down on your arms. “why did i..” you mumbled as your feelings for him became clearer to you.

“oh my gosh. you like him! you like jaehyun!” lisa covered her mouth and changed the lingering negative atmosphere.

ba-dump. i..

“then that means your love for golden retrievers doubled!” minnie hugged you.

“no! it’s b-because you’re putting m-me in the spotlight-” you stuttered when they leaned towards you. “i’m gonna go.”

jaehyun flinched even though he was at a distance. your friends were yelling quite excitingly. you were being chased by them and although it was inaudible. he answered his phone as it was ringing for a while. “what, ten?”

“don’t ‘what’ me!” jaehyun tilted his head from his friend’s volume. “jae where are you?”

“i’m at y/n’s cabin and on my way bac-”

“nevermind that. i can see you.”

ten rushed towards him and looked at the cabin. “where’s lisa?” he squinted his eyes.

“just her and minnie chasing y/n out. i don’t know how but they left the door open. what are you doing here anyway?”

he mimicked a photographer’s gesture and pointed at the cabin. “lisa told me her pictures have developed and i’m here to get them.”

jaehyun flicked his forehead. “and you could’ve asked me instead.”

“they’re confidential and i’m shy if anyone sees it.” ten walked to the cabin.

“gross. just get them and head back quickly.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

you lost track of the days that have passed and there was an unsettling feeling that stayed in your chest. had it been two or three? you couldn’t remember. the basketball team’s practice matches and drills were normal. but there was a difference in air lingering around jaehyun. he still talked to you, kept the same gentle smile and was caring as usual. except whenever he did those, it seemed like he was distancing himself from you, creating an imaginary wall just to let you know your limits and boundaries.

you’d like to think it was because of the pressure coach has been giving him since the play-offs were close to date. but, it wasn’t all jaehyun who behaved that way. ten also distanced himself, his gaze pierced against your skull and thinking about it only caused you to have migraines. you were more scared of ten.

coach jung have asked you to help the cheerleading team, saying you’ve helped them enough. the amount of appreciation he had for you was too much, you couldn’t ask him about how jaehyun recently. yet this was all too sudden that your gut feeling told you otherwise. you planned to talk to jaehyun after the day ends. because in all honesty, something definitely happened.

and the boys left you out of it.

approaching jaehyun was harder than you thought. now you’ve realised it, he was always the one who took the initiative and you on the receiving end took the benefits of his kindness. it was supposed to be the other way around, so why were you taking advantage of this?

if having feelings for him was the reason for that, then you’re really stupid y/n. you laid on the grass in defeat from your thoughts and closed your eyes. you decided to have some peace and nature was your best friend in time like these. chirping birds and crashing riverbanks-

“jaehyun where are you?!”

ah crap. you twitched hard enough that swarms of goosebumps appeared on the majority of your skin. on your stomach, you hid behind the bushes to see jungwoo and the others struggling to find him. even at the mention of his name you were already feeling shy and flustered.

“is he skipping practice again?”

“ah whatever let’s just leave him.”

“i understand why he’s like that.”

“even i would feel hurt if i were him.”

a heavy and deep audible breath from their sudden entry was difficult to hide your response. you tried to leave as quiet as possible. not wanting to get caught, you had to move stealthily with few glides backwards on your knees, eyes glued to the boys’ actions if they looked elsewhere. when you felt something blocking the soles of your shoes, somehow you knew what it was.

“you’re blocking my way.” jaehyun’s irritated tone made your chest ache— in the most painful impact you never expected from him.

quickly you stood up and made sure you stayed out of sight from the boys. jaehyun scratched his temple at your awkward behaviour. he was already in front of you, why were you hesitating to ask him questions he left unanswered? jaehyun pulled a long face when you still remained silent. “if you’re not gonna speak when you clearly have something to say, do i really have to say it for you?”

what the hell is his problem? what’s with his tone? “yeah as a matter of fact i do. the thing is, i don’t understand why you’re being like this. you ignore me but still talk to me when i don’t help with the team anymore, and for some reason you’re mad at me?” you grimaced while leaning on a tree trunk.

there was cynism in jaehyun’s nods and the swirls of his tongue evident on his cheeks. you hated his attitude and all you wanted was an explanation. “whatever this is, i’ve got no reason for you to doubt me, jaehyun.”

“ah, really? ‘cause you just gave me one.” he fished out something from his pockets and as you watched, the item he was holding was too familiar and they were obviously not his. he flicked the sheets and that was when you confirmed they were the new pictures lisa developed.

why were they with him? at the pit of your stomach, a whirlwind of emotions and stressing pressure began, and you didn’t like the feeling at all. “what-”

he threw the pictures on the floor. “other than my family and friends you’re the only one who knows about my curse! and at some point you go against my back telling them to picture me when i’m left clueless?!”

right now you were really afraid jaehyun’s mood would attract attention.

you closed your eyes as he raised his voice. “look i have no idea how you got those but i promise you i had nothing to do with the picture-” you insisted and could feel your blood pressure rising.

“how- how could you betray me like this?!”

your heart fell and instead of feeling bad about him knowing, you felt your head ache with so much anger building up inside you. because jaehyun didn’t bother to listen or let you explain yourself.

“i found you in the background before lisa actually showed those to johnny! it would spread if she did! where’s the betrayal in that?!”

he stepped closer to you, your entire was itching to run away. “i don’t care! you still told your friends! you could’ve said another excuse like kun’s practicing his magic trick or something! you promised me my secret’s safe with you!”

that’s messed up. i did tell lisa and minnie but not because it was to mock him!

“kun was no where to be seen in the picture! what else can i do? lie to them? i know my friends more than you do and they won’t tell anyone!” you raised your voice as well.

jaehyun scoffed, rolling his eyes. “i don’t trust them!”

“well, i do! and you should trust me!” your tone wavering at all emotions hitting you at once. especially coming from him— the guy you developed feelings for.

“the moment you told them you broke my trust already! what else did you tell them, hm? my dad and brother having the curse too?” he brushed his hair in anger when your silence meant yes. “ugh is this really happening?! you told them everything!”

“okay that’s enough-” your vision blurring from the tears wanting to fall.

“i’m asking what else did you tell them?! dammit y/n what could be so important to you than my secret?!”

“well- i-”

“i what?!”

other than the secret, you knew what went after the reveal. then you realised the weight of your words, you couldn’t tell him that you actually like him. you wanted to be selfish this once. “i can’t.. tell you.”

jaehyun started to harbour more resentment towards your reasoning. he found it ridiculous of you to even continue with this conversation. ten already warned him that the secret wasn’t safe with you in the first place. the glimpse of hope faded when he thought you’d be the key, even if you were, trust was still important to him. it was the very thing his mother lacked and you doing so reminded him of it.

his expression darkened and you were afraid of him— excluding of how cruel he was with you on the exercise reps. you were afraid you just broken a promise and put your friendship on a rocky end.

“so that’s it? i’m begging you with my life on the line and you just gave me the most bullcrap answer!”

“you’re being unreasonable!” you yelled.

“shut up! you found about my curse so you should be the one compromising!”

“y/n!” lisa came running with a panicked face.

tsk, wrong timing. “not now.” you mouthed.

“have you seen my pictures?! i told ten to get them the other day but he got the wrong envelope! it’s the one with jae-” she bent down to catch her breath and was taken aback with jaehyun’s presence. “..hyun.”

the boys followed lisa and once they found their friend, you could tell ten’s stares that felt like daggers. he pulled jaehyun away but eyes still locked on you. “what happened?” lisa asked as you mirrored ten’s expression, but your friends could see the hurt in your eyes.

“he has the pictures. i think ten saw them and gave them to him. jaehyun’s mad, he thinks i betrayed him for telling you-”

“no that’s not it!” lisa held your hand and glared at the boys, especially ten, since he was her childhood friend. “you had every right to tell us because the pictures are my works-”

“shouldn’t have said anything further y/n! you should’ve gotten the pictures and told us instead of them! you promised, remember?” ten finally spoke up.

you rolled your eyes. “and what?! you’re like saying i should risk my friendship for his stupid secret!”

his friends turned heads to jaehyun to see his tight-knit brows and softening demeanour. jaehyun frowned and hurt was evident in his face. he was hurt by you, someone he developed feelings for in a short amount of time. “i believed it when you said you’ll help me. or were.. were all those just words to you?”

ah.. that came out wrong.

you bit your lips to say something, but they left so soon after, making your chest squeeze as if your lungs let out the last bits of oxygen from your body.

shortly over an hour, jungwoo watched his friend pace back and forth, nibbling on his nails when the tension grew in their cabin. “aren’t you too hard on her? you didn’t let y/n explain further-”

“i can’t believe her!” jaehyun crumpled the picture after looking at it. “how could she do this to me?!”

“honestly i just don’t think she’s that type of person to go behind someone’s back for her own entertainment.” kun spoke up and tilted his head, avoiding the cup that smashed on his side of his cheek. “perhaps you’re mistaken.”

jaehyun wasn’t in the right headspace whenever his past trauma was reminded or brought up, so no matter how much reason was given, he wouldn’t listen. “do i have to repeat it? she already had her fun when she told her friends to picture me!”

“your explanations are always so conclusive.” kun sighed.

“and your heart’s too soft as usual, kun! so back off!” jaehyun grabbed the older one’s shoulder and shoved him against the wall.

he released him soon after realising that he didn’t once listen to you, but he was too stubborn to take any more excuses. there was one thing he thought you were wrong— weren’t you risking your friendship with him by exposing his secret he kept so dearly? maybe distancing himself more than he did would clear his mind off from the mess.

—

when all sports teams lined up with their designated coach buses the days after, jaehyun slightly put his chin up to search for you in the crowd— in a subtle manner, since he still stood in his decision into having his space from you yet didn’t want it to be obvious to others that he cared for you still.

you knew he was staring from afar. it was a stupid misunderstanding, both of you were in the wrong, but he made you feel as if you carried the blame for this.

sure that was a given, that he would react worse than expected. you were going to take the pictures from lisa anyway, and the guys wouldn’t know that your friends knew. you didn’t expect you’d burst out of anger or that ten took them before you did and made the assumption. it still drove you mad, ten probably convinced jaehyun of your doing since he didn’t trust you at first.

that aside, you decided to ride the coach bus with the cheerleading team. “when we reach school, you can forget about the basketball team and camp. how dare they hurt you?” minnie hugged you as you stared out the window.

“if i had to weigh it, it’s not me who’s hurting. jaehyun is.” you sighed and pat her back. “how do i act if i bump to any of them? i’ll probably do something stupid again. at all cost, i’mma just- *sigh*”

“she’s talking about jaehyun right?”

“yeah she’s still not straightforward about him.”

“we know she likes him. she doesn’t have to hide it.”

“i can hear you both.” you lowered your hat to avoid their gaze.

jaehyun sat beside his father at the front for a change, playing with the blinds to cover sunlight. coach jung knew his silence more than anyone, even if jaehyun didn’t plan on telling him. “i’ve done what you told me to do. you didn’t want to see y/n after the fight. so? did it to any change?”

“no. i kept my distance and i’ll see if she’ll admit her mistake.” jaehyun adjusted the fan above him.

“jae, if only you saw her reaction when i told her to not come see the team. i know you’re smarter than this. you know it’s not all her fault.”

he clenched his palms hard. crescent moons soon showed themselves on the flesh. “where exactly in this is my fault, dad? have i not been patient to wait for curse to be broken? who said that y/n might have a contribution in this? it’s you, dad. i’m not holding any grudge against y/n. i’m just disappointed at her because she’s nothing i ever imagined her to be. goodness’ sake i even like her.” he mumbled at the last sentence, missing the point that his dad could hear it.

coach jung let out a short laugh at the remark. “not sure if you noticed, you haven’t seen y/n working hard at researching about our curse while you boys practiced. she’s always brainstorming at the possibilities, science or not, she’s always looking for ways. don’t let anger cloud you.” his father paused and had a pressed smile. “..don’t end up having small fights like me and your mother. you wouldn’t want it to be bigger than it already is.”

“yeah.. i know.”

you woke up with a thud and saw a rather prominent bump on your right temple through the reflection of the window. arriving at the campus grounds was quicker than you thought, despite being almost a half day journey. you overheard that the basketball team would stay there a little longer and you had to leave immediately because once everyone has gone home, you’d see him. you didn’t want to risk yourself from being spotted after you both fought.

it was a small matter now that you think about that day. stubbornness outweighed understanding in the two of you, and that resulted in immaturity. and if neither of you were willing to admit, might as well make the first move.

but you were stubborn as he was.

once the coach bus was nearing the parking area, the first and only thing you decide to do was get out of the vehicle and head straight home. you wouldn’t let your friends speak and looked at their bus. there sat jaehyun fiddling with the curtain. you then rushed out, covering your face from the basketball team as they too were getting off. “is that what she meant ‘at all costs’?” minnie facepalmed as she saw you walking away quickly.

“oh look, there’s y/n.” coach jung tapped the window to make jaehyun notice you. the way you behaved was weird for him, because it was too obvious you were avoiding getting seen.

“i don’t care.”

“it means you do.” his father messed his son’s hair. “okay, off you go. i’ll cancel the extra practice today and let all of you rest up during the weekend.”

jaehyun’s lips agape at his father’s last minute decision. he wore his cap and slung his bag. “if you’re doing this and expect i’d make up with her, you’ll regret ever cancelling practice.”

“ah c’mon. your old man is helping you out with a girl. can’t you tell what i’m doing, jae?” he laughed at his son’s reaction. he could see himself in jaehyun and knew things would get better.

“it won’t work dad.”

he rolled his eyes and went to where the bikes were parked. he kicked the stand at the rear wheel when his friends caught up to him with their own bikes. goodness why can’t they just leave me alone? “what do you want?” he stood a little to pedal ahead.

kun rode along beside him, eyes alternating at and on the road. “what now? you’re just going to pretend you didn’t see y/n? like nothing happened?”

“how can i ignore that when her figure’s so obvious and literally running away from here? i’m not going to do anything about-”

jungwoo then sighed heavily, causing jaehyun to knit brows. “she looked over our bus you dimwit! that means she thought of talking to you but held back because of-”

“i’ll talk to y/n in my own terms and in my own time! stop forcing me to do things when you think it would work well for me!” jaehyun pressed on the brakes with his palms.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

kun and jungwoo’s eyes followed your swirling fork and the silent air that had been going for half an hour. they thought knocking onto the doors of jaehyun’s closed heart was hard, never expected yours was harder. you wouldn’t say anything after they invited you, claiming they missed you around them.

because it had been two full semesters since then. from what the boys told you, jaehyun lost focus and couldn’t lead the team to the championships. he always fought with his father and would burst in anger, throwing unnecessary fits towards them even though they worked hard to reach the quarterfinals.

this behaviour would happen so often that it began to strain his relationships with everyone on the team. the transformation did a lot worse to his body, he’d get sick and weak, and for over months, he would not transform back immediately within the golden hour ended. it lasted longer. sometimes even the morning after.

it worried them that if jaehyun given up all hope and continued to act that way, the urge to find the solution would never take place. and that he would remain an animal forever. even so, you knew their intentions to invite you today despite feeling sad for jaehyun. and you prepared your answer before they could speak.

“y/n-”

“as much as i love to stay, i’m here to tell you you’ve wasted your efforts. if jaehyun won’t talk to me.. then i’ll just keep giving him space until he apologises first.” you were already losing appetite talking about it.

“and you think waiting game would pull off too, hm?” kun’s dimple deepened, a flat smile seen on the exterior.

you put down your fork. “i didn’t think we’ll last this long not talking-”

ten smirked in disbelief, you forgot he was there too. his presence was almost non-existent as he kept quiet the whole time. “keep it like that. you’re held accountable for making jaehyun the way he is now.”

“ten!” kun scowled at the guy. “i told you not to talk.”

you rolled your eyes that his words hurt more than the eye roll. “why is he here anyway? you said it’ll only be the two of you. unbelievable.”

“to see if you came up with a solution to lift jaehyun’s curse. looking at you now, i guess you didn’t.” he said and you tried your best to refrain yourself from hitting him. “were you mocking him when you suggested it might be the same answer as that disney film?”

“i said as a joke but it might be a possibility. we live in a world where people go through inexplainable experiences that science couldn’t dive in deep.” you sighed.

jungwoo tapped the table to stop the bickering you and ten were starting. “like my hunch says, maybe it’s another soulmate thing i’ve mentioned to you guys at the camp.”

“it’s not a soulmate thing, jungwoo.” kun and ten said simultaneously.

you brought out an a5 sized sealed envelope and the action alone made the boys stunned. “don’t open this. just give it to him. anyway, the sun’s setting. i really have to go.” you passed the item to kun.

it’s suffocating. i can’t stay here long. they saw how hesitating your limbs were, your eyes averting them and clearing your throat several times.

“ten, does this look like she didn’t do anything? this proves she’s trying.” kun took the envelope and hit it on ten’s head.

as you put on your coat whilst standing next to the table, ten sat back with arms crossed. “acting smart, aren’t you? you really think you’re the belle for jaehyun huh? i wouldn’t believe that for a second.”

“i didn’t say anything about me being the solution. i’m still keeping my promise to help him. and trust me, i don’t think i’m belle either.” you grabbed your bag and left, your food gone cold and jungwoo sighed at the air turning worse thanks to ten.

the cash money was placed on the table when kun called the waiter. “please keep the change.” he looked at your slouching figure by the bus stop across the restaurant. it screamed sadness and hurt all over.

the reason for suddenly leaving wasn’t because you were offended with what ten said. of course there was truth in his words. at some point you thought you were someone important to jaehyun, since you could hear him.

you thought you both were soulmates.

you left because you spotted a familiar figure standing by the door. haven’t been seeing him lately only made you feel angry at yourself. you were a coward, you even passed the envelope to the boys instead of giving it to jaehyun yourself. your friends already encouraged you about it, that that was the only thing to narrow the gap between you and jaehyun. it was to show that you were still supporting him.

why are you like this y/n? if you like him, you’d do anything to get his attention and forgiveness. why are you doing things to push him away, rather.. why are you forcing yourself to not care when you still do?

you continued to walk with your head low for another hour, troubled in your thoughts as they’ve been bothering you for many months. snap out of it y/n-

*tug*

*scratch*

the hems of your baggy jeans were pulled and torn with minimal, adorable force. it took you a while to process the animal before you. a blue bunny, what’s a bunny doing here- oh.

“sungchan?”

—

he rose from the bushes in front of their house. you stood there awkwardly while he figures to cover his body after the blue hour. “i’m sorry for asking you to bring me home. i get tired from hopping sometimes.” he grabbed a towel that he was hanging by the gate.

“no worries. i-i’ve seen- nevermind.” your voice softened at the latter.

sungchan pursed his lips to refrain himself from smiling since he was there and witnessed when it happened. “come in, i’ll make you some tea. it’s my way of thanks.”

although he was kinder than his brother, probably more mature, he was still young that you could see through his intentions. you knew he wanted some patching up done between you and jaehyun. you hesitated for a while, but since you were there already, might as well try to talk to him—

even if there was a slim chance of making things work.

you sat on the sofa, slightly still and awkward being in the residence. little sips, light breathing and the soft wind from the fan were only heard within the living area. “did my brother cause you a lot of trouble during the camp?” sungchan asked and knowing that you were silent, he knew jaehyun probably did. “how about now?”

“actually, i think i’m the one causing more trouble for him because i feel like i’m not doing anything to help when i said i would.” you sighed as he continued to listen.

“really? i heard from the others you’re helping so much that it changed my brother.. at the least he’s not cranky.” his nose twitched so adorably that you thought it was derived from being a bunny almost his whole life. “also, there’s that envelope-” he paused while realising how your expression caught him off guard.

maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned it, but he wanted you to know he wasn’t spying on you. he made that clear with his silence.

if he saw that back at the restaurant, that only meant he was there for quite some time. you let out a small smile that he was probably there not for you, but to wait for his brother’s friends. instead of bumping into them, he bumped into you.

“oh, that. it.. has a bunch of handwritten letters i’ve compiled when i struggled talking to jaehyun. i just felt that maybe it’s more sincere if i had to apologise.. y’know, eventually.”

he pursed his lips and nodded. “then why not put those words into actual words? like verbal words.” sungchan’s fingers pointed upwards, hinting that jaehyun was up in his room. “for all i know it’s the most sincere thing to do.”

crap, he’s not expressive but he’s so so mature for his age. it made you feel inferior for a moment.

“but before you do that, i have to tell you something that my dad and brother missed out about our curse. why jaehyun-hyung is more pressured than i am.”

(few minutes later)

you slid against the wall while sungchan went out to do grocery shopping. at the other side of the door, in between the thin gap, you could hear soft breathing; jaehyun was on his bed, sleeping in his dog form and it hurt you since time already passed both golden and blue hour, he should’ve transformed like his brother did. instead he laid there as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

meanwhile, jaehyun knew you entered his room. he pretended to be sleeping and expected he wouldn’t know how to act when he gets to face you. he decided to stay as he was.

until you pat then caressed his head.

he didn’t want to settle or give in for the fact you loved golden retrievers. he blamed on the shallow euphroria dogs easily feel. and because he was in his dog form, the anger he held for you disappeared. but at the same time, was your touch out of care or pity? he couldn’t figure it out. then he could hear the beats of your heart, and that made him sit up. your heart was fast. it was worrying. it was—

“why didn’t you tell me the whole story?” your voice wavered in heaving breaths as he finally looked you in the eye. his ears twitched and he faced the door, knowing that sungchan told everything.

jaehyun shook his body and whiskers moved before he telepathically answered you. “believe me i tried. i hate myself for being sensitive and i couldn’t bring to tell you because i got angry. but you have to know that i value trust more than anything.”

“you know what’s ironic?” you sighed, pressing your forehead as pain began to form. “you didn’t trust me first and and we fought because you didn’t do that. and you didn’t trust me enough that you only told me what, like 50 percent of it?”

of course he knew what you referred to.

he was going to tell you the day he visited your cottage at camp. but he didn’t get to, because ten told him news ahead of him that it ruined the purpose to talk to you. it wasn’t that he blamed him, it was due to the fact he wasn’t prepared for something like that. even for something like this.

because there was that prophecy weighing on his shoulders.

“sungchan said that it has to directly come from you, so you better tell me now before our friendship falls out.” you warned and leaned back against the headboard.

currently your friendship was on the line, wobbling on tight ropes. pushing you further away would do no good.

jaehyun sat and his paws were dignified into a comfortable position. his head laid on a cushion pillow, facing towards you. “fine. most of my family turns into wild animals, and they couldn’t control themselves in that other form. their wildlife instincts overpowers their thoughts.” he yawned.

“and it’s different for me and sungchan. when we were born, when we had our first full transformation, they were shocked to know we turn into domestic animals. we’re able to remember, think and live as if we’re still humans. at the end, it’s either of us to stop the curse.”

“so why did your brother mention that you’re the most pressured? why did it only have to be you?” this time you spoke, there was more depth into your feelings if you spoke. as sungchan said, verbally was more sincere. “you could share the burden with him.”

he sighed at the tone of your voice. “isn’t it obvious? the role is immediately passed onto me not because i’m the first born.. it’s because you suddenly could talk to me.. telepathically.”

“yeah and we couldn’t even figure that one out yet.” you scoffed remembering the times you’ve placed your efforts on that matter and now it had gone all to waste. all because you both had that fight.

he read through your eyes and sensed the intention from your words. plus he hated how you delivered it with that certain tone. “i didn’t bring this up just to blame you for my own satisfaction!” he groaned. “i brought it up so that i can apologise! i was wrong, okay?! i should’ve listened to you instead of carelessly listening to ten-”

you refrained yourself from showing any further hurt. recalling it would only make you cry. “well you were manipulated with ten’s assumptions. you believed him more than me. he had proof while i didn’t. i was in the losing end! not like i expected you to change your mind. so can we just.. get this overwith and tell me what the prophecy is?”

he was speechless for a while. you being straight-forward yet in a pained voice was too much for him. he was already softening his feelings for you and you had to tense it all up again. “‘only one could save those who lay under the curse, for they must be in the correct peace of mind and body to break it before it turns for worse.’”

“and the ‘worse’ means you won’t transform back anymore?” you asked, the prophecy already piercing your heart as you waited for more explanation.

“that and..” he trailed off. “..we lose our humanity too. we won’t remember anything. memories erased like a snap of the finger. and we’ll just be.. another animal.”

you pushed yourself to sit up as your heart clenched tight. “jaehyun! why say it now and not before?”

“because! what is there for you to do-”

you squished the dog’s into a wrinkly mess, to the point jaehyun couldn’t see anything. his paws tried to put your arms down, but even clawing was hard for him to do. then he felt you lean forward to hug him. “y/n? what’re you doing?” you didn’t answer.

crap, this is warm. it feels.. nice. embarrassed, he put his thoughts at the back of his mind. “are you doing this out of pity? do i look that helpless-”

what crossed his mind was that you thought he needed a hug and was the only thing you could do. but you proved him wrong, so, so wrong. and why didn’t he realise it sooner in his life?

“you have to treat yourself like someone you love!”

what?

“you have to fill yourself with it! have you been thinking half-heartedly or do things half-assed because you’re different from people? do you not realise there are people who loves you? you trust them so less that you’re not confident into breaking the curse! because you didn’t really try!”

he froze in his stance, like a bullet pierced through his chest with how true your point was. he didn’t know what love was when his mother left the family. he didn’t dare to open up with his dad and brother, not his friends as for so long he didn’t do that one important thing— trust.

jaehyun thought he did that. he had enough encouragement but only to the level of content. he didn’t expect more as what else was there for people cursed like his family? “why are you so worried or do this much for me?”

“because no one actually helped you!” your arms tightened around him. “your friends were occupied into thinking that protecting you and your curse from others was the safest thing to do. it’s not! it just gets you self-conscious, conceited and too comfortable to not to do anything at all!” everything you said knocked down the pillars of his pride. he wasn’t at all living in humility if his friends did ever help.

“y/n we’re nothing more than friends. how could you be pushing yourself onto my problems-”

“i’m one of the people, jaehyun. don’t you get it now? i l-”

as if the phone line got cut off, he couldn’t hear the rest. you appeared like a television who lost its voice, however, somehow he knew what came after that. he didn’t want to admit it, after spending time with you at camp, he realised his heart felt the same.

you were quick to catch on. the golden retriever just stared at you, you couldn’t hear him as well. not even telepathically. jaehyun laid back down, ignored you and went to sleep. you nudged him, he wouldn’t move. you felt a swarm of blame towards him. if only he told you earlier, he wouldn’t be in this state where he was just another dog. mostly you blamed yourself for not taking the initiative first to fix things. you went along with your anger and his waiting game.

where did it get you? to this.

the one second revelation he heard from you and then fell into slumber, he was standing in front of himself, before a mirror. a series of himself switching from human to animal throughout the years. the glass cracked over his face. as if he entered a new world, he had to prepare mentally for what was to come.

instead he awoke like he only passed out from exhaustion. to only see you hugging your legs, head down with soft sobs and hiccups, he reached out for you yet hesitated. he checked the time, the golden hour was to arrive.

“y/n.” he called out in a low voice.

“no.” you mumbled. “i shouldn’t be hearing him.”

“but you really are, though.”

you shot your head up, tears rolling down your cheeks when you felt his touch— his large palms holding yours. he transformed, you had many questions as you thought it was too late.

confused and tired, you stared at him blankly. processing the guy before you took a whole minute to realise jaehyun transformed back. “is.. is this a joke?” you coughed and rubbed your tears. “i saw you faint- i saw how you lost the light in your eyes- i saw-”

he’s blushing. his ears are red.

jaehyun pulled you into an embrace, he caressed your head as if he held a newborn. “the curse broke around the time i realised i lacked self-care. it was the same time you said it too.”

looking back, he didn’t treat himself right since the beginning. he realised he shouldn’t have looked for a solution or someone to love him. he was the someone he was looking for, and should’ve reflected on himself than to rely too much on others.

“you’re still hugging me.” you said, stopping his trail of thoughts. you pat his back quickly and he was holding you tight. “you’re squeezing the oxygen out of me.”

“can’t i hold you longer? you’ve been so helpful even when i pushed you away. now i don’t really want to let go.” jaehyun whispered. he never felt something like this before— this urge to love someone. “what if the curse comes back when you go away?”

you felt your head bursting with temperatures your body was experiencing now. “you really have to let go!” clearing your throat, you tried to shove him away.

“no. don’t be stubborn.”

“don’t be clingy, clingy!”

“you want me to hug you though.”

“i do but- wait no that’s not- i-”

he squeezed your face between his hands. “you love me, don’t you. and you said i’m not loveable.” he teased and goodness his dimples shot you at the heart. you kicked him in the chest yet he leaned forwards, closer than usual. “i can feel your veins beating crazily.”

ah for crying out loud! “jung jaehyun.” you called him with a stern and plain voice. “get off me.”

“tsk i said i wouldn’t-”

“jaehyun you’re naked.”

hm? he pulled himself away from you, looked down and covered his lower body. ah heavens- “i’m sorr-”

a thud was heard by the door. you both turned heads to sleepy sungchan dropping a parcel delivered to jaehyun while holding a toothbrush with his mouth and prominent bed hair. “uh bro, this is-”

“dad! i think hyung’s in his mating season!”

“i’m so not!”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

because the curse was lifted and jaehyun made it happen, all those who fell under it soon experienced freedom and joy after years of agony and pain and fear. feelings opposite to them showered upon them that morning like spring rain.

you sat in between jaehyun and ten, who haven’t been talking to each since they fought over little things, mainly about you. ten still didn’t believe that you were jaehyun’s girlfriend, because he recalled you guys were not going to mend things.

“so that’s it? it’s so hard to believe. she just hugged you and the curse’s gone? even more so you’re both dating?”

“ten, c’mon dude.” kun brought out his fist to bump yours. “she’ll be hanging with us from now on. you have to stop being a stuck-up.”

ten shrugged in defeat and finally nodded in acceptance. “fine. i’ll let it go. i mean the curse’s broken won’t bother jae anymore.” he turned to you. “i’m sorry y/n. jae and i have been best friends since kindergarten. so it’s kinda a brotherly instinct to protect him. it just comes out.”

“you do seem like the leader of the pack.” you fiddled with jaehyun’s fingers while he draped his arm around you.

“i thought i was the leader?” kun sounded offended, but not entirely.

jaehyun remained quiet. he told everyone what had happened. however, there was still one question left unanswered. what was the telepathy about?

what did it have to do with you and him? he thought about that real hard. were you actually a missing piece in the prophecy or did he misunderstand it? there were a lot of possibilities, a lot of ideas coming up that maybe he figured it wrong. maybe you did contribute to the breaking of the curse-

“ah!” jungwoo exclaimed as flicked the paper back and forth. he proudly showed what he found, putting the pieces together. the paper was moving quickly that the pairs of eyes couldn’t focus or see anything. “i’ve been telling you guys since camp but you wouldn’t listen to me!”

you squinted your hardest to see the words. all you got from the sheet of paper scribbles and connecting lines. the boys started to fight for the so they could read the younger one forcibly shoved in front of their faces.

jungwoo wanted his friends to feel their pride stepped on them, and held on the paper. “read the prophecy again. i’m excited-”

“you being excited about these things is nothing new-” ten yelled, and kun covered his mouth at the loud volume.

“‘only one could save those who lay under the curse, for they must be in the correct peace of mind and body to break it before it turns for worse.’ guys, it’s already hinted in it!” he pointed at the parts he was scribbling on earlier.

he expounded the prophecy was a little misleading. it wasn’t being literal about the right mind and body. they were the results of the having the correct heart, as the two would only be affected greatly if not for the heart.

jungwoo scooted next to you. “y/n, you weren’t only the key to solving it. you were the only person who gave him that push and made him realise he should love himself for who he was. you gave him that peace of mind because you are the heart. as we all know, the mind and body can’t function without the heart.”

“that sounds sweet?” kun blushed even though he wasn’t supposed to.

“yeah sure but the telepathy happening at the same time with my curse was just a coincidence though?” jaehyun asked.

“onto my next point!” jungwoo drew on the paper again. “i realised you told us before that only family members of the same curse can talk to each other telepathically.”

jaehyun’s brows only furrowed narrower. “which doesn’t make sense because she’s not part of my family.”

jungwoo grinned widely, it almost made you nervous but if it was coming from jungwoo, it always had to be something good. “not even us lads can even talk to you with our minds though we’re close like brothers. what if it’s a sign that she will be part of your family? even if the curse’s broken, it still proves my point that you were soulmates all along.”

somehow you knew it was headed to this. what jungwoo’s saying was similar to your hunch. you weren’t confident as he was because at the time, the curse wasn’t lifted. now that it was, you never knew you were actually right.

jaehyun shrunk in his seat after hearing jungwoo’s theory. he looked at you; who was now giggling with the others. he never thought you were his soulmate, it never crossed his mind. you appeared in his life as a shadow at first, before you resurfaced and made it a roller coaster ride. it was an eye opener for him too, you loved him for who he was, his flaws— that being the curse. although there were frequent bickers, that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy or hate them. he was afraid you’d leave after knowing his transformation.

you didn’t. you stayed. not because you were forced to just to keep his secret, you stayed since you said you’d help. and that lifted weight off of his shoulders. colours came into view more spirited, clouded thoughts in his head faded and everything he heard that were once muffled became clear. he had to compare it like he was reborn.

in the end, you were still beside him, adjacent to him.

[olympianroyals]

Callista: Good Morning! Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes.

Pandora grunts: Ugh.

Callista: Chop Chop! Up you get! We have places to go, things to do and whatever else is on the agenda for us! 

Pandora groans: I hate you. Your literally the last person I would ever want to wake up to.

Callista: Bitch please, every guy would kill to have me in their bed to wake up to! I'm every guy’s wet dreams.

Pandora: You mean every guys worst nightmare. Wait-where's the girls?

Callista: I believe Irene is helping them get ready. You missed out on breakfast so your gonna have to make due with some toast with avocado and honey I managed to save for you. 

Pandora: Its fine, I'm not hungry anyways.

Callista: Come on, get up! Its gonna take me at least 30 minutes to attempt to cover those hideous bags under your eyes. You was supposed to be up and ready at least a hour ago

Pandora: Callie, its too early to be dealing with you right now, please. 

Callista: Fine, I leave you be as long as you promise to get your butt off this bed right this second and-

[Pandora gets up only to flop back down on the bed]

Callista: Pandora!

Pandora: I tried, [Callista sucks her teeth] Girl be happy I'm even functioning enough to talk to you right now. I went to bed late last night, [Pandora mutters] had the worst dream ever

Callista rolls her eyes: Everything has been set out for you in your closet, if you need help covering those bags of yours I have the best concealer you can borrow. Also I'm told Grandfather is set to leave at 9:00 on the dot. If your not ready, you will get left behind.

Pandora sighs, already feeling drained: I know, I'm more than aware of what happens when I'm late Callista

Callista: I guess it does only happens to you.

Pandora: Is that all?

Callista hesitates:…. I know were not as close as we used to be but.. do you want to talk about it?

Pandora: Talk about what?

Callista: About anything, everything or nothing at all.

Pandora: There's nothing to talk about

Callista:....Umm, would you, [clears throat] would you like a hug? It could be in Hello or in comfort or even in goodbye?

Pandora: Its okay Callie, don't worry. I should go start getting ready, like you said its gonna take ages to cover these bags right?

Callista:.....Right

Book 1: Chapter 1, Episode 9.2

|The Beginning of Chapter 1 | Previous Part 1 | Next Part 3 |