sigillaria-svt

[sigillaria-svt]

helloo!! i read ur svt fantasy au (the hcs and the prologue) and i think theyre vvv good and that the roles u assigned to each of them fit v well and im totally excited to see where the story will lead! this is just a suggestion though but i think it would be more accurate to tag the story as "oc x svt" or add next to the "reader x svt" that the readers chatacter has a name? since a lot of readers prefer that the self insert in "reader x ___" works is named "y/n" but there are also writers that dont like using it and u might be someone who doesnt either so i think itd be best if u added a note at the beginning about it🙏 btw at the end of the day though its still up to u!!

Oh my gosh thank you so much for reading and pointing this out!!! I knew I was missing something before I published it hahaha I was settling on a placeholder name before replacing them with Y/N because I found it difficult to type in with slashes while I was making it. Along the way I just somehow forgot??? but thank you so much for telling me <3

[sigillaria-svt]

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕺𝖓𝖊: 𝕻𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖔𝖌𝖚𝖊

Pairing: Reader x SEVENTEEN (Guild Fantasy AU)

Genres: Slice of Life, Action, Fantasy, Fluff/Angst

[Masterlist]

Edit: Did some minor adjustments to change the perspective

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Magical prowess and physical ability are not something that is easily gained in this world--instead, most of the abilities that make up brilliant magicians and brave warriors come from only one of two things: their blood or their loyalty to the darkness. If not passed down from their forefathers, others can only hope to gain powers by sacrificing something precious to them to the spirits that roam the wildlands. In the Almaz empire, great value is given to those with the power to harness magic that is light, pure, and holy—essentially magic that is considered clean. Although it isn’t something explicitly taught in schools, the empire definitely has a distorted view of those whose specializations lie in the gray area between what is good and what is evil.

Yet here you are, a female Naturalist of the Empire, also known as the Poisoner of Jatropha, a name that you really wanted to just get rid of because of how it takes you away from guild opportunities. In your free time, you can be found in the many libraries of the city, but during your spare time you study poisons and the properties that cause them, so you aren't really surprised about why they call you so.

Even before you got your infamous nickname, you've never really been associated with a guild. It's not that you were too weak to be accepted anywhere, but that the guilds have always shunned those that are involved in poisoning and other dark arts. You don't quite consider it a 'dark' art, since your goal in the first place was never to use it to poison other humans, but to find a way to poison dark creatures for the advantage of humans. That kind of logic never pushed through anyone, though, not especially in the Empire where light magic is the standard.

But today was a bit different from your usual guild-scouting shenanigans. In your visit to the Guild Masterhouse, you look through the bulletin board for guild openings and find one guild that had never submitted its name in for recruitment before: the guild SEVENTEEN.

Now normally, you'd avoid getting into a guild that was as exclusive as this, but in this case you think it'd be worth considering, even though for all the years that you've known them, they've never expanded beyond their original thirteen members. However, this was also one of the guilds that you might have a shot at. One of the members is an infamous necromancer, Yoon Jeonghan. If they're willing to take him in, they might take in a naturalist like you. Not that you are a typical naturalist--you aren't. You are a poisoner by definition, although not by classification, but there is more than one way to make use of your abilities, and you were going to give it your all.

You head over to the guild secretary at a desk on the other side of the room.

"Oh hello, Y/N." She says, not looking up as she looks through some papers. "Ready to give it another shot?"

"Yes." You say, almost laughing. You've visited this place at least once every week for the past six months, and you can't help but feel embarrassed and amused at the same time. "I heard that SEVENTEEN was looking for new people."

At this, the secretary looks up. "Well, yes. Yes, but..." She taps the papers in front of her to align them into a neat stack. "So far around twenty people have applied, all of them actually very good fighters, but the next day I come to work with a notice of rejection from the guild."

Rejection isn't something new to you. You simply nod at her and hold out your hand for the application paper.

"Alright, of course. You're going to try anyway, aren't you?"

With the filled and stamped application form, you make your way to SEVENTEEN's guild house, which was inconveniently found at the westernmost part of the city bordering the forest. Even the steam trains only led you up to the city walls, requiring you to take another hour of walking through the dirt roads of the great plains before finally spotting the single large building standing out against the pale grass.

 The guild house is a three-story stone building with glassed windows and an even taller stone tower at the western wing facing the great plains. You walk up to the large wooden door on the front and knock as hard as you could.

After a few moments, the door is opened by an equally large, tan-skinned man who looks like he just got out of bed. "Huuuhhh...."

"Uh, hi, hello. My name is Y/N," You say with a smile, hopefully energetic enough to wake up the man. "I'm here to apply for that guild member position...?"

He squints at you. "You look like a student."

You frown slightly. "I'm a Naturalist. I cure diseases... or well, kind of. Or not. It depends. But anyway, is the position still open?"

The man steps aside to let you in, scratching the back of his head as he yawns. "Wait inside, I'll go get our leader."

You walk in and see the great contrast of the relatively mild exterior to the messy and diverse interior. Despite only having thirteen members--which is very small in comparison to other guilds--the inside of the large house is filled with a variety of equipment, books, furniture, and even a random summoned creature laying on the carpet. You aren't so sure where to sit, but the man beckons you to one of the couches--which, is not at all complimentary to the brown couch right at the other side of it.

The man disappears into the flight of stairs at the eastern end of the building, dragging his steps as he goes along.

While you wait, you look around. Despite the mess, the house is quiet, and the silence makes you feel all the more need to do or say something.

Thankfully, though, the man returns with three other people in a few minutes, one of which you recognize as Jeonghan the necromancer. You give them a small bow and a tight-lipped smile as they approach you. One of the three men, who is larger in build but more or less the same height as the other two, nods to the large man to dismiss him. He enters into one of the doors and is audibly heard falling back to his bed.

"It's nice to meet you. If you don't mind, we'll be having a quick interview here, followed by a quick sparring session outside." Says the man in the middle. "My name is Choi Seungcheol, and this is Yoon Jeonghan and Hong Joshua who will be assisting me with the recruitment process."

You already heard this hundreds of times before. In every single guild, the protocol was always the same.

"Alright, sounds good." You say comfortably.

They sit on the couch on the other side of yours, each of them looking like they haven't slept much either. You know the man is going to ask you some questions, but you're not really sure about the other two. Jeonghan looks like he's going to ask the most absurd questions possible, while Joshua seems to be nice and friendly--but we never really know what goes on in the minds of strangers.

You hand the papers to Seungcheol and he goes over them very quickly. "You've never been in a guild before, huh? That's weird, last time I checked, a lot of guilds were looking for naturalists."

"Uhuh, well," You manage to laugh in the middle of your sentence--a bad habit that you have whenever you get nervous. "I specialize in poisons and well, obviously, their antidotes. But you know how it is, poison is considered a dark art and..."

The guild leader nods and immediately moves on to the question, understanding the distaste of most of the people for specialties like these. "Any offensive techniques in the field?"

You pause for a second. "I'm not bad, but it's a bit unconventional how I use it."

"Unconventional?"

"You'll get what I mean in the sparring session later." You say quickly. This part always made the other guild recruiters suspicious, but it doesn't seem to phase the three all that much.

Joshua speaks up for the first time, leaning forward slightly as he starts. "How good is your general healing? I'm a Priest and I heard that your kind of healing is different from ours."

"Well, healing naturally fluctuates with the amount of damage the patient receives. I work my way through natural healing processes, and just speed up what happens along." You answer carefully. "I believe yours happens... a bit more magically, if I may say."

This earns a small laugh from the priest, and Jeonghan follows up with a question of his own. "Can you tell us about this poison that you seem to specialize in so much?"

The way he asked was strange, though. In fact, the question itself was strange because you don't remember telling anyone about your current research progress, nor writing it down on any documentation handed to them.

"Well... I've told a few guilds about it before, but I'm trying to work on poison against dark creatures." You stare at Jeonghan straight in the eye, and he stares back with his dark eyes as if he knew everything that was going on in your mind. "On its progress... well you're going to find out about that later if you decide to take me in."

"That's not what I meant."

You raise your eyebrows in surprise, but quickly compose yourself. "Okay, what did you mean?"

Jeonghan quickly moves his eyes to something right next to my head before returning back to meet my gaze. "The one that you worked on before you were going into poison against dark creatures... before you even graduated from the academy."

This has you dazed.

You think to yourself before answering. This was something that you were far more secretive about. You literally told nobody about this and worked on it in secret before deciding that it was far too dangerous to proceed. Your heart was racing thinking about whether or not it was safe to divulge this kind of information.

"If I tell you, would that increase my chances of getting in?"

"That depends."

"And what if I said that it was dangerous?"

Jeonghan remains silent. You were being extra careful with this because it might be sensitive to a necromancer like Jeonghan. You look over to Joshua and Seungcheol, but both of them have both confusion and anticipation. This question was something that only Yoon Jeonghan had a full grasp of.

"Well?" Jeonghan asks as he leans forward slightly.

You decide to tell the truth. It's not like they could turn you in for something they don't have concrete evidence of except for your word. "I was working on a poison that did nothing to the physical body but devastated your means of magic—a poison for the soul, essentially cutting off your abilities from your bloodline."

Seungcheol and Joshua looked shocked, and honestly slightly afraid, but Jeonghan remains calm about the entire thing. "And did it work?" Jeonghan asks.

"Well... yes." Your admission causes a few more eyebrows to be raised. "I know it's hard to believe, but yes, and I'm not going to go back into it ever again."

"Did something happen?" Joshua asks. "I mean, you can tell us only if you're comfortable."

"Hmm, nothing grand happened. Even if it worked, I didn't make any attempt to make it perfect. I used it one someone I know and... well let's just say they're working to get back years of lost work."

Jeonghan looks at you with a raised eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that I damaged a link, somewhere… perhaps. He lost half of his abilities spontaneously over the course of a few days. If the dose was stronger or the poison less contaminated, he would have lost everything." You say, worried but relieved to get it off your chest. "I... didn't mean to do it, and I told my friend about it but... Well, we don't really talk anymore."

Silence. You couldn't hear anything else except for your heartbeat in the large room.

Jeonghan looks as if he's contemplating something before speaking, looking at different things around the room, as if in a conversation that only he's in. "Alright, we'll take you in. Go get your things and move in by tomorrow."

"What?" you ask with a bit of shock. To your surprise, both Seungcheol and Joshua mirrored your reaction to Jeonghan's statement.

"Wait, no, Jeonghan." Seungcheol says, putting his hand over Jeonghan's shoulder. "We haven't even sparred, and we just heard that she had been working on dangerous things--heck, we haven't even run a thorough background check on her!"

Jeonghan crosses his arms. "Well, the ghosts seem to like her, and she doesn’t seem to be lying or having bad intentions. Do you want to go ahead and get poisoned as a free trial, then?"

"Well, I mean, I do have an antidote for all my poisons if you still want to tussle." You say quietly.

Jeonghan looks at you briefly but immediately goes back to Seungcheol. "We're looking for a support, and she fits the job. Poison is just one step away from medicine, anyway."

Joshua speaks up to ease the tension between the two. "If you're so decided on approving her application, it still wouldn't hurt to see her abilities, right? We should go on for a small sparring session."

Seungcheol turns to you. "You have those so-called unconventional fighting methods, don't you? Well, let's go ahead and see them."

You let out a nervous breath. He's making it seem like the request is your idea. "Alright."

The four of you head off to a small open area behind the guild house, right next to the edge of the towering forest. Seungcheol takes his place opposite to you as Jeonghan and Joshua watch at the sides. You haven't done a physical fight in a while, so you hope that muscle memory serves you well this time.

You take off your shoes, which earns a baffled look from the guild leader. "I can use poison, right?" You ask, and Jeonghan gives you a firm nod, all to Seungcheol's displeasure. "I'll take that as a yes."

Seungcheol was obviously taken aback initially, but all of that has now been replaced with complete focus as he uses basic spells to put up defenses and boost his own physical abilities.

From an inexperienced eye, it may look like you're simply standing on the grass with your feet to the ground, but underneath, you're already using magic to manipulate the one thing that your family has been for generations: roots.

It's hard to explain how magic feels like exactly, especially since it's different for everyone. The best way to imagine it would be like having your blood go thicker and heavier as it moves through your body. It's not painful or uncomfortable, just draining. It's hard to control what you can't see, but years of training have made you proficient at it.

They grow closer and closer to Seungcheol like a hidden animal waiting to pounce, and at just the right moment, they snap out of the ground to keep him in his place. You quickly run up to him and charge at him with a flurry of blows, but you're met with a completely calm defense.

Obviously, he was a better fighter than you, but that doesn't stop you from still trying to figure out a way to get through his defenses. You take a few steps back, trying to assess the situation again.

"Ah, this is pretty inconvenient." Seungcheol says as he attempts to wriggle out from the roots.

If you were going to impress the guild leader enough to let you in, you were going to have to take out your best weapons. In this case, you had one trick up your sleeve, but it was a gamble.

It's going to take up nearly all of your magical energy, but you do it anyway.

Before he lets another foot out, you take on a burst of power and manage to surge out a large tangle of tree roots, enough to engulf Seungcheol up to his shoulders. The speed of growth is not fast, but it is definitely sturdy. This time, it takes him off guard and disrupts a part of his magic defense around himself.

You take advantage of the situation and deftly climb on the roots to make up for the difference in height and pull out three large needles filled with paralyzing poison. Despite draining much of your magical energy, adrenaline pushes you to another burst of energy to end the match as quickly as you could. Your hands quickly make their way to his exposed neck, made more accessible with the tugging and pulling of the continuously growing tree roots.

Just one more inch further, and the needles would pierce him cleanly in the artery and poison would spread in a few heartbeats.

But it doesn't go in.

Instead, you find yourself abruptly thrown back and laid flat on the grass, pinned down by dancing shadows around your arms and legs.

"Alright. We'll end the fight here." Jeonghan says. With a flick of a wrist, he dismisses the shadows and you sit up from your position, still nearly breathless. "Release him from the roots will you?"

It takes you a few seconds before fully processing what had just happened. You look over to Seungcheol, is was nearly unseen under the thick layers of intertwined wooden roots, and you quickly bring them back to the ground. Seungcheol takes in deep breaths now that he's finally able to move again.

"Hey, Yoon Jeonghan! You said you'd intervene if it gets too dangerous!" He said, angry but not furious at his friend who was just smirking at the side. "I really thought I was going to black out!"

"It was your fault for underestimating her." He shrugs.

You slowly get up from your position, still shocked that you ended up this far away from Seungcheol in the blink of an eye. This was obviously Yoon Jeonghan's doing--sly spells from the sly necromancer. You've heard about how he works before, but it was definitely different from experiencing it yourself.

Seungcheol looks back at you, arms on his hips. "You did well, but I don't want to see those needles ever again."

"So, does this prove my point? The ghosts don't lie and we definitely need another healer or support if we want to do more missions with smaller teams." Jeonghan says, getting into a topic that you seem to be out of.

Finally, with a nod, Seungcheol gives in to Jeonghan. "Yeah, alright. Let's take her in."

A wave of joy mixed with relief washes over you.

Finally.

Finally.

After all this time, there is finally a guild that is willing to accept you. These past few months of working as an independent mage with a suspicious specialty will finally come to an end, and you were more than excited.

"Thank you very much, I'll do my best!"

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Thank you for getting through the first chapter! This is my first multi-chapter SEVENTEEN work, so I hope that you enjoyed it. I’m also excited to write on the individual members in the following chapters~

[sigillaria-svt]

ooooh will you be making the svt fantasy au as an "x reader" thing or would it just be a general adventures of the seventeen guild thing? maybe a mix of both? :0

I'm actually making both! The masterlist is now up, and I'll hope to fully recheck and revise the prologue in a day or two ^_^

The other one will purely contain SVT members only, but it will be in a broader fantasy setting instead of being only in a guild setting, but I'm still working that one out <3

[sigillaria-svt]

𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖗'𝖘 𝕮𝖚𝖗𝖊

Pairing: Reader x SEVENTEEN (Guild Fantasy AU) Genres: Slice of Life, Action, Fantasy, Fluff/Angst Current Word Count: 3,000+ Warnings: Slight Violence (Action scenes may be graphic or uncomfortable to some readers; warnings will be placed in each chapter just in case) This is based on some headcanons that I made last time; they may or may not be adapted in this series of chapters.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ Synopsis: The Almaz Empire is a once great nation that has built its way up through magical and technological advancements--of course through the talent of their people. The Empire was a nation that believed in the strength of the individual and the power of community. Enamored by light magic, the Emperor has high favor for those whose abilities seem to be good, pure, and spotless. Yet, this leaves a dark cloud for those whose specialties lie in the gray area between what is considered pure and corrupted forms of magic. Guildless and shunned because of your focus on poisons as a Naturalist, you float through individual and independent missions as you submit application upon application for a guild that might be willing to have a poisoner’s name tied to them. SEVENTEEN is a guild that has always been thirteen and they initially intended to keep it that way, at least, initially. When a heavy mission threatened the legitimacy and cohesion of their team, they sought to find additional aid that could fill in the gaps they did not realize were there until recently. However, due to their years of exclusion from other guilds and new members, this task may not come as easy as they wanted it to be.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ Chapter Masterlist  - One chapter dedicated to each member [1] Prologue- [Link] [2] Yoon Jeonghan - [Coming Soon] [3] ??? [4] ??? [5] ??? [6] ??? [7] ??? [8] ??? [9] ??? [10] ??? [11] ??? [12] ??? [13] ??? [14] ???

[sigillaria-svt]

I'd love to see/read more about the svt fantasy au!!! I'm not really into the fantasy rpg fandom bc i always thought it looked kinda complicated for me but i'm very familiar with the classes/roles bc i made a fantasy au of my own with my own characters skdjdknd anyways yes i absolutely loved the fantasy hcs ❤❤

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it!!! <3 I'm slowly thinking right now about how I would go about worldbuilding so maybe I'll take one step at a time, but for sure I'm currently working on something related to the fantasy AU right now :D

[sigillaria-svt]

SEVENTEEN Fantasy AU (Headcanons)

In a kingdom where guilds run in fierce competition with one another, there is one guild that stands out despite their small size: SEVENTEEN led by the infamous Choi Seungcheol. With their wide range of abilities and flexible combinations, they have accomplished many quests, pulling them up the ranks in a quiet but steady pace.

Disclaimer: Photos are not mine, but all other edits were made by me. I may or may not write this into a full written fic. Update: Here’s the masterlist for the SEVENTEEN x Reader series that I’m currently working on

CHOI SEUNGCHEOL Leader | Paladin | Defense-Attack

- Leads and protects the team from the frontlines - Guild leader who also works at maintaining the guild when they’re not on quests (he likes to complain about this a lot to Jeonghan) - Has weak buff abilities like magic shields and boosters - Best for attacking dark elements - Hot-headed and may shout at you in the middle of the battlefield - “Are you stupid? Why the hell did you step out when you knew that they were going to cast paralyzing spells?!” - He’ll apologize later on though because he loves his members too much - Has nearly died at least once for jumping in to save his members (this gives Joshua a headache tbh) - People from other guilds are scared of him because of his reputation in clearing mobs, but is actually a nice and goofy guy once you get to know him - First to bring out the drinks in the guild hall after every quest - Even those who don’t like to drink end up drinking because of how fussy he gets (and no he will not stop until you take at least one shot) -  On rare occasions, you'll find him training in the field at the back. Otherwise, he's in his office dealing with paperwork he doesn't want to deal with

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YOON JEONGHAN Strategist | Necromancer | Support

- Lazy but pretty strong once he gets into it - Dark horse of the team - Leads strategy from the shadows - Sometimes you're not sure if he's on your side or not - Takes a 16-hour power nap once they get back to the guild hall. Do NOT wake him up during this time or you'll be the object of his pranks for days - Is friends with many spirits and ghosts. It sometimes freaks out his members when they see him talking to thin air in the middle of the night (he doesn’t find anything weird about this though) - No one can hide anything from him because his spirit friends are tattletales - "So I heard you've been looking over at Jun a lot lately. Mind telling me about it? Did you really think that I wouldn’t know?" - Is the last to go to sleep to make sure that everyone sleeps well. He helps out with Seungcheol’s insomnia from time to time whenever they run into each other in the middle of the night - Messes with Junhui's magical beasts from time to time just to cause a stir

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HONG JISOO (JOSHUA) Everyone’s Brother | Priest | Support

- Heals you but not before he laughs at you (unless the mission is pretty serious or you’re pretty hurt) - Support system of the entire team - Go-to person after every mission because of his healing powers. Hoshi may or may not have called him a walking first-aid kit at least once. - A pretty nice person 99% of the time until he gets caught up in Jeonghan's schemes. If so, you better get out of the room as soon as possible. - Makes sure that everyone is well-stocked in supplies before going out on missions - One of the people who volunteers to stay up when they need to camp out - "Oh, you're still awake? Do you need anything?" - Tends to stay quiet most of the time and is pretty good at hiding and sneaking around. Once he gets comfortable with you, he can maintain conversation for hours - Don’t let his title fool you; he looks pretty harmless but is actually kind of good at hand-to-hand combat - Actually, no, he can throw a grown man with enough effort if he wanted to - Please do not test the patience of this man

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WEN JUNHUI Heart of the Group | Summoner | Attack

- Friends with literally every living thing - Can talk with wild beasts to help get everyone through the forests unharmed - Serious and dependable when on missions, but is a giant manchild when they get back to the guildhall. If Junhui wants to play, you will not see the end of it until he runs out of energy - Likes to use knuckles as his secondary weapon although he doesn’t like fighting with his hands that much - Will pull random pranks and manages to tag along his beasts with him (unsurprisingly, this causes a bit of a mess in the guildhall) - Sometimes gets into fights with Jeonghan's spirits (and always loses) - Has a little cottage in the forest with a piano. He often stays there when he's upset or just wants to take a break. - It’s honestly so peaceful there; Minghao sometimes has his tea time in the cottage while Jun plays soft tunes on the piano. - "Hey, hey, are you awake? Do you want to visit the cottage with me?" - Will make random meals in the middle of the night. If you manage to catch up awake, he’ll cook something for you too. Just make sure not to excite him too much or else he’ll wake everyone up.

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KWON SOONYOUNG (HOSHI) Source of Energy | Dual Swordsman | Attack

- Main leader of attack, is always found at the frontlines and taking on the strongest enemy - Knows how to utilize the strength of his members to maximize attack output - Earned the nickname of "The Tiger of the Field" due to his strong aura and presence in the battlefield. Ever since he heard about it, he never stopped talking about how he was an actual tiger, thus starting his obsession with tigers. - His stare intimidates the opponents, and sometimes his own members - However, when they're back at the guildhall, he's the softest hamster little boy - Will sneak out in the middle of the night with Jun to eat snacks - Brings out the energy during celebrations, but is also the first one to get drunk and fall asleep. He always stars the party but never ends it. - Actually thinks about his members a lot even when he doesn’t openly admit it or show it - “You look worried, did anything happen? Oh come on, you know I can keep a secret! I promise I won’t tell anyone... or, try to tell anyone.” - Gets happy and giddy whenever they play games (and sometimes get outs of control) - Asks Jun to summon a tiger at least once a week. June eventually gives in after a few times of Hoshi asking him with a pout

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JEON WONWOO Crowd-controller | Wizard | Support-Attack

- Controls hoards of enemies using different runes and spells that can either paralyze or blind them - Is very quick on his feet in missions, and is usually the scout along with Chan - Blind without his glasses--and can barely see even with glasses on--but can sense what’s going on in the field with the help of magic and his sense of hearing - Once the mission is over, he heads straight to him room and doesn’t come out unless he has to eat or buy something - Really just a homebody, and everyone understands - Reads a lot of books, and has his own library in the guild house - He’s also good at making potions, so Seungcheol build him his own potion room in one of the towers (yes, this man is spoiled by their leader) - Likes to spend his time alone to build up energy for the next missions - Gets excited whenever you ask him a question on something he’s interested in, but tries not to let it show - “Oh, you’re looking for a book on local herbs? Well, I have a few of them on poisonous plants, medicinal plants, and even an illustrated book on what they all look like... well, I mean, if you want to check those out too.” - Is a bit picky on food, but Junhui cooks him whatever he wants in exchange for having a rune around his room to prevent Jeonghan’s ghosts and spirits from getting in

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LEE JIHOON Backbone of Success | Bard | Support

- Plays music both for a living and to keep everyone alive - His weapon/instruments of choice varies depending on the kind of mission they’re on, but he mostly uses his guitar because it’s easier to bring along - During missions, he is found at the center of the party to make sure that his powers can cover everyone’s needs - Is slightly intimidating for those outside the guild, but everyone inside adores them with everything they have - Will play any song for anyone if they ask nicely (except for Hoshi who often asks for random songs without a second thought) - Likes to stay silently at the side whenever the drinking parties start - Got drunk once, and only once, where he started telling everyone how much he loves them and how much of a home SEVENTEEN is for him (he likes to deny that this happened at all, but everyone else knows otherwise) - Lowkey takes care of everyone’s needs by handing them what they need without saying anything - You can sometimes find him playing instruments at the forest behind the guild hall, in a small clearing that Mingyu made for him - “Are you heading into the forest too? Do you want to come with me?” - Handles the paperwork whenever Seungcheol gets too tired to deal with it after a mission. The city officials have once came along to ask why the handwriting was inconsistent. - Has a collection of wooden figurines from the city market. Everyone secretly puts in a new figure once a month on his shelf. Woozi says he doesn’t notice anything different, but he does.

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XU MINGHAO (THE8) Forest Fairy | Lancer | Attack

- Is physically weak against attacks, but is agile enough to parry whatever comes his way - His experience with natural magic allows him to be more agile in crossing terrains and using the environment to his advantage - He likes to make his own clothes and customize his weapon. There is not a time in the battlefield where he does not look good. - Always has the cleanest clothes after a mission - Barely gets hurt in the battlefield, but always gets sick whenever they’re at the guild house (Joshua has stayed up to take care of him at least twice) - His room is farthest from Seokmin, Hoshi, and Seungkwan’s room because he needs his peace and quiet - Knows the forest like the back of his hand and sometimes hides things there that he doesn’t want anyone to find - He may or may not have met and befriended some of the fair folk - Likes to go into the forest for his tea time. Sometimes he goes to Jun’s cottage, sometimes to the nearly lake, and sometimes on a patch of moss if he feels like it. Like to experiment with tea as if they were potions. - Knows all of the tea - “I heard from someone who heard from someone that you’ve been sneaking out with a certain someone for the past few weeks. Don’t ask me why and how I know, just tell me what happens next.” - Also likes to stay at the side when the drinks come in, but starts to become one of the loudest member after two shots

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KIM MINGYU Jack-of-all-Trades | Greatswordsman | Attack-Defense

- Goes into the battlefield with a longsword nearly as tall as himself. The sword doubles as a shield during dire moments - Really the only one who can carry his sword (Seungcheol can physically carry it too, but he’s too lazy to admit that he can) - Goblins are his worst nightmare because they pop out of nowhere - Almost sliced someone’s limb off because he was clumsy during a mission - In-charge of carrying supplies along with Seokmin to the field - Also in charge of buying supplies that Joshua decided was in need of refilling - At the guild house, he does a lot of cooking and cleaning--all of which is easier for him because none of it is more difficult than carrying his sword around - Customizes Minghao’s weapons for him - Almost convinced Seungcheol to make a smithy for them, but decided that there wasn’t space to make it - His room is filled with a lot of stuff like armour, swords, spare metal, and somehow some cooking ware that couldn’t fit in the kitchen - Was given a room in the first floor because a giant sword and heavy armor falling from the stairs was not a scene Seungcheol wanted to get into - Top 1 frequent visitor to Joshua’s room because he gets into small accidents at least once a day - Even though he’s clumsy, he’s always honest and earnest so everyone loves him anyway - Likes to go into little adventures, but go with him at your own risk - “I’m going to go over to the snowy peaks today. If anyone wants to come with me, hurry up and pack whatever you can!” - Ends up taking care of whoever manages to go along with him. - Gets sent into the city with Seungcheol whenever they have to argue or bargain with city officials because they know that they have a soft spot for Mingyu (mainly because he’s handsome, and partly because he runs errands for them sometimes) - Made the guild insignia with the help of everyone’s input

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LEE SEOKMIN (DK) Secret Weapon | Archer | Attack

- Stays at the back of the group where he can safely aim at enemies without the fear of getting attacked or surprised - In his entire career, he has missed only twice. On both occasions, it was due to his injured arm that got hit by an enemy’s arrow - The enemy never sees him coming--he can fire an accurate shot so long as the enemy is in sight - At the guild house though, he is far from the intimidating persona he puts on during missions. He doesn’t get fazed by a goblin running to him at full speed, but screams at the top of his lungs when one of his members try to scare him. - Is always the first to get up to cook breakfast for everybody, including Jun’s summoned beasts if they happen to be there - His voice is loud enough to reach Jeonghan who lives at the topmost floor of the tower - Helps out with the guild paperwork from time to time, but only to deliver and receive papers. He tried to work on the papers once, but ended up messing up nearly 50 pages worth of work (Jeonghan managed to convince Seungcheol not to get too angry) - Practices like crazy to keep his skills from rusting, even during days when he’s supposed to rest. He sets up multiple practice targets in the forest with the help of Mingyu (who honestly can’t say no to his members) - Hoshi managed to pull him into shooting an arrow at Seungkwan’s food when he was eating when he wasn’t supposed to be eating - Despite his kill-streak, he wouldn’t hurt a fly when he’s at home - This guy is literal sunshine please protect him - Gets happy when you invite him to do things with you - “You want me to come with you to the lake and catch fish? Well, I’m not good at it, but why not! We can have fish for dinner later with our catch. Wait, does shooting arrows at fish count?” - Likes to visit Jun’s cottage with food that he made - Some of Jun’s beasts like him more than Jun

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BOO SEUNGKWAN Opportunist | Elementalist | Attack-Support

- Primarily gets dispatched into smaller missions with Vernon and Chan - Is in good control of both water and earth. Fire and air are less familiar to him because of how hard they are to grasp compared to the other two. - Has a staff as his weapon of choice - Is very quick to notice small changes or shifts in the atmosphere. If he tries hard enough, he can sense different things through the soil but not as well as Wonwoo - Thinks of genius solutions on the spot - Once got his entire team out of a cave mission that they got lost in - At the guild house, he likes to keep things in check (Hoshi sometimes calls him the landlady, which Seungkwan does not like) - Likes to drip water down someone’s back if they annoy him enough - His room is assigned to the farthest wing along with Seokmin and Hoshi so that noise could “stay in one place” according to Jihoon - This doesn’t stop them from making noise in the common room, though - The lake in the middle of the forest is his favorite place because he gets to practice his skills without worrying if he’ll accidentally break a wall or not - Yes, he broke a wall when he was still practicing his skills back at his hometown - Goes to the boring guild conferences that Seungcheol doesn’t bother going to, and ends up making friends with at least two people from each guild that attended - Is the best at giving advice, especially to other magicians in the guild - “Well if you want to get your magic out you’re going to have to do more studying. What do you mean it’s boring? You can shoot out as many fireballs as you like, but that’s not going to get you anywhere. Well why ask me if you’re not going to listen?!” - He can get impatient sometimes though

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 CHWE HANSOL (VERNON) Steady Fortress | Shieldbearer | Defense

- Carries a shield that is nearly as large as himself, but is able to steadily walk though the battlefield like its nothing - Takes on the front of the party along with Seungcheol to protect the team - Moves the fastest when he is in a unit with Seungkwan and Chan - Never panics in the field even if he’s bruised and wounded all over - Is good enough with hand-to-hand combat to wrestle out anyone or anything that may cling to him or his shield when fighting - Sometimes forgets the flow of the mission, but thankfully has Seungkwan and Jihoon to remind him every time - Also has his room at the first floor of the guild hall because of his collection of oversized shields and because it would be too difficult to call for him if he was upstairs - Likes to go on walks by himself. At this point, none of the members get shocked if he disappears one afternoon and comes back the next day - Chan sometimes comes with him though - Is familiar with all the shops and restaurants in the city (yes even the ones that sell weird food like mermaid meat that somehow seem borderline illegal) - Also very good friends with Jun’s beasts - His practice regime is quite harsh in order for him to develop endurance. Often has Mingyu and Seokmin as his practice buddy. These sessions sometimes end up with a trip to Joshua’s room. - “No, for real man, come and hit me. Yeah of course it’s going to hurt, but that’s the point? I’ll let you know if it stings more than I expect.” - Seungcheol practiced with him once, and got scolded by Joshua for going too far so he doesn’t do it anymore. He sometimes watches them spar to make sure that no one gets too hurt. - Has accidentally banged his head on his shields at least thrice - Also another favorite of the female city officials, so Seungcheol tags him along even though he doesn’t really pay attention to anything that they talk about

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LEE CHAN (DINO) Feisty Youngest | Rogue | Attack

- Is the first to go into the battlefield and the last one to get out - Always makes sure that no one gets left behind - The best at hand-to-hand combat and can wrestle with the older members even if they’re larger than him - Specializes in self-defense and stealth attacks, making him ideal for scouting an area before any of his members enter the field - Always manages to insert a witty (sometimes slightly insulting but nevertheless playful) remark even in the middle of battle - “Yeah, I’m pretty sure we didn’t almost die the last time you said that there were two enraged dragons at the other side of the dungeon door. But you know, whatever helps you sleep at night.” - Mostly follows the older members in rapid decision-making but sometimes chimes in with his own suggestions - At the guild house though, he ends up becoming the main target for little errands, mainly because he rarely says no - Sometimes sleeps in another member’s room with them because he can’t sleep when he’s alone in the room - Tried to befriend Jun’s beasts, but it doesn’t really work out that well for him unlike Seokmin - Almost got bitten once or twice (or thrice) - I am convinced that this man can do steady parkour and climbs the tower up to Jeonghan’s room every once in a while. May also climb trees in the forest if he feels like it. - Despite being energetic in the day, he likes to have long one-on-one conversations over a glass of alcohol during the night. - Seungkwan still won’t let him live down the time when he got drunk and bawled his eyes out because the spoon was “not in the right direction”

[sigillaria-svt]

OH MY GODDJKFKKCKR YOUR STORY WHAT KIND OF FUTURE BROUGHT ME TO TEARSSSS I LOVE IT SO MUCH, ITS SAD AND TEARS MY HEART INTO PIECES BUT ITS OKAY!!!

I HURT MYSELF TOO TBH AHSHDAKJHDHAHAHAKJDHKAWJ I'M GLAD YOU ENJOYED IT <3 <3

[sigillaria-svt]

What Kind of Future (One-Shot)

Pairing: Woozi x Reader

Word Count: 4,698

Warning: None

Genres: Angst, Childhood Friends, Timeskip

Synopsis:

Going to Seoul to pursue a career as an idol was an abrupt decision in Jihoon's life. While you had been enjoying daily life with him as his friend, things suddenly had to change and you had no other choice but to support his dreams and his happiness. However, many unsaid feelings and secret glances created a mess of emotions that neither of you could openly admit to each other, nor had the both of you had the chance to do so. How would everything end when you've all moved along with the world, but with hearts stuck in your small neighborhood of Busan?

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You had always feared that once Jihoon would take on this new step in his life, everything would be different—and your fears proved themselves to be more than just late-night thoughts as you watch the train depart on its way to Seoul. It was all so sudden, but then again it was also very like him to keep his plans a secret until the last minute.

For the first time, you were no longer going to see him every weekend playing the guitar at the garden bench outside his house. You would greet his parents a good morning as you go out on your daily walk, knowing that he would no longer be inside his house getting ready for school. You no longer had anyone to wait for in the morning so you could catch the bus together. Gone were the Saturday nights talking about music, nor the chilly afternoons of going home together after class. Gone were the small playful fights that ended up in hidden laughter. Gone were all the moments where both of you knew that this was more than friendship, but were never brave enough to admit it. All of these memories piled up as individual treasures in your heart.

But who were you to stop him?

He was going out there to achieve his dreams. You were just as shattered seeing him give up classical music when you were younger and wanted nothing other than to see him be reignited by his passion for music. Of course, even if that meant leaving the shores of Busan. You knew better than anyone else that he had a gift of putting his heart into songs. He was never the type to openly say what he wanted to say, but the stories in his songs were always intricately woven and sincere—you hear every single one of them during those quiet summer nights.

You push your hair back as you leave the train station and take your walk back home; one that you’ll now be walking as one instead of two starting this day.

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“Jihoon shouldn’t you be working on studying for our exam on Friday?” You said, knocking on the table right in front of him.

He gave a quick nod, but didn’t budge from his laptop.

You craned your neck to see his screen. “What are you doing, anyway?”

He quickly pulled back his laptop, covering the screen from view. “I thought you were going to study? You didn’t get good scores last time, you should be working twice as hard this time.”

“What—you’re not even studying!”

“Yes, but did I get bad scores?” He asked, knowing full well that I wouldn’t be able to say anything against him in that regard. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Go back to answering those problems. Tell me if there’s anything you don’t understand.”

“Aye, aye boss.” You replied sarcastically under your breath. You didn’t know what he was working on for hours, especially now that you were in your final exam week. You knew that he liked working on song projects, but now wasn’t really the time for this. You didn’t want to nag on him though—you knew that he got good grades anyway so what he did in his free time wasn’t your business.

So he continued working away at his laptop, and you at your problem sets.

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When you got home, it was already dark. You took the longer route going home, still not wanting to accept the fact that you were no longer going to see Jihoon like you did every day—and only found out about it a few days prior. You were laughing and overjoyed when he told you the first time, but now that he’s finally away, it suddenly sinks in on you.

You still have his contact number and contact details, of course. You knew that you could call him anytime you wanted to, and share unsolicited stories about your daily life. However, from what you knew, the life of a trainee isn’t easy. He would become too busy, too stressed, too unavailable, and there would be nothing you could do about it.

That’s exactly what happened.

Daily messages turn into weekly messages, then scattered messages throughout the month, until eventually you only see him once a year when he would visit his parents in Busan—and even then you would barely talk because he’d have to go back to Seoul in the blink of an eye. You miss him badly, but you knew that you shouldn’t and couldn’t demand any more time from him.

He's preparing for his future, and you need to support him all the way.

At first, it bothered you to think about what could have happened if you just told him how you felt all those years ago. You didn’t know that he would go to Seoul before you both graduated high school, you didn’t know that you would suddenly grow distant over the years—knowing Jihoon, he wouldn’t be the type to actively maintain communication because he gets caught up in the passion of his work. You’ve liked him for years, but never stepped the boundary because you knew you were too young.

Too young to commit.

Too young to expect each other to build their lives around the other.

Too young to make a promise that you couldn't keep.

Your parents wouldn’t allow it, and you knew Jihoon wouldn’t either, if he knew. It didn’t matter that you sensed that he felt the same way—there wasn’t anything the both of you could do about it while you were young and still lost in the world.

For years, this gripped your heart with regrets and questions—until eventually, you had to accept it and move on from a childhood love that Jihoon would have forgotten anyway. It was a waste of heart and soul to keep thinking about whether or not he was pained with the thought of you just as you are of him.

So, you graduated, and at the suggestion of your parents, went to school in the US under a scholarship. It pained you to leave Busan—to the only place where your memories of Jihoon resided—but life had to keep going on regardless of whether your heart was ready or not. Just like many first loves, this was one that you should be letting go of.

Without turning back, you entered the boarding gate and looked through the giant windows as planes flew through the cloudy afternoon sky.

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It was only years later that you find out that Jihoon had happily debuted in a group of thirteen, only when his group had decided to do a tour in the US. To be honest, you had been too busy with your own thing to get news on old hometown friends. In your years abroad, you’ve met new people, learned new things both about the world and about yourself, and even found your way through different kinds of love. You were passing through one of your university’s bulletin boards on your way to your final thesis defense when you saw the poster by your local Korean Culture club.

When you first saw him, you weren’t sure if it was really him. After all, you knew him as the small and innocent friend from across the street, but now he was a world-renowned singer and producer with millions of fans around the world. You were filled with a sense of pride and happiness for your childhood friend—memories of who now lie as slightly blurry but precious photos in your heart instead of invaluable treasures.

You quickly take out your phone and try to contact him with the old details that you still have, but find that it is no longer reachable. Of course, with his status right now, it wouldn’t be surprising for him to change his contact details. I’ll just check in on his parents when I return to Busan after I graduate, you say to yourself. You realize that it’s been four years since you even went to Korea, your parents insisting that you stay in the US until you were finished with your degree. Checking your watch, you quickly make your way to your classroom with your thesis materials.

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Upon returning to your apartment after a successful defense, you look up the group that Jihoon is currently in—a kpop group called Seventeen, which you were honestly a bit confused about at first because there were only thirteen members no matter how many times you counted. They’ve been steadily growing in popularity over the years, but you were surprised that you only found out about them now.

Upon listening to their songs, you couldn’t help but have a growing smile on your face. After all these years, Jihoon really hasn’t changed. The way he writes songs is still the same. His voice is obviously more mature and clean with his years of training, but you can still hear the young boy between the lines of his songs.

This was the Jihoon that you knew: his innocence, his sincerity, his curiosity on the nature of fate, and his pure love for those around him that he may not always express that well in actions. You felt a deep love well in your heart—but perhaps no longer a romantic one. It’s been around 7 years since you last met, at this point in time, both of you are already adults with different minds, who have met different people, and have realized that there is more to the world than what is in Busan.

You continue to look through his songs, overjoyed by the sound of his singing voice that you’ve been away from for years. Listening to it brings you back to the times when you listened to him sing his compositions in his front garden.

That is, until you come across a very familiar tune that you had to dig deep into your memories to remember.

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“Can you listen to this song for me?” Jihoon said after going through a series of chords on his guitar.

“Oh, is this a new one?” You said, excitedly turning away from the firefly that initially caught your attention. “Is this what you’ve been so busy on during our final exam week?”

“This is a song that I absolutely had to finish even if it meant not studying during the finals.” He said. He cleared his throat and started strumming a slow tone. Instantly, it caught your attention because it was more mellow than any of the other songs he composed before.

“Ah, well, the lyrics are still a mess here and there, but I hope to make it into a better song later on.” He says, clearing his throat again before stepping into the first verse.

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You could no longer remember what the original lyrics were, but you were pretty sure that this was the exact same song; the last song you ever heard from Jihoon before he left for Seoul. You didn’t know that the song had this kind of agony to it, the longing for someone you might never have; the despair of never getting the answers to whether the future could be different had past decisions been different.

What Kind of Future.

You sob uncontrollably, finally having a song that explains deeply the thoughts you’ve been keeping under wraps for the past years. At the end of the day, you still loved him. You were never happy with anyone you met in the US because your heart was still in Busan. There was still a teenage part of yourself that never grew up, the teenage part that stayed with Jihoon even when all you had were traces of his presence embedded as memories that were slowly falling between your fingers.

You wanted to run to him, but you didn’t know how. He was right here in the country touring—he was so close, you could see him again if you wanted to, but you were afraid that the look in his eyes would not be the same as yours.

You knew that time would turn the both of you into two completely different people.

A few months. That’s all you needed to wait for your graduation for you to go back to Korea. There were broken pieces of you that you left behind in your hometown, which now left you empty with unresolved questions.

Your heart ached to return home, to talk to Jihoon’s parents, to find a way to meet him again. You regretted not telling him when you were younger, and now that you’re older, you wanted to finally let it go and be free from it.

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JIHOON

When I said that I would follow my dream, I didn’t really know what it would cost me until I finally got to the blaring lights of grand stages and restless days of back-to-back schedules. Don’t get me wrong—I am incredibly happy where I am at right now. I found a home in twelve other guys that share the same love for the craft as I do. I have thousands of people who enjoy the music I make, with the added benefit of having stable finances for all that I need in life.

This is a life that many people would want, but sometimes I think that I may have left behind some things that are far too precious.

As a trainee, I wasn’t able to go home much, but whenever I did I would always look for her. Not like I could run away from my company and enjoy a week with her—although I thought about it at least once—but that I would at least know that she is doing well in our small neighborhood in Busan. Until eventually I no longer started seeing her whenever I would go home on our rare holidays as a group. Of course, the longer we were into our careers, the more time we had to go home and spend time with our families, but I never saw her again after she had graduated.

But I knew she was out there. My hope was that my songs would somehow find their way to her.

So I weaved in my messages for her. She’ll know that it would be from me the moment she hears them. All of these things that I wasn’t able to say over the years, all the times that I had been looking her way without her noticing—if these songs would come across her, that would bring me joy greater than I have felt all these years.

“My heart races only when I’m in front of you

So I’m sorry about my clumsy actions”

Adore U

“How about you? Is it hard to sleep because of me?”

Oh My!

“To me, you are very precious

Can you tell yourself who had a hard time

That I am here, that you’ve worked hard

That I love you

That I will hug you”

Hug

“If I am given a second life

I may live and breathe differently compared to now

Among the streets we’ll walk past each other without knowing,

I hope we remember each other”

Second Life

“I really wish for you to see my dreams

I wish for us to be able to hurt together every hour

Even though you won’t know how I think of you every single day throughout the many seasons”

I Wish

“Even if we fall to the ground and meet for the first time

We will recognize each other immediately”

Heaven’s Cloud

“You, who dreams the same dream as me and with the same mind

Looks out upon the same night together with me

Even if I’m given everything in the world

I can never exchange it

Promise me eternity if your thoughts are the same as mine”

Same Dream, Same Mind, Same Night

Yet I would never have a way of finding out if she heard them or not. Because of security reasons, I’ve had to change my number multiple times, and have separate accounts for personal matters—yet I never found a way to contact her. She doesn’t seem to be in any of our hometown friends’ photos either, as if she simply disappeared. Of course, disappearances don’t just happen like that. I sometimes hear my parents talk about her from conversations with her parents, so she has to be there out there, somehow. I’ll see her again if I just wait and look out long enough.

But waiting doesn’t always come easy.

It eventually came to a point whether I questioned if I was simply waiting for nothing. Our music reaches a large audience, but not an audience that is large enough if she’s not a part of it. Spending time looking for her won’t do me any good—so I stay in the studio all day and make songs. Of course it’s productive and takes up nearly all of my energy, but it’s probably the only way for me to get my mind off things.

I decided to make public the song that I meant to be heard only by her.

“In the end, which future is the right one for us?

The heavens had no reply.

Or perhaps it was dumb, foolish me, who just couldn't figure it out."

What Kind of Future.

I didn’t expect some kind of random message claiming to be her to suddenly arrive at my doorstep. I didn’t expect her to barge into the Pledis building looking for the man named Lee Jihoon. But I hoped that wherever she might be, she would remember this tune. Although the lyrics are completely different from when she first heard it, I hoped that it would sound enough like home to her.

Does it seem childish for me to hold on to teenage love? Soonyoung and Seungcheol may be the only ones that really know the full story of the birth of this song, but they’ve only ever warmly laughed at the thought of it. I don’t want it to be anyone else but her—even if everyone else calls me stubborn or even foolish.

The time I went home in the winter of 2021 was the first time I saw her in a long time. Her eyes are still the same, but everything else about her is different, even as I look at her from afar from the bedroom of my old house. It had been lightly snowing the entire day, covering the streets with a thin layer of snow, which she stands out against her dark winter clothes. On one hand, she pulls a luggage carrier through the slippery path toward her old home.

“So she still lives across the street, huh.” I say to myself.

I grab a hat from my bag, undecided if I should go out to meet her or not. I look out the window again, only to see the edge of her winter coat as she enters her house. With a sigh, I put my hat on the desk and crash into bed.

That’s right. This is fine. If she’s in Korea, she’s bound to hear our songs at least once. With that, I fall into a deep sleep as my breathing falls into a slow rhythm.

About two hours later, I am waken by my mother’s knocks on the door, calling for dinner. “Jihoon, come to the table with us. The neighbors brought us good food.”

Still half awake, I don’t have the clarity of mind to think about who the neighbors were and why they would be giving food to us. I quickly get up, wipe off a bit of saliva that had dried at the side of my mouth, and went down expecting to see only my mother and father.

When I get down, I see that there are a bit more people than I initially thought. There are my parents, her parents, and of course, her.

“Hey, Jihoon. It’s been a while.” She says, her tone shy yet friendly.

“Oh.” I manage to say after a while, not yet even fully down the stairs. “Uh, I didn’t know that you’d be here. But, I mean, It’s nice to see everyone.” I say to the rest of her family as well.

Her father gives us a big laugh. “She just got back from studying in the US and insisted that we have dinner with the Lee family across the street. We’re happy to see you again too, Jihoon. It’s not often that we see you back home in Busan.”

“Well then, shall we start eating? We have all this good food, it would be a waste not to eat it.” My mom says, pulling out the chairs for us to sit in.

Unsurprisingly, they sit the both of us across each other at the end of the table. As the parents had their own conversations about current happenings in the neighborhood, both she and I stay silent, unable to join into the topic.

For a few times, we meet each other’s eyes to exchange small glances of agreement or acknowledgment. By around the middle of the meal, she starts the first conversation.

“I heard that you’ve become a well-known artist, Jihoon. I saw one of your posters on our campus bulletin board.” She says with a smile, and I can’t help but feel my ears go red. “Who knew that I’d somehow come across you even at the other side of the world.”

“Yeah, thanks mostly to my members who work hard,” I say simply in an attempt to calm my own heart. “Have you listened to our songs?”

“A few, yes.” She says vaguely, as if in thought. “Also some of your solo works.”

So she has heard of our songs after all. How much does she realize that a lot of those are about her? My heart continues to beat fast, and we somehow just end the conversation there. There are so many things that I haven’t told her, so many hopes unborn, and affections unshared.

At the end of dinner, our parents decide to have some wine while the both of us head outside to the garden with a warm drink. The night isn’t too cold, just enough to bear with the right clothes. For a few minutes, the two of us stay silent, looking at the snow as it falls quietly in isolated snowflakes.

“So, you’ve been in the US for… five years?”

She nods.

“And you’ve only returned to Korea now?”

She nods again. That explains why I’ve never come across her at least once after she graduated. It doesn’t really help that I’ve also been barely able to come home while I was a trainee.

“I really like your songs. It sounds like home.” She says after taking a sip of her drink. “Your songs still sound like you after all these years.”

“Do they? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I ask with a laugh.

She simply smiles and turns to me. “What goes into your mind when writing your songs?”

You. But of course I can’t say that out loud. “Hmm, many different things. It’s not really the same for every single song, especially when I make them for our group.”

“But what about songs that you make for yourself?”

Her seriousness catches me off guard for a few seconds. “Do you mean… What Kind of Future? I… I’m not sure. It’s a song that’s close to my heart. I wasn’t so sure if I wanted to really release it or not. It feels like a song that I want to sing only once in my lifetime.”

“Yet you sung it twice. The first time with an audience of one, and the second time with an audience of thousands.” She looks up at me. “It’s the same song that you made a long time ago, isn’t it?”

She remembers. She knows. All this time, my songs really were able to reach the person I wanted it to reach the most. I want to cry at this moment, but I had to hold it in for the sake of not letting myself go too much.

“I’m surprised that you still remember.” I say carefully, trying to find the right words to say. “Yeah, it’s the same song, just with the lyrics being slightly different from the original. I thought it would be appropriate to change it according to the times.”

“Ah, I see.” She ponders in thought before putting her drink down on the bench. “I’m going to say something that may seem a bit weird so just hear me out and if it bothers you, you can just forget everything I said, deal?”

“I don’t know what this is about, but go ahead.”

“I’ve liked you for years when we were younger. I always had a feeling that we were more than just friends, but of course I didn’t want to assume that because we’ve never really said anything about it. I only realized that I loved you when you moved to Seoul to train, you know that kind of delayed feeling once the person isn’t there with you anymore.” She looks over at me with a look of peace, and my racing heart suddenly turns from panic to dread. I just know that she’s going to say something completely opposite to what she just said.

“But we’re both older now, and far more mature. If there were any feelings we had as teens—as kids, essentially—it probably wouldn’t hold any more bearing now, right? I just wanted to tell you this so that I don’t leave any strings untied.” She says, and says no more.

At this moment, I am caught up between saying everything I’ve always wanted to say and keeping it inside for the sake of her peace. What would be the use of bringing up unrequited love now? I don’t want to confuse her, and I don’t want to promise her something when I know that my career as an artist keeps me away from her. Yet I know when I go back to Seoul, I would be writing songs about her all over again—but this time with the awareness of a love that is too late to be reciprocated or resurrected. I guess I understand better now why they call me a stubborn person.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Years later, I watch her walk down the aisle with a man she met at work. It was an honor to sing at her wedding and to talk about her childhood. I met some of our other childhood friends there and was happy to see her happy.

Yet to this day, I still wonder what kind of future we would have had if she knew how I felt all those years ago before I went to Seoul, and after we met again in Busan. And still, today, just as I was many years ago, am unable to know the answer to that question.

She is happy where she is, and so am I. There may be no need for me to get the answers in the end.

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Song Translation Credits:

Adore U English Translation by Genius English Translations

Hug English Translation by cheolwangja

I Wish, Second Life, Oh My!, & Same Dream, Same Mind, Same Night English Translation by 17_HAMZZI

Heaven’s Cloud English Translation by ZF Team (KosmoSub)

What Kind of Future English Translation by klixxy 523

[sigillaria-svt]

Notes from the Moon was so cute :)) like I can't really begin to describe how I feel about it but I just know I was connected to it. If that makes any sense it is truly a sweet little fic and I adore it. Thank you so much for writing it!

I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed it!!! <3

[sigillaria-svt]

Notes from the Moon (University AU)

Pairing: Moon Junhui x Reader

Word Count: 5,637

Warning: None

Genres: fluff,  secret admirer, bestfriend!Minghao, female reader

Synopsis:

Throughout his college life, Junhui has been contented with admiring from afar. It didn’t matter to him that she wasn’t aware, or that nothing was between them except a friendly acquaintance. However, Minghao knew deep inside that Junhui wanted to start moving forward, and thus he provided the starting ground for a series of secret notes that would end up becoming the seed to building Junhui’s confidence.

Junhui wasn't entirely sure when it all started. On his first day in college, he barely knew anyone except Minghao who he went to high school with. He couldn't remember the names of his classmates after they introduced themselves. However, there was one person that made a strong impression on him. Although he didn’t remember her name at first, he was drawn to the way that her eyes seemed to glow with curiosity.

 Because of his bad eyesight, he always wanted to sit in the front along with Minghao, albeit at the far right corner of the room so that he can get away with dozing off just in case it was going to be a long class session. Somehow, with the same mindset, she sat at the front too. At first, it meant nothing to Junhui other than an interesting classmate.

 That is, until he started paying more attention to her, and less attention on the lesson.

 She wasn’t the type that attracted looks at first glance. She was a normal person with a strong sense of passion, but somehow, Junhui didn’t quite know how to act around her. Eventually, he just decided to look from afar, where he knew he didn't have to deal with overthinking what to say and do. It's not like he didn't try to before, either. On some days, he tried to approach her to ask about an assignment or to borrow a pen, but it ended up as small talk that fizzed away after a few sentences.

 Doesn't help that her eyes tended to be fixated on the whiteboard, and not much else.

 In a way, Junhui was thankful that she was always set on the lessons and assignments. He could look at her all day and she wouldn't notice a thing. For a time he was satisfied with just this—just admiring her every day without her knowing anything. It’s not like she was going anywhere. No one else ever showed romantic interest in her either, which gave Junhui all the more reason to continue staying as he was.

 However, feelings can’t always be completely contained, especially if they’ve been growing slowly over a series of months.

 It was a beautiful warm day in June, so Junhui and Minghao took the opportunity to be in the library for most of it. The library had large windows that spanned the entire wall, giving a view of the greenery outside the building. The temperature inside was just right, making it a favorite spot for students who wanted to study in comfort and quietude.

 She was sitting a few tables away, a pair of earphones filling her time with piano music as she prepared to take notes for the test the next day. Junhui sat with Minghao, who was studying seriously while Jun was looking up from his notes once every few minutes.

 "If you keep on looking at her like that, might as well stop studying and look at her for three hours." Minghao said, eyes still fixated on his notes below him.

 "What? I’m not doing that, I'm studying!" Junhui said defensively, careful to make sure that his voice doesn’t go above the appropriate level for libraries.

 "Then what are you looking at?"

 "This book, of course." Junhui responded while indicating the book in his hands.

 Minghao looked over at the page Junhui was on, "Uhuh, and what does it say about the Law of the Minimum?"

 "Hmm, something about a function..."

 Minghao looked at him, "Jun... it's been two years. Are you really just going to stay as an admirer from afar?"

 "I know, I know. I'm just not sure how to approach her. I mean, I know what I want to say and do, but I'm just afraid that I'll mess it up." Junhui scratched the back of his hand. “You know what I mean right?”

 Minghao sighed and put his hand on Junhui's shoulder. "So do you want to make a move or not?"

 Jun raised his eyes and looked around, scared that someone else might overhear them. "Huh?"

 "Come on, I know you do. The silent admirer thing has been fun and all, but you’ve really been getting more restless these past few days, especially when she’s around.”

 "No, I mean yes. I mean...”

 Minghao groaned in slight exasperation, "She's smart, so I'll teach you something that will make sure that she won't stop thinking about you."

 He pulled out a pouch from his bag and took out a stack of green sticky notes. He laid it in front of Junhui along with a pen. Junhui looked at him with confusion, but Minghao simply raised his eyebrows and motioned for him to take it.

 "If you're too shy to talk to her, then you can just write instead." Minghao said.

 Junhui started to panic internally. "But what if she finds out that it's me?"

 "If she finds out, she finds out." Minghao said with a shrug, as if it were no big deal. He tapped on the stacks of sticky notes. "It's not like she memorizes everyone's handwriting. To be honest, you don't write much either, so she isn't going to know."

 Junhui took the pen in his hands and thought hard. He wanted to write something that wouldn’t make it seem like it's him, but something that would pique her curiosity enough for her to keep the note.

 He started writing. I like your shirt. He bit his lip as he finished writing. He looked up at Minghao who looks at Jun as if he just committed a crime.

"Seriously? I like your shirt?"

 Minghao took out the note and crumpled it. "Make it something nicer. Don't think too hard and try again."

 "But..."

 "Did I stutter? Don't think too hard."

 Jun was about to whine, but stopped. He thought about the first thing that he's ever wanted to said to her, but couldn't. He knew that it was somewhere at the back of his head, he just had to put it into words. He thinks about the way that she seems to put all her focus into whatever it is she was doing, about the way she lost track of time working on a project, and in the way that she was excited to answer any question that you threw at her.

 He didn’t understand why simple things about her made him so flustered. The simple existence of a person shouldn’t be making you lose sleep thinking about what things made her happy. Junhui pursed his lips and wrote a simple sentence on the piece of paper.

 Your passion is beautiful.

 He looked at it for a moment, wondering if it would be enough. No, it had to be enough. This was the starting point of everything, not the end. It shouldn’t matter if he messed up now.

 Minghao looked over and smiled at him. "See? I knew you had it in you."

 Just as Jun had finished writing, she took off her earphones and stood up. She headed over to the bathroom with her phone in hand, leaving her textbooks and notes scattered on the table.

 When she's out of sight, Minghao nudges Junhui. Junhui looks at his friend with wide eyes, broken out of his focus on his newly written note.

"Go on and put it on her table while she's not there!" Minghao whispers.

 "What, we're doing this now?" Junhui whispers back.

 "When are you supposed to do it? When we graduate? Go ahead and do it!" 

 Minghao pushed him enough just to get him off his seat. Jun clumsily walked to her table, looking to see if her friends are around. Once Jun saw that it was clear, he quickly stuck the note on one of her open pages and walked back to his table red as a tomato. Jun falls to his seat and covers his face in embarrassment.

 "Was that so bad?" Minghao asked.

 "I can't believe I'm actually doing this." A mess of red blushes covered Jun's face, up to his ears.

 Just then, she got back from the restroom and sat on her chair as she put her earphones back on. She picks up her pen to continue writing, until she noticed the green note that was left on her notebook.

 Minghao pulled Jun's hands away from his face. "Wait, look, she's reading it."

 She took out one earphone and picked up the not, a smile forming over her face as she read the sentence. She looked around to see who might have left it, and Junhui quickly looked back down at his book, pretending not to notice. However, he did take a small peak up from the corner of the book enough to see her tuck the note in one of her notebooks. Minghao gave Junhui a proud smile, but says nothing else.

 For the rest of the afternoon, Junhui watched as the girl he's been liking for the past two years smile widely as she wrote notes and highlighted sentences on her textbook.

 Now, he didn’t have to keep on thinking about what made her happy. Here was there actually doing it by his own efforts.

 Now that he was finally able to say what he always wanted to, it left a soft and fuzzy feeling in his chest. The fact that she kept his note and didn't throw it away makes him even happier.

 He thought about the idea of her ever liking him back. It seemed like a childish thing to think about, but it was the first time he ever put serious thought into things like this. He realized that he has no idea how to even go about finding out, at least not the first time. It's fine if he doesn't find out right away, anyway. He's just happy that he's finally taken the first giant step forward.

 Eventually, she packed up her things and made her way to leave the library. Meanwhile, Jun's eyes followed her around until she's out of sight.

 "I think it's time to go." He says, standing up from his chair.

 Minghao looks up from his book, nodding back to him. "Yeah, me too. So, what do you think? Happy?"

 Junhui says nothing else, opting to give his best friend the biggest smile instead. Minghao didn’t need any words either, he understood Junhui just by the look on his face. So long as his friend was happy, he was more than willing to help him build up his confidence.

 This was just the start of the many notes that Junhui would leave on her books or on her desk whenever she wasn't looking. For all those years that he wasn't able to say anything, he was finally able to put it into words and send it over to her. Every day, Jun would end up excited to write another new note that he would try to sneak in without anyone else noticing. At times, he wrote whatever just came into mind, at times earning a weird look from Minghao because of how cheesy it sounded.

 You look amazing even when you think you don't. If you weren’t aware, now you are.

 I don’t know why, but you look very attractive when you’re focused.

 You've done well, don't forget to rest well and eat well. Congratulations on getting the highest score.

 I hope you don’t mind me admiring you in secret.

 You looked sad yesterday, I hope you’re doing alright. I found out myself that watching puppy videos online cheered me up, you should try it too.

 I like the way that you laugh, it’s very joyful and carefree. I hope you stay happy and healthy all the time.

 On other days, he ended up writing something without much thought. It didn’t bother him—he wanted her to know his thoughts, even those that seem random and out of nowhere.

 The moon was beautiful last night, did you see it?

  I noticed that you really like the color yellow. It’s nice and bright, I like it too.

 I think the chicken came before the egg, but my friend has been bugging me that the egg came first. I wouldn’t know, really, I’m not a bird.

 Are you curious about who I am?

 As much as possible, Jun would try to stay around to check for her reaction. To Jun's satisfaction, it would always leave a smile on her face. That smile was all he needed to continue his hopes of starting something between them. It's not like he could just go up to her and say "Hey, do you have a moment? I’m actually that guy that keeps sending over green sticky notes."

 As much as Jun enjoyed sending notes over, the girl had been starting to grow all the more curious about who this secret person was. It happened one early morning when Jun had arrived at the classroom to stick his note on her desk where she always sat for their first class. However, instead of seeing an empty white desk, he saw a yellow sticky note right where he usually stuck his notes on. 

 Similar to his own notes, she wrote a message:

 Who are you?

 She had also written her name and class on it. Now that she had asked, he wasn't going to reply with just his name, he wasn't ready for that just yet. To be honest, he was just delaying the process, but that was fine by him. What could he say?

 Not wanting to make it too obvious, he wrote down a riddle instead. She's smart enough to get good marks on their tests, so Jun was sure she would figure this out in no time. However, he wanted to make it vague enough to just reveal a bit. Jun took out the pen in his pocket and wrote:

 You can find me at night if you look up in the right direction.

 He took off her note and placed it carefully into his notebook before replacing it with his own green note. He quickly walked out of the room, heart beating fast. He didn't expect her to respond in that way, but he was happy that she was getting interested.

 Just as he had predicted, he saw her at the classroom later that morning. There were a group of students gathered at the front of the room, but she still managed to catch his eye. However, this morning was louder than usual, with her friends surrounding her in excitement.

 "They left a riddle?!" One of her friends said, leaning in to read the note. "As if he, or she, wasn't already mysterious enough."

 "What does it say?" The one who had asked the question for everyone else now asks her.

 "It says you can find me at night if you look up in the right direction."

 One of her friends crossed his arms. "Probably one of those night owls that spend their time in those 24/7 cafes until morning. Explains why they always seem to give you notes early in the morning when no one's around."

 Jun gave a small chuckle as he listened in from one corner of the room. The only reason why he was able to put in those notes early is that he lives in the dorm right across from their campus. He just went in before anyone else arrived at the room and returned to the dorm to go back to sleep. Junhui continued to listen in as the group tried to unravel the riddle.

 "So, what's the answer?" One of the guys asked.

 Before she could respond, someone else answered for her. "Don't you think it has something to do with the sky?"

 Shee points upward as if the answer is right there. "Either way, we have the first-period class in 10 minutes, so we better hurry and solve this." The first one said, turning around.

 After a few moments of trying to think of the possible answers, the first person spoke again. "Hey, why don't we just... Call him out on it? I mean, if he's been leaving all of these notes on your desk, then he probably knows where you sit all the time. He's got to be a classmate."

 Junhui's heart started to race. He knew that if they just try hard enough, they're bound to figure out that it's him, especially since her group of friends is quite large. All they really need is just the time to check the handwriting and ask around. Someone must have seen him at least once or twice with the pad of green sticky notes.

 "Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" She said with a laugh, to Jun's relief. "I want to try and figure out who they are based on their hints."

 "You're just making this harder for yourself, you know?"

 "I mean, if they wanted me to know who they were right away, then they would have just approached me right then and there." She tucked in the sticky note in her notebook, which was now filled with all of Jun's other secret notes. "Let's try to figure it out more after class."

 As the topic is changed, Jun felt relieved. He wouldn't have been able to concentrate in class with everyone trying to figure out the riddle right beside him.

 However, Jun was feeling a bit braver today than usual. In one of their classes, they were free to work on their task however they wanted so long as everyone stayed inside the classroom. Jun and Minghao managed to find a spot in the classroom next to where the girl was sitting. She was typing something on her laptop, but her notebook was right beside her with some of the green papers peeking out.

 Minghao decided to join in on the plan. "Hey, I heard about the commotion before class. Have you really been exchanging notes with this mystery person?"

 "Yeah, why?" The girl said without looking up from the laptop.

 "How does it feel?" He said, leaning towards her.

 "How does what feel?"

 “Ahh, come on, I know you know what I’m talking about.” Minghao crossed his arms. "How does it feel to get notes from someone you don't know?"

 "It's nothing special." She said, not sounding enticed at all by his question.

 Junhui's heart drops for a bit, and Minghao tries not to give him a look.

 "If someone I barely knew was leaving me notes, it would definitely mean something." He said, trying to take a different route. “It’s exciting, isn’t it?”

 The corners of her mouth go up, trying to suppress a smile.

 "See?" Minghao said, half at her and half at Junhui. Her face started to turn red and she turned around to face away from Minghao.

 Her shoulders started to shake as she tried not to laugh. "Would you go away already?" She laughs, turning off her laptop and standing up. "It's nothing special, I just find it kind of cute that this person, whoever they are, is so clueless about how I feel."

 Minghao and Junhui exchange looks. She's definitely not confessing anything to them.

 "Ahhh, come on. How long have you had those notes from him?"

 "A while now." She answers, picking up her bag and laptop. She grabs her things and walks past the two of them, turning her head to look at them.

 "So what's the deal then?" 

 "We’ll see once I figure it out." She said finally, giving one last glance at the two boys. She briskly walked to the front of the room, passing her flash drive to the professor before she headed out of the room.

 Junhui finally released the breath that he never realized that he was holding. He leaned back in his chair as the professor reminded them that they have 20 more minutes to pass their outputs.

 "She likes you." Minghao said quietly.

 "Shut up." Jun said, but he can't help but smile.

 Just like that, Jun had been dropping small hints about himself. It made him really excited to see that she was also enjoying it. Her friends became just as invested as she was, but she always made sure that they wouldn't try to do a stakeout to figure out who the mystery writer was. On the other hand, Minghao had been working with Junhui to make it even more exciting. The idea came to him one night while they were hanging out at Junhui's dorm.

 "What about we attach a QR code and make it into a kind of treasure hunt?" Minghao said as he takes a bite of his chicken salad.

 "A QR code to what?"

 "To a music playlist." Minghao opened up the Spotify app on his phone. “They’ll enjoy trying to figure out each song. I’m pretty sure she isn’t the type to just listen casually to songs without understanding what the lyrics mean.”

 "Wait, isn't she going to know that I made it?"

 "Not if we make a new account to make it all anonymous." Minghao replied. "So, do you want to try it out and see their reaction tomorrow?"

 Junhui thought it through, kind of shy at the idea of making a playlist for someone. However, he went along with it. He tried his best not to include songs that would immediately give him away. With Minghao's help, he eventually printed out the QR code and stuck it on the sticky note. Junhui took out his pen and wrote above the code:

 It looks like you're really trying hard to figure out who I am. Check this out.

Then he got really nervous and turned the notepad over. Minghao gave him a look, but Junhui only rolled over on his bed, flustered at the idea. Junhui paused for a moment with his face buried in the pillows. "Okay, alright, I'll do it. I can do it."

 "Good." Hao hit him on the leg before getting up to clean his plate.

 The next day, the reactions were just as Minghao expected them to be. One of her friends immediately took out their phone to scan the code, ecstatic to find themselves at a Spotify playlist.

 At this point, they still didn't know who the secret admirer was, but one of them was starting to think it was Junhui. Although they never saw him put the notes on himself, Junhui always seemed to be around the area whenever she got the notes.

 However, they were never really able to find enough evidence that it was Jun, so it was all left as a theory on their side.

 Although the notes were there every single day for the past month, Jun suddenly stopped sending them. This wasn't because he was losing the mood for it, but because he wanted them to actually start figuring out who he was. He was happy that she had been getting curious, but he wanted to start going beyond just leaving notes on her table every morning. He wanted to go up to her and talk without getting shy, to hold her hand instead of imagining it. He didn’t expect that his feelings would grow like that.

 That's why he needed time. Time for them to actually talk to each other and not be simple classmates anymore.

 For the next two weeks, the notes just stopped, and they were left with only the Spotify Playlist as a hint for who the secret admirer was.

 They talked about it in class, some thought it might be a fellow student, while others thought it was too vague and might be someone outside of school. Fearing that she forgot about it, Jun left one final note for her to unravel.

 Junhui stood in the dim room early in the morning, pen and sticky note pad in hand. He leaned on the desk and writes his final message.

 Do you know who I am now?

 Jun paused for a moment, before adding the first hint he'd ever sent her.

 You can find me at night if you look up in the right direction.

 It was perfect for the occasion. There was going to be a full moon tonight with cloudless skies. She'd surely be able to find the moon. His last name isn’t necessarily the most common one out there. She should be able to figure that the moon was meant to point to him, Moon Junhui.

 And so, he left the notes for her. Jun quickly returned to his dorm. He was too nervous to go back to sleep and ended up playing games on his phone in an attempt to pass the time.

 However, when he went into class that morning, there seemed to be no fuss. The note was nowhere to be found and she was studying on her desk like she normally would.

 Anxiously, he glanced around, but there's nothing out of the ordinary. His heart began to race. Did she find his clue? Did she realize who he is? He'd have no way of finding out. The rest of the day felt like walking through the mud as Junhui tried to hold himself back from outright approaching the girl and declaring himself to be the secret writer all along.

 He was too nervous that he wouldn't know how to explain himself if she really did figure out who he was. At the same time, he wanted to finally take the next step forward, still slightly scared of how she might actually react.

 Just as he was about to lose all hope, the full moon finally appeared in the sky. Jun was on his way back to the dorm when he received a call from an unregistered number. "Hello?"

 "Did you run out of sticky notes? Is this why you haven't been sending me notes for the past few weeks?

 Jun stood frozen in the middle of the sidewalk. It was her. She finally figured it out. He opened his mouth to speak, but he didn't know what to say without stuttering.

 Jun stood there for a good ten seconds before the girl spoke up again, "Hello? Is this Junhui? Did I get the right number?" She started to hum some song on the other end, not hearing the silence from his end.

 "Uh, yeah...erm..." Jun managed to spit out. "How did you find out?"

 "Having 'moon' as the title of your playlist wasn't exactly the most mysterious thing, you know?" She said with a bright tone. “How I figured it out is a long story, so let’s just say that you sound a lot like the notes you were putting up.”

"So you've known for quite a while now?"

 "Yeah, I just didn't want to do anything yet before... checking out a few things." She pauses for a moment. "Are you free right now?"

 "Uh... yeah I am." Junhui managed to spit out, a bit more steadily than before now that he’s gotten himself together.

 "Good, because we need to talk. Don't be so scared, It's not bad news." She laughs at the other end. "Meet me at the department lobby in ten?"

 Jun gave her a small yes and dropped the call. With shaky hands, he quickly dialed Minghao and told him all about it.

 "Well, isn't that good? You're finally getting to where you want." His friend said nonchalantly.

 "That's the point! I didn't know it was suddenly going to happen like this!" Junhui paced back and forth. "I'm going to be a stuttering mess, I didn't prepare for this! Well I mean, I wanted this, but it’s just…AH!!"

 "Look, you're going to be fine. You're just nervous, that's all."

 "...Can't you come with me?"

 "Huh? Jun, I'm just going to be an awkward third wheel. You need to go to her yourself. I'm going to hang up, good luck."

 "Wait, no, Hao--" Before Jun could continue, his friend ended the call, leaving him alone in his nervousness.

 He had to go do this himself. If he didn't, he'd always regret it. Junhui gave himself a few slaps on the face before turning around to head back into their building.

 The lobby was found right at the entrance of their building. It had a small indoor garden with a few benches and tables. Jun fidgeted with his phone as he stepped in, looking for the familiar figure that he had been watching over all this time.

 When Junhui found her, he held his breath.

 This is it. This is finally it.

 She turned her head to look at him, smiling at him. She was sitting on one of the benches, her notebook filled with Junhui's notes on her lap.

 She stood up and walked towards him. "Hi."

 "H-hello." Jun says nervously, taking a small step back. "So you finally found out, huh?"

 "Well it wasn't that hard to figure out. It wasn't until I started noticing that you've been staring at me a lot during our classes that I was definitely sure that it was you."

 "I do?" He knew that he absolutely was, but he wasn’t aware that it was actually that obvious to her.

 "Yeah, you do. But I didn't mind it, if that's what you're wondering." She answers as if it was the most normal thing in the world to say. "One question though, why?"

 "Why what?"

 "Why do you like me? As far as I know, I'm not really the kind of girl that gets all the guys riled up. Being a study freak doesn’t really scream girlfriend material, you know? As far as I’m concerned, I even hear that people get intimidated by me for reasons I can’t really pinpoint.”

 "I... Eh..."

 "Don't worry about it, I'm not mad."

 A small laugh escaped from Junhui's mouth. "No, I don't think you would be."

 The girl looked at him patiently as Junhui takes a few moments to compose his thoughts. "Well, you're smart and outspoken, but I don't think that's something I should be intimidated about. I actually think it's pretty incredible that you stand up for what you believe is right. I don't know if you see it or not, but you become different when you concentrate on your work, well I mean, in a good way, of course."

 "You really think so?" She asked in disbelief, as if she didn't have a kind word for herself.

 "Yeah, I really think so." He nods, being completely sincere.

 The girl tilted her head a bit as if considering his compliments. Then, she returned her attention to her notebook.

 "You know, these notes really meant a lot to me." She said with a small voice. "I've been having a difficult time these past few months, but I didn't really tell anyone about it. Just when I was really getting sick of everything, your notes suddenly popped up into my daily life. For that, thank you so much."

 "You're welcome." Junhui pressed his lips together. "Do you mind if I ask you a question in return?"

 "Go ahead."

 "What do you think about me?" The question was out of his mouth before he could stop it. He immediately clamped his lips and cheeks shut, waiting for her answer.

 She laughed. "Don't be so nervous." She told him. "Well to be honest with you, I'm not yet sure. It's really the first time someone liked me in this way. I tried to think about it to settle my feelings, but I always get caught up doing something else in the middle of it. If anything... I guess you make me happy in a way?"

 "I make you happy?" He could barely believe she said that.

 "Yeah, that's it. You can make me really happy, or at least that's what I think you're capable of doing."

 "That's, that's great!" Junhui felt like he was floating.

 "I'm glad that it made sense to you." She grinned. "I don't know if I'd call it love just yet. Would you give me time to think it through?"

 "Uh, of course." He nodded. "I'd hate for you to make a hasty decision just because I reached out to you."

 "Alright. Thank you, Junhui."

 The both of them stood there in silence for a few seconds. Just ecstatic to know how they felt about each other. After all the initial anxiety and sneaking around, everything finally felt that it was worth it. Sure, he didn't know if she would ever reciprocate his feelings in the same way, but now that the cat's out of the bag, he felt that there really was something waiting for them at the end of the road. 

 Junhui can't help but smile like a kid.

 "Why are you looking at me like that?" The girl asked.

 "I'm just in shock. That's all." He smiles.

 She gives a small chuckle and looks away. "Your personality is very adorable, are you aware? If not, now you are."

 "Huh? What? Oh! No. Well, I mean I know, but I'm just surprised someone told me." He laughed nervously. Junhui cleared his throat. "So, do you want to grab some dinner with me? I know all the good Chinese restaurants around campus."

 The girl smiled. "I'd love to."

 That was the start of it all. At first, Junhui regretted not telling her earlier, but now he understands that it was just the perfect time for it. He was happy enough to have her by his side, slowly figuring out the complex intricacies of her personality one small piece at a time. It was a joy to know her, and an even greater joy to fall in love with her. It didn't matter that they were taking slow steps, what mattered to him is that they find peace in the pace that the other was on.

 This was more than enough for him.

[sigillaria-svt]

SEVENTEEN IN HOGWARTS HOUSES

Note: This is all based on personal opinion! This could change once they officially take the test and share their results. I based all of my classifications on various content like Hit the Road, Seventeen Project, Going Seventeen, SVT Club, and Weverse Posts. Who they are on the screen may not exactly be a whole representation who they actually are in real life. Thus, this is only based on what we know about them. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading!

CHOI SEUNGCHEOL/S.COUPS – Gryffindor

Here we have the brave and mighty leader of SEVENTEEN. As the head of the team, he often has to be the representative of his group. He takes care of his members and ensures that everyone is in the right place. Over the years, we’ve seen how much his members respect him and lean on him as the father figure of the group. We can see this in many of their contents, even from the start. He’s always been our dependable leader. So long as he is there, his members can be at ease.

 YOON JEONGHAN – Slytherin

This is the house that Jeonghan has often be sorted into by other fans, and for a very good reason. In almost all Going Seventeen episodes, he always ends up winning (even when he’s on the losing team). Jeonghan always finds a way out. Even though he isn’t the strongest person physically, he has one of the sharpest minds in the group. He’s incredibly smart and is able to think outside the box. This may extend beyond his appearances in variety shows—after all, he’s also one of the eldest members that everyone else relies on.

 HONG JISOO/JOSHUA – Hufflepuff

As we see in his “Hit the Road” episode, Joshua is incredibly hard-working. He’s the type who doesn’t stop working until he’s satisfied with his own work—literally someone who is unafraid of toil. Even during his trainee days, we’ve seen how much he put himself out there to learn and be better. Although his ‘gentleman’ agenda is sometimes taken as a joke, it is obvious that he is really gentle both in speech and in action. In many instances, we’ve also seen him hold his tongue and keep himself in place, showing great patience. He’s the older brother who can be at peace with anyone in the group and takes good care of his members.

 WEN/MOON JUNHUI – Hufflepuff

Another member who is commonly sorted into the same house is Jun, and again, for a very good reason. He is one of the most pure-hearted people I’ve ever seen. He’s energetic, carefree, and innocent—which results in his members having a strong affection for him. We see this in action especially during his time in CYZJ. He gets along with other contestants, even going out to give them advice and comfort them during stressful times in the show. Without spoiling anything, we see just how much he thinks about others before himself. He’s true to himself and opens his heart to others.

 KWON SOONYOUNG/HOSHI – Gryffindor

On stage, Hoshi’s influence on his members is very apparent. He has a fierce and passionate presence, able to bring energy back to his members in the middle of an exhausting performance. Even in daily life, he brings energy to the group. As the performance team leader, he’s put himself out there to ensure that SVT has the best choreographies and performances. He knows the way to go and is willing to put himself on the frontline to properly lead the team. When he has an idea, he’s not afraid to put it out there, which is why he is well-respected within the group.

 JEON WONWOO – Ravenclaw

Wonwoo is one of the quieter members. Although he doesn’t speak much, we know that he has a loud mind, which we often see in his poetic posts on Weverse. In different Going Seventeen episodes involving brain power, we’ve seen him take a leading role through his ways of analysis. He’s definitely one of the most intelligent members of the team. As someone who prefers to stay in the sidelines, he’s also developed a more keen sense of observation. We can see this especially in their Escape Room episodes, showing that he isn’t just a quiet member at the side. With a beautiful vocabulary and an intricate mind, we have a man that brings uniqueness to the team.

 LEE JIHOON/WOOZI – Ravenclaw

As the producer of the team, he’s quite literally SVT’s creative brain. He creates every creative lyrics wth a very good grasp of emotion. Nicknames like “Genius Producer” given to him are definitely well-deserved. Aside from that, he has a very quick mind and can make very witty comments, which makes him a very good host and commentator, as seen in GoSe and IF SEVENTEEN episodes. He must have a wide imagination and understanding of things to be able to write the songs that SVT has today.

 XU MINGHAO/THE8 – Slytherin

Whatever The8 wants to achieve, he puts everything into it. This is seen especially in his CYZJ episodes. He’s determined and he knows what he wants, and he’ll put himself out there to achieve his dreams. He knows how to make use of his skills and resources. We’ve often heard of The8 wanting to have the freedom to do what he wants. He surely has very wide dreams that he wishes to achieve one day. Without spoiling anything in CYZJ, he is someone who is willing to try again and again to get what he wants—his ambition pushes him to go beyond his limits.

 KIM MINGYU – Gryffindor

Mingyu is one of the more outgoing members of the team. He’s incredibly confident, which has enabled him to develop a good stage presence, earning new fans of the group from performances and variety show appearances. When they were in the US, he was even able to go around the city with limited English because of his confidence. His members rely on him a lot because he puts himself out into the frontlines. He’s not afraid to make mistakes, which helps him in exploring new things.

 LEE SEOKMIN/DK – Hufflepuff

DK is the literal sunshine of the group. He’s someone who easily trusts and believes (which at times, worries Jeonghan). He brings energy and lightness to the team through his sense of humor and affection. Aside from that, we see his dedication to his craft during the time when he had to prepare for his role as a lead actor in the Xcalibur musical. He had to wake up early and learn new skills, making sure to practice hard and give a perfect performance. He’s a ball of sunshine with a lot of grit and perseverance.

 BOO SEUNGKWAN – Hufflepuff

Through his hard work in getting into different variety shows, Seungkwan has played a large role in making SVT known to the general public. He even goes as far to personally approaching show staff and regulars to invite himself to variety show. Through his appearances, he finds his own way of promoting his group, even inviting his members along. He’s the type to easily make friends and bring the group together. For those he admires, he puts a lot of thought into the things that he does, and we can see that in the way that his seniors from After School responded to his efforts to give them a chance to perform again. He’s truly a lovely person.

 CHWE HANSOL/VERNON – Ravenclaw

Vernon is quite a unique member in SVT. He follows his own tide and his own style, which sometime make him seem like his head is in the clouds. However, he’s actually quite smart and curious about the things around him. In their escape room episodes, we see him leading the team through different puzzles. He has a good sense of intuition and strategy, which is why he’s very good at games like Mafia (Dance and Don’t Lie II). When he puts effort into it, he’s very good at figuring out hints and piecing things together.

 LEE CHAN/DINO - Slytherin

Lastly, we have our ambitious youngest in the team. Although he is the youngest, he is well respected because of his ability to lead the team in learning choreography. He’s always ready to get his ideas out there. In their stage performances, Dino has a really good sense of expression. His expression doesn’t fade and he’s always giving it his all whether he is at the back or at the center. He has the drive to give the best performance, and we can see more of this in his Hit the Road episode.

[sigillaria-svt]

Ferris Wheel

Pairing: Pianist!Wen Junhui x CollegeStudent!Reader

Word Count: 3,455

Genre: fluff, childhood friends, secret feelings, childhoodfriend!Joshua

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You sit in awe as you watch Jun, your childhood friend, perform in his first-ever solo piano concert. You've watched him grow up learning the piano day in and day out. It's always been his dream and you were happy to see him achieve it.

He was able to secure tickets to the front row seat just for you, and you were happy to see him perform up close. When he finishes all his pieces, he gets up from his seat and takes a bow. Jun smiles back at you before turning around to leave the stage.

After the show, you visit him backstage, bringing him a congratulatory bouquet for his successful concert. "You were great as always, but I'm really glad you managed to get me some front row tickets."

"I picked a good seat, didn’t I?” He says playfully.

Knowing you, of course, you wouldn't miss the chance to show the good side of your face." You hand him the bouquet. “Thank you for giving me a free pass, and at the front row, at that!”

"It's nothing," he says, looking away and playing with his bow tie. "I should be the one thanking you. Your support means a lot to me."

"Ehhhh, why are you being so shy? You should be proud of yourself!”

"I just...I've never performed for an audience like this before," he says. "I'm a little nervous."

You give a short laugh at his statement, but he doesn't seem amused. "Oh come on. You did well, incredibly well for your first concert. The crowd loved it as well. "

"I suppose..."

"Well, you're the one who always wanted to play the piano. How can you not be proud of such a great accomplishment?" you say.

There's a brief silence.

"Thanks..."

Before you can question him any further, he suddenly pulls you into a hug. You return the hug for a while before you both let go.

"Well, I should be off." He says, giving you a small nod.

"Hey, wait! Do you want to grab some food? It's on me. Think of it as a congratulatory gift."

"I can't, I have to practice in a few hours," he says sadly.

"Well, we still have a few hours, we won't eat for long. I insist."

He smiles once more and nods. "Yeah, sounds good."

The both of you make your way to the nearby Chinese restaurant, the one you two always ate at when you were in high school. You lead him to an empty table and begin to order your favorite meals. Soon enough, the two of you are eating your favorite foods and talking about anything that comes to mind.

"How's college?" Jun asks while taking a bite of his food.

"Oh, it's okay," you say. "A little difficult to adjust to, but I'm doing good. I miss hanging out with you. It was way easier when we had so much free time when we were in high school. "

"I missed that too," he says, "But things are certainly way easier now."

"How so?"

"Well, for one thing, I'm a full-fledged pianist now, instead of just a struggling one. Also, the girl I was dating broke up with me."

"What?!” You almost slam your hand on the table. You quickly lower your voice. “Wasn't she heads over heels for you? What happened?"

"Eh, she just tired of waiting. You know how she is."

You nod slowly, but something about the story doesn't feel right. "Waiting for what?"

"Waiting for me to become a success, of course. She said she couldn't wait around forever for me to achieve my goals."

"That's weird..."

"What?"

You purse your lips. "I mean, you've always been famous around the school for being a good pianist, but it's not like you're going to earn money overnight."

"It was for the best anyway. It showed that she was really just after the fame and not... Me." He says sadly, running his spoon through his bowl of soup.

With a burst of energy and anger, you puff your chest. "Hey, don't get yourself down! What are you, huh? You're funny, friendly, a good pianist, handsome, and a pretty good guy! She doesn't know what she lost. Hey, if she ever comes back, don't say yes, alright?!"

"Hah, yeah. Don't worry, I'll hold out for the real thing."

"Yeah, you always do."

You laugh it off, but to be honest, you were a bit disappointed. You held feelings for Jun when you were younger, but let go of him when he found a girlfriend. Now that she broke up with him for a shallow reason, you were so mad. You knew how good of a guy Jun was, and how much he treasured the people that are close to him.

You wouldn't be able to forgive such an insult. Surely he would see that.

"I have to go, my piano teacher is calling," Jun says.

"Alright, take care on your way there."

"I will. Later."

The both of you give a little wave to each other. Jun then leaves you to your own thoughts, while you ponder why you had such a strange feeling about this.

You pay up at the counter before heading back to your dorm.

When you get into the building, you see Joshua hanging out in the dorm lobby. Along with Jun, he was one of your classmates in high school and ended up forming a close friendship as a trio. Joshua ended up going to the same university as you studying psychology, while Jun ended up in a different music university.

"Hey, Josh!"

He looks up at you with a smile, waving his phone at you. "Hey, how was the concert? It's sad that I couldn't go because of exams."

"It was good. I think Jun was really happy to hear that your results came out well." You quickly take a seat next to him, putting your bag on the table. "And you know what? He just broke up with his girlfriend. I didn't see that coming. "

"Really? What for?"

"Shallow reasons. It makes me upset."

"Hmmm." Joshua says, nodding and looking away. "What do you plan on doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if he's broken up with his girlfriend, do you think you could possibly...?"

"What? No! Josh, I..." You unintentionally stutter at the thought. Although Jun was clueless, Joshua knew everything. When you first found out about Jun getting a girlfriend, you cried at his house for hours. You didn’t want to admit it, but you knew you still had a bit of lingering feelings for Jun. "I mean, you know already, right? I let go of him years ago. I thought he'd be better off with you know... Someone better. "

"Someone better? That sounds very final!"

"I'm just saying, that it would be a better path for him."

"Let's hang out with him over the weekend. It wouldn't do good for him to keep thinking about it while he traps himself in practice." Joshua says, flipping through his phone to look for Jun’s contact number.

"Trapping himself in practice? You really think so?"

"Yeah, I do. Just trust me on this one." Joshua says with a sigh.

Well, it's one way to look at it you suppose.

"Let's take him to an amusement park. It's about time we bring out his inner child again."

"An amusement park? I've wanted to go to an amusement park for so long! Alright, let's go!"

You trust Joshua to invite Jun to the amusement park. Although you weren't a fan of the fast rides, you knew that it would make Jun and Joshua happy. The next day, both of you get on a bus from the university to the nearby theme park. The both of you get down just in time for the park to open.

"So, have you been to this amusement park before?" you ask.

"I've been here multiple times, but this is Jun's first time." He says. Joshua looks around, looking for the familiar tall figure. "There he is."

You wave to Jun as he walks towards the two of you, a big smile across his face.

"Hey Jun, I'm glad you managed to get yourself some free time," Joshua says.

"Yeah, I could use a breather," Jun replies.

"Man, these rides really take it out of you, don't they?"

"That's why they're fun." Joshua replies as the three of you may your way to the line to buy entrance tickets. Although the two men are ecstatic, you feel a churning feeling in your core. You’ve never been a fan of heights, and of the three, you were the one that easily got seasick. You knew that this was going to be a long day, but you wanted to make it a good one to cheer up Jun.

Jun looks over at you, who seems to be looking pale at the sight of all the tall rollercoasters. "Are you going to be fine?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." You say. "Just... Never ridden a rollercoaster before. Not exactly the most confidence-inspiring rides. Besides, there's a first time for everything, right?"

"Yeah, there is." Jun replies, giving you a smile.

Your stomach starts doing flips as you remember that you need to get on that ride eventually. Eventually, the three of you get tickets for unlimited rides and head over to the first ride. The three of you get onto the roller coaster, which is about to begin boarding.

"Hold on to your butts!" the attendant jokes, and the two of them have a good laugh. You, on the other hand, simply smile awkwardly.

To be honest, you feel like you're taking the rollercoaster ride to your death.

The ride starts, and you scream the whole time. The roller coaster takes a wild turn through the inversion and while you're going at a pretty decent speed, you don't feel quite right. Over to your right, you see Jun and his large gummy smile.

"This is so fun! I wish I can do this all day!" he screams.

The rollercoaster takes a bunch of twists and turns, throwing you around left and right. You hold on to the restraints for dear life, your knuckles turning white at the effort. Eventually, you let out a deep, heavy sigh as the coaster finally comes to a stop, leaving you disheveled and nervous. Beside you, Jun vibrates in excitement. He's laughing like a kid as the restraints go up.

"Let's do it again!" he says.

You and your best friend laugh, then quickly sober up as you realize that you are at an amusement park after all.

"Let's get on a softer ride before we go back on this one."

"Alright!" Jun says excitedly.

Jun walks ahead of you and Joshua, excited to get on the next one.

Joshua leans closer to you. "If you feel sick, just let me know so I can help calm him down, alright?"

You nod, and follow after Jun.

There's a giant inflatable slide ahead of you that has a giant inflatable ball on it.

"I want to go on that!" Jun squeals.

"That's a lot of fun, huh?" You say back.

After a few minutes of waiting in line, you get onto the giant inflatable slide.

"Come on!" Jun excitedly takes your hand and pulls you to the slide.

You sit down in the middle of the slide, and let out a laugh as the inflatable ball inflates in front of you. As you and Jun glide down the slide, you look at your childhood friend. His bright, beautiful smile makes you feel at ease. Slowly, steadily, you let all your worries and concerns wash away. Compared to his pale face just after the concert, he seems happier now. That's enough to satisfy you.

As you both laugh and have an enjoyable time, the three of you ride the giant inflatable slide again and again. After about half an hour, you finish off the giant slide and get onto the next ride.

To those that don't know Jun, he may seem like a calm and cool pianist, but in reality, he's the most energetic man-child you know. He screams with joy with practically every ride he gets on.

You and Joshua manage to calm him down by convincing him to eat lunch and go on soft rides to prevent indigestion. You all sit together on the side of the park, munching on the lunch Joshua brought from home.

"After all these years, your mom's sandwiches are still the best, Josh." You say.

"Aren't they though?"

You smile and nod in reply. You take another bite of the sandwich, enjoying the stringy meat as it slides down your throat.

"I'll go buy some drinks." Joshua says. "Anything you guys want?"

"I'll have orange juice." You say.

"I'll have one of those drinks too, please." Jun says.

"Alright, I'll be back." Joshua says.

You and Jun continue to eat and chat as you wait for Joshua. You take a bite of the sandwich and start up the conversation. "Man, it feels like yesterday we all first met in music class. That was such a different time, you know?"

"Yeah..."

"Joshua and I were learning guitar for fun, and somehow we both ended up in majors completely unrelated to music.

"Yeah, I remember. Good old days." Jun says, his tone suddenly turning somber. "I just... Don't know what I'm going to do after college."

"What do you mean? You're going to be a professional pianist! I'll go to all your shows and buy all your releases!"

"Oh, you will?"

The two of you laugh as you take another bite of your sandwich. "Well I mean, if it gets expensive, I'll split the cost with Josh"

Moments later, Joshua comes back with the drinks.

"Here you are." He says, handing you each a small cup of orange juice.

"Thanks, Josh." You say, taking a sip from your cup.

The three of you finish your lunch and walk around before getting on the merry-go-round that's in the center of the park. As you slowly turn, you think about how much has happened since you first met. Your friendship with Joshua and Jun has strengthened and gotten closer to what it is now. You were happy to have these guys with you in your life. You pull out your phone and take a selfie with the three of you on the ride.

'Best friends.' You think to yourself with a smile.

You look up at the Ferris wheel. There are a few people still waiting to get on, along with a little girl and her mother.

"Let's get on the Ferris wheel later on during sunset." Joshua says. "The view of the city will be beautiful during that time."

"Yeah, a Ferris wheel sounds fun." You reply.

For the next few hours, you and your friends ride all the rides, eat all the food, and enjoy every moment you can. Even though you and Joshua are almost out of energy, Jun is as happy and energetic as ever.

He mainly uses his phone to take pictures and videos of himself. It came to a point where you could barely stand because of the dizziness, so you and Joshua had to stop him from riding any of the roller coasters.

Eventually, the sunset comes around, and you three fall in line for the Ferris wheel. Just as the three of you were about to step in, Joshua pulls out his phone as if to pick up a call.

"Oh man, wait I need to take this call." He says, even though you see no sign of a call on his screen. Joshua pushes the both of you in. "Go on without me."

You didn't have time to think before he closes the door and leaves you and Jun alone in the cart. The Ferris wheel turns, taking you and Jun higher at a slow pace. Somehow, being alone with him makes your heart beat faster. You look over at Jun, who's looking out to the city as the orange light hits his face. It's a new experience for you, being this close to him. The two of you don't say a word, just take in the view.

"Hey, I want to tell you something." Jun says quietly.

You turn your head to him, who seems to sit uncomfortably in his place.

Jun takes a deep breath in. "I'm afraid that if we stay friends, I'll lose you as we grow up. You're a really important person to me, and I don't want to lose you."

A lump forms in your throat. "Don't worry about that." You tell him. "We'll always be friends. No one is taking you away from me."

Jun looks down for a moment, and then looks back at you he stares at you for a moment, hesitating. "I love you." He blurts out.

You stare at him in shock while he quickly adds, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that! Just forget I said it!"

"No, don't--"

Before you can say anything further, Jun buries his face into his hands.

You say "Jun?"

"I can't take this anymore." He says in frustration. "We can still be friends if you want. I'll leave you alone if that's what you want."

"Wait, Jun, look at me."

Jun raises his face, refusing to look you in the eyes.

"Calm down, you haven't even heard my reply yet." You lean forward to put your hand on his knee. "You love me? In... That way? "

"I... I'm sorry, but yes."

"Oh..." You exhale. "Why are you apologizing?"

"I don't know!"

"Well, I'm glad you finally said it." You laugh. "All this time I've been holding back because I thought you would never like someone like me."

"That's not true! I do like you! I probably just held back saying it because I didn't want you to leave."

"Well, why would I leave, Jun?" You ask. "You're basically my best friend, and I'm happy spending time with you."

"But, what if I change?"

"You won't."

"What if something makes you so mad at me, that you won't want to be with me anymore?" He says softly, opening himself up to be vulnerable for the first time in years.

"We've had dozens of fights ever since we were kids. But I'm still here."

"What if it's worse than those?"

"Well, we'll deal with it then."

"But what if it's something you can't fix?"

"Then I guess we won't deal with it." You say. "We'll just accept it when it happens."

"Oh." He exhales. "That... That sounds a little bit easier than I thought it would be."

"Easier?" You laugh in disbelief. "Of course it's easier. If things get to a point where we can't deal with it, then we'll still accept each other.”

"Yeah..."

"We'll get through it together."

"I know we will."

Jun links his legs with yours, gently playing around with his fingers.

"I was really scared that I would lose you to someone else." He says.

"Like who?" You laugh.

"Like, maybe even a boy you met at the park."

"That's not gonna happen, I promise." You assure him.

"I know."

"How are we going to explain this to Joshua when we get down?"

"He'll probably figure it out even if we don't say anything." Jun says. "He's pretty smart."

"True..."

Before you know it, the Ferris wheel stops and the two of you exit. When you get down, you see Joshua on his phone on one of the benches. He looks up at the both of you with a smile. You return his smile and walk over to him.

"Hey, guys." He says. "How did it go?"

"It was good!" You answer.

Joshua looks over at Jun, who seems to be pretending that nothing happened. "Say what, let me take a photo of you guys. It's both your first time at this park, we need to document this."

You look at both of your young faces and give each other a look. After a brief moment, when you understand that the other is going through with this, you nod. Joshua takes a photo of the both of you with the Ferris wheel in the background, a large grin on his face

"Perfect." He says, returning his phone to his pocket. "Let's go and take a break at the cafe."

Joshua walks ahead of you and Jun, and you both follow. Jun shyly links his pinky with yours, swinging his arms around happily.

"Thank you for coming with me, I really had a good time here." He says.

"Anytime." You smile. - END -

[sigillaria-svt]

Apartment Dates

One-Shot Scenario

Pairing: Choi Seungcheol x Reader

Word Count: 1,789

Genre: Fluff, slice of life ▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪

You put your bag down on the sofa, looking around at the apartment that you haven’t visited in almost half a year. Due to your work schedule, it has been a bit difficult to meet each other. Now that you finally managed to convince your boss to give you a weekend off, you spend the day at his apartment.

You lay on the sofa and stare at him.

"Just as soft as when you last visited, right?" he says cheerfully. "Did you miss me?"

"Of course, I couldn't have survived without you," you smile. "Can I get a hug?"

He laughs and hugs you. "It's been too long," he says.

You sigh. "Too long is an understatement, it's been months. I really, really miss spending time with you."

He frowns and hugs you tightly. "I'm sorry, I should've visited you sooner."

You sigh again. "And get in trouble for sneaking out again? The last time you did that, your manager almost went crazy.”

He laughs.

You say "Let's go and make lunch. I heard you've been learning how to cook pasta recently. "

"Yeah, I learned how to make pasta from Joshua.” He smiles. “I’m still learning, don’t get your hopes up. I think I still have some ingredients left from the last time Joshua and Jeonghan came over.”

"How about we head to the supermarket nearby? Let’s get snacks for later.”

He lets out a small groan. “But we just got here…”

You hold his hand and look up at him. “Cookies and cream ice cream? Please?”

After a big sigh, he grabs his bag and hurries over to the front door.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” You say with a wide smile.

You quickly get up from the sofa and the both of you walk out to the grocery store nearby. You hold on to his elbow as you walk, looking around at the bustling city. On your way to the store, you start to reflect on your relationship.

You never thought that you and Cheol would end up together when you first met. To be honest, you hated each other's guts because neither of you wanted to back down. It wasn't until later on that you realized that he had a great sense of love and protection for his friends. As the leader, he had to make sure that he stood his ground, but only because he had to do what was best for the team.

Later on, you figured out he was a kind person who just likes to have fun. You knew he would be the first one to help you out if you were in trouble because that's just the kind of person he is. When you messed up a job a few years back, it was Cheol that came running in the middle of the night to help out. You would've never thought he would've done that and that's why you realized just how much you actually liked him.

The both of you arrive at the grocery store. You look around and see that there's hardly anyone else around.

"Let's go into the bakery section," you say. You browse through the pastries while Cheol grabs a few. "Let's get some garlic bread. It'll taste great with the pasta. "

"Yeah, and it'll help me survive the garlic breath I'll have for a week," he laughs.

You and Cheol look at each other and laugh as you both find the garlic bread aisle.

"Oh come on, you're not going to have garlic breath for that long."

"I sure will!" he laughs again, "You’ll be tasting garlic bread for the entire week too.”

He winks at you.

"What?" You say, slightly flustered.

"Let's get some ice cream.” He grins as he heads to the ice cream aisle, satisfied at his attempt to rile you up.

"What are you talking about?"

He leans in and whispers into your ear. "We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

You can't help but blush at the thought. It doesn't help that you always seem to wear your heart on your sleeve. The thought of this makes you feel embarrassed and vulnerable. But with him being the way he is, you always expect him to do something weird like this so you don't really know how to react.

You try to not smile or make eye contact and look down as you grab the pint of mint chip. "Let's get out of here."

"I got you a bit excited, didn't I?" He said teasingly. "You're so shy. I'll have to work on that."

"Shut up," you say, not wanting to have this conversation for multiple reasons.

The both of you make your way to get the snack aisle. However, Cheol's hands never seem to leave your waist, making you even more flustered. You want to pull away, but you also don't. He's being especially close, even more than how he was this morning. You got shy whenever he did this in public, but he seems to enjoy getting a rise out of you.  He gives you a small smirk when he sees how red your face has become. Although you missed him so much, you never seem to get used to public acts of affection.

“You’re going to be mine for the rest of the weekend.” He says

"Don't say that in public, what if someone heard you?!" You try to hush him.

"What's wrong, are you ashamed of how much you miss me?"

"No! I just... don't say things like that out loud!"

You two eventually get to the counter and Cheol takes out his wallet to pay. He takes out enough money to pay for everything.

“You’re paying for all of it?” You ask.

“Why not? I’ve got money to spend.” He looks over at you and nods. “If you want to pay for anything, you can do it later at the apart—”

You pinch his side and give the cashier an awkward smile. The cashier puts the food into two bags and gives them to you.

"Thank you."

The both of you make your way back to the apartment. "You're welcome," he says with a wink as you both walk out of the store.

When you arrive back at the apartment, you put the ice cream in the fridge as Cheol prepares the ingredients for your lunch. The scent of garlic and onions fill the apartment, making your stomach grumble. You walk into the kitchen, seeing Cheol chopping up the garlic and onions. You roll up your sleeves and help him with boiling the pasta.

The whole time he's flirting with you, he begins to move closer to you.

"Why are you acting like this?" You ask him.

He takes a deep breath and speaks, "Why not? Don't you like it?"

You stop what you're doing and stare at him.

He continues, "I thought you said you wanted to spend the weekend with me. If that’s the case, let’s spend it like we’re spending two months together.”

"No... It's not that I don't like it. I love you, I really do.” You couldn’t help the thought that’s been disturbing you for the past few months. You didn’t want to bring it up because you knew that it would just make everything awkward.

Still, you take the shot. You love him too much to hide what you really feel from him. “Don’t you ever get tired of me?”

"What do you mean?" He says while stirring the pasta slowly.

"It's because of me that we haven't met in months. I was the one who decided on my work schedule, and even when I didn't have work, I stayed at home all day to sleep. "

He stops stirring the pot and looks at you. He then goes back to stirring.

"If I wasn't ready to deal with all that, I would have broken up with you a few months ago when you first told me about your new schedule," he says. "But I didn't."

You say nothing to this, it's obvious he's willing to put up with a lot because of how much he loves you.

"I love you," he says as he gets closer to hug you.

"I love you too."

He puts his arms around you and lays his head on your shoulder. Over the next few hours, you and Cheol enjoy your time together. What was meant to be a peaceful lunch turned out into a rollercoaster of topics. You talked about everything that you couldn’t over the phone. At some point, you shared about this coworker that’s been getting on your nerves, almost riling Cheol for a fight. There was so much to talk about, and yet so little time.

Eventually, the both of you had to clean up after three hours of talking. After cleaning up, both of you snuggle over at the sofa as you watched a movie. The two of you laugh when certain scenes came up and you hit him when certain ones came up. You didn't really realize movies could make you laugh so hard, but you enjoyed it. But to be honest, you only enjoyed it so much because it was with Cheol.  Without him, you wouldn't really find anything about this movie all that funny.

After the movie, you and Cheol head over to his room to sleep. You drift off to sleep with a smile on your face. After a few hours, you wake up. You look at your alarm clock. It's 8 AM.

You look over to your right and find Cheol soundly sleeping.  You hesitate to wake him up, happy to see him sleeping like a log. A loud buzzing noise makes you jump up. You look around and find it to be your alarm clock.

You quickly turn it off, but Cheol ends up awake. He looks at you with a smile.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." He says, half-awake.

"I should be saying the same to you," you respond, sitting up. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Mmmm." He replies, pulling you back down to the bed for more snuggles. “Five more minutes.”

You couldn’t help but laugh. For such a tall man, he was always like a child when he just got up from bed. You decide to spend the rest of the morning with him in bed.

“What am I going to do with you, Choi Seungcheol?” You say as you stroke his hair.

He snuggles more into you at the sound of his name from your lips. In moments like this, it made you remember why you fought to keep this relationship in the first place. You wouldn’t trade him for anything else in the world. - END -

[sigillaria-svt]

Weekend Drives

Pairing: Idol!Choi Seungcheol/S.Coups x Reader

Word Count: 5,654

Warning: None

Genres: fluff, slice of life, weekend together

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Synopsis: For the past several years, you have been working hard in building your career and working yourself near the point of burnout. One person that has always been your stronghold during these times has been Seungcheol. You’ve known each other since you were in college, but it’s only been a few years since you started dating. Although you were completely happy just the way everything is, Seungcheol has something else in mind.

READER POV You slowly push down on the breaks of your car as the stoplight turns red just as you were about to reach the intersection. It was almost midnight, but you’ve just gotten off from work. Your team was preparing for a big project next week, and everyone had to stay late to finish everything on time. Although these busy seasons happened for only about a week or two, it still drained you to drive several miles home late at night only to get up early the next morning.

Tonight in particular, the tiredness was getting to you. You try to keep yourself awake, but your eyes are on the verge of closing themselves shut. When the stoplight turns green, it takes you a few seconds to notice and push on the gas pedal. Thankfully, there were barely any cars on the small road you were on.

Moments later, your phone rings, jolting you awake as the name of your caller pops out of the small screen just beside the steering wheel. You tap the receive button on the screen, his voice filling your car through the speakers.

“Hey.” Seungcheol says, who also seems tired from the other side of the call. “Are you home?”

“No, not yet. Took us a bit of time to finish editing and reviewing today.” You take a left turn at an intersection, making your way to the bridge that connects you to your home city. “I’m sorry if I haven’t been able to reply to your messages lately. I’ll make it up to you once we’re done with the launching, I promise.”

“No, it’s okay. Don’t be sorry. Keep doing what you’ve always been doing. I’ll be waiting, just tell me if you need anything.” He replies softly. During stressful times in your life, he has always been generous with his time and affection, so much so that you regret not being able to give the same back to him. “Should I hang up? You must still be driving right now.”

“No, you can stay on the line. I need someone to talk to so that I won’t fall asleep on the road.” You say, now near the middle point of the bridge. “How was your day?”

“We just got back to the dorm after practicing for a performance. It would be nice if you could watch us live, but I think it’s going to be on the day of your project’s launching.” You hear a few muffled noises as he shifts in his place over at the other side. “We also got some fruit from our manager today. Do you want me to come over and bring you some?”

“I live an hour away from your place, you should be taking time to rest.” You reply halfheartedly. You really wanted to meet him--it’s been almost a month since the both of you went out together, but you didn’t want him to go out of his way.

After a short pause, Seungcheol continues. “I really wish that we lived closer to each other. I miss you so much.” From his tone, you know that he’s pouting from the other side. “I don’t care how tired I’m going to be, I’m going to come over and visit you once you’re done with your project.”

You finally break out a smile. For such a tall and strong person, Seungcheol had always been soft when it comes to you. Many times have you heard your peers call him intimidating, but you know that he is far from what he shows on the stage.

“I’ll take that as a promise. Let’s eat something nice when you do come over. I heard that Joshua has been teaching you how to cook pasta lately.” You reply, now feeling more awake.

“Sure, sounds like a plan.” He says with a small laugh. “Where are you at right now?”

“At the highway. I’ll probably get home in ten minutes.”

“Alright. Tell your mom that I said hi, and that I’d bring over some oranges when I come over.” He says, remembering your mom’s love for citrus fruits. To be honest, it always made you so happy whenever he’d think about your family. Your family adores him too, so there’s really nothing to complain about.

“I will. See you next week, then. I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Over the next few days, Seungcheol starts to call you more frequently. He tries to match the time when you’d be having a break, may it be during lunch or during your ride going home. Usually, those talks would happen for a minute or two, but it was enough to brighten your day--and hopefully, his as well. Although it wasn’t unusual for him to call you, it was a bit odd of him to call you that frequently. Perhaps he’s been getting really stressed out at work. At one particularly stressful period, he stayed over at your house for the whole day just to snuggle and recharge. You knew that if he was particularly close than usual, he was in need of someone to lean on. So, despite your busy schedule, you always made it a point not to miss a single call.

However, one time during a prolonged meeting a night before the launch, you were unable to pick up. You quickly find a quiet spot outside the office and call him back.

“Hey, I’m sorry I couldn’t pick up your call. I was in a meeting.”

“You’re having a meeting this late into the night?”

You check your wristwatch, seeing that it’s already 12:54 AM. “Oh wow, I didn’t know we took that long. We’re just making the final preparations for the launching tomorrow. Thankfully, we got everything settled.” You try to force a smile. “More importantly, how are you doing? You have a performance tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah. The kids and I got back to the dorms a few hours ago. The managers told us to have a good meal so we went out for a bit.” He replies. “Get home safely, alright?”

“Yeah, I will. Good luck on the performance tomorrow.” You shift your weight to your other leg. “I’m sorry that we couldn’t talk long.”

“It’s alright, hearing your voice is good enough for me. I love you, good night.”

“Love you too, sleep well.”

Just like that, the call ends. You can’t count the number of times you had to say sorry to him for not being that available. He assures you every time that it’s alright, but you wanted to actually be there for him, and not just be a voice on a phone call.

With your worries in hand, you return back to the office to get your things and head home to get as much sleep as you could before the hectic schedule prepared for you a few hours later.

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Although the launching event finishes at 4 PM, you take a few more hours with the team to help with the clean-up and logistics. By the time you finally finish, Seungcheol’s performance is long done. You quickly make your way back home tired but relieved that it’s all finally over.

Just as he promised, he’s already at your house, talking to your brother in the living room.

“Hey, you’re home.” He says with a smile, although he couldn’t really hide the tiredness in his eyes. “How was the event?”

You nod with a smile, changing into your house slippers as you come in. “It was good. There were more people than we expected, but we managed.” You take a seat across Seungcheol, right next to your brother. “Do you have a recording of your performance earlier? Let’s watch it together.”

Seungcheol takes out his phone and pulls up a video of their performance that was posted on YouTube. You smile the entire time, happy to see him doing what he loves. When the video is over, you give him excited applause.

“We did great right?”

“That’s was really, really good. I mean it.” You put a hand over his knee. “I mean your performances were always good, but you’ve really given it a big twist this time.”

He smiles and puts his phone back in his pocket. “This was the last performance we had for this promotion period, so we all wanted to end it with a blast.” He gets up and gently pulls on your wrist. “More importantly, it’s about time we make dinner.”

“You guys haven’t eaten yet?” You ask as you get up from the couch and move over to the kitchen corner.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about us,” Your brother says, not looking up from his phone. “I’ll be taking mom and dad to our grandparents’ house for dinner, then we’ll be staying over for the weekend.”

“So we’ll just be cooking for two, then?” You ask Seungcheol, who’s already getting the ingredients ready.

“Three, if you’re feeling extra hungry for pasta tonight.” He says, handing you an apron hanging from one of the walls. “And a movie afterward?”

“Sure.” You reply, a bit too enthusiastic than you would want your brother to hear. You slightly lean into him, but quickly pull away to a safer distance. 

Although you and Seungcheol have been dating for four years, you’ve never been openly sweet to him when your family was around. Even if they were fine with the relationship, they have always been more on the conservative side.

Seungcheol proceeds to prepare the pot of boiling water, reaching up to open one of the cupboards. While he faces his back to the living room, you take a small peek at your brother. You’re surprised to find him looking back at you.

Even without saying anything, he understood what your gaze meant.

“Go ahead and do what you like, the house is yours for the weekend.” He says quietly with a shrug. “Just you know... don’t go overboard.”

You could feel your face heat up. “What do you mean by that?!”

Just in time, your mom and dad descend from the stairs, bringing with them bags with clothes for the weekend. When they see you, they give you a small greeting. Your mom gives a wide smile, but you could feel your dad linger a bit too long on Seungcheol.

“Ready to go?” Your brother asks, getting up from the sofa. “Did you make sure to bring all your meds?”

Your mom nods and moves over to hand her bags to your brother. Meanwhile, your father stands there near the kitchen, unmoving for a moment. Seungcheol looks up from the kitchen counters and gives him a small smile.

Without saying anything else, your dad nods and looks at the both of you before heading out the front door. 

“See you this Sunday, sweetie.” Your mom says, giving you a small peck on the cheek. “Call us if anything comes up, alright?”

“Alright, have a safe trip. Oh, and bring back some strawberries if they have some.” You reply with a hug.

You hear the familiar sound of your dad’s old car, and moments later they’re out of the house and on the road. When he hears the car leaving the garage of the house, Seungcheol puts his hand on your waist and pulls you closer to him. He leans his head on your shoulder and gives a big sigh.

“I miss you so much, you know?” He says softly, almost melting into you.

You put the jar down on the counter and run one of your hands through his hair. “This week was rough, wasn’t it?”

He nods into your shoulder before pulling away. He checks the pot and finds the water boiling. You hand him the salt and the uncooked pasta, and he carefully places them in the pot.

“We had a few fights with the kids this week.” He says, leaning one of his arms on the counter as he stirs the pasta with his other hand. “I don’t know, maybe everyone was getting sensitive because of everything that’s going on.”

“Were you able to talk it out?” You say, putting your hand over his.

“Yeah, it’s all good now. It’s just... you know, that lingering feeling after an argument?” He says. “I feel like it’s my fault for not really going a good job.”

You lean your head on his shoulder, trying to comfort him the best that you can. “But you know you did all that you could, right? I know that you feel disappointed in yourself a lot, but I’ve always been proud of you for everything that you’re doing--perfect or not.”

He gives a nod and turns his head to put a kiss on your forehead. “Thank you.”

You spend the rest of the night cooking dinner and talking about all the things that you couldn’t over your series of phone calls. All the anxieties that have been building up, all the frustrations and disappointments. Time flew by so fast that midnight eventually came without a single movie watched. If not for a random call from your coworker, you would have stayed up until morning without a single dish washed.

“You cooked most of the meal tonight, I’ll wash the dishes this time.” You say as you pick up his plate and walk to the sink. “You still want to watch a movie after this?”

“I want to talk a bit more.” He says as he walks to you and puts his head on yours. “You didn’t finish your story about the broken photocopier.”

You laugh a bit at his pouting. “It’s not much of an exciting story. Just a little inconvenience that made me skip lunch trying to fix it so that I don’t have to pay for it.” You continue to wash the plates even with his weight on you.

“And what about the guy that helped you out?”

“Oh, him? He’s a guy from another branch that was brought over to help with the hectic preparations. And...” You stop in your tracks. “Wait, are you jealous?”

He doesn’t reply, but stands there behind you, shifting his weight from one foot to another. You quickly rinse off the plates and forks and put them over the metal rack next to the sink.

You turn around to see him a bit sad. “You don’t have to be jealous. You’re the one here with me right now, not him. Besides, he already went back to the main office. I’m not going to meet him again.”

You cup his face in your hands and give him a small kiss on his chin. “Are you alright? Do you want to head over to bed?”

“It’s okay, you’re mine for the rest of the weekend.” He intertwines his hands with yours and leans his forehead on yours. “Let’s go.”

The both of you make your way to your bedroom upstairs, but not before making sure that all the lights downstairs are turned off and all the doors locked. You grab your pajamas and head over to the bathroom to change. When you got back to your room, you see Seungcheol snuggled up well under your sheets.

You stroke his hair before getting under the sheets with him. “What do you want to do tomorrow?” You ask him, who seems to already be half asleep.

“Let’s watch a movie for real this time.” He mumbles, pulling you closer to him until you’re completely within his arms. He burrows his nose into your shoulder and breathes in. “Let’s go for a drive tomorrow evening. I want to go to that spot in the mountain with the city view.”

“That sounds great.” You say as you trace circles on his forearm. “Let’s bring my Polaroid camera, it’s been a while since we went out on a drive.”

“Mmmhmmm.” You could feel his breaths become slower and deeper. He must have had a really tiring day to fall asleep right away like this.

To be honest, you’re really proud that both of you held out for this long. Your parents made it clear from the first day of the limitations in place before marriage, and although it frustrated you and Suengcheol, he really tried his best to follow through, out of respect for your parents. Even though there were many times when he disagreed with your parents on the inside, there was not a moment where he didn’t respect them; it made you love him all the more.

“Cheol, are you asleep?”

No reply.

“Well, just in case you are, I want to thank you, really. Thank you for always keeping up with me even when you were busy with all the things going on. I love you so much.”

You feel him pull you even closer to him. “I love you too.”

“So you’re awake after all?” You say with a small laugh.

“I wanted to know what you’d say to me if I were asleep.” He gives you a small kiss on your shoulder. “I’m always more than glad to give what I can to you, don’t think that my sacrifices for you are a burden to me.”

Hearing those words makes your eyes water. Even though you know that he loves you, hearing those words from himself washes you over with a wave of reassurance. Although you’ve never doubted it, during a night like this, you become more certain that you really are safe when you’re with him.

“So stop beating yourself up for all the times when you think that you haven’t repaid my love enough. I do all this for you because I love you, not because I need you to pay me back. Alright?”

At this point, tears flow out no matter how hard you try not to let them. “Yes, I’m sorry.” You couldn’t keep the shakiness out of your voice. “Well... you know, I can’t put it to words. I’m just so sorry.”

“No, don’t be.” He puts a hand over your forehead and you turn to bury your head in his chest. He strokes your hair and continues to speak softly, “I understand that we can’t always be together, but being with you tonight and holding you close is more than enough for me. You don’t know how much comfort I feel just by being by your side.”

“Why do you have to say it like that, you’re making me tear up even more.”

“You don’t like it?”

“No, no, it’s very reassuring. Thank you.” You wipe your tears off, giving him a kiss on his jaw.

“Is that all?” He looks down at you and leans in closer. “Can I get more?”

This time, you let out a bigger laugh. “You’re such a baby for someone your age.” You say lovingly. Despite it, you lean in and meet his lips. He smiles as he kisses you back, all while keeping his hands on your waist.

After a few seconds, he pulls back. “Let’s stop here, we might not end until morning.” He says, planting one last kiss on your cheek. “Let’s rest well, we have the entire weekend, anyway.”

“Alright, alright.” You say softly. “Good night, for real this time.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

With that, the both of you fall into a deep sleep, tangled in each other’s arms.

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When you wake up, you find yourself alone on the bed with Seungcheol’s scent still lingering faintly on the bedsheets. You shuffle in your place, trying to get yourself adjusted as you ready yourself to get up. After a brief stretch, you pull the bedsheets off of you and head over to the bathroom to wash your face.

“You up?” You hear Seungcheol from downstairs.

“Yeah.” You mumble, still half asleep. 

You hear heavy footsteps on the stairs, followed by a pair of hands on your shoulders as you rub your face with soap.

“How long have you been up?” You look at him through the reflection in the mirror, hair disheveled and faint stubble apparent on his jaw.

“Probably thirty minutes or so. I went out and got us some coffee and bread from the bakery down the street.” He rubs small circles on your back. “Let’s eat and go out for a walk.”

“Sounds good.” You say as you wipe your face with a towel.

The two of you spend the rest of the day relaxing in different ways possible. After a small stroll in the nearby secluded park, both of you went back home to watch a series of movies. On his days off, you knew that Seungcheol was the type to enjoy lying around rather than going up and about. You didn’t mind either; cuddling up to Seungcheol was like hugging a giant teddy bear. To be honest, it relieved your stress more than the movies you watched.

After a short nap and a few snacks, the both of you get ready to head out for your promised drive. You take with you some extra snacks and your polaroid camera, making sure to bring his favorites along in your small backpack. You return to the living room wearing a comfortable dress and some sandals, earning a dimpled smile from your boyfriend.

“You look nice.” He says, car keys in one of his hands. “Got all you need?”

“Yeah, let’s go. We have to get there before the sun sets so we can take good photos.” You say excitedly. After all the long hours at the office, going outside was literally a breath of fresh air. “Let’s stop by at the noodle shop at the mountain for dinner afterward.”

“Is it really just about food and photos?” He says jokingly. He takes your hand and the both of you walk out together. Seungcheol makes sure that all the doors are locked before both of you get into his car and drive out onto the highway.

You pull up your phone and connect it to the car, choosing the playlist you reserve for going out on long rides.

“Don’t tell me, you actually made a playlist just for this?” He asks, putting one of his hands on your thigh as he makes a turn to the left. “You even have some of our songs on your playlist.”

“A road trip isn’t complete without music. I’ll be in charge of the song, just focus on driving.” You say as you flip through the playlist.

He says nothing and simply smiles, tapping your thigh to the beat of the song. When one of the old ballads comes on, the both of you burst out singing. When one of his rap songs comes up, you try to catch up to the lyrics, only to get a burst of laughter from Seungcheol.

Even without talking much during the drive, these little moments made you happy. You didn’t want to forget it when the both of you would get back to your daily schedules, so you pull out the polaroid camera from your bag and take a photo of him as he drives.

“Hey! I wasn’t ready!” He says, looking to the side as he drives.

“Eyes on the road, Cheol.” You say, satisfied with the picture as you pull it out of the camera. “What are you so worried about, you look good in the photo.”

“You know, I gained a bit of weight during the promotional period.” He said in a soft voice. “I thought that I’d be able to make up for what I eat by practicing hard, but that wasn’t the case.”

You turn to him and put your hand on his stomach, giving it a tiny rub. “I think you look better and healthier nowadays. So long as you’re in a healthy weight, you don’t have to worry about it.”

You smile and run your hand through his hair. Seeing him putting on weight was much better than seeing him sad and deflated. You remember him back in 2019 when he lost so much weight because of his mental health. It was the time the two of you almost broke up; you wouldn’t want to see him being sad like that ever again.

“We’re almost there,” Seungcheol says, slowly hitting the breaks as he approaches a stoplight. “Give me the camera, I want a photo of you in the car too.”

You hand him a camera and give him your widest smile. Just as the photo was taken, the stoplight turns green. He quickly gives you back the camera and focuses back on the road.

“I’m sorry sir, you have failed your driver’s test.” You tell him, giving him an exaggerated look of disappointment.

“Your fault for being distracting.” He replies with a pout.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

As you go up the sloped road into the mountain, you’re filled with a sense of glee. You press a button to pull down the windows and feel the fresh air rush into the car. Just in time, one of your favorite acoustic ballad songs comes up.

“Today is such a good day.” You say under your breath.

Eventually, you arrive at your stop. At the end of the mountain road, there’s a small garden cafe that overlooks the whole city. At the back, there’s a small open field where a few families and couples have set up their picnic blankets as they await the sunset.

Cheol turns off the engine after parking underneath one of the trees. You hurriedly open the door, slinging your bag behind your back. You run over to the door of the cafe where they’ve set up a small flower booth. “Cheol, come on! Look, it’s so nice over here!”

“I won’t even be surprised if you trip out of excitement.” He says with a laugh. He locks the car and heads over to you.

You take out the polaroid camera and take picture of the both of you. You wait for the photo to come out, only to see the Seungcheol wasn’t looking at the camera--he was looking at you. It makes you a bit flustered, and you quickly tuck the picture into your backpack.

“What? You didn’t let me see it.” He puts his hands on his hips, but you’re already making your way into the cafe. “Hey!”

You can’t help but have a smile on your face. Even though you’re already moving into your late twenties, you still feel like a teenager when you’re with him. It doesn’t help that he also has a childish side to him that makes you want to tease him even more.

“Look, they’ve got all kinds of cake.” You say as you look through the glass counters. “Oh, and macarons too!”

“Let’s get the macarons, then. It’ll be easier to bring out on the field.” He says as he pulls out his wallet. However, you put your hand over his to stop him.

“I want to pay for this one, at least. You’ve been buying everything since yesterday, I should at least treat you just this once.” You say firmly. He opens his mouth to object, but you quickly cut him off. “If you’re saying no, I’m going to leave you behind in the mountains and you’ll have to sleep in a tree trunk.”

He gives you a look of both confusion and amusement, but ends up laughing it off anyway. “Alright, fine.”

You finish the transaction with a box of macarons, some tea, and a slightly thinner wallet. The both of you settle down at a spot near a tree with a wooden table and two chairs. 

You take out your camera and take more photos of him, happy to see his dimpled smile. He does the same for you, smiling as every picture comes out. For a moment, he lingers on the last picture.

“Hey, do you remember when we first met?” He says, putting down the photo on the table as he looks up at you. “We had a very weird way of meeting.”

“You just debuted around that time right?” You say, taking a bite of one macaron. “I was a working student that happened to get lost at the hectic backstage. If it weren’t for you, I’d probably never be able to find my way home that night.”

“I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but it was like meeting a lost cat, for real. I was panicking inside because I thought that I’d end up making you cry.” He says with a small chuckle. “You’re still as clumsy, but at least you’re now responsibly clumsy.”

“I almost made you late for your performance.”

“But it ended up well anyway.” He says with a shrug. “Who knew I’d be meeting you more than once for other promotional activities? It was only when you were transferred to another branch that I didn’t get to meet you as often.”

“We had our first big fight that time. You wanted to live together, or at least closer to each other, but my parents wouldn’t allow it.” You run your finger through the rim of your cup.

He puts his elbows on the table and leans in closer to you. “You’re not going to cry again, are you?”

You wave him off with a laugh. “Of course not. I’m just, you know, happy that we’ve come this far. We’ve had to hide to for quite a while, even going as far as telling people that I’m a staff member.”

“But what if we don’t have to hide it anymore?” His tone suddenly goes serious.

“You know we can’t do that.” You say with a sad smile. You look down at your cup. This time, you really are trying to bite back the tears. You didn’t want to cry, not when the day has been going well so far.

You hear him shuffle in his seat, but you keep your head down. He stays silent for a few moments before sliding something on the table.

“Look at me.” He says gently. You look up and see both of his hands on the table, with a tender look in his eyes. “What if we don’t have to hide it anymore?”

“Then I’ll go to your schedules every day and say cute and embarrassing stuff in front of your members. I’ll post wacky pictures of us without having to worry about all the comments.” You say with a laugh as tears fall down. To be honest, you don’t even know why you’re crying. Perhaps it’s the accumulation of all the times you’ve missed him, or of all the times you wished that he was just a normal person. You’ve always made sure to be careful not to let it show.

He takes your hand and puts it on top of his other hand. After a short pause, he puts both of his hands over yours. That’s when you notice a small box beneath your hands.

Your eyes quickly shoot up to his, and you see a faint hint of tears threatening to fall. “Open it.” He says simply.

You pull out the box, your heartbeat beating faster and louder than it has ever done before. With shaky hands, you open the box to find a silver ring inside with your name on it.

“I’m sorry for making you wait all this time.” He says.

You look up at him, now crying uncontrollably. You love this man so much, you couldn’t explain it. A part of you is in shock at what’s happening, while another part is leaping over in joy.

“I’ve talked about it with the company, had a long talk with the kids.” He says, wiping the tears off your face with his thumb. “I talked with your parents too. It took me a lot to convince them, but they said that they’d allow it.”

You put a hand over your mouth, trying not to let him see the mess that you’re in.

“So what I’m saying is, will you marry me?”

You nod your head, still unable to contain your emotions. “Of course I will.”

Seungcheol tries to contain his smile, but ends up crying along with you. “Ah, come on, we need to stop crying.” He wipes away his own tears and pulls the ring out of the box.

Your vision is blurry, but you manage to give him your hand. He puts it on you and pulls out his own ring afterward. With a shaky hand, you put his ring on him, albeit not without a fit of tears.

Moments later, you hear a loud cheer from behind. When you look back, you see all his members smiling and waving. You quickly wipe away your tears, trying to at least cover up the mess you were in. From now on, these aren’t just going to be Cheol’s kids, but they are also going to be yours.

“Congratulations!” They say, giving Seungcheol punches and slaps on the back.

“Didn’t I tell you guys not to follow us here!?” He says angrily. However, you can’t help but laugh at him being embarrassed. “I made sure to go somewhere far so that you wouldn’t even think of stopping by!”

Nevertheless, he gets showed with calls and cheers.

At that moment, you finally compose yourself. This was going to be the start of the time where you would no longer have to hide. You’re happy. You’re excited.

Seungcheol looks over at you in the midst of the chaos, smiling back.

“Let’s take a photo with both of your rings,” Jeonghan says as he picks up the camera from the table. “It’s a shame to come all the way here just to cry and go home.”

With puffy eyes, both of you stand in front of the camera with your hands up to show the rings. Now, he had more than one ring in his hand--one for his brothers in the group, and one for you.

Here’s to great years ahead.

- END -

[sigillaria-svt]

More Than Enough (University AU)

Pairing: Dance Major!Lee Chan/Dino x Advertising Major!Reader

Word Count: 4,747

Warning: None

Genres: fluff, slice of life, University AU, schoolmates, Upperclassman/Friend!Vernon (minor appearance)

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Synopsis: All your life in university, you’ve focused on making sure that outputs were sent and tests were passed. You’ve never really had the time to go out with friends a lot with all the demands of your program. One night, you had to stay late with your classmates to finish a project at school. You decide to take a nap in one of the dance studios, thinking that no one would be able to disturb your sleep there. However, the practice room is not as empty as you thought it would be.

You type away at your laptop as you sit with the rest of your group at one of the study hubs in your building. It was during this specific time of the semester that your department would allow certain rooms to be usable 24/7 to help students pass the necessary requirements for the finals period. It was almost midnight when you decided to take a break from all the work. Although you were barely done, you knew you had to take a nap if you wanted to ensure that your report was at least readable. While your other members were in charge of the graphical and artistic side, you were in charge of the technical side of the report.

“I’ll be off in the nap room if you need me. If I don’t come back in an hour, please wake me up.” You say as you close the laptop and head over to the basement of your building.

The nap room isn’t literally a room that was specifically made for students to sleep in, but it’s an old and barely used dance room. Ever since the renovation of the building a few years ago, dance majors have been using the bigger and brighter dance rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors for practice. The old dance room is cold, dark, and to be honest, is on the verge of falling apart with a few broken floor tiles and blurry glass. The school decided to keep it to renovate it into a different room, but due to mismanagement, it never really happened and it just stayed there for years as a technically functional, but unused room.

It was a horrible place to practice in, but a perfect place to nap in.

When you and your friends discovered it when you were freshmen, you ended up using it as a secret space whenever you just wanted to take a break. Two years later, all of you now call it the nap room so that other students wouldn’t know that you were secretly using it. Usually, the main door would be locked, but there’s another door at the back of the room with a broken lock that leads to the back of the building. You enter through that back door and take your usual spot behind some cabinets. You pull out the camping bag that you’ve always kept at the side and snooze off.

Your sleep was mostly peaceful and uninterrupted. However, it is broken by the sound of feet on the wooden floorboards.

Initially, you thought it was one of your groupmates coming over to wake you up. However, no face nor voice makes itself known to you, only the sound of feet, alternating between light and heavy steps. You aren’t entirely sure what to make of it--for sure, there are at least one or two ghost stories that you heard from your upperclassmen throughout your student life, but you weren’t one to believe in the supernatural. Despite trying to rationalize your way through it, you couldn’t help but think that perhaps there really was something else going on.

You muster up the courage to slowly get yourself out of the sleeping bag with as little sound as possible, keeping yourself low as you try to peak from the side of the cabinet. From your position, you see a single person dancing in the dim light of a single cellphone flashlight. He seems to be dancing to the music from his earphones.

It baffles you why he would be practicing at this place and at this hour. Last time you knew, no dancer would want to use this room unless they absolutely had to. You wanted to get out and leave him to his business, but you didn’t want to freak him out either.

You plan on getting back to your sleeping bag, but the man ends his dance, taking off his earphones along with it. He collapses to the floor, breathing heavily as sweat falls down his face. Now that he has his ears open, you knew you had to be even more careful than before. With as little noise as you could, you slowly crawled backward, but the old creaky floorboards were not in your favor this time. As you put your weight on your knee in moving back, a sharp noise fills the room and the man immediately turns his head in your direction.

You meet him eye to eye, both of you equally shocked at the sight of one another.

“Ahhh!” He props himself up and moves back a few spaces. His hand shoots up to his mouth, scared that someone might hear him from the outside. “My goodness! Wah!”

“H-Hello.” You say with a small wave.

“Who--what, what are you doing over there?” He whispers, tiredness immediately replaced by adrenaline.

“I know, it’s a bit of a shocker, but I was taking a nap here at the back.” You say, putting both of your hands up. “Midterms week, you know how it is.”

He gets up and briskly walks to you, looking over the cabinet to see the empty sleeping bag by your feet.

“Are you even allowed to sleep here?”

“Who knows? No one outside my group has ever found out, well, except until now.” You get up as well, finally seeing how tall he actually was. “Shouldn’t I be asking the same question? Are you even allowed to practice here? Didn’t the department give you guys that fancier room upstairs?”

He shrugs. “Midterms week, you know how it is.”

You can’t help but smile a bit at his remark. “I should probably go back up. Keep doing whatever it is that you’re doing.”

Just as you were about to make your way out, he blocks your way with his arm.

“Wait, while you’re here I’m going to need your help.” He says with a slightly louder voice. “You’re the only one who knows I’m here, so I’m going to need your help.”

“What for?”

“Alright, here’s the thing. I want you to tell me how my dancing is, I feel like something is missing, but I don’t know what it is.” He goes over to pluck the earphone jack from his phone. “I’ll let you listen to the song, it won’t take long, I promise.”

Taken aback by his sudden burst of energy, you take a few steps backward. “I’m not a dancer, I don’t really think I’m in the position to say anything.”

“What’s your major?”

“Advertising...” You reluctantly reply.

“Then you’ve got a good eye. That’s more than enough. Better to have feedback from an audience of one than an audience of none, am I right?” He calls you over to listen to the music playing on his phone. “Please? If you do help me, I promise to dance to whatever you want me to if you need it for one of your projects.”

You wonder what kind of situation he could be in that he would need the advice of a stranger, but you were too carried away by his compliment and proposal to say no. Shaking your head, you walk to him and put your ear next to the speaker of the phone. With his energy, you thought that it would be some strong EDM or hip hop song, but you were surprised to hear a softer and slower song. 

After the song ends, he moves back enough for you to have a good view of him.

“I know it’s dark, but think of it as dramatic effect.” He says, putting himself into the starting position. “Can you play the song back to the start for me?”

You agree, increasing the volume to its maximum capacity. Instantly, you see him switch into performer mode. His entire expression changes as his body move fluidly in contemporary dance. As you listen to the song, you can see how much work he put into visualizing its story into a dance. Although you didn’t want to admit it, the dim light surely did create the dramatic effect that the song calls for.

He ends the piece with a pose and holds it for a few seconds before completely converting back to the ordinary college student he was before. “So, what do you think?”

“To me, it looks pretty good. I enjoyed watching you and I think your dance synced very well with the song. However, like, I don’t know if you’ll get what I mean but...” Your tilt your head from side to side, trying to shake your brain for the best way to explain it. “You weren’t? Your dance got the song, but you didn’t?”

He slowly nods, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Oh man, I’m so sorry, I don’t really have a better way of explaining it.” You say, guilty that you may have said something that didn’t really sit well with him.

“No, I get what you mean, kind of. I just want to know what part.” He shifts his weight on one of his legs, deep in thought.

“I don’t know, up to you to find out, I guess.” You shrug, handing him back his phone. “It’s just what I think, so you probably shouldn’t think too much of it.”

“No, it’s good. You got me thinking at least, thanks.” He says, taking his phone and putting it in one of his pockets. “I’ll just sleep it out and think about it more in the morning.”

“Now that I’ve told you what I think, I assume that your offer to become a dancer is now set?” You say, making sure that you seal the deal. Although it seems like nothing to him, you knew that this could be important for one of your outputs one day. You take out your own phone and open the notepad. “I’m going to need your contact details.”

“Is this your way of hitting on me?” He says playfully, followed by his own high-energy laughter. “Nah, I’m just kidding, hand it over.”

He takes your phone and types in a few lines before handing it back to you. You check it one more time to check if he didn’t put in some nonsense information.

Lee Chan, 3rd Year Dance Major

leechan_1999@gmail.com

Messenger: @LeeChan_1999 (please message me here)

“I’ll see you around!” He says, picking up the rest of his things before disappearing out the back door.

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The next few days go by in a flash. After spending a few sleepless nights, you and your group successfully pass your project with higher than expected grades. Now it’s the short silent period after the hectic midterms week where everyone just goes to classes, but without much really happening except for a few reminders and some feedback on recent outputs.

You sit at the round park table at the small park at the side of your building, watching students spend time with their friends while they still can for the short rest period. Across you, one of your upperclassmen and close friends, Hansol, types out something on his laptop.

You take a sip from the fruit drink you got from one of the stalls. “Still doing that paper you were cramming at the last minute?”

“Isn’t it fine though?” He says, looking up at his laptop. “I’d rather pass a finished but late paper than an incomplete mess. I’ll be done in a few minutes. Once I email it to our professor, we can go over to the movies with the rest of the guys.”

“Alright, go do your thing.”

You cross your legs and scroll through your phone. You had to meet up with your friends in around half an hour at the cinema nearby. Although you were used to Hansol pushing things to the last minute, you just wanted to hurry and get out of the campus.

You put down your phone and lie down on the bench, looking up at the canopy above you. The weather is just perfect to laze around and have fun. You knew that everything was going to get busy again starting next week, but you didn’t want to burn yourself out.

“Hey.”

Your view of the canopy and internal train of thought is broken by the face of Lee Chan--who you and your friends now like to call the Midnight Dancer--just above your face.

You jolt back, putting your hands up defensively. “Hey..?”

You sit up, looking at him as he takes a seat next to you. “I finally get what you mean!” Chan says, putting his hands on his knees. “I did a few adjustments to the dance, and guess what? I aced the performance, got enough good marks to last me until graduation.”

It takes you a few moments before realizing what he was talking about. “Oh, you mean for that dance you did?”

“Yeah! You don’t know how thankful I am for what you said. People always comment on the steps or the songs, but it’s the first time someone told me about getting the song myself.” He crosses his arms and shrugs. “Weird and absurd, but effective. By the way, I never really got to know your name. I’ve always referred to you as ‘that one girl from advertising’ when I tell my friends about it.”

“I’m glad it helped you out I guess. My friends always tell me that my thoughts don’t really make any sense.” You reply. “Oh, and my name is y/n. Easy to remember, I hope.”

“Good to finally have a name for the nameless character. Nice to meet you for the second time, y/n.” He leans his elbow on the table beside him. “Anyway, what are you up to?”

You look over to Hansol, then back to Chan. “We’re going out for a movie, getting off some steam after the midterm week. Want to come along?”

Chan’s mouth forms an ‘o’ as he raises his eyebrows. “Are you two... you know? I mean, I’m not really a big fan of being ‘that’ guy during a date.”

“Wait, it’s not what you think,” Your eyes grow big, flustered at the comment. Although you were 100% sure that you saw Hansol as a friend, bringing up the subject made you shy. “We’re going out with other friends, like a big group of friends.”

You see the corner of Chan’s mouth tilt up ever so slightly in amusement. "Alright, alright. I’d be happy to come along.” He takes out his phone and checks the time. “Just give me a few minutes to get my stuff at the dorm. Fifteen minutes, I think?”

You look over at Hansol, who still seems to be typing without a break. “Sure, I think that’ll be more than enough.”

“Alright, wait for me.” He says one last time before quickly disappearing over the corner.

“So that’s the Midnight Dancer you guys have been talking about?” Hansol says, his eyes still focusing on his laptop screen. “I didn’t think that the story was actually serious.”

“Does it really sound like something I’d make up?”

This time, Hansol looks up from his laptop. “I mean... it kind of does.” He types in a few more lines before clicking away at something. “I’ll send this off real quick.”

Fifteen minutes later, Chan arrives at your table, just as he said. This time, he’s carrying a backpack with him. “Alright, let’s go?”

“What’s the backpack for?”

“I’ve got a rehearsal tonight. Thought I’d drop by after the movie. If you’ve still got time to waste, you can sit in and watch.” He says, putting his hands through the slings of his bag.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to make me give you absurd feedback again?”

“I’m sorry, was it obvious?” He lets out a big laugh, giving a wide smile afterward. “Nah, you can really just watch this time.”

“Alright, why not.”

The three of you make your way to the theatre, meeting your four other friends. Despite meeting them for the first time, Chan easily blends into the group. Although he’s loud and friendly, he puts care into his words and actions. In the movie theatre, the two of you sit beside each other. You laugh at the small snarky comments he says at the side, grateful for the small breaks in silence. Although he says it quietly enough not to disturb the people around him, your laughter may have been louder than you wanted it to be. This earns you a few nudges from your friends, but you manage to keep a hold of it for the rest of the movie.

Once outside, the two of you can’t stop talking about the movie. You never really had to worry about running out of things to talk about because Chan always had something to say about everything. Even on your way to his rehearsal, both of you ended up talking about anything and everything. To be honest, you found the conversations more fun than the movie you were watching.

Eventually, when you had to go home, all you thought about was the lightheartedness you felt when being with him. You think of it as the buzz you feel when making a new friend who you know you’d click with for sure.

Little do you know, you’re already looking forward to the next time you’d randomly bump into him.

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Just as you thought, the following week was leading back into the cycle of busy schedules. It was one project after another. You weren’t really one to complain--you had great friends that helped out well in whatever you were tasked with, but you miss having a person that you could just freely talk to.

Somehow, you end up looking for him in the random figure at a crowd, or the loud and distant laughter at the lounge. Even your friends were starting to see that you were always somehow checking out the periphery.

When you do happen to come across him, you find yourself unnaturally excited.

You and your classmates are currently gathered at the student lounge, waiting for the multimedia room to be open so that you could begin your presentations for a class. You decide to move a couple of meters away from the big group, reviewing all the things you had to say for class later on.

You are looking out at the parking lot, memorizing and spacing out at the same time. Yet, when you spot a familiar head of brown hair, your mind immediately trails away from your presentation.

After two weeks, you finally got to see him again.

Well, about a hundred meters away, that is.

As if he had known you were staring at him all along, he turns his head toward you and gives you a wide smile as he crosses the parking lot. You give a small wave in return.

You would have wanted to have a small talk with him, but he turns over at one entryway and makes his way up the stairs, presumably to one of his classes.

You didn’t really have much time to think of it. Just as Chan disappeared, the doors to the multimedia room open, all of your classmates flowing into it as the previous class makes their way out.

“Y/N, let’s go!” You hear one of your classmates call out.

“Ah, yeah. Coming.” You say, turning back with your eyes still lingering for a few seconds on the staircase.

Ever since then, you’ve been starting to meet him a bit more often. Usually, it would just be the small smiles and eye contact from across the hall. Sometimes, you’d get to walk across each other in the hallway and exchange a few greetings. However, he always seems like he’s in a rush to get somewhere. Although you knew that he has his own life to live, you were curious about how he was doing. After all, he was the kind of guy that practiced in the middle of the night in an abandoned dance room, then he has probably done other similar things.

You didn’t know you were starting to think a bit too much about it when Hansol actually pointed it out.

At one of the cafes outside school, you and Hansol just finished a small consultation session for a project you were doing. With all the schoolwork he has to do, it was a bit hard to find the time to sit with him, so you had to run to the cafe for a quick minute while your group mates continue drafting the project at the campus.

“Why don’t you just go ahead and send him a message? You have his contact details, right?” Hansol says out of the blue, making you almost spit out your drink.

“Who?”

“Come on, you know who I’m talking about.” He grabs a piece of tissue and hands it over to you. “Lee Chan. From what I hear, it seems like he’s a pretty good dancer. You talk about him a lot.”

You take the tissue and wipe your mouth with it. Of all the times, Hansol actually brings this up now. “I do not--you know what, maybe I do. I mean, I can, but...”

“You still have that deal with him where you could use him as a dancer for your project right? I think it would be good if you could use a dancer concept for the promotional video.” Hansol leans his arms on the table and nods. “I don’t think the other groups would think to go as far as to find a dancer to promote an imaginary sportswear brand, so maybe it’ll earn you some extra points.”

You feel a small drop of cold sweat break out. All this time, Hansol was talking about the project, not your growing affection for the hardworking dance student.

“Ah, you mean that?” You shrug, trying it play it off. “Alright, sure, why not? I’ll have to tell my groupmates about it first, though.”

“Oh, absolutely. Hitting two birds with one stone, right?”

“What?”

“Nothing. Go ahead and contact him. Is there anything else you want to talk about?” He asks, giving a small comforting smile.

You check the time on your laptop. “I’d love to talk, but I think I need to get back to my group mates. I promised I’d be there by 10:30 tonight.”

“Doing one of your late-night projects again?”

“The woes of an advertising major.” You say below your breath as you hurry to put your laptop back in your bag. “Thanks for the time. Don’t cram too much this time.”

When you get back to the room your friends were staying in, you tell them about the advice Hansol told you. They seemed to be completely fine with it, so you sent a message over to Chan. It was late into the night, so you were worried if he would even respond. During normal class days, the rooms would only be open up until midnight, so you knew you had to finish the draft if you wanted to pass it on time by tomorrow.

After a few minutes, he responds.

“Sure, I’m down. I’m over at the secret dance room if you want to talk about it.”

You quickly relay the news to your groupmates, and they make their adjustments to the output. Elated, you made your way downstairs. Now that the proposal was done, all you had to do was make the promotional video within the week. More than anything, you’re happy to be able to talk to him again, even if it was just going to be about school stuff.

From outside the back door, you could hear the same intense footsteps, dancing to their own music. You open the door, seeing Chan dancing away in the dark room. When he sees you, he gives you a small nod and takes off his earphones.

“Hey, still practicing late into the night in secret?” You say, remembering the first time you saw him.

“Same goes for you. Still making outputs late into the night, but not in secret?” He says with a laugh. “Let’s talk outside, I could need a breath of fresh air.”

Both of you find a spot on one of the benches surrounding a large tree.

“So, what’s the concept about?” He asks with a bit of tiredness in his voice.

You give him all the details of the video. You planned it to be short and impactful, heavily relying on whatever dance Chan could perform to make the output stand out. For the entire time, Chan listens silently, nodding from time to time. Once you were done, he gives his comments for the first time.

“Sounds pretty good. Let me know when you have the song decided and I’ll think of something.” He says, a little less energy this time.

The both of you sit in silence for a few moments, the late-night breeze flowing between both of you. Either you’ve been observing him too much, or Chan has been very obvious about it, but you notice that he’s not really as upbeat as he was before.

“How’s life going on?” You break the silence, hoping that he’d open up to you at least a little bit. “You don’t seem pretty good.”

“Well, it hasn’t been going as well as I thought it would be.” He says, trying to lift his tone, but failing terribly. “I don’t know. Would you care to listen?”

“Of course.”

That’s when he brings out a topic that you never thought he would talk about. On most days, he had to work at a part-time job and would only really have to practice at night. He always felt that something was lacking with the way he danced, which is why he would always practice in secret at the dance room downstairs in fear of judgment. On top of that, he works hard to do performances for the dance group he’s in. He lets it all out, all the insecurity and burnout that comes along with all the responsibilities that he’s taken on.

“I’m sorry, I’m talking too much. You should get back to your project.”

“No, it’s alright. There’s nothing to be sorry about. We’re done for the day anyway.” You take in a deep breath. You keep your eyes straight, looking at the row of trees in front of you. “How long have you been doing this?”

“I don’t know, perhaps since the start of my freshman year? I’m actually surprised that we only met now when I’ve been using the dance room for years. Apparently, it’s because we always use it at different times.” He leans back and puts his hands in the pocket of his hoodie. “Thanks for listening, anyway. Doesn’t really change my situation, but at least it makes things lighter.”

“Sure, anytime. I really don’t think you should be keeping your burdens all to yourself. It can get pretty lonely.” You say. You turn your head to look at him, finding out that he had been looking at you all this time. “What is it?”

“Does it ever occur to you that there are people who you are just meant to meet?” He says in a low voice. “Thank you for being that person.”

You feel your face heat up despite the cold temperature. You weren’t exactly sure how to take his words. He looks at you for a little longer before getting up and returning back to his normal, energy-filled self.

“Well, anyway. Let’s head back before the monitors come by and see us hanging out beyond the closing time.” He says, offering his hand to help you up.

You take the offer, and he helps you up. Instead of letting it go, he keeps your hand in his. This time, you really aren’t able to hide the redness forming over your face. All you hope is that it wouldn’t be too obvious under the moonlight. He lets out a small chuckle before bursting out in his usual reverberating laughter.

“Come on, let’s go.” You say, walking in front of him to keep him from seeing your face. He moves along with you, hand still linked with yours.

“Seeing you flustered never gets old.” He says between his laughs.

For someone with a lot of words, his actions were more than enough to make you understand. Just this was enough to make you happy, enough to make you believe that there really are people you are meant to meet. - END -

[sigillaria-svt]

Elevator Meetings (Part Three) - Reader POV (Final)

Pairing: Musical Actor!Lee Seokmin/DK x Academic!Reader

Word Count: 4,984

Warning: Alcohol (nothing bad happened, stay safe ya’ll)

Genres: fluff, slice of life, neighbors, appearances of other Seventeen Members

Part One (Reader POV): [Part One]

Part Two (Seokmin): [Part Two]

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Synopsis: It’s been around a month since you’ve moved into your apartment along with your other roommates. You’ve managed to become friends with Seokmin, your neighbors that live a few floors up. Although you’ve been trying to think of it as something purely friendly, you can’t help but feel great comfort in his company. All was going well until problems start popping up at your workplace and you are left with no choice but to pull several all-nighters until you were burnt out. However, after a certain turn of events, you fell sick and Seokmin was more than eager to help you out.

READER POV

The past few weeks have been a bit more hectic than it usually was. A coworker had to take a family leave for her pregnancy, and you had to help out in filling in for some of her classes. What’s more, the research team you were working with had to redo sets of measurements because of some malfunctioning equipment. Everything just seemed to happen all at once. It didn’t help that you were starting to get irritated at every little inconvenience that comes your way. May it be a jar that refuses to open, a pen that ran out of ink while you were writing, or your earphones that just won’t untangle. You know that getting frustrated wouldn’t help anything, but you didn’t know what to do with all the pent up emotions that were accumulating.

On some days, you had to sleep over at the laboratory to continue working the moment you woke up. On certain days, you went into lectures without a single minute of sleep, leading to messy notes and even messier presentations.

You thought that it would all get better after a few days, that this is just another hell week that happens every once in a while. But as several weeks pass by, you start to realize that may not end until the end of the semester.

One of the few things that have helped you get through the grind was Seokmin’s occasional messages. As he performs even more shows for his recent musical, he has become busier and has had less time to rest, but he always checks in every couple of days. It starts as a simple text message that ends up becoming a 30-minute call about whatever both your days were about. It feels a bit silly to hold on so much to the small messages that you two share, but it makes you happy to hear how he has been.

But suddenly, all the texts stop.

For a whole week, you send out texts, and you don't get a single reply. You start to get worried, but you push the feeling of dread out of your head. You wouldn't want him to think that you were trying too hard, seeing as the both of you are friends that have just known each other for a month or two.

You take a deep breath in and stand up as the bus stops at the commercial area near your neighborhood. You walk along the sidewalk, window shopping at various stores that you pass by on your way home. Tonight was going to be your first free night for the first time in a few weeks, and you wanted to meet him, somehow. You take out your phone, pondering if you should text him or not. If he really is busy, you wouldn’t want to disturb him by sending another text.

You hear your name being called from a distance and you turn around to see the familiar faces of Mingyu and Minghao. The taller of the two gives you a big wave, while the other gives you a nod.

“Hey, how have you been? It’s been a while since I last saw you.” Mingyu says as the pair approaches you. “And you look... tired.”

You give him a forced smile. “Well, work hasn’t been the best place to be in the past few months.” You look around, trying to see for any sign of Seokmin among his friends. “What are you guys up to?”

“We’re on our way to the grocery store to pick up some supplies," He says as he pulls out his phone. "We need to get like food for thirteen people, fourteen if you want to come along.”

“Come along for what?”

“A celebratory dinner for Seokmin at home. Tonight is his last show for his musical. He said he’d rather have a fun meal at home so that he can snooze off right away after he eats.”

Your heart skips hearing about Seokmin. Without a moment’s delay, you accept the request to join them.

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You and Minghao follow behind Mingyu as he grabs items from the shelf, occasionally glancing at the list on his phone. For most of the time, Minghao is quiet, save for the few moments when Mingyu would ask for his opinion on which brand of ingredient he should buy.

Along the drink aisle, you try to come up with a conversation.

“So, Minghao, how has Seokmin been doing lately?” You ask, glancing over at the soda bottles to act casual.

“Hm? He’s doing alright as far as I know. Just a couple of busy days at work since he’s been traveling to other parts of the country to perform his last few shows.” He replies, looking over at you. “He’s been out of time for a little over a week, I think.”

A wave of realization hits you, followed by a quick flash of anxiety. Perhaps he had been busy as he traveled, or perhaps there wasn’t a good signal where he was, which is why he wasn’t able to reply to your messages. However, the thought of him overworking worries you, even though you have been working until the last drop for the past few weeks.

“Is that so? No wonder he’s been unresponsive lately.”

“He’s always been like that whenever he has to travel for his shows,” Minghao says, unfazed. “When we really do need to contact him, we have to contact the company manager.”

“One time, we almost got into a fight with the company manager between the both of us. It’s hard to settle problems like that when I’m here in the city while he’s over at the other side of the country.” Mingyu said from down the aisle, bending down to check if he had all the things in his cart. “Looks like we’ve got everything, let’s head over to the counter.”

Your eyes widen at the amount they paid for everything they bought. As guys, you normally expected them to eat a lot, but you didn’t expect them to eat this much. With one swipe of a card, Mingyu pays for the groceries and you help them carry the 10 or so paper bags filled with food, drinks, and somehow a box of detergent that Mingyu got as a freebie. Filling the trunk, the three of you head off to the apartment building. Mingyu asks random questions about work to pass the few minutes it takes to get back to the apartment.

“I’ll drop my things off at my apartment first, I’ll catch up with the both of you afterward.” You say as Mingyu neatly parks his car in the basement of the apartment.

“Alright. We’ll be in room 10-14. If you’ve got some extra glasses, bring them along because I don’t think we’ll have enough for all of us.” Mingyu replies as he turns off the engine.

When you get to your apartment, you drop all your bags in your room and panic for a few seconds. “I’m going to see him today, what do I wear? Wait, do I even have time to prepare to look good?” You put your hands over your head as you walk in circles around your room. “It’s not supposed to matter, we’re neighbors. He’s already seen me in the drab that I wear when I’m at home.”

One of your roommates looks at you through your open door. “Hey, everything alright, y/n?”

“If you were to meet up with a guy you like after a month of not meeting him after he’s been traveling around the country, what would you wear?” You reply in a flash.

“Well, that’s... very specific. What’s the event?”

“We’re having dinner with all of his friends over at his apartment. He doesn’t know I’m coming, one of his friends invited me when we met in the street.” You say, opening your cabinet for what could look good, but not too flashy. “I mean, we’re just going to an apartment that’s in the same building, how does a dress sound?”

She walks into the room, taking a peek at your closet. “You’re going to eat a lot so wear something comfy, something that won’t show him how much of a glutton you really are.”

“Hey!”

Ignoring the comment, she pulls out a large sweater and some leggings. “We all know you’re not the type to wear dresses unless you absolutely have to a formal event. Go for something that looks cute, but still looks like something you wear every day.”

“But what would his friends think of me?”

“Does it matter? Just trust me, you’ll be fine. Go eat a lot, make some memories, and drink your stress away.” She says, quickly bringing you back from the mess of your thoughts.

“Alright, okay, I got it.” You say firmly.

You end up wearing the oversized sweater and some leggings, bringing nothing else but your phone and three drinking glasses. You tap your key card on the elevator and head up to the 10th floor. It takes you a few missteps into the other hallway, but you eventually find yourself in front of room 10-14.

With a deep breath, you knock on the door.

A few moments later, it is opened by a tall and slender man who looks like he just popped out of a comic book.

“Hello, Mingyu invite me to come around.” You say nervously, fazed by the unfamiliar man. “My name is y/n.”

“Ahhhh, y/n.” He says, nodding in recognition. “Come in, Mingyu was just talking about you a while ago. My name is Jeonghan.”

He leads you into the apartment, which looks similar to yours but is way larger and far messier. A bunch of guys are sitting around a TV screen, watching a variety show. Meanwhile, you see Mingyu and another guy working in the kitchen.

“Oh, y/n, you’re here. Did you bring some glasses?” He said, looking up from his chopping board. His eyes drop to the three glasses on your hands, expression perking up. “Great! We needed three more glasses for all fourteen of us.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” You ask as you put down the glasses at the marbled counter. “I’m not really good at cooking, but I can chop stuff up for you.”

“Really? That would be good.” Mingyu opens a few drawers and hands you a knife and a chopping board. “The vegetables are over at that paper bag over there. They’re not yet washed, so make sure to wash them first.”

With that, you work as you eagerly wait for Seokmin. Although it feels weird to be chopping vegetables on your first visit to his house, it felt much better for you to be in the quiet kitchen with Mingyu than to sit with people that you don’t know yet. At least, you would have something to do rather than worrying about Seokmin while you wait.

The group of guys erupts in a fit of laughter, filling the room so much that you could almost feel the counter vibrating. Mingyu smiles at your expression.

“I know, it’s a bit shocking when you’re not used to it.” He says. “Whenever all of us are in one place together, it always gets this loud, especially when Seokmin is around.”

You hear the door open and the rest of the guys then erupt in a joyful shout. This time, you turn around to see a wide-smiled Seokmin walk into the room with a carrier in hand. A few of the guys run over to him, congratulating him for a job well done.

“See what I mean?” Mingyu says, laughing at the energy of his friends.

“The one and only! Crowned as the Rising Musical Actor of 2020! Selling out tickets one show after another, Lee Seokmin!” Announces one of the guys with sharp eyes and chubby cheeks. “Welcome home!”

The rest of the guys match his energy with their own claps and calls. You can’t help but smile as you watch them from the other side of the room. It’s been a while since you’ve been in a place with so much energy and joy. Since your roommates are almost always out, your apartment is usually quiet. The last time you remember being like this was when you were with your family around half a year ago.

The group slowly calms down as Seokmin moves to his room to settle his things before the party starts. On his way, he sees you, knife in hand with a bunch of chopped up vegetables. He looks at you with a mixture of surprise and joy.

“Woah, y/n, I didn’t know you would be here.” He looks down at the chopping, realizing that you had been chopping them all this time. “You’re the guest, why are chopping vegetables? Let me put my stuff in my room, and I’ll take over.”

You hold your knife up closer to you. “What? No way. This is your party. Mingyu didn’t let me pay a single penny, so the least I could do is help out with the preparations.”

“You went grocery shopping together?” Seokmin asks Mingyu, smile slightly dropping from his face.

“Yeah, we ran across each other in the street.” Mingyu gave him a look, exchanging a message that only the two of them understood.

“Well... alright.” Seokmin then turns back to you. “Anyway, after the vegetables, don’t you dare chop up anything else! Why didn’t you guys just get food delivered anyway?”

“Come on, you know that it wouldn’t be any fun that way.” Mingyu puts his hands on Seokmin’s shoulder and turns him around. “Go drop your things off in your room, and we’ll start the party soon.”

Seokmin turns his head one last time before he disappears behind one of the doors. When he’s gone, you feel your heart sink for a bit, and Mingyu notices it immediately.

“Don’t worry about it.” He says, nudging you gently with his elbow. “It’s just his way of saying that he wants you to enjoy the night.”

The rest of the preparation goes by smoothly. You were able to finish chopping everything up just as Seokmin gets out of his room. Mingyu, on the other hand, was able to finish one of the dishes before proceeding to the next one. Seokmin took you to sit with the other members in the living room as two other guys went to the kitchen to help out.

Although you aren’t necessarily a quiet person when you’re around other people, you’ve always been silent when it comes to meeting people for the first time. However, that kind of awkwardness didn’t really matter when you’re with ten or so guys with the energy of five-year-old children. Moments later, Seokmin takes out the small karaoke machine they had in one of the cabinets and everyone starts picking out their songs.

“Aren’t the neighbors going to complain about this?” You ask Minghao, who sits silently right next to you.

“What do you mean? We are the neighbors. Everyone else here lives in the rooms next door, so we’re good.” Minghao replies.

“We’ve told them that we’d be having a party anyway, so they already know what we’re going to be loud at this hour.” One of the guys, who introduced himself as Seungkwan a while ago, adds. “If you want to sing anything, don’t be afraid to take the remote and put in whatever song you want.”

You nod, but you know deep inside that you’ll never really have the guts to sing in front of people you barely know. At least, that’s what you initially thought before they brought out the drinks.

Several bottles later, the entire group becomes louder and louder. Since you don’t drink often, you don’t really know how tolerant you were of alcohol, but you know that you might have drunk a bit too much this time. When Mingyu brings all the food in, you were already starting to get a bit dizzy, but you end up eating a lot anyway. Influenced by the energy of the crowd, you continue to take a few shots as the music plays loudly around you.

Seokmin takes the mic and belts out in a duet with another member. Although you’ve seen him sing and perform on stage before, it was your first time seeing him sing casually and just having fun while doing it. With fun dances and weird expressions, he hypes up the crowd just as much as he does at a theatre stage. No matter what disposition is he in, he is always one to bring energy to a crowd.

Despite your excitement, you feel dizzier than before. Although you can hear the music and distinguish the faces around you, everything is becoming a bit more blurred and muffled. You don’t remember the rest of what happened that night, except that it lasted way past midnight and involved more drinks than you initially thought you could handle. The last thing you see before blacking out is Seokmin turning around to look at you with a microphone in his hand. He’s saying something, but you can no longer make out what he was saying.

You close your eyes and somehow wake up the next day on your bed with a devastating headache.

For nearly an hour, you lay there with your eyes to the ceiling, aware that you are more than late for the lectures you need to attend. You want to get up and move, but your body won’t allow it. Every time you turn your head, the pain in your head gets even worse. For some reason, even though you were under a heavy blanket, you felt extremely cold. You wanted to think that it was a simple hangover, but you had this feeling that it was way worse than you think.

With all the power that’s in you, you prop yourself up. You look over at the clock on your wall and see that it’s already 1 p.m. You quickly check your phone and see that you have five missed calls from your coworkers.

You immediately regret not holding yourself back the previous night.

You call one of your coworkers and tell them that you weren’t going to make it today because you were sick and just woke up. Since it was a Saturday, you told them that you’d be back on Monday.

“Are you sure you’re not just hungover?” Your coworker says from the other side of the line.

You ponder for a moment before replying. “I think it’s more than that. I’ll call you later if I feel better.”

With that, you drop the call and swing your legs over your bed. You try to get up, but when you do, it feels like the entire world is spinning. You crash back down on your bed and decide that breakfast could wait until later.

You grab your phone and check your other messages. Most of them are from your coworkers asking you about where you are. Some are from your students asking about an assignment that they had to pass for next week. Luckily, you didn’t have any classes to teach for the day. One message was from an unregistered number that was sent at 10:52 in the morning.

This is Minghao, I got your number from Seokmin. Please let him know when you’re awake and well. Thanks.

You move your arm to text him back. “Good morning. I’m awake, but not very well. Thank you for checking in.”

In a few moments, your phone buzzes as a call from Minghao comes in. However, when you pick it up, a different voice greets you.

“Hello? Y/n? How are you doing? What happened, are you alright? We made sure that you got to your apartment safely last night, I hope your roommates aren’t too upset about it.” He says in a rapid-fire manner.

“Good morning, Seokmin.” You reply groggily. “I don’t know, I don’t feel so good.”

“Are any of your roommates around?”

“I don’t think so. They’re probably at work around this time.”

“Alright, wait for me.”

“Wait no, it's fine--”

Before you could protest, he drops the call. You bury your face in your pillow. If he really was on his way, you wouldn’t want him to see the mess you were in right now. You try to get back up once more and dizzily walk yourself to your mirror. With one hand on the wall, you look at your reflection--messy hair with heavy bags under your eyes, lips pale and cracking.

“Lookin’ pretty fly, y/n.” You say to yourself sarcastically.

You push yourself forward and head toward the kitchen to grab a glass of water. You open your fridge and grab the last bottle of water, deciding to drink straight from it. Despite finishing all of it, you still feel thirsty. You lean your forehead on the door of the fridge, wondering if you should attempt to buy supplies from the convenience store downstairs or just sleep it off until you get better.

You hear a knock on the door and pull your head back with a sigh. It takes you a few heavy steps to get to the door. When you open it, Seokmin stands there wearing a large white hoodie and a beanie over his head.

“Woah, you look...”

“Horrible, yeah, I know. My fault for drinking too much.” You reply. “Is there anything that you need?”

“Well, I’m here to help. I’ve seen my friends hungover before, and I know that it’s going to be hard to deal with it alone.” He purses his lips. “May I come in?”

You step aside, motioning for him to come in. He puts his hand on your neck but quickly pulls back.

“You’re burning up!” He puts his hand on your forehead this time. “Have you checked your temperature yet?”

“No, I just literally woke up.” You reply, a bit out of irritation at his loudness.

“I’m sorry.” He says, quickly covering up his mouth. The volume of his voice decreases, but he only speeds up in return. “You haven’t eaten anything yet, have you? I’ll order something for you real quick. You’ve got a bad hangover and a fever.”

“No, it’s fine, really. I’ll just take a break and--”

“Wait, we’ve got some hangover meds back at our apartment. If you could give me a moment, I could get some for you.” He ponders for a moment before taking out his phone. “Wait, no. I’ll tell Mingyu to come over, I can’t leave you here alone. Perhaps we could--”

“Seokmin.” You put a hand on his shoulder, and he immediately quiets down.

“Yes?” He says quietly.

“Thank you, but can you slow down? I’m not feeling well, but I’m not dying either. Please take a seat, I’ll go and check my temperature for a bit.”

Seokmin reluctantly nods and takes a seat on one of the dining chairs. You take out the digital thermometer from one of the cabinets and take your temperature.

“Well would you look at that, I’m at 38.7 degrees Celsius.” You put the thermometer back in its place. From your peripheral view, you can see worry painted all over Seokmin’s face. “Before you freak out, I just want to ask something.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“What happened last night? The last thing I remember was you saying something, but I don’t remember what it was.” You look over to him, who now has his hands together on top of the table.

“Oh, you don’t remember that?” He says, disheartened. “Well, I mean, It’s not something important. I can tell you about it some other time, so let’s get some food first. What would you like?”

You take a seat across him at the dining table. “Don’t tell me you’re going to pay for me again.”

“Why not?”

You think about it before you blurt it out. Normally, you’d try to find some excuse, but something inside you is telling you to express what you really feel. Maybe it’s because of the fatigue and hangover culminating to give you a surge of emotion. You weren’t sure how he was going to respond if you say it, after all.

“It’s just...” You jumble the words in your head to try and find the most appropriate words to say, but you end up blurting it whatever came to mind first. “When you keep on doing things like that, it makes me question why you would do that in the first place.”

“What do you mean?” He asks, pure confusion written over his face. You weren’t sure if he really was just that innocent, or if he really just didn’t get it at all.

You really didn’t want to say this--not because it was hurtful, but because it was embarrassing for you.

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, alright?” You say, fidgeting with your fingers below the table. “It really makes me think that there’s something else going on. I don’t want to think like that if there really isn’t anything.”

“Do you really not remember what I said last night?”

“I’m sorry, I really don’t.”

“Hmmm, well I don’t blame you. It was late into the night, and everyone was already either drunk or tipsy when it happened.” Seokmin rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “To be honest, I didn’t expect that I would have the guts to say it. I mean, it’s not really that big of a secret, and I have been very open about it.”

You begin to feel your heart beat rapidly. If not for the fever that you already have, the blush on your face would have been so obvious to him. “So what you’re saying is..?”

“I’m saying that you make me comfortable with who I am.”

The two of you look at each other for a while before he continues. You stare into his eyes, trying to look for any trace of deceit, any trace of insincerity, but you could find nothing. He’s being true to his every word.

“I know I’ve only known you for a short time. Minghao and Jeonghan have told me that maybe I’m just getting caught up with the rush of things. That’s what I thought at first too, but after thinking about it, I knew that it wasn’t the case.” He bites his upper lip nervously. “If I could, I wanted to keep you by my side whenever I could. Even when both of us got busy with work, I wanted to make sure you were alright. I thought about it over and over for the past two months, and now I’m sure of it.”

You look at him intently. Although you wanted to get his answer, you weren’t expecting him to drop it all at once like this. You keep yourself silent as you wait for him to finish. You wanted him to tell you everything before you give your response.

“I’m not sure yet if I can call it love, but I really do like you. You’ve helped me to believe in myself more, and to stop thinking so much about... well everything.” You can hear him starting to get nervous as he continues to speak. “I’ve messed up a lot with the people I’ve been interested in before by not making a move, so I didn’t want to mess up this time.”

After a few moments of silence, you nod. “So you’ve been worried that I might leave all this time?”

“Well, yes. Does that sound weird?”

You shake your head gently. “No, it doesn’t. In fact, I’m kind of flattered that you feel that way. I’ve been thinking about it for the past few months as well. You have always extended kindness to me ever since we met. You kept me company when I was alone in the city and away from my family. You always took time for me even when you were tired and busy.”

You give him a nervous laugh. “I wouldn’t want to call it love just yet, but for sure, I’m starting to think of you as more than just a friend, ever since you invited me to your musical play.”

As of the moment, you still don’t know where the both of you stood. For sure, you two were more than just friends, but far from being lovers. It would take much more time for the both of you to fully grow the feelings that you had for each other.

Seokmin stares at you, unsure how to respond, before bursting out in a fit of giggles. Unconsciously, you laugh along with him.

“I’m sorry, it’s just. Well, I didn’t know you felt like that too. It just...” Seokmin brings his arms together. “It makes me happy to hear that.”

Seokmin brings one of his hands up and sticks out his pinky finger. “Promise me something?”

“What?”

“That you won’t leave even when I get annoying and sing you random songs?” He says innocently. It amuses you to hear that this is what he wanted, out of all the promises that he could ask for.

You raise your hand up and link your pinky with his, seeing just how small your hand is next to his. “Only if you promise to let me cut the vegetables and pay for your meal every once in a while.”

He shifts his hand to link the rest of your fingers together with his. “Alright. It’s a deal. So, what would you like to eat?”

-- END --

Author’s Note:

Hey! It’s been a while since I last wrote something like this (maybe 6 or 7 years?). I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you have any scenarios or characters you want me to write about, send me a message!

[sigillaria-svt]

Elevator Meetings (Part Two) - Seokmin

Pairing: Musical Actor!Lee Seokmin/DK x Academic!Reader

Word Count: 3,158

Warning: None

Genres: fluff, slice of life, neighbors, innocently heart-struck Seokmin, appearances of other Seventeen Members, Wingman!Mingyu

Part One (Reader POV): [Part One]

Part Three (Reader POV): [Part Three]

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Synopsis: After you watched his stage performance for the first time, Lee Seokmin has started to become closer to you as a neighbor. Ever since then, he has enjoyed your company. How will the rest of his members react when they realize that perhaps Seokmin may be seeing you more than just an ordinary neighbor living a few floors down?

SEOKMIN

Seokmin puts his phone down on the table as the rest of his friends order food. Everyone was there, except for Lee Jihoon who was currently working on making a new song, and Wen Junhui who had gone to China for some business schedules.

Jeonghan looks over Seokmin’s shoulder, ready to tease him as he always does. “Who are you texting with such a wide smile on your face?”

“No one, just a neighbor.” He replies, quickly picking up his chopsticks to divert Jeonghan’s attention to the food.

“When I text my neighbors, I don’t smile like that.” He says, crossing his arms over his chest. “Well, I barely even text my neighbors, to begin with. Come on, there’s really no need to be shy about it. We’re way past the age to be shy over our feelings.”

“Ah, is this the reason why you kept looking at us back at the theatre while you were on stage?” Mingyu says as he turns over a piece of meat on the grill.

“No, no, that’s not it,” Seokmin says defensively. “I swear, she’s just a neighbor. I helped her out when she was having a problem with moving her stuff and simply asked her to come to the play, that’s all.”

Yoon Jeonghan shakes his head, but smiles. He knows that this wasn’t the first time Seokmin had small unconscious crushes on people. In fact, it happens quite often, but it rarely turns into anything serious with all the hectic schedules that Seokmin has as a musical actor. Even when the other guys try to ask him about it, he always innocently says that they were nothing more than just a friend, even when everyone else sees otherwise.

“Alright, alright, whatever helps you sleep at night.” Says Boo Seungkwan, who sits right across Seokmin. They immediately move on to another topic and the rest of the story remains unmentioned for the rest of the night.

Seokmin, on the other hand, can’t help but think about it.

When they get back home to their apartment, he stares at his phone for several minutes. He looks at your contact page over and over, enjoying the sound of your name as it plays over and over in his head.

“Do I really?” He says to himself as he rolls over to his side. He tries to think it over once again. “It’s too early, right?”

“Who are you talking to?” Minghao asks, who happens to be sitting right next to him on the other couch.

Seokmin rolls over to face his friend. “Minghao, do I really?”

“Do you really what?”

“Do I really, you know?” Seokmin put his hands up, trying to express his thoughts in words. Minghao looks up at him, raising his eyebrows. “You get what I mean, right?”

“No, I absolutely don’t.”

Seokmin gets up, deciding that it would be better to sleep this off instead. He thought that perhaps he was just a bit tired; maybe his racing thoughts would be over the moment he wakes up the next morning.

And yet, when the sun rose, the thought had not left him. That’s when he started to go out at the same time of 7 AM each day, even when there wasn’t any work to do at that time to perhaps get the chance to somehow run into you again along the apartment elevators. Each day, Seokmin would return to his apartment, visibly discouraged in the eyes of his members, but not to himself. Around the next week, he tried to look for your social media accounts but found only a single account filled with pictures of plants. He wasn’t so sure if it was you, or if it was just someone who shared the same name.

Seokmin is in the living room, unconsciously shaking his leg as he waits for you to accept his friend request. Mingyu steps out of the bathroom with a towel over his wet hair. Grabbing a drink from the fridge, he leans over Seokmin.

“What are you doing this time?” He asks, used to seeing the sight of a flustered Seokmin for the past week.

“Shh, this is important,” Seokmin says, eyes still glued to the screen.

“You know that she may not be on her phone right now, right?” Mingyu says, taking a sip of his soda. “It’s not like she’s going to respond faster if you stare at your phone like that.”

“Huh? It’s not like I’m waiting for her to respond.”

“Then what are you doing?”

Seokmin puts his phone aside and drops his hands to the pillows beside him. “You’re right, what am I doing?”

Mingyu decides to take a seat next to his friend. The last time he was like this was two years ago, when he started to have a crush on one of the waitresses at a restaurant that they frequently went to. Back then, they went to the same restaurant for 10 days in a row before Seokmin realized that he was attracted to her. Unfortunately, she changed jobs and they have never met again ever since.

It wasn’t that Seokmin didn’t feel anything--it was just that he was a bit slow at realizing his feelings himself.

“What’s her name? What’s gotten you so interested in her?” Mingyu asks, putting one arm over the back of the couch.

“Well it’s not that I’m really interested, I mean, I met her just a week ago, but her name is Y/N. It has a nice ring to it right?” He says with an innocent smile. “Oh, she’s a teacher! Maybe teaches about plants? All her photos are about plants so maybe she’s into that.”

Mingyu simply nods with pursed lips as he takes another sip.

“And well, she lives on the 8th floor below us... and well, she was moving her things on her own.” Seokmin tried to check his phone again, but you hadn’t accepted his request yet. “I mean, who tries to move ten boxes by themselves up to the eighth floor? We had to move it one by one because we didn’t have those wheely things with us.”

Seokmin narrates the entire story of what happened on that day to Mingyu, who responds with the occasional nod or “Uhuh”. Although it was a series of short encounters, Seokmin manages to relay it as if it were more exciting than it actually was.

“So, what do you think?” Seokmin asks once he was finally able to end the entire narrative.

Mingyu shakes his head as he drinks the last drop of his soda. “I think you’re thinking too much and moving too less.” Mingyu lightly taps the empty can on Seokmin’s leg. “Don’t you remember the waitress two years ago? The event host from three years ago? Or even the class president back when we were in high school? What do they all have in common?”

“They were all... girls?” Seokmin tilts his head, trying to understand what Mingyu was trying to get to.

“You all fell for them at first sight but never made a move for weeks until you either forgot that you had a crush on them, or you never came across them ever again.” Mingyu sighs in frustration. “We’ve been through this, come on, give me your phone.”

“For what?” He says while handing over his phone.

“Ask her to have a meal with you. Don’t neighbors eat together every once in a while?” Mingyu replies, quickly heading over to the texting app. He types in two sentences before passing it over to Seokmin.

“Hey, y/n!!! How are you? Do you want to eat out sometime? It’s on me, think of it as a housewarming gift~ ^^ ” Seokmin reads out loud. “No, no, I definitely can’t send something like this. What if she thinks I’m feeling too close to her?”

“We’ll worry about it once we get there.” Mingyu leans over and hits send, all to Seokmin’s surprise. He hurriedly tries to keep the message from sending, but it’s too late.

“Mingyu!” Seokmin whines as he shakes his friend back and forth. He immediately stops when he hears the familiar ding of his phone at the arrival of a new message. “I don’t want to open it! I don’t want to open it!”

“We’ve taken a step forward, we can’t go back right now.” Mingyu grabs the phone and opens up the message himself. “See? She’s totally fine with it.”

Mingyu holds the phone right in front of Seokmin’s face, his eyes quickly going over your reply.

“Sure, when and where?”

▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫ 

Seokmin and Mingyu sit at a table in one of the Japanese restaurants just a few minutes away from SC University where you work at. Seokmin managed to pull Mingyu along with him despite his argument that Seokmin should go alone. After a compromise to pay for his meal in exchange for his company, Mingyu reluctantly sits next to Seokmin.

“You’ll pay for whatever I order tonight, right?” He asks, eyes glossing over the wide menu. “Just asking to make sure.”

“Yes, I will. For sure. Just don’t leave me alone, okay?” Seokmin replies, leaning in and speaking in a small voice. “I’ll even order that cooking set you’ve always wanted.”

Mingyu happily nods, satisfied at the additional offers. Moments later, you arrive at the venue, still bringing along your bag containing your laptop and another set of papers to look through.

“Hey, I’m sorry I’m late. We had a presentation that went on for a little longer than I had expected.” Y/N says. She takes a seat across the two men, raising her eyebrows as her eyes land on Mingyu.

“Hey, weren’t you at the theatre last week?” Mingyu says, earning a flustered look from Y/N.

She gives him a small wave. “Yes, hello. It’s nice to meet you, again. My name is Y/N, I live a few floors down Seokmin’s apartment.”

“Yeah, I know,” Mingyu says straightforwardly. Seokmin hits his knee slightly, making Mingyu jump a bit. “I wanted to tag along, so Seokmin told me about it. My name is Kim Mingyu, call me Mingyu.”

With an unreadable expression, she nods. “Ah, I see. By the way, Seokmin, are you sure that you’re fine with paying for me? I mean... this isn’t exactly the cheapest place in town, you know.”

Seokmin gives a wide smile. “No, no, it’s alright.” Seokmin hands Y/N a menu from the side of the table. “Really, order anything you like. We eat here a lot, their food is really good.”

Despite Seokmin’s slight awkwardness, Mingyu manages to move the conversation enough to create some small talk about work and life at the apartment. Apparently, Y/N’s roommates had just moved in, and work had gotten busier now that students are starting to pass their outputs for their final requirements. By the time the food arrives, the conversation had become natural enough for it to happen between Seokmin and Y/N without Mingyu’s need to become an emcee.

Sensing the situation, Mingyu decides to hurriedly finish his food and make a random excuse of needing to quickly head over to work. Out of their sight, Mingyu texts Minghao to call him quickly. With the acting skills acquired from years of being Seokmin’s practice partner at home, Mingyu picks up Minghao’s call.

“Hey, Mr. Jeon. What is it?” He says. Seokmin looks over to Mingyu, but his plan to ditch them hasn’t become apparent to him yet. “I’m eating right now, but I guess I could help out a bit. What’s wrong? What? Really? Right now?”

Although he says this, Minghao is completely unaware of the other side of the call. 

“Alright, I’ll be there in a bit,” Mingyu says before quickly turning off the screen of his phone. He gives Seokmin an apologetic look. “Hey, I’m sorry but I really have to go. Apparently, something is going on at work and I need to go there in a rush.”

Y/N gives a nod of understanding, while Seokmin had just understood what Mingyu was trying to do.

“Are you going to be alright? You just finished your meal.” She asks.

“It’ll be fine, my workplace is nearby.” He gets up and picks up the coat that he had laid on the back of his chair. “I’ll see you later at the apartment, Seokmin. So sorry I had to go early this time.”

Seokmin sits there with his mouth open, looking at Mingyu as he quickly moves out of the restaurant. In a few moments, Seokmin received a message from that same friend.

“Fighting :*”

“I hope they’re okay. It seemed like it was really urgent.” Y/N says, picking up a piece of sushi with her chopsticks and dipping it in soy sauce.

Seokmin gives a nervous laugh. “Yeah, I guess that’s just the kind of work that he does.” Now that Mingyu is gone, Seokmin’s thoughts are a mess. “By the way, I sent you a friend request.”

“Oh I’m sorry, did you? I wasn’t really able to check, today was a pretty hectic day. I’ll make sure to check it when I get home.” Y/N gives him a small smile. “Is Mingyu one of your roommates?”

“Yeah, I live with four other people. Well, all in all, we’re a group of thirteen friends that just live in separate apartments in one building.” Seokmin replies, trying his best to brave through the situation. “I know it’s difficult to imagine, but all thirteen of us lived in one apartment at one point.”

For the rest of the night, Seokmin and Y/N talk about anything that could possibly pop into their heads. At first, it was a mumble of random topics with the occasional awkward silence, which eventually turned into an exchange of laughter as Seokmin acts out his best scenes so far. Near the end of the night, it becomes a sentimental talk about work and living away from family members.

“I get what you mean. Throughout my career, I had to live away from my family too.” Seokmin says, taking a sip of water as he swallows his final bite. “Although my family is from the city, I had to move in with the other guys when I was in high school to prepare for my acting career.”

“That’s tough. I can’t imagine living away from my family at that age. I mean, up until now I still call my brother from time to time to ask for help in fixing things around the house.” Y/N purses her lips. “My roommates are always so busy, their workloads are literally two times heavier than mine, so I rarely get the time to go out with friends.”

Y/N looks up at Seokmin with the most genuine look.

“Thanks, for asking me to come out with you today. It helps a lot.” She says, and all of the sudden, Seokmin is completely soft.

“Woah, the mood just went... Well... I just, If it helps you, then I’m happy to help out any time.” Seokmin replies, taken aback for a second time by Y/N’s sincerity. Seokmin checks his watch, seeing that it’s already halfway past 10 PM. “We should get home. The restaurant will close in a bit, anyway.”

She nods in return and the both of you head out, taking the next bus toward your apartment building. For the duration of the ride, both of you stay silent as you sit next to each other. Both of you enter the elevator, tapping both your cards to access the higher floors. When the elevator stops on the 7th floor, Y/N gives Seokmin her final greetings for the night.

“Good night, Seokmin. See you again next time.” She says before finally turning to her apartment door at the end of the hallway.

Meanwhile, Seokmin arrives at his own apartment with an eager Mingyu waiting in the living room, managing to pull with him a tired Minghao. Seokmin stares at him, not sure whether to thank him or to get angry at him.

“So, how was it?” Mingyu asks with a glimmer in his eyes.

“You’re really crazy, Kim Mingyu,” Seokmin replies flatly. “But it was good.”

The two stare at each other before the two of them burst out in jumps of excitement. “I did it, I did it! I can’t believe I did it! Wah, I’ve been holding this in for hours.” Seokmin says, running over to hold Mingyu by the shoulders.

“See? You can do it if you actually try! I’m so proud of you, you’re finally managing to get through it.” Mingyu says, ruffling Seokmin’s hair.

“Is this the reason why you asked me to call you earlier?” Minghao asks with a judging expression on his face. “I swear--”

“Yeah, but it all went well, so it’s good, right?” Mingyu cuts him off in excitement.

“Hey, tone it down!” Boo Seungkwan shouts from his room. “Geez!”

The two men immediately zip, but not without a fit of small laughs and giggles. “Look at you, Lee Seokmin, finally getting over the unconscious crush curse,” Mingyu says quietly, albeit with the exact same excitement.

“Oh man, what am I going to do? My heart won’t stop beating fast.” Seokmin says, trying to calm himself down. “Minghao, what do I do?”

Minghao shakes his head. “So long as you’re happy, do whatever you want. I’m going to head off to bed first, I’ve got a schedule early tomorrow.”

With that, Minghao returns to his room, shortly followed by Seokmin and Mingyu after Seokmin promised to tell them about the other details the next day.

While on his bed, Seokmin receives a notification telling him that Y/N had accepted his friend request. It was then that he found out that although Y/N didn’t post much on her wall, she was rather active on her My Day’s. With a tap, many things about her day pop out, including her meal with Seokmin and Mingyu. The picture was of the two guys eating, with a small “thank you” caption at the bottom.

Seokmin takes a quick screenshot and closes his phone for the night. It was more than enough to lighten his mood, and surely a great memory for him. It was his first time ever making a move after years of never acting upon his feelings for someone.

Some people might see it as a quick rush of emotion, but to him, it was a wave of something new that he wanted to cherish. There was something different with her sincerity--although he heard people compliment him many times throughout his life, it was just then that it felt really, really real to him. At first, Seokmin merely thought of her as admirable in trying to move all her things by herself, but with her sincere words after the stage play, he was hooked. 

For that, he was greatly thankful.

That night, Seokmin slept well for the first time in a long time.

▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫ Part Three (Final) : [Part Three]